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stromuprisahat · 4 months

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Remind me again, why is ~he~ here?!

Siege and Storm- Chapter 9

It's not a team effort, Malyen. Army won't judge you as a couple.

Macho lowly otkazat'sya doesn't get to strike (again).

Please do!

This would work as much more powerful statement, if Mal were genuinely concerned for Alina's well-being and her OWN choice, instead of being pissed he's the one, who called dibs on her.

*whispers* That's exactly what's he gonna do...

For allowing you to keep breathing?!

Yeah, me too...

There's nothing more pathetic than an insecure man shouting.

Perhaps maybe insecure man deciding for "their" woman.

A minute of silence for an alternative universe, where Nikolai isn't so unreasonably accommodating, and has actual guards stationed at door, so they rush in after hearing shouting. They see a deserter attacking their Tsarevich, so they step in...

Is acting like a mindless animal supposed to make him look attractive?!

HoW DaRe You fLiRt WiTh My aCcEsSoRy?!

Because seriously- what's his problem here?!

Really?!

That's what's bothering you, Alina?!

I know Alina has some serious issues regarding self-worth, but I'd be more concerned about him acting as if she were his property, and anyone even suggesting she might have different role in the world deserves to be beaten by fists (because control is overrated and true men make a pub brawl out of anything)...

You're supposed to sit by hearth and warm my soup!

Sorry Malaria, but Alina IS THE Sun Summoner, want it or not. You can't just keep ignoring it and hoping she'll just slip into your shadow AGAIN. ... wait... *war flashbacks from Cofton* At least not as long as there are people capable of finding her and dragging her back into the story.

How can you be so SELFISH, Alina?! What about his soup?!

Just when the heroine moves to assume at least ~some~ responsibility (although for different reasons than you'd expect), she's promptly shamed for not thinking about Maaal for one (1) second... I love how he uses position of honour as an insult, because he's the one with full ownership of a public figure.

I know I'm apparently too demanding, but shouldn't he be overjoyed he didn't get shot on the spot yet? And no one seems too concerned about his desertion...

But hey- gf not discussing her decision to stop hiding from expectations placed upon her is obviously the more pressing matter.

Y'no. if his objection was that she completely forgot to negotiate change of his status in First Army with Nikolai (DESER*gunshot*), I'd cheer and fully support him, but his position in her love life and bedroom is apparently more pressing matter.

Also a huge fan of body language here.

What could crossed arms mean in body language? Rude, angry and insecure?! Sounds about right...

Ordinary deserter ORDERS a Prince and Major of the very same Army he fled...?

Yeah, Alina!

Mal wants his sickly housewife back!

Y'no, I wanted to note how quickly Malyen changed his mind about coming back, but then I re-read the end of previous book to be sure, and it's always been Alina. He wanted to get out, get rid of her amplifier and live his happy life in obscurity consequences be damned:

Shadow and Bone- After

His girl refuses to get rid of all of the stuff that makes her different, so he just has to settle for her fancy clothes...

Wow!

Supportive boyfriend here!

But hey- admitting she IS strong would mean giving up his dreams of watching her trudging after him.

He doesn't even have any idea what the Darkling can or cannot do! It's not some sort of professional opinion!

This one's kinda funny in a way- Alina had very similar thought about him and volcra a chapter earlier...

Siege and Storm- Chapter 8

... ashamed ... given up EVERYTHING to be WITH ME ... Don't tell me, Malyen's so blind he never notices what his (rather pointed) remarks do to Alina?!

I thought we both wanted to help Ravka.

No, Alina. He never did. We've been both wrong. He cares only about himself and his ownership of a small, inconsequential you.

This could offer an interesting view into a mind of a soldier so alienated from his country that offers him zero promises for the future, he cares for nothing... if he weren't such an inconsiderate dick to Alina...

Love this aspect of their relationship! SO empowering!

Like... He'd need to be extremely dull, if I wanted to interpret this as anything but clear fucking MANIPULATION. This is psychological blackmailing 101!

And he's supposed to be the supportive boyfriend SOMEHOW...

