The Grishaverse discussion
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Leigh Bardugo Q&As
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LEIGH BARDUGO Q&A - 5/29 AT 3PM EST
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It's Alina who deals the fatal blow. And in any case, Mal would have to be Grisha for him to gift the amplifier to someone else AND once Alina takes possession of the amplifier, no one else can. The bond is made.
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Her eyes have not been removed, but they have been "clouded" by the living shadow of the Fold.
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My Questions:
Are we going to find out who the Dark..."
All I can really say is that you'll definitely get a glimpse into the Darkling's past and what life was like in the early days of Ravka in Ruin and Rising.
Could you clarify something about the Witch of Duva? Were the missing girls eaten?
Do you think that Tolya and Tamar were ever truly loyal to Nikolai, or were they just using him to get to Alina?
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Okay, i know this is for Siege and Storm but I am a young author and have written several books.
Do ..."
If you pop by my web site and check out the Archives section in the World of the Grisha, you'll see some articles on writing and world building.
Yes, publishing is a tough business. The market is crowded and the odds are against you. It's important to know that and to recognize that it you may have a rough road ahead because the creative life is one that garners little respect until you "make it." But if this is your dream, then NONE of that should deter you. Just keep writing, keep making art.
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Which of your characters are the type to walk out on the page fully? Also, which of your characters are the type to slowly form in your imagination?
Which do you enjoy writing more, if ..."
Sturmhond is honestly the only character to ever sneak up on me and just start talking. The rest come together slowly as I get to know them and who they are in the story.
And thank you! I've put Alina through so much. Sometimes I imagine her just coming up to me and repeatedly kicking me in the shins.
Does each order represent a science subject like The Corporalki represent Biology, Etheralki represent Physics and the Materialki represent Chemistry?Is the Darkling the one who cares for Alina in Siege and Storm when she says Mal?
Hello! I just love your books. And, I have a few questions.1.) Why are the Darkling and Sun Summoner powers so rare?
2.) But even though she has unique powers too, Alina needs the amplifiers in order to beat the Darkling. Why is that? Are the dark powers just naturally more powerful or did the Darkling do something to strengthen his power and control?
3.) Have you always had a series ending in mind or did you kind of just plan to go with the flow and see where the story takes you?
4.) Alina has a ton of suitors. But, my favorite is Mal. Do you have a favorite?
Thank you for your time!
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I'm very curious if you mostly agreed/disagreed with Alina's actions and decisions in S&S. Did you ever think she was exasperating at some points in the story, or did you think she was ..."
I don't like heroes who always do the "right" thing. I find them boring and implausible. Alina is a girl who has had tremendous power and responsibility thrust upon her. If she hadn't taken control of the Second Army, she would have had to deal with the repercussions. When she does take control, she has to face the realities of what that means—and her own very real shortcomings.
I think we often hold heroines to an absurd standard. Be brave! Be wise! Always know what's in your heart and speak the truth of it! No and no and no. We fight to be brave. We learn to be wise. We struggle to know ourselves and voice what we want. It can be satisfying on a wish-fulfillment level to see a character be awesome all of the time, but that isn't the story I wanted to tell.
Is Nikolai sad about Vasily's death? I mean, they're brothers and all. Did they genuinely hate each other or was it more of an "You're sso annoying but I love you anyway" type relationship?
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A character in my new book is Suli and you'll get to learn much more about their culture. Thanks for the lovely question <3
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How do you know she will?
What inspired you to write the darkling, was he modeled after anyone? He reminds me of a lot characters, and a lot of real people to.
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A
1. Does the Darkling have complete control over the nichevo'yas actions?
2. Did you always consider Zoya a good or bad guy when you started writing the trilogy?
3. Do other Grisha have extensions like Squallers summoning lightning? (Not the Cut)
4. Based off of the recent discussions for S&S, how did you react to the Alina-freak-out, Mal-bashing, the Darkling-missing, and the Nikolai-loving fan reactions? Did you predict it?
