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I was going through your blog and found that anon ask where anyone was saying like "I can't excuse his crimes because he has no loyalty to his people. Sure he did a lot of good things and wanted to change the world to make it safer" and I'm like baby girl he's the only one who ever did anything good for the Grisha. He's the only one who has ever bothered. Baghra didn't care. He did it all by himself. In the KoS duology there's a network to get Grisha out that was set up years before Nikolai ascended the throne. Wonder who arranged that? All of the reforms the heroes do are just whatever he did before to fit their image. He's the only one who ever accomplished anything in that goddamn trilogy. And antis wonder why he has so many stans.

I believe what that post really wanted to say was "I can't excuse his crimes because he wasn't nice to those 3-4 characters I care about".

Because I don't see any outrage about Baghra treating other Grisha like trash because "they'll die anyway".

Or about Alina, abandoning people who hoped for her over and over again and killing Grisha who didn't side with her. I guess "not being kind to traitors" is only bad when you are an antagonist.

Or about her destroying that skiff with no remorse. Not a single Zoya's aunt was in sight, so I guess it's okay?

I don't see people calling out Nikolai's self-servingness. I don't believe that letting your people starve for a political advantage is a sign of loyalty. Or letting the previous king get away with all crimes he committed against Ravkans. Antis spend hours raging about what Aleksander should have done to prevent Genya from being raped, yet when Nikolai sends his rapist "father" to a resort with plenty of maids to abuse, he "did what he could". Sure, a monarch in the absolute monarchy has extremely limited options. His hands are practically tied.

There is no outrage against Jarl Brum who commits truly horrific Nazi-inspired crimes and gets yet another chance. Sure, he groomed a lot of kids into his genocidal organisation, but none of them was Alina or Zoya, so who cares?

That's why when such posts remember about Grisha in general or larger political issues only to blame the Darkling somehow. They simply don't care about those things otherwise.

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In this post I've already mentioned how the orphans under Alina's care are pretty much doomed. But do you know who'll get the shortest end of the stick? Grisha children. What fate awaits a Grisha kid who has the misfortune to end up in Keramzin?

We have Malyen, who, as we know, is bigoted against Grisha and their powers. He resented Alina's powers, insisted she was better off suppressing them (even if it made her weak, sickly, and miserable), and very much enjoyed stroking his ego by humiliating Grisha in the fight in Siege and Storm. Do you see this delightful guy encouraging a magically gifted child to embrace their powers? Me neither.

What of Alina herself? Well, she has plenty of internalized anti-Grisha bias as well. From the very beginning, she sees Grisha as something "other" and "unnatural," and those beliefs not only aren't getting challenged over the course of the books, they are reinforced by the ending where Alina has to lose her power in order to be free of her "burden" (or to be punished for her alleged greed, depending on who you ask). We see what kind of mentality she has (thanks to her orphanage upbringing and Mal's influence): striving for more is greed, being different is vanity, and making yourself less and blending in with the crowd is good and righteous. Running away, hiding, and playing dead are her types of responses. The only person who affirmed her Grisha identity, encouraged her to unlock her potential, and didn't shame her for her powers was the Darkling, and he, in her opinion, is the evilest evil that ever eviled, so he couldn't possibly be right about anything and everything he ever did or said was wrong and malicious. Her attitude to power shows in what she says about Aleksander: "burdened with too much power, corrupted by time". It's pretty telling, since we see how she associates power with inherent danger and corruption and completely ignores centuries of persecution, injustice, and losses that shaped the Darkling, assuming instead that he simply had too much power for too long. It's not too far-fetched to imagine she would be apprehensive of a child with Grisha powers and will probably teach them to suppress their power, much like she used to do herself.

The child will waste away, both physically and metaphorically, but hey, our heroes avoided making otkazats'ya kids (and Mal) feel jealous and insecure, protected their precious "ordinary" life, and prevented the rise of another "greedy, overpowered, and power-thirsty" Grisha who otherwise might have decided to partake in such evil activities as fighting for Grisha rights or dismantling the corrupted monarchy. Heaven forbid, Alina and Mal are getting funded by that monarchy; they don't want their gravy train to dry out.

And just like that, Alina, who once could have become a Grisha liberator, might be complicit in their erasure. May I suggest a tattoo? "I am become a tool of oppression"?

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For books, pretending woman's moral compass lies between her legs, TGT sure has some serious double standards for different characters.

Alina is somehow tainted for being drawn to a man she shares a metaphysical bond with, because he evil, yet Zoya's nothing but lovably flawed in other areas, when we see her make out with another girl's boyfriend, who just beat up another Squaller to soothe his own delicate otkazat'sya inferiority complex.

Zoya doesn't even have the excuse of Etherealki snobbery, since* Eskil can't be more alike as Grisha division goes, and unlike Alina, Zoya acknowledges the existence of anti-Grisha prejudice, yet such a trifling matter can't stop her libido.

*Oh no, sorry! That was Corporalki snobbery and Etherealki cliques...

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Ruin and Rising- Chapter 4 (Leigh Bardugo)

He's doing the same thing he was doing for second half of the previous book, except now he's actively gaslighting Alina it's for her own good, ~he~ is the reasonable one.

Malyen knows Alina isn't particularly close to any of her Grisha and he already witnessed her crumbling under the pressure of expectations placed on her, yet he's denying her the emotional support any half-decent FRIEND would offer, justifying it by his own "overwhelming" feelings for her, which can never come to fruition due to ~her~ status and glorious destiny of a passive icon he knows she's desperately avoiding.

