#If the books are in Alina’s POV then of course she’s gonna hate it and it’s seen in a bad light | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

starlsssankt · 2 years

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// okay, we’re gonna expound upon this post here-- with a mix of book AND show canon, and my own little thoughts. (And disclaimer just in case: Yes, I’m well aware he’s the villain of the story. I’m well aware he does horrible things. That’s not the POINT of this post, please don’t come at me for it.)

Now that that’s out of the way...

One of my main problems with the initial trilogy is that it’s strictly 1st person POV in Alina’s POV. And while that can work, it also doesn’t give you the chance to see or know Aleksander outside of how Alina sees him. How she hears others speak about him, how she judges him, etc.

In Demon in the Wood (DitW for short), you see a boy. An almost wide-eyed yet still weary boy, a curious but careful boy. He’s, what, 13 or so around that time? (I can’t remember, it’s been a bit--but it’s something like that, I know.) Anyway, DitW gives you a child, who points out that they’ve been running and hiding for as long as he’s known life. He sees the Grisha in such a sorry state, because at this point, there’s wide-spread persecution, hatred, distrust, etc. People fear what they don’t understand, etc. etc. They’ve also rarely stayed anywhere longer than a MONTH. Can you imagine that? The horror and the weariness that would hit you if you were constantly moving, never settling, never having a place to call your own? Because a MONTH is something you rarely stay in one place for?

Plus, he doesn’t touch others. Can’t touch others, because of the amplifier status of his blood and bones. Think about that for a short moment, and wonder what sort of impacts that could have on his psyche. But he knows it’s because they’d KILL him if they could, if they could gain even an inch more power to live without fear.

Which is exactly what happens when those kids, at the lake, in DitW; they’re all CHILDREN, of course, but they’re willing to kill another--a stranger yes, but still just another kid--in order to step up in the world. Maybe they won’t be afraid any longer if their power is stronger, whatever the reason, he feels that fear of potentially DYING at the young age of a boy.

That scars him. It doesn’t make him HATE everyone, because like DitW says at some point--he can understand their fear. He sees and knows the way they live (the way HE lives and Grisha in general live), that he cannot blame them for wanting to survive.

Fast-forward to years later, he’s trying to make a dream of safety and betterment for Grisha come true. He works for the king, thinking he can gain favors if he does...

It backfires, because once again, he’s GRISHA. And not just any Grisha, but someone with powers that are more unnatural than others. Yet he gains enough favor to at least get the Little Palace--that place for Grisha to learn, to grow, to harness what they are. Did he do it for loyalty points, to ensure there was an army loyal to him? I don’t believe it started out that way, but I think, as the centuries grew on... and on... and on, and he realized that nothing was changing, not enough, he grew weary.

Again, he grew tired of the constant non-movement in making things better. Fjerda was still a dangerous place to be Grisha, with putting your very life at risk, and Shu Han was similar. (Yes they’d experiment on you and you’d die, not just outright torture/kill you, but the same result was the same--dead Grisha.) And Ravka was only safe because he made the Grisha seem useful to the monarchy, and Aleksander knew that. One step out of line, and they’d suffer.

So he starts to plot something deeper. He starts thinking of taking over completely, seeking a greater power. It started with merzost, with the Fold, etc. and then grew into well, I need to be running things. Hence the plotted coup. The one person, too, that was always with him (his mother) was also growing weary.

Tired.

But she was the only one he had, so despite the growing... IDK, resentment, maybe, he started to feel towards her, he couldn’t ever erase her. She helped to make him what he was, instilled a pride in him that grew greatly through the years, yes. But he also strove for more all on his own, and I know she feared it--but this post isn’t about Baghra; that’ll be for another day. :)

ANYWAY, we know he was alive for at least... four, five hundred years. I think it’s mentioned somewhere it’s longer, but I don’t remember. ALL THOSE PEOPLE he knew, as a child, as a young man, constantly dying on him. Whether killed or taken or just old age got the best of them, they died. And he remained.

THAT messed him up probably as much as (if not more than) the merzost did. You can empathize with others if you have the capability to put yourself in their place. What if this was me kind of outlook.

He couldn’t do that, after awhile especially, because he outlived them all. Every single person he might even TRY to let close, he knew would fade away, and he’d be left there, immortal as ever. So it’s REALLY hard to put yourself in another’s place when that’s the case. They can’t imagine his long life, and he can’t imagine their short ones. (Constant assassination attempts don't’ help matters, either.)

