#i have opinions about malina and the romance in the book too but i think that needs to be a different post

[sometimesrosy]

Let me post this before I forget, which I will totally do, since nobody sent me an ask and like, just thinking about a thing isn't usually enough for me to write a post about it.

Okay, so, I watched Shadow and Bone and then I read The Grisha Trilogy.

Y'all asked me what I thought. So here I am: thoughts.

Review of Show vs Book:

I liked the show better than the book. Just Alina's story was a little boring, and the WAY it was written was... well, there was too much internal monologue, too much exposition, not nearly enough dialogue or even action. Everything was filtered through Alina's POV as if she were writing about it in a diary. SO we never got to know any of the other characters because it was just about her feelings about them. This is especially so for Mal. He essentially didn't exist except as Alina's thoughts and feelings about him. He was basically a hollow character with no agency or opinion.

The show, however, solved this teen diary problem by making Mal a POV character and allowing us to go on the adventures with him which were only implied in the book.

This problem with the writing improved about half way through the second book, and by book three it wasn't a problem for me anymore. So I think Bardugo learned more about writing as she went on. Especially considering what I heard from people about Six Of Crows.

Also. The addition of The Crows to the show made it IMMEDIATELY more complex and less Alina-centric. There was a world outside of Alina's head. And Kaz, Inez and Jesper are fascinating characters. Nina and Matthias have an interesting journey, too which has absolutely nothing to do with Alina.

The casting was brilliant, I thought. And I liked the shift of the Alina and Mal from just orphans to mixed race orphans. That's probably because I am mixed race and I like those stories. But also, it grounds the world, again, and makes it more complex than just Alina and her being sad about not belonging or not being enough. It's no longer just about her feelings, but about a state of the world, both the fictional one and the real one. I did hear some people being upset about hearing racist comments in the show, but to me that adds a bit of realism. No, we don't like racism, but that doesn't mean it's not there and doesn't have a negative effect on us and the characters. It's part of the story. It's part of our story.

It's a shame they didn't do the part about Alina being weak and frail when she doesn't used her powers... but I don't think that's a good thing to make the actress go through in real life. Although they could have made her sickly, if not skinny. I liked that touch because it suggests that her power gives her strength, and she's been repressing it her whole life.

I mean there's a real life parallel because when we try to repress who we are, our identities and strengths and loves, we are weakened as people. Learning to accept yourself and love yourself and be yourself makes you happier and stronger. No magic, but true anyway.

I also like The Darkling in the show better. Probably because he's more present there. He's both more compelling and more sinister. You can really see the way he grooms Alina, the way he draws her in and seduces her so that she WANTS to be under his control. Which, honestly, is the deep horror. But they also make no bones about him being the bad guy. Which some shows would try to be like, "but he had his good reasons so maybe he wasn't the bad guy after all." There was a tinge of that at the end of The Grisha Trilogy despite the fact that The Darkling was actually worse in the book, more cruel, and absolutely a tyrannical despot. I don't know if they plan that for the show.

Like he was a mass murderer, and at the end, Alina was like, "but maybe he would bring peace." Like. CHILD. Terror and oppression and is not PEACE. Having your own ruler threaten you with death is not better than having an enemy do it. This might be my issue because it was a statement made in passing. More of Alina moping at the end, tbh. I didn't like her moping all the time. There was less in the last book.

#shadow and bone #sab #movie vs show #i have opinions about malina and the romance in the book too but i think that needs to be a different post

[brekker-by-brekkerr]

You know what gets me?

The way people act about show!Mal and the changes made to his character. Some people get so bothered by the fact that Mal is more likable in the show and how it brought more people to the book ship. I generally see the opinion held that "show!Mal is fine. You can stan show!Mal if you want. But that's only because they had to take out every toxic thing of his from the books."

I want to unpack why this is actually kind of wrong.

First, let's look at what they changed from the books. They got rid of him sleeping with Zoya, they got rid of the palace fight with Alina, and they made him a lot more devoted to her in the beginning of the story, where he seems to be somewhat aware of his feelings for her, versus in the books, where it takes him a while to catch on. They also add more scenes from their past.

But the only real changes I see to Mal's character are the I-have-feelings-and-am-going-to-chase-your-carriage-down part. I still stand by the fact that overall, he's mostly the same person, we're just getting to see his side of things. But the things they chose to delete/change...weren't inherently bad things?

Like the Zoya thing. So a teenage guy isn't allowed to be attracted to people? Or the palace argument-the fact is, he's spent this entire time thinking Alina was in trouble, being hurt or tortured or whatever, and he's been fighting for his life, literally, just to get back to her. And he lost his best friends, the only other people in his life, in the process. This post does a better job of discussing this than I ever could.

And then when Alina and Mal are together, searching for the stag, Mal apologises for his mistakes. He's come to understand why some of his actions were wrong, where his behaviour was coming from, and the fact that he hadn't been appreciating Alina for a while. And then he gives one of the most beautiful speeches I've ever seen in any romance, and we see that Mal really does appreciate Alina for who she is now, and it's not because she has powers or is popular now, but because he understands how important she is to him, how wonderful a person she is, and he apologises for waiting this long to acknowledge it. Because she's the person he wants to turn to when he sees something random, because he loves hearing her voice, because she's his family and his world and someone he's come to love and damn he's an idiot for finally freaking realising it when it was too late.

All of his mistakes throughout the book--understandable mistakes, mind you, especially for a teenaged boy--he owns and makes up for.

As for the scenes from their childhood that they added...they don't exactly change anything about Mal? They just expand upon the canon to strengthen their relationship, which is good writing, and something there wasn't as much space for in the books (especially since people already complain about them being too romance-centric as-is).

So why did they have to change these things? Is it because book!Mal really was that bad and the show writers knew that, as many claim?

No, I don't think so. It's because Mal isn't allowed to make mistakes.

Think about it. Show!Mal is virtually perfect. Like literally, name some flaws this boy has other than just being literal chaos who doesn't always think things through (*cough cough* jumping on a ship full of Grisha and armed guards to shoot the Darkling point blank). That's what it takes for people to accept his character. Him being literal perfection.

Here's the thing. The Darkling, and Darklina, have to be compelling and sexy and all of that jazz, because that's part of his character and part of what Leigh was trying to do in writing them. You know, the whole hey this guy is sexy and charming and he's using his power to abuse someone, but hE's SeXy sO iT's FiNe thing. And, no matter how you try to write it, even as you balance the Sexiness™ with horrible acts like forcing a collar into someone's neck and taking away their consent, people will still be pulled to that relationship.

So what about the ship you want to be canon? It's going to be less popular or liked to begin with. Then, heaven forbid, the other love interest has flaws?? And he has to grow as a character?? Bleh. Disgusting.

Readers were unable to accept Mal for the chaotic, flawed, seventeen-year-old boy he was, so the show writers had no choice but to upgrade him to Mal the chaotic embodiment of literal perfection.

And, as a side note, since some people get so twisted up over the fact that Mal got "character upgrades," let's not forget that they also upgraded the Darkling into this soft boy who cries over Alina with this puppy dog love.

