#or significant

[greensaplinggrace]

🔥 I’m so curious any unpopular opinions you might have about Nikolai….

do you want me crucified? please nikolai is this fandom's baby 😭😭

I'm alksjdflks- neutral on Nikolai at the best of times and I dislike him at the worst of times.

as a character, I find him fun, but I also find the 'charming rogue' archetype tired when it comes to him. I don't necessarily hate the archetype, but for some reason the way bardugo leans on it so much to make nikolai appealing rubs me the wrong way. I think it's a cheap imitation of what could have been a better crafted character. the times I have found nikolai most appealing are when he's cunning, political, and practical - especially after he's infected by the merzost. I also really like how similar he actually is to the darkling in a lot of ways, that's compelling to me. but all of that just makes me neutral towards him.

what makes me often swing into dislike is his function within the narrative. he essentially serves as the White Savior, and even when he gives zoya power (which in itself is handled unrealistically), it is with the same functional plot power and armor of a White Savior. I don't like the way bardugo handled the grisha and the monarchy, and unfortunately nikolai is just too tied into it all.

but actually the biggest unpopular opinion about him for me is that I think he should have also been an antagonist. not only would it have actually given bardugo's message about 'men in power' a lot of weight, but it would have been a brilliant study in how being outcast and othered doesn't automatically make you bad, and how being loved and accepted (and actually charming lol - he would serve as a much better 'charming abuser in hiding' than the darkling) doesn't necessarily make you good.

because this scene -

“I’m telling you that if you want to be a leader, it’s time you started thinking and acting like one.”

“I’ve heard this before, you know, from the Darkling and his supporters. Be brutal. Be cruel. More lives will be saved in the long run.”

“Do you think I’m like the Darkling?” I studied him—the golden hair, the sharp uniform, those too-clever hazel eyes.

“No,” I said slowly. “I don’t think you are.” I rose to go join Mal. “But I’ve been wrong before.”

-is the perfect setup to such a plot, and it would have given actual weight to what bardugo was trying to convey about men and power. it also would have gotten rid of the white savior trope, cast a more realistic light on the vilification of her only activist for the oppressed minority, and added more complexity to all of the characters.

tl;dr - unpopular opinion: nikolai would have served better as another antagonist, and I think his narrative function was unpleasant

send me a 🔥 for an unpopular opinion (x)

[canonkiller]

eat drink sleep play

[canisalbus]

✦ Pebble ✦

[bereft-of-frogs]

There’s that post that’s like ‘everyone should get into a tiny niche fandom at least once’ fully agree, that was really fun -- but I would like to add that everyone should get into a fandom where their opinions run counter to major fanon because it really teaches you about sticking to your guns and trusting your interpretation of the text without having to rely on peer validation

because WHAT are people talking about sometimes

[prolibytherium]

If I didn't draw this fucking thing at least once I would probably die

[scribefindegil]

someone: hey I noticed this thing you did in your writing!

me, kicking my feet up flirtatiously: oh??? do you want to hear my thoughts on why I did that? do you want a play-by-play of the language choices in every related sentence? do you want an exhaustive breakdown of The Themes???

[eydilily]

would you bite the hand that feeds you?

[whollyunnecessary]

People who have seen under 20 years of Doctor Who: Aw I can't believe they teased the Doctor's family but we didn't learn anything

People who have seen Too Much Doctor Who: THEY CONFIRMED SUSAN'S PARENT HASN'T BEEN BORN YET?? FINALLY A SIGNIFICANT UPDATE!! WE ARE MAKING REAL PROGRESS!!

[emberglowfox]

birds of a feather

[joycrispy]

Zepotha will never be Goncharov because when it comes down to it, tumblr culture is collaborative, while tiktok culture is merely iterative, and those are not the same thing.

[geomimetry]

huggies

[faintv0x]

is this you

Other iterator designs

[nicktoonsunite]

[desolationlesbian]

still the funniest plot point in all of pmmm that Homura Akemi is a 14 year old magical girl who realized that her sparkly transformation sequence did not come with a cutesy custom weapon like everyone else's so she just went online and googled "how to build a bomb"

[iteratorsex]

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