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a princess of dragonstone

Jediná výjimka je čekárna u veterináře, když někdo sdílí absolutně šílené lore o jejich zvířeti.

"Je to debil," povzdechla si nesmírně elegantní stará dáma, když si všimla jak zírám na náhubek velikosti náprstku, který nasadila své čivavě.

Nebo absolutně enormní doga jménem Marcus Aurelius, kterého museli majitelé tlačit do ordinace jako nepojízdné auto, protože se prý páneček prokecl, že jdou na očkování a Mareček nesnáší jehly.

"Jeho se nemusíte bát, je to hodnej kluk. Má rád děti. Jsme tu pro další potvrzení o očkování, protože zase někoho pokousal."

"Sežral vchodové dveře"

alenekecej:

Meanwhile, NONE of what Zoya does (not even becoming a dragon) is right or necessary, yet the second you call out her behavior, her fans immediately jump on you with, "Well, Zoya had a traumatic past, that’s why she’s ice cold!" Like, okay, what does that have anything to do with breaking Alina’s ribs when Zoya was already a grown adult in her twenties? What does it have to do with her bullying her subordinates, slut-shaming Marie, or being openly classist and demeaning? By King of Scars, isn’t she like in her late twenties or thirties? And she still can't keep her composure for once. Being inside her head is exhausting. It’s exhausting because she’s angry literally all the time when it should have been other characters getting angry AT her, but it’s even weirder how other characters and the fandom just let it slide. Why? Because she’s "hot"? Because people either want to be her or be with her? It’s wild to me. Darkling fans acknowledge his actions and justified it with actual logical arguments that shaped the plot of the story, but Zoya fans act like her past erases every terrible and literally unprovoked thing she’s ever done. Darkling fans actually talk about his decisions, meanwhile we're supposed to believe Zoya is a good General/will be a good Queen just because the author said so with no backing evidence.

And honestly, I think this is why some people struggle to take "complex" female characters seriously. Aside from the obvious misogyny, when a female character is written as “morally grey”, I've seen a lot of their fans panic at the first sign of criticism and immediately retreat into her tragic backstory as an excuse—as if they don't have the critical thinking skills to analyze her as she actually is. Meanwhile, I find that when people like morally grey or villainous male characters, they embrace the dark traits and actually debate the rationality of their actions instead of making lame excuses.

The gushing over Zoya is even worse when you look at the storylines of the rest of her circle, because Genya was raped, stripped of her beauty, lost David, and endured endless trauma. Alina was stripped of her power and now basically lives dependant to her abuser. Nikolai lost his mind (even if it was resolved in a lame way) and lost the throne he fought his entire life for because he’s a bastard who lied his way there—yet somehow he's able to be still kept around as an advisor. (Oh and he was literally sidelined in his own duology, so it already feels pitiful enough.) David is literally dead for no reason. Hell, even Mal didn’t get to keep his tracking skill. The rest of the cast was stripped of a lot of things by the end, but Zoya—the person who arguably deserves it the least—gets everything. And for what? Most of those characters didn't even have families to guide them, while Zoya actually got to cross the Fold and visit her family, which means she at least had examples of good people treating her well, yet she continues to treat everyone around her like garbage because she was... what, poor fifteen years ago?

Zoya stans want to parade her around as this supreme, "complex, grey female character," but the moment you bring up actual textual criticism, they completely whitewash her and deflect. It feels so wildly detached from reality, and I genuinely don't get how more people don't see through it.

Hi, anon!

I don't understand them either. In general, I don't understand anyone who calls grishaverse characters "well-written." I love Sasha, but he isn't well-written at all, and a big part of his appeal is that he could be written so much better.

I don't understand that trauma fetish. For me, constant "Ah, but they've been through so much! They were so young and innocent! Ah, but they never asked for this!!" pity parties are the least interesting way to engage with the media and its characters.

The KoS duology is a bizarre case for many reasons, including: 1) broken magic system 2) thematic mess 3) political idiocy and deus ex machina 4) plain bad writing, as in putting together words on sentences. 5) constant self-contradictions. One of those contradictions is that the book tries to mock people who assume that Zoya is harsh and cruel because she must have been hurt in the past and "soften" her into a poor, broken victim of circumstances and then...does exactly that, blaming her psychosis on her childhood trauma and the fact the Darkling didn't reciprocate her embarrassing teenage crush on him. Apparently, she just strived for power because she "wanted to feel safe." Heaven forbid your "morally grey female character" wants power because she craves control and dominance; that will mess up with her inherent divine femininity!

I'm sure her masturbation garden and her unwillingness to risk breaking a nail using a hammer are also supposed to signal that deep down, she is just a soft and sensitive woman. She likes flowers and cares about her manicure; she's such a girlie girl, teeheee!

