#but like - it's so hard not to ship darklina

[glitter500000]

I am so fascinated by the show’s version of Darklina, especially with how Kirigan reacts to it. Like he’s slowly weaving his way into gaining her trust and then gets comforted ONCE when he didn’t expect it and was like “wow maybe this could be real”. Like I fully believe he legit stopped thinking that he was manipulating her in the first place and just thought “she’s just like me”, which is why he was so hurt when they talked in the tent. He said “and what lies are those?” BRO did you forget? (The quotes too like when Zoya was talking about how Alina didn’t fit in and he just cuts her off saying “I know exactly how she felt. The guards used to treat me the same way” like does he really know though? Or him telling Baghra how “without me there’s just her, standing alone” I just, will it really be HER who’s standing alone??? Then when he was telling Mal about how Mal will die all alone and Alina will live on until there’s just the two of them so he doesn’t need to kill him right now, he was so fucking sure of this. This was BEFORE the tent scene in episode 7. Not to mention when after he expands the fold he tells Alina “they’re traitors who tried to kill you. This is retribution” as if she knew about the attempt of her life. Am I looking too into this? Is he really saying this to HER or to himself?)

Also I love how they still showed that this really wasn’t ever healthy relationship. He never sent Alina’s letters to Mal, he never sent Mal’s letters to Alina. He straight up admits to Mal that he read his letters (and I’m betting he read Alina’s too cause when Mal first shows up and introduces himself in his full name Kirigan says “Mal, what a surprise” like he knew his nickname even though they just met) which is a breach of privacy in my opinion. He finds out what her favorite flowers are and gives them to her like “lucky guess I know your favorite flowers”. He stole her fucking journal for the stag drawing and probably looked through it too. A attempt was made on her life and Marie(who Alina was becoming friends with) was killed for it and he just goes “it’s nothing”. Meanwhile he tells her nothing about him except for like small pieces. (“I’d come here through a coin, and wish I could be anyone else” like I think that happened at one point in his life, also the war room scene in episode 4 I don't think he meant for her to be there and he revealed more then he intended)

The antler scene happens and he looks guilty here when they’re placing it on to the point where he would rather look away but at the end of the day when it WORKS and he can draw her light when he wants, he looks like he’s basking in it (showing him what he really cares about)

Can’t wait for season 2 just to see the absolute baggage these two have. Like I don’t wanna see this relationship repaired at all, I wanna see blood between the two. They see each other and it’s on sight

#anti darklina #gonna put this in the anti darklina tag cause I fucking hate this ship but I wanna put it under a microscope #Look I am just not a fan of “simp darkling” because I just believe that he cares more about his cause then he does Alina #Like he likes Alina but if she wasn’t the sun summoner I don’t think he would spare her a second glance #The sun summoner means that he can safely walk in the fold and keep away from the Volcra who SPECIFICALLY target him when he comes in #Also it means that they can live longer and stay with him so he won’t be alone #Look I won’t deny that he fell hard for Alina but I also think he would push her off a cliff if he thought he needed to #Like he might feel bad about it but at the end of the day he’ll still do it #it won’t change anything if he was in love #You know that meme that’s like “where I can find a person like this?” “hey” “no.” “I’m literally that person in the picture”. That’s them #sab tv #shadow and bone #shadow and bone netflix

[glitter50000]

SaB season 2 spoilers ahead

Watching Kirigan being legit angry and straight up shoving Alina down after she burned his hand in the tether along with threatening her home and choking her in another episode as well was for ME, who wanted to see him punch her out of spite

#Anti darklina #i wouldn’t recommend interacting with this post if you like this ship please because I’m feeling petty #Look I wasn’t a fan of all the “simp darkling” that ppl came out with from season one cause like yeah he “loves” her in his own way #but that’s not the only trait he has and even so. So what? #it doesn’t change anything he doesn’t realize “the power of love” and try to ask for forgiveness or change his ways #Alina doesn’t get away scot free with threatening him or harming him cause of love #And it’s just slaps in you face that he’s not being romantic or he’s not being all lovey dovey with her. He’s actually angry with her #He doesn’t take it as a joke or something or as her just not seeing the bigger picture #She hits him and well he’s not afraid to hit back twice as hard to make her see his way #sab spoilers #shadow and bone season 2 #shadow and bone netflix

[stromuprisahat]

Why don't you like Genyalina nor Zenya? Just curious,I don't like those ships either.

Genyalina suffers the same issue Darklina does- for it to work, Alina would need to drastically change. While Alina never sees the Darkling as a human being, Genya has it arguably better- she's the kind of friend that makes Alina feel good about herself.

I'll talk about Genya from the first book, because I don't consider what the author turned her into a character at all, merely a convenient punching bag, perpetual victim and occasional mouthpiece.

Genya's job was to introduce Alina to life of Little Palace and keep an eye on her. Genya's JOB. What she didn't have to do, was becoming Alina's friend. She's constantly trying to cheer her up, bringing her little gifts and latest gossip, drawing her out of her shell, even sneaking her into Grand Palace to try on the Queen's dresses- and let's not forget the Queen would certainly NOT be pleased about that.

She's the giving kind of person, while Alina mostly mopes around, still in denial about who she is, constantly whining about Mal and lack of letters from him. During her stay in Little Palace, she does exactly one (1) nice thing for Genya only, then promptly proceeds to disregard her experience with the Royals and upsets her, because Genya doesn't buy her apocalyptic vision of the Darkling's plans.

I've seen people arguing Genya was the one, who betrayed Alina first, because THOSE FUCKING LETTERS... I have three points to this:

Genya's a soldier at this point. Her personal feelings shouldn't influence her service. She's already possibly overstepping by pleading with the Darkling for Alina's sake. She's also a spy- a person, whose job description includes lying to people, whether she likes them or not.

Like it or not, Mal (and Alina's idealized past) are the reason she kept supressing her powers even after her discovery. Not only it rendered her useless for Ravka, her health kept suffering, so yes, I actually think cutting her off Mal was good for her. (I know it's an ugly concept, but what we want and what we need are often two diametrically different matters.)

Least but not last, Alina's dumb as a plum, writing about things that shouldn't make it out of Little Palace anyway. Censorship is a tool armies use to protect both their soldiers and their moves against their enemy.

To get back to your question, I don't ship Genya with Alina, because I think one of them gives as much as she can, while the other isn't really interested in reciprocity.

I've had this sort of friends. It sucks. It drains you. And once they dump you, you find yourself missing them anyway.

Zenya... well, if we're talking my beloved Genya from the first book again, she and Zoya didn't like each other. It's not hard to figure out why.

Zoya's hung up on the Darkling, while Genya truly has some sort of closeness with him. Zoya's needy to be the centre of all attention, while Genya's naturally captivating. Zoya's striving to be the best of the best, while Genya doesn't really do "anything useful", but still she's at court (and again, appreciated by the Darkling). Judging by the way Genya was delighted to see Zoya taken down a notch, I wouldn't be surprised if she were a part of anti-Safin slut-shaming club.

Although I prefer to ignore the post-character assassination "Genya" from later books, even their later friendship seemed to be working largely because Zoya can easily typecast the Tailor as another of the Darkling's victims.

#reply #Grishaverse #grishanalyticritical #Genya Safin #Alina Starkov #Zoya Nazyalensky #The Darkling #self centred and paranoid #anti Genyalina #anti Zenya #anti Zoya

[mermaidsirennikita]

So You'd Like to Fuck a Villain: Romance Novel Recommendations

Have you gotten caught up in a villain ship? Are you, perhaps, what might be called a villainfucker?

The issue with stanning for villains and wanting them to have romantic love and happiness and possibly group sex, is that they often don't. At least, not onscreen. Some of the most popular romantic ships, obviously, have been villain ships--Reylo spawned a wave of romance novelists (though, I might add, many do not actually write villain-centric romance novels, which is fine), Darklina powered no small part of Shadow and Bone's publishing success... and let's be real, the success of the soon-to-be-ill-fated-from-what-I'm-hearing TV show. On a darker level, Interview with the Vampire took off in no small part because people love the tainted love that is Louis and Lestat, where maybe? They're both villains? (Definitely more Lestat, but you know.)

You know what the great thing about a romance novel is? The villain has to get a happy ending. They just must. It's a rule. If a villain is a lead, the HEA is guaranteed (rhymes), or it's not a romance novel.

So, for Cupid's birthday, I'm recommending some of my favorite villainfucking romance novels. I just think that we deserve it.

CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

Wicked Villains by Katee Robert.

As you might guess, this series is in fact about villains getting their happy ending, full stop. And it does so by adapting Disney villain ships and placing them in a contemporary setting full of organized crime, sex clubs, and deals gone wrong. It is fun, it is campy, and it is very, very sexy. Check the trigger warnings (which Robert typically lists for each book on her website)--some of these do feature heavy BDSM and CNC.

The diversity of the pairings is so appreciated--while my favorite thus far is the first, Desperate Measures (Jafar/Jasmine with a mob wife "you killed my father" spin, for those curious) you get several triads (Hades/Hercules/Meg, Beast/Gaston/Belle, Ursula/Ariel/Eric, to name a few) and the ever-coveted sapphic Maleficent/Aurora moment. I don't think there's a straight person in this collection of characters. Contemporary romance can be a hard sell for me, especially in terms of villainy... But these are just a ride.

