Darklina stans love to forget that if Alina didn't have powers the darkling wouldn't have given her a second look. Mal really is the only one who loved her for who she was
Nevermind that Mal never freaking noticed her until she was pulled away from him. Nevermind that he called her a whore even though she put up with him chasing skirts. Nevermind that he's prejudiced against Grisha and hates that aspect of her (which, mind you, Grisha are analogous to displaced Jews so...). Nevermind that he gets pissy whenever she's in a higher position of social power than he is. Nevermind that he kissed a skank specifically to piss Alina off. And this is coming from someone who doesn't ship Alina with anyone, so no one can call me a Nikolina simp or Darklina simp.
But isn't that the thing? Alina is an equal to the Darkling, that's their whole thing. And it ends up horrible cus he never wanted to accept her as his that, someone to spend the eternity with, someone to end the war and help him become a better person. I trully don't like Alina with anyone tho, she better go off and find some self love before deciding who to stay with 😌👌
Um... Mal started pulling away in the 2nd book when it became clear that Alina was becoming more powerful. He didn't like that she didn't need him like she used to. He even CHEATED on her. That's unforgivable in my book
Nah I just think he is hot. That fact makes him better. I love a good villain based toxic relationship. Yes Im crazy, no need to say it. Also Mal isnt this perfect lil saint yall think he is. He doesnt love her Grisha side just like the Darkling doesnt love her otkazatsya side.
The Darkling is proof that a male character could do the most vile,m and heinous things but make him hot and suddenly everyone is thirsting for him because let’s be real if the Darkling wasn’t described as conventionally attractive and was hideous and ugly everyone would hate him, no one would be shipping him with Alina😭😭😭
No shit 😭 it would be stupid to deny it’s how humans biologically seek attractive people. humans love attractive people, it’s the same for female characters. I can separate fiction from reality so I love both female and male vile characters, even more if they are beautiful.
Nope it's not. There are so many characters out there with only good looks. Darkling was actually an interesting YA character it's not about looks. If I talk about audience shipping him with Alina there's a big reason. First of all their light and dark dynamic, their romance and time they spent. They were having chemistry but Darkling cared only for his agenda more.
the legend is true because it happened to me and I love Mal now! anddd now I am going back to re read this damn series and remind myself what the hell was I thinking 4 years ago when I read these books
okay all jokes aside the discussion about the darkling's character and how you're SUPPOSED to be enchanted by him is extremely true. you're supposed to fall into his trap and fall in love with him and then realize oh my god...this was his motive the entire time. Mal and Alina were separated in the book and he had no idea what was happening, we didn't get his POV in the books from what I remember, and then the two of them have this frustrating reaction to each other, it's a very very realistic and complex situation that I feel a lot of people miss. there is so much depth and nuance to shadow and bone it's more than just a ya fantasy series. there is so much to be dissected about the darkling as a representation of men in society who are idolized and worshiped for being powerful. this book? chefs kiss. I am so happy Mal's character gets to have a voice after so long.
okay but you're absolutely right and i think the reason people have so much more sympathy for show mal is because we do get his perspective so it's a lot easier to see what's going on in his head. and people keep saying they changed him in the show to make him better and i'm like !!!!! not really!!! he's been like this the whole time it's just much harder to see and tbh he has way more nuance in the books than in the show 👀 still love show mal but book mal?? still superior.
@@AClockworkReader how you literally summed up all my thoughts. I think the way Mal is portrayed in the show is very heavily influenced by the generally acknowledged opinion of the fandom about him. I feel like the writers wanted to overcompensate by shining more light on Mal's great characteristics in order for more people to like him and attract a general positive opinion on him. i love archie's performance, Mal's pov in the show and the more scenes that we had with him, but it is kind of sad that the writers were "forced" to strip away his other worse and more annoying, but very understandable and human traits just to make him more likeable while he was already a very fine character. At least that is the impression im getting, maybe im just overthinking things. Also how people act like they fundamentally changed Mal's character, like no?? they only shed more light on the more agreeable part of his personality. His goal was always to protect alina and thats one of the core elements to his character, and that is very much the same in the show, just brought differently. I hope we get to see more of his nuance from the books in season 2.
I've exactly told this to SO MANY people that call Mal toxic for being mad at her in the first book. I would have reacted the same way if I had risked my life, had led my friends to death, thinking my best friend was being tortured since she had never written to me only to find her dancing with the "enemy". It is literally a very realistic reaction and that's the thing, Mal is a very realistic character. He isn't mysterious, he doesn't have a very dark past that will make you feel bad for him. He's charming, flirty, and very loyal, and sometimes is angry at the main character and it's okay.
Its because the entire time we are in alina’s perspective, Leigh definitely made good use of that because we know only of what alina knows and are persuaded to feel somewhat similar to how she feels about others so we tend to fall into the darkling’s trap the first time. I havent read any of Jane Austen’s book yet but I’ve heard she does something like that too
@@nayrarodriguez3385 Preach. Also Alina was mad at him too for not getting letters from him. But once they realised what happened and talked to each other they were cool again. LIKE BEST FRIENDS ARE.
@@mentallyunstable1926 I have not yet read the books I’ve been avoiding it for a long time already and I’ve heard the buzz about Mal (and that’s prolly affecting my reason on why I am not reading it) but after watching the show and having my fave book tuber reassure me that Mal isn’t a bad person makes me happy that I could get a good first impression
Finally there are not many of us we must unite. (honestly though I went into the series thinking I'd hate Mal, but I love him and I ship him and Alina more than Darklina mind you Nikolai will always be my favorite but he didn't really fit with Alina)
Malina as a ship has always been so precious to me. Their story is the sweetest, most comforting thing I've ever read about. I mean, Mal overcoming his own fears of power to stay beside her, trying his hardest to make her feel human when everyone around her treats her like a deity, him accepting to hunt down the amplifiers because 'they're the only thing he can offer her', the fact that he promises to spend the rest of his life finding ways to deserve her. And don't even get me started on "beauty, beloved, cherished, my heart."
You mentioned thinking Leigh wrote this modeled off abusive men in her life- she's mentioned before that she wrote the Grisha Trilogy while in an abusive relationship, and that Darklina is based off her relationship w that man. Which makes shipping Darklina extra sketchy to me lol
I heard about that and I really want to know how she feels about people shipping Alina with the Darkling considering he's based on someone who literally ABUSED her.
i thought malina in the books was sweet (especially where they end up in ruin and rising), but malina in the show was done SO WELL and took the main elements of them from the books and expanded on it SO MUCH MORE. and seeing mal’s persecptive when he was trying to get back to her the whole time added so much more depth to his character
OMG YES I SHIPPED DARKLINA WHILE READING THE FIRST TWO BOOKS BUT MALINA WON MY HEART! ALSO THE DARKLING MASSACRED AN ENTIRE VILLAGE??? DO PEOPLE FORGET THAT??? (obviously he’s done way worse but this was on mind first)
I think because we don’t have Mal’s pov, and only get Alina’s, it’s very easy to only root for her and her feelings, rather than take a step back to look at how Mal might be feeling. At least when you’re a young reader, of course :)
I don’t understand the whole debate around the darkling... he literally sends genya to be sexually assaulted over and over by the king AND MANIPULATES HER INTO THINKING ITS HER IDEA AND IT WILL MAKE HER A HERO INSTEAD OF A SERVANT! Who made her a servant in the first place? HIM! That should be the end of the debate no?😅 My brain does not comprehend 😂 Mal is my love and my life and I will also die on that hill ✨
@@leahdavis9434 I never found him annoying in the books tbh. Maybe it's because I read them recently as an adult, so I can totally understand Mal's perspective, even if the book only told us about it instead of showing it like the tv show.