#Grishaverse #Siege and Storm #S&S Chapter 9 #grishanalyticritical #Malyen Oretsev #Alina Starkov #Zlatá Malina #Nikolai Lantsov #S&B After #S&S Chapter 8 #V #Grisha trilogy #books #quotes #Leigh Bardugo #anti Mal #anti Malina #anti Leigh Bardugo

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edanfig · 1 year

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I will be the first to say that the Grishaverse has its flaws. There are many problems with it but my main criticism is with the fandom. Especially the ones on booktok/bookstagram that always are like “my least favorites trope is when the fem!mc loses her powers in the end” and I look in the comments and see people saying “Omg like Alina”.

It doesn’t make any sense to me, I feel like I’ve seen that trope in less than 5 books, but maybe I’m wrong. However, Alina losing her power totally makes sense in the book. She doesn’t even want the power, her whole thought process is “means justify the end”. She says multiple times after the first few chapters in the Little Palace that she doesn’t like being a Grisha. It wasn’t healthy for her and she wasn’t thriving; hell, the people there didn’t even like her. Alina gathered all the power from the amplifiers to take down the Darkling, and it was said multiple times by her mentors that the power she was gaining was unnatural.

Her gathering of the amplifiers was breaking the natural order of things and creating rifts that we later see in KoS/RoW. Alina’s powers wiping themselves out after she strained herself and fixing the problem that was breaking the natural order makes so much sense. Her powers getting rid of themselves was restoring the world to what it was supposed to be.

Also people act like Alina was upset that she lost her power, and while I think she mourned the power she’d gained in that time, she wasn’t too sad. She enjoyed it because she could live a peaceful life with Mal, doing what she wanted, free from the constraints and stress from politics and dealing with life and death.

Certain people were just completely making things up about how Alina was feeling, forgetting she was a child who liked the idea of being a Grisha. After she got a taste of what it was like, and the stress (mental and physical) that came with it, she hated it. She hated when she became a saint because people were treating her like a thing not a person. Alina did everything she did to do what was right and when she was done went to the peaceful life she craved with Mal. And for some reason people interpret this as “Leigh didn’t want Alina to be happy” when you can clearly see she’s happier living a quiet life.

#shadow and bone #sab #alina starkov #sankta alina #media literacy where #mal oretsev #shadow and bone books #siege and storm #ruin and rising #sab spoilers

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the-massive-simp · 11 months

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In the right place - Nikolai Lantsov x reader

IT TOOK ME AGES TO WRITE THIS HELP btw this is my first long(ish) fic so it wont be the best but i tried really hard for nik<3<3

remember that english is not my first language, sorry for any errors! (feel free to point them out in the comments, i'll correct them)

REMEMBER TO DRINK WATER AND EAT SOMETHING TODAY OR I'LL COME TO YOUR HOUSE WITH MY AGGRESSIVE PARROT luv ya<3

warnings: Nikolai is stupid, kind of angst(?) but not really (happy ending), nik drinks like two glasses of kvas but he doesn't get drunk

Maybe this is not where I’m supposed to be. She thought, looking at the stars. It was night, at the Grand Palace, and she’d been sitting at the window for what felt like hours. But her mind, her stupid, stubborn mind, was miles away from that room.

The first time they met, he was not himself. He was Sturmhond, the self-proclaimed ”sexiest privateer of all the True Sea”, and he offered her a place in his crew. At that time his name was not as famous, but the rumors about him were starting to grow. When she heard his name slip from the mouth of a Shu girl walking through the harbour with a boy who seemed her brother, she followed the two. She wanted to leave that city, so might at well get a nice job that would make her travel the world. -Wait!- the two Shu turned around and looked at her. Shortly after she was in the Captain’s cabin, and then in his crew. As she passed more and more time with the privateer, she found her heart beat quicker every time he said one of his stupid flirty jokes to her, every time she saw him shout orders to the crew to lead them through yet another storm, every time his strange reddish hair were ruffled by the wind sea, every time she looked into his odd eyes. She always wondered what love felt like. She was in love with Love, but was what she felt really that? Was it just a stupid crush? Or maybe he really was that anchor she was searching for, that something to rely on when she had a bad day, that someone to hold closer as the night came. So the hopeful girl looked with heart eyes at the young captain, and the young captain looked at the waves.

