#anti leigh bardugo

[stromuprisahat]

Siege and Storm- Chapter 14

She ain't stupid.

I live for those moments of lucidity Alina occasionally experiences.

Do those Grisha even know Darkles' "crimes"? Did Alina bother to tell them, or does she still assume they read her mind, so they're updated?! Is there a scene missing? Where they meet and she explains what happened?

She did promise she will, but then she stormed off and went to sleep as far as we know...

Again- did Alina reveal Darkles' past "offscreen", or are those Grisha just expected to figure out what she's talking about?!

Three-front war going on, with one of those sides being ancient semi-mythical power. Our Heroine:

Yeah, I don't think my ally's trying to get into my pants THIS TIME...

#Grishaverse #S&S Chapter 14 #Alina Starkov #Malyen Oretsev #Nikolai Lantsov #The Darkling #Second PseudoArmy #self centred and paranoid #grishanalyticritical #Siege and Storm #Grisha trilogy #V #books #quotes #Leigh Bardugo #anti Malina #anti Leigh Bardugo

[theweeklydiscourse]

My reasons for disliking the Shadow and Bone Netflix adaptations had very little to do with its “book accuracy” and had more to do with it being a terrible adaptation. In fact, I would’ve preferred if the writers had taken some liberties and revised certain flaws of the original trilogy to create a more compelling narrative.

However, they instead made superficial changes that added little to the value of the show and were bandaid solutions to deeper problems with the source material. They didn’t expand on the original story, they only narrowed the scope. This, was its ultimate flaw that ended up culminating in a watered down version of what we once knew.

For example, the rehabilitation of Mal’s image seemed agreeable initially, but harmed the story in the long-run. The writers understood that book!Mal was disliked, but instead of re-examining that character and expanding (and perhaps improving) his arc, they refashioned him into a boring and frictionless character that offered little to the emotional stakes of the story. This choice, was a prime example of the dilution of the characters and story for the adaptation that ended up creating a weaker experience altogether.

The girlbossification of Alina, the lobotomizing of the Darkling to make it easier for the heroes to defeat him, cramming the Crows into a plot that didn’t concern them, blaming Grisha persecution on the Darkling, making Zoya a racist/the Darkling’s side chick, all of those idiotic flashbacks, were symptomatic of the writers inability to take risks.

#lb critical #shadow and bone #the darkling #alina starkov #s&b critical #s&b netflix #s&b salt #darklina #aleksander morovoza #anti leigh bardugo #zoya nazyanelsky #six of crows #malyen oretsev #netflix

[darklinaforever]

I really think Mal Oretsev is the worst endgame romantic interest in existence.

Really.

There are many canonical ships I disagree with, but Malina ? This is the worst of all for me.

Alina had so much potential, and it was all wasted on a stupid tracker ; When she could have had the Darkling or Nikolai !

As much as I will always wonder what could be wrong in Alina's head to prefer her childhood friend to these two, and also what could have been going on in Leigh Bardugo's head when she wrote the character of Mal and the Malina relationship.

Like... she didn't notice that the character and the relationship were catastrophic ? Is that the height of romance for her ?

It sucks...

#anti malina #anti mal oretsev #alina starkov #the darkling #pro darkling #nikolai lantsov #darklina #alarkling #nikolina #darkling x alina #darkling and alina #alina x darkling #alina and darkling #nikolai x alina #nikolai and alina #alina x nikolai #grisha #the grisha trilogy #grisha trilogy #shadow and bone trilogy #the shadow and bone trilogy #shadow and bone #siege and storm #ruin and rising #anti leigh bardugo #grishaverse #aleksander morozova

[silmarillisms]

I've realized that every problem I have with the Shadow and Bone book series stems from the fact that the author writes from a place of privilege, never acknowledges that privilege is privilege, and tries to pass off a highly privileged viewpoint on every situation as absolute truth within Grishaverse.

The Grisha don't know how lucky they are. They get to lord over all of us from the Little Palace, dressing in their fancy clothes and eating good food!

Says the person who has never had to spend every day of their life being forced to convince people in power that they are useful to society and deserve to exist, who live in constant fear that someday someone in a position of power might decide otherwise.

Why doesn't the Darkling just trust Alina? Why does he lie to her and keep her out of his confidence?

