#not anti mal

[egophiliac]

Hi it's just to let you know that the official romanization of Revaan's name is Raverne ! Also they have romanized Baul's name to Baur !

Twst coming back at us again with the least expected romanization! thank you everybody (oh god my inbox) (no it's great, I literally asked for this and the reactions have been INCREDIBLE, thank you all!)

I do like Raverne though, I think it's got a nice fancy sound to it! (I had kinda suspected it was going to be an R instead of an L, so the fact that it's SO close to Laverne except for that is hilarious to me personally.) and Dragoneye Duke is honestly probably the best translation for his title, I wasn't envying the localizers that one. :') Baur instead of Baul I was NOT expecting, but in retrospect I think his name's supposed to be a reference to the Bauru crocodile, so that actually makes way more sense!

someone else also said Meleanor has become Maleanor, which is the REALLY weird one to me, because I was so surprised it was written as Mel instead of Mal in the first place?! oh god no I can't decide which one I like better. 😭 (I wonder if they might change it to Mal...they have made romanization changes before) (like I remember House of Distraction being corrected to House of Destruction in Playful Land) (I did check and she's still Mel for now, but I dunno, they might Mal her up and some point and save me from having to make a decision about which one to use) (HECK I CAN'T DECIDE)

uhhhh thank you for letting me ramble about anime names, let's just say MONOGRAMMED SWEATERS FOR EVERYONE

[siriuslyobsessedwithfiction]

"Siege and Storm is boring, nothing happened there.", "I only remember Nikolai showing up". LIES. That's propaganda, actually. That's Grishaverse fans not wanting to reread the trilogy and especially that book because they've crafted a fanfic in their heads they're trying to pass as canon with encouragement from the author, actually.

Because rereading Siege and Storm would raise quite a few unsavory questions. For example:

Why is Mal drinking, gambling and fighting Grisha 24/7 instead of performing his duty as Alina's captain of the guard? (And don't give me "he was a stressed boy" bullshit, it was war, everyone was stressed. And everyone was coddling Mal. He was going hunting with nobles, living in luxury and insulting the prince).

Why did Mal fail his duty as Alina's protector and fell asleep on his watch, drunk, and didn't notice someone going in and out Alina's chamber?

Why did Alina run away in her pajamas aimlessly in the city, and when the crowd of worshippers started tearing her apart alive, she let them. Why did she attempt suicide? (Hint: she and Mal had a big fight earlier because Mal was being a drunk shithead. Alina still blamed herself).

Why did Mal slut-shame Alina one second and virgin-shame her the next? All while bragging about being with many women and kissing Zoya.

Why did the Darkling not manipulate Alina even though he visited her a lot through the tether? Why did he settle for petty little smirks and winks and silently kept her company through the long nights? Why did he admit he was lonely and stayed with her because she was lonely too? Where was loverboy Mal?

Why were the Bataar twins (especially Tolya) acting so weird towards Alina? Why were they brainwashed worshipers and viewed her only as a saint? Why is Tolya on his knees, shivering when Alina just pats his shoulder?

Oh, Nikolai is just an ambitious, conniving cunt who wants the throne, not a selfless fairytale prince? And he's only an improvement from his father and brother because the bar is so low it's in the seventh circle of hell? (Still the best character in that book).

Why is everyone so okay with murdering the Darkling's Grisha as if they aren't the same Grisha who they lived and fought alongside for years? Why is no one protesting that while the Lantsov prince is eager to engage in a civil war because he has big guns from his pirate privateer adventures , it's the oppressed minority (Grisha) who are dying the most?

Why isn't Alina more concerned that everyone turned on Grisha the second the times of trouble started, as if everyone was merely expecting an excuse? An absence of strong leader, so they could start sham trials and execute Grisha left and right.

[qiqi-media]

Don't know if it's because of the new movie release but I've been seeing a lot more of descendants the og movies resurfacing on different social medias and the Audrey comments have started back up again. One in particular that I've never liked

"Why is she doing all of that over a high school break up?"

For starters Descendants was about teenagers, all of their relationships were high school relationships. The "true love" couple had their true love's kiss while they were both still in high school. So to refer to Audrey and Ben as a "high school" relationship that's purposely downplaying her feelings and their relationship. I get being confused because Descendants goes back and forth with the canon. At the end of D1 she was fine and in Wicked World her life didn't drastically change because of their breakup. But in D3 that is what happened, her life drastically changed and she was treated like shit.

