#dark alina

[metvmorqhoses]

If Alina’s hatred for Aleksander felt a little too contrived and compensating then perhaps that’s exactly what it was? Her character this season came off as someone desperate to prove herself; she was steamrolling ahead with blinders on and covering her ears at anything that challenged her (her goal of tearing down the fold and tada! happily ever after). It would make sense then that whatever feelings she has for Aleksander would be deeply suppressed and instead used as fuel in her anger towards him since she isn’t someone yet who is ready to deal with the messy nuance of the world she’s in and it’s contradictions, much less the complications of her own feelings. I do think Mal is boring but he wasn’t wrong for breaking up with her since he realizes he doesn’t really know who Alina is anymore. Aleksander on the other hand does know her in a way that only a soulmate can (“I have never turned away. I never will”). This whole season he was unhinged but in that desperation was a genuine worry for her. He wanted her to understand where he was coming from because he’s walked her path, he’s known what it is to hope and want to be a hero, and the inevitable heartbreak and pain it causes. It seems like he wanted to her to skip over that painful step if he could just get through to her. Unfortunately it is something she has to go through to grow. If season 2 was her stubbornly naive self in full mode, then hopefully season 3 shows us a more mature Alina who struggles to balance power and what it means. I don’t expect her to ever fully be on Aleksander’s side but I would like to see the understanding and at time’s tenderness, she feels towards him that was missing this season. Sorry I know this is nothing new to you but I’m still processing this season and always love your thoughts! An aside, Aleksander letting Alina kill him even while deeply disagreeing with her on a political and philosophical level, and still being amazed by her light as he marvels at “blue skies” killed me. I don’t care what anyone says really does love her.

From a pure storytelling point of view, this season and specifically Alina's arc (whatever it might be and under whichever lenses we might choose to look at it) was a writing failure. There is sadly no escaping that. It was crass, nonsensical, exaggerated, dull, colourless, problematic.

Even conceding her over-the-top and baffling behaviour was indeed done on purpose, no talented writer in their right mind could have possibly thought that good protagonist material, not even for the most black-and-white, simplest children's saga - especially having for canon a far more complex and valid characterization from the literary source (I can't believe I'm typing this, but here we are).

The fact that they managed to produce the worst books-to-show adaptation I've probably ever seen out of fear of a bunch of woke American mums and teens is genuinely disturbing.

This said, there are ways a good writer could salvage this, twisting this into sense and depth even, and you listed a lot of good points in this regard.

This idiocy galore could indeed be spun as Alina's hubris and blindness, her inexperience even, backfiring at her. It could absolutely be the arc that led to the wall she had to crush into in order to listen to what Aleksander was trying to warn her about, the proverbial finger children have to put into the fire themselves before believing it burns.

I could even raise the bar a notch and state that, psychologically speaking, when someone who isn't intelligent enough to understand their own being in denial is frustrated and angry with themselves, they funnily tend to project their own self-hatred and fury upon the person they trust the most and in general hold most dear. And this, even if I'm sure it wasn't absolutely intended, strikes me as particularly true regarding their dynamic in season two: no matter what Aleksander told her, no matter how much sense it made, no matter the obvious honesty of the feelings he was showing her (he opened a lot with her this last season despite her stubborn deafness, almost as if he had wanted to make up for the previous pretences and half-truths), she did nothing but choose him as her universal scapegoat and, quite absurdly, right because he was still the person she unconsciously felt closest to.

He was still her mentor and lifeline even the moment she decided to blindly sacrifice him on the altar of her own naive self-righteousness and hypocrisy. And he let her. Even in death, he wanted to serve the purpose of teaching her a lesson, open her eyes, and I don't think that ultimately, deep down, this truth completely escaped her.

A good writer would use all this to build season three. But I've honestly lost all hope at this point.

What I really don't think could be savaged is who Alina has time and time again proved to be as a person - she is someone who is in her twenties but has the brain of a not-particularly-bright infant; she is someone with the emotional capability of a rock; she isn't capable of complex thoughts, but above all she is self-centred and ignorant even when her personal life experiences should have at the very least taught her otherwise. I didn’t like her before, but now she is honestly ruined for me as a character. Aleksander deserved much better than her. He is everything she'll never be.

[melspontaneus]

i like dark alina i wonder how shes doing

[tljisthegoat]

White Hair for Dark Rey & Dark Alina is fucking brilliant symbolism.

Both of them have lost their love & want them back badly.

Both of them have a darkness in them that speaks to the hopeless loneliness deep in their souls.

White hair also really suits them.

[professssor]

Were you always heartless? Did you learn it from your mother father? The way you ran away from all this— Was I just the target? 'Cause it's hittin' me the hardest. Maybe this is what you wanted. Well you got it.

Every bed, every empty affection turned around to be used as a weapon even though I can offer connection.

Well, I hope that you love this attention.

I gave you tears when you wanted emotion. You said it was love, so I cried out an ocean for you.

You’re probably fine now. Not even hurting. You’re free as a bird now. Well I’ll carry the burden.

If this is what love is then I guess I'm loveless.

Don't know what you call it. I shouldn't be nostalgic for the way you went away from all this 'cause babe, you don't deserve it. Finally time you heard it.

You might be a loveless person and you know it.

I gave you tears when you wanted emotion. You said it was love, so I cried out an ocean for you.

You said it was love, so…

If this is what love is then I guess I'm loveless.

Then I guess I’m loveless.