The popularity of both ships benefited from these changes, Darklina even more so than Malina, yet people are so bothered by Mal's changes?

Whatever. It's fine I guess.

Just give Malinas a break and stop asking us to act like Mal's the devil incarnate and we're all just blind to it. I have reading comprehension skills, thanks. I know what I read.

#malina #s&b show #shadow and bone #mal oretsev #malyen oretsev #the grishaverse #tgt #the grisha trilogy #alina starkov #the darkling #shadow and bone show

[daisysjones]

Do you have any book hot takes/unpopular opinions?

oooh baby

most popular booktok/bookstagram books are not worth the hype. yes there are some that i love and agree with but for the most part, the most popular ones are not incredible and i'm sick of seeing them

i tried twice, sjm books don't do it for me (i think this would go over a lot worse on tik tok than here but still)

i despise darklina as a pairing, genuinely like mal and malina and this is why i'm terrified to go into the main sab tag

the stalking jack the ripper series is way too hyped up on booktok for how mediocre it is (@permanentreverie can back me up on this)

the invisible life of addie larue isn't great imo, like i get why people liked it but i personally didn't like it

i really wanted to love it happened one summer and then it just fell flat something about the romance didn't work for me which is really sad because i wanted to like it so badly (and i liked a lot of parts individually just not the book as a whole)

we were liars is fine at best and incredibly vapid and weak at worst

#thank u #hester tag #abby gets mail

[grishaversecommunityyy]

The Grishaverse Ship Survey Results

So! After all of that, we finally have the results! What is the general opinion on the ships in the Grishaverse? Well, that’s for you to read below! It’s actually pretty interesting and, while some parts make sense, there were definitely some parts which... surprised me... Anyway, onto the results!

Everything in this post can be split into:

The Grisha Trilogy

Six Of Crows Duology

The Nikolai Series

Shadow and Bone: TV Series

Most Enjoyed Ships

Least Enjoyed Ships

Crack Ships and Shipping Discourse

Notes from the Survey 

(note from mod emily: i tried to bold all of fritz’ comments, but i might have missed a few! be aware there are two of us analysing here :))

The Grisha Trilogy

The first book series we asked about was, of course, the first chronologically: the Grisha Trilogy. The most popular ship, with 83% voters for this series selecting this, was Genya/David (Fritz was glad to hear that; Yes I am). This is likely due to the lack of alternate romantic interests in the series, which seems to be a major issue for Alina’s ships. It also seems to be one genuinely enjoyed by most fans, in contrast to Darkling/Alina and Mal/Alina (each around 30%) and Nikolai/Alina (just under 20%), for which I have definitely seen plenty of debate. The second and third most popular ships for this series were Tamar/Nadia (55%) and Nikolai/Zoya (47%). Interestingly, Genya/Alina (43%) and Zoya/Alina (30%) ranked surprisingly high, especially considering how few of my friends and associates I hear talking about them. Good for them!

Honourable mentions:

Alina/Sun (no doubt inspired by that crack fic I wrote a while back) (Still havent read that out of fear)

Alina alone (a common concept among those surveyed, though most mentioned it later)

Zoya/Genya or Alina/Zoya/Genya

Six Of Crows Duology

This series was a little less divided, I would say. Predictably, Kaz/Inej came out on top with a whopping 96% of voters (:relieved:), with Wylan/Jesper next (90%) and Nina/Matthias just after (83%). None of the others really came close, despite Nina/Inej gathering 35% of the votes and Colm/Aditi at 25% (yeah, I’m not sure why that was so popular on AO3 either, but nobody really has objections so I assume that’s why it amassed so many votes). As Six of Crows is decidedly less divisive about ships and doesn’t have such controversial ships (more on that later), it seems the fandom agrees with canon pairings and the votes are... pretty unanimous.

Honourable Mentions:

Jesper/Wylan/Kuwei

Polycrows (platonic or romantic)

Kaz/Inej/Nina

Whoever didn’t read the instruction about this being for only the book series and put Jesper/Milo. I will never escape. 

The Nikolai Series

This one is a little harder for me because I actually haven’t read this... so over to Fritz for analysis! But first, the stats. At 85%, the most popular ship is Genya/David, followed by Zoya/Nikolai at 77%. Tamar/Nadia and Nina/Hanne draw at 61.5% and Nina/Matthias has 56% voters onboard. There’s no real honourable mentions for this one, sadly. Hello Fritz here! Read the books and very glad to see Genya/David as the top ship as it damn well should. Although still a bit surprising since its more of a side-arc of the two and only ties in with the importance of the story at a specific chapter that I feel like I don’t need to elaborate about, if you read Rule of Wolves. (I believe the popularity of the ship also sky-rocketed due to ROW) Following of course Zoya/Nikolai, the high ranking makes sense, it is the main ship and lets be honest they deserve it <3

I think the only really surprising thing about this is the high votes for Nina/Matthias since [SPOILERS CROOKED KINGDOM] he’s dead so I feel like people should move on from that. Nina/“Hanne” having not as high a ranking as I would’ve thought, but with Matthias still being in the frame I guess we shouldn’t be surprised either.

Shadow and Bone: TV Series

This one is really interesting, with the exclusive show watchers now taking part! We have 89% voting for Kaz/Inej, 76% for David/Genya, 71% for Matthias/Nina, 67% for Ivan/Fedyor (that’s a thing???-->Yeah they had a few somewhat sweet interactions in the background-->nvm i watched it you’re right fritz) and 62% for Mal/Alina. What’s really surprising is how high Malina is compared to Darklina, with Darkling/Alina at 36%. Who knows, maybe Fritz’ analysis can shed some light on this?

Yes yes Fritz to the rescue: First of all we have to see their interactions a little different from what we already knew of them by the end of episode 8. I still think it is a surprising number, since the Darkling in the show isn’t as nasty as he was in the books BUT over all his actions are now seen on TV. We all thought the deer antlers were a necklace amirite? Well no apparently not, the darkling used the worst kind of small science to fit Alinas collarbone to the bone and out comes a gruesome sight: a reason why many people might have started thinking: Wow what a disgusting person he is. And on the Malina “ship”: Mal finally has personality!! jkjk :eyes: Mals and Alinas friendship has been portrayed way better in the show and I believe that the people noticed more chemistry between them especially by the end of season 1. So I’m still a little surprised Darklina has such a low ranking (what with him being all sweet and cuddly in the middle of the show) but it makes sense and the Malina ship as well. Their vibes are just *chefs kiss* and thats coming from someone who didnt even like any of these “ships” <3

Loving the quotation marks for the word ‘ships’, Fritz. Over to the honourable mentions!

Honourable Mentions:

Jesper and Milo (isn’t milo a goat? guys, why?)

Nadia/Marie (huh that didn’t appear anywhere else)

One person had several - Kaz/Inej/Jesper, Dubrov/Mikhael, Dubrov/Mikhael/Mal - and yeah, you can really see the show differences in these mentions right? (whose dubrov...and whose mikhael...)

