Did you read all the books in the Grishaverse? If so, how long ago did you read them? Honestly, I’ve been wondering about the part where the Darkling came and hung all of Alina’s loved ones from the tree. What was that about? Was it a threat? Was it real? And why did he tell her that he’d take everyone she cared about away from her until no one was left but him? I get that the Darkling is a very complex character, and he definitely fits the morally grey type. But still—why did he do that to Genya? Or why did he turn Nikolai into a volcra? Was all of this really just to save Ravka? Then in Rule of Wolves, why did he want to return to his body only to later decide to become part of a tree instead? There’s still a lot I don’t understand about him.
Yes, I've been reading them since April 2021, and re-reading since August of the same year. It goes VERY slowly, because it's more difficult with commentary and no desire to know what's next.
All of Alina's loved ones?
Alina only loves Malyen, and unfortunately, that one was revived to drain her some more. Who DID hang, was her shitty abusive mother figure, one (1) decent guy and a few Grisha teachers, whose names Alina doesn't even know.
The oak I’d once climbed on a dare still stood, untouched by the fire that had taken Keramzin. Now its branches were full of bodies. The three Grisha instructors hung from the same thick limb, their kefta fluttering slightly in the wind—purple, red, and blue. Beside them, Botkin’s face was nearly black above the rope that had dug into his neck. He was covered in wounds. He’d died fighting before they’d strung him up. Next to him, Ana Kuya swayed in her black dress, her heavy key ring at her waist, the toes of her button boots nearly scraping the ground.
“She was, I think, the closest thing you had to a mother,” murmured the Darkling.
Ruin and Rising- Chapter 15
I'm not a pathologist, but I'm pretty sure bloated, dark face is related to death by hanging, NOT hanging a corpse that understandably lacks blood flow.
In the absence of fracture and dislocation, occlusion of blood vessels becomes the major cause of death, rather than asphyxiation. Obstruction of venous drainage of the brain via occlusion of the internal jugular veins leads to cerebral oedema and then cerebral ischemia. The face will typically become engorged and cyanotic (turned blue through lack of oxygen). Compromise of the cerebral blood flow may occur by obstruction of the carotid arteries, even though their obstruction requires far more force than the obstruction of jugular veins, since they are seated deeper and they contain blood in much higher pressure compared to the jugular veins.
- auntie wiki on hanging
But back to your questions- I'm pretty sure that specific scene was real, even though were we to believe the Darkling can approach Alina through their Bond wearing Malyen's face (Bullshit, mostly because why would he?!), he should be able to paint a bit bigger picture too. Illusion is an illusion, and he mastered Alina's powers in no time, so why would something partly his be any different?
Yes, this particular manoeuvre was partially a threat, but it was also a strategic move, a retaliation and an act of liberation. He destroyed a ghost of Alina's past, so she has to stop clinging to it, and see beyond it. Unfortunately houses can be rebuilt, and he isn't radical enough to poison the soil or waste more of his life on another, small Fold... Once again he underestimated Alina's will to regress.
As a reader, I have a hard time feeling sorry for the person she cries over. The teachers? Absolutely! Botkin? Yes! But Anne Cunt?! The very same woman, who's been abusing Alina for over half of her life? The one Alina has not a single good memory of?
So much for the loved ones...
“I will strip away all that you know, all that you love, until you have no shelter but me.”
Aleksander's feelings are always a mess when it comes to Alina. He needs to be able to keep those separate from his "work", but how could he, when he lives and breathes for his goal?! When anyone near him is in danger due to it? When he needs the one thing that makes Alina herself for his plans? When her attitude goes against his very nature- him being unable to idly stand by, her wilfully blind to inconvenient truths? When the only lasting relationship he has is toxic wasteland, and he proves to be unable to free himself from it least of all from its influence?
He correctly determines Alina's past is harming her, and keeping her from flourishing. Cutting her off would be beneficial to Alina, but Aleksander is also annoyed by the specific representation of it. Jealous she wastes her time with the undeserving, who refuse to see who she truly could (should) become. He failed to keep her away from one detrimental influence, and look- more appeared! Better to ensure she has no choice, but the correct one!
Sure, he's acting emotionally and selfishly at the moment, but he also has a point.
Almost all people around Alina are using and manipulating her, but she's only worried about the Darkling. She doesn't even realize the worst of it.
