#if they couldn't figure out a better way to execute this arc I'm glad that they cut it

[bonesandthebees]

And then there’s the final line. While I would love to see more of the falling action, a lot of it we can fill in for ourselves. You could spend another chapter or two finishing everything of with a bow on top. Or you could give us an epilogue and show us way more of the future without showing us the specifics. We’ll still be able to figure out what happened.

Using [“I want his fucking head.”] as a final line is way too good an opportunity to pass up. You’ve always been good at ending chapters with banger lines, but this one might take the cake. Which is fair given it’s the end of the story. There’s a few reasons this line hits perfectly. It mirrors what Drean said to Wilbur while threatening him with the knife: [“I could have your head for that.”]. It shows us how much the tables turned.

There’s also a lot of hidden character development behind this line. It shows how much Wilbur changed. At the start of Stars Wilbur is a pacifist. While Niki uses her Voice to kill, Wilbur uses his to put soldiers to sleep. Now he gladly kills Dream. Yet the change doesn’t feel sudden. He did shove Quackity into a wall after all. Which brings me to his anger.

Wilbur finally learned to use his anger. I’ve said it before, but Dream is kind of the personification of all the unfair treatment Wilbur has gotten through his life. He thinks the same as all the servants and expresses those feelings. He states some of the things that led to Wilbur’s lack of self-worth. Mainly the fact that he’s just a bastard and has not right to live on Eldingvegr.

By giving the order to kill Dream, Wilbur is putting that mentality behind him. He’s accepting that it’s not true and that people are just mean. And he gets an outlet for his anger. He can’t fire or kill every servant who was ever mean to him. He might not want too. But he can kill Dream for the exact same actions, knowing that he’ll never have to face them again.

Also, the fucker did threaten both him and his brother and tried to steal their planet. Catharsis. It’s just a really good last line, Bee.

-🌲

yeah I figured you all could fill in the blanks for yourself about what happened after all of that got settled. I just really wanted to end the chapter on that line lol

I wanted to end the fic with that line for sooooo long because not only is it banger, but it also ties up so much of wilbur's character arc. it parallels that earlier line dream said like you pointed out, which was intentional to show that wilbur is just giving dream what he was going to give him. but more importantly, it shows the culmination of wilbur's arc.

he's no longer a pacifist, because the world showed him he couldn't afford to be one. his anger has been mentioned time and time again, but only now he's fully learned to accept and use it. in that moment, dream is the personification of his lack of self-worth throughout the entire story. he pointed out all of wilbur's insecurities and flaws, and taunted him with how little he mattered. and wilbur demands his execution for it. he's accepted that it's not true at all, and that he deserves better. his anger is justified.

and yeah, dream fucking deserved it. I'm so glad you liked it as a last line because I was so excited to write it

[thewillowbends]

Halfway through S&S, and I'm here to tell you guys the reason Mal drives you guys insane isn't because he's that toxic, really. There's some bad writing around him, but I can see what Leigh was trying to do having him be the moral heart of the series, the person who keeps Alina steady when she's pushing the limits of her own ethics. (Which is, fundamentally, a mild gender reverse of what we typically see in most stories, right? I'm not joking when I say I think she was inspired by The Hunger Games because there's a lowkey Peeta/Gale vibe with the love interests here and how they reflect moral pathways Alina could have taken. The Darkling even has grey eyes, lmao.)

He annoys you because he keeps Alina from being the dark protagonist this story needed her to be. I mean, there are other ways he's annoying in that his feelings about her powers isn't mixed (wouldn't you feel disturbed that the very same power by which your friend saved your life now seems to be destroying her? wouldn't it make your feelings on the situation really complex?). Beyond the fact that the moral landscape of this series really needed an adult story to thoroughly explore its nuances, there's the fact that the ultimate fate of this character really needed Alina to go to the edge. Ideally, it should have happened in S&B, but it could have happened here....and it just doesn't happen. He's the voice pulling her back, which is fine, but a story about the corrosive influence of power really needs a protagonist who is violating our own ideas of what's acceptable and making us question whether this story has any real heroes, whether everybody is just kind of fucked because Morozova's legacy is one of greed, and everyone who gets involved gets swept up in that feverish rush of his ambition.

So what happens is that, instead of doing anything truly meaningfully, morally reprehensible on the scale a fantasy series requires, she's just kind of an asshole. And not even an asshole who's interesting. S&B Alina was prickly, anxious, fast to make judgements, desperate to feel important and wanted...and all of that was fine because she was seventeen and immature. Those qualities could have been matured into something interesting, like having her become increasingly aware of how dangerous her life was as a Grisha and the saint, something that would start her down a path similar to the Darkling (i.e. power is both a boon and target your back, so you have to protect yourself against everyone). There's even like...the implications of this in S&S with her being legitimately freaked out by how people are sanctifying her, selling chicken bones claiming they're hers. (How on Earth did Leigh miss the obvious parallel there between an amplifier and a saint? They're both more valuable dead than alive!) She already has that anger in her, the same anger that the Darkling has learned to bury and fashion into a weapon that drives him. It just needed to be allowed to foster into something meaningful.

And she just...doesn't grow. Her awareness never goes beyond how events are affecting her. She never starts to understand what drives the Darkling beyond just seeing the boy in him. Her sense of responsibility to all of these Grisha who chose their country over years of loyalty and admiration of the Darkling never develops past how they're useful to her mission. (Hmm, sounds familiar, right?) Worst of all, she simply....gets all the prickly, unlikable characteristics of a character who could tip over into some really shitty behaviors but none of the actually interesting actions that make the Darkling a terrible but deeply compelling villain.

S&S Alina shouldn't have been told to kill the sea whip out of mercy by Mal. She needed to do it without prompting, showing us a jump from S&B's moment with the stag where mercy is something she's slowly realizing she can't afford anymore - or maybe doesn't care to maintain. S&S Alina needed to fulfill the promise of that girl who crippled the skiff in a moment of panic and fear to save herself and the man she loves. She needed to be more of the girl who was infatuated by the power the collar the Darkling gave her, so he becomes a complex figure who empowered her to dark ends, while Mal is the good man with a good heart who ultimately held her back unknowingly. The story is too afraid to go there, too afraid to ask the reader to forgive their protagonist if she crosses too far of a line, mostly because it refuses to forgive it in its antagonist...which should be a warning to all of us about what happens when you create a zero sum game where redemption isn't an option. Because in the end, Alina winds up committing the worst character offense of all: she's annoying.