#you are who you are in spite of him ( r. alina ) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

serpenteve · 3 years

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In most cases when you venture into an anti's profile after they've spewed some nonsense about how shipping fictional characters is supporting ab*se and gr*oming, they're a teenager and you're like well, at least this poor child's brain hasn't fully developped yet so that's something, but when in some cases it says 22 yo or 23 yo on there and you want to fling yourself into the sun, this new wave American centralized puritanism is gonna send back to the 1800s, this time by the hands of women.

As someone who's been in and out of this fandom since 2015, the shifting landscape of the fanbase has been fascinating to watch.

After the trilogy was published, Darklina was the most popular ship (called 'Alarkling' back then and I honestly have no idea why we picked such an unwieldy ship name lmao). Tumblr was much more active because this was before the Infamous Purge of 2018 and most of the fanbase was concentrated here instead of spread out across multiple platforms like it is today.

Mal hate was rampant. After Darklina, the most popular ship was Nikolina (this being before the duology paired him with Zoya) and/or shipping Alina with nobody. There were like max 4 people unironically shipping Mal with Alina, and usually those people were multi-shippers who shipped Alina with everybody. Most fanfics would either pretend he didn't even exist or would include him just to shit on him or kill him off. People would go and edit his wiki page on the Grishaverse wiki to remind people what an asshat he was and I'd be lying if I said this didn't have me in tears of laughter.

The amount of fan art, fanfic, fan edits, fan content about Mal x Alina was embarrassingly low. You could be forgiven for not even realizing he was supposed to be the main love interest based on fandom engagement alone.

The fact that the vast majority of the fandom hated Mal because of how much he reminded us of your run-of-the-mill garden variety toxic fuckboy (at best) was incredibly validating. We didn't fall for the author's failed attempts of excusing his bullshit. We kind of just made our own fanon and ran with it.

Six of Crows got published and while their fandom was much larger than Shadow & Bone, there wasn't a whole lot of overlap in the fanbase. A lot of SoC fans didn't even realize S&B existed at the time since it wasn't prerequisite reading to enter the Grishaverse. Also, SoC was obviously better written and tightly plotted so anyone who went back to read the original trilogy was going to be in for a surprise with the massive drop in writing quality.

Then the Tumblr purge happened and the fandom just kind of died off. This wasn't just something that affected S&B, however. A lot of users migrated to Twitter or just left Tumblr for good. I actually don't even know too much about the fandom history from 2018-2020 because I also left around this time (for other unrelated reasons).

Someone else might be able to fill in the details here but what I *imagine* happened is that the Darklina fandom kind of died off post-Tumblr purge as did a lot of fandoms at the time. Leigh published KoS in which she created a parody cult of Darklina fans and used her heroes as mouthpieces for her anti-Darklina agenda because she was pissed 3/4 of the fandom hated M*l and were shipping Alina with the villain out of pure spite and her terrible writing choices.

A new generation of fans entered the fandom through either Tumblr, Twitter, BookTube or TikTok and saw the chaotic mess of rampant Darkling simping and indiscriminate Mal hate that we left in our wake and then reacted to that. So now new fans starting unironically shipping Alina with Mal out of spite for the original fans who blatantly didn't and probably felt emboldened by the author herself immaturely reacting to her own fanbase and painting us as stupid cult members who read her book wrong.

And thus began the era of the Darkling antis (a phrase that 2016 would have absolutely clowned at) who, like the author, think anyone who ships Alina with the Darkling is an abuse apologist and is somehow too stupid to see his ~evil~ villainy and need to be reminded via anon hate about how dumb we are 🤡

Is it also a coincidence that people are turning around and claiming any critique of the sexist ending of R&R is now itself sexist? Is it a coincidence that new fans are willing take the author's excuses for Mal's shitty behavior? Is it a coincidence that antis are running around and calling Darklina shippers "racist" because...the Netflix adaptation racelifted the characters and they will jump on any half-baked excuse to harass shippers? ☕

#cw: abuse #fandom history #aka a post literally no one asked for but i couldn't help myself #all the old shippers are gone or are barely active FML #cw: grooming

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sheikah · 3 years

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Don't feel sorry for your breakdown, we are all basically losing it together. I suffered and mourned with you about Daenerys, and after I promised myself not fall again, well, here I am. And Leigh Bardugo using Darklina for clickbait but then mocking the fans in the books sounds SO MUCH like GoT using Daenerys for audience and then killing her (because she was “mad” and “full of greed”). Whatever, fandom can do better. Sending you a big hug. PD: AUTHORS, LEAVE YOUR VILLAINS DEAD.

Oh man, another friend who suffered the Daenerys betrayal haha I don’t think I’ll EVER get over that and I think that’s why this stings more. I read TGT and was like, “Okay, cool, a fandom I can get into where I know the ending and know what to expect and can adjust my opinions accordingly.” Joke’s on me I guess. I agree, just let dead characters be dead lol. It’s not even the re-killing of the Darkling that gets me really. I expected that after she made the decision to bring him back in KOS. It’s that she felt the need to send him into something like a super hell to suffer indefinitely. It’s that she brought Alina in for a cameo seemingly for the sole purpose of trying to say Alina doesn’t give a damn??? Which is so wildly OOC for the girl who wept over his body, who honored his dying wishes, who cared for him even after everything. It’s just the way that she literally, obviously wrote this as a giant middle finger to Darklinas that I can’t get over. I know she doesn’t really seem to care about the trilogy fandom anymore, and especially not about Darklina fans. But the truth is SOC probably wouldn’t exist without the success of TGT preceding it, and TGT probably wouldn’t have been popular without Darklina. So while I know there were some shitty fans who treated her poorly after R&R, I wish she could maybe just take a step back and treat her fans with more respect than this. Because that’s what’s getting me more than the Darkling’s second, intensely horrific death: the fact that she’s actively trying to spite us and basically telling me I’m not wanted as one of her readers after all the time and money I’ve spent on her work.

#row spoilers #saint-aleksander #answered

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todaynewsstories · 6 years

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Moldova fights brain drain with tech startups, social activism | Europe| News and current affairs from around the continent | DW

“I don’t really know why I came back,” says Nicolae Leontiev. “Even my parents were very surprised,” he adds, laughing. He lived and studied in Romania for six years before returning to Chisinau, the capital of the Republic of Moldova. Nico, as he prefers to be called, is almost an exception in his home country. It is estimated that every fourth Moldovan works abroad. Many of Nico’s friends have also left Moldova in search of a better life. Romania, Canada or France are now their homes.

After independence, many emigrated in the 1990s because of high unemployment. Even today, the economic situation is unstable. Moldova is considered Europe’s poorest country. However, young people are now emigrating not only for economic reasons but also because they are frustrated by political developments. Four years after the Association Agreement was signed, the European Union just cut aid funds due to perceived democratic shortcomings in the country. This year has seen numerous protests in Moldova against corruption and for an independent judiciary.

Nico is also dissatisfied with Moldovan politics. As soon as he starts talking about it, his otherwise friendly face becomes serious and his voice more emphatic: “In order to achieve anything in our country, you need connections. Everything is political.” But then he weighs things up and explains what keeps him in the country whose politics he despises: “Moldova is my home. This is where I was born, this is where I had my first great love, where I had my first experiences.”

“Tekwill,” Moldova’s fledgling Silicon Valley

In Moldova’s ‘Silicon Valley’

Nico is one of an estimated one million Moldovans who have Romanian citizenship which makes it possible to live and work in the EU without any problems. Why doesn’t he do this? In order to understand, you have to take the trolleybus to the final stop and walk between the run-down prefabricated buildings across the grounds of the Technical University, which clearly shows its Soviet past. Shortly before reaching the city outskirts, surrounded by fields, there is a modern building where Nico works: Tekwill, Chisinau’s small “Silicon Valley.”

“You wouldn’t think this was in Moldova, would you?” Nico asks with a laugh, as he welcomes us. At Tekwill, young start-up employees sit in modern offices with glass partitions and work on their laptops. There’s a room with a 3D printer, a table tennis table and a communal networking breakfast on Thursdays. Here Nico works in the marketing department of the start-up “Gaus,” a platform for young software developers. He is very happy with this work and can pay his bills, which was a challenge every month in his previous job. Tekwill’s founders hope that their institution and start-up academy will attract companies and investors and strengthen the country’s IT sector. Most of Tekwill’s funding comes from abroad. “Our own politicians do nothing to keep the young people here,” criticizes Nico.

Read also: ‘Abrasive’ new magazine inspires Moldovan youth

For Valeriu Ghiletchi, deputy parliamentary president, emigration is a major problem for Moldova. “The long-term goal is to make the country more attractive so that young people stay.” But at the same time the politician describes this as “Mission Impossible.” He doesn’t blame the young generation and believes the desire to emigrate stems from Moldova’s Soviet past. In contrast to Ghiletchi, young people usually only know the Iron Curtain from their parents’ stories.

But the diaspora is also an economic factor for the state. The money that migrants send home accounts for one-fifth of the gross domestic product. There are only nine countries in the world where this share is higher. But Moldova is losing many qualified workers as a result of emigration.

Read also: The increasingly acquired taste of Moldovan wine

‘I choose Moldova’

There are some government programs, such as financial support for returning emigrants who want to start a business. Non-governmental organizations, however, criticize them as not being very effective. “They sometimes have good initiatives, but they don’t get through because the politicians actively work against each other,” says Mariana Turcan.

That’s why Turcan’s “Eu aleg Moldova” (“I choose Moldova”) campaign aims to convince young Moldovans that they have a future in their homeland. Emigration seems to be in vogue right now. “Since when is it a disgrace to stay in your country?” asks Turcan. She sits in a self-service cafe, where cappuccino is only available in paper cups, and discusses the problem with student Ruxanda Tabuncic and psychology lecturer Viorica Mocanu. “We had only half as many students at our university this year than usual,” Mocanu says, visibly disappointed.

Moldovan activists Viorica Mocanu, Mariana Turcan and Ruxanda Tabuncic (l. to r.) work to help their young compatriots stay in their homeland

Mariana Turcan is sometimes frustrated by problems such as corruption in her home country. She is driven by what she laughingly calls “idiotic patriotism.” It’s easy to complain and leave the country, but you can only change something if you stay, she says. To this end, she organizes summer schools, for example, in which young people are integrated into social projects and motivated to volunteer. In addition, Turcan organizes events where young people who have achieved something professionally tell others about it.

The idea is to offer a more dynamic atmosphere that offers hope: many young people here simply do not know what to do after school and therefore go abroad. “The idea is to encourage young people to bring their skills to the home country. She has already convinced student Ruxanda — she is now involved as a volunteer in the campaign. Ruxanda proudly wears her T-shirt with the inscription “Moldova — casa mea!” on her back: “Moldova is my home!

Read also: Artists explore the exodus of Romania’s youth

Turcan knows that, in spite of everything, politics has to cooperate. She herself may be able to change young people’s attitude to their country, but she cannot repair the broken roads or raise village teachers’ salaries to keep them there.

Nico is someone who cares a lot about his homeland. That’s why he wants to stay and help develop the country for the better. But it could be that he will say goodbye to his homeland at some point, he says quietly at the end. “Even though I know it’s not really right,” he adds quickly.

The research for this article took place as part of a study trip by the German Society to the Republic of Moldova, which was sponsored by the Federal Foreign Office.