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the-sweet-hibiscus · 5 months

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On the Topic of Christina Strain & SaB

So while browsing the hellscape that is Twitter today, the first thing you see in the Shadow & Bone Fandom, is this exchange between Christina Strain (a producer/writer on the show) and a fan.

And I didn't think this would be necessary to say, but this is EXTREMELY unprofessional on the part of Christina.

But I do want to take the time to look and explain WHY from the perspective of someone who is a professional creative by job description. Christina, openly, speaks about her time as a writer on Shadow and Bone. Which is well within her right, as a creative, many times the appeal of following is for behind the scenes takes, more insight into writing decisions, and generally furthering the interest in a show / property after it has concluded. Especially if the conclusion was incomplete and/or canceled before the full story was told.

So here we have a situation.

The Question:

So the question Merel (the fan) asked was about the obvious sidelining of Alina Starkov, our main character. It's not an opinion that Alina was sidelined, it's been observed numerous times, most recently in this collider article talking about / reviewing the blatant reduction of character for Alina.

Merel's question, originally was about S3. Specifically, where was Alina, was there ever a plan for her? Originally, Christina just said, there was nothing written for Alina, and she had a vague idea of a separate storyline.

To which, Merel responded with the wide-spread rumor that Six of Crows, had been rejected by Netflix three times. For reasons not relevant — that rumor isn't true. But she also expressed frustration, as since the announcement of the show's cancelation, Christina specifically has given an overwhelming amount of attention and care to Six of Crows, while not seeming to have any real passion for the Shadow and Bone property or it's characters. Christina's response starts out professional. She clarifies, Six of Crows was not rejected (aka the rumor wasn't true) and that she didn't have control over that decision, which is true.

Where Christina stops being professional, is the other half of her response.

The Response

Here is where so many people take offense, and find issue. Christina, openly shames the Darklina ship. Which isn't inherently bad, no one is forced to like a ship, however. It had NOTHING to do with the question at hand. Just because a fan likes a certain dynamic, of a ship that at one point was canon, and likes to explore that, doesn't mean that they don't know what they're talking about when they're just asking about the future of a character. Merel didn't ask "Oh, how are you going to make this darklina?" She didn't even mention the ship. The only reason Christina even knew about Merel's shipping preference is because she either went on Merel's page or looked at the "Relevant People" column on Twitter for Desktop.

And now we venture into a much worse territory.

Bullying

Let's take a look at the power dynamic in this exchange.

Christina has 9.58K Followers on Twitter. Merel has 114.

Christina is a producer/writer on the show. Merel is a fan.

Christina has a self-appointed responsibility to promote the petition to bring her show back. Merel is a part of the larger community who supported the show. Christina is 42 years old. Merel is 19.

Instead of, ignoring the second response. Or even just clarifying the rumor and moving on, Christina decides that it'd be best to expose this account to harassment from her much larger base. Who responded in kind.

What was the reason? Truly?

Fans are supposed to only engage with a show if it matches how you specifically view it? They can't have questions, or criticisms, or thoughts? Because what was so mean about Merel's statement? What was insulting that Christina had to bring in shit that had nothing to do with the conversation? The rumor accusation? Is that worth getting attacked over? Is that worth attacking over?

The Correct Response

Move on.

No one would have an issue if the conversation ended a tweet earlier. Christina has over 9K followers, anyone could reasonably assume she was simply inundated with responses and couldn't/wouldn't respond further. Her first statement, was fine. To book fans, it may be frustrating, especially if they believed the rumor, but it was still a calm-ish response.

Merel could've been frustrated and that would've been the end of it. Instead, Christina decided her best course of action was to attack a fan, just because she enjoyed the same ship dynamic as people who were rude to her before. Decided to belittle that fan's interest in her show, bc she didn't like the way that fan interacted with them.

It's childish. It's gross. It's lashing out at someone b/c they want to know why the main character wasn't paid attention to in their show.

Anyway, it's clear Christina has a definitive disdain for the darklina fans of Shadow and Bone. It's clear she doesn't respect the people who support her show — unless they just unconditionally praise it. So that's it then. A disappointing end to Shadow and Bone, and an even more disappointing showing of character from the producers/writers.

#shadow and bone #darklina #writers #fandom culture #fandom things #just disappointed #imagine bullying someone 20 years younger than you bc they like the characters on the show you write

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where-theres-smoak-2 · 1 year

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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

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stromuprisahat · 3 months

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I want to scream when I see this kind of stupidity...

https://www.tumblr.com/goblins-riddles-or-frocks/741136181017837568/you-said-this-the-ice-cold-fakeout-of-giving?source=share

Frankly, this obsession of people with trying to make Aleksander a potential rapist so seriously annoys me. The king is literally there for that. If Aleksander had really wanted to rape Alina like these people claimed, he could have done it, you have to stop the bullshit after a while. Especially since they don't even take into consideration that this scene where the Darkling comes to see Alina with Mal's face is ambiguous at best, completely stupid at best. Because in reality, all we know is that he appeared because she called him unconsciously and we don't even know if he really took the appearance of Mal or if Alina was asleep at a bad view... The Darkling doesn't confirm anything at all on this subject in volume 3. And if the Darkling really took Mal's apprenticeship, it's so stupid, because damn, how could he have do that ?! Exasperating. Honestly their messages make me sick, with the fact that they literally make everything sexual between Darklina in the wrong sense of the word to degrade this relationship.

First of all, I'm not reading that link.

~Self-care.~

Antis would call Aleksander a rapist even if we had his POV, where he'd openly refuse to even look at her without her consent. It's the universal EVIL label. Just like racist, supremacist or genocidal maniac.

Everyone knows it's bad, if you call someone by that word, so are they.

Child's logic.

I've analysed Alina's Mal-shifting dream here.

And if the Darkling truly wanted to rape Alina, he had plenty of opportunities:

Literally any moment she lived in LP, because who would have believed her?

He could've postponed his meeting during Winter Fete AND Alina was willing back then!

