louhilainen

[louhilainen]

You know what would heal my heart? Jujutsu Kaisen spin off like Sakamoto Days where Toji lives happily with Megumi and Mamaguro, after leaving assasination business for good. But then his old life creeps back in, starting from Nayato Zenin who's dissappointed to find the super powerful Toji living a peaceful house husband and as a doting husband and tries to drag Toji back to Zenin clan.

[louhilainen]

I 🧡 evil gingers.

[louhilainen]

I just watched Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 and I'm OBSESSED about Toji! I ship him and Mama Megumi so hard! 😭😭 Thank you Gete for creating this ship so I can let it too comsume my soul!

[louhilainen]

I'm actually glad Darkling isn't endgame in SaB as he would have ended a luke warm version of himself and not Darkling we know and love. If he had been end game, LB would have had to written him in a way that would have satisfied the masses and that's no good.

Meaning he wouldn't had been so goal orianted and he would had become just a simp to Alina. And everything would have worked out for him, he would never have needed to struggle. In the books even though he has connection to Alina, he pursuits his own goals and that what makes the conflict between Alina and Darkling so interesting.

And why would I need Darklina to be canon when I can just read fan fiction? I'm eternally grateful to fan fic authors as they write satisfying Darklina romance while keeping Darkling in character and make Alina more engaging character with depth.

[louhilainen]

REJOICE I HAVE OLYMPIA SOIREE MEMES!!!!!

SPOILERS!!!

[louhilainen]

Tainted Love, Tsukuyomi x Olympia fanfic

Summary: Tsukuyomi has long prayed for Byakuya's happiness and for her to find her soulmate. He always thought she would find both of them on Tenguu Island. But perhaps he was too hasty in his presumptions...

Words: 8,547

Link to A03

[louhilainen]

[louhilainen]

[louhilainen]

I nominate Tsukuyomi from Olympia Soiree!

Tsukuyomi

[louhilainen]

I watched the video and all I can say is this:

So what?

So what if women are thristing over fictional villains?

How does that affect reality???

I’m sick of people passing off patronizing and condescending commentary about how naive and impressionable women are as useful and educational. These people will base their analysis of fiction on sexist notions about how easily women are “tempted “ by malevolent villains and then act as if that’s some revolutionary take. They’ll unironically construe the narrative in a way that takes away all agency from the female heroine and frame her decisions as entirely the result of the villain’s manipulation.

They wring their hands about how dangerous it is for women to be exposed to these stories and moan about how terrible it is that hot villains appeal to the “baser instincts” and tempt female viewers further (Yes, I actually saw someone make this argument) It’s truly bizarre to see people agreeing with such patronizingly sexist rhetoric and saying things like “I miss the days when villain romances were cautionary tales and not encouraged.” As if women thirsting after attractive fictional villains is some epidemic that threatens society.

It’s especially irritating when women are the ones saying these things. They want to believe that they are a rare exception that, unlike those other brainless girls, can understand that liking hot villains will threaten their morals and lead them astray…OH THE HORROR!! Please save your dramatic preaching for the next purity conference and stop pretending that your sanctimonious commentary has any substance whatsoever.

[louhilainen]

Thank you for writing the best analysis of Alina I've ever read! 😭

You summarized beautifully what exatly is wrong with her: she has nothing of her own and she doesn't even want to have anything for herself expect Mal. Her character growth is just circle. Which is a damn pity as she would have been an interesting character if she had been allowed development.

Alina Starkov - the most inconsistent main character. A tragedy of not wanting to have an identity.

The main character in Shadow and Bone trilogy, a prime example of "she deserved better". A.k.a. soldier, Sun Summoner, Sun Saint. In reality, a false saint and a false hero, who has less personality, goals, spine and consistency than her three love interests. How did this happen? Short answer - bad writing. Long answer? Here we go.

Her character at the beginning - a blank slate.

Physically small and weak, sickly, fragile, with a sour face and sourer attitude. Grew up in an orphanage funded by a Duke, who they were taught to basically worship while looking down on religion and beliefs in saints. Children in the orphanage were beaten if they misbehaved or didn't do chores, but were given education and fine food, which means they were faring better than peasants and farmers. Alina had not many, but several options in her life. She could learn a trade that would not require physical labour, like sewing. Or, she could marry and hope her husband was gracious enough to buy a donkey instead of making her carry heavy sacks of salt on her back, as we see a random man do to his wife. But Alina had no hobbies, interests, aspirations or ambitions in her life. Except her childhood friend Mal. Mal gets a mandatory draft in the First Army, and of course Alina follows, and settles for being a mediocre cartographer. Mal thrives in the army, showing off muscles and hooking up with women, while Alina dutifully waits for him saints know why. She doesn't have other genuine friends, she doesn't like people, she doesn't like anything. This is not a bad start in a sense that there is much room for growth and improvement.

