#anyway. not a fan of corruption arc alina. don't want to see it don't care for it also on another point i also don't care for sturmhond mal

[thebirdandhersong]

sometimes it is weirdly cathartic to watch a woman go insane on the screen/page/stage. I get that. Expression of our negative emotions so openly and unashamedly portrayed, which we are not allowed to/ought not to/were raised not to express in such a way in public or whatever. It can feel like some sort of release to see that. However. Watching Alina go from punching Nikolai in the face for lying to her to straight up murdering a crazy lady high on magical people drugs with the very same power that the Darkling used was so disconcerting that I leaned away from the screen.

[where-theres-smoak-2]

Here's the kind of stuff I come across and get me down:

" #who am i kidding #even if we get a little bit of corruption arc it will all be merzost's fault #and they will find some magical medicine to cure her #maybe by Mal's true love kiss 🙄 #the war was completely erased as well #and alina will cure racism simply by being a flashlight and changing fashion #and there is no way i hell that those writers are bringing darkling back #and i would actually be surprised if ben wanted to stick around for season three #he's finally free of this monstrosity of a project #and netflix is finally rid off the character they hated the most #and since it was a character that fans loved most #i predict that sab is dead #they just don't know it yet #also persecution is almost no exist in the show so it's not like Alina will have to watch Grisha enslavment"

I really don't see why the Darkling wouldn't come back in the sequel, since they're adapting books where he's present. I don't see why Ben Barnes would refuse either. As for that "netfliix hates the Darkling" rant? I don't understand this kind of thinking. Yes SAB is not the best series in the world with flaws, but there is a limit to exaggeration anyway.

I mean they are almost certainly bringing back Aleks in season 3, they dropped too many hints not to, the whole make sure there's nothing left of me but there still being his hand thing, the fact that we saw someone being brought back with merzost showing that is something that can happen. The bee showing up during Aleks' funeral, which King of Scars spoilers but is a hint at Elizaveta who resurrects the darkling in the books. If they wanted to only reference the character and not the resurrection plotline then they could have had that bee show up at some other time, like the coronation scene or when Zoya, Alina and Genya are in the room getting ready for the coronation, but they specifically chose Alek's funeral which to me is a very clear hint that they are bringing him back.

As for netflix hating the character I don't think that's true because they have gone to alot of effort to make Aleks a much more nuanced and developed character than he was in the books, you don't put that kind of effort into making a character that is as sympathetic and nuanced as show Aleks if you hate them. I do think that the actors and producers etc are overly careful about talking too sympathetically about Aleks, but that, I think, is because of all the loud purists who yell ab*se apologists at them if they do, not because they hate the character. Ben also hasn't given any indication that he wants to leave the show, it seems that he is very interested in his character and he clearly has a good bond with all the cast so I don't think we have anything to worry about there.

It's understandable that the negative comments are getting you down, I'll admit there have been times this week I have avoided going into the darklina and character tags because of the negativity, when going into the tags I like to see pretty gif sets, fanfics and people excited about the ship/character not negativity as of course that is going to bring your mood down. But at the same time everyone is entitled to their own opinion and have the right to express it so my best advice would be try to ignore it and not engage. If you start reading a post and it looks like its going to be negative then stop reading and just scroll past it, its what I've been doing, or if it is really bringing you down and you feel the need to, block those accounts. Also if you are feeling negatively about darklina and Aleks or Alina's characterization this season maybe consider using an anti tag or putting a warning at the top of the post to make it easier for those who want to avoid negativity. That's the best way around it I can think of anyway.

[dalasteller]

shadow and bone spoilers! malina/mal fans this is not for you but it’s not pro-darklina either. i’m an alina x alina supremacist

so, somehow, the show made me like book!malina more than show!malina after weeks of thinking the opposite would be true. i don’t even like book!mal/malina, but my neutrality towards them is nothing compared to how much i detested show!malina.

