#agnieszka

[rosiethorns88]

Aaaaand (after a small delay) the fourth and final bonus Sketch-a-Wish from my 2nd Patreon anniversary - a frequently requested scene from Uprooted, featuring Sarkan (the Dragon) and Agnieszka! Phew, I'm art-pooped after this one. 🫠

[awanderingtortoise]

I'm so sorry to everyone I've ever made fun of for being into those 100year old Fae+17 year old girl love stories because I just read Uprooted and you know what. you know what. yeah. Yeaaaaaah.

[lesyablackbird]

"Agnieszka" from Uprooted by Naomi Novik

felt like making a new fanart of her. it was fun. i really want to get to Dragon next.

[is-today-tomorrow-in-nz]

Uprooted vs Grishaverse

I finally finished uprooted and I wanted to share my two cents on where Naomi Novik delivers while LB fails.

Warning: spoilers

Backgrounds:

1) Both the stories were written in first POV of the protagonist.

2) Both are dealing with an immortal, youthful looking male wizard(/grisha) and a reluctant, low self-esteemed, female protagonist.

3) Both are set up in a war torn country with an expanding evil element threatening to swallow the country whole.

However the similarities end there.

1) First POV:

Although Noami uses First POV for Agnieszka, it is not restrictive like Alina's. We can see the universe clearly through her eyes and how she views the magic system. We could also read the other characters and see their strengths and flaws through her eyes. This is completely lost in the Grishaverse. We only see Alina's low self-esteem rambles, her unhealthy attachment to Mal and her judgemental censure of others characters We don't understand the universe, or the true nature of the characters. This makes the Grishaverse restricted universe, although we know how vast it is.

2) Strong female lead:

Agnieszka is a village born, free thinker and an independent girl. She is passionate and compassionate. She cares for her family, her best friend, her village and its people. Although she did not expected to be picked she does not stagnate as the story unfolds. At first she is reluctant and useless in learning magic but once she understands why she needs the magic, she pulls the magic by its horns and masters it. Unlike Alina, she practices and fails and yet she does not give up. Nieshka is by no means a girlboss but she knows what she wants and is unafraid to seek it. She knows when to standup and seize her power and when to let go. Naomi handles her beautifully that we want to know more about what's going on in her mind. Nieshka's life is lived by her rules. When Sarkan flees from his tower she does not run after him. She lets him go. She understands his nature and she also understands hers. She chooses to stay behind and heal the forests around her. This, right here, is proper feminism. Not Alina's ballerina farm.

3) Strong characters:

Sarkan, Solya, Kasia, Alosha, Marek, Vladimir and many others. We see them all through Nieshka but Naomi has portrayed each one of them beautifully. They are not one dimensional. We see how Sarkan is withdrawn from the world with the weight of immortality, choosing to surround himself with books and magic instead. We can see Kasia's pain, her love for Nieshka, her jealousy and the hurt of her mother's betrayal. We can see Marek's boarish nature, his hot headedness and love for his mother which ultimately led to his downfall. Every character has a story arc and a journey to fullfil on their own and Naomi does it wonderfully. We see them through Nieshka's eyes but we see the whole person not just her characterization. LB fails in this aspect. After book 2&3, we see many characters simply as an extension of Alina. They all profess their fealty and choose to stay with her even when she does not show them the same respect. Alina is labelled as virtuous although we see no evidence of it. In other words, the characters in Grishaverse are mere mindless, plot devices that are supposed to love Alina because she is the protagonist. They seize to exist outside of Alina which cripples the story telling in Grishaverse.

4) Vastness of the universe

One of the key nature of a fantasy story is the vastness of the universe. The reader when journeying through the story must feel the endlessness of the universe. Eg. The Lord of the Rings. This offers the readers a real submersive experience. We see it lacking in the Grishaverse. Although there are different countries and people, we can feel the boxed nature of the universe. This when combined with Alina's restricred POV, one dimentional side characters(spanning across different countries) and blatant favouritism shown to some characters we feel suffocated inside the Grishaverse. Naomi's universe feels vast, unexplored and unending making it a true fantasy experience.

5) Sarkan

We can see plenty of similarities between the Darkling and the Dargon. A lonely wizard, fighting alone against evil(/corrupt government). The people and the Royal family don't like him but keep him around as a neccessay evil. However, we can see the stark contrast in how Naomi handles Sarkan. For one, she does not think a seventeen year girl knows better than an age old wizard. Sarkan and Nieshka's magic are different but Naomi finds a way to blend them and makes them work with each other. She lets Nieshka form her own judgement of Sarkan instead of force feeding it like LB did to Alina. She gives a chance to the Dragon to tell him his story which gives us an additional understanding. Naomi shows and tells while LB just tells.

