tenebris

“Tell me you’re not contemplating what I think you are,” I said. “Tell me the amplifier is for some other stupid, gullible girl.”

“Someone less stubborn? Less selfish? Less hungry for the life of a mouse? Believe me,” he said, “I wish I could.”

“No,” I said. “I don’t want this. I want—”

“If only I’d known you’d prove such an apt pupil.” His voice was genuinely admiring, almost surprised. To my horror, I found that pathetic orphaned part of me taking pleasure in his praise. “Why come to me now?” he asked. “Has it taken you this long to recover from our skirmish?” If that had been a mere skirmish, then we really were lost. No, I told myself. He’d chosen that word deliberately, to intimidate me. I ignored his question and said, “I didn’t expect compliments.” “No?” “I left you buried beneath a pile of rubble.” “And if I told you I respect your ruthlessness?” “I don’t think I’d believe you.” The barest smile touched his lips. “An apt pupil,” he repeated. “Why waste my anger on you when the fault is mine? I should have anticipated another betrayal from you, one more mad grasp at some kind of childish ideal. But I seem to be a victim of my own wishes where you are concerned.” His expression hardened. “What have you come here for, Alina?” I answered him honestly. “I wanted to see you.” I caught the briefest glimpse of surprise before his face shuttered again. “There are two thrones on that dais. You could see me anytime you liked.” “You’re offering me a crown? After I tried to kill you?” He shrugged again. “I might have done the same.” “I doubt it.” “Not to save that motley of traitors and fanatics, no. But I understand the desire to remain free.” “And still you tried to make me a slave.” “I sought Morozova’s amplifiers for you, Alina, that we might rule as equals.” “You tried to take my power for your own.” “After you ran from me. After you chose—” He stopped, shrugged. “We would have ruled as equals in time.”

Again it rings very hollow, I don't know how it's supposed to create any feeling but tears in my eyes that Sasha has such a waste of page as LI.

Where is she an apt pupil? A mythical plot armor, you mean?

But for real, all these jokes about the Darkling being a simp is funny, but let's not confuse it with the canon.

He ain't love and respect her as she is now; he finds some of her qualities interesting when she stops being the disgusting, stupid and malicious creature without common sense that she is now. She will become a normal person, not a brainless idiot, over time, and then her ruthlessness, her desire to remain free, and her stubbornness can even be respected. He has repeatedly shown that he despises Alina, as she is now, for her stupidity and selfishness, but he cannot help but see in her a potential measurable only by their immortality.

I felt that pull, the longing of a frightened girl. Even now, after everything he’d done, I wanted to believe the Darkling, to find some way to forgive him. I wanted Nikolai to be alive. I wanted to trust the other Grisha. I wanted to believe anything so that I wouldn’t have to face the future alone. The problem with wanting is that it makes us weak. A laugh escaped me before I thought better of it. “We would be equals until the day I dared to disagree with you, until the moment I questioned your judgment or didn’t do as I was bid. Then you would deal with me the way you dealt with Genya and your mother, the way you tried to deal with Mal.”

She calls it "disagreement" and she's talking about: a) the treason and personal betrayal; b) personal betrayal; c) desertion. That's the reason why they can't be equal right now — she's a dumb bitch!

He leaned against the window, and the gilded frame came into sharp focus. “Do you think it would be any different with your tracker beside you? With that Lantsov pup?” “Yes,” I said simply. “Because you would be the strong one?” “Because they’re better men than you.” “You might make me a better man.” “And you might make me a monster.

a) they're worse men than he; b) you're already a monster and he has nothing to do with it; c) “You might make me a better man.” doesn't sound like something he would say and mean it as it is. Does he mean: "When we will be together (so you'll stop being stupid bitch) I can finally let myself relax."?

“I’ve never understood this taste for otkazat’sya. Is it because you thought you were one of them for so long?” “I had a taste for you, once.” His head snapped up. He hadn’t expected that. Saints, it was satisfying. “Why haven’t you visited me?” I asked. “In all these long months?” He stayed silent.

I think he knows it isn't true as well as I do. Mam, you were lusted for him (and still do) and nothing more, stop it.