HISTORICAL ROMANCE

Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas.

Obviously, if you haven't read Devil in Winter yet, you need to read Devil in Winter. It's a classic--not just of historical romance, but romance in general. Though, pro-tip: I would recommend reading the preceding It Happened One Autumn first, as that's where the villainy takes place. Devil in Winter is about a recovering villain--a rake who did a very, very bad thing (kidnapping his best friend's lady love) simply because he did not want to get a job. I mean.....

Sebastian St. Vincent is a soft touch villain, and not just because he's super good at touching. You know he's going to roll over and beg for it with his seemingly-gentle, secretly-iron-willed heroine; but it's watching him get there that's so fun. His bark is worse than his bite, but he does deliver quite a bark (and quite a bite). If you like 'em snarky and slutty, read this book.

Duke of Sin by Elizabeth Hoyt.

If you like a blond villain who seems better at lounging about than doing manual labor, Valentine Napier takes what St. Vincent was doing to another level of insanity. St. Vincent is sane; Valentine is not, and he's a lot less fun about his kidnappings. Fortunately, his heroine (dispatched to spy on and steal from him) does not take any shit.

This is a book for those who like them loony, because I really don't think Valentine reforms in the least. He just falls in love, all while running around naked in bedazzled, open robes and brandishing a knife. At least he's good in bed and keeps giant, nude portraits of himself in his own house. Keep in mind that this book does delve into some pretty massive childhood trauma, including all kinds of abuse.

Villain I'd Like to F...

This anthology of novellas delves into five stories of historical romance villainy, by five great authors. I'm going to list each novella and its author, as these collections typically disband after a period of time, allowing the authors to sell the novellas individually (though you often can find the collections in online libraries like Libby). In the brackets!

[ Lady Viper and the Bastard by Eva Leigh.

Do you enjoy Dangerous Liaisons? Try this delightfully sexy Georgian-era novella about a widowed vamp and an illegitimate libertine, teaming up to break apart two young lovers (for a price). Except what happens when these two assholes start to catch feelings? Notable in that these characters are in their forties, know themselves, and do engage in some fun role-playing.

Seven Sinful Nights by Nicola Davidson.

Our young-but-ready widowed heroine is toiling in the service of her dickish in-laws... Until the owner of the local gambling hell (who isn't above murder and torture, and does enjoy dominating a bit) shows up demanding payment for her brother-in-law's debts. Those who love an innocent heroine lured by the darkness will love this one, a she very much goes willingly to her "doom" of being his mistress for a week, and loves every minute of it. It's sexy, it's sweet, she also loves a torture moment, there's some exhibitionism.

The Gangster's Prize by Joanna Shupe.

A Gilded Age gangster is thrown off balance by the young woman who comes to him demanding help in finding her missing father. But wait... who's in his dungeon as we speak? Could it be? Her dad? Joanna doesn't pull her punches here, and it's delightfully wacky. Watching our hapless villain hero be like "uhh, what screams from the dungeon" while our heroine looks for her father... who he has captive.. is hilarious.

The Bootlegger's Bounty by Adriana Herrera.

Did someone say sort-of pirates? Our heroine is a nightclub singer, and she books passage to New York with a dangerous rum runner. There's a lot of sex in this one, and--delightfully--a triad, as there happens to be a young gentleman who catches the eye of both our singer and our rum runner...

The Conquering of Tate the Pious by Sierra Simone.

Hedonistic nuns? A Norman invader (in more ways than one) who turns out to be a lady conqueror? As in, a conqueror who is a lady and conquers ladies? I think yes. Our proud abbess Tate is ready to stand up to the Wolf, but what happens when the Wolf is very sexy and cruel in the best possible way? ]

The Prince of Broadway by Joanna Shupe.

If there's one thing Joanna Shupe loves, it's a hero (or a villain turned hero) who hates your dad. This book opens with our casino-owning hero beating the shit out of someone, and when he meets the headstrong spoiled rich girl who wants to open a casino for ladies and needs mentorship... He takes her up on it. All while planning to take down her father (as revenge!!!).

While Clay isn't a super hardcore bad guy, he is pretty violent and pretty diabolical. What makes this book is, of course, his dynamic with Florence, and her defiance of norms that quickly has him completely besotted. This book has a very good grovel, and it should. Does anyone deserve Florence?

... and after reading this one, you can mosey over to Shupe's next book, The Devil of Downtown, in which a bad, bad gangster gets his ass emotionally kicked by Florence's goody goody angelic sister.

The Dragon and The Pearl by Jeannie Lin.

This is another one that benefits from reading its previous book, Butterfly Swords, first. In that novel we're introduced to the treacherous warlord our heroine is fleeing--Li Tao. Lin doesn't shy away from his intimidation factor: he even gets into a sword fight (that turns into an outright brawl, lmao) with the hero. In this novel, Li Tao gets full focus, kidnapping a former emperor's concubine to get information out of her.

What follows is a match of wits that gradually gives way to two manipulative, emotionally closed off people falling madly in love with each other while being unable to say it. Li Tao is a cold, seemingly-unfeeling villain-as-hero, and he really pushes how far he's willing to go to reach his end goals in this book. Also, there's a sex deal. If that matters to you.

Daring and The Duke by Sarah MacLean.

Again, one that does in fact benefit from reading the two preceding books, Wicked and The Wallflower and Brazen and The Beast (fortunately, they're both good!). Ewan, our titular duke, is the villain of both--and he is completely batshit insane in his pursuit of his childhood sweetheart, Grace. Who, for reasons relating to villainy, wants absolutely nothing to do with him.

This is a book-long grovel the way Sarah MacLean does it best--with abject shame and humiliation. Ewan is put through the ringer: and he should be, because he did a really bad thing! And was legitimately a nutjob of a villain! But that's what makes it so, so good.

PARANORMAL/FANTASY ROMANCE

The Four Horsemen by Laura Thalassa.

This series has the rather bold take of "what if the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Fucked". Starting with Pestilence, bleeding into War and Famine, and ending with Death, this series is a bit bonkers. But it doesn't let up on the extent of the villainous heroes' determination to lay waste to the world. There is a lot of gore. There is a lot of moral ambiguity.

But it's also legitimately funny. Pestilence discovers the joys of a bathtub. Death receives his first blowjob and is like "I don't know, maybe the apocalypse is bad". It's campy, and it's fun, and it leans the fuck in to the concept. I would recommend reading these in order, as the love stories stand alone but the overall arc leads to a big finish (and there are lots of finishes in between, if you know what I'm say--)

The Tenebris Trilogy by Kathryn Ann Kingsley.

If you're interested in the occult and some Lovecraftian vibes set in a pseudo-1920s world, this is it. Our heroine is on the search for her brother, and who is to assist but his stuffy-hot professor who happens to be a cult leader and has perhaps merged his body with that of a Cthulu monster?

What's interesting about this series (which cannot be read as standalones, and must be read in order) is that our hero is legitimately loony tunes, and our heroine is into it. She falls in love with him and his monsters, and that does... extend to the physical. (Tentacles, everyone! Shadow tentacles! Think Venom.) I will add that there's a lovely secondary romance with a trans heroine (with a hero that's not a villain) and it is excellent, but at one point an antagonist is transphobic towards her. An attempted off-page forced detransition occurs. The main heroine is totally supportive of the secondary heroine and stops it, but read with caution.

Kiss of a Demon King by Kresley Cole.

This rare villainess/hero romance sees a sorceress heroine take a deposed demon king captive to coerce him into impregnating her so that she can bear his heir (all for villainous purposes, of course). Yes. So this book is heavy on the dubcon--lots of edging, lots of people chained to beds--but to be frank? He is into it. We have a stern, morally upright hero being driven to the brink by the baddest of bad girls, and it's great.

This book is a bit controversial because of the content, and I do recommend checking out my IAD Cheat Sheet before reading for a full list of triggers/details about the world of Immortals After Dark. But it reads fairly well on its own, and I personally adore it. The sex is hot, the romance is angsty, he gets back at her in every possible way, and it's so fun to see a villainess take center stage and bring out the dark side of such a noble hero.

Dreams of a Dark Warrior by Kresley Cole.

Here, we focus on an immortal valkyrie heroine who's had centuries of near-misses with her would-be Berserker love--every time she kisses him, he remembers his past lives with her and promptly dies in increasingly gruesome ways. He's always be good and loving to her... which is why she's so shocked when he returns to her, this time in the form of an immortal-hating torturer who's taken her captive.

This one is dark--yes, he does torture her (not that badly, but there are other scenes of torture at the hands of different villains which are... bad). But if you can hang in there, I think you'll find a very compelling romance with a legitimately troubled, intense hero and a woman he can't get out of his head. There's also a very, very good bathtub scene that turns into "let me blindfold you so you can't see my hideous scars".

Lothaire by Kresley Cole.

The villain romance to end all villain romances (best read after Dreams, so you get the one-two punch of a pair of very different villainous heroes). What happens when you mix a 3,000-year-old megalomaniacal vampire with a 24-year-old whip-smart human woman he believes houses the soul of the goddess he's supposed to wed? A fucking ride, and possibly my favorite romance ever, that's what.