@@Filmsber5 I honestly think the difference in how he's perceived is down to the fact that we do/don't see his perspective. It makes such a difference.
about the mal hate, people who read the book as teens should def reread them now that they are a bit older. after reading so many "bad boy" and "assholes to toxic lovers" stories, malina is honestly a breath of fresh air. they’re both teenagers trying their best to survive and just being very awkward in general. it actually gave me nostalgia lmao
THIS. I read them recently, as an adult, and I was so confused about the Mal hate and the love for the Darkling. I mean I've read way more interesting bad boys, he seemed pretty one dimensional to me. Mal, on the other hand, felt more real and like a teenage boy, and I totally understood his perspective. So I think the age really matters when you read a series.
I read the books as an adult the first time but I still didn't like Mal, because he is quite often just an Idiot, especially in the first two books. Not the horrible kind, but still not very nice. And I didn't ship her with the darkling or Nikolai either. I don't know why there always has to be someone out of all the characters.. I would have liked her to be single in the end, even though she deserved someone. But she deserved someone else, not necessarily better, but none of the characters from the book. (btw I'm not saying Nikolai didn't deserve her, HE was awesome!!) 😅
I am in up in age and dislike the both of them. Mal was very possessive of her, even a relationship between was never established. He also resented the fact that she had powers. He never cared about her. He was selfish and whinny. I dislike mal because they were supposed to be best friends, and he kept treating her badly.
@@elainamcclendon5593 I mean Alina is just whisked away to the Little Palace after they both almost die. He also finds out she’s Grisha. They don’t have time to talk. Of course he’ll be bitter. She goes away and he receives no letter and then he sees her dancing with the Darkling, how else is he supposed to feel? He’s only a teen.
That’s what I’ve been saying for years, Mal is not perfect obviously, he has flaws like any of us, he feels real and his reactions are understandable, I’ve always liked him
Yeah the ending of ruin and rising is great, idc what anyone says. I’m glad Alina got the happy ending she deserves and that she gets to live a peaceful life with the man that she has always loved
YES I KNOW RIGHT??? TBH I WASNT MUCH OF A MALINA SHIPPER (BUT i would rather be a hardcore malina stan than even CONSIDERING darklina tho lmao) BUT A LOT OF STUFF THEY SAY ON THE INTERNET ABOUT MAL IS JUST??? NOT TRUE??? he ACTUALLY has good character development
Mal is my favourite Grishaverse character. BECAUSE HE'S SO HUMAN. He is flawed! He's a flawed person with a good heart who always strives to do what's best. I think his character was ahead of his time for when these books were published basically, when the whole 'mysterious bad boy' was more the type. The honest, well meaning love interest is more the type now. Like, I literally cannot articulate HOW MUCH I love Mal, and it's so so gratifying to FINALLY see people getting it asjkbfdbajgdf (I also think he's the kind of love interest you love more as an adult... because you realise, as an adult, that someone loving you does nOT mean 'adoration no matter what'. Someone truly loving you means them calling you out when you need to be called out. Because you're secure enough in your relationship to value honesty above all) I think people who don't 'vibe' with the trilogy don't actually understand what it's trying to do. It's a story about power and power corruption. And there isn't a love triangle. Amongst the power corruption story, it's the story of two soulmates who will move heaven and earth to CHOOSE each other time and time again, with a villain trying to tear them apart.
Yes to all of this! That's honestly the best description of the discussion around these books I've ever heard, you nailed it! Mal was ahead of his time, appeals more to adults than teenagers, and these books doesn't actually have a love triangle (or square, looking at you Nikolai) it's about soulmates and all the people trying to get in their way. Thank you!
Finally. Mal is my favourite character too. He is the only main character that doesn’t have power (even Nikolai have Prince’s charm and power) but he know how to best them. He is the only normal person and act like a normal sane person at the same time he is just so out of place in the whole series among Grisha and Politic. he was there only for Alina and everything scream you don’t belong and with Alina acting the way she does and people blame him, he was just miserable the entire series.
omg FINALLY someone who actually loves and UNDERSTANDS Mal's character. Literally every single thing that you said is just YES YES YES!!! How can people say Mal is TOXIC but then ship Alina with the Darkling????? Like wtf?? excuse me???? Are we even reading the same books I---
they're both toxic though? The darkling resents her otkazatsya side and mal resents her grisha side. Even after they alina lost her powers, mal never would have sympathised or even cared if it wasn't for him also losing a huge part of himself.
i feel like mal and the darkling at the start of the book fit very popular tropes of bad boy and childhood friend who's in love with you, and i feel like leigh bardugo kind of flips a lot of things about these tropes on its head (by making the darkling actually /bad/ and not just some wounded boy, and making mal someone who isn't just a link to who alina was Before, but also the person who helps her move on to a stronger version of herself), but this is all done in such nuanced ways, and with so much complexity, that a lot of people who read these books keep seeing the tropes in the way they're normally used. we're so used to the childhood friend never wanting the main character to change, that as soon as mal shows the slightest sign of being upset by a way alina has changed, we're likely to instantly reject it, because of what this trope has taught us before. but when u look at mal with a more open mind you'll see that a lot of his opinions and views come from a good place, and that it's so much more complex than what is normally shown with this trope. meanwhile with the darkling, we're so used to the newly introduced badboy type to be the one to bring out the true and powerful version of the main character. so when the darkling starts saying things like "only i am your equal" and starts saying that he understands her and values her power, we're taught by earlier version of his trope to believe him, and see this a good thing for alina. while instead leigh flipped the trope on its head by having these phrases be a way of manipulating a young girl who's world has just completely changed. alina is not in a place to know who she is right now, to understand herself or her power, so when someone else offers her words of confidence she Will cling to those... which is such an easy way to make her the target of manipulation. there's so much nuance and complexity, but if you go into these books and cling too much onto what you Know of the tropes, you'll likely miss all of that complexity and end up hating mal and going "but the darkling is good for her!!" which i feel like a lot of the responses to these books have been in the past. i fully believe that had i read these books when i was younger, i 100% would have clung onto the original uses for these tropes and been a full on darkling stan too. i feel like recently more and more people have been discovering the complexity hidden within these books, and it's been making me so happy, because it makes the books /so good/.
exactly, and for me, it's a different trilogy, where although there are many tropes used from other series, it differs in not resorting to the heroine always staying with the bad guy, and in this one, this time she chooses her best friend. It is more realistic because Alina even though she also had a connection with the Darkling, the author wrote it convincingly that even though there was an attraction between them, her home and heart belonged to Mal.
This is a really good analysis. Thank you. I read the series and have been trying to figure out what is going on with the misinterpretation of Mal's character by fandom ever since. This provides another angle, also with everyone complaining Mal is holding her back when he supports her so much, and realising that's the *trope* role makes so much sense.
malina truly is the superior ship!! mal gets misunderstood so much by everyone, i think everyone just needs to reread the trilogy to realise he's actually not that bad
If I am being honest, he annoyed me a bit at the beginning, but now after having finished the 2nd book I'm like "why do you not talk to each other about it!??"
Omg Hannah you literally put all my thoughts into words, Mal is so hated for NO reason, I thought he was just being a realistic character and yeah people calling Mal toxic but then the darkling is literally just there 😩
Yes queen, thank you I totally agree! I have always loved Mal even when I first read the books. Later on, when I discovered booktube and bookstagram I was so shocked that people said they hate him or find him toxic... I'm so glad that people are changing their opinions because of the show. We love a good Mal/malina stan.
I loved the nuance in the darkling's intentions. He fully believed he was doing the right thing and the "fine, make me your villain" line HITS DIFFERENT
Also I also reread shadow and bone before the show came out and I was SO confused bc I didn’t understand why everyone hates Mal bc obviously the Darkling is the biggest asshole to ever live but I think it’s a sign of how old I am now that I can understand Mal’s perspective bc I can see why people think he’s annoying but also they’re kind of in a stressful situation here and he just wants Alina to be safe and also doesn’t truly understand what she’s going through and I’m like YOU’RE NOT CONSIDERING HIS PERSPECTIVE LEAVE HIM ALONE
I love the fact that, in the end, Alina has three clear different paths, with three different men, and three very different outcomes and, above power, royalty, etc. she still picks love and her friendship with Mal. It is so beautiful that through and above everything, even though they made mistakes and mishaps, they still choose each other. They have such an unconditional love and friendship, it's so beautiful to me.