Refusing to belong

Alina discovers she's a long awaited sun summoner, who can vanquish the Fold and unite Ravka. She doesn't want to be special, but not for the reasons you might think. Instead of fearing the burden of such an important task or genuinely becoming paranoid of being assassinated (she gets over those in five minutes), she just...doesn't want the responsibility of actually being useful for something. She'd rather not have powers at all, and go back to being in a constantly sickly state. She'd rather be tailing Mal like a mouse. Which doesn't make any sense for following reasons:

Alina's insecurities in SaB:

Not being pretty and talented

2. Not being as pretty and talented as Grisha

3. Being an orphan, being unwanted.

Being a Grisha actually solves all those problems for her. She gets prettier and healthier once she stops repressing her powers, has a unique cool power, and a community that cares for her. Plus, the support from important figures in Ravka. In time, she could have a family.

Instead, she refuses to acknowledge she's one of them, doesn't train properly, preferring to cling to her prejudices and make digs at Grisha. She'd rather complain that they're prettier, confident and pampered than acknowledge they are serfs, nothing but glorified servants with no basic human rights. Instead of her superstitions and prejudices being shattered when she starts living with them and realizing what Grisha have to go through, becoming rightfully enraged that her people are being treated this way, she still doesn't feel any empathy. In fact, she still doesn't see the General as a HUMAN BEING WHO MIGHT HAVE FEELINGS, even though he makes time in his busy schedule of running an army to make sure she's comfortable, jokes along with her, listens to her fears and reassures her, etc. Why would he go through the trouble if he was heartless? He's the General of the Second Army, by the King's law, she's his soldier. She is obligated to obey him regardless.

The narrative supports her delusions.

I get missing her friend, I get struggling to adjust, but it's more than that. Alina is getting dragged along from a plot point to a plot point kicking and screaming, as if she has anything better to do. She doesn't have a life, why is she so against of getting one? Once she finally somewhat adjusts to her life in the Little Palace, it turns out Darkling has had malicious intents towards her powers all along! Aha, you were right to be prejudiced, Alina! Now abandon your people, your country, and run!

“He … he said that Darklings are born without souls. That only something truly evil could have created the Shadow Fold.”

Imagine telling a person who saved your life that he was a soulless abomination, even though you do not know him, and he is still kind to you and reveals as much about him as he can. There is no grooming and manipulation here, it's just called not being a bitch. Darkling tells Alina he's over 120 years old, Alina is an adult, and the damned kiss was consensual. Of course he didn't tell her everything. Even regular people don't reveal their life-long ambitions and deepest childhood trauma to their crush after several conversations. It took Alina months to stop being in denial about being a Grisha, still didn't like being one, you're telling me if Darkling set her down and explained the complex political situation and his plan to overthrow the corrupt monarchy and bring an end to the war, Alina wouldn't jump out of the window?

Alina running away, not confronting the problem, and straight up deciding Darkling was evil incarnate with no evidence snowballed into Darkling deciding she couldn't be trusted and taking more drastic measures. Liberation of his people was on the line and one pesky girl screwed up a carefully planned coup because she couldn't handle her feelings.

False badassery

Throughout the whole three books, every time Alina makes a decision, it's immediately followed by self-doubt, shame and scorn. But no actual objective criticism. We often see variations of "It was foolish, but I didn't care", "I knew it was reckless but I couldn't bring myself to care", but never her actually analyzing why, or deciding not to do something like that again. Her small victories are immediately followed by thoughts on how would others feel about it, even though the person in question isn't even there and couldn't give less of a shit: "Never is it to be said that Ana Kuya didn't teach us manners", "A cheap trick, but a good one. Nikolai would be proud". Ana Kuya was an abusive mother figure, Nikolai was using Alina's status to get the throne. Sure, it's good that Alina is capable of learning useful things from every kinds of people, but she doesn't think "That was smart of me. I learnt that. I'm proud of myself for an accomplishment". She thinks "Is it good? Would they like it? They like things like that, right?". She attaches herself to people that fit her view of "deserving" and helps them, even though it might not be for the best. Extreme lack of self-worth, combined with entitlement.