“There was barely a day at the Little Palace when you didn’t come to me,” I continued. “When I didn’t see you in some shadowed corner. I thought I was going mad.” “Good.” “I think you’re afraid.” “How comforting that must be for you.” “I think you fear this thing that binds us.” It didn’t frighten me. Not anymore. I took a slow step forward. He tensed but did not move away. “I am ancient, Alina. I know things about power that you can barely guess at.” “But it’s not just power, is it?” I said quietly, remembering the way he had toyed with me when I’d first arrived at the palace—even before, from the first moment we’d met. I’d been a lonely girl, desperate for attention. I must have given him so little sport. I took another step. He stilled. Our bodies were almost touching now. I reached up and cupped his cheek with my hand. This time the flash of confusion on his face was impossible to miss. He held himself frozen, his only movement the steady rise and fall of his chest. Then, as if in concession, he let his eyes close. A line appeared between his brows. “It’s true,” I said softly. “You are stronger, wiser, infinite in experience.” I leaned forward and whispered, my lips brushing the shell of his ear. “But I am an apt pupil.” His eyes flew open. I caught the briefest glimpse of rage in his gray gaze before I severed the connection. I scattered, hurtling back to the White Cathedral, leaving him with nothing but the memory of light.

That's disgusting.

You all understand that she's the only one who hates, wants to kill and is using his basic human crave for connection that won't end with time like all his lovers, friends and soldiers do, being mortal, while he isn't to hurt him?

Not surprising considering how she assumes that everyone is looking at her, thinking of her and talking of her all the time.

"I recognized the beautiful girl in blue, the one from the Etherealki coach who had been so taken with Mal. She whispered something to her chestnut-haired friend, and they both laughed again. My cheeks burned as I imagined what I must look like in a torn, shabby coat, after a journey into the Shadow Fold and a battle with a flock of hungry volcra. But I lifted my chin and looked the beautiful girl right in the eye. Laugh all you want, I thought grimly. Whatever you’re whispering, I’ve heard worse"

The girls didn't even say anything to her, and the bitch is already performing martyrdom with this "I've heard worse!!"

I will never forgive the writers for the way they humiliated Aleksander and his Grisha. They fought for their own freedom and for the freedom of others, yet none of the "heroes" could understand that. Blinded by their own self-righteousness, they killed them as if their lives meant nothing. It's a terrible message, one I refuse to accept, and I genuinely believe it's one of the worst messages I've ever seen in film or television. They were so determined to prove that Sasha was evil, that his Grisha were nothing, and in the end they were the ones who fell and paid the ultimate price. The show was canceled, and hardly anyone even finished season 2. It's no surprise. People were expecting an epic battle against a real enemy, but instead they got a pitiful message straight out of the unhealthy fantasies of a grown man obsessed with a group of teenage criminals.

Fvck you, Alina, Zoya, Nina, and all the other traitors, for abandoning your own people in the real fight against Fjerda and Shu.

Thank you, Ewa @evejustlovebooks , for this important edit. At least you care about the fate of the other Grisha, because in this fandom, you'd think Genya and Alina were the only ones who ever suffered.

Which cannot be said about people who do acknowledge that Alina was stripped of her power completely outside of her own will (which is the author herself, too). Because they see that Alina had not wanted to gave up her power, and she deems losing them a punishment, yet still they turn around, and say that her ending is peak feminism, because... she becomes a housewife, when she could be a queen? Of course, women can be housewives if they choose so. But when they become housewives, because that is the only option that the world left for them? That's the beginning of a peak horror story of marital and financial abuse.

Alina wanted to run off, and become Mal's private punching bag for the whole time she had her power, she would "make the right decision" of choosing him over Ravka even if she remained Grisha. But she still had to be robbed of her only strenght, the only thing that guaranteed her a bit of an upper hand, to ensure she will end up where her place is. Because she, a woman, couldn't be trusted with making a decision about her own future.

"If Alina remains Alina Starkov she will be a target for the rest of her life", but she very much could fake her own death, and live under false name while remaining a Sun Summoner. Nikolai the Good wouldn't force her to stay with him in Os Alta, would he? But everyone knows that women shouldn't be able to decide on what's better for their own safety, so the world stepped up, and in order to protect her, acted against her will. Which is the most romantic, women-empowering thing one could find in any book.

Once again surprised that Darkling's grisha who were more in number and experience didn't just straight up revolt. And why would the people even want a Lantsov (who isn't even a lantsov) rule them again after witnessing how fickle the monarchy was in the last year?

(Part 1)

Be prepared. The little baby is going to kick some ass in this part 😠

Oh how I wish I could read people in such detail as he does. He doesn't only see but observe. But these little lessons with Baghra are utterly boring to him.

Wait. She was preparing him to be a leader? She knew that this was what he would become?