Lothaire goes HARD. It goes hard on the villainy (this is a story of a villain falling in love, not a villain finding redemption), it goes hard on the sex (with possibly one of the most infamous sex scenes in romance, and I love every word of it), and it goes hard on the angst. As much as Lothaire fucks with Ellie's head and is determined to deny his love for her, she's determined to one-up on him and will never, ever break. I think this book is always best summed up in a scene early on where he kisses her, bites her lip, and draws back, smugly expecting horror--only to find her grinning through the blood and pulling him in for another kiss. Tell me that isn't villain romance perfection.

Sworn to the Shadow God by Ruby Dixon.

Not so much a super hard villain romance as it is a "falling in love with Death himself" book, this wacky romance finds our gamer girl heroine falling through a portal to another land and... yes, sworn as the mortal companion of the God of Death as he attempts to complete a trial set before him by the father god. It is funny, it is sexy, it's adventurous, and it is for the Reylos.

You think I'm joking. No. He is very clearly modeled after Kylo Ren, and he sweeps around in dark cloaks and emo smashes about being the God of the Death, and it is glorious. He's less bad than he is detached and uncaring, but, you know... Death. By the end of the book, though? He cares very much about one particular person.

Look, man. Check your triggers always, especially with romance novels about villains. These won't work for everyone. But I imagine... if you like a villain... some of these are for you.

#romance novel blogging #book recs #books #anyway happy fuckin v day

[thereisnolumos]

darklina thoughts: I wanted to get into the shadow and bone Fandom(books and show) because of the amazing gif set of the darklina kiss I saw

Like who are these two that are sharing such a beautiful kiss. And look so aesthically pleasing together with the darkness and light vibes. I was so excited to find out who these two were because these kind of ships are my everything. Than I find out and 😨😱😤😠🤬!!!!! It was like running full steam a head with tons of excitement and crashing face first into a wall when I find out everything about this Fandom. Both about the books and show. The author and this beautiful ship. And I'm like God why do authors do this ship. Tease us with everything we want and the full potential. But than do a completely one 80 and waste are time on things we don't care about, or find insulting or toxic, and tells us are tastes are dumb and toxic. So now I just read fics and look at beautiful art of Darklina and the potential they could have been. It's just so annoying because this stuff happens all the time!!! And don't get me started on what I heard about the author. I don't know if their true. And wish I could find out real stuff about her. But if it is. God she is so messed up for doing this to us.

I only got in the fandom bcs I randomly saw a teaser for the first season and Ben Barnes was there in all his dark glory. I knew nothing about the books, but the way that show was promoted I was expecting the epic dark romance, villain who’s not really a villain gets the girl all the vibe. Plus cool world build and complicated detailed story overall.

I got none of that.

That show was interesting and hopeful for the first 5 episodes (we will always have 1x05🖤). It wasn’t as detailed and complex as I expected, but it had potential and the main pair - the one they based THE ENTIRE promotion on by the way - was having one of the most fiery and spark inducing chemistry I’ve ever seen on the screen, so I kept my hopes up for the overall plot and focused on them. And then… then they backpedaled SO HARD on everything that made that show interesting for the broad audience, I wonder how they didn’t give themselves a whiplash… though considering the horrible quality of s2 they probably did

Though I didn’t like the way s1 ended, I still thought there is hope, and “we need a conflict for our main pair, I guess”. I truly, wholeheartedly believed that creators and writers of the show are not complete idiots and know how to read the room and what the most of their audience is there for, so that’s what they’ll deliver. But oh my, how wrong I was.

The second season is downright unwatchable with how horrifyingly terrible it is. I only suffered through the entire thing for Ben, who, bless his heart, tried his hardest to deliver the complexity and depth of his character, who he only agreed to play if they “won’t make him a cardboard villain”. And they did exactly that in s2, or tried to, bcs Ben Barnes and his talent didn’t let them, despite all their efforts. The rest of the cast I guess didn’t have enough experience to fix the worst writing imaginable with their acting, so most of the characters became absolutely bland and uninteresting and SO IDIOTICALLY STUPUD, I yelled at them constantly, scaring my cat the entire time.

Also, as much as I understand it from exploring the fandom, the creators and writers of the show are die hard fans of the Crows, and they don’t actually like Alina’s trilogy at all. So… why didn’t they just do the books they wanted I’ll never know. Instead, they forced the Crows in the plot they were never a part of (making all of them okay with selling a girl to slavery in the process. Despite one of them being the former slave and the other one being the one who got her out of it… make it make sense, I beg of you), in the second season they wasted SO MUCH time on their plot lines that 1)didn’t matter one bit for the overall story, 2)were absolutely uninteresting to everyone who isn’t the Crows fan beforehand. In the end we got half-assed Alina and Aleksander’s story with half-assed Crows’ story. They should’ve just made the Crows show, without touching Alina and Aleksander

I haven’t read the books, but from what I gathered in the fandom, though still committing the same sin of putting all the promotion and marketing into the Dark romance trope without actually delivering on it, and force feeding the fans one of the worst and most toxic pairings ever with Malina, at least Alina and Aleksander’s characters weren’t made so cardboard and stupid, and there was tragedy in their story, not the shit that they gave us in s2. Though I absolutely DESPISE the fact that Alina looses her powers in the end and goes on to live Mal’s dream life… Like WHAT THE FUCK?? What levels of internalized misogyny do you need to have as a woman, to write this plot line for your female protagonist???? I can’t.

On Mal’s toxicity: at least that made him a fleshed out character in the books. Absolutely horrible one, how could the author make him “get the girl” is beyond me. But at least he had a personality, however terrible one. In the show, I guess understanding, that no one would root for that asshole, they removed his toxicity almost completely, but that made him as bland as stale porridge. There wasn’t ANYTHING left on his character. At all. How anyone could’ve rooted for him I absolutely refuse to understand. Any woman deserved better than Blade😈

I don’t know anything about Leigh Bardugo, except for the fact that she butcher my native language and makes me furious. If you don’t know the language at least on a medium level, perhaps don’t use it in your books. Or at least hire someone who does. The way she butchered it, I’m not sure she even used Google translate…

So yeah, I’m with you on only reading Darklina fanfics and admiring fan art. I’m not at all sad that they cancelled the show, and I’m even giddy that those creators and writers didn’t get their wet dream of the Crows spin off. They didn’t deserve it after the shit they pulled in the second season. I do hope that they won’t ruin any other shows in the future. I am sad for the actors, who deserved much better and who were actually good at their parts, while the writing was okay. Poor Archie Renaux suffered the most, his character didn’t have good writing at all, not for a single scene. I hope we’ll see more of all of them.

And we need Ben and Jessie to do a film together. Preferably a rom com, but I’m not picky. Just that their characters are together. Such chemistry can’t be wasted

#shadow and bone critical #anti shadow and bone #anti shadow and bone writers #anti s&b #anti s&b writers #anti leigh bardugo #darklina #the darkling #pro the darkling #pro aleksander morozova #pro darklina #anti malina #alina starkov #aleksander morozova #ben barnes #jessie mei li

[liaa--qb]

why sudden hate on darklinas if team green stans rha*nicent, rhaegon ? Atleast Darklina was meant to be canon

Oh God🤦🏻‍♀️ !!!!!! Who is hating darklinas... moreover just bcz I mentioned them once😭 ( btw it was hated enough by it's author herself🤣 I can very much say that after wasting my time grisha books. sorry not sorry 🤷🏻‍♀️)

Before commenting anything some of u really need to read with open eyes n brain instead of ass.

I never hated darklinas or Darkling. I ship them too. Atleast book or whole story should be good enough to even hate or like any character first of all which it never had😑. Darklina is like very much any problematic random Ya bad guy and good girl silly ships u see on daily basis. Nothing more bad than any other Ya ships.

( LB n SJM are not even good writer. I don't like their work at all. Just over hyped to me. Honestly I still think how snb was not cancelled just after S1. If u have problem wf one of my post which wasn't even about them🤷🏻‍♀️ it's ur delulu headache buddy. I don't even involve with them much someone just asked me including Darkling's name that's y I replied... Btw I knew this would happen, bc If someone points one bad thing, all of them will cry their ass out.)

the point was something else n ur question is also wrong. Problematic has nothing to do with canon or non canon for ur info. Majority of YA canon ships are problematic but you can like whatever the f u want.

I never said that Rhaenicent is any healthy ship. Rhaenicent, Daemyra, alysmond , helaegon n majority of ships in hotd are problematic. It's just their Stans fighting is like one idiot jumping on another idiot.That's what I am always mentioning. That's just funny and extremely stupid to like one problematic ship or character n attacking on Stans of other problematic ships n characters.