5. Do the Grisha have negative feelings for relationships with oskazat'sya in general/society, or is that just the Darkling's issue?
6. All those rarely mentioned, hard-working Alkemi and poisons... I don't mean anything like the Strangler, but was the one used on the Ravkan king made by them? Mwahaha...
7. What is Nikolai's preferred choice of weaponry?
8. Do all Corporalki have the potential ability to alter appearances like Tolya and Genya?
9. Was the Darkling's power to transport/disguise himself as a shadow one he already had or from the bite?
10. Did Genya know a lot of secrets from us/Alina in S&B/S&S about the Darkling or the Lantsovs from working so closely in the coup?
1. Yes
2. Zoya always had her own journey to go on. Good or bad... well, that's for you to decide.
3. There are infinite ways of learning to use the Small Science and its applications. But as with any discipline, it's easy to get locked into one way of doing things.
4. I don't read the discussions. I'm sorry to hear there's Alina bashing because it hurts to know any of my characters are being bashed and I think heroines tend to get kicked around quite a lot in fandoms. As for the Mal hate, I don't blame people for being angry at him. He isn't a perfect boyfriend. He's a guy who lost almost everything and who is struggling to figure out who he is. It's interesting that both Alina and Mal seem to be held to a far higher moral standard than the Darkling.
5. Depends on the Grisha, but yes, many have negative feelings about otkazat'sya, and vice versa.
6. You'll see.
7. Whatever is at hand. Sword, pistol, frying pan.
8. In theory, yes. But you have to have an aptitude for it.
9. That's not exactly how I would describe that power, but it's fair to say it's a result of his trial on the Fold.
10. Yes.
Whew!
Is the change in Sturmhonds face a slight tribute to Jaqen H'Ghar???Loving reading all the questions, thanks for answering them Leigh!!
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From S&S: Will we ever see the Hummingbir..."
Tough to address most of these since we get heavily into spoiler territory but.
1. The Hummingbird is at the bottom of a lake. If you mean the Kingfisher, perhaps! And dude, I would LOVE to spend some time on a flying ship with Sturmy.
2. Funny you should mention rings.
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How tall do you imagine Alina, the Darkling, Nikolai, and Mal to be, respectively?
A little trivial, I know, but it helps me picture the ch..."
Alina is short. Mal and Nikolai are both fairly tall, but I imagine Mal being built a bit more like a jock and Nikolai having very long legs suitable for gallivanting.
Which came first, did the Too Clever Fox influence Sturmhond or the other way around?
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1. Why did the Darkling have his nichevo'ya bite Alina? (If you can't answer, will we ever find out..."
I can't answer most of your questions so I hope this will suffice...
9. I hope you can answer this one: was it the Darking's hand on Alina's cheek when she felt a hand withdraw after she said Mal's name on the ship?
Yes it was.
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And thank you very much for doing this Q&A!"
In our world, kvas is kind of like a soft drink. I've had the beet flavor and I'd say it's an acquired taste.
In the world of the trilogy, I used it as a stand in for vodka and a lot of people did NOT like that.
I adore you Leigh. <3 And I love these Q&A :D Thank you so much for doing them. In Siege and Storm it broke my heart so much that Mal loved Alina more than anything.. Yet she seemed to not care as much. So I would like to know if she do care as much as I imagine? As in, do she love Mal like he loves her in S&S? (Romantic love. <3)
Hi Leigh!Can you describe what Alina looks like? I don't remember ever reading what color her eyes or hair (before it turned white) were.
Also, how did you feel when you finish writing Ruin and Rising?
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Is there a convincing excuse or reason for every 'evil' act(e.g. torturing, mutilating, killing the innocent Ravkans to make a point in S&B, enslaving Alina, using Alina's power's against her will to expand the fold, I can go on...) the Darkling has committed in the books that makes him "not evil" as you say?
I say the Darkling isn't "evil," because I find the term reductive. No one is wholly good or wholly bad and to me, the term "evil" veers into fairytale territory. The trilogy is not a fairytale. It's about human beings with human motivations who often do horrible things to one another.
