#anti alarkling

[ethanscrocs]

it really must be embarrassing to be a darklina shipper in 2024 because doing so is practically wearing a sign over your head that says "i completely missed the point of the source material because i want to see an abuser get it on with his centuries younger victim who he enslaved" like truly you do not understand the themes or overarching narrative of the books, which is embarrassing because it's practically written on a flashing sign because this is a cheesy YA trilogy, and it's even more embarrassing to do so after watching shadow and bone in which they made the narrative even CLEARER. to see somebody "ship" them without a hint of irony is to see somebody self identify as media illiterate and that is so funny

[papenathys]

The pipeline of people who thought hades and persephone were the best most kawaiicore babies of the Greek pantheon to people who thought alina received self fulfilment by getting collared by the darkling to people who said rhysand gave feyre her first choice of freedom to people who cheered at rhaenyra's sexual liberation at the hands of her uncle versus evil virgin alicent getting groomed by rhaenyra's father.

every single time someone retells the Hades and Persephone story they make it increasingly worse. idgaf how much hamfisted queerness and feminism and white female rage and sexual liberation you inject it still remains a fundamentally mid story that is hinged around the entirely crafted fantasy of an uwu goth feminist man and his tiny petite coquette but also goth but also cinnamon roll but also sexy and empowered gf. I just vomited typing that btw.

[aleksanderscult]

Alina: *has a good time in the Little Palace*

Mal:

[darklinaforever]

The difference between Darklina and Malina stans is that at least we Darklina stans recognize that there are toxic aspects to our ship, whereas Malina stans generally completely deny that their ship is toxic, always placing their ship as superior in terms of morality while objectively... Malina is worse than Darklina.

[shesalittlelost]

I want to know why a ship like darklina makes people SICK TO THEIR STOMACH to the point of sending personal attacks

what happened to understanding that people see things differently, your visions not aligning and clicking off because you’re not into it?

Because people grow dumber by the day and believe that liking or disliking fictional characters and ships is a form of moral activism.

[theweeklydiscourse]

I feel like any alternate ending of Shadow & Bone that involves Alina losing her powers is inherently flawed.

For example, I’ve see people say that they could accept the Ruin and Rising ending if Alina actually CHOSE to give up her powers as opposed to them being stripped away by as punishment for her “greed”. Another potential ending I’ve seen involved Alina undergoing an actual corruption arc before losing her powers as a consequence for her wrongdoings. But I can’t help but feel that these endings are still dissatisfying.

Having her powers, and by extension her status as a minority in Ravka, taken from her gives her the easy way out and does not actually challenge Alina in a meaningful way. Why go through the difficulties of embracing your differences in the face of an intolerant society when you can simply be cured of those differences and assimilate? Of course, Alina loses a great deal when she loses her powers but what gives her ending the illusion of happiness is the fact that she gets to abandon all responsibility she had to her community and blithely trot her way into a life of obscurity where she never has to do the work of embracing who she truly is.

But of course, because her powers are intertwined with the Darkling due the fact that they are symbolic opposites any ending where he dies would be unsatisfying. LB would have to change the Darkling’s character quite radically to justify an ending where he is killed and Alina lives. The Darkling’s attempts to sway Alina by telling her that he is her only equal might be manipulative exempt for the fact that his claims are absolutely true! The contrary dynamic of Alina and the Darkling must remain in order for the story to be balanced and that balance cannot be achieved unless both of them reconcile.

Alina keeping her powers would deprive LB of taking the easy way out and using the Darkling as a convenient scapegoat to pin the systemic problems of Ravka (THAT SHE WROTE) onto. The story should have taken the route of a journey of self acceptance and liberation instead of glorifying repression and passivity.

[wiwiurikawa]

ok but eternal sunshine by ariana grande is Darklina coded. The lyrics “So I try to wipe my mind, I’d rather forget than know for sure what we could’ve fought for behind this door” ?!

sorry for the wait but my health wasn't the best this week. Even thou I don't ship them (fanon alina x canon darkling is the only combination i like) I will try to anser the best as i can.

(Also english isn't my native lounguge so i can misinterpret some things.)

"I don't care what people say We both know I couldn't change you I guess you could say the same"

This remind me of how aleksander insisted that they could balance eachother and alina was like -nope.

No matter how hard aleksander tried to explain alina why he is doing everything, she doesn't listen. I don't reamember much outside of my frustration with the books but I don't think alina give aleksander the chance because she think of him as a monster and allweys dehumanzed him. So yes they couldn't change eachother.

"I've never seen someone lie like you do So much, even you start to think it's true"

Aleksander who lied to survive (and about his name...) and alina who lied too herself that she is happy (with her shitty boyfriend mal and after the trilogy).

"So now we play our separate scenes Now, now she's in my bed laying on your chest Now I'm in my head, wondering how it ends"

ok but that saunds like it's aleksander talking about malina. Alina in s&s was living in aleksander room in little palace and even though she wasn't on the best terms with mal it still fits.

Also the "play our separate scenes" can be interpreted that alina is playing a saint and aleksander a monster.

"I'll be the first to say I'm sorry"

they are too proud to do this. Both of them will not back down and thinks that what they're doing is the right thing.

"I showed you all my demons, all my lies Yet you played me like Atari"

I somehow feel like it suits both of them and not at all. Sorry i can't explain it.

"You're just my eternal sunshine, sunshine"

funny considering she lost her powers in r&r.

"So I try to wipe my mind Just so I feel less insane Rather feel painless"

It suits both of them so well. Alina constantly shamed for her feelings for aleksander and because of that she feeled awfull. Also when she didn't know about the link between them in s&s and thought she was going mad.

Aleksander trying to prioritise grisha but his feelings get in the way and he is mad about it.