Some of them shamelessly fight as if their life depends on it. It's really dumb honestly 😂. No one is stopping them btw they can do the heck they want to but also they should not even have problem if someone is pointing out their silliness that's it🤷🏻‍♀️. It's a free fandom ! Just bcz I mentioned some of TB Stans hyporcrisy once , idiots thought I am team green when I am srsly far away from this nursery kid color fight

Same way many of green stans also developed this stupid habit of making their characters as pure Angels just because of the changes done by the show itself which is rubbish instead of that they should really go for better storyline for every character. " Them saying no one should support TB after BnC is....😑" Like y ? Not saying that it was bad but bad things were done from both sides. Aemond n Daeron would have done way worse with Jace n strong boys if all their parents were dead honestly.

just like Alicent's anger on Aemond losing an eye was absolutely correct that same way Rhaenyra's anger was also justified, so would Helaena's anger as she and her children were having no fault in all of this

You can like the villian and their reasons for becoming the villain but I would not say they didn't deserve their death or punishment n I would not give any apology reasons ' like no he wasn't the bad guy or he wasn't a villian'. That's what I am always pointing but logic and GOT/FNB die hard Stans are never at same place 🤡

And regarding ur take one darkling or Darklina, I don't hate Darkling but ye he's not among my fav villians or any good written at all. Not only him, I don't like any single character from that book.

If I love Homelander, Klaus, soldier boy, Tom riddle, Rafe, Billy, Jerome, Roose bolton, Euron Greyjoy.., do you really think I would be anti Darkling or care fr him enough 😂 like these r just some tv screen villains I like but if I started talking about my actual favourite bad guys from Grim dark fantasy novels like Jorg ancrath n many more, Darkling would look like little twink infront of them😭

so pls think.. using your brain is not a big deal 🙏🏻

#house of dragons #hotd fandom #hotd discussion #hotd discourse #daemyra #rhaenicent #alysmond #shadow and bone #darklina #rhaenyra targaryen #daemon targeryan #alicent hightower #aemon targaryen #aegon the second #aegon targaryen

[darklinaforever]

https://www.tumblr.com/darklinaforever/743510853004984320/the-fact-that-aegon-is-a-rpist-in-the-series?source=share

People can love any kind of characters, I love Kylo Ren myself (although I don't like Darkling), but at the same time belittling Aegon fans, just because YOU PERSONALLY don't find the character interesting, but justifying characters who used violence against women IS double standards, really. I might as well say that Aegon r*ped a maid in the series because his mom and dad didn't like him, your explanation of the actions of Darkling and Ren sounds exactly the same. NOTHING justifies the fact that Darling put a damn collar on Alina to control her powers. Again, you can love anyone, ship anything, but don't be a hypocrite and shame others for what you do yourself.

It's not hypocrisy to tell the truth about fictional characters.

I have no problem with people liking Aegon II as a villain. What he is.

I have a problem with them trying to justify deny the fact that Aegon II is a rapist, something that consistently arrives in my inbox at the moment.

Again here you are trying to say that this is something that only comes from the series, except that I repeat, that is not the case. Aegon II is also a rapist in the book.

Also, I have a problem with people trying to compare him to the Darkling and Kylo Ren, two character types that have nothing to do with Aegon II.

Really, I don't see the connection between Aegon II the rapist and the Darkling, a morally gray character committing evil actions with an overall noble goal, having been raised by a toxic and abusive mother with no taste for the noble causes and the compassion in general, a miracle that he is endowed with it, and the character of Kylo Ren / Ben Solo abused and manipulated (groomed) in order to join the dark side since he was literally a fetus.

The Darkling and Kylo Ren / Ben Solo have big extenuating circumstances for what they become, namely morally gray characters with morally gray actions and not pure villains, as the role of Aegon II and the Team Greens.

I doubt you can compare Aegon II to Kylo's situation that I just explained, or the life of persecution and danger that the Darkling had to endure for several centuries for himself and his species making him what he is today.

How can you even think that compares / becomes an equivalent to the fact that Dad Viserys and Mom Alicent wouldn't like Aegon II ?

The simple fact that you think that this could be some sort of extenuating circumstance is disconcerting.

And I also don't see the relationship between Aegon II, rapist of a woman, and Reylo or Darklina, relationships located in contexts of enemies to lovers with an overall consent between the two parties but which obviously do bad things to each other in view of being on damn opposite sides during a war !

I don't see the hypocrisy in pointing out the simple truths surrounding the characters. You can't compare Aegon II to these two. It's a simple truth, and I'm sorry if it shocks you. The characters have nothing to do with it.

I would like to add that if you find Aegon II interesting, great. But it's kind of funny that I've never seen a single fan of his be able to explain what they found so interesting about this rapist, misogynistic man, besides probably being a pedophile in his own right. era. All that, in the book ! But people are free to try. The same goes for saying that you prefer the Greens team because their story is amazing. How is it ? Strangely I haven't seen anyone be able to explain it without making up lies about the characters, or explain it in relation to the real canon events of the book, instead constantly mixing them with those of the series, or the Greens are nothing more than a bunch of right-thinking hypocrites that the writers try very hard to victimize.

It's not justification to explain how a character becomes what he is. At best as I said it gives extenuating circumstances, at least if it is directly linked, like with the Darkling and Kylo. But again, that's not justification. This is just fucking understanding.

I also advise you to go to the blog of @stromuprisahat and @aleksanderscult in order to have a better angle of view on this whole situation of the necklace for Darklina, itself complex, whether you like it or not.

The only extenuating circumstance that Aegon II could get is having been educated by a bunch of already nasty misogynists, even if it doesn't seem to me that Otto and Alicent are potential rapists, or even potential pedophiles. Oops. Not really equivalent to the fact of having been manipulated since fetus for a very specific purpose, and of having suffered centuries of persecution therefore...

GRRM does not look at the life of Aegon II in particular either, simply because he is characterized as a villain in the story itself, not meant to be endowed with any redeeming traits or complexity/gritness. GRRM doesn't care about Aegon II and therefore, generally speaking, I don't.

There is once again no complexity in Aegon II and his behavior, unlike the characters of Kylo Ren / Ben Solo and the Darkling. He's a pure villain, written and characterized as such. You can like Aegon II as a villain, but stop justifying / ignoring the rape party, let alone comparing it to gray characters like Kylo Ren / Ben Solo and the Darkling. It just makes the person look like a jerk.

Also, I literally explained how Kylo Ren / Ben Solo's behavior towards Rey was not abuse. They are only enemies in the middle of a war who fight when the time comes ! Just replace Rey with a man, without the romance, and no one would call it an abusive relationship ! They would simply say that this is what two people fighting on opposite sides of a war are like. And the same if Kylo had been a girl and Rey a boy, I'll hold it ! No one ever said that the Sorsha and Mardmartigan relationship from the movie Willow was abusive that I know of ?!

I repeat myself, but in what Kylo Ren abuses Rey when exactly ? During the so-called torture that Kylo allegedly subjected Rey to in episode 7 ? From 1, they are at war. 2, they are enemies. 3, Rey has information that could be valuable to Kylo's side, it's literally his job to interrogate Rey. And 4, he was gentle and careful with her, avoiding hurting her. So damn, we have to stop with this stupid "torture" scene. What exactly do you think the TRUE torture scene of Poe by Kylo at the beginning of the film was there for ? It served as a contrast to Rey's situation later. Poe was beaten and had his mind searched in an extremely painful manner. Rey was having none of that. Do you want a real scene of torture suffered by Rey ? Snoke in The Last Jedi, or this time, Rey screams in pain like Poe when his mind is invaded. And if you come to point out all the times Kylo and Rey fought, should I remind you that it's war and they're in enemy because they are in different camps ? Just the basic thing that forces them to be against each other ? I also remember that when he sent her flying against a tree she was going to attack him first. I also remember that it was Rey who first attacked Kylo Ren on the Death Star, invaded by the dark side. I remind you that Kylo has I don't know how much chance of killing Rey or really harming her during their fights which he never does, while Rey for her part, as soon as she has the slightest chance of farting on him Shut up, she does it. (I love her for that) Once again, if we were on two men, or if we swapped sexes between Rey and Kylo Ren / Ben Solo, no one will come and talk to you about an abusive relationship. Or maybe it's such an obscure minority that you won't even come across one !

But anyway, I don't even see why I would stop to explaining something so obvious, since I could simply respond with :

Aegon II is a rapist book and series, which Kylo Ren and the Darkling are not. Aegon II is characterized as a pure villain without redeeming qualities, which Kylo Ren and the Darkling are not.

In my opinion, very sufficient reasons why I love these two but hate Aegon II and hate those trying to come and justify to me / deny the fact that this loser is a rapist and try to prove that he is a complex character.

And you want to know something funny ? I like Aegon II. It's true. He is a villain I deeply hate, who disgusts me and for whom I have no pity. A good thing actually, since that's supposed to be his role in the Fire and Blood story. Aegon II is a good villain who fulfills his narrative function correctly. So I like him as a result of that. But not for its so-called depth or non-existent complexity. I love him, for what he is. Namely once again a good villain fulfilling his function. This is how people should love Aegon II instead of coming to my inbox to explain that he just acts like any man of his time (which is not true) and that he is not a rapist (which is also false), but just a sexual abuser (wtf ?!). Or even dare to compare him to Kylo Ren / Ben Solo and the Darkling. (Double wtf ?!) And I also like him a lot in the series, but this time mainly because of the very talented actor, who brings a charisma to the character that is not present in the book. See, you can love Aegon II without saying royal shit.

This is what I denounce and which I am full of and which I judge. People coming to tell me that Aegon II is not a rapist, or that he is just a sexual abuser and that he only acts like a prince of his time. Basically, bullshit. That's what I'm full of. I don't care about people who just like him as a villain. Most people love fucking villains. I'm a fan of Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty ! A being who likes to do evil for the sake of doing evil !

