The Grishaverse discussion

i dont understand why you all hate him, please explain :/

I cannot explain, just adding a comment to say that I love Mal the most :) And have loved him since the very beginning. The way I see it, people have no reason to hate him.

Carina wrote: "I cannot explain, just adding a comment to say that I love Mal the most :) And have loved him since the very beginning. The way I see it, people have no reason to hate him."

thank you for the comment, i only see people who hate him and the things that a person like him its comfortable :))

I definitely don’t hate him. He’s just a bit boring and doesn’t interest me as a character. But out of all of Alina’s love interests, he best suits her in my opinion.

I have loved Mal since the beginning and always did. Don’t get me wrong- the idea of a bad boy love interest in the Darkling was intriguing when it was first brought up, but my loyalty has always been with Mal.

Izabella wrote: "I definitely don’t hate him. He’s just a bit boring and doesn’t interest me as a character. But out of all of Alina’s love interests, he best suits her in my opinion."

i think it too, he definetely suits Alina better than the other like the darkling

Rae wrote: "I have loved Mal since the beginning and always did. Don’t get me wrong- the idea of a bad boy love interest in the Darkling was intriguing when it was first brought up, but my loyalty has always b..."

i feel you :0

I don't hate Mal at all to be honest, I liked him and I thought he made some very human mistakes, because surprise surprise, he's human.
Also he gives me very 'to grow old with you and call you darling and dance with you under the stars' vibes with alina which i love

He is incredibly misogynistic and emotionally abusive.

He made out with Zoya to make Alina jealous. I 100% think that Alina and Mal deserve each other though :)

I don't hate him, but I never thought there was much chemistry between him and Alina, and he always seemed kind of controlling and jealous

I don’t hate Mal, I just think he was extremely boring and vanilla compared to literally any other grishaverse character and he was emotionally manipulative and protective and controlling towards Alina. Personally, I am a strong believer in Nikolina <33

He has the personality of a boiled potato.

They grew up together essentially as brother and sister in the orphanage; their dynamic gave off incest vibes.
But that’s not a reason to hate him. The misogyny he keeps showing throughout the series was the worst part.
His hatred and disgust for the grisha.
How he wanted to carve Alina’s power out. How he complained when she was finally looking healthy and had an appetite.
How he kissed Zoya in front of Alina and then shames Alina for flinching.
Worst, is how he acts like an actual emotional abuser ppl meet in real life. He’ll emotionally manipulate Alina, then guilts her and covers his emotional manipulation by claiming to be the “Nice Guy” look at what I did for you! Then goes back to shaming her, then cycles back to “oh I’m the nice guy.”
Alina deserved better like Genya or being alone and traveling the world

Mal gets a lot of undeserved hate imo. However, i just didnt really like him. He was so possessive of Alina in Siege and Storm, and I never shipped them together. He is just not unique.

Mal is annoying and way too possessive, like he needs to chill out. The Darkling is way better

not me being the only mal stan lol. I'm rereading the 2nd book before the second season of SaB comes out so maybe my opinion will change

It's not that i hate Mal it's just that he didn't really have a personality other than loving Alina and I'm sorry but 'I am become a blade'? He just didn't give me a reason to love him or like him for that matter. He was just a boring character who made bad decisions for me.

Vicky wrote: "They grew up together essentially as brother and sister in the orphanage; their dynamic gave off incest vibes.
But that’s not a reason to hate him. The misogyny he keeps showing throughout the ser..."
This is legit so true. Plus he only started showing interest when the Darkling did. And the I have become a blade stuff? Absolutely not.
I hate him so much.

And the quote “I will strip you of everything and everyone you love, you will have no shelter but me” actually applies to MAL
HE is the one who had her isolated in the end.
She has no shelter but the one guy who emotionally manipulated and verbally abused her her whole life.
Living his dream of being a commoner.
Alina should have been freed from that unhealthy codependent abusive relationship with Mal.

Spoilers, obviously.

Because of how he treats Alina throughout the whole series:

-He is extremely possesive. He's angry at her because she looked happy with the Darkling and "she belonged to him". This is particularly problematic since, before this encounter, Mal had not once showed romantic interest in Alina. And that is just the beginning. He attacked Nikolai for proposing an arranged marriage for *only* political purposes; he answers for her in several occasions, and the list goes on.

-He is emotionally abusive/manipulative. He kisses Zoya then proceeds to gaslight Alina into thinking it's her fault for "pushing him away". Let's not forget his justification for this: “You don’t want me, so why do you care if she does?”. Ugh.

-He plays the victim by constantly remind her she's now powerful and he misses the old Alina (he literally tells her that he wants for them "to be common together again" and making it look like she's a monster for liking her powers). Not to mention how passive agressive he was when she had to spend her time with Nikolai (you know, planning the war that was going on).

I could go on, but I think you get the idea. It's not the hate for Mal as a character himself, but for him to be considered the ideal love interest for Alina and framing his abusive behavior as protective rather than problematic.