When Alina and Mal came, she was scared. She saw the way her captain looked at the Saint. Oh it was so unfair to call him hers, so selfish, she knew that. But her heart thought otherwise. And before she knew it, her captain was not her captain anymore. When they crashed on the ground of Ravka and he revealed his true identity, she was pretty shocked. The twins left some clues for her to pick up about Sturmhond not being his real name, but she didn’t know his real one. She looked at his ginger hair becoming lighter, his eyes now fading until they became hazel, like sugary honey. She saw power and authority rushing to him, to his undeniably regal features, that overall recalled the one she learned to love. She tried his name in her mouth. Nikolai Lantsov. Nikolai. Was her privateer still there? The astonished girl looked at the young prince, and he glanced at her.

During the war she discovered that Nikolai wasn’t different from Sturmhond, but she somehow saw him in a different way. Maybe it was that he kept changing masks to fit in his place as the prince, or maybe it was the fact that now she knew that she couldn’t have him. He was meant to marry a princess or a rich and noble girl or maybe a certain Sun Summoner. But Saints, her heart couldn’t care less, he wanted to be torn apart by those golden locks, by those hazel eyes, by that cocky grin, by that amazing man that Nikolai Lantsov was. She watched him become closer and closer to Alina, and she knew that if she really loved him she was supposed to be happy: after all, what is love if not caring for the happiness of that certain someone that makes us see the world ten times brighter? When she heard that the Sun Summoner had the Lantsov Emerald, she felt her heart tighten. So, the sad girl looked at the happy prince, and he forced himself to not look at her.

Then that day came. The day when the Darkling found the Spinning Wheel. She ran towards the screams just in time to see her captain, her king, her Nikolai inhaling two shadows. She rushed to him, as he tore off his shirt, to reveal the dark lines that were spreading under his skin. She took his hands and looked at his terrified face, drowning in his hazel eyes, two deep golden-brown wells. He threw his head back and screamed when two black wings erupted on his back. They looked at eachother one last time and then he flew away.

And now that the war was over, he didn’t talk to her. Saints, he didn’t even acknowledge her existence! Every time she was in his presence, even if it was just for a public speech of his, she hoped, prayed, that he would lay his eyes on her and notice her. Oh, how stupid of her to fall for Sturmhond, for him, for his golden locks, for his hazel eyes, for his charming personality, for his stupid grin, for his beautiful laugh. She thought that maybe, somewhere in the now king’s hearth there was some space for her, but she was obviously wrong. This and other thoughts of the same kind ran through her head, keeping her awake. Until a knock on the door interrupted the frantic activity of her mind. When she opened the door, her eyes met the last face she expected.

-Nikolai?-

-I need to talk to you.-

When he first met her, he’d never thought that he would stay awake so late thinking about her. A hundred times the urge to get up and go to her room came to him, and a hundred times he pushed it away. Maybe, if he fell for her back when he was Sturmhond, they could have a chance. But now? He had been avoiding her since the last battle in the Fold, because he had his duties as a king to keep him from marrying whoever he wanted. But she’s a war hero! People would love her as a queen. There was this voice in the back of his mind, constantly breaking down every single objection he tried to make. You can’t let her go this way. Saints, he had never wished so bad to be an ordinary person. In another life, they’d have met at one of their village’s festivals, and they would have danced all night. No weight of a nation on their backs, no pressure at all, just two ordinary people living an ordinary life, full of ordinary things… if love can ever be called that. He stretched an arm to reach the bottle of kvas that was in the corner of the desk and poured himself a glass. He slided the chair back slightly and downed all the liquid in one sip. He reached for the bottle again,but the urge to see her came back, stronger than ever before. It crashed against his rationality and destroyed it, like a wave destroying the sandcastles built by little children. He got up and left his chambers, telling his guards to not follow him. He walked to her chamber, but it wasn’t enough. He tried to keep his composure, and forced himself to not run through the hallways, up and down the stairs of the Big Palace. He stopped when he faced her door. He raised a hand to knock and waited. After a moment she opened the door: she looked surprised to see him, and she had all the rights to be. After all, he’d been avoiding her for almost a month. When he said that he needed to talk to her, her expression hardened.