My other problem is that most Greens and pro Aegon II teams will act as if their characters were less bad, or equivalent to the Blacks team populated either by gray / complex and or heroic characters to give themselves a better conscience for loving a team of villains.

And sorry, but that doesn't make me a hypocrite. It makes me someone who knows how to differentiate a villain from a gray and complex character. This makes me a person who knows how to differentiate rape from enemies to lovers in contexts of war with opposing camps.

The incredible nerve of receiving messages like this explaining to me that we can like whatever we want in fiction. No kidding ?! I didn't know ! However, I'm not the one who goes into people's inboxes to spit on what they like even if I don't like it ! They are the ones who come to my inbox spitting on what I like, insulting me and giving themselves the role of right-thinking / morally superior. Not me. I give my opinion on my tumblr without annoying anyone. And if the fact that I'm telling truths about fictional characters bothers you, then just move on.

Aegon II is a rapist in addition to being a character belonging to the villain camp who is also misogynistic. This is a pure and simple truth. And I therefore hate the people who come to support me to the contrary, while having the nerve to give me moralizing speeches to love a character (Daemon Targaryen) whom they will accuse of being the real rapist while their poor favorites do not is just a misunderstood prince of his time. The good joke... It's that simple. And once again I don't see what's hypocritical about it. In fact, it's more the fans of Aegon II and the Greens team in general who look like big hypocrites.

#anti aegon ii targaryen #anti team green #anti greens stans #anti green stans #anti team greens #anti greens #anti green #pro team blacks #pro team black #team blacks #team black #hotd #anti hotd #house of the dragon #anti house of the dragon #fire and blood #f&b #daemon targaryen #the darkling #aleksander morozova #kylo ren #ben solo #alina starkov #rey #reylo #darklina #alarkling #pro daemon targaryen #pro the darkling #pro ben solo

[aleksanderscult]

What do you think about Nikolina?

(TW: PTSD!)

He he! I'm glad you asked anon... *takes out a long parchment*

Long story short, it's my favorite ship after Darklina.

I've mentioned before how one of my preferred endings for the trilogy would be if the Darkling died and Mal stayed dead, Nikolai and Alina would get married and rule Ravka.

Nikolai could be an excellent influence to Alina for many reasons:

- The most important one is the political aspect. Nikolai knows the power of image and words and knows when to keep his mouth shut and when to speak. He just knows about this stuff so he could be an excellent teacher to Alina and help her grow into becoming a capable politician, worthy Queen and strong leader.

- For his personality. After the war, Alina would be traumatised. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if Mal had stayed dead and she would be like "You know what? Yes, I'll marry you but give me some time to mourn". And even after that she wouldn't be okay. PTSD would still hit her. Nikolai has an excellent sense of humor that seems to work on Alina and knows what to say to her. Little by little he could make her pain more tolerable with his cheerful and constant presence.

- To help her think in a subjective manner and see the bigger picture. No need to elaborate here. I think you all understand what I imply about Alina here.

- He would understand her lingering, complex feelings about the Darkling. She was her enemy yes but there were feelings there too. Nikolai wouldn't judge her and allow her to take her time and work through her grief in her own way.

- Whether she would have powers or not, he would accept her as she is and love her however she would be.

"Nikolina" is really that trope that I believe most of us love in fiction: a marriage that began for political reasons but with time deep feelings develop and the couple forms a loving, protective relationship. I was hoping I could see that with Nikolina but yeah... didn't happen.

Nikolai would help Alina grow as a person and teach her that trying to always do the "pure" thing is basically useless and impossible when you're in charge of a realm. The people depend on you to protect them and feed them no matter what, even if you have to ally yourself with your enemies to do it. Nikolai was willing to sacrifice his own happiness for the good of the realm and even though he really wanted Alina to marry him, he didn't push her but gave her time.

I mean what's the point of trying so hard to bring a man from the dead who constantly lowered your confidence, slut-shamed you and made you doubt yourself and your powers and apparently doesn't give a shit about the future of his country when there's a man right there that's alive, is interested in you as a person and accepts you as you are and cares for his country?

Make it make sense.

#anyway. i love that ship #there were POSSIBILITIES 🌟 #nikolina #anon asks #nikolai lantsov #alina starkov #anti malina #anti mal oretsev #grishaverse #shadow and bone #ruin and rising

[where-theres-smoak-2]

Jessie confirmed that the writers wanted darklina to be different from the books, and that they removed the romantic aspect of their relationship. It sucks. And this is very strange, because the whole first season was full of a romantic aspect between Aleks/Alina, and this contrasts with what we saw in s2. Why are screenwriters so afraid to give us darklina? Sometimes it seems to me that they just don't what to do with them. I'm afraid that if the series gets s3, the writers will continue in the same direction and exclude all the romance from darklina :/

It is a bit strange that they went so hard on the romance in season 1 and then tried to erase it in season 2, makes me wonder if its the same writers or whether they got new ones in? So this is the whole quote from Jessie and honestly there are so many problems with it:

'It's a big ensemble show and you've got to have enough time for everyone, so alot of Alina's story got cut down, and I think, they decided, they made a decision, that Kirigan was going to be more of an out and out antagonist, rather than in the books, it was a little bit more ooh what's going on, there's still a bit of spice going on between them, you know there's more of a romantic feel to it in a way. So they wanted to steer away from that which I thought was an interesting choice.'

First off I get that its a big cast and so you have to make time for everyone but Alina is the main character! If there is any character in this show whose story you should not be cutting down its the main character, seriously what are these people on? Secondly the thing that made darklina interesting in the books was that dynamic, them being on different sides but there still being a spark between them and this romantic element, it was intriguing and complex. The thing alot of people criticised about the books was how in the last two books the darkling pretty much became a 2d villain, in contrast season 1 got alot of praise for making Aleks a complicated and sympathetic antihero. So I really do not understand why they thought it was a good idea to try and remove the romantic aspect to the darklina relationship and make Aleks more of an 'out and out antagonist' or translation, a 2d villain. It like they all sat around a table and went 'ok lets take out everything the fans liked about the books and keep in everything they hated, wait what do you mean there was a negative reaction to season 2? Why didn't the fans love it?' I'm sorry I just don't understand the thought process here, but one thing I am sure of is it was pretty far from an interesting choice, though I am not sure if Jessie was just trying to be polite there.

As for season three and whether they would try to continue erasing anything that makes darklina interesting, I do think the fans have been very vocal about what they didn't like about season 2 so hopefully the writers will use their common sense and actually heed that when writing season 3. I do think there is this really weird attitude towards toxic ships and trying to steer away from them, like fiction doesn't need to be pure, its ok to have and explore toxic ships, I just wish tv shows wouldn't be so scared to have ships like darklina, it never used to be a problem but recently there is this morality policing when it comes to women who like the villain or like more complex relationships in fiction. If the woke mob come for them there is one simple phrase the writers can use, 'it is fiction.' That's it no need to justify it any further. I mean GOT and HOTD have inc*stuous and toxic ships and they are two of the most popular shows on tv, I really don't get why some shows are so scared to go with the hero/villain ships. Its really not as big of a deal as people make it out to be.

Also despite saying that they wanted to erase the romantic aspect of darklina and that they wanted to make Aleks an out and out antagonist, I think they failed miserably. I still saw a romantic aspect from darklina I mean that 'I swear I did (find peace)' scene alone was one of the most romantic I have seen in the whole two seasons. Also, I think, owing mostly to Ben's performance, Aleks still remained a sympathetic and complex character, such as that scene when he is crying over his mother's body, it is still very hard not to see Aleks' point of view and once again, I was mostly agreeing with him throughout the whole season. He had some dark moments that was for sure, but I would still say he was pretty damn far from being nothing but an antagonist.

#darklina #anti shadow and bone writers #s&b season 2 spoilers #answered #aleksander morozova #the darkling

[locklylemybeloved]

OK YALL BUCKLE UR SEAT BELTS AND LISTEN UP CAUSE I SAW THIS FANART SOMEWHERE LAST NIGHT AT GOD KNOWS WHAT TIME AND DECIDED IT WAS AMAZING AND PROCEEDED TO OVERANALYZE IT SO HERE U GO ALSO PLS LET ME KNOW IF U KNOW WHO THE ARTIST IS CAUSE I WANNA CREDIT THEM BUT I HAVE GENUINELY NO IDEA WHERE I FOUND IT. I HONESTLY THINK I WAS DELIRIOUSLY SNUFFLING AROUND THE DARK CORNERS OF THE INTERWEB AND STUMBLED UPON THIS WHILE HALF AWAKE AND SO THATS WHY I KIND SOUND UNHINGED SO BEWARE. OK HERE WE GO.

first things first i just wanna say ahead of time that i have no hate to anyone who ships a specific ship that i mention, these are just my opinions :)

caution to everyone btw, im not a malina, nikolina, or darklina shipper but out of the three i like nikolina best since i genuinely liked them but i like zoyalai way more and nikolai also basically just wanted to marry alina for political purposes so yeah

lets start with the darkling. this ones probably the easiest. his stance, position, and where hes standing kind of reflects how he only wants to control and use alina. idk if u can tell, but i have a passionate hate for him.