When Alina hears a rumour Darkling ordered his heartrenders to sew a traitor's mouth shut, she's horrified. Even though that's hardly the worst punishment for a traitor in an army. But when some pilgrims insult Genya, she orders to have their tongues cut out after they're given only one warning. When Alina commits violence at slightest provocation, it's baddass. But when Darkling commits a controlled necessary military act to stop enemies from overrunning the country, it's madness and is falsely labeled genocide. Look up the definition, genocide is what was happening to Grisha.

The Darkling never kidnapped children and put them in the war zone. He only lied to Alina that he did, a clever strategy with no bloodshed. Meanwhile, Alina let her cult fight for her, whose members were brainwashed children, some only twelve years old.

When Alina faces a dilemma or a tense military situation, her go-to strategy is suicide. That is not martyrdom, nor it is badass.

Darkling became a bad person out of good intentions and desperation, Alina is just a bad selfish person.

Desperate people are the ones capable of the worst acts. Darkling didn't go nearly as crazy as he could, and frankly had a right to on behalf of his people.

"Aleksander had marched south with the king’s soldiers, and when they’d faced the Shu in the field, he’d unleashed darkness upon their opponents, blinding them where they stood. Ravka’s forces had won the day. But when Yevgeni had offered Aleksander his reward, he had refused the king’s gold. “There are others like me, Grisha, living in hiding. Give me leave to offer them sanctuary here and I will build you an army the likes of which the world has never seen.”

It doesn't matter how much genocide, prejudice, abuse and dehumanization the Grisha suffered through for centuries all around the world, Alina never bothers to look at the big picture. Her help is only for those who she deems worthy of it.

She attaches herself to people who fit her narrow-minded view of "worthy". She immediately believes Baghra's rather flimsy expose of Darkling, even though the old woman has been nothing but unhelpful to her, only insulting her and beating her. But Alina associates her with her only mother figure, Ana Kuya, another old hag she had a toxic relationship with. And even though Baghra is an immensely powerful Grisha who refuses to help or even lift a finger, or just spit out vital information, Alina coddles her and provides protection. Instead of telling her to fess up the useful information and save her unhelpful comments, Alina looks up to her as a mentor.

When Genya tells her story, Alina feels bad for her, but not bad enough to see things her perspective. She only becomes protective of Genya once she gets mutilated, out of pity. If it was genuine compassion, she would've forgiven and understood her from the start.

Every Grisha has been hunted and shamed for merely existing, almost every Grisha has lost a loved one to war. But Alina pointedly ignores it, because she doesn't personally know and care for those people. Therefore, she doesn't feel empathetic. Because if she feels empathetic, she might start feeling guilty about how she runs away from her responsibilities at every given opportunity. Just look at this passage:

“You know what he plans to do, Ivan.” “He plans to bring us peace.” “At what price?” I asked desperately. “You know this is madness.” “Did you know I had two brothers?” Ivan asked abruptly. The familiar smirk was gone from his handsome face. “Of course not. They weren’t born Grisha. They were soldiers, and they both died fighting the King’s wars. So did my father. So did my uncle.” “I’m sorry.” “Yes, everyone is sorry. The King is sorry. The Queen is sorry. I’m sorry. But only the Darkling will do something about it.”

The Darkling never wanted power for selfish reasons. He didn't want to take over other countries or lift Grisha above regular people. He wanted his kind to have basic human rights. Centuries of diplomacy and servitude only gave him enough power to make a school for Grisha children and save adults from slavery and getting slaughtered by serving nobles. He wanted to use the Fold as a border, to stop enemies from invading whenever they pleased, so he would have the time to save Ravka from collapsing. What has Alina done? Started a civil war, destroyed the Second army and helped put a morally dubious man with no claim on the throne to continue an outdated absolute monarchy tradition.

Alina Starkov was meant to be the sun, but turned out to be a trick of the light.

Every time it felt like Alina was emerging from her cocoon as a beautiful butterfly, embracing her true self, she went back to the toxic situationship and the toxic mindset. The narrative also always struck her down. Every book begins and ends with her being sickly, fragile, missing an essential part of herself. It would be good if it was written differently and showed themes of being disabled or having a chronic illness accurately, but it's not. It started out well. Alina was removed from an abusive environment, found a purpose in life, started loving her newfound powers, outgrew the stupid crush who she was way too dependent on, but it all went downhill from there. And then some. This constant vicious cycle does not fit the theme of growth and improvement, and neither does the ending, where Alina loses her powers and goes back to the orphanage. Once again, she's frail and strange, servants (who she now employs) don't respect her, sneer and make fun of her, while her now husband Mal turns a blind eye. Everything is back to the way it was: Mal thrives, Alina is...there. The ending is supposed to be bittersweet, a couple who survived a war building a new life together, but I don't see the sweet part.