She lost all of her friends "There's nothing to lose when you're lonely and friendless" & "Why is she here." There was no reason why that had to have happen, Audrey was never shown to be so terrible to the point where if she wasn't dating Ben that everyone had to abandon her. Especially in D1 her actions were no worse than Jane's and Jane still kept her friends and were friends with the VKs. Jane in my personal opinion was worse than Audrey, at least to the Vks in D1. Her worst crime was laughing at Jane's hair and I'm not understanding why that's unforgivable in comparison to Mal trying to manipulate her with said hair. Chad was even more social in Auradon but Audrey is completely shunned and for what? Because she's not dating Ben? People were straight up ignoring her when she spoke and in canon Audrey up until that point hadn't done anything so cruel to where that would make sense. She wasn't any snarkier than Chad or Jane on occasions and definitely not worse than things the Vks did. The only explanation we can come to is that when she wasn't Ben's girlfriend she didn't matter to people anymore.

That's not even addressing her shitty ass family, they treated her like dirt because she wasn't in line for the throne anymore. (those were never Audrey's intentions btw) Her cousin, her mother, her Grandma all acted like she was a failure because she wasn't with Ben and more specifically because she "lost" Ben to their Family's enemy. Like she had any choice in the matter, Ben didn't even have the choice of when and how they broke up. So if she couldn't turn to her friends or her family who did she have?? Nobody she was isolated and alone. Other adults? Look at Belle she talked shit about her too. She had Chad but because Audrey knew she couldn't return his feelings she stopped relying on him after a certain point.

All of this because she and Ben broke up, because she wasn't next in line to become Queen of Auradon. (That's another thing, her acknowledging that if she and Ben stayed together forever would end up with her being Queen isn't her being thirsty for the crown. It's her preparing for her future that, yes she was looking forward to but she wasn't thirsty to marry him because if she was, her family seemed more than open to an arranged marriage. But there was never one, they were simply boyfriend and girlfriend.)

She lost her life long best friend too: Ben. Even if they truly made up post D3 we know their relationship would never be the same.

So trying to act like Audrey had an entire breakdown over the simple fact of their high school relationship ending is false.

"How was she not supposed to tie her self worth in dating Ben when people started treating her like a waste of space when she wasn't with him?"

[fellofreak]

Carry me away in a coffin That's the day that I'm stopping

Hey, I took some time to draw this specimen. I like him!

[suzieloveships]

Grishaverse series fundamentally being about teenagers taking back their own authority and committing revenge on adults that abused them and exploited them >>>>>>>>>>

[aleksanderscult]

Alina: *has a good time in the Little Palace*

Mal:

[stromuprisahat]

Siege of Os Alta: *in a full swing* Royals: *slaughtered* Grisha traitors: *dead, dying or about to die* Sun Saint zealots: *bringing sticks into magic fight* The Darkling: Babe, come and join me! Malyen: ShE dOeSn't WaNt AnY pArT oF yOu! meanwhile Alina: His dark hair gleamed in the lamplight of the chapel. Summoning his shadow army had taken its toll. He was thinner, paler, but somehow the sharp angles of his face had only become more beautiful.

[jessmalia]

Percy: *comes up with a great lie to cover their asses in a heartbeat after Annabeth stuttered, unable to think of anything* Annabeth: You're stupid

???

[shesalittlelost]

I always thought that the reason I never found Malina appealing was because as soon as we're introduced to the story they're both joined at the hip from the very start, leaving no room for anymore development or any drama in their relationship for the reader to get invested in and also because growing up together and sharing the same mother figure gives them a more platonic vibe BUT I was wrong! The major factor why I cannot stand that ship is because Mal represents regression in Alina's story. He is the biggest obstacle in her personal growth and letting go of him is what makes her glow, literally and figuratively. She did NOT need him in her story and the author knew this too which is why she made a very conscious decision to constantly make Alina smaller for him so he can be more relevant. And THIS is what makes me loathe the ship.

[sad-outsider]

I've never encountered a fandom where so many people wanted the "villain" to win, hated the main love interest, and were disgusted by the ending. If I were Leigh Bardugo, I would ponder the question why.

[jupitersrising]

Ben not seeing the love potion as malicious is actually so important to me. Because why would he think someone giving a love potion would have ill intentions for him? Sure, he's heard of the heroes horrific pasts but those are just stories of the ye ole' days the adults share. He's the result of the Happily Ever After, things like that don't happen anymore. All the evil-doers are put away. He believes all the Isle Kids have that same kind of experience. Of course he'd just think Mal was actually this shy girl who was too afraid to ask him out. He wants to see the best in her; he sees the best in everyone.

Mal, on the other hand, knows just how wrong it is. She never, ever corrects him on his assumption of her having a crush on him and being too afraid to ask him out. Because why would she want to do that? Making him understand the implications of a love potions just drags him into her world, into the Isle where stuff like that was always malicious.