16% actually voted for Inej/Alina which is wild to me because of book context (they did have chemistry in the show tho :cowboi_smirk:)

Another person with several! We have Nina/Inej, Genya/Alina, Zoya/Alina, Zoya/Genya/Alina. Very sapphic. Good for you.

Kaz/Jesper and Nina/Inej all in one

That’s a lot of honour and mentions but it’s so interesting to me and I think you should see too

Most Enjoyed Ships

The most enjoyed ship was Kaz/Inej. This had unparalleled support, being at 35%. Jesper/Wylan, which was next on the list (23.5%) and Nina/Matthias (18%) were also pretty popular. Most of the others were quite low, though interestingly Mal/Alina only had 1 vote (plus one for the show version). Overall, the SoC ships were a lot more popular in this section, which makes sense - this part is really about your favourite ship, and those were more unanimous in the last sections.

Least Enjoyed Ships

Most people said Darkling/Alina, which got 47% of the NOTP votes. A lot more people disliked Darkling/Alina than liked Kaz/Inej. Make of that what you will, but I take it as a somewhat general agreement among many of you guys. Mal/Alina was also strongly disliked at 22%, but around a half or more of these were clarified to be about the book version of the ship specifically. They really must’ve upgraded in the show! Jesper/Kuwei and any other Darkling ships were also voted by a few, but all of these pale in comparison to the anti-Darklina votes. Shoutout to the person who said Apparat/Anyone. I agree, though it’s not something I thought of before seeing this response. Also one person said they didn’t like the poly ships, which I hope meant just the ones mentioned earlier and not all poly relationships in general... Another shoutout to whoever said Kaz/Heleen, because why did I have to read that. A fun question, all in all!

Crack Ships and Shipping Discourse

I love talking about crack ships, so let’s start with that! This time, I really don’t want to have to count and list because... well, let me show you:

I think that sums up the sheer variety, to be honest. Then again, it would be rude not to mention that the most popular were Jesper/Milo, Darkling/Nikolai and Alina/Sun. (If you’re still confused about that last one, I take full responsibility.)

YES KAZ/KRUGE I SUPPORT!!!

Honourable mention to this:

which was a lot to take in, and:

Now for the discourse. Yep, the part you probably came for. 

Actually... maybe you didn’t? Looking at all of these responses, I see a lot of people genuinely don’t care about ship wars and so on, and often enjoyed the books regardless of the romances involved. Quite a few disapproved of the ongoing (though small) wars between Darklina and Malina, and others had a similar line of thinking, saying we should maybe stop focusing so much on it. You guys are right. I know this is a ship survey, and the conclusions should not include that shipping isn’t as important as we make it (Yes it should), but... that’s where it’s at.

And then again, a lot of you guys expressed disapproval for Darkling/Alina, discussing how it is often one-sided and manipulative and overall unhealthy, so I could be completely off with that last one. Some people mentioned that they ship this but as a slightly different version that the one given to us, recognising the flaws of the canon ship.

Someone said they headcanon Tolya as aroace (OMG YES!!). We need more aroace characters, so thank you for that headcanon :) We also have a few gay ships mentioned here, and one person telling us they love Malina. Yes, you’re right - it’s pretty unpopular, it turns out. Someone else said Alina should’ve been single, and I agree, actually!

One person rickrolled me here. Thankfully, Youtube’s ads saved me. *wipes forehead*

I leave you all with this, in the end:

Notes from the Survey

Statistics Stuff:

The top ships were taken from AO3, so some ships may be more focused on in other books and may not provide accurate statistics for an earlier series.

The main circles this was sent around may have had bias as most people are from the same discord server, which has debated these topics in the past. Hence certain ships may have lower-than-average results. In future, this could be improved upon by sending this to other servers and areas of the fandom.

Personal bias may be present in the analysis, though I have tried to minimise this in the more formal sections.

Observations and Notes from Me:

You guys really don’t like Darklina. Or you love it. Usually one or the other. Wow.

Be glad I didn’t talk about any of the cursed ships in this. The things I have seen... (:cowboi_eyes:)

I thought more people would rickroll me, ngl.

What Surprised You Guys:

Kaz/Inej/Jesper

A few of you guys saw some of those cursed ships, and that surprised you. Well, me too!

Nikolai ships being in the TV Show section at all, what with his character not being in the show (yeah what was up with that huh tztz)

Inej/Alina

The existence of The Severed Moon

Darkling/Nikolai(/Alina)

How fun the quiz was :D

Things You Sent Me:

Bee Movie copypasta

“Nobody expects The Spanish Inquisition!”, except via an AO3 link

A fun fact about enzymes! I liked this one

Fic recs for Feriku and Sarai (esp for Wylan/Jesper shippers)

Another rickroll

Nice compliments :) aww you guys

I asked everyone for some kind of placeholder name and never used it. Sorry! But hey, anonymity, right?

Closing Statements

If you got this far (I feel like ive been sitting here for hours), thanks for reading! This was fun to do and I hope you enjoyed all of this too! The survey is still open for anyone who hasn’t done it but wants to. If I get a huge amount of new responses, I might update this post! But for now, adios!

-mod emily (and mod fritz)

#grishaverse #fandom #shipping #shadow and bone #six of crows #nikolai series #king of scars #the grisha trilogy

[wisegirl29]

Siege and Storm - review

Let’s start with the shipping shall we?

So after book 1 I was team Mal. (Although overall I really didn’t care that much about the romance).

Well my opinion is pretty much the same. Malina > darklina. I just cannot understand why you would ship Alina with the Darkling. He’s evil!

However, I low-key ship Nikolai and Alina. I feel like they’d make a good pair. But Alina is too in love with Mal so I’ll settle for them being good friends.

Now onto my thoughts in general

Things I liked:

Nikolai - I love him!! What can I say, I have a weak spot for witty and sarcastic characters. Plus he’s so funny.

Toyla and Tamar. “I just think they’re neat”

David. I don’t really know how to explain it but he’s just really cool. And the way he cares for Genya 💖

Baghra. Her scenes are always interesting. (Also I hate the Darkling for what he did to her and Genya).

Alina was much more interesting in this book. I think she’s good in a leadership role.

The end!! When all the action happened. I loved it!

Things I disliked:

The middle of the book. — What I’m realising about these books is that not much happens until the end (action wise). This means the middle is very boring to me. But I don’t know, maybe that’s just a me problem. I guess I like a lot of action.

Mal - ok, to clarify I don’t hate Mal as a character. I know everyone complains about him being whiny and whilst that did annoy me too, I get it. I get why he’s so upset. He just wants to be with Alina and he can’t with this crazy situation they’re in. The thing I don’t like is that he’s written as nothing but a jealous love interest. I feel like he has so much potential! I hope the he’ll get to be more in the show.

The side characters deserve more development. They’re quite cool. I’m sad about Feydor. I genuinely thought he’d get a bigger role

Ok I think that’s everything. Overall I’d give it 3/5 stars.