Trick of the light - definition: something appearing different from what actually is as a result of the quality of light.

Darkling wanted her to be a strong Grisha, his equal and balance. Grisha wanted her to be a capable leader, Bataar twins wanted a living saint they could worship, Nikolai wanted a wife interested in Ravka and politics. Alina tried to be all of that, but never really wanted to be any of those, so she half-assed it. Mal wanted the version of Alina who was small and insignificant, because anything more made him insecure, and he got his wish.

Illusion, mirage, spectre.

No matter how much the author tries to tell us that Alina's every problem is Darkling's fault, her thought process and actions paint a different picture. Alina was never mentally healthy and she never addressed or resolved her problems. Growing up in a controlled and abusive environment affected her more than anyone, including herself, wants to admit. I am not a licensed psychiatrist, so I will refrain from officially diagnosing Alina, even though she's a fictional character. I am NOT saying I know for certain that Alina has these, if any, mental problems, but she does have some alarming symptoms. It seems like depersonalization. While her symptoms don't fit into one particular mental disorder, I am reminded of psychiatric infantilism, but it is not a mental illness with symptoms. Psychiatric infantilism doesn't necessarily mean the person acts outwardly childishly. To explain very roughly and simply, it means the psych is not as developed as it should be (even if the person is very smart and clever). It shows in avoiding responsibility or not feeling it at all, problems with social connections, not seeing the big picture and taking it seriously, etc. When Harshaw tells the story of his brother getting brutally murdered by people who hate Grisha, even brash Zoya is appalled and expresses her condolences. While all Alina thinks about is that Harshaw might base his hope of having a better life on her now.

Alina also might have Dependent Personality Disorder, but it's hard to say, since we are never shown her being on her own long enough to see whether or not she can take actually care of herself. But her relationship with Mal, Darkling and Baghra (after she no longer objectively needs them) is weird, to say the least.

She never gains the sense of self or an identity, she refuses to become something, then delivers an inner monologue of accepting her fate and five minutes later goes back on her words. Her titles are slapped on her, and she peels them off. Her personality never really changes. Everything she went through feels like a really bad exchange program she was in for a year, and from which she has learnt nothing.

P.S. I don't hate Alina's character, I just mourn her lost potential.

If you have made it to the end, I salute you, congratulations and thank you. 😊 🙏 ❤️

[louhilainen]

I’m going to rant about the Nikolai duology for the last time, so I can finally yeet the books back to the library and forget I ever read this book. 

The Darkling’s arc was complete in the trilogy. I don’t even mind him dying in canon, as his death scene was beautiful and tragic. (And fanfiction exists so…) But the Nikolai duology brings him back from death which is just so unnecessary. So why did LB think it was a good idea to bring him back? I can think of a few reasons.

The first one is that it’s just lazy writing and or/she’s insecure. LB doesn’t want to or cannot write good villains/antagonists into the story, so she has to use old ones the readers are familiar with. To my understanding, the Darkling is quite a popular character. Maybe she wanted to have the Darkling in the duology as she wasn’t sure if the books would sell otherwise?'

The book makes a big deal of him coming back, but his presence hardly changes anything in the story. He has his own adventure with his cult, he declares Zoya as a saint and then he becomes a tree to suffer for eternity while everyone can live happily??? Not to mention the duology already has villains/antagonists from Shu and Freyja. I would rather have the duology focus on writing them well instead of having too many characters. Less is more is valid. 

Oh yes, at the end of the book, Zoya and the rest discuss saving him. So if there’s going to be another Grishaverse book, it’s going to be about that. I say leave him alone LB. The man has suffered enough. 

[louhilainen]

I hated how the Nikolai duology pushed Alina, Zoya and Alina into the role of victims. I’m not saying the girls didn’t have a reason to hate the Darkling and that their grudge should have been left out of the books, but I just hated how badly it was written.