I think the Darkling would argue that his actions are defensible and even just. The rest is for the reader to decide.
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Huge thanks to everyone who participated. I'll see you on the other side of Ruin and Rising, wherein MANY questions will be answered.
fwiw, I promise to be a lot less vague and a lot more forthcoming abut my own opinions and some of the concretes when we discuss in that Q&A. Until then, I do the no-spoiler dance! It involves a lot of wiggling.
Thanks for answering my question along with all of these other great ones! You rock and thanks for your time!
Thanks for your responses Leigh. It means a lot you take time with your fans. Your books are so interesting and addicting! Now we're all going to spend the next few days trying to decrypt what your mysterious vague answers mean ;)
Leigh wrote: "It's interesting that both Alina and Mal seem to be held to a far higher moral standard than the Darkling. "This.
You just took the words out my mouth. I'm still trying to figure out why that is. Lol.
Thanks for responding, Leigh. I've been wondering if your choice of words concerning the Darkling not being "evil" was a hint that he might be innocent or victimized(a lot of readers think he's being controlled by someone/something) all along. Thanks for clearing it up that he has done some horrible things to others but has his own reasons for doing them.
I hope we find out the reason why he thought it was just to mutilate Genya and Baghra soon.
Vindictev, you amaze me sometimes )))How can anyone call the Darkling "innocent", really?
Natalia wrote: "Vindictev, you amaze me sometimes )))How can anyone call the Darkling "innocent", really?"
*facepalm*
Excuse me? I thought this was the Leigh Q&A thread. I didn't think I'd be rudely questioned for thinking the Darkling was being victimized and technically innocent because of what Leigh said about him not being "evil".
There are a lot of readers that believe the Darkling is being controlled by his powers or by a monster.
If you haven't noticed, I still think the Darkling is an evil asshole for what he's done. There is a reason why I asked Leigh why she didn't think he was evil in the first place.
Anyways, I'm going to excuse myself from this thread now before I get questioned by more rude and pretentious people. Dear Christ...
Vindictev wrote: "I didn't think I'd be rudely questioned..."Rudely? Okay, we probably have different understanding of what is rude behavior.
And even if the Darkling was controlled by his powers, monsters or whatever (which is neither confirmed nor denied at this point, BTW), he still cannot be called innocent. Because he still did all those things. Plus, a person this old just cannot be innocent by default, IMO. Life experience takes its toll on anyone.
I'd like to start this message by giving a huge "thank you" to Ms. Bardugo, so thank you, Ms. Bardugo.
Now, I'm pretty sure we've gone over this before, and I'm also pretty sure that we ought to just stop it on here. We're all sort of agreeing anyway -- we're all saying the Darkling isn't innocent. Can we move past this hostility, at least on this discussion please?
Now, I'm pretty sure we've gone over this before, and I'm also pretty sure that we ought to just stop it on here. We're all sort of agreeing anyway -- we're all saying the Darkling isn't innocent. Can we move past this hostility, at least on this discussion please?
Leigh wrote: "I think we often hold heroines to an absurd standard. Be brave! Be wise! Always know what's in your heart and speak the truth of it! No and no and no. We fight to be brave. We learn to be wise. We struggle to know ourselves and voice what we want."I love this quote!
Natalia, why do I even bother responding to you? You keep missing the point.Well no duh no one is completely innocent. I meant innocent as in not accountable for the "evil" things he's done, which is why I was very specific in my question to Leigh. There are a lot of people who think the Darkling is being controlled into doing those things. They think he's gone mad from his power. That he might have mutilated Genya and Baghra because he's being controlled by something.
If the Darkling would go as far as mutilating his own mother, I'll start to question if there's something wrong with him or if he really is an evil jackass.
I'm amazed you're so riled up by people calling the Darkling innocent. Maybe my choice of words wasn't great, but it's not that serious.