As a Malina shipper from day one, I simply cannot handle everyone rereading tgt and becoming a Malina Stan all at once, this is just so funny to me. Honestly bless the show for getting people to understand how good malina really is.
I've read the Grisha trilogy for the first time 3 months ago and liked Malina so much, and I was So surprised to find out that many people didn't like Mal at all! So glad you see him in a new light 🥺❤
I just read these for the first time this week and I can’t believe how much I love them! I was expecting to be mostly annoyed by them and they just blew me out of the water. I didn’t even know there was Mal hate at first. I loved him and totally empathized. I mean, how would I feel knowing that I could never really be with the person I love, while also having to be right next to them? Oof. Loved hearing your thoughts. It’s such a great series and I think very underrated. I’m in my late 20s now and a lot of YA just gives me major eye rolls, but this series is so well done. I’m officially obsessed. ETA I was straight up sobbing at the end. I really thought Mal was dead. And then that epilogue. A perfect ending! ETA 2 my awesome husband got me the collector’s S&B yesterday and there’s a letter from Mal to Alina in the back that shows some of what he was going through hunting down the amplifier. I already love Mal anyway, but getting that extra context made me feel for him even more.
I first read the series when I was 24 and was kinda meh on all the shipping, but definitely thought Mal was the superior choice for Alina. Personally I'm a Nikolai stan.
i read the books for the first time just this year and i can't understan why the whole fandom seems to hate mal bc he's one of the most interesting characters in the books and he's sweet and dedicated and trusting ughh i will not accept mal hate speech
Everyone hates him because he was selfish as hell. It took Alina losing her powers for her to finally be accepted by him, which is what he wanted. He was very possessive of her, even when a relationship was never established between them. He was jealous and whiny. When he was sleeping with Grisha women, nothing was said. He is just as bad as the darkling. And y'all don't see it.
@@elainamcclendon5593 i knew that was most people's opinion so i read the books looking for those things actually, but the way i see it he spent the whole time saying he couldn't be with her and refusing her bc he knew she was meant for something bigger, more important, and he would just be an obstacle for her. idk i really didn't see him as that selfish and toxic as most people do
Aaah this video is insanely perfectly timed! I've just spent the last hours rereading the 1st book after finishing the show and falling head over heels for it... Exact same reaction than yours : how could the book that was "ok but too plain" could become such a revelation after having seen the show??
In the newer editions of the first book (NOT the movie editions but the blue paperbacks with the stag on the front cover) you can find some of Mal's missing letters to Alina while she was at the Little Palace. You know, the ones the Darkling disposed of?
@@AClockworkReader It's actually just one letter; you could probably just walk into any bookstore and read it real quick. Or just buy it and read it in the car and return it right after because you just needed a safe place to cry, lol.
I read them recently so the copy I read had that letter and I thought Mal was so sweet and strong and then I found out that a lot of people disliked him and liked the Darkling as a love interest and I was like ??? Did we read the same books? When did Mal not care for her? I think that letter could've changed a lot of people's perspective and it was a mistake to leave it out of the first book.
i get so so excited when people reread shadow & bone bc it deserves SO much more praise and love (as does mal 👀)!! i get so frustrated when people say mal is toxic or hates alina being powerful. he just wants to help her stay true to herself, and i’ll never understand people who hate on them or the series end. and i say this as someone who also used to hate him and the ending. 😩 tbh i think a big part of it is people aren’t used to male love interests who are like real and complicated people 👀👀 anywaysss so excited for you to read king of scars!
Leigh has said before that she wrote Shadow and Bone when she was in a toxic relationship, so you are very right about how that influenced things. I'm really amazed at how this series has always been aimed at young teens and yet it manages to cover such difficult topics with this amazing nuance and understanding, like abusive relationships, abuse of power, rape as an abuse of power, etc.. It did so much and I'm so glad it's finally getting credit for that.
one of my favorite points to make is that you can really draw some parallels between the Darkling and the Apparat. Technically, both of them wanted to manipulate Alina into some higher power type thing, saying things like you're one of kind and stuff blah blah blah and use her power for their own selfish reasons, But the darkling is better looking than the apparat and so we ignore the signs of toxicity from him but we catch the apparat's right from the get go. It's an interesting point how people's appearances can really change our perspective on them
I read the series for the first time earlier this year and I was genuinely confused as to why people hate Mal so much. I literally don't even know where to start especially because I agree with just about everything you say! Looking forward to your video on the show :)
I honestly love the Darkling BECAUSE he’s so evil. He’s so calculating and manipulative yet I eat all that up! He’s such a good villian, I can’t 🤭 On a lighter note, I do love that we got to see Mal’s perspective in the show. It makes things so much clearer and has converted me to a Malina stan. Something I never thought would happen!
everyone is turning over to the malina side but i've been here the whole time!! it's weird to think of these characters as teenagers because of how much they go through and have to do, but when you remember they're literally 17 (plus a 10k year old darkling??) everything makes sense and malina is super cute
The show's depiction of Mal and this BLESSED re-reading made me seriously re-evaluate my opinion of him. Thank you for expressing yourself so enthusiastically, it's contagious! ❤️
I just finished reading the series and came to see your opinion. You definitely made me see Mal with better eyes, although I still think (just like you said) he's annoying 😂 I don't think he's toxic at all, but I'm not his biggest fan. I'm also definitely not a fan of the darkling (love him as as villain tho) and don't ship darklina. I'm more of a nikolai girl myself... But I'm surprised to see how the discussions about this series are so based around the ships. There is SO much more going on. The war, the whole Alina cult with the Apparat, the discussion about ambition with the amplifiers and the whole Morozova mystery.. I'm honestly more interested in the complexity of the characters amidst the whole scenario other than just ships.
I loved the show very much as well as the 📚. The show's execution was amazing. I still love Mal and Inej's characters very much. Glad you posted this video Hannah.❣
i didn't care much for this trilogy when i read it six years ago but archie made me a malina stan and even just watching you reading the end of ruin and rising made me tear up. what has my life become??
Omg we are the same girl! Watching you reread is how I was when I first read the book. All the pointers you made about Mal I fully agree with. Everything people said about Mal is exactly what the Darkling is..Toxic. So I don't understand what all the fuss it about. But ok it makes me realize that SOME people cant identify what a healthy relationship looks like or stan someone just because he is handsome or powerful. Everyone has their reasons. Leigh's good writing is proven well just by his influence. Anyway, I have always loved Malina and trilogy in general. Not terrible at all. As for the show, it made me stan Malina and the crows even more. Need the second season in my life now..
i actually rlly hated the idea of darklina bc all it does is show a seriously toxic relationship/partnership. i think i’ve always love malina in the books, because even if mal and alina apart are annoying by themselves, they actually portray a realistic/healthy-ish relationship.
i’m so glad that you love mal now! i read the series last year and read your review after finishing and i was so sad to hear you didn’t love mal bc i love mal!!!
i love you so much for this omg i didn't expect to shed tears watching this but i also cried when you were crying over mal and alina 😭 actually after finishing the series for the first time, i was so ready to talk to other readers and gush about mal and alina's relationship and character development but when i looked at the reviews, i honestly felt like there was something wrong with me and like i read a completely different story. so yes, i feel so validated throughout this video so thank you! 💛
I want to LIVE in this video!! Me reading the trilogy before the series came out was EXACTLY like that. It was so emotional, I connected so emotionally with them that I want to cry just to remember 🤧 Mal nation we won today 💕
As someone who read the end of ruin and rising (for the first time in 2018) and almost started crying just before a school assembly started over *that* Mal scene it’s so good to see people finally start to ship them.