-You haven’t talked to me, apparently without a reason, for a while. What makes my presence…- she was trying to be mad, but then he interrupted her, and spoke.

-I’m sorry. For ignoring you. And for everything else.- The irritation that crinkled her features shifted towards curiosity.

-What do you mean with “everything else”?-

-Can I come in?- she pondered the question for a moment and then stepped aside to let him in. She followed him and then closed the door. He took a deep breath in and runned an hand through his hair.

-So, what did you mean?-

-I meant all the time I made you waste. We should had this conversation long ago, and I’m sorry for making you wait-

-Nikolai I accept your excuses, but don’t you dare to ignore me for a month again- she smiled at him.

-I wasn’t talking about that. At least, not only that.-

-You’re confusing me.-

-People often feel that way when they see me, no need to worry.-

-Nikolai.-

He huffed and then he tried to speak again, but she preceded him.

-I think I’m actually the one that has something important to say.-

-Well then ladies first.-

-Since we.. uhm I mean I- oh fuck it she tought. -I have feelings for you. That kind of feelings. Since we met. At the start it was just a crush but I fear that it might have evolved into something more. I know that you probably don’t feel the same but I thought that it was fair to let you know. You don’t have to worry about my professionality, this doesn’t affect my work and- he interrupted her by walking to the windowsill, where she was sitting, and taking her hands in his.

-Well, usually I have a talent for excelling, but this time you beat me on time- she was surprised, almost shocked.

-Wait do you mean that-

-Yes, I, the amazing and damnably handsome Nikolai Lantsov, have feelings for you. That kind of feelings-

She hugged him, and he hugged her back. They held each other so hard it almost hurt, but they didn’t care. Her feet almost didn’t touch the pavement, but he had her back. She put her hands on his cheeks and whispered against his lips before kissing him: -I’ve waited so long for this-

The kiss was sweet and chaste. It felt like two pieces of the same puzzle finally finding their place next to each other. It felt like steel finding flint. Nikolai hoped, prayed that the spark would never expire. He wanted to know every inch of her mind and her body. He wanted to see her in a beautiful dress, in the chapel where the royal weddings were celebrated. He wanted to wake up next to her for the rest of his life. And she wanted him the same way. She wanted to lay on his chest and feel his heartbeat. She wanted to hear him calling her love, darling, this time not in one of his jokes. She wanted to place her lips on his every night before going to sleep. That night, they slept in the same bed, holding close the person they loved the most. And it was exactly where they were supposed to be.

#nikolai lantsov x reader #nikolai lantsov #sturmhond #sturmhond x reader #shadow and bone #sab #sab netflix #nikolai lantsov fluff #king of scars #nikolai x reader #king nikolai #nikolai lantsov x reader fluff

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aceinejghafa · 1 year

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just finished a binge watch of shadow & bone season 2... have some thoughts!

(many many spoilers for every single episode, so I'm putting this under the cut)

generally: absolutely amazing. The incorporation of the crows & the relationships within the crows (cough WESPER WESPER WESPER cough) are especially well done.

however. I gotta say I'm mad about what happens to Alina. So much of the books is about how Alina doesn't want to be the one to fix Ravka—she doesn't want to be queen, she's only doing it because it needs to be done. look at this quote:

“They wanted a Grisha queen. Mal wanted a commoner queen. And what did I want? Peace for Ravka. A chance to sleep easy in my bed without fear. An end to the guilt and dread that I woke to every morning. There were old wants too, to be loved for who I was, not what I could do, to lie in a meadow with a boy’s arms around me and watch the wind move the clouds.”