Between her desertion and the Fold. She was a fucking prisoner, treated as a guest.

He could've made her scream on Sturmhond's ship.

During any of his visits in Siege and Storm- hell, she was worried she's going mad, an orgasm from her enemy would hammer that home as nothing.

For extra dead dove content, fuck your unwilling Sun Summoner under the corpse of her toxic mother figure...

... I have a feeling raping her was never his intent.

#reply #Grishaverse #The Darkling #grishanalyticritical #Darklina #Alina Starkov #antis #What if/AU/...

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darklinaforever · 1 year

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These viewers, apparently embracing the show's shaky direction, are hoping to force Netflix completely off the rails. They want to see Alina and the Darkling (who, yes, died at the end of season two, but does technically come back in future Leigh Bardugo books) finally get their happy ending, but would it be happy? The two share a uniquely toxic relationship — with the Darkling stating his willingness to keep Alina as a prisoner until she learns to love him — but that’s not stopping deeply damaged viewers from thirsting after the destructive pairing.

From this article : https://wegotthiscovered.com/tv/netflix-users-launch-an-ambitious-campaign-to-ensure-a-fantasy-favorite-survives-the-cancellation-spree/

In all honesty, how shitty a world do we live in that gratuitous insults to those who ship what they love are deemed morally correct ?!

A toxic relationship in fiction can turn into a good, egalitarian relationship. Stop pretending it's impossible. Especially since the Darklina relationship has many complex layers and the possibility of a very good complementarity, and also that the Darkling has nothing to do with the so-called big bad that the screenwriters and leigh bardugo try to make us believe.

Ignoring it doesn't make you smarter or morally correct people, just idiots who like to boast of non-existent moral superiority, since you allow yourself to gratuitously insult, as if it were normal, those who love a fictional ship. In addition to being sheep, since you just swallow / follow what the creators tell you to think about the relationship and the characters.

Either way, even if the ship was on a good path, these people would still say it's toxic based solely on the beginning of the relationship. Also, again, are you against toxic relationships ? Well also be against Malina, bunch of hypocrites, incapable of thinking.

Fuck these people in all honesty.

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eggsaladstain · 1 year

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I just love the way you write, so gonna pick your brain here: why do you think people are so drawn to Darklina? Is it the tragedy of it? The gothic aspect to it? The darkness (funnily enough) of it? Or is it just the chemistry between the actors? Thoughts?

hi anon, thanks for reading and thanks for the ask! i've been sitting on this for a bit because i don't really ship darklina and thus don't have many thoughts about them but then once i started thinking about them i couldn't stop so here we are.

i can't speak for anyone else but for me personally what i love about this pairing is the tension and symbolism and the epic two-halves-of-a-whole vibe they've got going on and there are also some interesting parallels between darklina and kanej, so despite not actively shipping it, i genuinely think it's one of the most interesting ships in the entire grishaverse and certainly the most complex and complicated relationship alina has.

i'll talk about both the books and the show because i think they each do a good job showing different aspects of their relationship, and i actually kind of think you need to take the books and show together to get the complete picture of this compelling if ultimately doomed ship.

please know, anon, that when i opened this ask, i had planned on a pretty short answer and then i ended up writing 2k words about this because yes, apparently i do have thoughts and yes, that is a threat.

let's dive in.

at its core, darklina is about the attraction and balance between opposites. he summons shadows, she summons light, they're two sides of the same coin, they're made for each other! but then we find out that the darkling is actually manipulating alina, that he's the one who created the fold, that he's her enemy, and instead of sinking the ship, it actually makes it even better because you get that added tension and forbidden attraction between good and evil, between the hero and villain.

in the books, their relationship goes from romantic to adversarial to the mutual understanding that they have a connection to each other that they will never have with anyone else. for all its faults (and there are many), the original trilogy does a fantastic job fleshing out alina's relationship with the darkling and showing the love, the animosity, and above all else, the undeniable pull between them. we really get a sense of alina's acute loneliness and desire to belong somewhere, not just before she discovers her powers, but even after she comes into her power and learns that despite her new tribe with the grisha, she's still different, she's still ultimately alone. it's no wonder then that she would be so drawn to the darkling, who understands her loneliness, who gives her the attention she craves, who looks at her like she is something special. even after she finds out the truth about him, she continues to reach for him through their tether because despite the manipulation and lies, he is still the only one who truly understands the weight that she carries, he is still the only one who truly sees and embraces the darkness within her. he's her mirror image, reflecting not only her capacity for good and her desire to save ravka, but also showing her her darkest desires and instincts.

their relationship doesn't have nearly as much nuance in the show, and i get it, they only had a limited number of episodes, but the decision to turn darklina into a one-sided obsession on the darkling's part in season 2 was a big misstep in my opinion. in the books, their relationship is built on a mutual longing between both of them and even when alina finally kills him, she still grieves for him, says his name, and sees him through his final moments so he's not alone at the end. i've written before how much i love the subversive ending of ruin and rising and i especially love the closure we get in the relationship between alina and the darkling. it's a pyrrhic victory, not a triumphant one, and the darkling's death is very much a loss for alina. she does not kill him because of vengeance or to save the world, she kills him as a mercy, to put an end to his relentless suffering. the final book also acknowledges, crucially, that while the evil is ultimately defeated, this evil was not some monster or demon but a flesh and blood man, a boy.

in the books, alina is in her late teens and while the darkling is centuries old, he looks to be only a few years older than her. i understand why they chose to age up the characters on the show and ben barnes is fantastic as the darkling, but the fact that they were visibly closer in age in the original trilogy means there was less of an overt power imbalance between them because while the darkling was still the leader of the second army, he was also a bit more approachable due to his appearance of youth. not only that, their relationship in the books has an innocence that it doesn't really have in the show because a 17 year old girl being friendly and flirting with a 20 year old boy is fundamentally different from a 25 year old woman pursuing a relationship with a 39 year old man.