Alina being the Darkling’s victim undermines her. She was a woman who almost buried the Darkling alive, left him on the mercy of volcras and in the end, killed him with her own hands. Yeah, the Darkling did fucked up shit and she has a reason to hate him. But she wasn’t just a victim. The Darkling saw her as a threat. I cannot say if he saw her as his equal, but he saw potential and grew to admire her (and want her, lol). But the books seem to forget that and treat Alina like some fragile thing that needs to be protected from the evil Darkling.

Zoya says straight up that he manipulated her (Do you… I look back and I hate knowing how easy I was to manipulate.) Well, I cannot see how he manipulated her??? She did have a crush on him, but the Darkling did nothing to encourage those feelings. Yes, Zoya has every reason to hate Darkling about the attack on the Novokribirsk, and those feelings should be explored. But please, Zoya, don’t make up a narrative where you were his victim. You aren’t that special (Honestly, if the Darkling manipulated me I would thank him on my knees, be grateful Zoya loooool).

I can understand Genya hating the Darkling for making the nichevo'ya attack her. But the fault of her rape cannot be entirely put to the him. I seriously doubt even the Darkling had the foresight to see the King raping her. Yes, the Darkling should have taken her away from the Little Palace, and not given her choice for revenge. I don’t doubt for a second that Genya’s choice was convenient for him, but the Darkling did give her the choice to leave. (And he didn’t make nichevo'ya mutilate her because she challenged him, but because she defied his orders, but let’s not go there.)

I hated the scene in the end where Genya gives a speech about growing stronger from her experience and blaa blaa. It’s just so…. Unnatural and forced. I’m going to repeat myself, that I don’t have a problem with their grudges or hating the Darkling, I have just a problem with the way it was written. There’s no nuance or not showing how the manipulation affected them. It’s just telling, not showing. When reading a book, I don’t want to be preached to. I want to be immersed in the characters’ emotions and experiences. I want to be made to feel what they feel. I don’t want the narrative to push some kind of “right” way of interpreting the book. It just makes me feel annoyed and takes me out of the experience.   

[louhilainen]

If the Darkling's intention was really to seduce her, he should have put in more effort instead of fumbling around. You would think he would have known how, given his experience to lying to naive little girls /s.

I’ve never understood why the darkling wanted to distance himself from Alina when she was in the little palace… thoughts ?

Oh that's simple, anon!

He was busy with running an army. Ravka was in the midst of a war and the Darkling was responsible for the Second Army. Alina rarely saw him and she said herself that he had under his command every Grisha of the realm.

But he threw himself even more wholeheartedly in his work after he realized that his feelings for Alina developed into something more...romantic.

You would have thought that for such a manipulative con with lying tendencies he would spend half of his days with her and prevent her from spending time with his mother.

Well, the opposite happened.

[louhilainen]

I would have liked the ending of the trilogy better, if Alina had something else going on with her life than Mal.

It seems like she has no passions or interests other than Mal. At the very beginning of the SaB she’s described as average at cartography, having no special interest or skills, or even strong friendships other than Mal (if it can be called that, as Alina has pick-me up attitude toward him). All Alina has is wry humor and her love for Mal. In the Little Palace, for the first time in her life, she has something of her own. Her power as the Sun Summoner. She finally has something she can excel at. 

In S&S and R&R Alina is busy surviving, trying to negotiate her new life in politics and as the leader of the Second Army, trying to stop the Darkling etc. etc. So I can see it really isn’t time for self discovery.  But couldn’t Bardugo in the first place have made her have dreams or interest outside Mal? Anything would have been fine. Like weaving, drawing, cooking, making cheese, anything! 

The ending with the orphanage and Mal is portrayed as sweet, domestic bliss, with a hint of sorrow and loss, but ultimately hopeful. But to me, Alina’s life just seems… sad. It seems to suit someone over 30+, not someone who’s about 20-years old. If Alina had shown some kind of interest in caring for children before I could get behind that. The only things of her own are the paintings and other art projects she does. The ending would have been more tolerable if losing her powers had given her a change to pursue her own dreams and goals.

It just seems Alina had something for the first time in her life, a piece of herself that made her complete, and then she lost it. Then she went back to Mal because Bardugo cannot allow her to have anything meaningful in her life except him.

I just think that this is a weird message to have, especially in an YA-book.

[louhilainen]

I'm terrible sorry for this stupid meme. 😅

When reading the scene in S&S, where the Darkling taunts Mal in the ship "I'll be certain you hear it when I make her scream," I was really confused because did I just read right or do I have just a dirty mind???

