#darklina

[lilu787788]

I believe the Aleksander is the perfect embodiment of the Gothic soul not in the way people often expect. He is not a villain twisted beyond recognition. He is not some shadow lurking at the edge of the story. He is the story. The heart of it. The echo of something beautiful that the world refused to protect. For me, Aleksander is not a cautionary tale. He is a reminder. Of how long a soul can endure. Of what it means to hold onto hope even when the world keeps tearing it away. What I find in him is strength wrapped in silence. Grief that never hardens into bitterness. Love that never demands, but simply exists — steady, quiet, waiting. There is something in him that speaks to me like no other character. His loneliness isn’t emptiness. It’s full of memory. It carries the names of those he lost, the causes he fought for, the quiet dreams he never let die. What moves me most is that he never became cold. He never stopped feeling. Even when it hurt. Even when it cost him everything. To me, Aleksander is not defined by darkness, but by depth. He is thoughtful, he is patient, he sees the world clearly and still dares to imagine something better. He never stopped believing his people deserved safety, dignity, life. That belief didn’t make him weak. It made him dangerous to those who benefitted from silence. And that’s exactly why he was feared. For me, he is not a tragic figure. He is someone who deserved more. Someone who was asked to bear too much and never stopped trying anyway. He didn’t crave destruction. He craved peace. He wanted to build something lasting. He wanted to stop running. He wanted to be loved without fear. When I think of the Gothic tradition, I think of characters who are not evil but wounded. Who are not monsters but mirrors. Aleksander is exactly that. A mirror that reflects all the parts of humanity most people would rather ignore — sorrow, ambition, tenderness, rage, mercy, and the unbearable desire to be known. And unlike so many, he doesn’t run from it. He owns every part of it. He is not broken. He is whole in ways others are not brave enough to be. That is why I keep writing about him. Not because he is tragic. But because he is beautiful in the truest sense — forged, complex, unforgettable. He carries all the contradictions that make someone human. And he carries them with a grace the world never deserved.

For me, Aleksander is not a warning He is a possibility Of love without limits Of darkness that remembers how to feel the sun

And I will always choose to remember him like that.

[atlasshrugd]

no but the thing is, when the hero falls in love with the villain she is falling in love with the darkest parts of herself. she is owning her shadow and the owning makes her stronger. it is not about whether a ship is toxic or romanticising abuse because it’s not about two individuals. the struggle is not one between two people, just like the love is not between two people. when the hero falls in love with the villain she is loving herself. when she loves herself she is stronger, better, able to transform darkness instead of running from it. at the moment of loving, a person changes. the loved changes. and the love of the villain changes the hero. it’s all about this, don’t you see?

[kathrahender]

Repeat after me: Villain x Hero 👏 or 👏 Enemies to lovers 👏 ships 👏 aren't 👏 toxic 👏 because 👏 they 👏 hurt 👏 each 👏 other 👏 when 👏 they 👏 were 👏 E-N-E-M-I-E-S 👏 not 👏 when 👏 they 👏 were 👏 L-O-V-E-R-S. 👏

[harleyquinnselectraheart]

Oh, this Male Villain is not beating the "Likes the Female Hero Protagonist" allegations when he looks at her like that.

[darklesmylove]

enemies to lovers be like

[endiness]

[heroineaddicted]

[darklinaforever]

Oh my fucking god ?!

[bobosaur]

In Defense of Alina (and a little grace for the Darkling too)

Can we please stop calling Alina Starkov a narcissist and start acknowledging what she actually is? A 17 year old girl who was orphaned, isolated, and then abruptly turned into the literal symbol of salvation for a persecuted magical minority.

She’s insecure, confused, reactive and yeah, she gets things wrong. But that’s not narcissism. That’s what happens when you throw a teenager with unresolved trauma into a centuries-old war and expect instant moral clarity and flawless leadership.

