#sol koroleva.

[solhelgen-arch]

mary szybist, incarnadine // leigh bardugo, siege and storm // mary szybist, incarnadine

[outletcrash]

the martyrdom of sankta alina and vanquishing of the starless saint

ᶠʳᵒᵐ ᵗʰᵉ ᵖᵉʳˢᵖᵉᶜᵗᶦᵛᵉ ᵒᶠ ᵃⁿ ᵃʳᵗᶦˢᵗ ᵒⁿᵉ ʰᵘⁿᵈʳᵉᵈ ʸᵉᵃʳˢ ˡᵃᵗᵉʳ

ᶦⁿˢᵖᶦʳᵉᵈ ᵇʸ ˢᵗ ᵐᶦᶜʰᵃᵉˡ ᵗʰᵉ ᵃʳᶜʰᵃⁿᵍᵉˡ ᵇʸ ᶜˡᵃᵘᵈᶦᵒ ᶜᵒᵉˡˡᵒ

[adriiivna]

Alina is Shu attire, inspired by traditional Chinese hanfu dress💛

[flippityflaps]

me with literally every woman in the Grishaverse: "SHE ATE! FEASTED! CONSUMED! DEVOURED! LEFT NO CRUMBS"

[ghostlymarauder]

Okay, this is a rant, so feel free to disagree. But as someone who saw the Shadow and Bone show first, then read the trilogy, and it's currently reading the SOC duology, I absolutely despise that Alina loses her powers at the end of Ruin and Rising.

I mean, I know, yes, it's the price for using merzost and whatever. BUT I WOULD'VE LOVE TO SEE HER DEVELOP INTO SOMETHING ELSE.

Like, the fact that she only had her power for a YEAR, that she only got to enjoy what she was meant to be for only a fucking year, it simply crushes me.

Again, this is a rant, nothing too serious, but, I would've liked to see Alina in the books as she ended in the show, with not only the ability to summon light, but also the ability to summon shadow.

[pale-and-sour]

aesthetic: alina starkov, the soldier.

“I didn’t know who I was in this little palace. I didn’t know who I was when there was an entire court of people looking on, expecting their own version of me. Some wanted a meek, little soldier from the First Army; some wanted a Sun Summoner from legend who would free Ravka from its ancient curse and recede back into myth; some wanted a rageful, hungry Saint who would slice the golden domes of Os Alta away and raze the Fjerdan ice plains to ash.”

[jupiter-jane]

I don’t love you

But I always will

Poison & Wine - The Civil Wars

[the-witch-of-woods-beyond]

“The Saint rattled the bars of her underground cage. This was her war, and she demanded freedom to fight it.”

- alina starkov, the saint: ruin and rising, before

[grishavrse]

doodled alina starkov because she's so pretty and i love her and i am her number one defender ❤️🩷💗🫶💞💕

[grishaversewhore]

did anyone else notice this parallel??

the darkling in no mourners: “today, we redraw all the maps” 

mal in no funerals: “make them redraw all the maps”

[applecidersstuff]

I love how Darkling and Alina enemies dynamic is written, because it shows what other authors don’t usually imply in those kinds of books.

Enemies like Alina and Darkling, Harry and Voldemort, Percy and Luke usually have a sort of bond, they know each other for a long time, they get to know one another like no one else. Their lives were destined to go alongside with each other, and then destroy one another. They start the same but turn out on different sides.

At the end of “ruin and raising” Alina mourns her rival, yes she hates Darkling, but they are alike, she saw herself in him just like he’d seen himself in her. During her journey to defeat Darkling, she learns his story his rights and wrongs. She can understand why he’d done what he had. She realizes in the very end that her rival is just a child who wanted to be loved. That child wanted to not be afraid to be who he is.

And while Alina doesn’t forgive Darkling, she makes sure that child has his recognition. She forgives that child, not who he’d became, but who he was.

She mourns someone who she’s known for a long time and already got used to being somewhere around.

[smolandweirdwriter]

Leigh Bardugo is, in fact, excellent in that she spent her trilogy putting Alina into positions of power only for Alina to realize it wasn’t what she wanted. But Alina isn’t weak! She was a soldier before she was a saint, and she is incredible and has suffered, and she deserves to be happy with her life! but seriously, how many other YA authors can actually say “my female protagonist doesn’t end up in a position of power just because she’s in love with a dude who has one”

[adriiivna]

Alina and Oncat:)

[eclipsed-sunn]

“you had to kill me, but it killed you just the same. cursing my name, wishing i stayed. you turned into your worst fears.” ☼☽

— song: my tears ricochet by taylor swift, who wrote this specifically for darklina it’s true

[flippityflaps]

HAPPY BDAYYY JESSIEEEEEE💗🥳☀️

[miss-fabrikator]

WTF HOT TOPIC HAS KEFTAS NOW?!?!-