Worse than that, her awkwardly retconned ethnicity and upbringing don't even contribute to the plot in any way. Her aunt took advantage of the law on Grisha children to save Zoya from becoming a child bride, and Zoya just repealed that law and allowed other parents to sell their kids to brothels or rich perverts (and we know Zoya's case was not isolated). The problem is not that Zoya disagrees with the policy; the problem is that she doesn't do anything to address the problem that led to such a policy and doesn't try to do anything that would give children (or their parents) more freedom of choice and make sure children are still protected from parental abuse and neglect. That's the political grasp of a 10-year-old: you think the law is bad, so you just need to unlaw it, and then everything will be ok! Mean adults make you eat vegetables, soups, and grains? Make it so you are now allowed to eat only candy; consequences be damned!

Zoya's "redemption arc" doesn't work because she is never allowed to be genuinely wrong and sit with consequences. "Yes, she was rude and aggressive, but only because the environment in the Little Palace was highly competitive, so it's not really her fault! Yes, she liked the Darkling and followed his lead, but she was obviously manipulated, so it's not her fault again! Yes, she craves power, but she was a poow helpless guwl once, so she just wants to be safe!!! Yes, there are people who *technically* represent a different opinion, but she just yells at them to signal to stupid readers that she is obviously right and her opponents' position isn't even worth consideration!" Instead of doing a dirty, ungrateful work of making amends, she aesthetically plants flowers and makes a sad face from time to time to remind everyone she has suffered and thus must be absolved of all the consequences.

KoS Zoya is not really a character—she is a vessel for edgy 13-year-old kids to project their power fantasies on. When you grow up, her antics only make you cringe and want to lock her up in a psychiatric ward, but if you are an insecure teenager who starts hyperventilating if they need to ask for an additional sauce at McDonald's, I suppose the self-indulgent fantasy where you are a hot, powerful, aggressive girl who makes everyone convulse in religious ecstasy when they see otherworldly beauty works like a charm. Who cares if the politics don't make sense? Zoya can turn into a dragon!

So, my people know that I've been yapping for so long about restructuring the Grisha evolutionary traits a little bit more in Science than Leigh's "So this magic system is Science, but I'm gonna retcon this by making Alina's abilities retractable, as if it isn't a part of her just as much as her vital organs."

But I've never gone into detail about any of it. And I need help fleshing it out so I thought that if you strap in, even just a little and let me cook, maybe we can work this out.

The Making: Not a deity or a primordial being capable of giving and taking a Grisha's power, but instead, a cataclysmic event that caused genesis. The Big Bang, for example.

Small Science: The evolutionary ability to manipulate and control Matter that is known and observed by man. Ordinary Matter. Baryonic Matter. The Matter that Grisha in Pre-Industrial Ravka have studied and understood. Standard Physics.

Merzost: Creation from nothing. The evolutionary ability to manipulate and control Matter that has not yet been observed and understood by man. Non-Baryonic Matter. Dark Matter. Advanced/Theoretical Physics.

The Makings of the Universe: Dark Energy (68%), Dark Matter (27%), and Ordinary Matter (5%).

So this means that:

Heartrenders: Bio-electric and muscular manipulation. They use electromagnetic pulses. That sinoatrial node type shit.

Healers: Directed cellular regeneration. Accelerated mitosis.

Inferni: Adjustment of localized kinetic energy to create friction and ignite ambient atmospheric gases.

Squallers: High pressure, low pressure wind currents.

Tidemakers: Fluid dynamics and hydrodynamic polarization.

Durasts & Alkemi: Material science and molecular bonding.

MY FAVORITE AND WHAT I'VE THOUGHT ABOUT THE MOST because he has to have the makings of a god, sue me

Shadow Summoning:

Surface level/Base level: Shadows

Advanced Physics:

- manipulate gravitational wells

- induce localized spatial distortion or

- create localized vacuums where space itself expands or contracts rapidly

- black holes, worm holes, rifts

- pulling gravitational forces to forge planetary structures

Sun Summoning is cool too:

Surface level/base: Sun summoning/light

Advanced Physics:

- Electromagnetic Radiation

- Nuclear Fusion

- Photonic Force Field Manipulation

aka she can torch everyone and everything

in relation to me wanting to play around with the idea that ilya isn't a madman but a scientist from the future who got thrown into the past, so his journals are full of terminologies that are basically psychobabble to the illiterate...

I'm trying to figure out how an advanced Ravkan society with Grisha would be able to pull off time traveling. I have this concept in my head that Ilya's world was going through a big rip, which, trying to survive it, he is thrown through a wormhole, and the dark matter in it affected his system so when he reaches another point in time and is stuck there and procreates, the traces or dark matter is the reasoning for his wife popping out the world's first shadow summoner.

In July, one bookseller told me they received a very large order of around 1,000 books on Biblio, one of these marketplaces. The seller agreed to put an Apple AirTag provided by 404 Media in one of the books included in this order so we could see where the book was going. And by extension, which company, AI or otherwise, was behind this massive order. 404 Media granted the bookseller anonymity because they worried sharing this information would harm their business. Biblio did not respond to a request for comment.

listens to petitioners

tries to ensure the people are fed, while Nikolai actively starves them

arranged ceasefire with one of the centuries-old enemies of Ravka

And from his time as a General, we also have the teeny tiny fact First Army was badly supplied due to its corrupt leadership, while his people were well fed and taken care of.