I really like Mal and I acknowledge that he’s made many mistakes and not always treated Alina right, but he’s fought for her throughout the whole trilogy and would die for her and I don’t think he gets enough credit. But I do understand why some people don’t like him.

Less not like, more not care about. I don’t like the Darkling or Mal. In fact the only guy I like from “Shadow and Bone” was Nikolai because.. come on. Be for real. He’s the best. Anyway he’s just not all too exciting. Don’t dislike him though, he’s there for Alina and that’s what matters.

Oh, also let’s not forget his barely concealed hatred and contempt for the minority persecuted Grisha people. It was all over the books.

“Mal had gotten very good at fighting Grisha. I remembered him bruised and bleeding, standing over a Squaller in the stables of the Little Palace, a look of challenge and contempt in his eyes. Another memory I could do without.”

because he’s toxic and annoying, he would get mad every single time alina used her powers and got more powerful. he just wanted alina back to be a simple ordinary girl so he could be the one to protect her which is massive hero complex in a horrible way. mal also had his whole entire relationship with zoya in siege and storm just to make alina jealous. 99% of the time mal just feels unnecessary to the plot and just causes problems for everyone else. i feel like the author just gave him the whole entire morozova plot line in ruin and rising so he wouldn’t be completely useless.

mar wrote: "because he’s toxic and annoying, he would get mad every single time alina used her powers and got more powerful. he just wanted alina back to be a simple ordinary girl so he could be the one to pro..."

Agreed. The entire story could and should have been written without Mal. If they just gave Alina the tracking powers and had her figure out she was already bonded to a Morozova amplifier (since the first amplification was secretly 2 of morozova’s amplifiers the stag and Alexander), then she would have completed the journey without Mal. Add more Genya/Nik/Zoya character development and encouragement.
And NOT have her lose her powers in the end - by getting all the amplifiers she should have been the one to be able to connect to the “heart of the world” like row Zoya. She could have become a leader for the Grisha - or a new symbolic position in the second army/church and just taught the Grisha and little Grisha how to connect to the heart of the world. Creating a stronger generation of Grisha to help them stay relevant in a world that was slowly outpacing the Grisha

because I'm, like, 100% certain he's a jerk

Lynn wrote: "because I'm, like, 100% certain he's a jerk"

Oh he 100% is a jerk and the most common type of emotional abuser that girls face everyday.

I don't hate Mal at all. All characters have flaws and Mal has a lot of them, which is great and shows he is a good character. He is allowed to be jealous of Alina and her powers and other men around her because he feels insecure about not being included in Alina's world. Everyone is insecure, even male characters. I think the hate for him is overdone. And it seems that people still love The Darkling even though he is an abuser; fans still ship him and Alina together for some reason which I don't get. The Darkling used Alina's powers without asking and forced her to expand the fold.. He sold Genya to the Queen at a young age, and he killed innocent people by expanding the fold. Mal made mistakes. I won't deny that he did do things that aren't good. But overall, he is a good character. He is just insecure about his place with Alina and her new world. That is my opinion.

its because he has the personality of a wet paper towel

also, the abuse alina went through under the darkling?? and mal was like "ok who cares pick me choose me love me"? like girl what give her space

I really truly do not hate him. He is honestly a sweet character. But that’s also kind of the problem. He’s JUST a sweet character. I would have liked it much better if Alina had stayed single especially because her “eras” are mostly defined by who she’s dating at the time. Like her being super powerful when she’s with the darkling, being a world leader when she’s with Nikolai, and then going into hiding when she’s with Mal. The only thing I particularly dislike about Mal’s character is that he guilt trips Alina by being all “my only purpose is to serve you and get you your amplifiers cuz your so power hungry but I’ll do it cuz that’s what you want me to do”. In conclusion, Mal is a nice guy. And that’s pretty much it.

he has kenergy-

“nice guys always finish last” vibes

he's toxic, he's got fragile masculinity, he's useless most of the time, he's jealous, he's stupid, and also he's just plain annoying. In the first book he's not as insufferable, but in S&S he's the actual worst. For one when Nikolai proposes a marriage between himself and Alina, Mal is like "Uh uh no way princeling," but later in the book he gets in a relationship with Zoya to make Alina jealous, because Alina was spending a lot of time with Nikolai planning the war.
He thinks Alina should be available at all times at his disposal, and when Alina is busy trying to win a war, (S&S) he goes and gets drunk all of the time and makes Alina feel responsible for it. He makes Alina feel responsible for HIS happiness, because his entire identity is made up in Alina.
Mal doesn't like that Alina is so powerful, and tells Alina that he liked it better when she didn't have her Grisha powers, when Mal was the strong and important one in the relationship. He thinks Alina is so power hungry for wanting to lead the second army, and that Alina doesn't care about him, (because she's literally helping leading a country).
Mal has NO COMPASSION WHATSOEVER in any of the books. Book 1, Alina discovers that she is this super powerful grisha and she has to get sent off to train to save the world. Which is a super stressful and crazy time for Alina. What does Mal do? "Well what does this mean for me, you're leaving me Alina." Also book 1, Alina thinks she is in love with the darkling, and then finds out he's got his own motives that don't involve destroying the fold. So she runs away to find Mal, and when she does all he cares about is whether she loves him or not (giving Gale from the hunger games).
I think you get my point. I hate Mal as a character, and as a love interest. I think while Alina learned and grew so much by the end of the series, Mal was still childish and immature, maybe with some better fighting skills.