I WANTED THE TV SHOW TO MAKE ME LOVE THEM. the trailers made me think i would!!! i'd heard screeners and reviewers talk about this epic love story that transcends everything—these two people who would do anything for each other—and i don't disagree, they definitely would. i just wish they would shut the fuck up about it.

sorry.

looking back, i'd rather the show gave us mal with flaws, who wasn't perfect to alina, who would die for her, but still said the wrong thing and flirted with other girls and was afraid of her power at first. archie did a great job. he just couldn't make me love mal, and neither could the writers opting to make him main character no. 2 and alina’s prince in shining armour who supports her endlessly and has never done anything wrong in his life ever. writers, please, why did you think that was a good idea? when i said i wanted a more likeable mal, i meant i wanted his flaws accompanied by positive traits, by compelling backstory, by personality outside of being alina's hot best friend who never noticed her. i didn't mean i wanted a guy who could be wrapped in a gift box and sold as a robo-boyfriend designed for romance.

no, i mean, they really did write him that way.

what i definitely didn't mean i wanted was over an hour of the show dedicated to watching mal’s perspective of hunting the stag and making besties with his military bros and writing letters to alina and getting shot at a bunch of times instead of letting the book characters who were already beloved by fans get the screentime they deserved. what i wouldn't do to have gotten more genyalina and well-written zoya instead of mal dissecting deer shit...

you would think with how much talk about malina basically being soulmates, childhood flashbacks, fighting and nearly dying for each other at least four times (and did i mention more narration about being soulmates?) that i would take the bait and just let malina set sail. but this show held me at gunpoint for eight hours straight and told me that these two are going to have the same cultural influence as new romeo and juliet and that if i disagree i am going to be killed on the spot. because of this, i have now died.

don't tell me what to do, narrative, because i'm not going to do it!

i am also annoyed that they took the time to redesign mal in perfect childhood-friends-to-lovers dreamboat fashion but refused to retcon zoya's stupid misogyny-fueled bitchy YA girl arc and instead made it even worse by having her be racist to alina? what was the thought process there? they seriously fucked her over. i tried to pretend it didn't happen moving forward but why do they want to use racism as a tool for developing a "bully" character anyway, especially a woc? am i meant to forget about it? they lost me there. i feel like the female characters, with the exception of inej, generally weren't given the same care the male characters were. there was a lot of sidelining in favour of mal's redemptive rewrite and the darkling's 15 minutes of half-assed backstory and crying in every scene for some reason. “make me your villain” .... okay, simpboy, i’ll try my best.

i've already talked about why i hated mal's role (i clarify his role, not his character, because there was literally nothing wrong with him and that’s why i hated him so much) but i'm going to address it from the perspective of my love for alina and why i think this decision was so disrespectful to her. alina in the books was already in need of more characterization, time for herself and her internal development as opposed to her relationship with the three male love interests she acquires through the series. somehow this show took a main character already underused in her own story (though at least the books are told from her pov) and neglected her even further. alina is tied almost entirely to her male counterparts, mal especially, but i'd say the darkling is used as a narrative rebound. i think they both have chemistry and can serve a purpose in the story but the emphasis on codependency is impossible to ignore.

in the first four episodes, every scene that could have been alina struggling to settle into a new life and dealing with the emotional weight of her pressure as a saint was instead about mal. she writes him letters, and cries over him, and slips him into conversations that have nothing to do with him, and gets sad after slipping him into conversations that have nothing to do with him, and can't use her power because she's thinking of him, and then only decides to fully accept her power because of his absence.

alina's feelings are lended to nothing but her missing mal. he isn't just her best friend and love, he's this colossal piece of her identity that she doesn't get to exist without, even when he's gone. the show's exhaustive attempt to make mal loveable and make malina an epic love story turns our female protagonist into a sulking, miserable shell of a character everytime he's mentioned, which, by the way, is like, every two minutes. and apparently it's necessary to draw parallels to the same three flashbacks in all of them. i knoowwwwwwww, they held hands and now they can't anymore, i knowwww. they ran through a meadow, i knowwwwwwwwwwwwww.

watching her scenes almost drove me to printing out a bechdel test and ticking off as many boxes as possible.

i hated it. it made me sad.

i wanted more alina. i want her power to be her own. i wanted that tension between her and mal in the books because his flaws gave her a chance to stand up for herself and say that she liked being powerful. that summoning is a part of her and she would never give it up. that there was a tinge of corruption, of greed, of wanting to be the sun summoner, and it was intriguing! mal's issue of not accepting alina's power allowed her to express how much it meant to her. i wanted the alina who said "the night was velvety black and strewn with jewels. the hunger struck me suddenly. i want them, i thought." i wanted a hint of the sun summoner who decided when it got dark and relished in it (yes i know this can be expanded upon in s2). alina has a cocky side, her insecurities are explored and she finds strength in her new gift and eventually has to find strength outside of it, but in the show the catalyst to her powers is mal. always. is it romantic? sure. but it's hard to enjoy the romance when all we see of alina is her romantic connection to mal. can't she be more than that?