She wants peace for Ravka, she doesn't want to spend her life ruling the country. That is so much of the point of Shadow and Bone — the happy ending isn't marrying a king and fixing the country; it's an ordinary life, full of ordinary things—if love can ever be called that. (interesting that nikolai was brought into that quote in the show. love that he's a hardcore malina shipper. actually I think I might like nikolai more in the show than in the books, which is saying something).

but ANYWAY the show just. destroyed alina's whole arc there. throughout the show, she's all "I need to fix Ravka" and she seems to want that responsibility, rather than just wanting it to actually get done.

and then the ending. using merzost to resurrect Mal. not losing her Sun Summoner powers (unless you count possibly trading them for Darkling powers, which I don't). MARRYING NIKOLAI. Mal becoming Sturmhond 2.0 is fun & all, and the show did lead up to it pretty well, but it's just not what book!Mal would have wanted. STOP HAVING A CRISIS OF PURPOSE AND LIVE AN ORDINARY LIFE FULL OF ORDINARY THINGS—

so yeah I might be mildly irritated by some parts of the show there

that being said—Nikolai is SO well done

I think I might've mentioned this earlier, but show Nikolai might just be better than book Nikolai (Nikolai in TGT, at least)

like... the whole love triangle situation was significantly better? Nikolai and Mal didn't hate each other—they actually had a pretty great friendship (and I'm guessing people are going to start shipping Nikolai/Mal/Alina a lot more sometime soon)? Nikolai didn't basically assault Alina? I'm actually really impressed since usually a show would Up The Drama, and this one didn't <3

Nikolai giving Alina the compass, which is associated with Mal's whole true north thing... and then Mal getting the compass in the end... actually pretty cool

the quote about hope being the wind in the sails! "when people say impossible, they usually mean improbable"! yes yes YES !!!

zoyalai hints <3 tbh I was hoping for more than that but I am obsessed with what I got <3

also! dominik being alive at the start! so we get to meet him! and get bits of backstory!

and then he died which. I was expecting. but also :(((((((((

speaking of dying.

DAVID AND GENYA OH MY GODS

kinda disappointed that they skipped the "I'm not ruined. I'm ruination" quote

but on the other hand! the I know metal speech! that was AMAZING <333333333 they are so soft

and then they. kill david off. and i CRY

THAT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN UNTIL ROW

so yeah upset about that but not really mad... denya is definitely one of the best ships in the show...

and then!!! the crows!!! the crows!!! the crows!!!

SO MUCH WESPER CONTENT. we are BLESSED guys. Jesper & Wylan having a one-night stand pre-canon??? then getting to know each other??? and having a more serious relationship??? amazing showstopping top-tier content

a bit worried about whatever happens in the soc spinoff when jesper finds out that wylan is a van eck—could be kinda painful

also I'm hoping they entirely skip jesper kissing kuwei, never really liked that bit in the books

"I kinda like your face" <<<< "maybe I liked your stupid face" but admittedly it's hard to do the book quote when you don't have the Kuwei tailoring plot

Wylan saving the day by knowing cool botanical facts <3 I love him so much guys

actually the whole thing with Sankta Neyar is fantastic? like WOW I was expecting to dislike any non-books content but I did NOT that thing was GREAT (and showed that there's a future for superpowerful Grisha that is not becoming the Darkling, which is excellent because it's TRUE).

Inej & Mal & Tolya & Tamar going off to hunt slavers together—some mixed feelings about that. I have faith that Inej & Kaz will meet up again in future seasons, but idk?

kinda weird how all those CK plot elements showed up... Kaz beats Pekka and makes him beg, but then Pekka just starts running Hellgate from inside? no real consequences? unsuccessful revenge? and all the plot from CK (fake plague, Alby) is used up already

so yeah that was annoying

but also the scene where Inej asks Kaz what he wants... and you can SEE the words You, Inej. You running through his head... and then he says "to die buried under a mountain of my own gold"... every time they quote the books I go FERAL and this is no exception

so basically I'm worried about what they'll do with the crows in possible later spinoffs/seasons but also I absolutely adore all the content they gave us <3

fun fact: I watched the whole show on 1.5x speed because I only had 5 and a half hours. I used subtitles so I could always understand what they were saying, the only weird thing was any shot of anyone walking ever. still worth it so that I could watch everything, though <3

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twisted-tales-told · 1 year

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Shadow and Bone books spoilers im fucking serious so many spoilers

I have seen too many people slandering Alina’s ending in the Shadow and Bone books because she “looses her powers” on this day and it makes me want to scream.