a younger darkling is also SO much more tragic, especially since his entire character can be summed up in this absolute banger of a quote from ruin and rising: in this moment he was just a boy - brilliant, blessed with too much power, burdened by eternity. the tragedy of the darkling is that he was forced to bear the burden of his power and persecution when he was just a boy and he had to continue bearing that burden for centuries, and it's so much more tragic to see a life cut short at 20 vs 40 because of that innocence that we associate with youth, even if that youth is an illusion and even (and especially) if that innocence is a lie. the tragedy of the darkling is that he had so much power but at his core, he was just a lost, lonely boy, and it makes him a much better foil for alina because, had she not lost her power in the books, she may have gone down the same path and that quote could have just as easily applied to her.

now, having said all this, the show, for all it faults (and there are also many), does a much better job (more so in season 1) of humanizing the darkling. part of that is just due to the books being written in alina's POV, meaning we never really know how the darkling actually feels, so being able to see the darkling's actions and motivations through a more objective perspective in the show goes a long way in fleshing out his character. the other part is, of course, ben barnes and the way he highlighted the tragedy in the darkling's story and tried his best to elevate the character above a typical villain, despite the season 2 script doing him no favors. in the books, we only see the darkling through alina's lens so we don't ever truly know how he actually feels about her, but the show makes it very clear that the darkling's feelings for alina are real. maybe it starts out as manipulation, but the power imbalance between them very quickly turns in her favor as it becomes clear that he needs her, desperately, in a way that she doesn't really need him. alina may have felt lonely for 20-some years of her life, but for the darkling, it's been centuries. it's centuries of loss and persecution that have made him who he is, and it's no wonder then that he would be drawn to alina, a literal light in the darkness, and see her as his salvation.

as i mentioned earlier, the show makes their relationship much more one-sided with the darkling refusing to let alina go, even after she hurts him, even as she hates him. in their final confrontation after the fold, he knows she is there to kill him, but when his nichevo'ya has her by the throat, he tries frantically to stop it because in spite of everything he's done, all the atrocities he's committed, the one thing he will never do is kill her. he certainly doesn't deserve a pat on the back for this and his behavior towards her is objectively bad and creepy, but it also shows just how all-consuming his desperation is. after centuries of searching, he has finally found someone who is like him, and he cannot bring himself to give her up, no matter the cost to himself, no matter the cost to her. it's incredibly selfish, but it's also achingly human.

in the books, we don't really see this desperation until the end of ruin and rising when alina loses her power and the darkling realizes that he is now truly alone, that he has no longer has an equal, and alina herself realizes that his pain will be endless. in the show, we see this theme - his desire and his need for her - woven throughout his interactions with alina from the very beginning, culminating with her death at his hands, albeit under very different circumstances than the book.

this is why i say that the books and show complement each other when it comes to darklina - with the books, you see how alina was drawn to the darkling and how she genuinely cared for him in spite of everything, and in the show, you see how the darkling was drawn to alina and how desperate he was to save her from following in his footsteps.

there's even a set of complementary quotes that perfectly encapsulate why this ship is so compelling and why it's so doomed.

in ruin and rising, you have the darkling saying you might make me a better man and alina answering and you might make me a monster.

and in 2x08, you have the darkling saying let me be your monster. let me carry the hatred of this world. who will be there to save you? and alina answering, i will save myself.

the allure of darklina is that it's about finding the one person who makes you feel less alone, the one person who can save you and destroy you in equal measure, the one person who sees and accepts you as you are, even the worst parts of you.

the tragedy of darklina lies with the darkling, because he is driven by pain and loss and the desire to escape both of those things. this is a man who will never allow himself to love someone more than he fears the pain of losing them, and he only allows himself to love alina because he believes he will never lose her to the ravages of time, he only allows himself to love her because he thinks he will be safe from pain with her. now compare him to sankta neyar, another character who has also lived and lost for centuries. as i previously wrote about here, the darkling views love as a weakness while neyar views it as a strength, and it is because of this (and, you know, the atrocities) that he ultimately loses alina. and despite how much alina resists him, the darkling is unable to let her go, unable to stop himself from trying to save her, even when she makes it clear that she does not want or need him to do so. the tragedy of darklina is that this is the only way he knows how to love her.

now, let's look at kanej, which has more than a few similarities with darklina. much like the darkling and alina, kaz and inej also have twin traumas, they also understand each other in a way that no one else does, they have also seen and accepted the worst parts of each other. like calls to like applies to them just as much, and even the r&r quote fits them perfectly as inej does make kaz a better man and kaz does make inej a monster. in six of crows, kaz tells oomen, who stabbed inej, my wraith would counsel mercy but thanks to you, she’s not here to plead your case and in 2x08, we see kaz offering to buy out kesh and any other indentures after inej asked him to consider it in 1x01 (gifset here). and it's kaz who teaches inej to kill, who gives her the tools she needs to survive in the barrel, culminating in her vicious threat to pekka rollins at the end of crooked kingdom and her declaration that they destroy him in 2x03 when she finds out pekka killed kaz's brother.

kanej is such a great foil for darklina because where darklina said you might make me a better man and you might make me a monster, kanej said we will make each other better, and we will be monsters together. kaz and inej each put in the effort to overcome their respective traumas in order to be together and they each do violent, unsavory things in order to protect the other, and despite the fact that both crooked kingdom and 2x08 end with inej leaving, it's clear that the two of them will find their way back to each other in time.

alina doesn't end up making the darkling a better man, though on the show, she does become a monster, for mal by using merzost to bring him back, and for ravka, by using the shadow cut to kill the fjerdan spy. it's a really fitting evolution of her character on the show and the natural progression of her relationship with the darkling, that she would defeat him only to become him in the end.

as i said at the top of this, i don't actively ship darklina, but i am fascinated by the tension and complexity of their relationship and i love how the book canon and show canon build on each other to give us a complete picture of these two individuals who are so similar yet so different at the same time. they're parallel lines who will never cross. they're the sun and moon who can never share the same sky. they're the perfect tragedy.