#siege and storm #shadow and bone #shadow and bone netflix #alina starkov #mal oretsev #nikolai lantsov #six of crows #sorry this is so long again #i tried to keep it short #but i have a lot of thoughts #hessa reads #hessa reads the shadow and bone trilogy

[fedonciadale]

Hi! Before Netflix’s announcement of Shadow and Bone, I had never heard about the books. Many blogs on Tumblr freaked out about it, some of them have tastes similar to mine, so I watched the teaser and read something about it, and it seems really amazing! Could you tell me what to expect from the series? I don’t mind spoilers, on the contrary! I’ve already seen many controversies on the ships, lol. Is Darklina really toxic and abusive? How is the romance in general? Is the plot captivating and well-written? What about the characters? Could you give personal opinions too?

Hi there!

Before I put it under the cut, let me just say that I’m soooo hyped. I love “six of crows” and “crooked kingdom” and I think that the “Shadow and Bone” trilogy is very decently written. Even if you can see that Leigh Bardugo improved dramatically from her first series to SoC, SaB is still a very good book. I sort of love all the ships in the Grishaverse, canon and non-canon and even some that are not even a potential in the books. I’m going to have a hard time because I sort of love Darklina and yet I’m also very satisfied with what happens to Alina in canon, so the impending ship war is already freaking me out - in a bad way. lol.

SPOILER ALERT - SPOILER ALERT

So, let’s start with the SaB trilogy. As I said it is a very good book, and there are some splendid ideas: the shadowfold which you see in the trailer is a creepy and great idea.

Alina who is our PoV in SaB is an orphan (and as an aside, the cast for her is superb, superb, that’s how I pictured her) who doesn’t know that she has magic. And when her magic is discovered she is sort of thrown into this whole courtly world and is completely out of her depth. We follow her as she slowly learns to navigate the troubled waters in Ravka. Ravka is her home country and gives very Russian vibes. Ravka is in trouble because of neighbours that are at war with the country, because of the Shadowfold and because of the fact that they are one of the few countries that actually allows people to wield magic (the grisha). The highest General of Ravka is the ‘Darkling’ - according to legend it’s the sixth or seventh Darkling, a wizard who can control darkness. As the story proceeds we learn that the Darkling has been actually one and the same for several centuries and his agenda is a bit shady. He was born at a time when Grisha were not trained but persecuted and he’s deeply traumatized because of that. He is your typical relatable villain. I caught on very early on, that he is a villain, but it is very well done in the books, and Ben Barnes is the perfect cast for him. The Darkling tries to get Alina on his side, it is almost as if big parts of the book are the ‘villain speech’ - you know the speech where the villain tries to make the hero join the dark side. Lol. I think Alina’s doubts about what is right and wrong, interesting side characters with believable back stories and motivations and interesting choices make this a thoroughly enjoyable read, even if I picked up on the fact that Alina would end up with her childhood sweetheart (who takes quite some time to realize what he has in her) early on. To me, it was clear that Malec and Alina would be an item at the end, I saw it from miles away. To me it’s a bit like Romione in HP. I saw that the ship would happen but I didn’t particularly like it. But since Malina is much better done than Romione I don’t really have an issue with it. I would never read fic about them, but I think the was Leigh Bardugo reaches them as endgame is done well.

I really like Alina, but what really got me hooked are the side characters. Obviously the Darkling is very interesting - he’ll always be a villain, but boy what a villain!

Then there is Genya and David (they make a wonderful couple) and Zoya and best of all Nikolai Lantsov, the only member of the Tsar family that really cares. I LOVE HIM! And it’s wonderful that by now he’s got his own series, so to say. He would have been my fav to end up with Alina, because they would have had an amazing potential for “friends to lovers”, but I also knew that it was not going to happen.

So, SaB is in sum a really good read. It has some flaws. I can’t really buy the fact that the only country that allows magic users in their army is the country that is beleaguered on all sides, but I tried to overlook that while reading the books.

As for the romance: I think that Darklina is a very interesting ship but there can’t be a doubt that it is problematic. It is obvious that the Darkling wants to control Alina, that he manipulates her, that he tries to disconnect her from her friends. I would never want Alina to end up with him, but I think the dynamic is written very well.

Now, on to Six of Crows! Imagine some kind of ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ but with fantasy and a really diverse cast. A magical heist. It has so many characters to like, so many plot twists and so many tearjerkers. The plot takes place in Ketterdam, some sort of Fantasy Amsterdam - it gave of early modern Netherlands vibes, trading, thriving economy, a city government, rich burgers and all that - and Fjerda where the heroes have to infiltrate an invincible ice fortress. To me Fjerda has Germany and /or Prussia vibes (from the 19th century) but set in a Norwegian landscape? The society is shaped completely by the military and their disgust for magic users which are persecuted in Fjerda (hence the very difficult heist in the capital of Fjerda). What I like is that not all people from Fjerda are villains and let’s be honest ‘heartrenders’, the Grisha who can kill you in the blink of an eye, are sort of frightening. Now the plot of SoC revolves around a drug that would allow to control the Grisha, because it makes you dependent after one usage and which also boosts the magical power. You can imagine that everybody wants to get hold of that drug. So, the six infiltrate the ‘Ice court’ to get the formula.

The main cast are six teenagers who really had it rough. Kaz is out for revenge, has a limp and a cool cane and has a problem with being touched, although he would love nothing more than overcome that to be touched by Inej, the wraith, who owes him, because he saved her from a ‘house of dubious reputation’, and who is simply the best at stealth. Then there is Jesper, the sharp shooter, the gambler, who has more than one trick up his sleeve, there is Wylan, the son of a rich merchant who has severe daddy issues, there is Nina, who is from Ravka, a grisha with frightening abilities and a love for food, clearly pansexual, and then there is Matthias, the Fjerdan gone rogue, the prudish, strict, desperately in love with Nina blond brooding guy. Nina and Matthias are superb enemies to lovers. Kaz and Inej are the sort of “I wish they would kiss already” kind of couple - although you know that kissing is not what Kaz does and then there are Jesper and Wylan, the boys who find each other after many many miscommunications. So, the cast of SoC is diverse, in regard to skin colour (and the countries they are from) and in regard to sexuality and it doesn’t feel forced or fake-woke, not at all. Jesper’s line “No, not only girls” really has the quality of being bi iconic.

The second book in the series takes place in Ketterdam and the crew has to do another heist to prevent that the drug and the formula and the boy Kuawei who was caught up in the whole mess get into the wrong hands.

As is a must for heists, there are several surprises along the way and I am not going to spoil the worst of the plot twists. There will be tears if you have any heart at all.

So, to sum up. Definitely worth a read. Highly recommended. What are you waiting for!

#Six of crows #Shadow and bone #Grishaverse #anon ask #Book rec #I'm so hyped for the show

[grisha-snowsummoner]

I have seen recently people sharing there thoughts, so here’s mine.  

Let's not fight over who Alina should/should not have ended up with. Let’s talk about something else to-do with the books, we can talk about the other elements of the books [not just Alina’s romance] and how Leigh Bardugo is a amazing author. End this ‘war’! Fighting other Alina’s romantic life is taking away from the real fantastic things in the books and is making people feel like they can’t share there opinions about it. Would Alina like too see us arguing other her romantic life??? 