Says the person who has never been in a position of power where they were directly responsible for the lives of people beneath them. Says the person who did not spend their formative years being repeatedly traumatized by their only parental figure who taught them over and over that no one could be trusted. Says the person who has never liked someone but knows they need to keep them at arm's length because they seem to sympathize with people who, given half the chance, would fuck you over.

Why can't you just trust that Nikolai would be better than his father and that his rule would end Grisha persecution?

Says the person who has never had to fight for their rights against a corrupt system, who has never had to accept the fact that the system itself is stacked against them and the only hope they have is to break it entirely.

Why can't the Darkling accept that change happens slowly and incrementally over time? Why doesn't he understand that using violent revolution to enact change is wrong?

Says the person who has never existed in a place or time when the only hope for their people was violent revolution. Says the person who has never been part of an ostracized group, who has never been tired of waiting, of watching, of hoping. We don't pray for change. We make it happen.

Why can't Alina stop thinking about gaining personal power, by aligning herself with the Darkling or otherwise? Doesn't she know that it's wrong to seek power?

Says the person who has never in their life spent a day feeling powerless, feeling hopeless, feeling that they don't matter.

I don't have a problem with the universe of Shadow and Bone. I have a problem with the fact that Leigh Bardugo tries to force the audience to see it, and its characters, through a perspective that disrespects the characters she created, the social and political challenges that they face, and the way those things mirror the real struggles of marginalized groups of people - intentionally or otherwise.

#shadow and bone #fandom discourse #anti leigh bardugo

[is-today-tomorrow-in-nz]

Why I cannot accept Alina Starkov as a protagonist

I have a love-hate relationship with Alina's character. Mostly hate though. I loved the few bright moments she had but I absolutely loathed the moments where she was came off as an utterly selfish, unsympatheic, sanctimonious brat which dried up the any pity I had for her.

When I think of Alina, the analogy that comes to my mind is elephants. When elephants are tamed their handlers use an interesting strategy. The handlers use the heaviest iron chains that are too strong for the young calves to break away to tether them. The young calves try as they might to break free, soon realise that the chains are stronger than them and give up. They slowly start to live within the limits of the chain. However as the elephants reach adulthood, the trainers switch to normal, lightweight chains to tie them up because, by now the elephants have been fully trained to believe that they are too weak to breakaway. So the elephants rarely ever attempt to test the strength of the chains or even attempt to escape. The elephants having forgotten the strength they posses, learn to live within the limits of the chains.

Alina is just like those elephants. She has the power of the Sun coursing through her veins and yet instead of raising up to the situation, she actively chooses to remain stagnant. She remains tethered with her one-sided affection for Mal, her crippling self esteem issues, her shame of having 'impure thoughts' and, her fear of becoming something more than she had imagined. Eventhough the chains does not help her realise her true potential or even give her room to breathe, she is unable to comprehend anything beyond it and remain fearful to breakfree.

Had she been a side character, then, all of these flaws would not have mattered. But she is the protagonist and the entire triology moves forward through her. I'm not belittling her fears but the problem with the Chosen One trope is that at one point, the Chosen One is supposed to break away from their shackles and overcome these fears as the story progresses. Because, the story is not about the Chosen One, it is about the cause they are representing. But with Alina we never see that growth and so the cause she represents remains unfulfiled. Rather than becoming the one moving the story forward, she becomes an elephant in the hands of her handlers- Nikolai, Mal, Zoya, Apparat etc. She goes where they direct her to.

We see her passiveness cause actual detriment to the story as she is directed to side with the 'good guys' instead of representing the suppressed people who sees her as a beacon of hope. And in the end her life or death did not impact the cause she represented.

People may say that she suceeded in killing the Darkling and took down the Fold. But neither was her true purpose. She was supposed to be the one who bridged the gap between the otkazats'ya and the Grisha. And so, her victory in the final battle does not satisfy the end goal as the person she killed also wanted the same.

By defeating the Darkling, she no longer becomes the Chosen One. Instead she becomes an instrument of the oppressor who actively wants to maintain the status of the monarchy which in turn thrived on the Grisha serfdom. From a passive protagonist she becomes a passive antagonist. And in the end of it all she serves no purpose to herself or the people she was supposed to uplift and goes back to her chained elephant life with Mal as her new handler.