#darklina #darklina meta #kanej #kanej meta #shadow and bone meta #sab meta #shadow and bone #grishaverse #the darkling #alina starkov #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #sab season 2 #ruin and rising #six of crows #crooked kingdom #meta #answer

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iamstartraveller776 · 1 year

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A/N: In jest, @averbaldumpingground challenged me to write all 20 prompts from this fake dating list. Well, joke’s on my friend, I accepted the challenge. I’m doing 500-word ficlets for each, using different fandoms/ships.

Another Modern/Non-Magical AU for this ship. (I know. Shocker.) To be clear, despite the gif, this is not a Punisher AU.

Trigger warning: mentions of cancer and treatment

16. “I guess we don’t have to pretend any longer.” “Maybe we can just tell the truth from now on.” —Shadow and Bone/Darklina (ao3)

THAT WHICH BLOOMS IN STILLNESS

Alina met him at the wake. She’d gone outside, needing air untainted by alcohol and laughter and tears. Grief was a vise in her throat, squeezing at the loss of her childhood friend. Squeezing, too, at thoughts of her own mortality.

“You alright?”

She looked up at the man whose features she vaguely recognized. Kirigan. She’d heard of him, the captain who headed the most decorated special forces team. Genya’s fiancé served with him, spoke about his tactical brilliance, his absolute commitment to the mission, to those under his command. Mal had mentioned him too, said he was a soulless machine that would get the job done no matter the cost. But in the moonlight, what she saw was just a man with concern written in his furrowed brow.

“I’ve had better days,” she admitted before taking a sip of the tepid beer in her hands.

He nodded solemnly, joining her at the edge of the deck. She was grateful he didn’t offer flimsy platitudes. He listened to her silence. Then listened when she broke it. Stories about Mal. Confessions of loneliness, of feeling untethered. Especially when her body had become its own enemy and the cure was beyond reach for a starving artist like her.

The next afternoon, she received a text from an unknown number. I think I can help.

An officer of the court served as a witness to their nuptials where she learned his first name. Aleksander. Marriage certificate in hand, next was a trip to base. More signatures. A camera flash, then she had a spouse ID. She moved into his townhouse that weekend; he gave her the master bedroom despite her protests.

He was gone most of those early months. Genya took her to her appointments, sat with her after work most nights. But then radiation turned to chemotherapy, and Aleksander didn’t leave anymore. Held her hair when she emptied her stomach. And when her hair came away in chunks, shaved her head and his. Made her soup. Read her books. Opened up to her in the quiet hours of twilight—about his first love, Luda, an interpreter who died in a bombing. The toxic mother he’d cut out of his life. Never knowing his father. What he sacrificed for duty. He fell asleep next to her when the words ran out.

He was her roommate. Her friend. Then, as the disease abated and he turned the spare room into a small studio for her, she realized he’d become something more. Something she wasn’t supposed to want.

Then came her final appointment. Six months of clean labs and scans. Officially cancer-free. News worth celebrating, but her stomach sank instead. It was over. All of it.

“I guess we’re done pretending now,” she said.

“Yes,” he murmured. “Let’s not pretend anymore.”

There was an ache in his unblinking gaze that made her chest tight. She kissed him before her courage could falter. His hands grasped her jaw, pulling her closer.

And she was finally home.

~FIN~

ETA: my amazing friend @vesperass-anuna wrote a companion piece to this: too in love to let it go. Please read it! It's incredible!

#sab #darklina #aleksander x alina #aleksander morozova x alina starkov #my fic #modern non magical #darklina fic #darklina fanfic

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justanotherfanaccount · 1 year

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here we gooooo

shadow and bone s2e2 reaction

ok I know some people didn't like that they changed sturmhond's character but I kinda like it...it makes him more of a "privateer" *cough pirate cough*

also it makes sense that he didn't know the darkling and alina were working together since literally everybody else does...especially since they changed it to have the darkling not be on the ship

darklina scenes are very well done...the desire and the way the darkling is describing his past and his way of thinking

I love the genya darkling sceneeee...it shows that what the darkling is doing is affecting him physically

it almost seems like the darkling doesn't like his nichevo'ya which is a whole different side of the darkling we haven't seen

not the darkling saying thank you and then being creepy as hell

OMG PER HASKELL it's all coming together now...kind of

WYLAN TRYING TO LOOK TOUGH I LOVE HIM

omg not nina knowing everything

Matthias it'll be ok babe 🥺

I love sturmhond only learning mals name after he became valuable 🤭

Tolya and Tamar understanding how Alina felt on the outside of both Shu and Ravkan 🥺🥺

they definitely make Alina more of the "hero" type as well with her originally being the one to want to find the amplifier to tear down the fold

"there is a cost, always, to making difficult choices. The key is making sure that cost is not regret."

"trust is the other side of secrecy kaz, remember that" love them...and their secrets

Pekka never took kaz seriously until crooked kingdom so having him take him serious now is gonna change some things...I just wonder how

aww now we get sentimental sturmhond

Paddy is such a good sturmhond honestly they just casted extremely well because tolya, Tamar and wylan are all extraordinary 😭

ope...he still doesn't know mals name 🤭

"when people say impossible they mean improbable" love

morozovas journal?

confirmed

BAGHRA...well she's not blind...YET...but we'll see

I love this sea whip hunt...the music is so good

I think it's cool that they made it on an island and they were on their feet not on a boat

ahh the helnik flashbacks are so well placed

WYLANNN

his facial expressions 😭🥰

"have we met before?" this man 🙄

wylan looked SO DONE when jesper called him a total stranger 🤭🤭

jack understands wylan SO WELL like he's PERFECT

also wylan and jesper have such good chemistry even though it's still the stage where jesper "doesn't like" wylan...it's great!

no FUCK THAT if that creep ass bitch thinks he can't put inej back in the menagerie

how tf is he getting stabbed and fine with it???

there's that upped rating again (aka watching the madman pull the knives out of inej)

