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The Grishaverse

Genya Safin is a Tailor for the Queen of Ravka who was tasked with spying on Alina Starkov and poisoning the King.

Biography[]

Tailoring Alina[]

Upon Alina's arrival at the Little Palace, Genya is tasked with making her presentable for the King. Genya reveals that she is a Tailor and the Queen's servant. She can fix, as well as modify. She's almost as rare as Alina. After getting rid of the staff, Genya heals Alina's surface wounds with the exception of a scar on her left hand, which Alina reveals is a reminder of home. Genya then proceeds to do Alina's hair and makeup. Alina inquires about Genya's life prior to the Little Palace. Genya reveals that testers found her when she was 11. That's when General Kirigan gifted her to the Queen. But she's been working on herself since she was three years old.

On their way to meet with Kirigan, Genya tells Alina that the King cares little for mud, blood, or sacrifice. He is expecting to see a humble girl plucked from the ranks of his army and will want to take credit for Alina.[1]

Genya prepares Alina for horseback riding with General Kirigan, during which time, Genya informs Alina that Kirigan sent Zoya away after she attacked Alina during combat training. At the general's behest, Genya gifts Alina a black and gold kefta — the color of the Darkling, however, she decides to wear her ordinary blue kefta when joining him.

Genya joins Alina in her room late one night to remove the scar on Alina's hand at her behest despite initially instructing Genya to leave it.[2]

Winter fete[]

Genya prepares Alina for the winter fete as she tells her about the Queen's insufferable requests. She woke before dawn and demanded that Genya touch up her before the rest of her team arrived. Alina jokingly offers to blind the Queen during her demonstration. Genya chuckles, but admits that she doesn't mind, as it tends to shift the King's gaze in his wife's direction, at least until nightfall. The general insisted on black for the performance, but perhaps after, Alina could return to her blue kefta, Genya proposes. However, Alina prefers black. That being said, Genya warns Alina to be careful of powerful men. David joins them with a pair of gloves to help Alina during her demonstration at the Fete, but Alina insists that she'll perform well enough without them. After David exits, Alina realizes that Genya likes him.

Genya reluctantly takes Alina outside the Palace to see the performers. There, Fedyor approaches with his best impression of Ivan, monetarily scaring the girls before leading them back inside.

After Alina's performance, Genya returns to the fitting room, where Marie, who had been tailored to look like Alina, is attacked by the Conductor. Genya disarms the man of his blade, but he then shoots her before fleeing. Protected by her bulletproof kefta, Genya rushes over to Marie, who with her final breath, asks Genya to put her back, as she doesn't want to die with the wrong face on.[3]

Conspiring with the Darkling[]

Genya, in her new Corporalnik red kefta, reunites with Alina at camp and informs her that the King has fallen ill and the Apparat has been ruling in his stead, while the Queen has been confined to her quarters. Alina recalls Genya mentioning that General Kirigan gifted her to the Queen when she was 11 years old, leaving Alina to suspect that Genya is one of General Kirigan's spies and that she poisoned the King. Genya reminds Alina that she warned her to be careful of powerful men. Genya explains that she didn't have a choice. She was a whipping girl for the Queen and a Grisha without a color. She didn't have the luxury to choose friendship over survival. Genya used to struggle to fight the King off, but it never worked in her favor. So she waited for years to get her revenge. While Alina agrees that the King deserves every bit of Genya's vengeance, she doesn't believe that General Kirigan deserves Genya's loyalty.[4]

Reuniting with the Darkling[]

Genya is among several Grisha who are imprisoned in a cell near the Fold by First Army soldiers. She pleads for mercy, but they offer none, even going as far as laughing at her. Fortunately for Genya, it's not the volcra who emerge from within the Fold, but the Darkling, Kirigan, who is accompanied by two shadow monsters who attack the soldiers at his command. Afterward, Kirigan frees Genya and asks her and the other Grisha to join him.[5]

Genya inquiries if there's been any word of David, which there hasn't, but Kirigan assures her they will continue to search. He then asks Genya to heal the wounds that he sustained from the volcra during his time in the Fold. However, the gashes in his face go so deep that Genya is only able to heal them to a certain extent. Beyond his surface level wounding, the Darkling seems plagued by a cough as a result of creating his nichevo'ya, with Genya assessing that the damage is beyond her capabilities to repair, at which point, the nichevo'ya manifest, frightening Genya, who breaks for the exit, but not before Kirigan mentions that he'll be keeping her close.[6]

Fleeing the Darkling[]

As promised, David is found alive and well. However, having witnessed what Kirigan has become, Genya attempts to warn David to leave before Kirigan sees him, but it's too late, as Kirigan welcomes David back into the fold. Later that evening, Genya plots her escape after learning from David that Kirigan cut off Baghra's finger and that Alina is in East Ravka. Genya wants to warn Alina and tells David to meet her at the ruins. However, she is tracked down by Kirigan, who uses his nichevo'ya to inflict great pain on her.[7]

The Ruined[]