Please be aware that people have different opinions. Whoever you wont to ship, the rest need to accept it :] but that’s this fandom’s problem, people won’t accept that it’s OK to ship Alina with who you wont but please remember there is more to Alina than her love life!

Malina, Darklina, Gelina, Nikolina, people who want Alina to stay single and other people who ship Alina Starkov; think about us all as a whole, we all like S&B!

S&B series 1 is coming out soon, let’s all just watch it together virtually [if you want]. And not use this TV series to continue on with the war. I am not saying we should all have the same opinion about who Alina ends up with, I am saying that whoever we think Alina should end up with, we all like S&B!!!!!!

I am not going to be sharing my opinion about who I think Alina should end up with until this issue get’s sorted out. I am not going to risk loosing wonderful people, to chat to about the books :]!

Some of the wonderful people include...

@byastrodust @maewinter @the-lily-blooms-late @blackpheonix @clubofthestarlesssaint @advictedtohim @ravenscrowsandnerdymagic @incorrectquotesconaisseur @thedarklingsdarling @lightningboytytonjesper  @thefaultinourforcebond @alonlyfangirl @grishaverse-oddity​ and  @AnyoneReadingThis.

#shadow and bone trilogy

[drooliasnott]

Return To Dust, My Love

Very recently, the last few evenings of my relaxation time have been spent languorously re-digesting my views as an adult on the Barry Sonnenfeld feature films, The Addams Family (1991) and The Addams Family Values (1993), based on the original characters by artist Charles Addams. Although there have been many adaptations over the years of the distinctly macabre and darkly wonderful family life of the Addams clan, no other cinematic versions grasp the mythology quite like these movies do. And in light of the brand spanking new trailer for the 2019 animated feature, which I admit had caught me completely off guard and a little alarmed, I thought no better time exists than now to delve back into exactly what kind of black magic it is that makes this source material just so enjoyable and unique. 

Though the Sonnenfeld films are nearly undeniably the jewel of the franchise, one cannot examine the Addams Family appropriately without appreciation for its origin. The energy and attitude generated at its inception by Charles (Chas) Addams for The New Yorker in the late 30′s feels unique even for the time. At 150 single panels, the original comic was a divisive satire on the modern 20th century family that was not only cheeky and clever, but also at times very beautifully rendered. Chas himself was an enthusiastic if not sometimes obsessive artist, often described as drawing with “a happy vengeance.” The through line of the story continues to this day to be positive relationships found within a family. All this plus a heavy splash of aristocratic dignity thrown into the mix, and The Addams Family has proven from the beginning to be a very distinct and sometimes even delightfully surprising blend of flavors. 

 Despite the fact that Chas Addams had already well established his characters by the time he came in contact with writer Ray Bradbury, their connection is felt in every further adaptation of the title. While Addams continued to serialize his strip in The New Yorker, Bradbury separately had begun his own endeavor in creating a monster family of sorts, The Elliotts, beginning their narrative with the short story “Homecoming” in 1946. All tales concerning the Elliotts involve the clan slowly gathering together in a mysterious house at the top of a hill, while each short focuses more intimately on the powers of a different, particular family relative. All Elliot stories were later collected in a book, From The Dust Returned, published in 2001, but portions of it have existed in different publications long before then, most notably Bradbury’s famous The October Country. Finding a kinship between them, Addams and Bradbury discussed a potential long-format collaboration, though unfortunately this never came to fruition. However, Addams did supply an original illustration for Bradbury’s “Homecoming”, which is still in use as a dust cover today. The striking resemblance the Elliott House shares with the Addams house is but one of many aesthetic touch points which will last for the rest of the series.  

The groundwork for the series was strong enough to launch several adaptations over the subsequent several decades, finding more palatable viewing content in the mostly forgettable and very safe 60′s television show, which was plain enough to get the Addams Family strip banned from The New Yorker for banal taste, until editor William Shawn’s retirement in 1987. Meanwhile, the 70′s offered an explosion of further efforts to market the title to children and average american joes, producing TV specials and animated crossovers to mixed results.  

It wasn’t until the 90′s when Orion, who by then had inherited the production rights, decided to begin work on a feature film. With a simple return to the story’s roots, the company assigned first timer Barry Sonnenfeld to direct 1991′s The Addams Family. The process was fraught with setbacks and pitfalls, and when the budget rose too high for the struggling company to justify continuing further, the decision was made to sell the film to Paramount, who finished the production and handled distribution. Though it was also met with mixed reviews, it was commercially successful enough to merit the stranger, longer, and bizarrely even brighter sequel, The Addams Family Values. 

Returning to the core of what made the original content special, both 90′s films focused heavily, if not borderline exclusively on matters of familial struggle. However, unlike many of the earlier adaptations, the 90′s films also took great care to place special emphasis on elements of the family which do function well, something which is delightfully counter-intuitive overall. A particular portion of that credit goes to the fantastic casting of the films, the warm and vivacious Raul Julia as the erratic, sensual, and often charmingly innocent Gomez, Anjelica Houston as the ageless, witchy, white-marbled Morticia, Christina Ricci as the irreverent, sharp-witted outlier Wednesday, and Christopher Loyd as the bug-eyed, emotionally un-tethered uncle Fester all make for a very difficult call on whose performance is best above all. Dana Ivey is a delight to hate as Margaret, and Judith Malina is a joy to laugh at as Grandma, but it is really the core cast that shines beyond any previous actors, and it is because of this chemistry that the family relationships can really resonate. Two dynamics in particular stand out as specifically exceptional;

GOMEZ AND MORTICIA ADDAMS

Opposite most long term monogamous relationships portrayed in media, Gomez and Morticia have a sustained romance which continues to burn more and more fiercely as time goes on. However, what makes their marriage unique as a film element is not necessarily their passion (and subsequently very active sex life,) but the equality found present within the marriage. They not only share common interests, (and possibly distant relatives?) but also take into consideration the same moral and social obligations. They value each other’s opinions, and both seek to create situations where the other can live as their best possible self. They are uninhibited in their public declarations of affection, and are adamantly devoted to their children, the family as a whole, and preserving the generations-long Addams way of doing things. They strongly adhere to old traditions, but as a couple they also are surprisingly malleable, attempting to navigate difficulties as a unit, though admittedly Gomez is occasionally a bit less good at doing this.

Gomez and Morticia consistently present a unified front to the Addams clan, and serve as the centerpiece in any scene they inhabit together, even in the very Ray Bradbury-esque gathering of Addamses for Uncle Fester’s surprise party during the finale of The Addams Family. The party is in celebration of Fester, but it is really Gomez and Morticia who serve as the jewels of the scene. It is the strength of their affection on which the emotional crux of the finale swings. What further enhances the succor of this particular relationship again falls to the actors, as time and time again Raul Julia shows a rending vulnerability in the way he portrays Gomez. It seems Gomez is still half-stuck in childhood, or maybe he lives in some tumultuous place inbetween as his innocent heart tet-a-tets with the passionate desires of a man. Morticia in turn seems ageless and timeless, a solid rock on which Gomez can throw his emotions again and again, and it is their intense and unique personality peculiarities that in the end fit them together in perfect harmony.  For a family as bizarre as the Addamses, their relationship is healthier than any other relationship found in canon, or in general just in film at large. 