It's like tough-love parents, but make it romantic relationship:

"I'm neglecting you for your own good!"

As long as she was dying without her powers, he played the devoted boyfriend, kept away only by armed forces. Now that she's as healthy as she'll ever get a chance to be, and outside of influence of bigger players than Malyen (Like the Apparat or Nikolai.), it's time to put her back in her place.

Strategy is the same, only its interpretation changed a bit.

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When yoo joonghyuk wants to regress but kim dokja exists

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otto's scare tactic on Alicent made no sense.Rhaenyra hadn't shown any sign of pure hatred towards young Aegon or any of Alicents children other than anger in driftmark.

Realistically if book and show Alicent had known her place (as in she wasn't there to give heirs but spares) she'd have been fine. It was Alicents greedy leading her not her fear for her children.

Rhaenyra who Alicent had made an outsider in her childhood home was the one who had every right to be afraid and fight back. Alicent was no longer the victim after her green dress stunt in my opinion

Because no matter how much TG will deny it, in this scenario Alicent is the bad guy, because SHE put her children in danger. SHE led them to war, SHE made their sister out to be a villain in their eyes, SHE was on the team that planned to murder Rhaenyra and her children, not the other way around. SHE tormented, hated and planned to kill TB, not the other way around. Rhaenyra and Daemon wanted to at the beginning of the negotiations, SHE drew first blood and it was Alicent's fault that she raised Aemond the way she did. Try to change my mind.

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Thank you 😊 It always rubbed me the wrong way how some people think they are similar 😕 They aren't.

Nikolai is not the opposite of Aleksander. He is not a saviour of the people or the good to Aleksander's 'evil'.

"You cannot equivalize an oppressor to the people that they oppress."

Nikolai was a prince and later became a king. He already has the power and previledge to do whatever he wants. Nikolai doing good is him merely doing his duty as a decent ruler.

Aleksander on the hand was from an actively hunted down community. He took the initiation to stop the genocide of his people. It was never his burden to carry but he did it because he was the only one who could(an immortal). He did it all because he wanted his people to live. He laboured for centuries to establish a place where his people could stay safe. He wanted to get the throne so his people would always stay safe even when regimes and technologies change.

So, yes. Both of them cannot be equated as they were never in a level playing field to begin with.

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also another reason why the shadow and bone series is a disaster zone: the timeline is impossibly scrunched. like yes, a civil war/coup/etc does not have to be a multi-year conflict but also-- this is a country the size of like, at minimum 1/3 of a whole continent. given that it's based on russia if we assume they're roughly the same size.... like..... dude.... the actual real life russian revolution went from 1917 to 1922.... these things take time. not even getting into how we're stretching the suspension of disbelief already having all these fucking 17yos running around with the skillset and reputations of an early-late twenty something (i'm looking at you especially with this one kaz my love) but just....... do you know how long logistics can take? and across somewhere like 1800s russia? ESPECIALLY wartorn 1800s russia.

also the idea that alina would ever be actually in charge is fucking hilarious. she had like.... 6 weeks of grisha training and bc she was a fucking CaRtOgRaPhEr and not actually like..... a fUcKiNg SoLdIeR -- she has no general knowledge of military strat, combat, anything. I don't think she even learned how to use a rifle man, MAYBE a pistol but i doubt it. she'd absolutely be stuck in position similar to katniss, being carted around for propaganda with no real autonomy she didn't fight for. which she does not seem inclined to do in the books.

like i'm sorry you just cannot have so much of your plot revolve around a fucking civil war and then have it take what???? 18 months??? and have your absolutely incompetent mc win. not when one side is lead by a 500yo military expert and the other is lead by a bastard prince who's political sway is never really acknowledged/used, someone who actively works against her own interests (alina), and dipshits like fUcKiNg MaL. Against a dude who's been all over this country, fought in ALL KINDS of battles and KNOWS ALL THE TOP OFFICIALS ON YOUR SIDE PERSONALLY AND WHAT THEY'RE LIKELY TO DO?????? BONKERS.

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I can't help but feel that too many people fail to see the gravity of Grisha persecution in Ravka, not as a backdrop but as a central, devastating reality. We're talking about generations of systemic violence, fear, and dehumanization. Grisha were hunted down, experimented on, burned at the stake, used as weapons, or abandoned as if they were nothing. This wasn't some minor injustice, this was the slow, steady extermination of an entire group of people simply for existing. And outside Ravka's borders, things were no better, if anything, worse. Fjerda and Shu Han weren't just political rivals; they were an active threat, treating Grisha ruthlessly. Fjerda's drüskelle were literally trained to kill them, and Shu scientists were dissecting them like lab rats. It was a world where the survival of Grisha was constantly threatened, and their own leaders often turned a blind eye to it.

Aleksander was the only one who truly recognized the scale of this danger, the only one who was willing to face it. He could not afford to be naive or wishful thinking. He tried to warn, to prepare, to build a world where Grisha would finally be safe. But instead of listening, these “heroes” slandered him. It is easier, I think, to blame the person who resisted with force than to confront the deep-rooted systems of cruelty that made this fight necessary.

Let’s not pretend that Grisha were not hunted like animals. Let’s not forget who really stood up for them when no one else did.

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*extremely tired sigh* Vive la Révolution

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big shout out to alucard for not going down the classic vampire route of only having one love of his life and instead allowing himself to fall in love as many times as his immortal heart wanted