Anti Darkling - Tumblr Posts
Darklina (🤮) in Ruin & Rising is kinda enemies with benefits
(I'm talking about that scene when he told her his name and everything that happened after)
we’ve got friends to lovers and friends with benefits and enemies to lovers, so when are we gonna get enemies with benefits?
tw // abuse
darkling defenders act is if powerful men don’t abuse their positions and take advantage of people all the time when there’s constantly allegations of politicians and high ranking businessmen and high ranking hollywood directors/producers/actors assaulting people and using their power and status to prey on people. people in power abuse their power all the time, often towards those who have less power, status, and/or influence, and that’s exactly what the darkling did
Shadow and bone rant because I have serious concerns for the people under the tumblr tag.. spoilers
I’m the first one to defend a villain, especially if it’s Ben Barnes, they tend to be more interesting characters with a personality.But you can not defend the darkling.
Everything the darkling did, tv show and book from scene one was manipulation to get what he wanted (expand the fold). He’s not the first villain to use romance to get what he wants and normally I love that trope IF it involves a morally grey character. Not a straight up evil character.
The darkling does so many things to claim Alina as he feels entitled to he as they’re both summoners. Starting with the kefta colours, knowing how she felt about it, he still pushed her to wear the black kefta and not the blue (she does end up with the black kefta but it’s her choice to wear it).
Multiple darkling stans find the scene where he tricks Mal into telling him alinas favourite flowers and then uses this information to ‘woo’ her, cute and iconic. It’s not cute or iconic. It’s basic manipulation.
Then he actually collars her! Like mutilates her body with the stag antlers against her will all so he can have control over her and her powers. When she calls him out on it, he still tries to manipulate her, telling her lies and lies and repeating how much lonely they both were, and how much they depend on each other, right up until the last ten minutes when his true plans are revealed.
He spends 8 episodes and a full book telling Alina how they are equal and they can rule together. And then proves they aren’t by stripping her of her will and putting her in impossible situations and forcing her to make impossible decisions and then blaming her for everything that was going wrong.
The tiny backstory we had was supposed to make us feel sorry for the darkling and give us the reason why he did what he did. And yeh it gave him a reason to create the fold - you could justify that. But you can’t justify what he did the Alina and genya and zoya and Mal.
Edited:::
@grishaverse-oddity made a great comment under the post that NEEDS to be mentioned:
“And the whole scene with Zoya and the Darkling in his room, where they explicitly state that he groomed her since she arrived in the Little Palace and used her as stress relief, in the books they only ever hint at it not flat out state it”