Obviously I don't condone Mal's actions, and the implications of a potion that makes someone obsessed ("love") with another person is something from a fucking horror novel. I just think it makes sense (in-universe) that he'd never think that she had malicious intentions and that she would never want to tell him.

[siriuslyobsessedwithfiction]

I love when Mal becomes an alcoholic and a gambler in the middle of the Grisha trilogy "because he was stressed". Like, what ails you, you unemployed freeloader?

If anyone deserved to become an alcoholic and somewhat justify it, it's Alina. That girl was running a disbanded army with no knowledge and experience. And dealt with princes, nobles, creepy monks and her followers who formed a cult. All while the Darkling followed her around through the tether and annoyed her for attention.

I'm not endorsing addictions and harmful behaviors, but maybe taking a swing from Nikolai's brandy in the evening would stop Alina from running away in the city in her pajamas and attempting suicide.

But Mal gets a pass because "he felt trapped" in the palace? Because he's a manly man who needs to fight and sleep in the dirt and make out with a different woman every day. But if Alina had a drink or fantasized about a hot general, it would ruin the "perfect goodness and sunshine from the pure heart" image the narrative shoves in our faces?

It's giving "boys will be boys" and "a man likes to feel like a man" in a bad way. But how noble of Alina to resist the temptation! She will not sin, she will not succumb to temptations of the flesh. She'll just send people to their deaths and attempt suicide at every given opportunity. Yeah, that seems more pure.

[hitchell-mope]

Hades: why is the charmless boy in traction?

Ben: he insulted my wife, your daughter, to my face. So I threw him through a few walls.

Hades: understandable. Carry on.

[fellofreak]

A little shimmy or something? I really wanted to animate him, but had little to no ideas. I tried finding a good dance gif ref but this was the result. It is what it is, I guess. He's groovin.

[qiqi-media]

The Villain was Mal: The century long Did I mention debate.

To this day Audrey and Ben are being pitted against each other in the Did I mention scene when neither of them were at fault.

Ben was the direct victim, he was unable to control his actions and did something he wouldn't even had done had he not been drugged and NOBODY out of all the people who knew him for years found this out of character or stood up for him. They didn't pull him aside afterwards to ask what the hell he was doing or if he was okay, knowing he was pretty much completely unprotected from magic and the VK girly is walking around with a spell book.

Audrey was the indirect victim, she was publicly humiliated by her boyfriend and watched people she was friends with cheer him on and the girl he's doing this with is the daughter of your family's enemy. You were visibly destressed and the same thing with Ben, nobody cares, nobody asks. So you do the only thing you can do to try and save face and find another date. She's got her heartbroken, she'd probably feel more humiliated even trying to ask Ben about it and it doesn't help all of her friends are cheering them on. She at this point doesn't even know what was really going on.

Ben ends up in this borderline abusive relationship where he's afraid to say no to his girlfriend/fiance and everyone including his parents holds her opinion of more value than his as king. Whenever he's being abused by magic, which happens in all three movies nobody (D1-D2) Sticks up for him they either don't care or blame him for actions he had no control over.

Audrey is shunned from Auardon and is blamed by her family for failing to secure the king as if they didn't have a genuine relationship and she doesn't have feelings. She falls into a depression and has fallen behind in school and questions her self worth because all of the people who were her friends or looked at her in awe were now asking "What is she doing here?" for showing up to a birthday party that in any other circumstances she would've been invited. How was she not supposed to tie her self worth in dating Ben when people started treating her like a waste of space when she wasn't with him?

In conclusion, after years we need to realize that this situation was neither of their faults, they had been used and manipulated in a plan that was barely undone because nothing was every clarified between the two. The ending of their relationship was forced onto them and consequently the destruction of any friendship they could've had. I don't want to be like "blame it all on Mal" but if we're going back and forth between blaming Ben and Audrey, then yes we need to blame Mal. She created the direct situation for it to happen, benefited from it entirely, lied about what actually happened (saying she spelled Ben for love) and she herself never tried to make amends or actually explain the situation. Mal spelled him taking away his right of action and she clearly wasn't sorry about what happened to Audrey because she insults her right after the did I mention scene when at this point she doesn't know anything about her. She further in my opinions shows a lack of actual remorse when she continues to try and spell Ben later on and when she gives up on magic gaslights him into doing what she wants (she doesn't take no for an answer.) (That's a whole different conversation but okay Mal, Audrey is the shallow one and Evie is better even though everybody knew Evie was only interested in Chad because he was a prince.)

[aleksanderscult]

How Alina left her position in Ravka after the Darkling's death to go and marry Mal: