The whole thing has a very soapboxy feel to it, which also aligns with comments I've seen Bardugo make in interviews about the 'fight she's asking readers to take on' by giving the Darkling so many redeeming qualities. Yyyyep. I admittedly haven't read the Nikolai duology for more or less just this reason - at a certain point it became obvious that Bardugo didn't like the Darkling, and didn't want us to like the Darkling, and needed to make sure that we knew she didn't want us to like the Darkling, and I just ... do not want to read more of him with that hanging over the book. It doesn't sound like fun!
I also think there's something ... vaguer/bigger about how YA-fandom is so focussed on shipwars, and on filtering any other commentary through shipwars, that it pushes authors to make their books About Relationship Themes even when they're not, but I'm not sure I'm close enough to YA fandom to actually spin that out to a reasonable conclusion.
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Yyyyep. I admittedly haven't read the Nikolai duology for more or less just this reason - at a certain point it became obvious that Bardugo didn't like the Darkling, and didn't want us to like the Darkling, and needed to make sure that we knew she didn't want us to like the Darkling, and I just ... do not want to read more of him with that hanging over the book. It doesn't sound like fun!
I also think there's something ... vaguer/bigger about how YA-fandom is so focussed on shipwars, and on filtering any other commentary through shipwars, that it pushes authors to make their books About Relationship Themes even when they're not, but I'm not sure I'm close enough to YA fandom to actually spin that out to a reasonable conclusion.