NOT JESPER REMEMBERING WYLAN ONCE HE'S LITERALLY ON TOP OF HIM STFU I LOVE HIM HE'S SUCH AN IDIOT

THE CHEMISTRY

God I love jesper he's so cool

(also don't mind me rewatching all the wylan scenes like 3 times)

I need scenes where kaz had all the shit planned the while time...cuz that was always the best parts in the book

(because when Nina showed up I thought that was gonna be Kaz's whole thing like "everything went to plan")

not jespers thumbs up while wylan was getting choked 🙄🤭

YES WYLAN

omgggg durast jesper GET IT

don't mess with nina she's a bad bitch

ope! here comes the black veil!

did jesper just slap wylans ass? 🧐

OPE THE MAL AMPLIFIER HINT

also him helping her stop summoning 🥺

"my alina" that's some bad bitch energy

#this is way longer than i intended it to be #its so good though #rusalye #shadow and bone s2e2 #s&b s2e2 #shadow and bone reaction #shadow and bone spoilers #shadow and bone #s&b reaction #siz of crows #soc #wylan #wylan van eck #wesper #young kaz #mal oretsev #alina starkov #justanothersbreaction

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waldensblog · 1 year

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Reading Siege and Storm

So since I got into his fandom via the show first, I had decided to wait until I watched season 2 before reading Siege and Storm (and Ruin and Rising). I’ve seen the show, posted about my thoughts, etc. so now it’s time for my book reactions:

Below the cut is the full extent of my thoughts, but here’s the TL;DR: I like seeing Alina progress towards a more ruthless and morally grey character as she becomes more and more like the Darkling; I wish the Darkling was in the book more, but enjoyed the tether scenes I got (and chapel kiss) and still ship Darklina even where I don’t always like his actions; I liked what Nikolai brought to the narrative and ship Nikolina too; I see a lot of Darkolai/Darknikolina potential in this narrative and the books are further fueling this; I dislike Mal.

Alina: As in the first book, Alina frustrated me at the beginning, as she drags herself around, feeling like she is “useless Alina”, growing weaker and sicker, all the while pretending she’s happy, and then later, when she literally begs Nikolai to rescue her from the Darkling, she ends up concluding the chapter with something like “What have we gotten ourselves into?” smh. She’s definitely at her best when she’s at the Little Palace again - sleeping in the Darkling’s bed, taking his job as leader of the Second Army, growing more and more like him while flirting with Nikolai (Oh the Darknikolina of it all). I love seeing this change, this progression. She is definitely a reluctant hero, and honestly, a bit of an unreliable narrator when it comes to her own feelings and thoughts - particularly when it comes to Mal. I like that she isn’t a traditional hero though - she’s getting more and more grey, as she is tempted to be more ruthless to enact change, and I like that she recognizes it too - that she did abandon those people on the skiff to die, that she did nearly murder someone with the Cut for a slight. The Darkling: I wish there was more Darkling in this book. He was prominent in the beginning after catching up to Alina, but then his role is severely reduced and he pops up here and there in the tether (until the end) - probably to make room for Nikolai to get into Alina’s heart, just as the Darkling did in the first book. It’s obvious that Alina still very much has feelings for him - at the beginning she says she’s having nightmares, but her description of her being happy there, using her powers, and his lips on her neck suggest otherwise. Every time they touch there’s a sensation that goes through them both, a powerful attraction they can’t seem to shake. And the tether shows how she longs for him - he can’t be there otherwise. I think he very much hates that he loves her, and I think she’s stuck in the same place. They don’t want it to be true, but they are soulmates. That chapel kiss at the end really seals that to me - the way she describes it, it’s a longing she didn’t have with the others. They are eternal, each other’s balance, and honestly their breakup is becoming everyone’s problem. Throughout this book, she is becoming more and more like him. There was a very Darkolai bit for me in the book too where after Vasily proposes to Alina, she wonders if the Darkling had to fend off nobles and proposals too - which of course, put in my mind the image of Nikolai proposing to the Darkling to form an alliance and coup the throne. Oh the possibilities... It probably goes without saying, but I don’t agree with 100% of his actions. He is still my favourite though. Nikolai: Nikolai is a fantastic addition to the narrative, and as in the show, I love what he brings to the dynamic, especially when it comes to the Darkling/Alina and him. My dude literally decided to shoot the Darkling and jump ship like a madman. Wild. It probably goes without saying that I don’t agree with his actions 100% of the time, but overall, I do enjoy his character, and it’s obvious that Alina gets feelings for him as the book progresses and they spend more time together. What I like about they dynamic is that she’s actually happy when in his company most of the time, and we hit a point where she clearly wants to kiss him (she says so herself). I couldn’t help but notice that the Darkling never appears to Alina when she’s with Nikolai after that initial time in the fold. So I think her feelings for Nikolai are strong enough to keep the Darkling at bay. And if we’re on the Darkolai/Darknikolina theme... she compares him to the Darkling a few times.

Mal: So I definitely dislike Mal. At his best he’s kind of just there, and at his worst he’s actively dragging Alina down or being a sullen grumpy drunk. When they were in Novyi Zem, he was at his happiest, apparently (as he says later in the book). But when in Novyi Zem, he’s working a labouring job, day in day out, while Alina grows sicker and weaker, and he thinks that was “doing something worthwhile” - because apparently being at the Palace, working on building alliances, an army, etc. is absolutely nothing. Literally no fucks given for the state of his country, like he brings nothing to the table and only takes. Honestly I’m reading him as like a drug to Alina - he’s actively bad for her, when she’s with him she often gets sicker, weaker, and is blatantly unhappy despite her insistence that it’s not the case. She’s co-dependent on him, and there’s a fair few times I read her “love” for him as not actually love at all - but as an addiction. Knowing from the show he’s the firebird - that can also probably explain the addiction, as she is actively growing power-hungry. I also noticed - and evidently, so did the Darkling, but the Darkling appears when she’s with Mal or alone - meaning he isn’t keeping the loneliness at bay, he isn’t “home” like she claims, and I’m not sure her feelings for Mal are all that genuine - the Darkling wouldn’t be there if they were, right? Mostly, I just wish he would just leave the narrative altogether.

