#darklina deserved better and that's my bottom line

[firelxdykatara]

Ship whatever you want obviously but Leigh Bardugo has posted before that she wrote Shadow and Bone to cope with an abusive relationship and said Alina’s feelings reflect hers so I understand her not wanting to redeem the darkling

I’m gonna be real honest, here: then she shouldn’t have baited the audience from the very first book.

Like, I sympathize, but I’m not gonna stop criticizing bad writing just because it comes from a sympathetic place. (And, frankly, it makes very little sense to me that she’d condemn the Darkling to a fate worse than death [in the sequel books] because she was writing s&b to cope with an abusive relationship, but then she.... put Alina in an abusive relationship. Mal, in the books? Is horrid. And Alina has to be reduced to a shell of herself in order to make the relationship work. And like I can understand writing that way if it’s all she really experienced in terms of romance but that doesn’t make the writing any less bad.) But that also doesn’t change the fact that Darklina was heavily, heavily baited from the moment the first book was teased.

“A dark heart. A pure soul. A love that will last forever.”

That was the tagline for the first book. If I’d picked up Shadow and Bone, seen that tagline, read the back cover, and then someone told me that the Darkling dies and Alina winds up with her childhood bff who wouldn’t give her the time of day until someone else wanted her? I’d have been baffled. And from what I can tell, having read posts by people who were following the books from the start, Leigh also heavily baited the fandom up until the final book in the trilogy was released, people realized they were baited and got mad, and she decided she hated the Darkling and Darklina and everything to do with them (to the point of eventually doing him and his relationship with Alina even dirtier in sequel books released nearly a decade later; honestly, that’s nearly Bryke levels of pettiness).

So, at the end of the day, I don’t really care that Leigh didn’t want to redeem the Darkling. I don’t really get it (especially since she herself admits that Kaz Brekker is, morally speaking, even worse), but if the books were well-written and marketed as childhood friends falling in love and defeating a great evil, I wouldn’t really care. It probably would never have caught my attention, but I wouldn’t think anyone had much of a reason to feel cheated. As it is, though, I suspect that Leigh knew that the real money is in enemies-to-lovers relationships--they generate the most buzz, the largest followings, the most fan engagement--and decided to pull a bait-and-switch rather than being honest about her intentions from the beginning.

And that just means I really don’t respect her, at the end of the day. I’m grateful for SoC/CK (though I have my issues, and Helnik is another example of how allergic she is to enemies-to-lovers having happy endings or fulfilling lives together), and I love the show, but I just don’t have a whole lot of respect for the author as a creator.

[friendships-are-masterpieces]

I jump between friends to lovers & enemies to lovers ships, but nothing compares to ETL when it’s done right. It’s a shame because Leigh had a really good concept with Darklina, and then just decided to abandon it.

It’s hard to say I dislike Malina without sounding like an anti, which I’m not. I shipped Peeta with Katniss hardcore, so I’m not a stranger to FTL. But I think Leigh majorly misinterpreted the story. Mal & Alina just don’t match the chemistry of darklina, and I was hoping the series would change my mind. But it just made me more annoyed at how they were proping up Mal as the perfect boyfriend. It also interpreted Alina’s attachment to him as extremely co-dependent. It didn’t feel like the “healthier” relationship based on how much she needed Mal to emotionally support her. Antis like to trash darklina, but Alina actually had a fire in her belly around him.

So I just learned that the initial marketing copy for Shadow and Bone (originally called The Gathering Dark) made explicit references to a Darklina romance !!!!

Leigh, explain yourself!!!!!!!

[kallypsowrites]

I've seen alot of big book Twitter,BookTube and BookTok accounts suddenly turning Malina stans when previously they were Darkling/Darklina stans. And they use the same performative activism words like "manipulative" "abusive" "abuse apologist" "predatory" "pedophilia" and what not. One thing that I ABSOLUTELY LOATHE is them using such words with so much weight and blame in them,words that are REALITY for alot of people,to define the "lack of morality" in people who enjoy a fictional ship. I hate it.