   WEDNESDAY ADDAMS 

An interesting blend of sociopathy, pragmatism, nihilism, isolationism, and just plain attitude exists in tandem inside Wednesday Addams. It would be too basic to call her an outsider, because though she is aware of her differences, she makes no effort to enhance, emphasize, or change them in any way. She differs even from the Addamses in her nuclear family, citing specifically in The Addams Family Values to her dorky crush Joel that if a man were to ever love her unconditionally, to devote his life completely to her, that she would pity him. This seems a direct call-out of her father Gomez, the coldness of which is both cutting and fitting. She follows up by rebuffing Joel’s clumsy advances with saying she would murder that same, loving man. A literal death threat is as true to her character as much as it is a dime-turn from her behavior towards Joel in the film leading up to that moment. As a young woman, she has already begun to clearly define herself as free and independent, even within the context of the family.

 Wednesday’s views on the relationship her parents share is one of cautious distance, while she also still has her own loving, healthy relationships with both parents individually. Though they love one another, in almost every case Wednesday tends to slant slightly darker, taking the more macabre path of her own accord in a family already well-suited to that kind of thinking. She is both sharper and wittier than her father, and crueler than her mother, and often interacts with Pugsley as if he were a sort of accessory at worst, or sidekick at best. She shows him solidarity as an Addams, but also constantly tries to expunge him so she can be the only child, which is a vendetta she furthers at the birth of Pubert in The Addams Family Values. Many comparisons have been drawn to similar characters of the time, of Lydia from Beetlejuice and Nancy from The Craft, but I would argue Wesnesday’s alignment falls closer to the Daria camp, as she is already firmly established in her thoughts about the neutral impact of family, the trouble with idiot boys, and the negative experience of outside society. Wednesday is purely independent, and resonates a sense of deep internal knowledge and self-worth that extends beyond the parameters of her identity as merely an Addams, and in that way she makes a strangely excellent role model. 

Following the success of both The Addams Family and The Addams Family Values, the series moved on to a saturday morning cartoon of parallel quality with the animated Beetlejuice cartoon. A following additional live TV series, The New Addams Family, also made it to broadcast, but the opinion of most viewers is that the entirety of it should be thrown in a river and destroyed forever. A cancelled Tim Burton adaptation also briefly existed, counteracting the 90′s film aesthetic which seemed pretty much already to be a restrained version of his personal flavor of set design. This leads to today, and the beginning of this meta, when this afternoon I saw the trailer for the 2019 CG animated reboot of the franchise, inexplicably also titled The Addams Family.

Though I respect the nature of some reboots, stylistic updates for one thing seeming somewhat necessary to keep old content fresh, the new trailer immediately had me skeptical. Though the new designs very closely resemble Chas Addam’s orginal designs from The New Yorker strip, something vital seems to be missing, and there is a strange liberty taken with some of the new character models which feels disharmonious, and even borderline disrespectful. And though The Addams Family has a rich and storied history of zany one-liners and satirical cheekiness, the lines delivered in the trailer seem to fall flat. Though many series in this franchise in past have been saltine cracker level boring, one would expect a reboot this late in the game in the popular Pixar-launched CG style would be an opportunity to inject new life back into the old series. But something seems off, and this in turn brings me at last finally back around to the 90′s films. 

The reason the Sonnenfeld 90′s films were good is easy; they have a subterranean classiness. Pulling Bradbury back into it, the earliest and best iteration of the series is infused with a rich, sensual, and genuine darkness. Bradbury's stink is all over the films, from the set design to the Addams Family reunion ball, to the serious performances given to obscene, ludicrous roles and a questionably weak script, by very talented actors. The suburbs seem more ridiculous when the pastel, unfeeling beastliness of uniformity is stood up next to dark, dank, meaty, loving weirdness of oddballs. To make satire work, one has to play a game of balance. Without salty, sweet will never taste quite right, but balance in storytelling has many levels. Visual balance is one thing, but one must also have careful emotional balance. The 90′s films maintain an underlying level of sincerity and integrity, which is what is required to counter the punchy, often goofy scripts and scenarios. The films were good because they had just as much heart as the Addamses themselves, and without heart, a movie will never have any true substance. 

The track record this franchise has with creatively successful projects is pretty poor, but one can hope the example of cult excellence set by the 90′s movies will infuse into some part of the future film, and maybe into further projects later down the line. Voicing your opinion on pop culture subject material is something I believe in as a means to guide new content created in the future, so if you have thoughts on the new movie after it airs, let the world know! Help create the kind of content you want to see in the world by building a healthy, respectful discourse. Only time will tell if the 2019 Addams Family will be any good, but I’ll keep watching till then.

If you enjoyed reading this, drop me a line and let me know! I’m considering writing more meta for other films, and have dabbled up until this point with TV meta, so if you’d like more content in this vein I’d be glad to hear it. Suggestions welcome, though no timetable is attached. Thanks for reading!

#the addams family #the addams family values #the addams family 2019 #wednesday addams #gomez addams #morticia addams #chas addams #ray bradbury #from the dust returned #the october country #the new yorker #meta #movie meta

[tresspasserhky]

Just finished the Grishaverse Trilogy

but the grishaverse fandom is too old for me to say,

hey i think i'd be great that leigh abuses "that" connection between darkling and alina plot like i am ok with longer narratives about them visiting each other than whatever is going on with war meetings exposition.

I agree with those opinions on how Malina is written more plainly in the books. but I get the magnet, darklina was written spicy and intimate tension, nikolina? is cuter, and sassy. Malina, there were pages of walking together through the forest, seas, stalagmites caves if that was anyone's idea of pining romance (fine by me, not my cup of tea) jealousy over the top, but man being that childhood friend trope was never easy. I wish for Malina there were more flirting, less walking.

