#grishaverse rant

If you think about it... Nikolai Lantsov (with that weird plot twist that he is behind the almost kidnapping), is indirectly responsible for both Alexei's and Marie's death on the show.

And for what? He wanted to kidnap Alina from the LP, from Os Alta to do what? She was already serving in the Second Army, indirectly working for the Lantsov monarchy. So what did Nikolai want with her?

Was it his plan to overthrow his father and brother with her? There is no other explanation for this, am I right?

The other day, I was reading the ending of Rule of Wolves and realized something that maybe many of you have noticed before, but I hadn’t really thought about it prior to reading the passages I am going to quote.

The „good guys” talking about someone who is going to suffer for eternity.

(I have bolded some parts that made me feel like having a shot of vodka. I even might have had a shot of vodka. And now there might be no vodka left in my household. Because I have might read much more of RoW on that day).

1.

“You know what we did in the mountains.”

 “Yes,” said Alina.

“You saved the world and doomed Ravka’s most deadly enemy to an eternity of torture.”

“Very efficient questing,” said Genya.

Zoya tapped her fingers against the desk...

“I’ve … I’ve been having nightmares, about the monastery, the thorn wood.” When she had touched the ancient tree, she had felt the Darkling’s pain. The dragon hadn’t let her forget it.

2.

​Do you have a fever?” Genya asked.

But Alina’s expression was knowing.

“You’re afraid you’ll become him. You’re afraid you’ll be the avalanche.” Immortal and unstoppable, another tragedy to befall Ravka.

“What are we meant to do?” Genya said. “Free him? Forgive him?”

“Grant him death,” said Zoya.

Genya stood and walked to the mantel.

“Does he deserve it?”

“That’s not my choice to make,” said Zoya. “Not on my own.”

Alina rested her head on the back of the couch.

“Why are we even discussing this? From what I understand, the Darkling knew the bargain he made. He stands at the doorway between worlds. If he dies, the Fold ruptures again and the void comes pouring through.”

3.

Genya made a kind of humming noise. “So, if we decide he deserves the mercy of death, where does that leave us?”

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So. What did I realise? That the books ​have no message. That's the problem. They're empty.

The „good guys“ are a bunch if selfish people who think themselves perfect.  They are quick to judge. They never question themselves. They never try to see anything from another perspective. They are unable of mercy (with the exception of Zoya in the above passages). There is nothing moral about them. They do not care for anything but themselves.

And since the story is empty, we keep filling the void with fanfiction on the quest to add some meaning to it all.

I have spoken.

I must add that I do not think that everything in the books is bad. There are some good parts that are actually well written. If they were all bad, we would never bother discussing them or writing fanfiction. It’s the unused potential that is so frustrating. And LB not understanding her own themes. And that tragic lack of a deeper message.

Like, yeah, out of context, that quote sounds super fucking badass, but in reality...

It’s not a badass line at all.

It’s Alina wanting to sulk alone in the dirt after she and her group have gone through some tough shit. She’s their leader, she has responsibilities to them and all she does it lay in the dirt and bemoan her terrible fate.

Like, same, but like... I’m not the hero of a fantasy adventure novel and the only person I’m responsible for is myself, most of the time.

I don’t want characters that are like me in that way to be the protagonists of the books I read because a) I’m fucking boring and b) I read books for escapism. I don’t need or want to read about a character with cripling imposter syndrome and self-esteem issues, I have plenty of that shit in my own head and if it’s not done and framed right, it’s just going to make me hate what I’m reading because it’s reminding me of that stuff.

It’s relatable in the worst way possible.

Like, same, girl, can we move on to the fantasy battles and sexy villain I’m here for, please?

And, honestly, Alina being a relatable bitch makes the whole series incredibly frustrating to people who were that angsty teenager and have gotten their shit at least partially together, because we recognize the same mistakes we made and we want Alina to do better. And it makes her ending even more tragic, because she’s basically barred from any healthy coping mechanisms and will inevitably perpetuate the damage, self-hatred and trauma to all the kids she’s raising.

Because that’s the other things: Alina shouldn’t be raising children, when she doesn’t have her shit together. Having kids isn’t a cure for trauma, dear boomers. Alina isn’t mature enough to raise any child, especially not kids who have already gone through the trauma of losing their bio parents.

The only thing that stops me from loving it completely is that, this is a moment of friendship but ,with the exception of Tamar ,...they were all AWFUL to each other in the first book.

FOLLOWING THERE IS A LOT OF SAB RANT. Beware if you love the first book. While not anti Genyalina or Zoyalina , i am definitely not saying good things about either (as relationships and not ships themselves) some Alina critical and NOT book!Nadia friendly. If you are not in the mood for all this maybe you should keep scrolling OR give me your best counterpoint, you know i am flexible.

