#you see alina fans take not liking her as some kind of aggression

[ladymelisande]

you don’t like alina? just curious.

She is terribly written, like, I can even be generous in things like, aesthetic. But that's where it ends with her. She is just a terribly written, thematically broken character. She has no growth, the flaws that keep her from moving the plot are never, ever addressed as flaws.

I can't say I don't like her as if "I hate this character", I save that one for how SoC is shoehorned in that universe, I guess. It just frustrates me, both as an original content creator and a fanfic writer, that is completely non-fixable. Like, in a lot of media that goes wrong or the writing is yikes, one could find good spots to fix them without changing the work much. But with a Alina in the books? No, she has no salvation. And that's... Kind of sad? I don't know, call it a writer's melodramatics. Like, it took me, two days, more or less, to craft an entire positive character arc for Aleksander in my series of AUs, but Alina, after ROW and after her 'Gurl Power' moment in Episode 8... Yeah no. Impossible. Her character arc could only be negative because there is little to do with a character that literally denies what happened in the text itself because the writer is that petty.

And of course, instead of fixing the mess she was in the books, the TV writers, like most inept American TV writers, thought that the best course was race-lifting her. Because that's the modus operandi that they have, instead of, you know, good structure and a character arc and stuff.

So, no, I don't like her. Her entire story is pointless and she is one the worst 'protagonists' I have ever read. A sack of flour dragged by a plot that would fall apart if she were free to make any choice as a character.

[where-theres-smoak-2]

Why Context Is Important

I’ve finally finished reading the second book, Siege and Storm and I am going to post my thoughts about the whole book in a bit, but there was something I wanted to touch on real quick so obviously spoiler alert.

 Before I read the book I kept seeing this one quote being talked about. Both by Darklina fans and antis so naturally I was intrigued by it. The quote is ‘I’ll be certain you hear it when I make her scream.’ It seemed like it was a favourite quote amongst darklinas and I saw alot of fans saying they couldn’t wait to see it in season 2. On the flipside you had others pointing out that in this scene the darkling was threatening Alina with torture. See this is why I think context and interpretation are important. Because I will confess when I saw darklinas saying they couldn’t wait to see that scene I was a bit confused, I mean darklina have my heart but that doesn’t mean I enjoy and look forward to seeing the collar scene. And I feel like, despite what some antis seem to think, this is common throughout the darklina fandom. We enjoy the intrigue and angst of their relationship, we enjoy how complex both their relationship and the characters are, but that doesn’t mean we like seeing him hurt her or that we can’t recognise the flaws in the characters and relationship. So I figured there had to be more to that quote than meets the eye. Then I read it in context and got it, its an innuendo. Right, I mean its not just me and my less than clean mind? I felt like it had very similar vibes to the ‘did you tell him what I showed you in the dark’ scene. I mean lets look at it in context, first you have this part:

Once, when I stumbled by the hatch, the Darkling caught me up against himself. He might have let me go, but he lingered, and before I could pull away, he let his hand graze the small of my back.

What’s kind of funny is if you take this scene out of context and posted it in another fandom where they don’t know the characters or situation, I guarantee you people would think this was a sweet romantic scene. It’s a classic romantic troupe of girl stumbles and the guy catches her and holds her against him. But what’s important is that, seeing this interaction, Mal gets mad and tells the Darkling to leave her alone. To which the Darkling replies:

“I’ve kept my end of the bargain. She’s still unharmed. But perhaps that isn’t what you fear?”        

Here the Darkling is trying to push Mal’s buttons. He knows that Mal can see there is some kind of connection between him and Alina. Mal doesn’t react to the Darkling doing something aggressive towards Alina here, he reacts to the Darkling being protective, being gentle and Mal is witnessing a somewhat intimate moment between Alina and the Darkling where the Darkling is showing her care. He’s stopping her from getting hurt not threatening to hurt her in this moment. When he says ‘perhaps that isn’t what you fear’ the Darkling is basically challenging Mal saying you’re not afraid of me hurting her, you’re afraid that there could be something more between us, something romantic, you’re afraid that she might still have some feelings for me because you know she had them before. 

So when the Darkling says the line ‘I’ll be certain to make sure you hear it when I make her scream’ I do think it is suppose to have that sexual undertone. Yes it is also alluding to the previous threat he had made of harming Alina physically if Mal didn’t find the sea whip but that’s what an innuendo is, its saying one thing whilst alluding to something else entirely. I mean this scene is the darkling just being his usually petty self, because he has feelings for Alina and doesn’t like the relationship she has with Mal. He knows the suggestion that he can make Alina scream in other ways will rub Mal the wrong way and he likes to take every opportunity to annoy and provoke Mal that he can. But then again maybe I’ve just interpreted it all wrong, but hey its my interpretation and I’m sticking with it.   

So I would like to jump on this bandwagon, (and if my morals fall out of my pocket on the way then oops I guess) and say that I too can’t wait to see this scene in season 2, I just know that Ben, Jessie and Archie are going to do an amazing job with it.   

[mermaidsirennikita]

February 2019 Book Roundup

February was the month that I decided to give the Shadow and Bone trilogy another shot.  And it was mediocre, as were most of the books I read this month.  The standout was probably Robinne Lee’s Harry Styles fanfic novel The Idea of You, but even that was a 3 star read.  Wish me luck next month!