I've already answered the stuff about Genya and Nikolai here, and I more or less still agree with it.
For some reason, after centuries of nothing but contempt, Darkles still loves his shitty country. While I understand the desire to see the slopes and hills you're used to, the unwillingness to part with them, I have a hard time imagining the strength of character required to avoid annihilating the human vermin occupying it. How do you tell yourself the sheer ignorant hatred will get better, when it simply doesn't?
The other reason for him to keep breathing are Grisha, you forgot those, and yes, his actions still have obvious purpose, and that's future of the two. (Let's be frank again- in his shoes I'd either flip and burn half of the world down or do it simply for shits and giggles. He's holding on admirably.)
In KoS he's possessing a braindead caricature of his stans, since his body was burned after his death, I think (I've read those books when they were published, and hated almost every page of it, so I don't remember them particularly well.). He schemes to regain his powers, since they're what makes Grisha themselves. His being.
He hadn’t thought past the need to become whole again and finally return to himself.
Rule of Wolves- Chapter 21
He doesn't simply choose to change a shape or something. He takes part in a ritual that binds him to a hole in his world to hold it together. Why? It's very in-character. He sees a shitstorm nobody else can (or wants to) handle, and decides to reign it in.
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Nina stared. “You’re Grisha. You’re an Inferni.”
Kuwei nodded. “Jurda parem was a mistake. My father was trying to find a way to help me hide my powers. He was a Fabrikator. A Grisha, as I am.”
Six of Crows- Chapter 37 (Leigh Bardugo)
" ... the Black Heretic, the Darkling who created the Shadow Fold. It was a mistake, an experiment born of his greed, maybe his evil. I don’t know. ... "
Shadow and Bone- Chapter 5
But power was exactly what Aleksander had found, tucked away in this basement—his grandfather’s journals, the records of his experiments. They had become his obsession. He’d been sure that he could do what Ilya Morozova had done, and so he’d tried. The result was the Fold.
Rule of Wolves- Chapter 21
“A Grisha can have only one amplifier. You told me that yourself.”
“Morozova’s amplifiers are different.”
I gaped at him. “There’s another like the stag?”
“They were meant to be used together, Alina. They are unique, just as we are.”
...
" ... I know the truth in your heart. The loneliness. The growing knowledge of your own difference.” He leaned in closer. “The ache of it."
...
“There are no others like us, Alina,” he whispered. “And there never will be.”
Siege and Storm- Chapter 3
“Morozova was the Bonesmith, one of the greatest Fabrikators who ever lived, and a man who tested the very boundaries of Grisha power, but he was also just a man with a wife. She was otkazat’sya, and though she loved him, she did not understand him.”
Ruin and Rising- Chapter 10
One of the essential tenets of Grisha theory was “like calls to like,” but Morozova seemed to believe that if the world could be broken down to the same small parts, each Grisha should be able to manipulate them. Are we not all things? he demanded, underlining the words for emphasis.
Ruin and Rising- Chapter 4
How an explanation from sympathetic narrator makes all the difference...
I'm wondering if it was ever explained why the Darkling created the Fold in the books? I vaguely remember something about "experiments with power", but nothing specific. Am I missing something, or we really just glossed over it like this?
Hi.
Thanks for nice words, and as for your question- yes, it is glossed over this way.
I've been looking for an explanation for a post, and the closest to explanation we get is Aleksander's own thoughts:
But power was exactly what Aleksander had found, tucked away in this basement—his grandfather’s journals, the records of his experiments. They had become his obsession. He’d been sure that he could do what Ilya Morozova had done, and so he’d tried. The result was the Fold.
Rule of Wolves- Chapter 21
Elsewhere, David repeats basically the same as Grisha historical record of the event:
“They documented Morozova’s experiments with amplifiers. The Black Heretic was trying to re-create those experiments when something went wrong.”
Siege and Storm- Chapter 16
There's still the question what were the amplifiers combined supposed to do?
Judging from the Darkling's desire for Alina to have it, and his reaction to her butchering, Morozova either didn't intend to destroy a Grisha, or forgot to note that tiny little detail.
The Darkling perceives power as a source of safety, so wanting to make more amplifiers is a logical step to give those means to the weak, and protect Living amplifiers with the same move. It wouldn't solve the hatred, but it would give Grisha a better fighting chance in literal way.
