Two seasons of actual genocide aren’t enough to stop ‘Shadow and Bone’ fans from thirsting over the Darkling

It may be a tad overstuffed, but fans are finding plenty to enjoy in season two of Netflix’s Shadow and Bone.

The dramatic second venture into Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse worked to smash a huge number of plot points together, and it’s safe to say that — if nothing else — season two certainly wasn’t slow. The show plowed its way through the hunt for new amplifiers, a complicated, distant heist, and a burgeoning war, all in eight hour-long episodes.

Through it all, a surprising sect of the fandom remained firm in their love for the show’s villain. General Kirigan, also known as the Darkling, is undeniably attractive, but you’d think the manipulation, torture, and straight-up murder might be enough to turn most viewers from his dedicated fan club.

Instead, season two only seems to have deepened everyone’s love for the Darkling more. As viewers got a fresh glimpse at the newly-scarred Kirigan, Darkling thirst rose anew, and people simply looked past several instances of mass murder, and a deep desire to commit genocide, and instead focused on that furious, centuries-old smolder.

Within hours of season two’s arrival on Netflix, unabashed fans were drenching the web with fresh Kirigan lust. None of them are forgetting his crimes from the first season — in which he expanded the fold, and likely killed thousands — but they’re fully prepared to defend him with their dying breath.

As one fan accurately pointed out, “pretty privilege” is clearly alive and well, and Ben Barnes’ Kirigan is a clear example.

There are even those ready and willing to defend the Grishaverse’s overarching villain as “tragic,” even as he spends season two torturing former allies — and his own mother — and slaughtering the very people he vowed to protect.

It is the continued “darklina” shippers that take on the most criminal stance, however, as they continue to urge Alina into the arms of a man who was fully prepared to keep her as an unwilling prisoner, locked away until she made the choice to love him. The fact that this could have taken years — decades, even — isn’t enough to sway some twisted viewers.

Thankfully, Alina is stronger than the drooling masses, many of whom seem to need little more than a pretty face to forgive actual genocide. She’s fully turned her back on her former mentor, and — should Shadow and Bone return for a third season — might even have what it takes to put him down permanently.