And secondly,in my opinion,people suddenly turning into Mal stans has two reasons:

1. Mal is played by a POC actor. So if they hate on the character played by a POC actor, they'll obviously be called racist now. But if Mal was played by a white man,they wouldn't have changed their opinions. We're forgetting that all that Mal and Alina were white in the books for a whole decade,they turned them into mixed people in the show. I LOVE Archie I've known him since Golddigger but this isn't sitting right with me. Suddenly liking a character, forgetting all his wrongdoings just because he's played by POC? Something is fishy. I saw this tweet that said "Thank God Archie is playing Mal if it was a white boy I would've hated Mal even more." And the reply was "The only reason I'm suddenly into Mal is because he's mixed,if he was white it would've been on sight" and I just??????? I'm hella excited for Mal in the show but all these people who previously HATED Mal now trying to be all "Mal my king Darkling stay away you gross predator!!!" Has me losing my remaining 4 braincells.

2. They're simply scared of being cancelled for liking a problematic ship. They want to be on the "good side" of the fandom and feel moral superiority over people who like Darkles or Darklina. And I hate this. They call Ben an abuse apologist when he, just like us,NEVER justified Aleksander's behaviour. Good for them I guess,I'm gonna sit back and enjoy Ben and Jessie spreading the Darklina agenda while antis cry about how wrong it is.

Sorry for the rant pls correct me if I'm wrong. Love your blog❤️😭

Hey anon!

So, personally, I’m very wary of being the topic of race into the discourse because, simply put, its not my place. I am white. I don’t feel qualified to speak on the topic. I have seen POC who enjoy Darklina/the Darkling. I have seen POC who don’t. There are going to be a lot of people who come into the show fresh and this Mal and Darkling will be the only ones they know. And therefore it will be a valid interpretation if they like Mal better based on his new character. Not to mention, based on interviews, elements of his personality have been changed to make him more likeable so his race is not the only thing to change.

There is a conversation to be had about the fact that in the original trilogy, everyone was whiter than white with a few exceptions. And I am hoping Leigh doesn’t get too much credit for the show diversity. Its good that she is adding more, but she also doesn’t deserve brownie points. White authors in general get way too many pats on the back for writing ‘diverse books’ when really the spotlight should be shining more on POC authors who have constantly struggled to gain recognition in the industry.

Bottom line, I have no doubt people are going to discuss race in Shadow and Bone and I plan to mostly keep my mouth shut and listen on that because it’s not my place to add. I obviously don’t know your race so its up to you how you respond.

Now as to the second point, I do agree. I think Darklina is an overtly problematic ship. Its hero x villain. it never pretends to be anything else. And the Darkling is going to do some villainous stuff. People who are cool with enjoying fictional villains are okay with this, but there are plenty of people who would prefer to have the moral high ground (especially if they didn’t have strong opinions on the ship to begin with). I don’t know how many people have ‘switched’ because I’m kind of new to this fandom. But my advice is to let people ship as they please and if they do cross lines/attack you/send unasked for hate, block and move on. Life is to short to waste it all arguing with strangers about your taste and fictional ships.

I am glad that you like my blog.🖤

[cyborg-cinderella]

Oh, I think LB likes her fans … She likes baiting them and she likes using them whenever it’s convenient for her. And of course, she likes all the money that she makes off of them. It’s largely thanks to Darkling fans that the original trilogy was even adapted into a Netflix series and that’s just a simple fact. Most of the fan content (graphics, fan art, fanfiction, etcs) that’s created for the grisha trilogy is by Darklina fans. Not her precious endgame ship. But sadly, LB is very much like JKR in the sense that they both think they’re smarter than their readers.

There’s really nothing worse in a fandom than when an author/creator of a popular series publicly speaks/writes against a certain group in their fanbase. That’s how JKR was when people weren’t sold on the idea of Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny (this was before the last HP book was published). And that’s exactly how LB was/is when it comes to people not being on board with M*lina. They’ve both publicly talked about their own fans in a very condescending way at times. They might as well just say “Oh, you silly delusional girls! You read my books wrong! Let me explain them to you properly, so that you can finally understand. And while I’m at it, let me also kill off half of your ships and add a useless epilogue that no one asked for!” 🙄🤦🏻‍♀️

Ultimately, I understand that they (like all authors/creators) have a right to tell the stories that they want. But they don’t have a right to tell us how we’re supposed to interpret their series and they certainly don’t have a right to sh!t on us because we think they could have been better written if different choices were made in the creative process. We don’t need them to validate our thoughts and feelings about their content, but we also don’t need them to talk down to us either. All that does is create more division in fandoms. Bottom line — LET PEOPLE SHIP WHATEVER THEY WANT. Stop policing your own fans by telling them they’re wrong for liking the villain or for disliking a canon ship. Show ALL of your fans (even the ones you disagree with) the respect that they deserve because at the end of the day it’s thanks to them that you’re rich.