Mal is like eww. His name even auto corrects to mail 💀

I honestly loved him in the first SaB book, but in the second he got too much of a red flag. He was super toxic and jealous with Alina when she’s had to have to deal with him flirting with other girls for literally her WHOLE childhood and shut up about it. He’s just so ew.

Mal is not terrible, for some reason I found more people loved the darkling as a partner than Mal??!! wth, i cannot understand it, but its just the fact there was constantly miscommunication between the two it became easy to be frustrated with him, also alina too tho. But mainly Mal

I don't hate him, I just dislike him. He wasn't great in the first book, but in the second and third I simply couldn't stand him. I hated the way he treated Nikolai, the way he asked him to be enough for Alina when it was her that wasn't enough for him. He played the victim and tried to control Alina and everything she did. I just don't think he is a good person, that's all. But I don't totally hate him, he had some good points. However, he is one of the characters I like the least in this book.

did you read siege and storm? he is so toxic (and 0 charisma even in the show

libby🧣 wrote: "I don’t hate Mal, I just think he was extremely boring and vanilla compared to literally any other grishaverse character and he was emotionally manipulative and protective and controlling towards A..."

Oh my goodness I totally agree!!! I honestly was rooting for Nikolina the entire time and was in denial for a hot minute when she chose Mal instead.

I have never understood the hate for mal, don’t come at me, but he seems fine.

It’s not that most people hate him, it’s more like there were so many other amazing characters that he seemed a bit dull in comparison. Personally, I thought he was okay (better than the Darkling anyways)

Lilo wrote: "It’s not that most people hate him, it’s more like there were so many other amazing characters that he seemed a bit dull in comparison. Personally, I thought he was okay (better than the Darkling a..."
He was worse, because he actually succeeded in emotionally abusing and gaslighting Alina. Mal is the toxic guy girls will actually meet irl. The one who emotionally abused them then love bombs them to keep them trapped in a cycle of abuse. In real life, the “best friend” and “nice guy” men are the majority of abusive households. The hardest to escape too

I actually like Mal he is one of my favorite characters I mean book mal is better than show mal but he is still better than Nikolai
IN MY OPINION

No, Nikolai at least wanted Alina to grow and have a community. Mal made Alina feel insecure, kept attacking her and belittling her, ridiculed her over her eating disorder and weight, dragged her down, in both the book and the show was the reason Alina self-harmed (cutting with shard) and hurt her health by giving herself wasting sickness to stay back with him, there were so many monents in the books where he’s awful to her and then resorts to gaslighting and love bombing.
He’s awful.
Nikolai at least treated her better.

Ok well I do see both sides Nikolai mostly tries to protect Alina but Mal tries to protect Alina too. So I do think that Nikolai is better than the Darkling but I still think Mal is better than both. Cuz I mean let’s all remember how Nikolai tried to get Alina to be his queen even though he knew that Mal and Alina were still together.
Again MY OPINION

Mal was not trying to protect her, he was protecting his fragile male ego most times. He became a full blown alcoholic who liked to beat up grishas - alina even has to gaslight herself to forget the glint and disdain in Mal’s eyes against grisha. He even abandoned his post - the one job he had which was to protect her - so he could drink himself silly while alina almost died in a mob because of this. Tolya was right to call him out and want punish Mal. And Mal never stopped badgering her to follow his ideal dream of her becoming a powerless commoner. The badgering that wormed its way inside her head.
If Shadow and Bone series had alina being surrounded by only Nikolai and Genya, then she would have had a much warmer environment and been conditioned to be the next ruler for the good of all Ravka, and for herself. She was forced to make herself smaller for Mal - an occurrence that happens too often in emotionally abusive relationships. From actual self-harm in the beginning with either the cutting or the wasting sickness to stay behind for mal. Then progresses to her ending up alone - with Mal - but ultimately alone in a village where Mal is described as once again always fitting in. Meanwhile, Alina is back to square one, being bullied by the townspeople and mocked by her own employees. That’s not a good ending.

Genya Safin is the best character in shadow and bone Mal is second. I think the ending is really good it raps up the story really well. The best part was that the Darkling died. Mal and Alina were happy together.

Ending up with sexist, misogynistic, and emotionally abusive man in a town where no one respects her is a terrible ending.