I’m rambling, I know, so I’ll try and wrap it up. But that innocent, idealistic boy in DitW turns into a world-weary, distrustful, hands-bloodstained man because he can no longer empathize. He can no longer see any hope of positive movement because things are always the same. No matter what tsar sits on the Ravkan throne, it’s the same thing for Grisha--be useful or else.

Only when Alina comes along does he maybe start to be that boy again (at least in part). Because he sees another potential equal. She can summon the sun, she’s the light to his shadow... etc. etc. She might live as long as he does, and therefore he won’t be alone (probably one of, if not THE, greatest fear he possesses--being alone and forgotten).

But when she ends up turning away from him, rejecting him (in major part because he has been manipulating her, even if there are some reasons in his head for such an action), he resigns himself to the role. Resigns himself to be the villain because he’s so tired of trying to convince the world he’s not. Of trying to convince everyone that his way is the only way because nothing else ever changes.

Think of it this way (and yes I’m using modern day politics for this analogy): He tried working the system; he tried changing in the legal way, by working the system in the best way he knew how. He didn’t push buttons, but he fought-- and he proved his worth but NOTHING happened. Nothing changed to make the world this better, idealistic place he had envisioned long ago. So he turned to violence, and lying, and manipulation. The Powers That Be (Ravkan royalty, the world’s nobility, etc.) weren’t changing, and the system WAS BROKEN.

So he planned a coup, a I’ll do it all myself, my way if you will. /analogy over.

tldr: To sum it up? He has his reasons, and the development of his character is more... morally grey than outright evil black villain. But hey, I didn’t write the books; otherwise, he’d have been the anti-hero or something akin to that... -shrug-

#headcanon / a name long hidden #about & musings / like calls to like #// this got WAY long so most of it is under the cut #// and it's mostly because I rambled but um...#// I needed to get these thoughts down after that set

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serpenteve · 3 years

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I just started following u and I love ur analysis of the grisha verse (lmao Greg) so much! Idk if u’ve talked about this before but I have to say one of the most irritating things about alina’s storyline for me is that she never truly becomes grisha. Like yeah if u take a privileged person and out of the blue tell them oh ‘yeah ur actually an oppressed minority but it’s chill cause ur special’ of course they aren’t gonna sympathize with the minority group? I just hate the trope of protagonist is secretly part of this special group and they weren’t raised with any of the culture, beliefs, or experiences of the group but now that they know they’re gonna fix everything with their bullshit outsider POV and a white savior plotline that’s twisted just enough to be “acceptable”. Like just say u don’t actually care about the voices of minority people and u need them to be raised with ur values to be worth listening to. It just rubs me so wrong. Definitely one of my top ten reasons for shipping darklina, Alina getting to properly claim her heritage and power is so good. Anyways yeah I really love ur takes and I’m so glad I found ur blog!

Thank you so much! 💕💕

Yes, Alina never really gets a chance to embrace her powers (because power is evil) nor does she really come to understand what it means to be Grisha. She kind of just bumbles along in the plot, says some snarky one-liners, and then goes back to where she started with no satisfactory sense of meaningful growth or self-acceptance.

I think the show does a much better job of bringing Alina to life, but even on the show, her experiences of racism don't feel like they are part of a bigger picture or a bigger systemic problem. It exists only in the background, only specifically around Alina, and is pointed out more often than any persecution the Grisha face so all opportunity to explore this intersectionality is lost. Alina is the only Shu character we meet since they completely wasted Botkin and she should feel no allegiance to either Shu Han or Ravka, considering how the latter has treated her. Yet, she doesn't seem to care about the way the Grisha's societal role is fixed and, if they stick to the book's plot, she is also going to show a bizarre amount of royalty to the Ravkan monarchy that have created and enabled this problem in the first place. So perhaps it's fitting that when they imported a real-world issue of racism and marginalization, they give it about as much thought as Leigh did with the original series 😒

I hope in season 2 that Tolya and Tamar can offer a window of opportunity for Alina to explore her Shu heritage in a way that isn't just an endless barrage of racial attacks 😅

#viv answers #may contain sodium

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nazyalvnskys · 4 years

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all righty boys. buckle up.

to start with. this person literally claims lb made zoya a “flawless” and “perfect” character and then in the very next sentence shits on her for being rude and having a “bad attitude”... should i even call it cognitive dissonance? you’re gonna say that she has no flaws and then in the very next line identify a very real flaw she has that makes a lot of people dislike her?