And this is why I could never accept Alina as the protagonist.

#alina starkov #alina critical #shadow and bone analysis #anti shadow and bone #anti leigh bardugo #grishanalyticritical #girshaverse #anti alina starkov

[grishacritical]

The Darkling: *saves the protagonist from a hate crime, is hated by his entire country even though he keeps them safe, created a safe haven for a persecuted group, gently encourages the protagonist when she's insecure, wants the protagonist to be proud of herself*

Readers: Oooh, is this the love interest?

Author: Stupid reader! That's the villain! You were seduced by his pretty face and didn't see the pure evil lurking within!!! 👿

Readers: Um...........okay then.

Mal: *barely shows any interest in the protagonist, gets jealous of her success, whines about how she's independent and doesn't need his ass dragging her down anymore, wishes he could carve the protagonist's powers out of her to satisfy his fragile ego, doesn't give a shit about a geopolitical situation*

Readers: Ugh, what a toxic asshole. Is he the villain?

Author: No, silly! He's the ~real~ love interest! Look at how they fight all the time and how he makes her so miserable! 😍

Readers: what the fuck did i just read

#leigh bardugo critical #anti leigh bardugo #darklina

[sad-outsider]

Why I didn't like the ending of R&R. Part 2. Undeserved victory

The main character did nothing herself to win, except for killing Mal (whom I, frankly, wanted to kill myself most of the time) and her Twin Flame (the Darkling).

Seriously, we still need to look for a more passive heroine than Alina. In the plot, she is literally dragged along by everyone who is not too lazy (and even those who are too lazy I look at Baghra and Mal) - the Darkling, Baghra, Nikolai, Apparat, and even damn Mal (although the latter more often pulls her back, but this is the topic for a separate conversation)! What did she do herself? An army of fanatics was gathered to her by the Apparat, amplifiers were literally brought to her on a silver platter by the Darkling, Nikolai and Mal, she led the Second Army reluctantly with Nikolai’s light hand. By God, throughout the trilogy I wanted to poke her with a stick and say: “Finally, do something yourself, stop beating yourself up!” And the fact that she is only 17 does not justify her, because by the standards of the Grishaverse she is considered an adult, but she behaves all the way like a capricious child and this flaw does not change. But these are the problems of the entire trilogy…

Returning to the theme of the finale, Alina's main goal was to destroy the Fold. Well, there is no the Fold at the end, but this is not the merit of Alina, but of her fanatic followers (who, again, were not gathered by her). Great, because why do something yourself when you can dump all the work on others?

“But she killed the Darkling!” - someone will say. Yes, because killing a desperate person who is already dead inside due to the loss of his mother and his Twin Flame and probably might as well just commit suicide is certainly an achievement (no).

Here's meme for you, see you in part 3…

#grishaverse #shadow and bone #ruin and rising #anti leigh bardugo #the darkling #Alina Starkov #anti alina starkov

[aquaburst3]

Brought this up a couple times on the Darklina server, but I want to put it out there on here. Mal/Alina ironically comes across as a male centric power fantasy pairing. Alina has to lower herself to be with him. He also treats her as this dainty flower that must be protected while valuing her purity and wanting to vanquish the other man. While Aleks, especially in the show, comes across as an equal and someone who cherishes her for who she is.

To compare these pairings to Disney ones, they are like Jasmine/Aladdin to Belle/Adam. One was awarded the girl while the other had to earn it by fixing himself. Malina is the former, which is more male centric as a pairing. Darklina is the latter, being female centric.

I understand what LB was trying to make Mal Peeta-like, but it falls flat. When Mal seems like the one you would expect to be based on the abusive ex instead of his rival, you know you fucked up somewhere. Let's face it. Many women have an ex like book!Mal.

#anti malina #anti leigh bardugo #aqua rambles #darklina

[illicthearts]

The fact that Zoya, Nina, Jesper and Tolya were able to walk around Shu Han without fearing capture is just ridiculous, like did they forget the part where Shu Han cuts up Grisha to experiment on them?

#anti grishaverse #anti leigh bardugo #anti lb #anti shadow and bone #the darkling #Shu Han

[greensaplinggrace]

leigh bardugo’s seemingly nonexistent grasp of military and government structures, basic politics, and real world oppression is honestly bewildering. like sometimes I’ll read a part of shadow and bone and have to literally stop and recollect my braincells. truly what an unparalleled experience.