ok next: mal. hm. where to start. to me, the way that hes looking at alina but not fully taking her hand is like showing that he loves alina, but in the end he never gave her anything. he wasnt there for her in the end and so hes not meeting her halfway. also he has the personality of a wet paper towel

lastly: nikolai. my beautiful amazing nikolai. he gave alina so much, and tried so hard to love her but he stated HIMSELF that he didnt love her (he said he liked alina and COULDVE grown to love her, but he didnt love her). and u can see this in the way he holds her hand firmly (giving her a lot) but he doesnt truly love her (hes not looking at her)

i just wish that alina ended up with someone who truly did love her and actually SHOWED her that they did. and believe me, genya and david is amazing and i love them sm and row mentally damaged me but genya and alina had a good setup for being ✨romantically involved✨

yes ik it never quite reached the level for me where i was like SHIP SHIP SHIP THESE TWO ARE ALL THAT COULD EVER BE YESS but there was def some potential for those two.

anyway yeah 🥲 this is mainly just my opinions on the ships and the whole alina ship quarrel but the fanart reminded me of it

#just me ranting #but im srs i love nikolai SO MUCH he and alina just werent meant to be imo #but they were rlly cute together and for a very large portion of s+s and r+r i wanted them to be together #cause it was DEFINITELY shippable #anyways ill be quiet now ☺️ #alina starvok #malyen oretsev #the darkling #nikolai lantsov #genya kostyk #genya saffin #david kostyk #zoya nazyalensky #shadow and bone #seige and storm #ruin and rising #sab #sab trilogy #grishaverse

[lilisouless]

I already posted this, BUT season 2 is coming next year and i need and updated version, rebbloging the old one is not enought

Don’t-harrass-the-actors-or-crew 2.0 (A lot of this is the same text as before, but updated)

If Ben Barnes likes Darklina ,no bashing ,no calling him an abuse apologist or anything like that (again)

If Jessie Mei Li likes Darklina,Malina , Nikolina, Genyalina,Zoyalina, Alina/Tamar or even single!Alina, it´s their experience as an actor,their perspective ,their opinion and must not be treated as a “feminist traitor” or something like that. NEW: Also leave alone conspiracy theories that when they shows liking for Darklina,they are being genuine but if they speak in favor of Malina, they are being manipulated by netflix (yes, people already did that)

If Archie Renaux likes Malina, don't bash or harrass him (AGAIN)

If you don’t like Mal remember, Archie didn’t wrote the script

If you don’t like Alina, Jessie didn’t wrote the script

If you don’t like the Darkling,Ben didn’t wrote the scripts (you get the idea)

And since fandom (not this in particular,just any fandom) will take any excuse to do girl hate: Don’t  hate on Sujaya Dasgupta as much as you could dislike her character. NEW: She didn't wrote the script (something people doesn't seem to get)

NEW: Whatever they do with Nikolai: Patrick didn't wrote the script, and he wasn't the one who had a hand over being choosen over Robert Wilde, he only auditioned.

Also, take in count Patrick probably had to do chemistry tests with Jessie but not Sujaya AND he will spend way more time with the first one. So there is a high chance he may ship Nikolina over Zoyalai and thats okay! there is no need to hate him for that.

NEW:

As much as i want Show!Tolya to be canon aroace and for Leigh to confirm it as canon after all those hints: If Lewis ships Tolya with someone, or if the show gives him a LI (we don't know if Vanessa Grace is actually playing a character, the imdb is incomplete since it doesn't have Adrik nor Jordie) don't hate him for it, since is not completely confirmed on the books and the blame would be on netflix for wasting representation material.

NEW:

Have you seen people giving Amita, Freddy,Kit or Dani a bad time, for bad things that were done with their characters and focussing the critism on the script and/or casting directors? Also: Freddy,Amita and Kit all support Malina, have you seen people attaking them? (other than a couple of joke responses to Kit)? Well, you can do the same! Not harrasing people doesn't hurt. I have the feeling this is because everyone knows the SoC part of the fandom won't let them live if they touch any of the crow actors (reason i am not too worried about Jack). The only i have seen is that person who put down Amita´s acting in order to highlight Ben´s , which fortunetaly was just one person and even Ben Barnes fans called them on that one. If you can show decency to them, you can do it with the other actors.

And Kuwei hasn't been casted yet but i´ll get ahead: don’t bash on his actor ,even if they cast someone who ships Kuwei and Jesper, he´ll deserve respect.

I know there are more new characters but, i am mostly sure no one will have a problem with Anna &Joanna and/or Kit & Jack liking their character´s ships , nor that Zoyalai shippers would come after Alistair for Adrik´s canon crush on Zoya.

Oh yeah, almost forgot: Don't give Joanna a hard time for reemplacing Gabrielle

We are never going to agree in a lot of things,but lets not be that fandom that harrases real people over ships or characters. NEW: Lets say the fandom was mostly tame, but the toxic behaviour should not be "low" it should be "zero"

#If you hate any of them because they are genuily problematic #then do that #don't take shipping as the reason why you hate them #i will be doing this as much as seasons the show will have #netflix shadow and bone #six of crows #leigh bardugo #alina starkov #malyen oretsev #zoya nazyalensky #nikolai lanstov #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #nina zenik #jesper fahey #tolya yul bataar #wylan van eck #kuwei yul bo #shadow and bone netflix #grishaverse netflix #malina #zoyalai

[daffodilsonaprettystring]

I just saw someone on SOC twitter say that Matthias is worse than the Darkling

That same person also said Wylan was illiterate and gay and that’s all he has going for him and that he and Jesper were the token side gays

………….TELL ME YOU DONT UNDERSTAND COMPLEX CHARACTERS WITHOUT TELLING ME YOU DONT UNDERSTAND COMPLEX CHARACTERS

LIKE GENUINELY

Wtf,?????

Matthias was raised and manipulated in under severe religious views and when he realized that they were wrong he did EVERYTHING in his power to change it.

THE DARKLING COMMITED MASS GENOCIDE AND SOLD INNOCENT GIRLS TO ABUSERS AND MANIPULATED A YOUNG GIRL THEN PROCEEDED TO TREAT HER LIKE HIS PROPERTY AND DIDNT GIVE A FUCK WHO HE HURT IN THE PROCESS INCLUDING THE GIRL DARKLINAS CLAIM HE LOVES???

Listen even going I to the show KNOWING Darkles was bad, I still fell for Darklina. Ben Barnes is extremely charismatic and yeah Darkles was a good actor and it was hard not to fall for his charm. But that’s exactly what it was: charm, and acting. We got to see so much more of his manipulation and true dark side this season, yet people still try to say he’s misunderstood and just fighting for the Grisha. No?? He’s tryna take over the damn country and keep Alina under his thumb in the process??

Do not ever compare Matthias, who died doing what was right, to Darkles who died because his ass got hit with some well earned karma. They are nothing alike.

(This is not to say Darkles isn’t also a complex character; I really enjoyed the show giving him that backstory with the Heartrender girl he loved dying and the scene where Baghra died in his arms had me feeling very bad for him, even knowing what he’s done. But that’s the thing; you can see Darkles as a complex character and still acknowledge that he is an AWFUL human being. There is no redemption for him, and he deserved the ending he got. Darkling stans take the “complex character” term and run far past the finish line with it to the point where they idolize this guy to insane levels. Just—try to remember what you’re saying when you say Darklina should have been endgame. You’re saying Alina’s and Zoya’s manipulator and the reason Genya was abused for YEARS should end up with the girl he claimed to love even though he literally used her as a tool for his own gain and didn’t give a fuck about her own wishes? Please guys.no. )

AND WYLAN?? How dare you reduce him to the stereotypical side gay. My man spent this entire season proving his worth, and he and Jesper, while admittedly moved fast, were the most stable ship in the show for a goddamn reason. Wylan has been through hell, fuck all of the crows have, and yet they all still manage to hold some good inside them.

(Yes, even Kaz. I don’t care what anyone says, that man still wants to be good for those he cares about (Yes Inej but also the other Crows) along with being a crime lord. I did a whole presentation on it for my seminar last semester. Fight me.)

The reason SOC fans love those books is because Leigh Bardugo blessed us with these incredibly dynamic characters who are flawed and human and make mistakes but at the end of the day are just kids trying to make it through life the best way they can, and doing it as a FAMILY. Shadow and Bone, while still very good books, is missing that vital piece somehwere in the Malina Darklina ship war.

This was such a long rant I’m sorry

TLDR: Darkles sucks Matthias deserves better and Wylan is still my favorite Grishaverse character ever don’t dump on him or I’m coming for your eyeballs Kazzle Dazzle style

#shadow and bone #wylan hendriks #wylan van eck #jesper fahey #matthias helvar #darkling slander #six of crows #leigh bardugo #shadow and bone netflix #shadow and bone season 2 #shadow and bone rant #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #nina zenik #crooked kingdom

[xalonelydreamerx]

I think I'm gonna write an analysis as soon as I finish rereading the trilogy but yeah s2 was fucking terrible.

I've seen many people saying they're happy about Alina, and while yes, I'm glad she didn't lose her powers and didn't end up with Mal, there are so much bigger problems with this season

Aside the costume still looking bad, pacing being all over the place because there are simply too many characters and the annoying repentance of the flashbacks, Alina comes as extremely annoying, stuck up, tone deaf and overall a bitch.