BUT HERE'S AND RECURRING THING WITH ALINA, IDK IF SHE WAS THE ungrateful PROTAGONIST OF REV-HAREM BUT YALL I'D. wink wonk WITH DARK LORD™ regardless Ben Barnes or not. Alina could've just had a fukcing fling with him like she did with Niko. SERIOUSLY WHAT'S THE DEAL ALINA?!?!, ALEKS IS LONELY And slightly horny, he's an old goth vampire....and finally ready to wife someone ..by letting himself inserted into a teenage love square? just let him *distress sounds* BUT SERIOUSLY ALINA, SERIOUSLY BODY COUNT, AND MANIPULATION IS YOUR RED FLAG ???? (I am writing that out of my moral value context, just pure pining for how was Aleks advances was written in the books is*chef kiss. my fantasy)

(look antis, I could point out another ship that was exactly based on the trope of manipulation, ppl still ship them, regardless. it's toxic but that does not reflect the person's preference irl. why so serious, everyone's here for some form of escapism, chill).

tho I might think for mfing centuries and The darkling didn't understand, to court in a relationship (manipulated or not) someone at least diversifiy from calling her your equal, be my queen, we could have all of this and make some cheap compromises...ass. if the Baghra was my asian mom, she'd slap his ass, and the head to get himself fucking together and help her tear down the fold Ravka would be grateful for him king no king and settle down your ass BUT NO " MY SON'S TOO EVIL ..I can't give sense to him anymore". but he keeps her alive anyway ass.this family produces ass glad they crossbreed and produced Maleyn Oretsev

#rant #my rant #grishaverse

[laracastrowrites]

EVERYTHING WRONG WITH THE GRISHA TRILOGY

*Spoiler Alert: is Mal*

I’m going to start with a story:

There was a girl who heard wonderful things about Six of Crows, so this girl decided that she wanted to read Six of Crows. But then, she knew Six of Crows was a dualogy passed in the same universe of another series: The Grisha Trilogy. The girl found herself conflicted and in doubt cause she heard from people she trusted a lot of mixture things about The Grisha Trilogy and she didn’t know if it was worth to read the trilogy before Six of Crows or if the trilogy was worth of reading at all. But then, having some experience with extended universes (being a big fan of The Shadowhunter Chronicles for instance), she decided to give the trilogy a chance. She knew the subjects of critiques towards the series, that being: the main romance, a certain character that was the main romantic paring for the protagonist, and the ending. The girl thought that maybe she could have had a different opinion of the majority, of course, so that thought encouraged her even more. But turned out that, after the girl finished reading the trilogy, she realized with bitterness that everyone was right, and worse: she found out for herself that the ending was even more upsetting than she first pictured and could ever imagined. And well… surprise surprise the girl was me.

I mean, let’s start with the worst of the worst (that actually leads to everything else): Mal is a weak character. And this is a fact, I don’t make the rules. He is bland, he is plain, he is generic, he has no depth, he is a complete mediocre character that maybe if the author had had made justice for his mediocrity instead of trying so hard to make him relevant could have worked better. He should have been that first crush that the protagonist at some point got over with. Or maybe he and the protagonist should have stayed just friends, with no *FORCED* romance getting pushed down the readers’ throats. Or maybe he shouldn’t even exist (I personally think that’d be better actually).

Mal is the Riley Finn of Buffy y’all know? (a fuckboy version of an alternate universe anyway, but well…) The bland uninteresting common white guy that when the writers try to complicate (to maybe make him interesting or less boring), just become this annoying, whinny, sexist douche no one can stand. I mean, they are so alike that once I couldn’t picture Mal in my head (consequence of being generic cause I usually picture characters as total unique people that just exist there in my head), I started to imagine him as Marc Blucas (damn it, the first book character that I had to make a fan casting to imagine him, and that is not a good sign). But at least in Riley’s case, he had his dance, he had his time and at some point that time was over and he went away (thank god), and badass Buffy ended up single *need no men* just her and her awesomeness sticking together (IMAGINE that happening with Alina uh? What a concept…). But well, for some mysterious reason that I will never understand (that just makes sense in LB’s head I guess) Leigh Bardugo thought it was a great idea for her Buffy to end up with her Riley… SRSLY THO WHO THAT FUCK WANTED BUFFY TO END UP WITH RILEY?! (If you did, don’t talk to me. Ever. tyvm)

- Gif above is the perfect picture of my Mal

And well, how about we move on to the romance, shall we?

Alina and Mal, Mal and Alina… First of all: they have NO chemistry whatsoever, their scenes together bores me to death or annoys me to the point I want to throw my book on the wall (in this case, e-book actually), Mal has NOTHING to do with Alina’s character development, actually, he just pushes her development back (the girl guarded her powers in because of this plague ffs!), she is fragile and in constant doubt next to him, he makes her fell bad about herself, about her being powerful, makes her doubt her decisions, makes her fell bad for wanting more and be more and be ambitious and do something with her life that doesn’t evolve around him, makes her fell bad for not need him anymore, to protect her or to live her life (and if that sounds kind of abusive, well… is because it is; and dont @ me to say the Darkling was abusive too because NO KIDDING?! I KNOW! EVERYONE KNOWS! But the thing is: the Darkling is far from our reality, even his abusive tendencies were very unique from that fantasy world, but Mal’s case knocks very close to home, so which one we should be more worried about? And besides, it’s not like the narrative doesn’t properly address the Darkling’s fuck ups or try to justify them, but I can’t say the same about Mal tho), so what that freajldjufnmdkasjcjahuuygdcauygefkahfeoçaijdçaomdafoh????????????????? How the heck she (I mean, LB) thought it was a good idea to go on with this stupid hetero nonsense of relationship??? I keep wondering: was there no one, no beta reader, no editor, no…smart critical person next to her to say “girl… What Is It That You’re DOING??? This romance is bullsh*t!!!!” (didn’t need to be exactly with those words but…you got the idea)

I think that probably in LB’S head, Malina was the perfect beautiful angsty worthy romance, but you know… That worked well just in her head. When put down on paper it just didn’t work (Mal in general just didn’t work). And even then, she still kept insisting, pushing this annoying nonsense ship down our throats, until she killed all Alina’s character development and resurrected the plague so they could be together, and even trying to sell us that as a happy ending (just with some sacrifices and losses, but still happy ya know) pfff  ¬¬

And btw THAT ending… If there was an ending that pisses me off more I can’t tell right now cause I don’t think it exists… Like as robbing Alina’s powers wasn’t enough, she resurrected the rat and transformed Alina in a housewife to live a mediocre life aside (or should I say behind?) a mediocre husband, killing off all of her protagonist character development (just a side note here that there’s nothing wrong in being a housewife, the problem of Alina’s housewifeness comes from whom she’s been housewifed with, for instance…and the fact that being a housewife had nothing to do with her character development either lbh), like, tell me of a more shitty treatment to give to your protagonist, I’ll wait…

And I find hilarious a person who tried to push The Humble Legend Uncle Iroh to try to justify that ending (like it was total the same thing!!!!!), like bish don’t you even dare!!!!!!! Uncle Iroh developed and learned humbleness throughout his life, he learned to appreciate the simplicity of life because he had his development to arrive at this point, now tell me: did Alina learn humbleness? Did Alina learn to appreciate a simple life through character development? Of course the answer is no, she did not, to any of the questions. She was TAKEN, ROBBED from power, like a punishment for being greedy. She didn’t learn humbleness (btw, my headcanons just work exactly because she haven’t learned humbleness) cause her character development was going in a total different direction and she was punished for it, so she settled for a simple life… Alina gave up on power not because it was HER CHOICE, but because she was taken from it, there was NO power anymore, so of course she didn’t learn anything, no character development came from it, rather what came was a character development’s assassination. What made Uncle Iroh be the humble legend he is? Well, it’s not because he had no power (meaning, it’s not the same as Alina’s case), but exactly the opposite: he HAD power, he was extremely powerful, the thing is: he CHOSE not to use his power because he learned humbleness, he learned to give up pride, he learned not to be greedy. The author might try to tell Alina’s loss of power was a “sacrifice” or the “loss” she needed, but it was clearly a punishment, and a punishment she did not deserve. Alina was punished in the level of The Fire Lord Ozai punishment without even being on that level! Why not take the Darkling’s powers then?! He was closer to The Fire Lord Ozai’s level! (Even though Fire Lord Ozai was clearly an alt-rightist and Darkles was a leftist, especially considering that benders didn’t suffer prejudice for being benders like the grishas, but anyway…) LB didn’t even give Alina a chance to see what she would do with more power (probably because she knew Alina was as greedy and ambitious as the Darkling [as we all know] and instead of trying to explore this, she preferred not to give Alina even a chance… *Alina darling I’m so sorry*), and of course, she wanted to make Malina happen, and I don’t know which one is worse…and of course to make Malina happen, she had to downgrade Alina to Mal’s level, and again, I don’t know what is worse… All that idea to tell a story of a “common boy and common girl” should have been thrown in the trash after a good analysis of Alina’s journey lbh. 