#annotating these books is certainly interesting #in the way studying the ideals of someone who's been living under a rock is #shadow and bone #sab #sab salt #grishaverse #sorry guys this is more negativity #i have to get this out of my system soooo bad #rereading these books is Doing Things to me #especially because there are actually some good parts in them and it drives me SO CRAZY #how many missed opportunities and wasted potential this series has #myramblings #anti leigh bardugo #beware lol #sab critical #darkling slander sunday

[where-theres-smoak-2]

Ok I am in rant mode again, sorry, this blog just happens to be a place where I dump all my thoughts negative and positive both, unfortunately for all who follow me. But I have seen some bad and incorrect takes from anti darkling/darklinas. So here’s just a few things I want to say.

Firstly LB has never stated that she based the darkling on her ab*sive ex. This is misinformation that was spread by antis. The only thing she has ever said about an ab*sive relationship was that she wrote the first book, Shadow and Bone, at a dark time in her life right after she had got out of a bad relationship. She has said in the past that the darkling was inspired by every bad boy she’s had a crush on in fiction including david bowie’s the goblin king. 

So it seems from these comments like the character was supposed to emulate those types of characters that woman find attractive, the ones you would fall for. 

I’ve also seen the argument that LB clearly wrote the darkling as a villain, well LB might disagree with you there as she herself has said on multiple occasions that she doesn’t write villains: 

LB says that the darkling believes he is doing the right thing and that ‘you can make a case for most of the choices he makes, even the despicable ones.’ So if LB says that she doesn’t write villains and that you can make a case for his actions you can’t really blame darkling fans for doing the same. 

The truth is LB promoted the heck out of both the darkling and darklina (or as it was known back then Darlina and Alarkling) when she was writing the og trilogy, even admitting to ‘fanning the flames’ when talking about people shipping m*lina and darklina and was clearly encouraging the shipping of both ships: 

She also put out teases for the darkling and darklina:

And promoted darklina fan edits even using the ship tags: 

It was only post the release of book three that she changed her tune, likely because of all the backlash she got about the ending of the books. So no LB wasn’t always against fans shipping darklina or liking the darkling. All of this information is easily found with a simple google search, I wasn’t even in the fandom back then being a show watcher first and yet I was still able to learn all of this with minimal difficulty. 

Which brings me to the whole darklina being an allegory for a older man manipulating a younger girl and how the darklina fans ‘missed this’. Well if they did miss it then it was for a very good reason, but the truth is darklina’s didn’t miss it, we just didn’t think it made sense within the narrative, the darklina fandom have talked about it, myself included, in fact I’ve already posted a whole pretty much essay on the topic. But let me explain why some people may have ‘missed it’ and why it doesn’t work in the story or with darklina as the allegory. The first is because LB chose to use an immortal/immortal couple for this allegory. The thing with immortality in fiction, especially as love interests, is it makes age pretty much meaningless. The whole point of immortals is that they are ageless. Immortal ships have always been accepted within fiction and this whole age gap issue has never come up before. Nobody was going omg but the age gap yuck with Bella and Edward when twilight came out, or when Magnus and Alec got together in Shadowhunters or with any of the ships in Vampire Diaries. Yet now anti’s are trying to use the argument that the darkling is 100s of years older than Alina and that’s creepy all of a sudden. Sorry but not in my book, an immortal is always going to be significantly older than anyone else what’s the alternative they spend eternity alone, never knowing love? At least with darklina they are both immortal. Another reason why it doesn’t work is because of how the darkling is described in the book, he is said to not look much older than Alina, so in the books he looks like a teenager. So of course people weren’t going to pick up on the older guy/younger girl allegory because the darkling isn’t presented in the books as an older guy. He’s described the same way every other immortal being in every YA book at that time was. It’s also worth noting that I am not sure if LB ever actually said that darklina were supposed to represent a older guy with a younger girl or whether that was something the fandom came up with. I’m not saying she didn’t just that I myself have never seen a direct quote from her that I recall and I wasn’t able to find one. I think the first time I heard of it was when someone sent me an ask about the topic. I know that she has said it was meant to serve as a warning of attractive and charismatic men being able to manipulate young girls but I don’t know that she herself has ever talked about an age gap or specifically mentioned older men? 

