ya know what when i read the shadow and bone trilogy i really had no opinion at all on who alina wound up with and i still don't really care but watching people be mean to archie and idolize the darkling just makes me ship malina out of spite at this point

Jessie Mei Li and Archie Renaux as ALINA STARKOV and MAL ORETSEV in Shadow and Bone (2021-2023)

it’s actually terribly funny to me that malinas and darklinas spent this much time beefing for nikolina to come out on top. it feels poetic

Me, when I see people shipping Gwyn & Azriel (Gwynriel), Elain & Lucien (Elucien), Sophie & Fitz (Sophitz), Shuri & Riri (Shuriri), Jon & Sansa (Jonsa), Wednesday & Xavier (Wavier / Wenvier), Elora & Kit, The Doctor & Donna, Feyre & Tamlin (Feylin), Stiles & Malia (Stalia), Katniss & Gale, Glimmer & Adora (Glimmadora), Dawson & Joey, Addie & Henry, Finn & Rey (Finrey), Rhaenyra & Harwin (Rhaewin), Rhaenyra & Alicent (Rhaenicent), Daemon & Mysaria, Daemon & Laena, Daemon & Nettles, Ross & Rachel (Roschel), Mal & Alina (Malina), Mai & Zuko (Maiko), Katara & Aang (Kataang) :

it really does feel like an insult when an author gives a villain some physical imperfection you also possess like…… will never forget in one of the grisha trilogy books the king or prince whatever a point is made to describe him as having burst blood vessel on his nose like ok leigh me too is there something wrong with that…….

okay now that i've been a big whiny baby...

Tolya is incredibly hot, wtf, and I actually really dig on the shiptease he has with Inej??? I like it so much! And I was not expecting the first person who appreciates Tolya's poetry to be Kaz. I love that little extra characterization! It dovetails really well with him stealing and then keeping the painting in season 1. Tolya even says something to the effect of "oh hey, someone else who appreciates the beauty in life" or something.

Realistically, because it pointed and obvious but wasn't treated as a joke, I do think it was the writers drawing a parallel between Kaz and Tolya. If they get another season, I suspect that Inej will flirt with the idea of a romance with Tolya (or even just... have one), and we'll get some hint or subtext or something that some of what she likes about Tolya are actually things she likes about Kaz. They've already set up parallel narratives for Inej and Mal (both of them leaving their love interest to spread their wings and figure themselves out instead), so I'm pretty excited for where they go if they get more episodes.

... selfishly I want that but also I'm a ho for polyships

Ah the ending.

Alina keeping all her power and not sun summoners popping up everywhere? Perfect

Alina getting all power hungry and getting a bit of shadow powers cuz balance is needed? Perfect

Alina not living on a farm with no purpose after she built it throughout 3 books? Perfect

Alina almost becoming queen? Perfect

Mal setting off on a boat while they both find themselves without each other before they(probably) come back to each other and be endgame? Perfect

Them making mal generally better and making me finally see a bit potential in Malina? Great(tho I’m still here for single powerful Alina)

What did Alina’s dream sequence in Siege and Storm signify for her character arc?

So there’s one scene in the grishaverse trilogy is especially puzzling to me. In fact, I find it so bewildering that if I ever got the chance to meet Leigh Bardugo and ask her a question in person, it would be: “What did Alina’s dream about the pony cart even mean? And what was your reasoning for writing it?”

Here is the scene in question:

I don’t actually think this scene is bad. In the right context, it informs the reader of some critical character details that prove to be significant later in the story. Also, it tells us a lot about Mal and Alina’s relationship. Firstly, it shows us that Mal loves Alina and imagines a future with her, he wants to solidify their relationship through marriage so they can always be together. But, it also demonstrates Mal’s flagrant disregard for Alina’s well-being when it comes to their relationship. The fact that he expresses a desire to marry Alina directly after Ana Kuya compares being a wife to being a donkey (or cattle) tells us how Mal is content with compromising on Alina’s well-being if it means they stay together.

It just seems so contrary to the actual ending. Why would you, as a writer, include this scene when it seems to make a case more against your endgame couple than in favour of it? Especially when the message from this dream is echoed later on in the book when Alina and Mal clash over her responsibilities to Ravka. Mal consistent in his negativity towards Alina’s powers. He is visibly in a better mood when she hides her abilities and becomes agitated when Alina is either using her powers or embroiled in matters concerning them.

You might brush off this scene as the ramblings of a little kid too young to understand what he’s saying. But since Mal is a fictional character, his actions and words (in whatever context) carry meaning that is linked to the greater themes of the story. Why have him say this if not to point out the major flaw that defines the Malina relationship?

