Also, let's be real, Social Justice Revolutionary Who Takes It Too Far is catnip for a certain kind of fandom person, Bardugo's struggle to make us all hate the Darkling was doomed from the start.

YEP. It's honestly kind of amazing, the precision with which she has shot herself in the foot on this one. Literally his villain origin story is 'my people are being systematically enslaved, tortured and murdered, and my peaceful efforts to stem the bloodshed keep failing'. As if that wasn't enough, she repeatedly goes out of her way to specify how charismatic and darkly handsome he is! And she gave him the single coolest magic power in the whole series! There's almost nothing more she could have done to ensure he would be wildly popular.

There's definitely a contrary part of me that's struggling not to go full-tilt villain apologist for him at this point.