Booktok tells people to hate Mal and BookTube tells people to hate the Darkling but at the end of the day, they’re both flawed, both toxic, and both aren’t good for Alina. The third book in the trilogy, esp the ending, made that very clear…
@@lyd7136 I wanna say this a maybe a result of the age range of people on either platforms? This, is probably gonna sounds condescending lol but Tiktok is a younger crowd and UA-cam tends to have older creators. How many of us in the older age range cringe at how we romanticized toxic relationships? Heck, I'll listen to songs from my adolescence and songs by current gen z artists and cringe st how toxic the ideas are. However, let's not put Mal in the same level as the Darkling. He's flawed, he's done some shitty things, but he learned and grew, just like the rest of us do. I don't think he's as selfless as stans say he is, but the Darkling is actually manipulative and genocidal. Mal is just kind of a jerk.
YES THANK YOU! I had the same thoughts you had on Mal, why everyone hates him for reacting like everyone would have? And everyone seems to forget that it is also Alina's behaviour towards him that is wrong. I mean she doesn't tell him anything, how on earth would he understand her and what was going on? Moreover he literally did EVERYTHING in his power to protect Alina, I can't see how people say he's toxic and then ship Darklina
Malina lover from the beginning DEFINITELY a Malina lover after the show. I reread this series when KoS was coming out, but like... I’m feeling like a reread again since watching the show.
I was a malina stan from day one and honestly I'm so glad we malina are finally gaining more people. People used to send so much actual hate on malina shippers it was unreal
25:05 When he killed Ana Kuya and the teachers I was brimming with hatred for him. But the moment I lost all hope for his redemption was when Alina finds out that Aleksander made his mother blind. Took out Baghra's eyes. I was on the verge of crying at that scene. How can a person be so cruel?! How can he do that to his own mother?! To the only family he has left in that world.
i am SO HAPPY WITH THESE THOUGHTS i simply do not get the love for the Darkling because he’s literally a textbook abuser, constantly gaslights and manipulated Alina, tries to use her kindness against her consistently, and is also a MASS MURDERER???? perhaps he’s so well written by Leigh that people are so taken with his charm which, again, TEXTBOOK abuser. and Mal is just,,,,,, not that??? he’s so lovely?? he loves her so deeply and you can tell that the whole way through??? yes he is very annoying sometimes and literally just talking to Alina could’ve fixed many issues but he’s also a TEENAGER i am so thrilled with the ending i’m glad they’re happy and the darkling is deceased
I never really understood the hate towards Mal either tbh. Like I'm not a huge fan of the Shadow and Bone trilogy, but I never hated Mal. I loved him and Alina together! And I absolutely adored the TV show. I felt like it really elevated the whole world of the book.
15:50 I squealed like her when I read the kiss part. I was a Malina shipper from the past. And when I came to their first kiss part I was literally rolling on my bed I KID YOU NOT. Mal is so protective of Alina and he is just ready to sacrifice himself for her. I don't understand how and why people hate him. Then again that's your feelings and none of my business.
i think the older you get, the more you understand mal and the merit behind the grishaverse as a whole! yes its a very ya series plot wise but THE WAY THE CHARACTERS ARE WRITTEN AND DEVELOPED IS SO MATURE AND REAL AH i kept seeing everyone hate on him on tiktok before i read it and im like?? why?? and show mal is just so amazing, archie renaux is>>>
I can't tell you how thankful I am for your explanation of this series especially in regards to Mal's character! I've been trying to convey everything you've said to explain why I love this series and why I loved Mal and Alina's relationship but I've always been shot down because of other readers infatuation with the darkling and it being "trendy" to romanticize manipulative men. I'll definitely be using this video as a reference for all my future shadow and bone discussions!!
I read the series for the first time this year without knowing any discourse around it and I thought people would love Mal. I was so surprised to find out he was so hated. HE DID THE BEST HE COULD. It's so funny to watch you change your opinion so much about the series hahaha hope you enjoy the show too!
Darklina stans love to forget that if Alina didn't have powers the darkling wouldn't have given her a second look. Mal really is the only one who loved her for who she was
Nevermind that Mal never freaking noticed her until she was pulled away from him. Nevermind that he called her a whore even though she put up with him chasing skirts. Nevermind that he's prejudiced against Grisha and hates that aspect of her (which, mind you, Grisha are analogous to displaced Jews so...). Nevermind that he gets pissy whenever she's in a higher position of social power than he is. Nevermind that he kissed a skank specifically to piss Alina off.
And this is coming from someone who doesn't ship Alina with anyone, so no one can call me a Nikolina simp or Darklina simp.
But isn't that the thing? Alina is an equal to the Darkling, that's their whole thing. And it ends up horrible cus he never wanted to accept her as his that, someone to spend the eternity with, someone to end the war and help him become a better person. I trully don't like Alina with anyone tho, she better go off and find some self love before deciding who to stay with 😌👌
Um... Mal started pulling away in the 2nd book when it became clear that Alina was becoming more powerful. He didn't like that she didn't need him like she used to. He even CHEATED on her. That's unforgivable in my book
But that was a chimical love directed by Morozova, wasn’t real as alexander was
Nah I just think he is hot. That fact makes him better. I love a good villain based toxic relationship. Yes Im crazy, no need to say it. Also Mal isnt this perfect lil saint yall think he is. He doesnt love her Grisha side just like the Darkling doesnt love her otkazatsya side.
Everyone is arguing over Mal and the Darkling and I'm here in my corner just stanning Nikolai.
Same 😂 I can't wait until we get to meet the TV show version of him
Saaaaaaaaame 😂❤
@@justanotherpat they had better cast someone who lives up to the expectations. Otherwise there will be blood 😂
YES girl same, I was literally scrolling through the comments trying to find someone - ANYONE - who ships Niklina.
@@amyconcepcion7148 haha I ship Alina with Mal. I ship Nikolai with myself 😂 😍
Glad to know the propaganda led by Monica and me worked
Cindy lmao😭😭😭😭😭
our malina gc is my happy place
@@AClockworkReader our malina safe space 🥺 shoutout to maureen for realizing we’d need that ahah
I’m here to make the Malina safe places a reality for us to yell our thoughts into the void hahaha
Yea!!!!
The Darkling is proof that a male character could do the most vile,m and heinous things but make him hot and suddenly everyone is thirsting for him because let’s be real if the Darkling wasn’t described as conventionally attractive and was hideous and ugly everyone would hate him, no one would be shipping him with Alina😭😭😭
agreed
No shit 😭 it would be stupid to deny it’s how humans biologically seek attractive people.
humans love attractive people, it’s the same for female characters. I can separate fiction from reality so I love both female and male vile characters, even more if they are beautiful.
@@Diana72910 or maybe ur bi lol
@@majuneves3850 I am but that doesn’t change that women villains are accepted too*
Edited comment cuz I didn’t read it well at first lol
Nope it's not. There are so many characters out there with only good looks. Darkling was actually an interesting YA character it's not about looks. If I talk about audience shipping him with Alina there's a big reason. First of all their light and dark dynamic, their romance and time they spent. They were having chemistry but Darkling cared only for his agenda more.
legend has it that every time a shadow and bone fan who previously disliked mal watches the tv show, a malina stan is born
way to call out my backstory
this is so true LMAO
literally
the legend is true because it happened to me and I love Mal now! anddd now I am going back to re read this damn series and remind myself what the hell was I thinking 4 years ago when I read these books
@@Dasha-pv1xk omg same, i wanna now why my 14 y/o hated mal💀💀💀
okay all jokes aside the discussion about the darkling's character and how you're SUPPOSED to be enchanted by him is extremely true. you're supposed to fall into his trap and fall in love with him and then realize oh my god...this was his motive the entire time. Mal and Alina were separated in the book and he had no idea what was happening, we didn't get his POV in the books from what I remember, and then the two of them have this frustrating reaction to each other, it's a very very realistic and complex situation that I feel a lot of people miss. there is so much depth and nuance to shadow and bone it's more than just a ya fantasy series. there is so much to be dissected about the darkling as a representation of men in society who are idolized and worshiped for being powerful. this book? chefs kiss. I am so happy Mal's character gets to have a voice after so long.
okay but you're absolutely right and i think the reason people have so much more sympathy for show mal is because we do get his perspective so it's a lot easier to see what's going on in his head. and people keep saying they changed him in the show to make him better and i'm like !!!!! not really!!! he's been like this the whole time it's just much harder to see and tbh he has way more nuance in the books than in the show 👀 still love show mal but book mal?? still superior.