Truthfully, Mal doesn’t know who he is without Alina. The two of them became each other’s everything when they were very young and have bound their identities to one another. Because they experienced tragedy very early in their lives, they cling to each other for safety to the detriment of their individual development. It makes sense, but this codependency is only ever romanticized by the narrative and is never examined critically.

The ideal conclusion of the Malina narrative would be the two of them finding independence and ceasing the sabotage of their current relationship. Because if they stay in their current state, they will never leave the meadow of childhood and remain trapped in a state of immaturity and underdevelopment.

There’s something to be said about Mal finding the courage to go in his own path and grow up into a fully fledged adult. His statement in this scene is a reflection of the childish attitude he maintains through his adolescence. It is demonstrative of a self-centred and codependent mentality Mal has and why he must outgrow it,

Except that never happens.

Why do you dislike Mal? I get that he has some flaws but as compared to darkling he is a literal Saint.

He’s fucking boring. Also see: the tantrum he was throwing through the entirety of S&S

I’m also very much not going to judge a protagonist/ endgame love interest and the villain by the same standards lmfao. Characters exist to serve narrative functions, they’re not real people to hold to moral standards.

Anyway I was actually rooting pretty hard for Malina in book one because Alina seemed so invested! Then he showed up at the fete scene to yell at her and I was like. oh. never mind.

I hope the mal haters fucking sobbed this season archie did such a good job with mal despite people being shitty to him about playing mal this man did an absolutely incredible performance and I hope he is very proud of the work he has put out because he should be

Why I didn't like the ending of R&R. Part 4. Let's talk about pairings

I'm back! Let's continue the analysis, this is the penultimate part.

Another problem of the finale is that Nikolina storyline, speaking in Russian, is Bondarchuk’s gun (that is, it leads to nowhere and it is generally unclear why it appeared).

In the story, Alina has three love interests - Mal - a childhood friend and first love, Nikolai - a charismatic prince who decided to take the throne through cunning through a political alliance with Alina as a Saint, and Darkling - an immortal Grisha and the only equal to the heroine in strength (in theory, in practice it is much stronger), with whom Alina has an unbreakable connection. It's logical to assume that all three ships will play a role. But in reality, Nikolai acts as a third wheel, because the main confrontation is between the Darkling and Mal.

Mal symbolizes Alina's past - life as a otkazat'sya, and Darkling present - life as an immortal and powerful Grisha. It is logical to assume that Nikolai represents the future - life as a Saint and Tsaritsa. Logical, but apparently not for Leigh Bardugo. In her story, Mal is the past and the present and the future and everything in general. There is no one else for Alina and there cannot be anyone else, otherwise she is a slut (this is not my opinion, if anything). And that's the problem.

Yes, I didn't like the fact that Malina became the endgame. And no, contrary to popular belief the anti is not at all because my shipp (Darklina) is not the endgame (although I perfectly understand those who are unhappy about this, because it was Darklina who lured us into the plot, this is a fact, and this can be easily proven) . No, I would be quite happy with Nikolina. I didn't expect Darklina endgame after the Darkling burned down the orphanage and killed Ana Kuya and the instructors (which, in my opinion, was his most disgusting act in the trilogy) and promised to break Alina (which would have break him too, IMHO).

The main (but far from the only) reason why I (like, I assume, many others) cannot accept Malina endgame is that the author broke the entire plot for her sake. Think for yourself, because of Malina all the fuss happened with the third amplifier, because of Malina Alina in the end lost her powers, ceased to be a Grisha and was able to calmly go into the sunset and not have consequences for her rash actions, because the problems are Grisha and Ravka no longer concerns her, because she is now just an ordinary otkazat'sya, because of Malina Mal was ✨magically resurrected✨ and because of Malina Alina rejected Nikolai.

Why was it even necessary to introduce a love line between Alina and Nikolai, if in the end it did not lead to anything? Unclear.

If I were the author, I would rewrite the entire plot, because I wrote some kind of nonsense *khm* What am I talking about? Oh yes, I would have left Alina her powers, let her destroy the Fold herself, left Mal dead and ended the plot with Nikolina, even despite my great love for Darklina. Not a perfect ending, but at least a satisfying one. A favorite pairing is good, but you need to think sensibly and not ruin the entire plot for it.

Here is another meme for you, see you in the final part🤗

“pekka rollins got dealt with too quickly, he’s already defeated” this, “malina are not endgame” that... I’m sorry are we watching the same show?????? bc pekka rollins now rules Hellgate, aka the place the crows need to break matthias out of. and about malina, i REFUSE to believe they’re not endgame in the show. they’ve been so tied together throughout their whole lives that i understand the sentiment of wanting to find their own paths separately, especially on mal’s side. where do i think those paths are gonna lead eventually? back together

I really think Mal Oretsev is the worst endgame romantic interest in existence.