next. “the most perfect, most beautiful, most amazing, best, most powerful woman in the entire world, and everyone bows down to her because she's already a queen even without a crown”? where in kos does anyone bow down to zoya as if she’s a “queen without a crown?” some characters acknowledge her authority and respect her for her power, but where is this supposed senseless worship of zoya that this person is describing? zoya states in her own pov that the people of ravka wouldn’t want her as a queen because they don’t trust her. yuri literally exists as a character and is constantly challenging zoya in her beliefs; juris and elizaveta exist and continually challenge her to challenge herself. nina says that she hates taking orders from zoya and definitely doesn’t “fall at her feet.” in her brief interactions with the rest of the triumvirate, the twins, and nadia, there’s nothing to indicate that they view each other as anything other than equals.

“Now not only is she the wittiest, most beautiful of them all, but she is also literally the most powerful Grisha.” did they... read the book? the point of zoya learning her new powers isn’t for her to become the all-powerful overlord of the grisha -- it’s explicitly stated that she’s supposed to be a conduit to teach all of the other grisha to access the same power. although i personally don’t love the fact that the orders were broken down and zoya gained a bunch of new powers, she’s not going to be way more powerful than everyone else forever. i talk about this more in this post.

“It would be so much stronger if people actually treated Zoya with the same amount of respect that she shows them, instead however in KOS all of this development is undone because people will kiss the ground where she stands even if she treats them like pieces of insignificant dirt.” once again, WHERE are the people kissing the ground zoya stands on? the only person i can think of who even comes remotely close to doing that is nikolai, considering that she’s barely mentioned in the isaak and nina chapters?

and, if we’re going to comment on zoya’s supposed “flawlessness,” where is this discourse for male characters? where were these people when the majority of characters in tgt were impressed by nikolai and admired his ingenuity and leadership? (of course, it’s no longer called “falling at his feet” or “kissing the ground he walks on” then.) “it’s because alina and mal are still annoyed at nikolai and he still has flaws!” as if characters aren’t annoyed by zoya in kos as well? as if zoya isn’t still a noticeably flawed character, which is acknowledged in the text? are we ignoring zoya’s tendency to irrationally express her anger (see kherguud scene, entering the fold scene) which is met with very real consequences? are we ignoring the fact that the majority of her arc in kos was her learning to look past her cemented beliefs about grisha power/saints and open her mind to new possibilities?

anyway, enjoy the irony of all of this commentary about zoya being a “perfect” character whom the author supposedly tries to shove down our throats coming from someone who named their account after a/elin galathynius.

#zoya nazyalensky #kos #grishaverse #nikolai duology #king of scars #this is a borderline rant #zoya mutuals feel free to add on #if any zoya antis or even op wants to comment feel free to as well

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allhailqueenmaas · 7 years

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ACOWAR Predictions

Rights to the lovely @abookandacoffee for all of these awesome questions.

I’m just going to answer all of these bc I need to get it out of my system and I’m about to EXPLODE WITH ALL OF THE FEELINGS I HAVE ABOUT THIS. Also this is going to be fucking long and foul language will occur. And spoilers (duh)

1) Do you want any other POVs besides Rhys or Feyre? Which?

Can I have all of them??? Ummm... I really want all of the Inner Court, Feyre’s sisters, Lucien, and Tamlin (only bc I want to see what the fuck he’s up to). SOOOOOOO basically all of them.

2) If you could only pick one ship, elucien, nessian, or moriel, to officially become canon (IE declaration of love or, ahem, physical consummation), which would it be?

The thing about Elucien is that it came out of FUCKING NOWHERE, but I know that Queen Maas does everything for a reason and Elucien will come into the light and be important in the plot and be THE MOST adorable couple in ACOWAR.

Nessian is just all of the angst and hate/love tension and I love it. I love it so much and I don’t know why, but I love it.

Moriel seems like the most likely one to happen, just based on the fact that they’ve known each other for A CENTURY or some crazy amount of time like that. But they’ve also known each other FOR A CENTURY AND HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING WITH THEIR FEELINGS. THEY TREAD THE LINE BETWEEN FRIENDSHIP AND LOVERS BUT DON’T CROSS IT AND IT PLAYS WITH MY FEELINGS.

I’m torn between Nessian and Moriel, but Moriel feels the most tangible for some reason, so I’ll go with them.

3) Do you have any theories about what will happen with the war?