Yes, she makes selfish decisions. Yes, she struggles with responsibility. That’s human. That’s developmentally appropriate. She’s not a general. She’s not a saint. She’s just a young girl trying not to drown under the weight of a prophesied destiny.

And while we’re here yes, the Darkling is a deeply tragic figure too. Centuries of watching your people die, of being feared and hunted, it changes you. His pain is real. His desperation is real. But so are the ways he hurts others trying to control the outcome.

That’s the heart of the story, both Alina and Aleksander are trapped by power, expectation, and trauma. One is just starting to understand it and the other has been consumed by it for centuries.

You can grieve for the boy who wanted to make a safe world and still hold him accountable. You can support the girl who keeps messing up and still expect her to grow.

The Grishaverse pits two broken people against each other, one with the wisdom of ages, the other with the weight of prophecy.

Their tragedy isn’t that they’re enemies, it’s that they could have been each other’s salvation.

[tired--fangirl]

No, he fucking loved her. He finally found someone like him, someone with power so unique it would be known throughout the world. Someone who he could love forever after watching countless loved ones die. I know he wanted power, but he grew up being hunted, being treated less than because of what he is. How can you expect him to act any different? He loved her.

[ratabrasileira]

“No,” he said gently as he folded me in his arms. He pressed a kiss to the top of my hair. “I will strip away all that you know, all that you love, until you have no shelter but me.”

Ruin and Rising

[wiwiurikawa]

"That relationship is toxic and they done unspokeble things to each other!"

Darling that's the exact reason why I ship them.

[aleksanderscult]

That Darklina moment when Alina created their children with merzost then used them to kill him and brought a building on his face only for Aleksander to ask her to become his Queen the next time they meet will never NOT be ICONIC 🛐

[kathrahender]

"I love enemies to lovers but without the manipulation stuff"

"I love enemies to lovers but without the abuse"

"I love enemies to lovers but without them hurting each other"

"I love enemies to lovers but without them trying to kill each other"

"I love enemies to lovers but without them wanting to hurt/kill the other"

"I love enemies to lovers but only if they fight for little things"

Ma'am, sir, or whatever you want to be called, do you even know the meaning of the word "enemy"?

Enemy: 1) a person who is actively opposed or hostile to someone or something. 2) a hostile nation or its armed forces, especially in time of war. 3) a thing that harms or weakens something else.

These are the different meanings of "enemy". So no, someone you disagree with about little things is not your enemy. For the love of God, understand it already. An enemy is someone you hate. An enemy is someone you want to hurt. An enemy is someone you want to see destroyed. An enemy is someone you'd like to kill. It's someone with a completely different morality, with different morals, with different ways of seeing the world.

An enemy it's not a person who jokes with you like "Oh, you're an idiot" "No, you". It's someone who takes seriously the fights against you, who would do anything to see you defeated and broken. That's what an enemy would do. If they do nothing like these things, they're not your enemy. They can be your rival, or someone you don't get along with, but definitely not an enemy.

And if you don't like these things, then you definitely don't like enemies to lovers ships. Because enemies to lovers ships are based on "two enemies -and I'll repeat it again just in case: two enemies- falling in love, after one corrupts or one redeems". If you don't like/don't accept two people hurting each other when they are enemies and then falling in love, don't pretend you like the enemies to lovers trope, because trust me, you really don't. You don't even know what's the trope about-

[stromuprisahat]

Hot take: The Darkling was damaged more by Alina Starkov than the other way around. Directly or not.

[anetherealpoetess]

most critics of heroine x villain ships are unknowingly performative, recycling patriarchal ideas of female goodness without ever questioning the cage. it is a masterclass in devastating subservience disguised as feminist critique. you can mute all the faux-progressive language about romanticising toxic relationships, and their arguments would still reek of gut-churning fear and conformity. i feel bad for them. truly. but punishing other women for stepping outside the rigid lines of acceptable womanhood is dystopian. fandoms are not surveillance states. no woman needs permission to enjoy the transgressive. no woman needs to beg forgiveness for enjoying her favourite stories.