At the beginning of Siege and Storm
And I just do not understand why anyone likes the Darkling. I hate him so much it is hard to read this book. I would enjoy the book more if I thought I was meant to not like the Darkling. But I think the author wants me to like him? No idea.
He is a fascist. He is textbook abusive partner/person. He is horrible to everyone. He thinks he is superior to everyone and will not answer questions. Why do people like thatttt?!?? Why do people write these kinds of characters in a way I should like?
I’m clearly in a mood.
He’s a villian sweetie don’t worry leigh bardugo is a wise woman
He may be a villain but a good chunk of fans somehow didn’t get the message.
I had decided I was going to no longer keep responding to this post because I sort of just wanted it to fizzle out. But I can’t help myself apparently.
This was exactly where my frustration was stemming from. For YEARS- quite literally- the only thing concrete I had heard about the Grisha Trilogy was that the Darkling was sexy and interesting and misunderstood and should have ended up with the main character.
So when I read the first book and the beginning of book two I was baffled.
I think the original post isn’t an excellent in depth analysis, obviously. It was just sort of an explosion of my feelings that I really expected no one to interact with. And I’m not sure what I am about to write is an excellent in depth analysis either. I see it more as an explaination of where I’m coming from.
I like that Bardugo shows the reader the ways in which power is seductive. I like the ways in which she showed us how the Darkling became the Darkling, letting us imagine a path for him that he didn’t end up a villain. We were shown actual adversity and oppression he had to deal with and we are shown him making the world better for a few of these Grisha.
But I personally felt she leaned a bit to hard into sympathetic villain for the series theme to pay off. And this is exemplified (to me) by all of the people who hate the way the Darkling’s story ended and seem to beleive he was done dirty by Bardugo. I don’t think the first book hit the balance it needed correctly. I think too many of the horrible actions the Darkling takes were not properly addressed (most notibly the sexual assault situation in book two, I was bothered majorly by the way this is handled especially since this is a series with almost an entire chapter devoted to a rape trial). I’ve seen it said that of course they aren’t addressed, we are in Alina’s head and she is being seduced and warped by the idea of a similar intense power. And I do see that argument, but I do think in the way Alina interacted with the other characters there could have been a tiny bit more discussion of the Darkling’s more monsterous qualities or something. I don’t know exactly how it could have been handled better I just don’t think it was done absolutely perfectly when you just look at book one alone and book two alone.
I do think that if you look at the series as a whole it is done pretty well. Or maybe if you just look at Ruin and Rising. But I think that the sympathetic villain side had too much time to grow for the entirety of the audience to be expected to be completely on board with the series themes.
I also wish to acknowledge that this hypothesis is, I’m sure, shaped by the people I was exposed to before I read the book. About 70% of the replies/messages that have stemmed from this text post have been people either like “yes he’s a villain who villains well” or “yes I hate him too and I also don’t know love how he was presented in the early books”. So I want to see that my starting data could have been skewed. Also the people who reply to this post were obviously very self selecting. And messaging me even more.
My biggest problem with expressing my thoughts on this is I neither mean, nor want to imply that people who like the Darkling are stupid or inherently misunderstand the series. And same thing with Leigh Bardugo’s plotting of the early books in the series. I think she laid some ground work early on, I just think I would have been a more understanding reader if it had been approached a little differently. Especially because I found so much of the foreshadowing in the trilogy a bit heavy handed.
So this was still a giant jumble of thoughts, which is what got me in trouble in the first place, but I think I laid out my thoughts a little more clearly.
Just for the further edification if anyone reading this: I like Leigh Bardugo. I think some of the responses to me have been to be protective of her and I totally get that. And I like her too! Also I am currently reading Six of Crows and only at the beginning but I’m loving the mystery and moral what the fuck-edness of the characters. It’s great. This one I only add because some people have been very concerned I would not continue with the Geishaverse. And I am very very much committed to reading all of her published books. I genuinely enjoy her writing style. I think she writes a very very easy to fly through book. That is hard and I love it. Also I don’t think I would be able to obsess over a book in this manner if I didn’t also like the author.
So hopefully someone reads this. Also if you do sorry it was so massive.