@@AClockworkReader how you literally summed up all my thoughts. I think the way Mal is portrayed in the show is very heavily influenced by the generally acknowledged opinion of the fandom about him. I feel like the writers wanted to overcompensate by shining more light on Mal's great characteristics in order for more people to like him and attract a general positive opinion on him. i love archie's performance, Mal's pov in the show and the more scenes that we had with him, but it is kind of sad that the writers were "forced" to strip away his other worse and more annoying, but very understandable and human traits just to make him more likeable while he was already a very fine character. At least that is the impression im getting, maybe im just overthinking things. Also how people act like they fundamentally changed Mal's character, like no?? they only shed more light on the more agreeable part of his personality. His goal was always to protect alina and thats one of the core elements to his character, and that is very much the same in the show, just brought differently. I hope we get to see more of his nuance from the books in season 2.
I've exactly told this to SO MANY people that call Mal toxic for being mad at her in the first book. I would have reacted the same way if I had risked my life, had led my friends to death, thinking my best friend was being tortured since she had never written to me only to find her dancing with the "enemy". It is literally a very realistic reaction and that's the thing, Mal is a very realistic character. He isn't mysterious, he doesn't have a very dark past that will make you feel bad for him. He's charming, flirty, and very loyal, and sometimes is angry at the main character and it's okay.
Its because the entire time we are in alina’s perspective, Leigh definitely made good use of that because we know only of what alina knows and are persuaded to feel somewhat similar to how she feels about others so we tend to fall into the darkling’s trap the first time. I havent read any of Jane Austen’s book yet but I’ve heard she does something like that too
@@nayrarodriguez3385 Preach. Also Alina was mad at him too for not getting letters from him. But once they realised what happened and talked to each other they were cool again. LIKE BEST FRIENDS ARE.
To fellow malina stans, RISE!!! We have Cindy and now Hannah as well. Our nightly prayers are being answered
shout out to all of us who’ve been shipping malina since our first read. we will gain more for our army
@@mentallyunstable1926 yess!
@@mentallyunstable1926 🙋 I shipped them when I didn't even know their names, that prologue about the two orphans got to me.
@@mentallyunstable1926 I have not yet read the books I’ve been avoiding it for a long time already and I’ve heard the buzz about Mal (and that’s prolly affecting my reason on why I am not reading it) but after watching the show and having my fave book tuber reassure me that Mal isn’t a bad person makes me happy that I could get a good first impression
Finally there are not many of us we must unite. (honestly though I went into the series thinking I'd hate Mal, but I love him and I ship him and Alina more than Darklina mind you Nikolai will always be my favorite but he didn't really fit with Alina)
Malina as a ship has always been so precious to me. Their story is the sweetest, most comforting thing I've ever read about. I mean, Mal overcoming his own fears of power to stay beside her, trying his hardest to make her feel human when everyone around her treats her like a deity, him accepting to hunt down the amplifiers because 'they're the only thing he can offer her', the fact that he promises to spend the rest of his life finding ways to deserve her. And don't even get me started on "beauty, beloved, cherished, my heart."
they make me SOB i love them so much 😭💕
You mentioned thinking Leigh wrote this modeled off abusive men in her life- she's mentioned before that she wrote the Grisha Trilogy while in an abusive relationship, and that Darklina is based off her relationship w that man. Which makes shipping Darklina extra sketchy to me lol
Oh no...
I heard about that and I really want to know how she feels about people shipping Alina with the Darkling considering he's based on someone who literally ABUSED her.
you getting progresively angrier about people hating on mal is my favourite thing about this video
i thought malina in the books was sweet (especially where they end up in ruin and rising), but malina in the show was done SO WELL and took the main elements of them from the books and expanded on it SO MUCH MORE. and seeing mal’s persecptive when he was trying to get back to her the whole time added so much more depth to his character
Going from a darklina shipper to a malina shipper is what I call ✨redemption arc✨
TELL EM'
OMG YES I SHIPPED DARKLINA WHILE READING THE FIRST TWO BOOKS BUT MALINA WON MY HEART! ALSO THE DARKLING MASSACRED AN ENTIRE VILLAGE??? DO PEOPLE FORGET THAT??? (obviously he’s done way worse but this was on mind first)
@@mrithikasivakumar he literally created the fold and manipulated Alina. That’s big red flags for me 😅
YES CHARACTER GROWTH
@@mrithikasivakumar also that one time he kissed aline when he looked like mal
I forgive anyone who changes their mind and now loves Mal. It's okay, we've been waiting for you!
Yes! Welcoming yall with open arms!
I love both is that bad ?
@@love_for_ertugrul_gazi honestly same
I think because we don’t have Mal’s pov, and only get Alina’s, it’s very easy to only root for her and her feelings, rather than take a step back to look at how Mal might be feeling. At least when you’re a young reader, of course :)
I don’t understand the whole debate around the darkling... he literally sends genya to be sexually assaulted over and over by the king AND MANIPULATES HER INTO THINKING ITS HER IDEA AND IT WILL MAKE HER A HERO INSTEAD OF A SERVANT! Who made her a servant in the first place? HIM! That should be the end of the debate no?😅 My brain does not comprehend 😂
Mal is my love and my life and I will also die on that hill ✨
Exactly
Lol I truly do not understand the debate over the Darkling either.
MALINA STANS RISE 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 WE WON FROM DAY ONE
they are EVERYTHING 😭💖🥺
YES!!!!
Always loved them!!
the show made Mal such a better character. maybe now it’s time for a re-read 🥰
do it!! reread it!!!
the only thing the show did is actually show mal's pov while in the book we could only see things from alina's pov
@@Filmsber5 they also made him less annoying and more accepting of her
@@leahdavis9434 I never found him annoying in the books tbh. Maybe it's because I read them recently as an adult, so I can totally understand Mal's perspective, even if the book only told us about it instead of showing it like the tv show.
@@Filmsber5 I honestly think the difference in how he's perceived is down to the fact that we do/don't see his perspective. It makes such a difference.
This video is all I wanted and finally SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T HATE MAL- LIKE I LITERALLY HAVE BEEN LOVE WITH HIM SINCE THE START AND I WAS SO CONFUSED
SAME 💗
Saaame
samee, I never really got into the fandom because when I read it everbody was in love with the darkling+alina and I thought I read the books wrong :DD
SAMEEEE
SAME!
it was bleak 8 years ago when the malina slander was at its peak, I felt so alone... I've finally found my people 😭
It makes me so happy to see people finally realise that there is only one superior ship😌
same. malina deserves recognition
exactly. i’m glad i’m not the only malina shipper out there🥲
Right? When I finished reading I was like “Yes Malina forever!” And was shocked when I found out everyone hated Mal 💔
been a malina stan from the start
SAME!
about the mal hate, people who read the book as teens should def reread them now that they are a bit older. after reading so many "bad boy" and "assholes to toxic lovers" stories, malina is honestly a breath of fresh air. they’re both teenagers trying their best to survive and just being very awkward in general. it actually gave me nostalgia lmao
THIS. I read them recently, as an adult, and I was so confused about the Mal hate and the love for the Darkling. I mean I've read way more interesting bad boys, he seemed pretty one dimensional to me. Mal, on the other hand, felt more real and like a teenage boy, and I totally understood his perspective. So I think the age really matters when you read a series.