Another thing that I have been seeing alot of are comments like darkling/darklina fans only like him because he is hot. What bothers me about this is firstly even if that were true and the only reason people liked him was because he is hot, so what? There’s nothing wrong with that, its fiction and fiction is used to escape for a bit, its for enjoyment and entertainment, so if that enjoyment and entertainment comes in the form of staring at the hot guy irregardless of whether they are the hero or villain, let them be. Why are you criticising the way someone enjoys fiction? Sometimes a gal just wants to look at the hot guy. Secondly its just a really irrelevant argument because the darkling is not the only hot, charismatic character in the books or show. M*l is also described as being attractive and charismatic with no shortage of friends and girls, Nikolai is another character that fits that description, so by this argument the only reason M*l fans like him is because he is hot, and the only reason Nikolai fans like him is because he is hot. Thirdly its just plainly not true, whilst I am sure there may be some fans who only like him because he is hot, again nothing wrong with that, most fans like him for a variety of different reasons because he is an interesting and complicated character. As someone who spends a fair bit of time in the darkling/darklina tags the most common reason I have seen for fans liking him is because of his dedication to the grisha, his willingness to fight for the grisha something that he has dedicated 100′s of years of his life too. Personally I like Aleksander/the darkling because he has a sympathetic backstory, because he is fighting for the grisha and when seeing that they had no place to go where they could be free from fear he vowed to make them a safe place, a sanctuary, of course I am going to root for that goal too. I like him because he is complicated and complex and despite being an immortal being who has become deeply effected by past traumas there is still something beautifully human about him, particularly in the show. I also like the connection he has with Alina, the whole yin/yang of it and them being each others balance. I love the complexity and angst of them having this deep connection and pull to each other but also having this anger and sense of betrayal, how they have to try and navigate around having different points of view and seeing the world in a different ways, it makes for a very compelling story and their chemistry in the show is electric. The fact that he is hot is merely a bonus, but even if he wasn’t a conventionally attractive person I would still like his character because of those complexities, because of that connection he has with Alina. But one thing this rant has done is make me curious as to what my other fellow darkling/darklina fans like about the darkling? What drew you to the character? Anyway that’s enough ranting for one day, again my apologies, I am going to go and rewatch season 1 of shadow and bone in preparation for season 2′s release tomorrow...sheepishly shuffles off my soapbox, waving awkwardly.   

#darklina #the darkling #anti leigh bardugo

[stromuprisahat]

Siege and Storm- Chapter 14 (Leigh Bardugo)

I WANT THIS NIKOLAI BACK!!!

I want him to face choices that threaten his moral integrity, and I want him to cease being so pristine! I want him to pick the inhumane path from time to time and deal with both other people's changed perception of him, and his own conscience!

*whispers* He's so stupidly naïve I want to drag his face through gravel of reality.

What if the only way to make things right would be acting wrong? This is the kind of character, who should be made to face his limitations for further development, and either overcome them, or break really, really badly.

*whispers* I want to break him, I want to break him...

He held my gaze ... “But I’d be sorry to see you go.” Light manipulation attempt?

#Grishaverse #S&S Chapter 14 #Nikolai Lantsov #Alina Starkov #grishanalyticritical #Siege and Storm #Grisha trilogy #V #books #quotes #Leigh Bardugo #anti Leigh Bardugo #Plot armour doesn't make interesting character #quite contrary! #It ruins them. #It takes away their depth.

[theweeklydiscourse]

Alina loving her powers would mean for her to love herself. Whenever she loves her light, the way it makes her feel, the way it protects her, she is loving who she is and defying the will of an oppressive society that wants her to hate herself. She was meant for another story where the author doesn’t chastise her for loving herself and create a bizarre message that if you love yourself too much, you need to be humbled and put in your place.

Shadow and bone glorifies repression in a disturbing way. It almost seems to praise Alina’s repression during her adolescence as an accomplishment that eventually allowed her to defeat the Darkling and proof of her humility. In RoW, she condemns her supposed greed in the past in an act of self-flagellation because OBVIOUSLY she must perform her humility to prove that losing her powers wasn’t a horrible thing. This self-hatred is then transformed into condemnations of the Darkling and reveals her (and the narrative’s) fear that she will become like him. It’s almost hilarious how scared the story is of Alina potentially understanding him and sympathizing with his ambitions.

