#sry for anyone on mobile i tried so hard to use a cut

[sheikah]

favorite darklina moments?

Anon I’m so sorry because you did not sign up for the crazy long post you’re about to get but..HERE WE GO! (The “read more” no longer functions on mobile and I’m SO sorry to everyone this annoys.)

uM??? Soft. Literally the moment I knew I was trash. He takes his glove off to touch her??? Romance???

Okay so a few things here. 1. This is just my stupid emotions clouding my judgment but I think that if Alina hadn’t cut and run after Baghra told her the truth about him, she probably would have been able to convince Aleks not to expand the fold and instead to destroy it. Why? Well, I know he is playing her throughout the first book but he’s showing a lot of self-awareness here. Knowing he’s the only Darkling means he’s calling his own deeds greedy and evil. I think he might have been convinced to right those wrongs under the right circumstances and I like the vulnerability of this conversation for that reason. In R&R he tells Alina that he only decided to expand the fold and force her to take the stag’s amplifier after she left and “chose…” (clearly meaning chose Mal). Is that a viable motive for the murders he committed afterward? No lmao but I’m trash. 2. Alina is literally 24/7 checking him out. This is her POV. She is constantly calling him “perfect” and other very complimentary things 🤣 3. The inherent longing and romance of that last line. I’m sorry but that’s Good Shit and I love Alina’s dubious response as much as the declaration itself lol. 

I just love the cute lightheartedness of this scene and also the fact that he has taste. I mean we been knew because of The Aesthetic, but still. He knows garish when he sees it.

This whole scene because reasons. Idk man it’s just hot. It’s a YA book so we aren’t going to get the kind of smut I crave but the pining that results from this moment being cut off early is MY SHIT and I love the unexpected soft politeness of what he says before he leaves…

Bitch!!!! Say yes!!! 

This!!!!!! I wanted powerful and uninhibited Alina SO BAD. And obviously, so did he. (And lbr, so did Alina herself lol).

Idk I just love the angst of this. This is a clear admission that just like he was playing her, she was affecting his judgment too. He was a fool. A fool in love maybe??????? Lol ignore me.

On one hand, this is a bit creepy and possessive. But on the other hand I fucking love it. They’re both deeply lonely and at the end of the day? That’s the kind of tragic OTP I thrive on.

And see, THIS is why it’s so important that we get the story in first person. Because while the Darkling IS very problematic and I can see why people who hate the ship are squicked out to some extent, what matters is that we know that Alina still struggles with her feelings about him throughout the whole trilogy. After everything he has done a part of her still wants him and a part of her still acknowledges that he accepts her power in a way no one else really does. Also, lol at her once again commenting on how good he looks.

What can I really say? I live for this. My favorite moments in Alina’s story are ones where she allows herself to confront, if only in her mind, her own desire for power (”I was eager”) and I love that even while she just admitted to loving Mal, she can’t help herself with Aleks. “I could drown in it.” Bitch, me too. 

Just the way this is worded idk. She’s literally killing him. He’s been evil and conniving af. That’s not lost on me. But Alina doesn’t hate him. There’s no, “Just a little longer so I can kill this asshole” or “Just a little longer so I can send this monster to hell where he belongs.” No. She’s sending him “to the next world” and she’s gonna follow? Ok. Nothing to read into that at all.

Everything about this!!!!! “I respect your ruthlessness”??? A line that would work on me lmao. Also I live for hurt and vulnerable Aleks showing this bitterness. He’s allowing her to see that she hurt him, you know? Also love that it’s honesty when she says she wanted to see him. There is so fucking much mutual pining in this ship it’s torture. And even after everything they’ve done to one another they’re still like this!! How dare they! Let me live!!!!

Idk I love this because they’re such opposites in everything from appearance to ideology but they still have this pull on each other that drags them each nearer the middle. He brings out Alina’s ambition and she brings out his softness. Also, “I had a taste for you once” is probably my favorite line in all their interactions. I know everyone else loves “make me your villain” but this line is just sexier somehow and it comes from Alina! Alina toying with Aleks’s desire?? MY SHIT!

Give me dark!Alina! GIVE IT TO ME!!!

SO MUCH in this passage. This is in R&R so by this point the damage and history and pain in this ship is off the charts and Alina is still sitting here thinking about how she wants him. “I didn’t want to go …  I wanted this whispered confidence.” We love to see it. And then there’s his name. I actually love his name. It’s my husband’s name lmao (though he spells it with an x). And I agree with Alina that it’s kind of laughably cute that the big, bad Darkling has such a common (but pretty!) name.

More than that, I feel like a lot of people overlook the significance of this moment. In “The Demon in the Wood” we learn that Aleks was on the run for basically his entire youth. He’s gone by fake names since he was a child. That story is so heartbreaking, being in his head while he’s coaching and drilling himself to adapt to these false names and identities in a convincing way. He couldn’t share his real name with anyone. But what must that have done to his sense of self? Especially being so young, his ability to develop an identity like a normal person was taken away. He must have wanted, for years, maybe even centuries, to be able to be his real self. But he’s clearly never trusted anyone with the truth. Until Alina. And this isn’t soft, naive S&B Alina. This is “ruthless” book 3 Sankta Alina, his enemy in every sense of the word who has multiple times left him for dead (he deserved it but that’s not my point). And he trusts her with this and shares this intimacy with her and it makes me weep ok?

This is sexy. What else can I possibly say? It’s hot. My favorite piece of Darklina art is from this scene lol but I wish there was more fanart of this moment that actually depicted them as they are, with him basically sitting and Alina all up in his junk between his legs. I accept the Darklina isn’t canon but there are no other shippy scenes in the trilogy that match this one imo. THEIR POWER. It’s so good lol.

She literally killed him lmao. She was literally the one doing the stabbing here. She ended his long life and he’s still being sweet with her?????? The last thing he wanted to hear was her voice and his name???? Ok thanks.

K the funeral scene broke me but I am glad they gave him a proper funeral. But what I’m really here for? Alina Starkov’s last line of dialogue and last thought in The Grisha Trilogy is about Aleks and no one can take that away from me.

Anyway sorry for the giant trashy post I just have a lot of feelings about them. This is almost every scene so I failed to tell you my favorite moments rofl. They’re all my favorite. I guess if I had to pick three? The Winter Fete scene, Alina trying to kill them both in the chapel, and “let me.” Oof. 

Thanks for tolerating my insane and overwhelming love for this ship!!!!!