I read the books as an adult the first time but I still didn't like Mal, because he is quite often just an Idiot, especially in the first two books. Not the horrible kind, but still not very nice. And I didn't ship her with the darkling or Nikolai either. I don't know why there always has to be someone out of all the characters.. I would have liked her to be single in the end, even though she deserved someone. But she deserved someone else, not necessarily better, but none of the characters from the book. (btw I'm not saying Nikolai didn't deserve her, HE was awesome!!) 😅
I completely agree
I am in up in age and dislike the both of them. Mal was very possessive of her, even a relationship between was never established. He also resented the fact that she had powers. He never cared about her. He was selfish and whinny. I dislike mal because they were supposed to be best friends, and he kept treating her badly.
@@elainamcclendon5593 I mean Alina is just whisked away to the Little Palace after they both almost die. He also finds out she’s Grisha. They don’t have time to talk. Of course he’ll be bitter. She goes away and he receives no letter and then he sees her dancing with the Darkling, how else is he supposed to feel? He’s only a teen.
That’s what I’ve been saying for years, Mal is not perfect obviously, he has flaws like any of us, he feels real and his reactions are understandable, I’ve always liked him
oml I just realized that a main moral of this trilogy is to know how to spot and avoid toxic men and I love that
Ik that some people don’t like the ending of Ruin and Rising, but I fucking loved it. Like I was balling my eyes out and everything, it was so perfect
SUCH a good ending 😭😭
Yes I Freaking Agree with you!!!
was malina the final ship?
@@rubydoe5942 yes
Yeah the ending of ruin and rising is great, idc what anyone says. I’m glad Alina got the happy ending she deserves and that she gets to live a peaceful life with the man that she has always loved
SAMEEEE!!!
I feel like many Mal/Malina haters have been influenced by the Internet not by Mal himself
YES
YES I KNOW RIGHT??? TBH I WASNT MUCH OF A MALINA SHIPPER (BUT i would rather be a hardcore malina stan than even CONSIDERING darklina tho lmao) BUT A LOT OF STUFF THEY SAY ON THE INTERNET ABOUT MAL IS JUST??? NOT TRUE??? he ACTUALLY has good character development
Alternative title : Hannah fangirling over Mal for 40 mins straight
Mal is my favourite Grishaverse character. BECAUSE HE'S SO HUMAN. He is flawed! He's a flawed person with a good heart who always strives to do what's best. I think his character was ahead of his time for when these books were published basically, when the whole 'mysterious bad boy' was more the type. The honest, well meaning love interest is more the type now. Like, I literally cannot articulate HOW MUCH I love Mal, and it's so so gratifying to FINALLY see people getting it asjkbfdbajgdf (I also think he's the kind of love interest you love more as an adult... because you realise, as an adult, that someone loving you does nOT mean 'adoration no matter what'. Someone truly loving you means them calling you out when you need to be called out. Because you're secure enough in your relationship to value honesty above all)
I think people who don't 'vibe' with the trilogy don't actually understand what it's trying to do. It's a story about power and power corruption. And there isn't a love triangle. Amongst the power corruption story, it's the story of two soulmates who will move heaven and earth to CHOOSE each other time and time again, with a villain trying to tear them apart.
Yes to all of this! That's honestly the best description of the discussion around these books I've ever heard, you nailed it! Mal was ahead of his time, appeals more to adults than teenagers, and these books doesn't actually have a love triangle (or square, looking at you Nikolai) it's about soulmates and all the people trying to get in their way. Thank you!
Finally. Mal is my favourite character too. He is the only main character that doesn’t have power (even Nikolai have Prince’s charm and power) but he know how to best them. He is the only normal person and act like a normal sane person at the same time he is just so out of place in the whole series among Grisha and Politic. he was there only for Alina and everything scream you don’t belong and with Alina acting the way she does and people blame him, he was just miserable the entire series.
wow you worded this beautifully!
You worded this perfectly
omg FINALLY someone who actually loves and UNDERSTANDS Mal's character. Literally every single thing that you said is just YES YES YES!!! How can people say Mal is TOXIC but then ship Alina with the Darkling????? Like wtf?? excuse me???? Are we even reading the same books I---
It honestly makes no sense to me when people say Mal is toxic but then ship the Darkling and Alina. The Darkling is toxic, not Mal.
they're both toxic though? The darkling resents her otkazatsya side and mal resents her grisha side. Even after they alina lost her powers, mal never would have sympathised or even cared if it wasn't for him also losing a huge part of himself.
i feel like mal and the darkling at the start of the book fit very popular tropes of bad boy and childhood friend who's in love with you, and i feel like leigh bardugo kind of flips a lot of things about these tropes on its head (by making the darkling actually /bad/ and not just some wounded boy, and making mal someone who isn't just a link to who alina was Before, but also the person who helps her move on to a stronger version of herself), but this is all done in such nuanced ways, and with so much complexity, that a lot of people who read these books keep seeing the tropes in the way they're normally used.
we're so used to the childhood friend never wanting the main character to change, that as soon as mal shows the slightest sign of being upset by a way alina has changed, we're likely to instantly reject it, because of what this trope has taught us before. but when u look at mal with a more open mind you'll see that a lot of his opinions and views come from a good place, and that it's so much more complex than what is normally shown with this trope.
meanwhile with the darkling, we're so used to the newly introduced badboy type to be the one to bring out the true and powerful version of the main character. so when the darkling starts saying things like "only i am your equal" and starts saying that he understands her and values her power, we're taught by earlier version of his trope to believe him, and see this a good thing for alina. while instead leigh flipped the trope on its head by having these phrases be a way of manipulating a young girl who's world has just completely changed. alina is not in a place to know who she is right now, to understand herself or her power, so when someone else offers her words of confidence she Will cling to those... which is such an easy way to make her the target of manipulation.
there's so much nuance and complexity, but if you go into these books and cling too much onto what you Know of the tropes, you'll likely miss all of that complexity and end up hating mal and going "but the darkling is good for her!!" which i feel like a lot of the responses to these books have been in the past. i fully believe that had i read these books when i was younger, i 100% would have clung onto the original uses for these tropes and been a full on darkling stan too.
i feel like recently more and more people have been discovering the complexity hidden within these books, and it's been making me so happy, because it makes the books /so good/.
exactly, and for me, it's a different trilogy, where although there are many tropes used from other series, it differs in not resorting to the heroine always staying with the bad guy, and in this one, this time she chooses her best friend. It is more realistic because Alina even though she also had a connection with the Darkling, the author wrote it convincingly that even though there was an attraction between them, her home and heart belonged to Mal.
This is a really good analysis. Thank you. I read the series and have been trying to figure out what is going on with the misinterpretation of Mal's character by fandom ever since.
This provides another angle, also with everyone complaining Mal is holding her back when he supports her so much, and realising that's the *trope* role makes so much sense.
literally obsessed with this video... Malina shippers have WON with gaining Hannah and all the points she made... so true bestie
ok your mal defense rant from 18 to 22 literally gives me lifee 😭 I need an edited clip version to throw at anyone who tells me mal is toxic
malina truly is the superior ship!! mal gets misunderstood so much by everyone, i think everyone just needs to reread the trilogy to realise he's actually not that bad
Insomnia?!
@@pernilles-f260 yes!! i love dc!!!
@@vo1dd- We are getting so big, I was really not expecting an Insomnia here
@@pernilles-f260 samee i didnt expect it either!! ive been stanning them since boca but even our growth between now and then is so big!!
If I am being honest, he annoyed me a bit at the beginning, but now after having finished the 2nd book I'm like "why do you not talk to each other about it!??"
I’m so happy that you like Mal because he’s my favorite character and I could never understand why others hate him
Omg Hannah you literally put all my thoughts into words, Mal is so hated for NO reason, I thought he was just being a realistic character and yeah people calling Mal toxic but then the darkling is literally just there 😩
The Darkling's is like manipulating and killing people left and right, I never understood the love for that character.
@@Naahi95 exactly, how can people romantisize a murderer. And Mal and the darkling cannot even be compared on the same level
Yes queen, thank you I totally agree! I have always loved Mal even when I first read the books. Later on, when I discovered booktube and bookstagram I was so shocked that people said they hate him or find him toxic... I'm so glad that people are changing their opinions because of the show. We love a good Mal/malina stan.