Now what was Morozova's original aim?
According to Baghra- our only contemporary source, he also battled with otkazat'sya lack of understanding, so turning them into Grisha seems possible. Except Baghra is anything but unbiased, both due to her own worldviews and her age back then. I'd say more reliable would be his diaries. Sure, I wouldn't expect essays on unfairness of social order between diagrams about melting various metals, but they should paint a picture about how he used to think.
We never even get a glimpse of their content.
The Darkling created the Fold, because he messed up merzost experiment, that should've made new amplifiers. Did he mean to use them in other way, than handing them out as candy?
What exactly would those items be capable of, we'll also likely never know.
Kaz's chapter became more interesting than expected.
“Why would you care what I think?”
He looked genuinely baffled. “I don’t know,” he said. “But I do.”
And then he kissed me.
It happened so suddenly that I barely had time to react. One moment, I was staring into his slate-colored eyes, and the next, his lips were pressed to mine. I felt that familiar sense of surety melt through me as my body sang with sudden heat and my heart jumped into a skittery dance. Then, just as suddenly, he stepped back. He looked as surprised as I felt.
“I didn’t mean … ,” he said.
Shadow and Bone- Chapter 13
“... The people curse my name and pray for you, but you’re the one who was ready to abandon them. I’m the one who will give them power over their enemies. I’m the one who will free them from the tyranny of the King.”
...
I gave a single shake of my head.
He slumped back in his chair. “Fine,” he said with a weary shrug. “Make me your villain.”
Shadow and Bone- Chapter 21
... The moment his lips met mine, the connection between us opened and I felt his power flood through me. I could feel how much he wanted me—but behind that desire, I could feel something else, something that felt like anger.
I drew back, startled. “You don’t want to be doing this.”
“This is the only thing I want to be doing,” he growled, and I could hear the bitterness and desire all tangled up in his voice.
“And you hate that,” I said with a sudden flash of comprehension.
He sighed and leaned against me, brushing my hair back from my neck. “Maybe I do,” he murmured, his lips grazing my ear, my throat, my collarbone.
I shivered, letting my head fall back, but I had to ask. “Why?”
“Why?” he repeated, his lips still brushing over my skin, his fingers sliding over the ribbons at my neckline. “Alina, do you know what Ivan told me before we took the stage? Tonight, we received word that my men have spotted Morozova’s herd. The key to the Shadow Fold is finally within our grasp, and right now, I should be in the war room, hearing their report. I should be planning our trip north. But I’m not, am I?”
Shadow and Bone- Chapter 14
Why did you go to Alina? Yuri buzzed away. Why seek her out? To reclaim his power, of course. The universe wanted to humble him, to force him to appeal to a pair of pathetic orphans like a beggar on his knees.
Why did you go to her?
Because with her he was human again.
Rule of Wolves- Chapter 21
“I want you to know my name,” he said. “The name I was given, not the title I took for myself. Will you have it, Alina?”
...
“Yes,” I breathed.
After a long moment, he said, “Aleksander.”
A little laugh escaped me. He arched a brow, a smile tugging at his lips.
“What?”
“It’s just so … common.” Such an ordinary name, held by kings and peasants alike. I’d known two Aleksanders at Keramzin alone, three in the First Army. One of them had died on the Fold.
His smile deepened and he cocked his head to the side. It almost hurt to see him this way. “Will you say it?” he asked.
I hesitated, feeling danger crowd in on me.
“Aleksander,” I whispered.
His grin faded, and his gray eyes seemed to flicker.
“Again,” he said.
“Aleksander.”
what do you think of the "because with her he was human again." line in rule of wolves. did the darkling feel more than just obsession for Alina?
Fucker fell in love in a way, although it did coexist with his obsession.
He loved mostly her potential, but the glimpses of the person he wanted by his side were real. Alina (and the author) just never allowed her to fully surface.
Alina made him human in the sense she made him lose focus, she distracted him from his clear goals. When in time he made himself become merely a tool for his ideals, suddenly he was forced to re-discover concepts like personal desires and longing.
Darklina is "Beauty and the Beast", if the Beast got turned into a monster for revolutionary tendencies, Belle left his mansion early on, and married Gaston after stabbing the Beast, so he doesn't tempt her anymore. He'd be half-turned at that point.
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