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Disjointed Grishaverse thoughts
May. 12th, 2021 11:18 amSo, the worst has happened: I may very well have a new OTC. I don't want a new OTC, because I'm busy, and perfectly happy in my Kylo Ren niche, and few things in fandom are as draining as the frantic, hungry rush of falling for a new character. But this is how it always goes. While other interests come and go, every few years a new version of the exact same character shows up for me to hyperfixate on. He has shaggy dark hair and does bad things and he Suffers. Sometimes - twice, now, which is more than anyone's rightful share - he's played by Ben Barnes.
In other words, I tore through the Grisha trilogy over the weekend and rewatched the TV adaptation and have, against my will and my very best efforts, gone head over heels for the Darkling. He is, even more so in the books than in the show, a fully fledged villain - not a misguided boy, not a tortured antihero. But he used to be both. He's grown into his villainy over an unspecified number of centuries and painful losses. His essentially righteous goals - depose a rotten monarchy, create a safe world for his brutally oppressed people - have gotten corrupted by love of power, desensitisation and a gradual loss of touch with his own humanity. He also wears a fucking sick black outfit. I can't wait to write a few gazillion words of horny redemption fic about him.
One thing that surprised me about the books compared to the TV series, especially given my attachment to the Darkling, is how differently I felt about the non-Darkling corners of the YA Love Triangle (TM). Alina, the main character, is madly in love with her childhood friend Mal who grew up at the same orphanage as her. On screen they're a pair of cling-fu masters whose pure, unwavering love for each other is the driving force behind everything they ever do. It was a Lot. I may have emitted an audible 'ugh' or two on my first watch. But Mal has a lot more depth in the books. He's difficult and insensitive and takes most of the first book just to figure out he cares. It's never going to be my OTP, but I ended up enjoying their romance a lot more than I thought I would. Given that the target audience is teenage girls, I think the not-so-underlying messages about the behaviour you should require of men you let close to you - flaws you can work through with them, vs flaws you should run a mile from - are sweet and age appropriate.
Something that held true across both versions of the canon is that the supporting cast, and especially the women, are great. There's no Inej in the original trilogy (she's from the Six of Crowd duology, which I'm reading next) but Genya and Zoya are my darlings. Genya is a tough-as-nails magical makeup artist who gets clever and brutal revenge on her rapist. Zoya starts out as a stereotypical mean girl and becomes a fierce (if not friendly) ally to Alina over time. The books are less diverse than the show, and casting Jessie Mei Li as Alina added a really compelling extra layer to her character - her reluctance to accept her Chosen One role is a little childish and arbitrary in the books, but in the show, she's fighting not to get marked as Other on a whole new axis after already being singled out by racists her whole life.
By far the worst part of getting into a new fandom is having to absorb a whole new canon's worth of setting details and nonsense worldbuilding. Luckily, Grisha magic is handwavey enough that I don't have much lore to worry about; less happily, the series is set in fantasy early 19th century Tsarist Russia, about which I know almost nothing. If only Leigh Bardugo had gone a century or so later! I'd at least have had a bit of a research headstart on Comrade Darkling and his collective amplifier farms.
In other words, I tore through the Grisha trilogy over the weekend and rewatched the TV adaptation and have, against my will and my very best efforts, gone head over heels for the Darkling. He is, even more so in the books than in the show, a fully fledged villain - not a misguided boy, not a tortured antihero. But he used to be both. He's grown into his villainy over an unspecified number of centuries and painful losses. His essentially righteous goals - depose a rotten monarchy, create a safe world for his brutally oppressed people - have gotten corrupted by love of power, desensitisation and a gradual loss of touch with his own humanity. He also wears a fucking sick black outfit. I can't wait to write a few gazillion words of horny redemption fic about him.
One thing that surprised me about the books compared to the TV series, especially given my attachment to the Darkling, is how differently I felt about the non-Darkling corners of the YA Love Triangle (TM). Alina, the main character, is madly in love with her childhood friend Mal who grew up at the same orphanage as her. On screen they're a pair of cling-fu masters whose pure, unwavering love for each other is the driving force behind everything they ever do. It was a Lot. I may have emitted an audible 'ugh' or two on my first watch. But Mal has a lot more depth in the books. He's difficult and insensitive and takes most of the first book just to figure out he cares. It's never going to be my OTP, but I ended up enjoying their romance a lot more than I thought I would. Given that the target audience is teenage girls, I think the not-so-underlying messages about the behaviour you should require of men you let close to you - flaws you can work through with them, vs flaws you should run a mile from - are sweet and age appropriate.
Something that held true across both versions of the canon is that the supporting cast, and especially the women, are great. There's no Inej in the original trilogy (she's from the Six of Crowd duology, which I'm reading next) but Genya and Zoya are my darlings. Genya is a tough-as-nails magical makeup artist who gets clever and brutal revenge on her rapist. Zoya starts out as a stereotypical mean girl and becomes a fierce (if not friendly) ally to Alina over time. The books are less diverse than the show, and casting Jessie Mei Li as Alina added a really compelling extra layer to her character - her reluctance to accept her Chosen One role is a little childish and arbitrary in the books, but in the show, she's fighting not to get marked as Other on a whole new axis after already being singled out by racists her whole life.
By far the worst part of getting into a new fandom is having to absorb a whole new canon's worth of setting details and nonsense worldbuilding. Luckily, Grisha magic is handwavey enough that I don't have much lore to worry about; less happily, the series is set in fantasy early 19th century Tsarist Russia, about which I know almost nothing. If only Leigh Bardugo had gone a century or so later! I'd at least have had a bit of a research headstart on Comrade Darkling and his collective amplifier farms.
