#grishaverse fandom

I saw a post asking why the women of the Grishaverse seem underrated and why fandom spends so much more time discussing male characters. I think the answer is much simpler than people want it to be.

Characters such as Alina, Inej, or Zoya are largely written to secure audience approval. Both readers and viewers are encouraged to sympathize with them, support them, and ultimately see them as heroes. The narrative rarely challenges that position in any meaningful way. Even when these characters make mistakes, the story almost always guides the audience back toward the same conclusion. They are good, admirable, and deserve support. The problem is that approval is not the same thing as fascination.

After three years in this fandom, I still struggle to find anything about Alina that invites deeper analysis. I see her less like a force driving the story and more like a protagonist being carried through it. Zoya is essentially the embodiment of toxic male traits in female form, yet for some reason many younger girls choose to celebrate them as empowerment, even though they would condemn those very same traits in a male character. Inej is not a character. She is a product, carefully designed for teenage girls to project themselves onto another badass YA heroine. Strip away that fantasy and there is remarkably little left to analyze. Even among their own fans, discussions about these characters are often short, repetitive, built around headcanons, aesthetics and ships. Once the story is over, very little remains to unpack because the audience has already arrived exactly where the narrative wanted them to be.

Darkling is the complete opposite. Whether you love him or hate him, he offers endless angles of analysis. I can still write about him without running out of things to say. His politics, his morality, his relationship with Alina, his view of Grisha persecution, his methods, his loneliness, his vision for Ravka, and even the question of whether history ultimately proved him right remain open to interpretation. One of the most interesting things about him ist that he was never presented as a character the audience was supposed to accept unquestioningly. He was presented as a solution that some still do not want to accept.

I can find more posts about Aleksander from antis than about their own favorite characters. Even when they make edits, write analyses, or create content about Alina or Zoya, the conversation often circles back to him. Their relationship with him, their opposition to him, their reaction to him. It is remarkably difficult to find discussions that treat these characters as entirely self-sufficient individuals rather than extensions of a conflict that ultimately revolves around Aleksander. For characters supposedly overlooked by fandom, they seem strangely dependent on him to generate engagement.

So the issue is not that fandom overlooks the women. The issue is that these female products (not characters) are designed to make you like them and root for them without asking questions, while others are written with enough depth, ambiguity, and complexity to sustain years of discussion. One gives the audience a conclusion. The other gives them an argument. And people will always return to the argument.

"Six of crows" 20. 01. 26

Gloves - Kaz,

Knife - Inej,

Revolver - Jasper,

Bomb - Wylan,

Red drape and emblem - Nina,

Handcuffs - Matthias.

I couldn't decide which cards to choose for them. I was tempted to make Kaz and Inej the king and queen, as most artists did. But I decided it would be more correct to give them all sixes.

Натюрморт посвящённый книге Ли Бардуго "Шестёрка воронов".

Перчатки - Каз,

Нож - Инеж,

Револьвер - Джаспер,

Бомба - Вильян,

Красная драперовка и эмблема- Нина,

Наручники - Матиас.

Я не могла решить какие карты для них выбрать. Был соблазн сделать Каза и Инеж королём и королевай, как это делали большинство художников. Но я решила, что правильнее будет дать им всем шестёрки.

Sketch

Набросок

Colors

Цвета

It makes no sense. It should be red with purple!Similar and opposite to the Alkemi kefta's (purple with red).

It literally says in the books that her powers are a mix between Materialki(Fabricator) and Corporalki.

The Gray Imp?

kaz: glares at the TV screen for the whole three hours, absolutely despises hamilton and defends maria reynolds instead, taps his foot a bit during cabinet battles

inej: sings under her breath to some songs, loves eliza like her own daughter, has a good time but calls out the romanticizing of the characters

jesper: THE BIGGEST FAN OF THE MUSICAL, crushes on thomas jefferson, sings every single song and has the best time ever (also asks wylan to buy him tickets for the live show)

wylan: enjoys the musical movie immensely, loves the schuyler sisters, hums the alexander hamilton song for the rest of the week

nina: has the fattest crush on maria reynolds and angelica schuyler, loves the musical and has the best time, probably buys the tickets for the live show right after the movie ends

matthias: makes very insightful comments while watching, does not sing but hums quietly under breath, loves eliza dearly

alina: sings her soul out during the schuyler sisters song, crushes on maria reynolds’ actress but overall enjoys the musical very much

mal: watches in silence, tears up when john laurens died and probably rolls his eyes whenever king george appears on the TV

genya: also watches it in silence, only throws a comment or two during some scenes, fumes when hamilton cheats on eliza, appreciates the makeup and costumes as well

david: ALSO watches in silence, at the beginning is wary of the romanticization of certain aspects, has a good time anyways

zoya: has a scowl on her face for the whole three hours, absolutely adores angelica and eliza, likes the political aspects of the plot