#Grishaverse #Siege and Storm #darklina #Nikolina #darknikolina #darkolai #anti malina #anti malyen oretsev #anti mal oretsev

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takaraphoenix · 1 year

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Shadow and Bone: Season 2 Darklina Review

Okay, one more SaB season 2 review, this one very specifically only about Darklina. Felt wrong to put it into the main review because it would have taken like two third of the review probably.

I’ve never made a ship-specific review for a show before, but I have so many thoughts about them after this season, so here we go.

This ship just makes me feel unhinged to a degree I am not used to? I honestly think I usually feel pretty... normal... about my ships? Even when I love them a lot and they evoke strong feelings in me, but something about Darklina is incomprehensible to me.

Part of it, clearly, is the incredible amount of chemistry between their actors. I mean, that’s just off the charts, the eye-fuckery between them in delicious, they put so much passion into their scenes, it’s amazing. Not just their romantic scenes in season 1, but also their scenes in season 2. Even their enemy scenes are filled to the brim with so much raw passion.

But it’s also the writing. Which I find confusing because I’ve heard it, repeatedly, that the author apparently doesn’t even... like... Aleksander...? Or the ship? And I’m... Look, there is the very simple nature of hero/villain ships in that they will always happen on account of people wanting to ship heroes and villains, regardless of how much you want to discourage them.

But the writing on this doesn’t discourage it, it encourages it to levels that I’ve rarely seen. I mean, they crammed legitimate soulmate tropes into this show. Things happened these season that I have used in fanfiction as “soulmate AU” plotlines.They had shared dreams. Not even just shared dreams, but they could talk to each other in these shared dream spaces.

The whole “two sides of the same coin” and “the light and the darkness” and the sun and moon symbolism is the obvious one, it’s wildly beloved, we’ve seen it in season 1 already. It’s catnip for villain/hero ships.

But now they added literal soulmate AU tropes into the mix and I’m not supposed to be madly deeply into this...? I don’t really know how that’s thought through.

Alina’s wanted poster was actual fanart of Darklina. She was wanted for fanfiction plot. I would actually like to read that alternate timeline she was wanted for. That was a great pitch. I’ve seen someone say that was supposed to mock Darklina shippers? I’m sorry? There was art of my ship in canon and the entire country thought they were some badass power couple why was I supposed to feel mocked by that? That evoked a feeling of validation and satisfaction in me...?

I’ll be honest, I was very afraid of season 2 for a multitude of reasons and one of them was Darklina. I loved them in season 1, when they actually got together, but knowing the writer doesn’t like the ship, knowing they wanted to actively discourage shippers, and knowing what other shows/movies like to do when a hero and villain fully find themselves on opposing sides, I really dreaded where season 2 would find Aleksander and Alina.

Part of me feared that they’d make Alina the doe-eyed hero; a very common trope, especially when there are canonical feelings - of any variety - between the hero and the villain is that the hero very desperately and naively tries to reason with the villain and tries to redeem them. And, let’s be real, it would not have been unreasonable to suspect so because with literally everybody else Alina displays a disturbing amount of naivety and forgiveness. Every single person who has backstabbed, betrayed and manipulated her, she has forgiven and let close again without any hesitation.

Anyway, that’s just a dynamic I greatly dislike, it’s not my cup of tea. So I was very pleasantly surprised by the way it went - for one, by just how completely Alina turned against Aleksander, it seemed very extreme especially considering her over-eagerness to forgive virtually everyone else, but also because I really enjoyed it. I didn’t expect that. I mean, I ship them, why would I enjoy them opposing each other this much?

Again, the incredible chemistry between their actors really played into it. Every confrontation between them was so charged it was so intense to watch. There was something so very overwhelming about Jessie and how... powerful she was, when she held her head high against Aleksander. True power couple vibes.

Baghra was also a big part of delivering the ship this season, making Alina confront just how deep the bond between them runs? It just seems like such a choice to put his mom on her side and to have his mom make Alina consider this deep soul connection that she shares with Aleksander. Once again, you write it like that and I’m not supposed to sell my soul to this ship, how?

It was also incredible to me just how much the writers made Mal look like a rebound. Going into this season, I was aware that book canon dictates Mal and Alina would become a couple. But I kind of expected there to be... a build up...? I was bracing myself for them to spend season 2 building up a romance, but they just right away started with them making out. I’m sorry, how can I take this serious as a relationship, she’s been with Aleksander like, what, a week ago? And now she’s making out with Mal?

And the first time she uses the term “love” to describe what’s going on between her and Mal isn’t when she’s with Mal, it’s when she’s with Aleksander, in the dreamspace. And I’m not supposed to take that as her trying to make him jealous?

All I could see was a cheap rebound and I honestly felt bad for the guy. She’s literally standing in a shared mindspace with the man she has a deep soul-connection to, teasing him and using Mal to make him jealous. Unhinged behavior. Excellent. I love it.

Even the corruption arc for Alina!! Because one of the things that get me about Darklina is that I really, truly, genuinely under no circumstances would want a redemption arc for Aleksander - and here I’m cutting a rant that is going to be its own plot probably - I would much rather have a corruption arc for Alina.

Sure, Aleksander died. And I absolutely could have done without that. But... his last act before dying was trying to save her life and that was. Damn. That hit me hard. And then he still died by her hand. And that also hit me hard. But I even kind of liked that? In a poetic sense?

And then the corruption fully kicked in at the end, Alina wields shadows and smiles. Unclear if she smiles because she enjoyed using shadows, or because she enjoyed killing, or because she enjoyed the powers. Maybe all three.

Either way, Baghra talked so much about Morozovas and resurrection and now Alina has these powers and seems to like them and it seems reasonable to assume Alina could or might resurrect Aleksander with them.

Whether or not she does that though, once again I ask, how do you give her his powers, how do you keep condemning him for killing people and then you give her his powers and you make her smile after using these powers to kill someone - and you still don’t want me to ship this? Really?