That’s ultimately the great fear of the story. That Alina will care enough about something to actually use her power to change the status quo and help other people aside from Mal. That she will embrace who she truly is and become active in her life. Taking responsibility and stepping up to the challenge is wrong and evil, so she should just sit down and quietly hate herself while the problem gets worse

#shadow and bone #the darkling #lb critical #alina starkov #s&b critical #s&b salt #aleksander morovoza #anti leigh bardugo #darklina #grishaverse meta #s&b netflix

[darklinaforever]

the darkling is very dead and alina killed him <3

Yes. And it was the most romantic scene in all the trilogy <3 :

“Don't let me be alone.”

#darklina #alarkling #darkling x alina #alina x darkling #darkling and alina #alina and darkling #alina starkov #aleksander morozova #the darkling #anti leigh bardugo

[stheresya]

Is Zoya really a YA gregverse version of Daenerys? I haven't read RoW and from what I've heard Leigh seems to have taken too much from Daenerys's story for Zoya.

well, lets just say the similarities are there and they aren't very subtle. see:

both zoya and daenerys were child brides.

both are associated with dragons.

their aliases: daenerys stormborn vs zoya stormwitch. and of course both bear the title of "dragon queen".

zoya's internal line "do not look back at me" looks like a rehashed version of dany's "if i look back i'm lost".

both become queens. though dany rises to power mostly on her own right while zoya's crown is sort of handed to her by her boyfriend.

the funniest part about all this is that lb hates daenerys but apparently isn't shy about taking inspiration from her to build her own heroine. she hates dany because she's a character that actively seeks power to achieve social justice, just like the darkling. and when dany achieves power she struggles a lot with it because things like systemic oppression and prejudice are very complex issues to deal with. these are things that can't be solved by simply putting the right person on a throne. lb introduced a very complex issue into her work but she wasn't very interested in exploring it with the nuance and care it required (and no this being YA is not an excuse. there can be depth in simplicity), so that's why she made a character like aleksander the villain. because despite zoya's comments about power meaning protection this is still the grishaverse where passivity is glorified lest the oppressed become as bad as their oppressors for daring to strike back and stand up for themselves.

#anti leigh bardugo #anti zoya nazyalensky #(not really but just in case) #my asks

[is-today-tomorrow-in-nz]

Why Nikolai fails as a leader

I made a post about why I cannot accept Alina as a protagonist here. I wanted to continue the trend and do the same with the other members of the Righteous Gang. I will start with Nikolai this time.

This is a long read so, brace yourselves.

Nikolai Lanstov is a character I enjoyed reading very much and he is the only member of the Righteous Gang that I find likeable. He is shown as an inventor, visionary, a lawless pirate and a prince who threw away his cushy life to support his country. LB proposes him as an alternative- the 'good' leader opposed to the 'evil' Darkling. However, as the story progresses, we cannot help but see several parallels between them. Both are clever, have a thirst for power(not for themselves), are patriotic and posses an opportunistic nature.

So what differentiates our 'Good' King from the Dark Lord? The short answer is LB and her plot armour.

In other words, the 'goodness' in Nikolai that is supposed to make him better than the Darkling is never put under trial. Even though, Nikolai as a character has enough traits in him to make him swing easily towards the 'evil side', LB restricts his character to his goodness and devices a plot armour in such way that his morals and ideals are rarely threatened.

Let me point out a few key instances where LB restricts Nikolai's character growth to keep up his clean image:

Nikolai's bid for the throne: Ever since Sturmhond's true identity as Nikolai is revealed, we are shown of his ambition to take over the throne of Ravka. We also see the ground work he had laid since his days as a soldier in the First Army but his plans just stops there. After re-entering Ravka, his only plan is to solely rely on Alina(a fickle person at best) accepting his hand in marriage, kickstarting his campaign for the throne. With the Darkling on the run and the country in shambles, we see no tangible efforts from him even when the situation calls for it He neither strong arms Vasily(or the King) nor does he march in and seize the throne. He does nothing but attend meetings and act as an underling to Vasily. For someone who loves Ravka enough to give up his princehood and live his days as a pirate in the sea, we don't see him doing much to aid the said country when it is in literal chaos.