However, if you like the show version of Zoyalina/Genyalina/Nadia, then you may like/want to see the last points

-Nadia hated Zoya yet pretended to be her friend ,only hung out with Alina because she was the sun sumoner and look down on Genya because she was a servant

-Zoya phisically attaked Alina and insulted her for coming from an orphanage ,out of jelaousy

-Alina , as much as i hate her inner monologue, is probably the least bad since she only complains about how much she despises Nadia and Zoya in her thoughts and not out loud. The thing that irritates me is that she talks back to a guard for yelling at her YET (inconsistency is Sab!Alina´s middle name) she doesn't do shit in order to defend Genya from Nadia and Marie . Honestly, they may be friends in the second and third book but they are definitely not in the first one.

-Genya, look: i don't hold it against her, i get her position and i know she didn't mean to harm Alina. But cutting her comunication with Mal and helping her boss to do what he did to Alina is probably the worst any of the girls have done to each other (again, she undid this by helping Alina at a crucial moment, becoming a real friend and definitely didn't deserved to being desfigured). Also i still don't get why getting into Zoya´s room to mock her, like why was that necesary?

The thing is not that i wished they were nicer to each other (although it would have helped) i wish there was develoment to make the prev scene being more powerfull:

-Alina actually hating Genya for what she did , even if she also wants to save her form the king and the general. So when Genya helps her THEN forgives her and feel guilt for what happened to her because of that. But in canon she just goes , "oh Genya stole the letters? It´s cool i´m sure she had her reasons?" which would work if Alina was forgiving but the next three books she completely despises Zoya for sleeping with Mal, which is honestly way less bad.

-If you want to keep Alina not standing up to Genya to M&N then exploit it, have Genya saying "i hate doing this to her...but she clearly doesn't care about me and just sees me as a servant like everyone else here" then after Alina helps her standing up to the king and confort her about the scars realizing that Alina does care.

-Nadia was completely retconed, none of her hypocritical and haughty personality shown in SaB are reconigzed in the next books , they are just gone like "hey, remember she was a jerk in the first book? well forget it now, i need you to like her now" . Alina barely seems to remember she didn't like her and her fake friendship with Zoya is never adressed again and unlike the other three; she doesn't have an arc nor a disernible personality. With the other three, flawed as their relationship can be, at least you can get the nature of their interactions. What is the nature of all this girl´s interactions with Nadia?: Well, she and Tamar are into each other...and thats it, you can't really tell the bassis of her interactions with either of the three beyond what happens in the first book , which again: were not good. So with Nadia you either have her with no personality (S&S ,R&R) OR an awful one (Sab) and i can't tell which one is worse. In adition, does she ever brings up Marie? I don't remember. They were supposed to be best friends,they were the exact same character with the sole diference that one is gay and the other is dead. The scene would have been good if Nadia recalled a moment she had with her. In short: a sudden change of personality does not equal character develoment. Alina went from self absorved in SaB to actually compasionate and tolerable in R&R and while still had annoying moments ,the change was more gradual and easier to apreciate. Nadia just stopped being mean and no one ever remembers and this actitude ended up being useless , so she was awful for absolutely nothing.

-Zoya/Alina may be the only relationship with some develoment, i wouldn't expect Alina to inmediately being friends with Zoya. The problem here is the extreme opposite: that in the scene ,even after all they´ve been trought : ALINA STILL HATES ZOYA. One would think that after Zoya was the first one to offer her help , when Marie,Sergei and Nadia still doubt her, Alina would at least reconigze she is not as bad as she thought.

So i really like that chapter but hell, it could had been so much better. Maybe i got this wrong, i don't like the first book so it´s possible i have skipped something important.

The good thing is that , the show is 98% likely to do the scene with the power it deserves.

-Alina actually called Genya out about the letters. The audiende and she can see Genya´s face, trying to justify herself yet clearly in remorse and thats why Alina chooses to give her another chance.

- Nadia and Marie are not mean towards Genya here , so there is no need to question why Alina wouldn't defend her

- Not to say Alina actually dragged Genya out of the palace for some fun, have them actually acting like friends.

-Alina offers Genya a chance for forgiveness BUT so does with Zoya. The problem i had with the double standard is completely gone here because Alina´s moral compass has actual consistency.

-Nadia is not a fake friend with Zoya anymore, so there would be no issues to adress. In fact, remember the scene where Zoya attacked Alina: there, talking bad about Zoya is completely justified because she could have hurt Alina badly. Marie actually says "i can't believe she did that": they are surprised Zoya would act like that,meaning they think better of her and clarify she is just jealous (which was completely true) Nadia even takes the time to admire her (calm down Nadia i actually like, your wife is already cast and she is pretty). True, she doesn't have a lot going on with her here either and has less of a presence than in the books but she and Marie are actually pleasant to hang out with, you would understand Alina missing those two. There is absolutely no need for retcon here.

And then nothing happened in S2.

Nothing.

They sidelined her in her own story.

But the double arc they gave the Crows? Disservice to their characters and their stories.

The way they sidelined Alina in her own story?

The way they gave us glimpses of things and then never followed up on it again?

Also this idiotic "remember"