Loveless by PVris

[amoureuxpagespoussier]

TRRST IC3PEAK, ZillaKami

Mama, they say I'm a terrorist, what? I did nothing wrong, but I got on a blacklist Mama, they say I'm a terrorist, why? If doomsday is coming, я не попаду в рай

[dinathalawriter]

[where-theres-smoak-2]

(Warning Shadow and Bone Season 2 SPOILERS!) 

Theory time. So I have been thinking alot about how Alina’s corruption arc may go in season 2 and I with all the parallels between her and Aleks this season and all the talk about her not following his path, I am expecting that her story is going to match that of Aleks’. 

Aleks had a position beside Anastas, the king, until the king began to fear how powerful Aleks was and became afraid of a coup, but I have always wondered whether someone was whispering in Anastas’ ear and to the country as a whole that Aleks was something to be feared, either out of fear or out of jealousy that Aleks was so trusted by the king. I mean the two Leading officer’s who confronted younger Aleks did seem particularly hostile towards him, Aleks was a military adviser so maybe they resented the position Aleks had with the king and wanted him gone? 

What’s all this got to do with Alina’s corruption arc though, you may ask? Well Alina ends the season in a position next to the king, much like younger Aleks. Just like Aleks had at the time Anastas and the country turned on him, Alina has just won a war for the country, tearing down the fold and so at the moment she is being celebrated. But the ending shows Alina using the cut at Nikolai’s coronation, which means she uses shadow powers in front of an entire room of people. But the nature of the event, a coronation, means that these people are ones that have power, station and influence. Some would even have been foreign dignitaries, all who could spread the word far and wide about the Sun summoner using shadow powers.

 We also know that Nikolai is hiding the secret that he is infected with merzost from the nichevo’ya. The apparat also makes a reappearance, the apparat had schemed with Aleks to gain power and was acting on behalf of the royal family whilst the king was incapacitated and the royal family were hiding at the spinning wheel. I imagine the Apparat is not happy about his loss in station now that Nikolai is on the throne. Also I suspect Nikolai is more likely to listen to advice from Alina than from the apparat, so the apparat has also lost his position as the king’s most trusted advisor. I could see the apparat trying to regain his position and the best way to do that would be to cause the nation to distrust Alina and Nikolai. Sooner or later the Merzost effecting Nikolai is going to make itself known and I think the apparat will begin to spread around that Alina is the one responsible for Nikolai’s condition. After all they all saw her use shadow magic, I think he will tell the nation that Alina is poisoning their king just as the darkling poisoned his king before her. The apparat could be going for the angle that if he gets Alina out of the way then he can make the claim that Nikolai is incapacitated and make a move to once again rule in the place of a ‘sick’ king. 

I also think that Alina will begin to act more and more ruthless in her attempt at keeping ravka and the grisha safe and that will be a slippery slope for her. This might cause the people to turn on her and for her to lose her popularity and that results in her being hunting, if Nikolai ends up incapacitated by the merzost, which is possible considering they added the whole Aleks being poisoned by merzost plotline, then it could be he isn’t able to protect her and the apparat is there leading the charge. Alina would, as was foreshadow in the fountain scene in 1x04, become the brand new heretic. 

I do think that the worse things get for Alina the more she is going to understand how right Aleks was and may begin to long for him. I could see this leading to Aleks’ resurrection. Ok so King of Scars Duology Spoilers incoming. I know that he does get resurrected in the duology and that its nikolai and zoya who are tricked by a saint into doing a ritual to bring him back believing it is a cleansing ritual for Nikolai’s demon and that Aleks’ spirit ends up in the body of a character named Yuri. However I don’t think that they are going to go the same route as the books when it comes to his resurrection, not entirely anyway. For one thing I do think that they will want to keep ben barnes, so I reckon they will bring him back in his own body reformed from his hand by merzost. Obviously I think the gang is going to start looking for a way to solve Nikolai’s problem. With it being merzost related I think they are going to start with Ilya Morozova and his journal. I also think instead of appearing to Nikolai and Zoya the saint will appear to Alina. I could see this going one of two ways either the saint tricks all of them into believing its a cleansing ritual or the saint tells Alina right off the bat that she wants to resurrect Aleks and Alina works with her to trick Nikolai and the others into doing the ritual. Alina could tell herself that she is doing it for Nikolai, she knows from Baghra that Morozova continued his writings after his supposed ‘death’ including those which Aleks uses to create the fold, so maybe she believes that Aleks may either know more about Nikolai’s demon or knows where they might be able to find more of Ilya’s writings on Merzost, and she’ll use this to justify bringing him back. But I think another part of her just wants Aleks back, is already feeling that loneliness and it likely feeling off balance without him there to act as her counter, she may come to realise that he is the only one who can understand her and so that is also playing a part in her helping the saint bring Aleks back.     

[unicafavorita]

I love that Netflix gave us Dark Alina without the Darkling. Just her and her powers against the world. I think it's beautiful, really.

[delanterne]

waffles 🤌🏻 kazzle dazzle 🤌🏻 dirty hands 🤌🏻 demon 🤌🏻 king on ketterdam 🤌🏻

[devdas5z]

Alina Dark

[tys-kitty]

Grishaverse fans after their show was canceled

TSC fans after their show was canceled

[metvmorqhoses]

SHADOW AND BONE (2021-2023)

Episode 8 | No Funerals

[fandomrantsandtwittertakes]

Let’s be real it ain’t enemies to lovers unless the villain is an overpowered ruler of darkness who is willing to give the world to the humble protector of the light

[madeleineengland]

The Darkling (Shadow & Bone s2)

[professssor]

Source: eceakalinart

[ryoryeonggu]

Alina Starkov - The Map Maker

Nikolai Lantsov - The Lucky Compass

Malyen Oretsev - The Tracker