Genya has been left severely disfigured after her encounter with the nichevo'ya. With the wounds being born of merzost, she has no hope of tailoring them and becomes even more discouraged when one of Kirigan's men remark that she's "ruined," though Baghra encourages her to embrace it. Kirigan then instructs for Genya to be taken away and put on display as a warning to anyone else who may cross him. Later, with Kirigan away, Genya and Baghra escape their cells and flee the base, but not before Genya catches her reflection in a silver platter and explodes with frustration and anger due to what's become of her.[8]

Genya and Baghra track Alina and the Grisha who escaped the Spinning Wheel to an underground cave, where Alina not only embraces her, but comes to Genya's defense after Prince Nikolai announces his plan to put Genya on trial for poisoning the King. Alina explains that Genya did what she had to do in order to survive and that the King forced himself on Genya, leading Nikolai to reconsider, as he declares that Genya is safe with them. While attempting to avoid David, Genya runs into the Queen, who orders for Genya's arrest. Rather than turning away, Genya confronts Tatiana, explaining how she put the poison on her body for weeks, so that every time the King kissed her, he took some of it into himself. All he had to do was stop coming into her bed. Hearing the story in full for the first time, Nikolai comes to Genya's defense and apologizes for his family's actions. However, she doesn't want an apology. She simply wants him to be the King who can truly fix all that's wrong with Ravka. Unable to avoid David any longer, she tells him that he can't fix her, to which David replies that she doesn't need fixing and kisses Genya.[9]

Losing David[]

Genya has always been fond of emeralds, she tells David, as it is the gem preferred for the Royal family. But now she deserves better and says that she likes rubies, which David remarks are stronger than emeralds. After they discover that Mal is the third amplifier, which is needed to destroy the Fold, David helps come up with a possible solution so that Alina doesn't have to kill him. However, they are interrupted by the Darkling's nichevo'ya. Genya and David get separated from the others, and eventually from each other after David guides Genya into a dumbwaiter and sacrifices himself so that she may escape.[10]

After Alina successfully destroys the Fold and kills the Darkling, Genya goes searching for David. She returns to the kitchen with Adrik, where she finds blood splattered on the wall. She tries to find his heart beat but is unable to. And so Genya heads back to her room, where she finds a ruby in David's coat pocket and his plans to embed it in a ring, causing Genya to sob uncontrollably, though she briefly takes a break from mourning to join Alina in burning Kirigan's body. Afterward, on the day of Nikolai's coronation, Alina announces her plan to have Genya oversea things at the palace, which will now act as a safe haven.[11]

Personality and traits[]

Given her ability to Tailor, naturally Genya pays close attention to details, and is enthralled with beauty and perfecting any insignificant blemish within her own appearance.

Genya is capable of reading people and understands how social structure in her environment works. She is extremely loyal to Kirigan, and is willing to go along with his plans.

Physical description[]

Genya has long, fiery auburn hair, pale blue, almost gray, eyes and nearly perfect skin from years of tailoring herself.

Powers and abilities[]

Genya is an exceptionally skilled Tailor. She discovered her powers when she was merely three years old and states that she has been working on herself ever since. She erased several minor cuts from Alina's face and body by simply running her thumb over them, and later even removed a scar on Alina's palm that was nearly ten years old. She has a small jewelry box full of stones, dried flowers, and other objects that she can use to replicate certain colors and finishes while tailoring others, such as when she used the iridescent blue shell of a dried beetle to create and place the same color on Alina's eyelids, or when she used a small rosebud to darken the color of Alina's lips. Genya was also shown to undo her work by also running her thumb over the changes she had made. According to Genya, these changes only last a few days without continued maintenance unless she herself reverses the effects.

The most remarkable use of her powers was when she completely changed Marie's face so that she looked exactly like Alina to aid in her role as a decoy during the winter fete. When Marie was dying after an attack by the Conductor, Genya was able to undo the illusion by waving a hand over her face.

Relationships[]

David Kostyk[]

Much like in the Shadow and Bone Trilogy, Genya has an inexplicable crush on David, who barely ever seems to even notice her or anyone outside of his own studies.

Appearances[]

Season 1[]

Season 2[]

Trivia[]

  • Originally In the book Genya actually lost her left eye, while in the TV version she loses right eye.
  • Genya and David got married in the books but they never did in the television series.

Gallery[]

See more here

References[]

  1. Season 1, Episode 3: The Making at the Heart of the World
  2. Season 1, Episode 4: Otkazat'sya
  3. Season 1, Episode 5: Show Me Who You Are
  4. Season 1, Episode 7: The Unsea
  5. Season 2, Episode 1: No Shelter but Me
  6. Season 2, Episode 2: Rusalye
  7. Season 2, Episode 3: Like Calls to Like
  8. Season 2, Episode 4: Every Monstrous Thing
  9. Season 2, Episode 5: Yuyeh Sesh (Despise Your Heart)
  10. Season 2, Episode 7: Meet You in the Meadow
  11. Season 2, Episode 8: No Funerals
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