Every time Hannah makes a review and takes us on her journey I just KNOW ITS GOING TO BE ICONIC
😌😌😌
I loved the nuance in the darkling's intentions. He fully believed he was doing the right thing and the "fine, make me your villain" line HITS DIFFERENT
Welcome to team Malina, you are safe here.
thank you 😭💕
everyone on booktube is suddenly becoming a Malina stan and I'm just here having never read a book in the grishaverse like: 👁️👄👁️
read themmmmm
@@AClockworkReader yep definitely been planning to for a while!
@@luluuwr they are pretty fast reads!
@@AClockworkReader they’re on my tbr..... idk when i actually even have time to read them
show Mal > book Mal.
Also I also reread shadow and bone before the show came out and I was SO confused bc I didn’t understand why everyone hates Mal bc obviously the Darkling is the biggest asshole to ever live but I think it’s a sign of how old I am now that I can understand Mal’s perspective bc I can see why people think he’s annoying but also they’re kind of in a stressful situation here and he just wants Alina to be safe and also doesn’t truly understand what she’s going through and I’m like YOU’RE NOT CONSIDERING HIS PERSPECTIVE LEAVE HIM ALONE
Me questioning 'why does everyone hate mal? ' since the beginning of time. I'm just glad he is finally getting the respect his character deserves !
I love the fact that, in the end, Alina has three clear different paths, with three different men, and three very different outcomes and, above power, royalty, etc. she still picks love and her friendship with Mal. It is so beautiful that through and above everything, even though they made mistakes and mishaps, they still choose each other. They have such an unconditional love and friendship, it's so beautiful to me.
I used to think that I'm the only person who loves mal and i always hated when people said that he's not right he's toxic.
As a Malina shipper from day one, I simply cannot handle everyone rereading tgt and becoming a Malina Stan all at once, this is just so funny to me. Honestly bless the show for getting people to understand how good malina really is.
ok the amount of satisfaction I feel hearing you recite Mal's speech at 13:23 😭😭
the speech is everythingggg 💔
It’s great to finally see someone who really understands Mal and his relationship with Alina
I've read the Grisha trilogy for the first time 3 months ago and liked Malina so much, and I was So surprised to find out that many people didn't like Mal at all! So glad you see him in a new light 🥺❤
I just read these for the first time this week and I can’t believe how much I love them! I was expecting to be mostly annoyed by them and they just blew me out of the water. I didn’t even know there was Mal hate at first. I loved him and totally empathized. I mean, how would I feel knowing that I could never really be with the person I love, while also having to be right next to them? Oof. Loved hearing your thoughts. It’s such a great series and I think very underrated. I’m in my late 20s now and a lot of YA just gives me major eye rolls, but this series is so well done. I’m officially obsessed.
ETA I was straight up sobbing at the end. I really thought Mal was dead. And then that epilogue. A perfect ending!
ETA 2 my awesome husband got me the collector’s S&B yesterday and there’s a letter from Mal to Alina in the back that shows some of what he was going through hunting down the amplifier. I already love Mal anyway, but getting that extra context made me feel for him even more.
I first read the series when I was 24 and was kinda meh on all the shipping, but definitely thought Mal was the superior choice for Alina. Personally I'm a Nikolai stan.
You have ✨taste✨
i read the books for the first time just this year and i can't understan why the whole fandom seems to hate mal bc he's one of the most interesting characters in the books and he's sweet and dedicated and trusting ughh i will not accept mal hate speech
Everyone hates him because he was selfish as hell. It took Alina losing her powers for her to finally be accepted by him, which is what he wanted. He was very possessive of her, even when a relationship was never established between them. He was jealous and whiny. When he was sleeping with Grisha women, nothing was said. He is just as bad as the darkling. And y'all don't see it.
@@elainamcclendon5593 i knew that was most people's opinion so i read the books looking for those things actually, but the way i see it he spent the whole time saying he couldn't be with her and refusing her bc he knew she was meant for something bigger, more important, and he would just be an obstacle for her. idk i really didn't see him as that selfish and toxic as most people do
i mean he even got that damned tattoo swearing allegiance to her as a saint, i don't think he would do that if he wanted her to lose her powers
Aaah this video is insanely perfectly timed!
I've just spent the last hours rereading the 1st book after finishing the show and falling head over heels for it... Exact same reaction than yours : how could the book that was "ok but too plain" could become such a revelation after having seen the show??
Hannah falling in love with the Shadow and Bone trilogy is the plot twist I needed 🤧
Yes to this!
girl your aesthetic is everything
🥺🥺 thank you
In the newer editions of the first book (NOT the movie editions but the blue paperbacks with the stag on the front cover) you can find some of Mal's missing letters to Alina while she was at the Little Palace. You know, the ones the Darkling disposed of?
omg wait 😭😭 now i need those editions!!!
@@AClockworkReader It's actually just one letter; you could probably just walk into any bookstore and read it real quick. Or just buy it and read it in the car and return it right after because you just needed a safe place to cry, lol.
I read them recently so the copy I read had that letter and I thought Mal was so sweet and strong and then I found out that a lot of people disliked him and liked the Darkling as a love interest and I was like ??? Did we read the same books? When did Mal not care for her? I think that letter could've changed a lot of people's perspective and it was a mistake to leave it out of the first book.
i get so so excited when people reread shadow & bone bc it deserves SO much more praise and love (as does mal 👀)!! i get so frustrated when people say mal is toxic or hates alina being powerful. he just wants to help her stay true to herself, and i’ll never understand people who hate on them or the series end. and i say this as someone who also used to hate him and the ending. 😩 tbh i think a big part of it is people aren’t used to male love interests who are like real and complicated people 👀👀 anywaysss so excited for you to read king of scars!
Leigh has said before that she wrote Shadow and Bone when she was in a toxic relationship, so you are very right about how that influenced things. I'm really amazed at how this series has always been aimed at young teens and yet it manages to cover such difficult topics with this amazing nuance and understanding, like abusive relationships, abuse of power, rape as an abuse of power, etc.. It did so much and I'm so glad it's finally getting credit for that.
okay but i'm so glad hannah got turned into a malina shipper cause well that's the superior ship😌
one of my favorite points to make is that you can really draw some parallels between the Darkling and the Apparat. Technically, both of them wanted to manipulate Alina into some higher power type thing, saying things like you're one of kind and stuff blah blah blah and use her power for their own selfish reasons, But the darkling is better looking than the apparat and so we ignore the signs of toxicity from him but we catch the apparat's right from the get go. It's an interesting point how people's appearances can really change our perspective on them
I read the series for the first time earlier this year and I was genuinely confused as to why people hate Mal so much. I literally don't even know where to start especially because I agree with just about everything you say! Looking forward to your video on the show :)
hannah about the darkling: he’s a murderer, i really don’t think i’ll like him that much
kaz: 👀
they are so different I could make a whole video just about this lolllll
I honestly love the Darkling BECAUSE he’s so evil. He’s so calculating and manipulative yet I eat all that up! He’s such a good villian, I can’t 🤭
On a lighter note, I do love that we got to see Mal’s perspective in the show. It makes things so much clearer and has converted me to a Malina stan. Something I never thought would happen!
YASSS FINALLY MALINA GETTING THE LOVE THEY DESERVE!!!!
everyone is turning over to the malina side but i've been here the whole time!! it's weird to think of these characters as teenagers because of how much they go through and have to do, but when you remember they're literally 17 (plus a 10k year old darkling??) everything makes sense and malina is super cute
The show's depiction of Mal and this BLESSED re-reading made me seriously re-evaluate my opinion of him. Thank you for expressing yourself so enthusiastically, it's contagious! ❤️
rIGHT I literally never understood why so many people seemed to hate Mal when i first read the books, way before the show came out. MAL STANS UNITE
I just finished reading the series and came to see your opinion. You definitely made me see Mal with better eyes, although I still think (just like you said) he's annoying 😂 I don't think he's toxic at all, but I'm not his biggest fan. I'm also definitely not a fan of the darkling (love him as as villain tho) and don't ship darklina. I'm more of a nikolai girl myself... But I'm surprised to see how the discussions about this series are so based around the ships. There is SO much more going on. The war, the whole Alina cult with the Apparat, the discussion about ambition with the amplifiers and the whole Morozova mystery.. I'm honestly more interested in the complexity of the characters amidst the whole scenario other than just ships.
the show has made so many people malina shippers i am so happy!