This ship is so... poetic and intense and it makes me feel so much and I truly can’t comprehend that the writers actively want viewers not to feel that way about this ship because damn, they’re really bad as writers if this is them writing with the intention of “this ship bad :/ these two Not Good Romantic Partners :/”. You can’t pack a dynamic full with so much symbolism, tension and so many romantic tropes and expect people to not be into it.

#Darklina #Shadow and Bone #Shadow and Bone Season 2 #Shadow and Bone Spoilers #Alina Starkov #Aleksander Morozova

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serpenteve · 2 years

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I just read a comment where someone said that people who read SaB and shipped darklina weren’t reading critically and misunderstood that the book was a cautionary tale against abuse but were too stupid to see it 💀 interesting how this ‘critical’ reading of the text ignores the nuance presented in it with the treatment of grisha and their place in society as the ‘abused’ and focuses on the darklina relationship instead 👀

It definitely comes off like a misdirect and it's mostly the result of Leigh not bothering to build up a real antagonist for the series. She really could have done something with the King and Vasily, especially given how the Lantsov dynasty has been exploiting Grisha for centuries.

As for the idea that darklina shippers "read the book wrong", I have to cry laugh. Because having been a shipper since like 2014-ish (??), the fandom shipping Alina with the Darkling was very much a reaction borne out of disappointment and spite for the original series. People were so fucking pissed at how shitty Mal was in the books, how Alina lost her powers (despite other male characters shown to be more power-hungry than her not getting that fate), how Alina turned down Nikolai (??? HOW? WHY??? he was literally written to be a fairy tale prince), how Alina was weirdly not really all that interested in a geopolitical situation that was very relevant to her, her country, and the whole reason her parents died and she became an orphan in the first place.

There were a lot of aspects of the narrative, the character arcs, the conflict, the romance arc(s), the world-building that left a lot to be desired. So people latching onto Darklina just felt like another way to "fix" the series of its wasted potential.

The antis didn't really exist in the fandom until maybe like 2018/2019? The sheer IDEA of a Darkling anti would have been fucking hilarious prior to then. And it may have had something to do with Leigh changing her tune and retconning all her own writing decisions. The original Grisha trilogy was just bad, especially compared to Six of Crows. It was badly plotted, poorly planned, with frustrating characters and an anti-climatic ending. But it wasn't bad because of Darklina shippers, for fuck's sake ☠️It's like Leigh forgot how she used to bait and ship tease Darklina, even in the text of Ruin and Rising itself. She encouraged speculation of who Alina would end up with, reblogged Darklina fanart, wrote blog posts about the appeal of the bad boy, and then suddenly turned around and pretended like that was all fans "reading the book wrong" even though his character and his interactions with Alina were literally the only compelling thing that brought readers to the trilogy and fueled copious amounts of fanfic and engagement. After Darklina shippers, the next biggest shippers were Nikalina shippers (this is before canon paired him with Zoya). Shipping Mal and Alina unironically was kind of considered a fandom taboo ☠️

#viv answers #darklina #oops did not mean for this to be a rant #but i guess i have a lot of FEELINGS about the fucking whiplash this fandom has put me through lmfao

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serendipity-by-chance · 1 year

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literally i could never ship malina because i never think a woman’s happy ending should be giving up the unique and powerful parts of her that have brought her comfort and happiness after a long journey of self acceptance. why do women need to be disempowered? why do women need to be humbled? it’s such a boring and overplayed take. i personally like darklina but if that wasn’t the direction she wanted to go, then her happy ending should have been no romance at all and a healthy relationship and deep peace with herself !!

so fucking true!!!!!! especially when the character was growing into her power and accepting it lol. LB used an easier route to make malina a thing because alina with her power would be immortal. id like to see her in a role like baghra’s. like a teacher to young grishas. someone not involved with the fight if she didnt want to be but someone who can teach others to embrace their power like she did. i think that would have been a good ending for her.

#darklina #the grishaverse #leigh bargudo #alina starvok

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greensaplinggrace · 1 year

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for the ship game: malina and darklina :P

Malina

I love how mal and alina always represent home for each other. they are always each other's safe harbors and they always always come back to each other in the end. their relationship is built on a foundation of friendship and tenderness, on loyalty and dedication and family. they can always find each other no matter where they are, and I think the concept of them being true north to each other is a really lovely one full of so much meaning.

I love their physical connection, the matching marks on their hands, the way they are always holding each other, always reaching for each other, how they can almost feel each other's bodies even when they're separate. I love how grounding the relationship is, how solid and steady mal can be for alina, how he always tries to bring her back to earth. how they hug and touch and hold hands and cuddle at every opportunity. how every scene with them is bright and sunny and you can almost feel the wind in your hair and the grass on your skin.

I love the childhood friends to lovers aspect of their relationship. I love how they have shared memories and histories, how everything they are is tied around them both, how they know almost everything about each other. I love how they're codependent and reliant on one another and always looking for the other right beside them. how mal knows alina's favorite flower and recognizes the stag from her drawings. how they get so excited to see each other again after such a long time apart. I love how intertwined their lives are, how they can finish each other's sentences and know intimately how to comfort each other or how to make each other laugh.

Darklina

I really like the potential of darklina, especially when it comes to alina's growth. I like the many directions their relationship could have gone and the many directions alina's character could have developed with the darkling. I've always valued alina's arc of self actualization, of coming into herself and finding herself, of accepting herself for who she is. with the darkling, she is able to come to love parts of herself she was never able to love before, parts of herself that have always seen her ostracized from her peers. the darkling acting as a foil to alina that is crucial to her development will always be something I love about their relationship. and one of the potential stories for them in that regard is for alina to take back her power and forge a new relationship with the darkling on equal ground, which is one of the character dynamics I value most in storytelling.