SOMEONE IS GOING TO DIE SARAH SAID IT HERSELF AND I THINK IT’S GOING TO BE MOR AND FUUUUCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK. My baby Az will not be okay and Cassian’s gonna loose his shit and Rhys will be heartbroken bc they’re close and Feyre will be heartbroken bc Mor was her first girlfriend. AND IM GOING TO BE HEARTBROKEN BECAUSE MORRIGAN WAS GOING TO BE THE QUEEN OF THE COURT OF NIGHTMARES AND SHE WAS GOING TO BE THE GREATEST QUEEN EVER. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

4) Cassian’s wings. Go.

OKAY. I have to be optimistic bc I have no other option. I am going to assume that the frame of his wings will be okay and hopefully there’s some kind of version of that spider-silk shit from TOG (that saved Abraxos’s wings) and that shit will save his wings. MY BBY WILL HAVE HIS WINGS AND HE WILL LIVE HAPPILY WITH NESTA AND EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY. OKAY? OKAY

5) Do you think we will see Miryam and Drakon? Do you want to?

I do think that Rhysand is going to get as many allies as he can against Hybern (while Feyre is kicking ass and taking names in the Spring Court!!!) and that will include Miryam and Drakon. I wasn’t really interested in them until I read this fanfiction about Miryam being Rowan’s daughter (credit to the author, I’m so sorry i don’t remember your name) and that got me interested in them, so I do want to see them.

6) Which character (outside of Rhys and Feyre) do you want to see getting the most developement?

Nesta. She needs to redeem herself and apologize to all the people she has given shit to.

And Azriel. He needs to figure out that HE IS WORTHY OF LOVE AND HAPPINESS. ESPECIALLY WITH MORRIGAN.

7) Tamlin: redemption or death?

Can’t he have both? I want him to redeem himself by switching sides at the last minute and apologizing for everything. And then he dies during battle, but no one is with him when he dies and no one notices until later when Lucien’s like “where’s Tam?” They find his cold body on the battlefield and Lucien broken-hearted and Elain’s comforting him and everyone else is either sad or angry.

8) Do you think anyone will die in ACOWAR (that we care about, that is)? Who?

LIKE I SAID EARLIER I HAVE A FEELING THAT MOR I GOING TO DIE AND I HATE IT BUT IT’S THERE.

9) What role do you think the other courts will play in the war?

I want all of the other courts to join the Night Court. I think if that does happen, then the Summer and Spring Court will be the most resistant. OR MAYBE one of the courts will be a DOUBLE SPY!!!! Who knows?

10) Are there any minor characters (e.g. the Bone Carver, the Weaver) that you’d like to see again?

SURI!!! And I want to see Lucien’s brothers and the Court of NIghtmares so justice will be served accordingly.

11) How effective of a spy do you think Feyre will be, really?

Hopefully, her eavesdropping techniques will have improved from when she did it in ACOTAR...

12) Which court do you most want to see in ACOWAR?

DAWN COURT. OH MY GISH I NEED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT IT.

13) Lesser fae - do you want to see more of them?

YES!!! I want to learn whether or not there are different types of species of fae or of it’s like humans, where they just have different characteristics but they’re the same species.

14) How do you think Elain will react to the mating bond with Lucien?

I think at first she’ll be like, “The frick frack diddly dack does that mean?” and someone will have to explain mates to her, but they explain it wrong bc then she’s like, “Oh. It’s like a lifetime best friend. I’ve always wanted one of those.” And then her and Fox Boy will become besties, but she’s still with her hubby who hates fae, so Lucien is like a little secret. ANd he lets her stay with the fae-hater bc he wants her to be happy (and he’s not a fucktard like Tam) And then one day she’s talking to someone (probs Nesta) about Lucien and Nesta’s like, “sounds like your in love...” ANd Elain’s like “Whaaaaaaaaa??.....” But then she thinks about it and she’s like, “oh crapdoodle, I am in love with him.” So she confronts Lucien about this revelation and he’s like, “I’ve always loved you, my daisy.” (he gives her flower related nicknames and it’s the cutest thing ever). And they live happily ever after bc Tam’s dead (see #7) and they rule the Spring Court.

15) Would you rather Nesta train as a warrior, or more of a strategist? Do you think she’ll actually be willing to help out the Night Court?

Both, but she’s a better strategist than warrior. I think that eventually she’ll trust the entirety of the Inner Circle, prob after one of them saves her life from a training thing or whatever.

16) Mor’s power - what would you like it to be?