99% Mine by Sally Thorne.  2/5.  Darcy has long been in love with Tom Valeska, her childhood friend.  Unfortunately, Tom is equally close--if not closer--to Darcy’s twin brother, Jamie.  Between her estrangement from Jamie, Tom’s engagement to another woman, and their unsaid fears of what getting together would mean for the trio as a whole, Tom and Darcy have never made it happen.  But now that Tom is the contractor for the renovation project on Darcy’s grandmother’s house, they’ll have a whole summer together--without Jamie.  And Darcy may just be able to make Tom entirely hers.  I HATE giving this two stars.  I loved Thorne’s debut, The Hating Game--and this should have been just as good.  The fact is that Darcy kind of ruined it.  I love an aggressive heroine, but she was... over the top.  Fake.  I didn’t get her damage, to be frank.  And Darcy’s forwardness towards Tom, if you could call it that, not only seemed disingenuous--it also would have read VERY differently if their genders were flipped.  Within seconds of finding out that she has a chance with Tom, Darcy is aggressive with him to the point of being outright pushy.  It’s desperate at best and borderline predatory at worst.  Never mind the issues later on, regarding the fact that these adults never acted like adults.  There were some cute scenes and Thorne knows how to write sexual tension, but that couldn’t overcome the book’s problems.  Still--I eagerly await her next novel.  This could just be one misfire.

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo.  3/5.  In the world of the Grisha (where the titular magic users are in a class above their powerless counterparts) Alina is a mapmaker.  Traveling alongside the Ravkan army, she is attempting to chart the Shadow Fold, which splits the country in two and harbors horrible monsters.  When an attempt to cross the Fold goes wrong, Alina unleashes a power that she never knew she had.  This leads to her catching the attention of the Darkling, a grisha and arguably the most powerful man in the kingdom.  Alina’s newly discovered power could save Ravka--but as she enters in the royal court, she realizes that there’s much more to the dealings of Ravka than what meets the eye.  I read this about six-ish years ago and gave it two stars.  I’m giving it one more because I do think I was a stick in the mud about some things back in the day, and this is a fun book.  However, you can really, REALLY tell that Bardugo has grown.  I kind of wish that she’d been able to write the Darkling-Alina dynamic in a post Kaz Brekker world, with a lot more nuance and a lot, LOT less Mal, who feels like that obligatory childhood friend love interest in the kind of triangle that was expected when this book came out in 2012.  (Speaking of: this book came out in 2012, and rip-offs are VERY much still actively being published, so’s interested.)  There’s so much cool shit in the Grisha universe.  But though I’m more okay with Alina than I was in 2012, I still find her to be kind of dull in comparison to the other leads I’ve seen Bardugo produce since.  But hey, the Darkling is indeed hot.  So there’s that.

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo.  3/5.  The sequel to Shadow and Bone has much of the same issues as the first book--but I’d still say it’s more fun.  Why?  We aren’t pretending that the Darkling is convincingly non-suspicious, for one thing.  For another, we get Nikolai!  Everyone talked about Nikolai.  He lived up to expectations, and I look forward to Bardugo writing about him again.  I’m honestly not sure if she’s grown so much, as I really like the world of Ravka, just as I liked the world of Ketterdam in the much better “Six of Crows”.  Maybe the issue is the characters?  Because Alina and Mal really are so boring.  Hey, though--the Darkling is still great. I tend to wonder what Bardugo would have done with him in a post-Reylo world.

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo.  3/5.  I don’t think I really cared about this series enough to be as mad as people were when this book came out.  Or maybe I just was bracing myself for total disappointment--and there were things I liked about the ending?  Alina remains kinda lame.  Mal remains a bit annoying.  Love Nikolai and the Darkling.  Wish that this premise was handled in a more adult way.  The end.  I’m still excited about the Netflix deal--I loved Six of Crows and frankly, in different hands and under a different lens I can see myself loving this series much more.

The Idea of You by Robinne Lee.  3/5.  Thirty-nine-year-old Solene is covering for her ex-husband when she takes their preteen daughter, Isabelle, to an August Moon concert.  August Moon is the hottest boy band in the world, and Isabelle is smitten with the boys.  What Solene doesn’t expect is her instant connection with one of the boys, twenty-year-old Hayes, during a meet and greet.  What follows begins as a fling, but slowly develops into a real relationship as Hayes and Solene fall for each other.  But can they overcome the age difference between them--not to mention the darker aspects of Hayes’s fame?  This is, most definitely, a One Direction fanfiction turned into a novel.  Hayes is Harry Styles, no doubt about it.  There are the rumors about his sexuality, the crazy fans, the little catch phrases.  But it’s deeper than most self-insert fanfic novels.  I debated the rating on this one--the ending is abrupt, but bolder than I would have expected.  The relationship is treated somewhat realistically, as unbelievable as that seems (to be honest, Harry Styles having a fling with a woman twice his age isn’t really so out of the question).  But there were elements that just made me question Lee’s understanding of the issues surrounding relationships with such big age gaps.  And while she seemed willing to depict the problems surrounding boy bands, the way she dealt with them was... not always the best.  Still--a more nuanced romance that I expected.

The Chef’s Secret by Crystal King.  2/5.  In late sixteenth century Rome, Bartolomeo Scappi is a legendary chef, serving as the pope’s personal cook.  When he dies, he wills everything to his nephew, Giovanni--who also receives Bartolomeo’s secret journal. The journal reveals a long-hidden relationship between Bartolomeo and an unknown woman, leading Giovanni on a quest to uncover his uncle’s past.  I really liked King’s Feast of Sorrow, another piece of historical fiction by way of crime and cooking.  So why did this one suck so much?  I’m really not sure.  I do care more about Renaissance Italy than Ancient Rome--so maybe that biased me against it.  But I also just think that every “twist” was predictable, every beat hollow.  I still liked reading about the food, but this just wasn’t good.  Furthermore, there’s a creepy thread to Bartolomeo’s relationship with his lost love that I really couldn’t get over.  This was trying hard for an Immortal Beloved vibe, but it was a swing and a miss.