#WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME LEIGH

[fiasvsesvit]

wesper this, kanej that.

WHAT ABOUT HELNIK.

anytime I think about them I burst into tears.

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

“Let’s stack up a thousand todays. Together”

How many times have I watched this???? And I’m STILL CRYING

[caraaaaugh]

Matthias Helvar is dead and I'm not okay.

[imafuckinggrimreaper]

"You’re better than waffles, Matthias Helvar."

"Let’s not say things we don’t mean, my love."

-Leigh Bardugo (Crooked Kingdom)

[lululeighsworld]

if i had a nickel for every time a fave character of mine did the leg crossed while seated, chin propped up by hand, head tilted, sinister grin pose, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice

[gay-for-zoya]

Why do most of my favourite characters end up being side characters who either get ignored by the fandom or side characters that die

[five-of-cr]

here's the thing about matthias: he isn't the honorable, reformed hero some of the fandom seems to see him as.

yes, he was raised by a tight-knit family of comrade soldiers and decides to betray them in the end. of course that took incredible strength. i don't deny that. but we also need to recognize that the drüskelle are not just some rogue cult. they are a core part of the fjerdan government, who is trying to wipe out the grisha because they are seen as dangerous. that's literally just genocide. however indoctrinated someone is, this is something that is evil from every angle, even if the character can't or won't see it.

and look, i love a good redemption arc, but matthias is such a passive actor in his. he falls in love with nina against his will. she changes his attitudes toward grisha because she's beautiful and kind so all grisha can't be bad, right? this a classic example of the trope of separating the "good ones" from the rest, where you cherry-pick specific individuals to point to as exceptions to a group's nature, which is still implied to be evil. you have to do a lot more than fall in love to truly unearth and address the roots of bigotry.

tbh, this is my biggest critique of the books as a whole. i loathe the "love conquers all" trope that pairs together a character from the oppressed group and one from the oppressors, letting the one show the other through the power of love that being bigoted is not nice. it puts all the responsibility on the former to prove their humanity, and gives all the credit to the latter's ability to be persuaded to recognize it. and then it inevitably leads to forgiveness, because the character has "earned" it by changing their views, once again making the victim seem like the villain if they don't absolve the oppressor of their past "mistakes". also, it's incredibly unrealistic for someone to fall in love with a person who actively hates them and considers them sub-human. in real life, people have to work on their bigotry before that happens, not use the relationship as a plot device for character development.

i think the idea of writing a character like matthias is neat. i think portraying someone's struggle to throw off the suffocating, hateful dogma they've been fed all their life is a story we need more of. i think personal growth of this variety should be celebrated, because otherwise people would never change. but i don't think the people, fictional or real, get to do this without facing profound consequences. it is not enough to feel sorry. it is not enough to apologize. it is definitely not enough to fall in love. and i think writing that lets people off the hook like this grossly oversimplifies power and oppression, and ends up being a feel-good way to romanticize people who cause a lot of harm.

a last note: my opinion is 100% influenced by my being bipoc. matthias is a classic aryan supremacist, even if being aryan isn't the thing he's being supremacist about. my gut reaction to that type of character is always going to be mistrust, both because people in real life have given me reason to be mistrustful and because characters like these are often written in a way that makes you sympathize with oppressors. i don't think matthias earns that trust, and i don't see why i owe him my affection as a reader.

[burningblake]

btw the trope "they were childhood friends and now they are in love" only works for me in a fanfic (i.e. about a couple that I already got to ship via another story) and never as the beginning of an original story

[zer0point5ive]

john was like. i have the chance to do the funniest thing ever and told dr lawrence gordon md medical oncologist (suite 104) to kill a twink with a cigarette

[earl-grey-crow]

so. coyle.

[fantasticalleigh]

the lack of Kylo Ren merch the disney store has is a fucking crime ok this is ERASURE i always get so mad

everything is vader this or grogu that

most of the sequel trilogy merch has only Rey on it which is great but where’s the love for the rest of the cast??

if i wanted a fucking vader shirt i’d staple burnt toast to my shirt

[tklpilled]

rant abt the bsd dub in the tags (both good and bad)

[maitso]

has anyone realized that "tonight im gonna dance / for all that we've been through / but i dont wanna dance / if im not dancing with you / tonight im gonna dance / like you were in this room / but i dont wanna dance / if im not dancing with you" is literally nina after matthias died?

[philosophical-pete]

I was re reading Crooked Kingdom and I noticed something:

“‘No mourners,’ said Pim. He vanished back through the door before Wylan could reply”(Bardugo 422).

It’s the only time I’m the series that the motto is incomplete, therefore foreshadowing Matthias’ death.

[theaologies]

I admittedly have no love for Leigh Bardugo but I can’t get over the fact that Genya’s character exists almost exclusively for her to write misery porn. A girl born with a gift rare enough to already make her an outcast groomed from childhood to accept being sexually assaulted/raped by a king and hated by literally everyone for the sake of being a spy for a man who ultimately tortured her to the point of permanent disfiguration and disability only to have the love she forged despite everything taken away from her in a fire bomb literally hours after their wedding is just genuinely fucked up. There’s no “love can be fleeting but you should cherish it despite that” story there. No “remaining strong through the pain”. It’s just messed up. What was the point of doing all of that to one character. I love tragedy I love sad stories but Genya’s character arc is just cruelty.

[lululeighsworld]

finished shadowbringers a year ago today and went back to watch some of my fave cutscenes now that the graphics are updated :'''''''') i don't think a day has gone by since last year where i HAVEN'T thought about these two in some way shape or form!!