Really.

There are many canonical ships I disagree with, but Malina ? This is the worst of all for me.

Alina had so much potential, and it was all wasted on a stupid tracker ; When she could have had the Darkling or Nikolai !

As much as I will always wonder what could be wrong in Alina's head to prefer her childhood friend to these two, and also what could have been going on in Leigh Bardugo's head when she wrote the character of Mal and the Malina relationship.

Like... she didn't notice that the character and the relationship were catastrophic ? Is that the height of romance for her ?

It sucks...

So, will someone point out that the only endgame ships we saw share their first kiss on the show was Genya/David?

We haven't seen Zoyalai and Tamadia didn't kiss

Kanej and Helnik was not real (and if they make it actually real in helnik´s case, then they were already naked on the dream, that was not a first kiss)

Wesper and Malina had already kissed and more offscreen (be real, Malina at least had kissed because they were so confy with the "hot stones" lines)

Now that you finished s2, do you want to share your thoughts about sweet pathetic Aleks and sweet pathetic Alina? In s1 I didn't care much about her, honestly, she didn't have the dephs I normally like in protagonist (for me to like) and I was genuilly worried about this season, but well. You saw, Hilary. I love it, what they did with her (and Aleks, and, for that matter, Alina and her relastionship with Mal)

Honestly, I am a huge fan of what they did with Darklina this season, and all the complaints about it deeply, deeply baffle me. Like... y'all realize that in the books, she kills the Darkling, gives up her power, and goes to live with Mal on a farm in obscurity, right? We all bitched about it, and we were all dreading s2 because of that whole mess and it not being what anyone wanted. I was obviously very skeptical about how the season overall and especially the Alina/Mal/Aleksander part was going to be handled. Because in the books, Alina is not very interesting, Malina is not very interesting but still automatically promoted to endgame, and none of that is really challenged or deconstructed at all. I wasn't sure how bold the writers were going to be about changing it up, whether they were going to play the book arcs fairly straight, or what. And they did NONE of that. Yes, she still killed him, but after we literally had a flashback of them kissing the first time and him stating that was when he truly felt peace! He dies gazing at her adoringly and calling her "my little saint!" Like! This was not them "minimizing Darklina" or whatever!

I know that fandom is gonna fandom, and also that fandom tends to insist that they like complicated female characters in theory and then turn on them the instant they're actually complicated, but Alina is SO much more interesting and nuanced in the show that she is in the book, Jessie Mei Li does a great job with her, and the chemistry with Ben Barnes, even and especially when they want to kill each other, is hnnnnngh. Like, again! The writers went "hey twisted soulmate bullshit!" at us at every opportunity! They broke up Malina and sent Mal off to develop an actual personality and plot purpose, and the show acknowledged multiple times in-text that the relationship is weird and codependent and possibly influenced by him literally being her magical footstool! They didn't just go "well they should get married now and Alina will give up her power and live Happily Ever After in obscurity!" Instead, they made it all much more complicated, they made Mal likeable instead of a jealous dickhead but still admitting he's outclassed, they had Alina choose Nikolai and power, they set up an arc of Alina trying to be the "good Grisha" and the "good queen" and discovering that it's SO much harder than just being able to summon light, and crucially, repeating every one of Aleksander's mistakes/being drawn into his character arc exactly as he predicted. So what happens next? We don't know, but we can bet there will be more Parallels.

Basically, the writing this season for Darklina was a lot smarter and a lot more challenging/subversive of the source material than I ever expected it to be, and I eat it up. AND THEY ENDED IT WITH ALINA LITERALLY USING THE SHADOW CUT, Y'ALL!! LIKE. LIKE!!!! SHE CLEARLY ENJOYED DOING IT BECAUSE YET AGAIN, TWISTED SOULMATE BULLSHIT!!! I AM STILL VERY MUCH INTERNALLY SCREAMING ABOUT THIS!

It seems as if there are some segments of the fandom who only like Alina in theory, as long as she doesn't do anything to "challenge" or push back against Aleksander, and like. Guys. That's their whole arc. That is the whole dynamic in a nutshell, and that's what makes it interesting. Enemies-lovers-enemies-lovers, inextricably bound up even as they hurt each other and deny each other and try to push each other away. They always end up coming back to each other, because as the show and the characters themselves keep telling us, they are each other's only equal in the world! Not mention, the show has cleared WAY more space for that to be explored in an actually meaningful way than the books ever did, and I for one am very here for it. It's My Jam to a truly embarrassing degree.