I HAVE NO IDEA BUT SHE’S GOTTA BE POWERFUL AS SHIT BC SHES THIRD IN COMMAND, MORE POWERFUL THAN CASS AND AZ. And we know she has healing powers (from the end of ACOMAF) but isn’t that common?...

WAIT WHAT IF IT’S LIKE MANON AND ASTERIN AND SORREL WHERE THEY BALANCE EACH OTHER OUT

Rhys = darkness Amren = badass monster thing Mor = light???

Light power (like alina!!!) makes sense bc she’s upbeat and cheery most of the time. idk

17) What do you think the dynamic between Lucien and Feyre will be like in the Spring Court?

I feel like Feyre will use Elain against Lucien to get info or to keep him from telling Tam about her spying (that’s terrible, but...)

Or maybe Lucien will stop being so gray and he’ll side with Feyre bc they’re besties and so he can be with Elain and then he’ll be a spy alongside Feyre and he can get info that Feyre can’t.

18) How do you think the Cauldron might come into play in the war?

One of the sides is going to use it to win the war with the immense power it has. I saw something in a post by someone who caught this thing they saw in a book: apparently Cerridwen (one of the twins in the NIght Court) means “keeper of the cauldron” or something like that. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So hopefully that’s prevalent.

19) The mortal queens: do you think they all survived taking a Cauldron bath? What would you like to see happen with them?

Nope. I would like to see them die (except for the lion one) NEXT

20) Amren: what is she, really? Would you be ok if she got to go home?

SHE IS A BADASS MOTHERFUCKER AND IM SO EXCITED TO FIND OUT HER OTHER SELF. If she’s happy going home, then I’m happy; but she will be missed *insert sad face*

21) Jurian or the King of Hybern or Ianthe: who needs to die more?

Jurian is a jealous bitch and the King of Hybern is your typical dramatic evil dude but IANTHE NEEDS TO DIE THAT MOTHERFUCKER NEEDS TO DIE A TERRIBLE DEATH BY THE HANDS OF FEYRE. Just... WHAT A BITCH!!!!

22) What smut scenes would you like to see in the book?

ALL OF THEM???? Mostly Moriel (around the middle of the book, after Azriel comes to his senses) and Nessian (not until the very end, before the war, when she has apologized for all of her horribleness)

23) Babies - yea or nay? If you had to pick one couple to have a mini, who would it be?

None of the Inner Court bc none of them are stable enough to have a child. Also Feysand themselves said that they wanted to wait A WHILE before they did (ACOMAF, end of Chap 55). Not Elucien bc they’ve only met once and that would be messy.

I think it would be hilarious if Tamlin and Ianthe had a one-night-stand baby. OOOHHHHH and then Elucien would adopt the bby (bc those other bitches are dead) and he grows up all good and pure and he’s a part of the whole big family.

24) How do you think Nesta and Elain will react to being thrust into the Night Court after going for a swim in the Cauldron?

Sidenote: I love how this question is worded.

Nesta will, of course, resist it with every fiber in her being and then, with convincing, slowly accept it.

Elain will be uncomfortable with it, but she’s an optimist, so she’ll come round a lot faster than Nesta will.

25) How quickly are you going to read this book, exactly? Do you want spoilers? Or are you going to avoid tumblr like the plague?

Okay. My friend, who is also an avid fan of ACOTAR, and I have agreed that we will wait until the summer to read ACOWAR, so one of us doesn’t finish before the other and psych the other out, which is what happened with ACOMAF. So from May 2nd until after we finish Lord of Shadows, my friend and I will be avoiding social media like the plague. My friend doesn’t do social media, so she’ll be fine be fine with this. I, however, have a sort of relationship with Tumblr darling. so this adjustment will be.....interesting.

26) What are three things you do NOT want from ACOWAR?

In no particular order: babies, death of the Good Peeps, and Feylin sex scene (won’t Calamai happen while Feyre is in the Spring Court?)

27) What are your top three wishes for ACOWAR that you would metaphorically (or literally) kill for?

Also in no particular order, CASSIAN’S WINGS TO BE SAVED, MOR’S POWER (WTF IS IT), THE INNER CIRCLE BEING BADASS MOTHERFUCKERS KICKING HYBERN ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#wow #this is fucking long #acotar #acomaf #acowar #acowar predictions #acowar theories #spoilers #duh #thank you @abookandacoffee #for all of these really awesome questions #this was fun #and it took forever #i loved it

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