Later in the book, Mal questions Alina what the Darkling and Alina were doing under the deck in his room (implying they were having intimate relationships), and I was like????!! Shouldn't you be worried instead if she was being tortured??? She was his captive you know??? It just seemed that Mal would have preferred her to be tortured instead...

[louhilainen]

Why King of Scars sucked, part 1.

So after finishing the duology a few weeks ago, I finally feel I’ve healed enough to rant about it, lol. I don’t have the energy to talk about everything I hated about the duology, because I don’t want to waste too much of my energy and time on the bullshit called King of Scars. But since I’m such a bitter bitch, I’ll talk about some issues I had with it. Mind you, I might remember some things wrong, and I have to admit that I don’t want to reread the books in detail, so this can be taken with a grain of salt. 

So firstly let’s talk about Zoya, and more specifically her past and why it failed me (and I think lots of other readers as well) to feel any kind of sympathy for her. So in the original trilogy we learn that Zoya had an aunt and niece in Novokribirsk, a town that the Darkling destroyed in an attempt to show off his powers to foreign emissaries. That made her ally herself with Alina, despite her being originally hostile and mean to her out of jealousy. No other information is provided about her past, and we do not learn anything about her aunt or niece. IMO Zoya was a fine side character in the trilogy. She’s bitchy, full of herself, but she’s not insufferable, and I liked the growing friendship between her and Alina. I will always remember Alina squeezing Zoya’s hand when Alina and the gang feared being buried alive in the tunnels. 

In the duology… Well, we all know what she’s like there. She’s mean, but not in an entertaining way, but in an exhausting way. She loses her temper so often that whoever made her the general of the second army must have been out of their mind (Looking at you, Nikolai), yet everyone still gushes about how beautiful and competent she is (Despite there being no evidence whatsoever about her being a good soldier or a leader, expect that she’s kick ass strong Squealer I suppose.). Everyone fears her, but for some reason they love her. (Or so we are told by who else but Nikolai). 

In the duology Zoya’s tragic past is extended beyond the trilogy. We learn that she was a child bride, sold by her own mother to a wealthy and rich man, and her aunt saved her from being married and took her to Little Palace as her powers surfaced. Oh, she’s also half-Suli, but can pass as Ravkan. But I could not bring myself to care about Zoya’s sad past. I’ve tried to think about why that is, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s because Zoya’s past has no effect whatsoever on the story.

How her past/trauma is handled is a stark contrast to how Kaz's trauma is shown in SoC (Mind you, I have my own issues with Kaz and SoC, but let’s not go there). In the SoC we learn there’s something behind Kaz’s ruthlessness and drive in making money. We also learn he cannot touch other people with his bare hands and that there’s something going on with him and Pekka Rollins and it’s personal. All the hints make the reader curious about Kaz’s past and what exactly happened. Later on, it’s revealed that Rollins swindled him and his older brother out of all their money. Weakened, Kaz’s brother died to an epidemic and Kaz almost too. The whole experience molded him into what he was.  

(Excuse me, but this part of my rant may be foggy, because I cannot pinpoint exactly why I hated the way Zoya’s sad past was written, but I’ll try my best.) But Zoya’s tragic background isn’t shown like Kaz’s. It’s just told. Yeah, we already know Zoya had relatives in Novokribirsk, so there’s no mystery there like in Kaz’s case. But I argue that if the author could still have written in a more interesting way. As it is now, it just doesn’t work. Zoya’s sad past is just some kind of decoration, of which purpose is to make us feel sorry for her. I felt Zoya’s past didn’t explain or add anything meaningful about her character. If anything, it left me angry, because clearly I was supposed to side with her, but I couldn’t.

Kaz’s trauma is closely linked to who he is. If what had not happened to him, he would be an entirely different person. But all Zoya’s background offers her the reason to join Alina and to hate the Darkling. You could argue that it’s part of the reason why Zoya is so mean, because she doesn’t want to get hurt by caring about people (But she was mean before losing her family so…). But if that’s the case, then it was poorly written. As it is now, It doesn’t explain her behavior. If you took her sad past away from her, it would change nothing. (The only scene I remember making a difference was when Zoya got mad at the pilgrims, and made a storm that made her, Nikolai and Yuri to be trapped with the saints). So why even add it there? Who knows. My best guess is to earn pity points from the reader.

So I hope this makes sense. I really could have elaborated this more, but I just don’t want to, lol. But next time I’m going to talk about the holy trinity of the Darkling’s victims: Zoya, Alina and Genya. Amen.