So how does Nikolai secure the throne?

Answer: The Darkling does it for him.

LB had already established Nikolai as a morally grey character. So why didn't she let Nikolai blackmail his father or brother to position himself in the throne? The country is in shambles and the entire population is looking for a miracle. Marching in with the Sun Summoner, his First Army supporters and seizing the throne is obviously the correct step here and yet we don't see Nikolai doing that or rather LB doesn't let him do that because if she did, then how can she differentiate her hero from the villain?

Nikolai's when faced with the truth about his parents: For once, we are given an excellent opportunity to see how good and righteous Nikolai is. He learns the truth about his dear father, aka the rapist King. He also learns how his mother had been turning a blind eye to his crimes for years. And he, their only remaining son, is placed is in a position to dole out judgement for their crimes.

How does Nikolai punish his family?

Answer: He doesn't.

He shamelessly uses the opportunity to establish himself as the King and sends his parents on a nice, luxury retirement to the colonies. So where did his sense of justice go? How is he the 'good' King when his first instinct is to pardon his kin and not hold them accountable? Isn't that what self-righteous, non-Darklings supposed to do? And the way LB later twists this on the Darkling is laughable. Nikolai literally denies Genya her justice and yet the Darkling is blamed for it. Instead of Nikolai shouldering the responsibility for his actions(by extension his family's), the entire fault is solely placed on the Darkling. What is one more evil deed to his list of crimes, eh Miss LB?

Nikolai on Mal's insubordination. Why does he allow Mal(much later we see it with Zoya too), a literal nobody, to talk and treat him the way he does? He was well within his rights as a prince to demand Mal's blood and yet time and time again he lets Mal walk scot-free? Why? Because he is different? Because he wants Alina to see him in a positive light? To present himself as a better prospect? Because he is a good person at heart that doesn't want to force Alina into something and 'win' her over? So kissing Alina without her consent, in a public event no less, was an act of chivalry?

Answer: Because if he acted, it would make him look as 'bad' as the Darkling. The Darkling would have never accepted insubordination from anyone let alone a nobody tracker from the First Army. He demands respect as any good leader should. Punishment for insubordination is not as 'evil' act as LB perceives it to be. It has been existing since the dawn of time and it exists even in today's modern society. You cannot mouth off figures of authority without consequences. And yet LB cannot have that because Nikolai is not the Darkling. He is different, he is 'good'.

*****

Throughout the trilogy and duology, through several mouth-pieces, LB keeps telling us how much of a good person Nikolai is and yet when presented with an actual moral dilemma, she does not allow him to make a decision that would sully his 'goodness'. So how can we, as readers, call him 'good' when he is never presented with a trolley problem?

LB keeps shooting Nikolai in the knee to keep him from growing. Because if he did, then we would see how he was no different from the Darkling. The 'evilness' of the Darkling stems from the fact that he had to make hard choices since the day he was born. He had taken up an cause that no one before him did and so being 'good' was never an option for him because the only choices he had were preserving his soul or preserving his community. And he chose the latter and this is where Nikolai fails as a leader. Nikolai never had to make a choice of sacrificing a few for the goodness of many. LB swathes him in plot armour after plot armour that by the end of the duology he is almost as virtuous as Virgin Mary.

It's a shame that LB's views of the world are restricted to black and white. Had she understood the nuances of morality, she would not have maimed one of her strong characters.

A good King shows strength, courage and fights for his country. He commands respect from his subordinates and strives to improve the lives of his subjects. A good leader does not hesitate to use any tools at his disposal to get results he needs- diplomacy, violence, threats, warfare etc. A good leader will always puts his people first before his morals and more importantly does not give up his crown to Daenerys Targaryen knock-offs. By making Nikolai's character cling to his cloak of morality, LB makes him look like a people-pleasing child rather than a formidable leader he has the potential to be.

In conclusion, as much as I like Nikolai as a character, I would say Uther Pendragon made a better King to Camelot than Nikolai did to Ravka.

#shadow and bone #grishanalyticritical #grisha critical #grishaverse #nikolai lantsov #anti leigh bardugo #anti shadow and bone #pro aleksander morozova #pro darkling #king of scars #rule of wolves #seige and storm #ruin and rising