🥂🥂*clink clink* besties we'v been officially verified the cult of our patron the starless saint

So what's our first move as a cult i'm thinking throwing tomatoes at particular someone ofcourse i'm open for suggestions 🙃

[friendships-are-masterpieces]

Yess to all of this 👆

I see this argument a lot now. That Leigh was in an abusive relationship so darklina stans should know better. And I’m sorry that happened to Leigh. I truly am. In no way do I condone that in real life. But fiction, especially fantasy, isn’t confined to real life. Characters take on new meanings because reading is like a Rorschach test for the audience. You see different things depending on your own life experiences, and that’s totally normal. Leigh’s entitled to her opinion, of course, but these characters are ultimately going to bust out of their mold for readers who didn’t go in with that connotation. For me, personally I didn’t enjoy the Mal stuff because it felt like Alina had to constantly hold back for him, but it was presented in way like, look how much she loves him... she’d sacrifice her powers for him. And I just didn’t vibe with that message, especially if it’s being presented as the “healthier relationship”. I’d much rather see a story about redemption, and the balance between darkness and light, then a girl who has to suppress or give up her gifts for someone who didn’t even reciprocate her feelings until she was being pursued by someone else.

Ship whatever you want obviously but Leigh Bardugo has posted before that she wrote Shadow and Bone to cope with an abusive relationship and said Alina’s feelings reflect hers so I understand her not wanting to redeem the darkling

I’m gonna be real honest, here: then she shouldn’t have baited the audience from the very first book.

Like, I sympathize, but I’m not gonna stop criticizing bad writing just because it comes from a sympathetic place. (And, frankly, it makes very little sense to me that she’d condemn the Darkling to a fate worse than death [in the sequel books] because she was writing s&b to cope with an abusive relationship, but then she.... put Alina in an abusive relationship. Mal, in the books? Is horrid. And Alina has to be reduced to a shell of herself in order to make the relationship work. And like I can understand writing that way if it’s all she really experienced in terms of romance but that doesn’t make the writing any less bad.) But that also doesn’t change the fact that Darklina was heavily, heavily baited from the moment the first book was teased.

“A dark heart. A pure soul. A love that will last forever.”

That was the tagline for the first book. If I’d picked up Shadow and Bone, seen that tagline, read the back cover, and then someone told me that the Darkling dies and Alina winds up with her childhood bff who wouldn’t give her the time of day until someone else wanted her? I’d have been baffled. And from what I can tell, having read posts by people who were following the books from the start, Leigh also heavily baited the fandom up until the final book in the trilogy was released, people realized they were baited and got mad, and she decided she hated the Darkling and Darklina and everything to do with them (to the point of eventually doing him and his relationship with Alina even dirtier in sequel books released nearly a decade later; honestly, that’s nearly Bryke levels of pettiness).

So, at the end of the day, I don’t really care that Leigh didn’t want to redeem the Darkling. I don’t really get it (especially since she herself admits that Kaz Brekker is, morally speaking, even worse), but if the books were well-written and marketed as childhood friends falling in love and defeating a great evil, I wouldn’t really care. It probably would never have caught my attention, but I wouldn’t think anyone had much of a reason to feel cheated. As it is, though, I suspect that Leigh knew that the real money is in enemies-to-lovers relationships--they generate the most buzz, the largest followings, the most fan engagement--and decided to pull a bait-and-switch rather than being honest about her intentions from the beginning.

And that just means I really don’t respect her, at the end of the day. I’m grateful for SoC/CK (though I have my issues, and Helnik is another example of how allergic she is to enemies-to-lovers having happy endings or fulfilling lives together), and I love the show, but I just don’t have a whole lot of respect for the author as a creator.