Baddies Will Be Bad

Baddies will be bad

THE GRISHAVERSE By Leigh Bardugo (2012-)

Tarot Cards

@un-eteinvincible​ and I noticed how Leigh Bardugo focuses on ‘sight’ when it comes to make her fictional couples express their feelings to each other, and it’s just too beautiful. It’s as if when a person sees you, they know you thoroughly and the meaning behind it does nothing but bring us to tears. 

Here are some examples. Beware there are some RoW spoilers, so skip the last screens if you haven’t read the book yet. 

Let’s start with Mal and Alina. I know the discourse around them is thick, but honestly Mal doesn’t deserve all the hate he gets. He’s just a 17 year old boy who is confused until he realizes that Alina is his ‘true north’, and it’s beautiful that he apologizes to her for taking so long to really see her.

In chapter 25 of Six of Crows, the one in which Inej climbs the incinerator shaft, there’s this flashback which tells us how she ended up working for Kaz and we have this beautiful line. Inej is so stealthy that she’s able to sneak up on everyone, except for Kaz because he always knows when she’s near. It’s even more heartbreakingly beautiful if you think about the fact that Inej’s wish was to never be invisible again: “She was not a lynx or a spider or even the Wraith. She was Inej Ghafa, and her future was waiting above.” We know well that to Kaz, Inej was never invisible.

Next who else is there if not our favorite Drusje and Drüskelle? For Nina and Matthias there are many examples that focus on ‘sight’, especially from Matthias’s pov. He knows he’s supposed to hate her, yet his eyes cannot help but always seeking Nina out, as Inej herself tells him. “So why do your eyes keep searching the crowd for her?”. This other passage is very meaningful as well, because we see Matthias thinking that he does see her.

Another beautiful example are Wylan and Jesper, which to me are really the epitome of a love that’s so pure that it can overcome any obstacle. When Genya tailors back Wylan, our favorite sharpshooter helps her. The merchling’s surprise is palpable and it’s very telling. Wylan has always felt like a burden, a waste of space, overlooked by his own father and yet Jesper really sees him for what he is, and therefore loves him for being himself. 

These last two passages are taken from Rule of Wolves so they contain spoilers. First we have the beautiful scene in which Genya and David exchange their wedding vows. We’ve been told many times in the trilogy that David is a person extremely focused on his work, and it appears that there’s nothing else that interests him except the Little Science. This changes when Genya enters the picture and it’s done so well that it’s even more sad if you think how their story ends. David sees his Genya in something that means a lot to him, the making at the heart of the world.

Lastly, we have Zoya and Nikolai. On these two entire essays could be written, so much so complex and multifaceted their relationship is. It brings me to tears that Zoya had always felt like she wasn’t enough, that no matter how powerful she was, that would not make others lover her. When she looses the only family who cared about her when the Darkling expands the Fold, she realizes how alone and lonely she is, how she had kept secret an important part of herself, of her heritage… until Nikolai enters the picture that is. He is the only one who is not afraid to look at her, and see her for what she is and love her despite her thorny exterior and this is just so beautiful. 

I hope you liked this post. I’m always taken aback by how Leigh Bardugo writes her characters. All the struggles they had to endure and eventually they overcome are what makes them special and relatable and I think it’s just so beautiful that all of them had found in another person that solace of being seen, because at the end of the day that’s what we all wish for, to be seen and therefore to be loved unconditionally. 

such rage in such a little body

This satire article resonated with me so much