We've been over this point over and over again. And no, actually, it's not currently relevant to our conversation on that thread. If you would like to continue this, how about you do it in a private message please out of respect for the people on all the threads here? Thank you. We're getting no closer to a resolution than we ever have been, and I doubt we'll ever get there, so can we stop this futile argument? Thank you. It's probably quite fortunate that Ms. Bardugo doesn't read our discussions just because of the number of arguments, isn't it?
I'm probably going to be be "yelled" out at or cussed at again. But I have a difficulty letting a comment go that was answered by Ms. Bardugo in regards to the Darkling multilating his other mother."Amberlynn wrote: "Just a small thing but does Baghra have eyes and they are clouded over with shadows or have her eyes actually been removed?"
Her eyes have not been removed, but they have been "clouded" by the living shadow of the Fold."
I was happy to see that Baghra was not actually mutilated.
Of course, my theory that Genya may have been bit while the Darkling was pre-occupied, doesn't seem as possible now. Since his creatures do not have free will.
Was there anything else that others were surprised by the Q&A?
Laura, I also found it interesting (and surprising) that indeed Baghra's eyes are still in tact. So most likely she'll get her sight back. Someone (maybe it was Amberlynn) actually had that theory so kudos there!Why can't Baghra remove it if she can control darkness too, I wonder? Because it's not normal darkness, but from the Fold?
Also, for anyone interested, I haven't checked it out yet, but there is a new video interview with Leigh here,http://www.grishatrilogy.com/
EDIT- @Laura and WinterRose- I really like that Bahgra comment too and I'll reply to you in the Darkling thread. :)
Laura wrote: "I'm probably going to be be "yelled" out at or cussed at again. But I have a difficulty letting a comment go that was answered by Ms. Bardugo in regards to the Darkling multilating his other mother..."Whether he removed her eyes or not, he still willingly blinded his own mother to punish her. Leigh confirmed that the Darkling's creatures are controlled by him, so he willingly mutilated Genya as well.
The only reason why I even care about that is because I'm trying to understand what type of person the Darkling is. He preaches that he's trying to save Ravka, yet he goes about killing his own innocent people. I don't see how mutilating others helps either.
I was surprised to see Leigh agree that it was interesting how Alina and Mal seem to be held to a far higher moral standard than the Darkling, because that is so true. Alina and Mal are bashed, yet the Darkling is not when he's committed acts far worse than them.
He practically did the same thing the U.S. government did with sending drones in the middle east to bomb innocent people along with terrorists. They preach that sacrificing them is for the greater good, but it's still wrong.
Now that I think about it, The Darkling reminds me so much of the character "The Governor" from The Walking Dead. They both think they're doing something good for their people, but the way they go about helping them is evil.
I think I know what Leigh meant by the Darkling not being "evil" now. I think she meant that he is complex. Not wholly good and not wholly bad. I agree that he is complex, but when a character's wrongdoings drown out the good, it's hard not to call them a villain or think they're an asshole.
I'm still not even sure if the Darkling really wants to help Ravka. Why he would choose to expand the fold when there is a risk it can get out of control and obliterate Ravka makes me question what his true motives are.
Lol if you're not a Walking Dead fan ignore me, but I just have to make this comparison:I'm pretty sure that's why I have a hard time trusting the Darkling. He has so many similarities with the Governor from the Walking Dead that it's outstanding.
They're both "good-looking" according to other characters, they kill innocent people because they think it'll help their own, they torture and mutilate innocent people who defy them or pose as a threat, and they tell lies to the women they're currently having a fling with. They even go as far as trying to kill their woman's friends. Then they both end up enslaving the woman for running away.
Hell, they both wear Black and are called by their titles instead of their names.
I feel like Alina is Andrea and the Darkling is the Governor tbh.
The Darkling is every bit like the Governor, and seeing how his character played out has me on guard with the Darkling. I have a feeling the Darkling will meet the same fate, because he's going through the same 'losing his shit' phase The Governor went through right now.
Just give the Darkling an eye patch, and he's basically the Governor. Omg.
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Ahem.
Also, just to ask, near the beginning, when Ivan was bickering ..."
1. If you're asking if they made with the frik frak, no they did not.
2. "Scum"