Unlike some, I do love book!Alina because she's a very flawed character but lots of her mistakes actually do make sense if you're able to let go of the grudge that comes from reading a YA 2010 book.

Show! Alina was intentionally supposed to be portrayed as strong, bold, confident and smart since s1. She's not supposed to be naive, ignorant, selfish and emotional like book!Alina but somehow she ends up coming across as so much worse.

The Darkling is no better. He comes off as extremely pathetic. He already was in s1, but I was hoping he was gonna have an arc in this season and become more like his canon self. Sadly, that wasn't meant to be.

Show!Darkling has no personality other than wanting Alina in such a desperate way that is hard to look at. I know the girlies gash over him being a ✨ simp ✨ but there's a difference between pathetic (affectionate) and pathetic (degoratory). He wants to keep the grisha safe but even that a aspect suffers from a very detrimental alteration they did on the show which I will now mention.

Apparently, grisha aren't the oppressed group we know in canon. On no, the season hits you with the hammer about how it's the fold and everything that happened in s1 that made everybody turn against grisha. Not that they've been capturing them, enslaving them and burning them for hundred of years, na-ah.

I have no comment on the crows since I hardly ever cared for them. Some scenes were good, but they suffered with how much the story was rushed.

The ending was shit, because while it's cool that alina kept her powers and an arc of her becoming basically a new antagonist is interesting on paper, it doesn't work here because it wasn't built up well and as I mentioned Alina came off as incredible unlikable and darklina was extremely one-sided.

The script was very poor and this isn't a hate towards the actors because they don't really have any control of it.

While I'll continue shipping darklina they were both done very dirty because they were ooc since the first season and the second one reduced them both to something beyond recognition.

#darklina #s&b critical #I'm one of the few souls who still defends the trilogy because it was meant to be as it was - a nice mid writing fantasy romance #but both Alina and the Darkling were much better in the books #idc that Jessie and Ben look hot #their looks can't fix how fucking terrible the script was #the Darkling was also very cartoonish which is an irony because for years I've been heading he's like that in books (newflash he isn't) #the fact that the grisha oppression was better portrayed in the books than in the show is a tragedy itself #congrats Eric Heisserer you somehow created an ever worse story wow #grishaverse #my venting #I'll just go back to loving book darklina 'cause I have no clue who these ppl on screen are

[spider-bren]

Perfection | Helstar - Alina Starkov x Matthias Helvar

Author's Notes: Look i didn't set out to write this. I just missed Matthias so much. It's been a while since I wrote him and my throuple (Helstarova) If you know my ao3, you know i write for the shadow and bone fandom. Giving Alina what she deserves. I don't want no comments about this from antis please. I can ship and write what I want. (link to my helstarova work at the bottom. I also mainly write darklina) Thanks to anyone who reads this :)

Pairing: Alina Starkov x Matthias Helvar

Tags: Blowjobs, PIV sex, Dating, Modern AU, Romance

Summary: Alina is Matthias perfect little girlfriend.

Matthias gripped the edge of the table. His knuckles were white. His head bent back, eyes closed to the ceiling. His pants was unbuckled, sagging at his ankles, underwear pulled down to his knees, t-shirt ridden up where hands were now roaming his defined abdomen. He sighed on a particular good thrust that made Alina choke. He surpressed a grin at the sound, soothing through her hair.

"It's okay. You can take more, my love," he coaxed her, driving his thick cock to the back of her throat once more.

Drool dribbled down her chin. She nodded her head, eager to please him. On her knees she was gorgeous like this. Tears pricking the corner of her eyes, black hair mused from his rough fingers, lips red and eyes staring up at him as she did her best to take all of him in her mouth. Her brown eyes were glossy. Reverent. Appreciative. She'd say thank you after this. Matthias had taught her manners. Her throat was raw now. He had been going at this for nearly an hour. Slowly coming to full hardness from the little licks and laps and letting himself ease into her mouth before fucking it without worrying whether she could handle how hard he was thrusting. She moaned around him. Small body shivering as she let him use her. He could tell by the way she was rocking forward that she wanted release. He wasn't going to give it to her. Not yet. She first had to finish him. He was taking his time with it. Savouring it.

He relished in the feel of her mouth on him. On the way she swallowed down, the soft flesh of her mouth, the lap of her tongue on the underside of his cock. Licking at the spot that made him groan and his hips rock forward. Her mouth was small but perfect. She was so good at taking him. So obiedent. He was going to praise her and set her on the table with her legs over his shoulders and show her just how much he was thankful for her. His grip on her hair tightened and he pitched forward on a moan.

"Ah, Alina, you're doing so well. Gonna cum in your mouth. Want me to fill you with cum, sweetheart?"

She moaned in reply, redoubling her efforts to make him get there faster. He was teetering on the edge. Praises flew out of his mouth as he spilled inside her.

"Swallow," he commanded and she did.

He wiped her eyes with his thumbs and cleaned over her tear-stained cheeks. He scratched her head like he would a kitten, telling her how good she was. He tipped her chin up and leaned down to kiss her messy mouth. She moaned into the kiss and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"My girl," he murmured between kisses. "I love you so much."

"I love you, too, Matt."

"Now, come here. Need to sort you out. You must be so messy down there. Let's get you out of these clothes, yeah?"

He picked her up, stripping her of her tights and underwear. He was right. She was soaked. Matthias bent forward, nose running over her sensitive folds, making her shiver. He inhaled her and licked a flat stripe from top to bottom.

"Perfect mouth. Perfect cunt."

Alina flushed and covered her face in her hands. "No, I--"

"You do have the perfect cunt. Want to kis it all the time."

Matthias lapped at the swollen, wet flesh and sucked her throbbing clit in his mouth. She moaned so prettily for him. He couldn't get enough of the taste of her. He couldn't get enough of her scent, of how she felt on his tongue. He loved the way her hips would rock into him as soon as his tongue found his way inside her. He fucked her open with his tongue, holding her hips down so he could set the pace himself. She was too greedy today. He slowly lapped at her, curling and touching her in the way she liked. He knew how to do this. Knew what would bring her close to the edge. He took it his time with it. Let himself enjoy each muscle twitch of her thighs next to his face, every soft moan that she made. She was shuddering and breathless once he finally pulled away.

"No, no. Please. I need you."

"Tell me what you need, hm?" Matthias asked. "My fingers or cock?"

She whined, frustrated. "All of you. I don't care. I just wanna cum."

He clicked his tongue. "You can't have it both ways. I'm not gonna touch you until you tell me exactly what you want."

She sighed. "Please, Matthias. I need your cock. Need to cum on your cock. Wanna feel you inside of me."

"There. That wasn't so hard, was it?"

He opened her legs wider. He yanked her body forward, legs dangling over his shoulders. His cock nudged her entrance and before she could even say anything he slid inside. She cried out. Her body trying to stretch to take his big cock. He inched inside her little by little.

"You've done this before. You know how this works. Breathe, baby. You can do this."

He pushed foward until he was all the way in. She was whimpering, tears again rolling down her cheeks. Matthias was big, he knew. But Alina was made for him. He moaned as her cunt clenched around him.

"So fucking perfect for me. I don't want anyone else. Don't need anyone else. Fuck, Alina, my beautiful girl."

Alina moaned and pulled him forward so that his lips met hers. He kissed her slowly as his cock fucked her hard and fast. His tongue swirled in her mouth, picking up traces of himself in the kiss. It didn't matter how many times he had her, he would never tire of her. Her perfect body. The way her small breasts bounced as she moved with him. The way her face looked when she was close. Matthias came a second time into Alina's body, this time Alina following with him.

if you'd like more alina x matthias and also with aleksander, then you will like 'The Passion's Double Amplified" - poly college modern au (p.s everyone is bisexual)

Summary: Aleksander smirked and looked her in the eye. "Oh, sweetheart. I'm not going to stop until you come on my face. Then when you're done, I will make you come again."  He went back in to plunge his tongue deeper inside of her. She strained upwards with a broken sob. "There you go. Be good and let yourself come on his tongue," Matthias whispered as he nipped at her flesh.

#alina starkov #matthias helvar #alina x matthias #helstar #rare pair #shadow and bone #my fic #i wrote this because i needed to get it out my system #i write helstar and helstarova deal with it #no hate pls #darklina #ao3 #bisexual #bisexual men #everyone is bisexual

[takaraphoenix]

Ok so I just finished watching Shadow and Bone for the first time and I knew you had watched it before so I came to see what your opinions on some of it was. Didn't really see anything for what what is probably my favorite ship is but I don't really care about that right now. I think I'm more interested in knowing what you're Top 5 favorite ships are (Top 10 if you feel like you're having a hard time narrowing it down to just 5 but from what I saw, I don't think that would be a problem???). Also, if you feel up to it, any favorite headcanons for the various characters or ships you might want to include. Much love to you Phoe!!! Now I'm off to go consume for content because I need my pretty men... gods, why are there so many pretty men in this show 😭😭😭 a lot of pretty women too, though I'm gay so it's just aesthetically pretty on their part, lol

oooh you watched ot for the first time! I hope you liked it! And well now I'm cirious what your favorite ship was.

Since I only have exactly 10 ships in this fandom, I will give you a top 10! lol Though since these are all the ships, they actually do span the entire spectrum of "I am obsessed with this", "I've written for this" to "it's a nice sidepairing! I liked when they were on screen but don't really think about them when they're not".

