#the duology could've been so good if it felt like a proper continuation of tgt instead of whatever that was

[shesalittlelost]

What do you not like about Zoya?

The way she is used by the author as a vessel to let out her own frustrations at the readers for (rightfully) criticizing Ruin & Rising.

She becomes this mouthpiece to scold the readers for not hating darkling enough, which is really just author's fault coz if you have to hate-right a whole duology & remind people of all the bad things the bad guy did ten years later bcz you're still pissed that he ended up being widely more liked than the heroes of the story then you just failed at your job idk.

Also, Zoya's whole arc just feels like an overcompensation for Alina's ending. It's like Leigh read all the criticisms pointing out how horribly misogynistic and regressive Alina's ending was and decided to directly address them by giving Zoya everything that Alina was denied but in doing so, she got a little too carried away and obliterated the entire magic system going against everything she established in the og trilogy. It just feels like a very dishonest way of storytelling like if you're gonna write something then stand by it instead of getting so influenced by what fandom is saying.