There are so many other intricate details which made Uprooted more enchanting to read. Naomi as a writer made me want more. Her universe has potential and Naomi handles it very effectively. The same, however, could not be said about the Grishaverse. The Grishaverse had immense potential compared to Uprooted but due to LB's restrictive story telling, it leaves the readers with a huge disappointment and fails to live upto it's potential.

[stromuprisahat]

Uprooted so far. (I'm past 4/5.)

[molecoledigiorni]

Ph. agnieszka nienartowicz

[darkles--sparkles]

“What an unequaled gift for disaster you have.” remains one of the best literary insults ever written

[numbatteryart]

Inktober Day 8 "Robot"

I LOVE ROBOTS!!!! Here is my amazing awesome new chicken girl. She is great. She was made by a Polish computer engineer and travels around with him as his tech assistant, basically.

She speaks through text messages, since she's often around screens she can connect to, which tends to spook people (since they get odd anonymous notifications relating to their current conversations lol)

Anyway she's awesome, I love her, @im-smart-i-swear thanks for the name :D

[tastyfishistasty]

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Does anyone else know in their bones that Sarkan is autistic?

The whole attitude to magic, the social issues being mistaken for rudeness/snobbery, the complete lack of understanding of what other people think until it's explained to him (re: kidnapping girls my dude, it's bad...!), the particularity about appearance and who does what??

Also!

Agnieszka has ADHD. The whole doing magic instinctively, having some of the worst metaphors based on her special interest (still not sure what gleaning is), her focus on justice and not understanding how people can be that evil or how to manipulate court etc.

[sarkie-snarkie]

Practicing Chibi art styles. So flower crowns!

[collageofnudes]

Agnieszka by Jan Morfi

[stromuprisahat]

Sarkan: “They’ll most likely attack at the first light of morning. The best thing you can do at the moment is get some sleep.” Agnieszka: *I'm gonna fuck the old man*

[checkoutmybookshelf]

Scary Trees and Making Your Own Magic

This standalone novel is amazing in how it discusses the differences between institutional and individual magic, myth and reality, reclaiming and renewing lands and communities, and at what point wishful thinking becomes a clear and present danger to you and everyone around you. There is also an extremely grumpy mage, the worst prince in the history of ever, the best ride or die BFF ever, and lots of scary trees. Like John Ronald Ruel "Scary Trees are Kind of My Jam" Tolkien took one look at these scary trees and said "Whoa, rein it in there, I RESCUED Merry and Pippin from that." Let's talk Uprooted.

Agnieszka never expected to be chosen from her village by the Dragon; that was supposed to be Kasia, her best friend. But life got weird, and Agnieszka ended up in the Dragon's tower utterly failing to be "ladified" into learning his kind of magic. Until, that is, she finds Yaga's book and learns on her own to do a type of magic that is better suited to her. (She also quite literally brains a dickhead prince who had toruble keeping his hands to himself and hearing "no" and it might be my favorite thing ever.) The theme of finding what works for you a trusting yourself to find your way through the woods at night without a lantern is one of my favorites, and Agnieszka embodies the heck out of it. She learns to own rooms by being herself, and then turns around and goes home to heal her community and the really fucking terrifying creepy forest that has been plaguing them.

We need to talk about the supporting cast for a minute here. First and foremost--and yes, I'd argue that she is more foremost than the Dragon--is Kasia. Agneiszka refuses to write her best friend off when she gets half-eaten by a scary, cursed tree. Kasia then basically gets tree-based superpowers, and ends up as both Agnieszka's ride-or-die BFF and adopted big sister to a little prince and a little princess.

Then we have the Dragon, an unapologetic asshole who is doing his damnedest to keep the cursed forest from eating the entire country and getting crap from literally everyone for it. I'd be an unapologetic asshole too, in his shoes. But he is Agneiszka's conduit to magic, and once the two of them get used to each other's rough edges, they find that they are somewhat complimentary.

What is super creepy and possibly the best antagonist I've seen in a long time is the Wood Queen. She inhabits the body of the country's queen and basically tries to orchestrate a global war. She is also damn-near impossible to kill...which makes life complicated. I won't give spoiers here, because frankly this book is amazing and I highly recommend it.

Naomi Novik has literally never written a bad book in her life, and if anyone understands the magic she uses to pull this off, please share with the rest of the class, because it is DAMN impressive.

[higherentity]

[bestshipsmackdown]

Pre-qualifiers; Group Two: Subsection Four

Captain Kirk x Spock from Star Trek

Chidi Anagonye x Eleanor Shellstrop from The Good Place

Westley x Buttercup from The Princess Bride

Vasya x Morozko from The Winternight Trilogy

Agnieszka x Sarkan from Uprooted