Aleksander/Alina

Inej/Alina

Kaz/Jesper

Genya/Alina

Tamar/Inej

Nikolai/Mal

Nikolai/Alina

Tamar/Nadia

Jesper/Wylan

David/Genya

+ bonus: Tolya/poetry

because I definitely came out of this headcanoning Tolya as aroace and I want this softest of boys to find someone who will platonically share his love of poetry with him. Please. He deserves it.

Not a secret that Darklina is my OTP. I'm not exactly quiet about it. They make me feel all shades of unhinged. I gotta get onto writing about them, honestly, can't believe that hasn't happened yet, but I guess that s1 left me too satisfied with canon overall to want to write just yet. Currently nose-deep in fics about them.

Alina and Inej is a solid second. They didn't have much interaction but what they had was gold. The blade protecting her saint. The worship and awe. These two badasses. I love them. And, much like Alinej, both Kaz/Jesper and Genya/Alina were also ships I came out of s1 with and wrote for after that.

Honestly, Tamar/Nadia would rank higher if the show had dedicated more time to them, but they happened so much in the background and I'm genuinely mad about that. I had to sit through so so so much straight drama especially in this season, but the only wlw ship in this entire show and they barely got screentime. They were cute together, visually, but... I didn't get enough of what made them click, or of Nadia's personality in general to be quite honest, to be as invested as I wanted to be (because I did. I knew that Nadia was a wlw and I knew that Tamar would be introduced this season and I was looking forward to this). So, with what the show gave me? I was like "daw, cute" when they were on screen, yeah.

On the other hand, I love both Tamar and Inej, and the potential of Inej now on the ship makes me think of the potential of those two together. Now, I am a lover of poly so I would not be opposed to just mashing these two ships together either. But I'm really intrigued by Tamar/Inej primarily here.

Nikolai and Alina worked surprisingly well. Didn't think I'd end up with another guy for Alina aside from Aleksander. But I really liked their chemistry and the fake marriage plotline absolutely ended me. He could be her trophy husband, I wouldn't mind.

Jesper and Wylan were honestly a positive surprise to me! You know me, you know my track-record with canon mlm ships! I usually do not like them. So that they made the list at all is great. I'm not super invested, but I thought they were adorable.

And Genya and David were cute too. I don't get why they killed David off? From what I gather, they don't in the books, so that was weird. But I thought they were nice.

Headcanons? Mostly sexuality wise.

Ace Kaz. Ace Kaz was the first once I had. I know his touch aversion roots in trauma but I recognize a lot of my own sex-repulsion in his behavior and am projecting hard so ace Kaz. Also definitely dom Kaz, have you seen that man rule his club, or bring Pekka to his knees (not that I want Pekka to sub for him, ew, but the power Kaz radiated in that moment was *chef's kiss*).

Nikolai the pan pirate who definitely should never have been a prince, like, I would love him so much more if he had just been a pirate but thoughts on the monarchy and how that plotline was handled are too much for this post. ANYWAY yeah I think Nikolai should go back onto his ship and pirate away with his boyfriend. Also, just, can you believe the Enemies to Lovers arc Mal and Nikolai had? I mean, they literally went from "I refuse to know your name" to "take my name", like that is explicitly something that happened in canon. Wild.

Lesbian Inej, which I know, not a popular headcanon in the fandom since the fandom seems to unanimously ship her and her endgame romance. I just... don't really get romantic vibes there at all, even after season 2. I like them as friends, a lot. But I'm getting huge lesbian vibes from Inej and will be clinging onto that, even more so after how little wlw love s2 gave me.

Mal as a suppressed gay would be fun. Like, his thing with Alina was annoying. He didn't give a damn about her romantic feelings for him until she had a boyfriend and suddenly he got jealous. I don't like these types of writings. So I'd love to see that more as Mal never having been romantically interested in her at all, just friend!Mal afraid to be abandoned. The cheeky pirate is his gay awakening. All the girls - and apparently book!Mal was kind of a slut - were just him trying really hard to be straight.

Alina is just a bi queen. And queen literal. That's where the "Niko should go sail with his bf" part comes into play, because... the monarchy needs to go down. She should rule, she should have never supported the damn royal family that's been enslaving and oppressing Grisha for centuries, I just. I don't like that part. I really don't. Ship to rule beside her is optional (Aleksander, Genya, okay fine Nikolai but like she rules, he's just her trophy husband), but queen!Alina is a must. Though gotta admit for my Alinej I still love her as a part of the Crows - post s1, I wrote some where Alina and Mal just... stayed with the Crows after they left Ravka and I'm still fond of that. I still think that would be a fun take.

#Shadow and Bone #Shipping #Headcanons #Darklina #Malkolai #Alinej #Nikolina #Tamadia #Taminej #??? I am guessing?? #Genyavid #Wesper #Genyalina #Kazper #tagging all the ships just to be on the blacklistable safe side #though I am unsure about Tamar/Inej and their ship name

[bywayofmemory]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Tagged by @iamstartraveller776, thanks!

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 313. 113 of them are 3SF fics so they only sort of count? I haven't even posted 2024's batch yet.

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 452,247

3. What fandoms do you write for? My fandoms list on AO3 is...long. Like 80+ fandoms long. This is once again due to 3SF; fandoms I am or have been actually active in are Firefly, Chronicles of Narnia, Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, Grisha Trilogy/Shadow and Bone, and Greek Mythology.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Drunk on the Dying Light [Grisha Trilogy, Darklina] A blood-soaked amplifier gives Alina the ability to control him, but the Darkling still haunts her; all the more so once she becomes his wife.

Maybe It Will All Come Back to Me [A Song of Ice and Fire, Jon/Arya] The wars are over, Daenerys is on the Iron Throne, and Arya finds Jon at last, though neither of them are who they were before.

Hold My Heart in Two [A Song of Ice and Fire, Jon/Arya/Sansa] The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives, in whatever form.

The World That's on the Other Side [Firefly, Mal/River] When River Tam is fourteen, she meets a man who tells her her future. She doesn't want it, but he's a different matter altogether.

The Ladies Love Wash, and Wash Loves the Ladies [Firefly, Wash & all the women of Firefly] Wash is popular with the womenfolk; it's just a fact of life.

5. Do you respond to comments? I always try to! Usually I am successful.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I don't write unhappy endings too often, but two stand out - Always, we strive to get closer, one of my Narnia Fic Exchange fics from last year in which a post-canon Edmund battles through memories to find Susan, only to find she's not ready to give up living even for him, and A Rush of Blood Is Not Enough, a Folk of the Air sex-pollen fic where Jude unknowingly dubcons Cardan and he's very angry once it wears off.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Most of mine have happy or at least bittersweet endings, so this is hard - but it might well be The World That's on the Other Side, where Mal and River manage to fix everything bad that happened in canon before any of it technically happens at all.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Rarely, since I'm a NNF. I used to get a bit back in the day when I was actively writing Mal/River due to the age gap and mental stability issues inherent in that pairing, and now I get a comment or two on the Darklina fics from time to time. They just get deleted.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yes! I write pretty vanilla M/F and F/F smut; haven't gotten further than the mildest of kinks so far.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? All the time. The craziest are probably the Where's Waldo/LotR or Narnia/Sports Mascot RPF [sort of??? how do you even classify fic in which Gritty appears?], both from 3SF. For non 3SF, it's almost all Narnia/ASoIaF. Probably the most unusual of those is The Truth Without Lying, since that's partly a 1940/50s England AU of ASoIaF as well as a crossover.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of, but I don't look for it.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Yep. There's three of them on AO3, and I've been asked other times, though if those were done they didn't get linked back to my originals.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Only in 3SF, where you can 'cowrite' in terms of leaving a series of prompts or fills with a specific partner or two. That I do almost every year. In the traditional sense, no.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? I don't really work in Firefly anymore for the obvious reasons (dead fandom, the Whedon of it all), but rereading any of my Mal/River work still feels like meeting up with old friends. I love them.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I had a third and fourth part of my Mal/River series Love Keeps Her in the Air planned out, and a good 1/3 of part three written. It's literally the only unfinished fic I have. It never got finished because I moved across the country during the middle of it and my ambition never quite recovered.

16. What are your writing strengths? Dialogue and characterization. I'm very good at getting character voices down (and typically just avoid writing characters I can't get a handle on, honestly).

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Plot. Beginnings. The absolute worst. This is why I have no WIPs; if I manage to actually get something started, the hard part is out of the way for me.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I used to do this all the time in Firefly, using Mandarin phrases they'd used in the show. Everyone did at the time. Now I wouldn't; I'd go the "swore at length in Mandarin" route, or just use dialogue tags and description to indicate the characters are speaking another language, like I do with Valyrian in my HotD fics.

19. First fandom you wrote for? LotR, a very long time ago. Firefly is the first one I published anything for that's still on the internet.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? I have so many favorites! I couldn't possibly choose one, except I could and it's The World That's on the Other Side. The ones written during ~the flow are always my faves, and that one stands out the most in that regard.

Tagging @thatgirlnevershutsup, @wingedflight, @siterlas, @starsuncounted and @oakashandwillow if you want!!

#tag games #about me #my fic