Contest #3 | Favorite Antagonist | By @sanyazulfiqar

Hello Steemians!

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

I would like to begin my post with three words: antagonists are underrated! Without them, the protagonist has no significant purpose yet are not usually under the same spotlight as the leads. If it weren’t for Voldemort, Harry Potter would probably be a regular student at Hogwarts. Or taking you back circa 1800s to the Grimm’s fairytales, minus every evil stepmother, and Prince Charmings would not go around marrying ordinary girls who sing and talk to birds.

Out of many notable villains in the bookish history, one name stood out to me – The Darkling from Shadow & Bone trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. Partly because he is my latest obsession! Darkling’s character has a lot of layers and depth, which makes him loved more than the infuriating hero, Mal Oretsev, among the reader community. Hence, I chose him for his complexity among other traits that I will be talking about in detail.

(Own picture from own Instagram blog taken from iPhone 7)

"You and I are going to change the world."

1. The desperate loyalist

Source

Aleksander Morozova AKA The Darkling created a Shadow Fold (Unsea), dividing Ravka into two parts (East & West). Whoever tries to cross the sea has to face famished monsters ready for human flesh. But, those hideous creatures used to be humans who got mutated with the spread of the dark shadows, years back. Magic comes with certain price!

Now, who can love a villain like that? You’ve got to understand one thing about The Darkling: he can go to any extent for his Grishas (practitioners of the small science or in human terms, magic) and before the Fold the Grishas were mistreated and oppressed by the inhabitants of Ravka. This was his response to them. The foundation of his villainy was his loyalty, his devotion to his people.

2. Alina’s true appreciator

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The star of the story, Alina Starkov before becoming the local celebrity and Saint, and discovering her powers to summon light, was never recognized by those around her. Even her so-called best friend and love interest, Mal failed to see through her.

There comes our knight in shining armor, The Darkling, who gave her the status she was worthy of. Made her feel special and encouraged her to better herself as a Grisha. While the books illustrate his motives to be rather malicious, deep down we are certain, it was his love that gave her strength.

3. The Lucifer Effect

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The Summoners order (The Darkling being the Shadow Summoner) has the special ability to use The Cut on people. As gruesome as it sounds, with this power, a Grisha can slice someone into two. The Darkling does not hesitate to use this on his enemies, making him cold-blooded in everyone’s eyes.

However, not to justify an immoral act but reading his heartrending story of betrayal and exploitation, in the prequel, one can fathom his cruelty towards others. Those he trusted tried to harm him when he was just a naïve young boy, compelling him cross the fine line between good and evil and eventually, become a perpetrator. There was no stopping after that. His faith in humanity could not be restored.

Thank you for reading this through!

And thank you @event-horizon and @hive-186627 for hosting this contest!

Tagging @thenerdaffair and @baronstrucker to take part in this contest!

Best regards,
@sanyazulfiqar