i love darklinas so much someone will literally tweet like “what if sasha was a big tree :( and alina was a little tree :( and they were in the same forest :(“ then we all go “omg what if they were trees…”
regular reminder that the depiction of problematic things in fiction is not an endorsement of those things, that the views of a character in a story are not always the views of the author, and that writers should be allowed to write about difficult things without fear of censure.
vacation cowgirl alina whose friends keep joking about her “saving a horse and riding a cowboy” meets professional rancher sasha who is notoriously mean to tourists but likes this one’s boots and—
really, is there any better trope than characters who embody the quote, “you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain"?