I loved the show very much as well as the 📚. The show's execution was amazing. I still love Mal and Inej's characters very much. Glad you posted this video Hannah.❣
I am literally so happy that you’re defending mal and also, yes! welocme to the malina ship
Honestly Archie and Archie alone made me fall in love with Mal🤷🏼♀️
Absolutely!! I love Mal in the show but I'm still not a fan of the book charakter
@@majaELiZaLorenz yes!!
i didn't care much for this trilogy when i read it six years ago but archie made me a malina stan and even just watching you reading the end of ruin and rising made me tear up. what has my life become??
Omg we are the same girl! Watching you reread is how I was when I first read the book. All the pointers you made about Mal I fully agree with. Everything people said about Mal is exactly what the Darkling is..Toxic. So I don't understand what all the fuss it about. But ok it makes me realize that SOME people cant identify what a healthy relationship looks like or stan someone just because he is handsome or powerful. Everyone has their reasons. Leigh's good writing is proven well just by his influence. Anyway, I have always loved Malina and trilogy in general. Not terrible at all. As for the show, it made me stan Malina and the crows even more. Need the second season in my life now..
omg yes malina shippers unite!!!
i actually rlly hated the idea of darklina bc all it does is show a seriously toxic relationship/partnership. i think i’ve always love malina in the books, because even if mal and alina apart are annoying by themselves, they actually portray a realistic/healthy-ish relationship.
Yes, they have their moments of immaturity and can even be annoying, but you have to understand that they are teenagers. But their love is pure.
i’m so glad that you love mal now! i read the series last year and read your review after finishing and i was so sad to hear you didn’t love mal bc i love mal!!!
i love you so much for this omg i didn't expect to shed tears watching this but i also cried when you were crying over mal and alina 😭 actually after finishing the series for the first time, i was so ready to talk to other readers and gush about mal and alina's relationship and character development but when i looked at the reviews, i honestly felt like there was something wrong with me and like i read a completely different story. so yes, i feel so validated throughout this video so thank you! 💛
literally haven’t even watched the video yet but i know this journey is going to be iconic
Finally Mal and Malina get the love they deserve, so glad the Netflix show is opening peoples eyes to this!
I want to LIVE in this video!! Me reading the trilogy before the series came out was EXACTLY like that. It was so emotional, I connected so emotionally with them that I want to cry just to remember 🤧 Mal nation we won today 💕
As someone who read the end of ruin and rising (for the first time in 2018) and almost started crying just before a school assembly started over *that* Mal scene it’s so good to see people finally start to ship them.
Booktok told me to hate him and when I read it I didn't understand why because if I was in his shoes...yeah I get it.
Booktok tells people to hate Mal and BookTube tells people to hate the Darkling but at the end of the day, they’re both flawed, both toxic, and both aren’t good for Alina. The third book in the trilogy, esp the ending, made that very clear…
@@lyd7136 the ending of the third book made it clear Mal was bad for Alina? Lol okay.
@@lyd7136 I wanna say this a maybe a result of the age range of people on either platforms? This, is probably gonna sounds condescending lol but Tiktok is a younger crowd and UA-cam tends to have older creators. How many of us in the older age range cringe at how we romanticized toxic relationships? Heck, I'll listen to songs from my adolescence and songs by current gen z artists and cringe st how toxic the ideas are.
However, let's not put Mal in the same level as the Darkling. He's flawed, he's done some shitty things, but he learned and grew, just like the rest of us do. I don't think he's as selfless as stans say he is, but the Darkling is actually manipulative and genocidal. Mal is just kind of a jerk.
YES THANK YOU! I had the same thoughts you had on Mal, why everyone hates him for reacting like everyone would have? And everyone seems to forget that it is also Alina's behaviour towards him that is wrong. I mean she doesn't tell him anything, how on earth would he understand her and what was going on? Moreover he literally did EVERYTHING in his power to protect Alina, I can't see how people say he's toxic and then ship Darklina
YES!!!!! yesyesyes I agressively clicked this video malina is the superior ship
Malina lover from the beginning
DEFINITELY a Malina lover after the show.
I reread this series when KoS was coming out, but like... I’m feeling like a reread again since watching the show.
omg please do it!!!
I was a malina stan from day one and honestly I'm so glad we malina are finally gaining more people. People used to send so much actual hate on malina shippers it was unreal
This series was soooooo good! I felt all the emotions and I can’t believe I waited so long to read it!
hannah, i’m so glad you’re a part of the malina nation now 💚
Not me having a superiority complex because I always loved mal and malina 😌🤚
mal is a realistic character. he isn’t what people seem to say he is.
25:05 When he killed Ana Kuya and the teachers I was brimming with hatred for him. But the moment I lost all hope for his redemption was when Alina finds out that Aleksander made his mother blind. Took out Baghra's eyes. I was on the verge of crying at that scene. How can a person be so cruel?! How can he do that to his own mother?! To the only family he has left in that world.
i am SO HAPPY WITH THESE THOUGHTS i simply do not get the love for the Darkling because he’s literally a textbook abuser, constantly gaslights and manipulated Alina, tries to use her kindness against her consistently, and is also a MASS MURDERER???? perhaps he’s so well written by Leigh that people are so taken with his charm which, again, TEXTBOOK abuser. and Mal is just,,,,,, not that??? he’s so lovely?? he loves her so deeply and you can tell that the whole way through??? yes he is very annoying sometimes and literally just talking to Alina could’ve fixed many issues but he’s also a TEENAGER i am so thrilled with the ending i’m glad they’re happy and the darkling is deceased
I never really understood the hate towards Mal either tbh. Like I'm not a huge fan of the Shadow and Bone trilogy, but I never hated Mal. I loved him and Alina together! And I absolutely adored the TV show. I felt like it really elevated the whole world of the book.
This is my new favorite video from you! I've been defending Mal for years 🤣
not you expressing my darkling thoughts so well haha literally all these emotions are everything i felt in my 2019 reread
15:50 I squealed like her when I read the kiss part. I was a Malina shipper from the past. And when I came to their first kiss part I was literally rolling on my bed I KID YOU NOT. Mal is so protective of Alina and he is just ready to sacrifice himself for her. I don't understand how and why people hate him. Then again that's your feelings and none of my business.
HANNAH YOU'RE MAKING ME INTO A MALINA STAN I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS
yeeeesssssssss
I’ve only read S&B and I’m only 4 chapters into Siege and Storm but I LOVE MALINA 😭
you are so valid
i think the older you get, the more you understand mal and the merit behind the grishaverse as a whole! yes its a very ya series plot wise but THE WAY THE CHARACTERS ARE WRITTEN AND DEVELOPED IS SO MATURE AND REAL AH i kept seeing everyone hate on him on tiktok before i read it and im like?? why?? and show mal is just so amazing, archie renaux is>>>
I can't tell you how thankful I am for your explanation of this series especially in regards to Mal's character! I've been trying to convey everything you've said to explain why I love this series and why I loved Mal and Alina's relationship but I've always been shot down because of other readers infatuation with the darkling and it being "trendy" to romanticize manipulative men. I'll definitely be using this video as a reference for all my future shadow and bone discussions!!
I read the series for the first time this year without knowing any discourse around it and I thought people would love Mal. I was so surprised to find out he was so hated. HE DID THE BEST HE COULD. It's so funny to watch you change your opinion so much about the series hahaha hope you enjoy the show too!