#but in general i think the s&b and soc stories were shoehorned together for no good reason

[sunfoxfic]

Idk. There's just something about Inej meeting Alina in the show I don't like. Because in the books, Alina doesn't want to be worshiped, and you know she doesn't want to be worshiped - she doesn't even want to be a saint. But by the time Six of Crows comes around, she's divorced herself from that life entirely - there is no pain in people worshiping an already martyred saint. She made the decision that she would give up that life and that name at the cost of never getting to say anything about that life.

But in the TV show, Inej is worshiping a person who she met. A person who does not want to be worshiped. A person who can say as much. Book Inej would have immense respect for Alina if they met, but she would also respect Alina's wishes - which she didn't in the show, even if she had every opportunity.

I'm also generally not a fan of the way Alina's sainthood was pre-ordained in the show rather than being an intentional result of manipulation of her image; that very manipulation of her image and the subsequent loss of autonomy are so important to her character. But the fact that people were waiting for a saint in the show cheapens that a lot; it's like, well yeah, it sucks that Alina is getting this image of sainthood pushed onto her, but it would have happened to anyone. No one is to blame for her being a saint.

But there were so many people to blame in the books! The Apparat, mostly, but also the Darkling and even Nikolai to a degree. That manipulation is so twisted in the books, but in the show, it's just another Situation, and it feels so much more random