I love the way the darkling and alina are always reaching for each other. they do this in a different way from malina - a way that is always trying to fill up empty, lonely spaces in an aching, incomprehensible void. I love how they are constantly opening themselves up to each other because of this, then closing off from the other when it gets too much, always grasping at each other and pulling away in equal measures. how without each other there will always be an aching loneliness within them and a lack of understanding on a fundamental level from those around them. how to describe who she is to mal would be like describing color to a blind person, but with the darkling she never has to, because he instinctively understands those parts of her and accepts them. but they are such polarized people that the understanding is almost too much on it's own. they are too much.

I really like the dynamic of the darkling being an older immortal and alina being a younger one. I find alina's complete and utter incapability of understanding how immortality works fascinating. because everything the darkling tells her she knows is true, she can feel that it's true, but she cannot comprehend it, and so she denies it to herself and to him. alina around the darkling is in a constant state of denial, because to accept what he says is to realize the true horrors of not only the world, but also eternal life. and I just find that particular dynamic between them interesting, because it is such a good look into the internal logic of the characters, and the disparity between them when it comes to true experience and to the extent of not only their trauma, but their understanding of the universe, of people, and of time.

three things I like about this ship (x) - I already answered the darklina one here

#shadow and bone #grishaverse #sab #me trying not to mention malarklina in a post with two of it's primary ships alskdjflskdjs #malyen oretsev #mal oretsev #alina starkov #malina #darklina #aleksander morozova #the darkling #asks and answers #ask games #myramblings #anon

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where-theres-smoak-2 · 1 year

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Firstbof all I want to say that I really appreciate your responses to darklina asks as they make me hopeful for the future of darklina in the series (hoping we get a s3) because after seeing Aleksander's death scene (particularly alina's lack of empathy), I alternated between being angry and disappointed that they chose to portray his death and the darklina relationship in this way. I have been burned by many shows destroying my fav ships that I had given up hope but your posts make me hopeful again😌 I genuinely hope that this is part 2 of atleast 3 of their relationship and that in the next season we get to see alina coming to terms with her immortality and how it changes ones perspective. Because I feel like the show hasn't really delved into how being immortal changes a person and how you plan for your own future or the future of a country for example (when you are ruling it or influencing the one ruling it in Aleksander's case). What do you think?

I am glad to hear that my posts have made you feel a bit more hopeful, messages like this do make my day as sometimes it feels like I'm the only one still rooting for darklina lol. I am still really hopeful for darklina in season 3, I just don't think their story is over yet. So I am keeping my fingers crossed that we'll get the next season.

I do agree with you that the show hasn't spent too much time one what it means to be immortal, they touched on it a bit this season through Aleks and Neyar and this concept of outliving everyone you love, but I don't think Alina herself had fully taken in that she is immortal and what that means for her, she's stuck in the here and now and not really looking too far into the future. Whilst they have sort of explored the idea of loss when it comes to immortality, as you've said, they haven't really touched on how being immortal may change how you plan for your future or the future of a country and I do think it would be interesting to see the show explore that in season 3. Like you I really want them to dig into what it means for Alina specifically and seeing her coming to terms with being immortal and how that may change how she thinks about the future and the world etc. Especially now that Aleks is 'gone' (for now) and she comes to that realisation that she is immortal but that her equal is gone and how she kind of deals with that loneliness.

#darklina #aleksander morozova #the darkling #alina starkov #s&b season 2 spoilers #answered

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iamstartraveller776 · 1 year

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This one is a Modern/Non-magical AU.

10. “If you want this to work out, you eventually have to suck up and hold my hand.” —Shadow and Bone/Darklina (ao3)

FOR THE CAMERAS

Alina tries not to fidget as she sits across from the acclaimed Aleksander Morozov in the limousine. She’s had the fortune, good and bad, of meeting some celebrities in her budding career. Of seeing that public mask fractured, revealing a rather normal person beneath. But he is different. In their brief interactions, she’s discovered that his onscreen persona is less than who he really is. Less intense. Less mystifying.

Saints, those eyes. Unblinking, obsidian blades cutting straight into her soul.

“Don’t be nervous,” he says. “I have every confidence that you’ll put on a stellar performance.”

She gives him a weak smile in return. She knows he intends to be reassuring, but his very presence is dense, almost crushing.

How had she let Genya talk her into this arrangement? A high profile—but fake—relationship with the world’s most famous actor. It’s supposed to give Alina the publicity she needs to attract the attention of the bigger studios. For Aleksander, it’s meant to, well, humanize his image. Especially after recent leaks about his demanding nature on set. Not abuse, but a relentless drive for perfection.

When they signed the contract last week, she asked why he chose her, a relative unknown in the industry. His lips curved with a ghost of a smile, his gaze turning both softer and sharper.

We are more alike than you know.

Those cryptic words have been a jittery knot in her chest since. She hasn’t asked what he meant. She’s too afraid of the answer. Their manufactured story is a whirlwind romance, where incognito he attended her recent production, and the longtime bachelor was enchanted by the show’s star. Only minutes ago did he tell her that it’s not far from the truth.

The limousine stops, and with it her heart. His bodyguard climbs out first, then it’s her turn. She steps onto the red carpet to a smattering of camera flashes. The lukewarm applause turns clamorous, however, when her companion joins her. He gives his fans a reserved wave before holding his hand out to her.

She hesitates. It’s a simple gesture, yet it feels as though taking it will be the line irrevocably drawn between her life before and her new life after.

Aleksander leans down and, warm breath against her ear, murmurs, “If this is to work, we’ll have to act the part. You can do this.”

Alina takes a deep breath and places her hand in his. He twines his long fingers with hers and brings her hand up to place a tender kiss over her knuckles. Her stomach flutters when he gives her a wide grin that appears disturbingly genuine. The flawless picture of an infatuated man.

He leads her to the photographers, pulls her to his side, and she does her best to glow for the cameras like the happy couple they’re pretending to be. Chills prickle across her skin, though.

Because she’s coming to understand that he is a tide, and if she’s not careful, she’ll drown.

~FIN~

#darlina #darklina fic #aleksander x alina #aleksander morozova x alina starkov #my fic #modern au

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