So yeah, what is wrong with TGT is Mal and everything that comes with him: his romance with Alina, his mediocrity and the effort that LB puts to make him relevant (so ironic that the only way she found to explain his function in the plot was linking him to the villain lol) even tho he should have been just a phase (or nothing), and I needed to make this rant to take this out of my system (or at least try to), cause DAMN if this trilogy had potential… I mean, I still like it and I clearly care about it, but I’ll never not be bitter nor angry about what was wasted…

P.S.: I read a post today of an artist that “inspired” me to write this (or better saying, put me in my ranty mood) so if anyone is interested in read that is here (I like the artist btw and everyone has your right to have your own opinion, so that is her opinion and her feelings and here I’m expressing my opinion and my feelings, fell free to disagree *even tho I’m with the majority now, so I think few people will disagree but unfortunately, I don’t fell like a winner…wonder why…*)

P.S.S: Mal’s timid character development in R&R wasn’t enough to make of him an interesting, compelling or decent character, he was still the least interesting character there that I didn’t care about at all and besides, I doubt of the bottom of my heart that his sexist doucheness went away with that development tbvh so…  

#the grisha trilogy #anti mal #anti malware #alina starkov #the darkling #sun summoner #aleksander morozova #grishaverse #six of crows #tgt #rant #personal rant #anti malyen

[sometimesrosy]

I'm looking forward to seeing how they deal with mal and alina's, relationship in the second season. for me I really enjoyed them in the third book but not as much in the second (mostly due to us not seeing what mal was thinking and feeling so I think it will definitely be interesting to see that on screen). what are your thoughts?

YES. Bardugo really didn’t SHOW mal and alina. Frankly, imo, in the whole trilogy.

So I’ve been writing and reading romance almost exclusively for the last two years... make that five or six years, because before that, I was writing and reading fanfiction, and that is essentially romance, and what I saw in The Grisha Trilogy is the set up for an epic romance. The plot was based around this romance of two children, best friend who grew up together, Alina’s unrequited pining, then Mal’s longing for her as soon as she left, a love triangle with the Darkling, then a love triangle with Nikolai, Mal as an alpha male who never sleeps with another woman after realizing he’s in love with Alina, that whole ‘meet me in the meadow’ thing, and then the final thing which I’m not going to mention because it’s too much of a spoiler but which is SO MUCH a meant-to-be true love thing. 

But there was very little romance written in the narrative. 

Most of it was about how they CAN’T be together. And yeah, that’s kind of an essential part of any romance-- what keeps them apart-- but it lacked the moments that drew them back together. There were few interludes that explored what their connection WAS. And I mean, that doesn’t make sense because they ran away together. They were sharing a BED. Sure they weren’t. EVER. alone. But we should have gotten confidences and connection and emotion. And we just didn’t.

For a series ABOUT Malina, honestly when you come down to it, since being together or NOT being together was such an essential part of every book, and it was always bracketed by an intro about the girl and boy and ended with the resolution which required Mal and Alina, (and had an epilogue about Malina) I feel like it should have shown more of their relationship and interactions and intimacy. Maybe it was because it was all Alina’s internal monologue, which kept Mal out. IDK. 

It was like it was TELLING us it was a romance, without ever (or rarely) SHOWING us the romance.

I think we won’t have that problem in the show. They’ve already shown to be more interested in showing the connection between Malina, and seem to know how to do romantic tension. Also, a lot of it is about the *looks* they give each other, which Bardugo never really showed. It’s subtext. Which Bardugo left out. You can keep the romance subtle and just read into actions and visual shots and parallels and such. But in the books, most of the romance was displayed with JEALOUSY. Well. I think she didn’t know how to write romance, that’s why jealousy was the only aspect we really got on a regular basis.

I mean, Mal’s jealousy was understandable, but it’s the only thing that was explored as romance. She was ALSO jealous, so it was used for both of them, and they both wrote letters regularly and when they got no response they both went, *shrug* ‘I guess I didn’t mean anything to them.’ But this was the person each was closest to in the world. WHY would they come to that conclusion? Makes no sense. I mean, the boy got a giant tattoo, and the emotional and romantic resonance of THAT was ignored. He was devoting his life to her. He would sacrifice his life for HER. And while the actions were there... there was little direct discussion of it. Men kept asking Alina to marry them and Mal acted like he had no claim on Aline, which he DID. They ran away together. It was romantic. And Alina was just like *shrug* I guess I should think about marrying some other guy not my soulmate, even though he’s RIGHT there and just risked his life for me AGAIN. And never talked to him about it? And I frankly did not understand that. 

Maybe she’d never been in love and didn’t understand what it felt like? But I think she wasn’t that young when she wrote it. Maybe she just didn’t know how to write romance? MAYBE she didn’t VALUE romance and so never bothered with it. Frankly I think that’s it, because she went to Yale, and let me tell you about academia’s disdain for genre-- ESPECIALLY romance-- as a non literary form of narrative. Or perhaps there was a bit of the disdain which kept her from understanding what it means to write a romance or learning how to. That might also explain the kind of confessional writing style. Because even though this IS fantasy, and academia has disdain for SFF (not as much as romance) lit fic focuses on character over action or plot, which that internal monologue fits better. I went to college only five years before Bardugo, so essentially the same era, and it took me YEARS to get rid of that naval gazing internal monologue.

So what do I think of Malina in the books? I think it did not live up to the promise of the narrative. And I think the show will probably be able to make good on that promise, because romance is good tv, so they won’t shy away from it. The scaffolding of a great Malina story is there, but the details that make it rich and compelling are missing. 

So my opinion of book Malina is not that it’s toxic like some people believe. It’s not. It’s probably IMMATURE. But that’s not really wrong for a couple of twenty year olds, both of whom are immature. I think the writing didn’t go far enough. It wimped out on the romance, and whether that was deliberate or unintentional, it’s a flaw in the story of the great epic romance that it was honestly narratively designed to be. 

I’m looking forward to what they can do with it in coming show, though.

#shadow and bone #sab #malina #book v show