Everyone is arguing over Mal and the Darkling and I'm here in my corner just stanning Nikolai.

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😭😭😭

legend has it that every time a shadow and bone fan who previously disliked mal watches the tv show, a malina stan is born

Glad to know the propaganda led by Monica and me worked

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."

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.

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

you getting progresively angrier about people hating on mal is my favourite thing about this video

To fellow malina stans, RISE!!! We have Cindy and now Hannah as well. Our nightly prayers are being answered

MALINA STANS RISE 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 WE WON FROM DAY ONE

the show made Mal such a better character. maybe now it’s time for a re-read 🥰

Going from a darklina shipper to a malina shipper is what I call ✨redemption arc✨

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

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 forgive anyone who changes their mind and now loves Mal. It's okay, we've been waiting for you!

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 :)

Alternative title : Hannah fangirling over Mal for 40 mins straight

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 ✨

It makes me so happy to see people finally realise that there is only one superior ship😌

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

it was bleak 8 years ago when the malina slander was at its peak, I felt so alone... I've finally found my people 😭

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

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

SAMEEEE!!! I feel like many Mal/Malina haters have been influenced by the Internet not by Mal himself

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

ok the amount of satisfaction I feel hearing you recite Mal's speech at 13:23 😭😭

Every time Hannah makes a review and takes us on her journey I just KNOW ITS GOING TO BE ICONIC

literally obsessed with this video... Malina shippers have WON with gaining Hannah and all the points she made... so true bestie

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

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

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/.

everyone on booktube is suddenly becoming a Malina stan and I'm just here having never read a book in the grishaverse like: 👁️👄👁️

Hannah falling in love with the Shadow and Bone trilogy is the plot twist I needed 🤧

Welcome to team Malina, you are safe here.

I’m so happy that you like Mal because he’s my favorite character and I could never understand why others hate him

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.

It’s great to finally see someone who really understands Mal and his relationship with Alina

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---

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 !

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 😩

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.

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

hannah about the darkling: he’s a murderer, i really don’t think i’ll like him that much kaz: 👀

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.

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 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!

okay but i'm so glad hannah got turned into a malina shipper cause well that's the superior ship😌

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 🥺❤

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 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.

YASSS FINALLY MALINA GETTING THE LOVE THEY DESERVE!!!!

Not me having a superiority complex because I always loved mal and malina 😌🤚

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?

girl your aesthetic is everything

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.

mal is a realistic character. he isn’t what people seem to say he is.

the show has made so many people malina shippers i am so happy!

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!

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

Finally Mal and Malina get the love they deserve, so glad the Netflix show is opening peoples eyes to this!

omg yes malina shippers unite!!!

I always thought Mal was such a sweetheart

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.

Honestly Archie and Archie alone made me fall in love with Mal🤷🏼‍♀️

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! ❤️

literally haven’t even watched the video yet but i know this journey is going to be iconic

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??

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.❣

hannah, i’m so glad you’re a part of the malina nation now 💚

Ya'll hear her mal is not FUCKING TOXIC!!!! I'm so proud I found my people here and so many of them😭😭😭.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

i just realized this is a 38 minute video lol WE HAVE BEEN BLESSED

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 :)

The end got me crying of happiness because Mal and Alina deserve the world 🤧🤧❤

I am literally so happy that you’re defending mal and also, yes! welocme to the malina ship

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 💕

YES!!!!! yesyesyes I agressively clicked this video malina is the superior ship

QUEEN HANNAH TALIKNG ABOUT QUEEN BARDUGO'S BOOKS YAY

Have I read or plan on reading grisha trilogy? No. Will I still watch the entirety of the video solely because it contains Hannah because I am her simp? Yes.

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

People using the word "toxic" to describe Mal are Darkling stans or Darklina shippers. I think that explains it all.

HANNAH YOU'RE MAKING ME INTO A MALINA STAN I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS

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.

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 just had a thought of how the orphanage scene from ruin and rising would look like in the show. I'm literally crying, it would be awful and I'm not sure I would like to see it😭

I’ve only read S&B and I’m only 4 chapters into Siege and Storm but I LOVE MALINA 😭

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

God, I literally SCREAMED when I read the title because I WAS SUCH A HARDCORE MALINA SHIPPER WHEN I WAS 15 AND EVERY BOOKTUBER SHIPPED HER AND THE DARKLING OR HER AND NIKOLAI, and i was so sad cause I felt like the odd one out but now MY FAVOURITE BOOKTUBER ships THEM!!!! I'm in heaven 😍😍❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

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 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>>>

This is my new favorite video from you! I've been defending Mal for years 🤣

I'm so happy you loved Mal (and the series)💕 he deserves the world😭💕

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 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??

Me, who is a Malina Shipper and fed up with all darklina stan posts, LOVING THIS!!!!!❤❤