"I'd rather forget than know, know for sure What we could've fought through behind this door So I close it and move"

entire trilogy in nutshell. I don't have many thoughts about this verse (but i hope you could write about that line. I'm really intrested what you think about it.) but i think it shows how alina refused to even thinking about colaborating with the darkling and rising to her actual potential.

"Won't break, can't shake This fate, rewrite Deep breaths, tight chest Life, death, rewind"

I just wanted to say that i really like this verse but i'm really tired and my brain isn't functionating anymore so i can't analise it now.

Also thanks for the ask and even thouht I don't like this kind of music it was fun to analise the lyrics. Hope this satisfy you a little bit.

[darklinaforever]

True soul mates !

THE DARKLING after creating the fold // ALINA after using the shadow cut

[aleksanderscult]

Funny how LB started claiming in recent years that Darklina was abusive (I mean it was toxic, but not for the reasons she says) and that she'd never write an abusive relationship (she has made Malina endgame), but then goes and makes her every other relationship outside of Grishaverse a Darklina ripoff. In Ninth House - Darlington and Alex Stern: A dignified intimidating gentleman and a scrappy scrawny young woman who feels like she doesn't belong in an elite establishment. Gee, I wonder if those names remind me of anyone, hmm. And apparently, in her newest book the Familiar, she attempted a Darklina copy again. She fanned Darklina flames when S&B trilogy had just come out and was very ecstatic about Darklina. Then around the time when "Shadow Daddy" trope and "YA FMC was manipulated" shtick started gaining popularity, Darklina became a staple for abusive relationships. Correct me if I'm getting the timeline wrong, but either way it's like she didn't dig further to analyze her own writing and simply decided to drop it before she got labeled to be "promoting problematic relationships" in her books. But she sure milked it and continues to milk Darklina, its vibes and reminiscence for all its worth. She wrote it and can do whatever she wants with it, but doing the same thing in not two, but three different book series set in three different universes is just peak lazy writing. "Darklina was horrible and shouldn't even be considered a relationship" - not even the author herself can come up with an idea how write a better relationship and keeps doing the same one over and over. Can't wait until I see a Kanej ripoff too...Oh wait, that was Zoyalai.

That woman really fell prey to her purist fans. So she had to change her tune about how Darkling was totally, inclusively abusive and no fun at all.

(like girl?? I can think of another ship you have created that oozes with toxicity and most importantly gets on our nerves)

And she clearly profits from Darklina and its dynamic for money (and therefore copies it in her every book). It's a popular trope so why not? Who has the time to spend it on writing about something different? Easy cash.

Look let's face it. That woman is a hypocrite and has the spine of a gingerbread man. So it's no wonder that most of her characters are like that as well. I would highly respect an author who sticks with his/her opinions and writing choices than someone who wavers every now and then because she's afraid of her own fanbase.

[darklinaforever]

the darkling is very dead and alina killed him <3

Yes. And it was the most romantic scene in all the trilogy <3 :

“Don't let me be alone.”

[where-theres-smoak-2]

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.   

[darklinaforever]

Yeah… No one can convince me that Alina lost all feeling for the Darkling this season 2, and felt nothing when he died. The girl literally looks sad, disgusted and nostalgic at the same time. Essentially, it just seems like she's holding herself back from feeling anything for him, except of course, well it's always there whether she likes it or not.

ALINA STARKOV and ALEKSANDER MOROZOVA SHADOW AND BONE — 2x08: “No Funerals” (2023)

[papenathys]

a trend i’ve noticed with booktok recently is their tendency to reference already published popular works as similar to their original work which i can not even begin to express how badly that concerns me

also how many “dark demonic evil brooding enemies to lovers” white men love interests can we keep having in books before ppl get sick of it i really want to know

"morally grey" at this point we all know it's just a euphemism for abuse and sexual coercion glossed over by the fact that he has high cheekbones and his mom might be dead

[saintprivateer]

Alina’s Horror Series (part 1/?)

I’m excited to finally share this here! :D Since I’ve been on a bit of a break, I’ll cap this and share until I’ve got the next pieces up!

This series aims to depict Alina’s relationship with the Darkling in a way that highlights the horrors that unfold as the story progresses— including his detrimental impact on others— as his legacy lives on in the shadows of his victims’ minds.

Fear is cautionary. Cautionary tales are made with fear for those we love. Let’s never confuse the two, even if they’re close when dancing with each other! Because this isn’t a love story babey :)

I also have a playlist if anyone is interested! ٩( ᐛ )و

[comingoutofthecauldron]

this just in: twitter darklinas are talking about how mad they are that ben barnes looks so much older than jessie.........they're so close to self awareness guys this one's gonna be good

[is-today-tomorrow-in-nz]

English isn't my first language. Hell, it isn't even my second language. But nowhere in the text or the subtext showed this. How are antis arriving at a conclusion that was never even there in the first place? Did the anti confuse Mal and Aleksander perhaps?

I've blocked an anti yesterday, who claimed the Darkling abused Alina so badly he forced her to attempt suicide to escape him.

And just... No honey, how did you read that book?

Alina didn't try to kill herself to get away from the Darkling. She tried to kill them both, because she was forced to face the fact he's right, and they're truly alike in some aspects. That she loves her power and the power it brings her over others. She doesn't want to live in shadows of obscurity.

She wasn't some poor desperated teen victim, but a young woman avoiding unpleasant truths no matter the cost.

“I want this.” I need it. Sacrifice or selfishness, it didn’t matter anymore. ... “There isn’t any choice to make. This is what was meant to be.” It was true. I felt it in the collar, in the weight of the fetter. For the first time in weeks, I felt strong.

Siege and Storm- Chapter 23

And Aleksander isn't only a representation of her not being the perfect, nice, saintly nobody, he will never let her hide and forget it.