Bby it’s a METAPHOR. She loses a huge part of herself because she survived a WAR. She will never recover from that. She has to grapple with how using Merzost affected her. How she LOST something because of it.

It also tells me you did not finish the king of scars duology because Alina’s arc in those is truly touching. Because she lost her powers she was given space, and time to heal. It’s such a bittersweet feeling because yeah, it fucking sucks. But she always intended to live a simple life, and she wants to be safe. That’s what losing her powers has brought her.

“But it’s framed as a happy ending and—“ no. It’s not a happy ending! Alina and Mal are not living their best life and what about their ending made you think it was supposed to be happy??

What they do find is a meaningful way of existing. Caring for the lost children they once were. Like I cannot express how powerful their ending is when you view it critically instead of watering it down into the idea that “woman loses her power that’s bad rep.”

I’m sorry Harry Potters “all is well” made you think you can just Get Better from war trauma but it’s time to let that go and appreciate the nuance of Alinas character and how her ending truly is best suited to her as a character. Not as a “woman” or a “hero” but as someone who before this was just a map maker. She’s human. She never asked to be a saint.

Also Merzost was literally driving her insane. Did you forget that part??? Her losing her power was breaking the cycle the darkling started! It was saying let there be peace and let the world be as natural as it once was. Let this fight be over at last.

#shadow and bone spoilers

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belle-keys · 1 year

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my thoughts on shadow & bone season 2

okay, i finished late last night and had a blast watching this. we'll see if it gets canceled or not (it might). but oh my god i had so much fun even though i was like hmm at some things. here's some of my thoughts and impressions in case you would like to feel #seen.

don't @ me about dark!alina. i like it. i love it. i've always wanted a corrupt alina. i've been a darklina shipper for a hot minute and while that wouldn't have made sense to do in the show, a dark!alina does make sense and it deepens her character imo. the use of the merzost had major consequences for her and i love that. aleksander and baghra did warn her, and she didn't listen. and now we get payoff. this is how you write powerful characters!!!

paddy gibson was a great nikolai like come @ me and i will defend this man. alina’s interactions with him, tolya, and tamar were awesome like it felt very natural.

the spirit of cillian murphy possessed my man freddy carter in episode 4 like idk mans was giving me the kaz i had expected from season 1 ong he was not playing in that pekka rollins scene, like he stole so much of the show for me i loved it and i just got chills seeing the kaz we know and tolerate clearly living deep down under freddy's skin.

matthias spent the whole season in jail to simply remain in jail for the whole season and not end the season out of jail despite spending a whole season in jail despite jail being all he did for the season despite-

when aleksander was choking alina and telling her how much he wanted to destroy her and had her pressed up against that table and was muttering evil nothings into her ear? i felt that.

ben was excellent as well in this season as we expected, but as i previously noted, this entire season was identical in both fundamental and superficial ways to billy russo’s season 2 in the punisher like i can’t make this shit up. as soon as daddie darkie opened his mouth to speak, i immediately knew via osmosis what the speech’s delivery would sound like. it's just hilarious i'm sorry i'm not mad but it's just so unserious.

when zoya said "that one's a mess. i can fix him"??? i felt that shit so hard like meee finally a female character to represent meee

we did not need reminders that tolya loves poems 100 times we get it like cmon do more with your side characters if you're gonna make them quip every two seconds.

i will not lie, i’m so happy with how they incorporated the crows into the main story like it really felt like a fun epic fantasy series with different levels you gotta beat until you fight the boss (daddy darkie), like there’s so many interwoven plots and arcs and every time a scene switched i’d be like the leondardo dicaprio pointing at his tv meme i got chills watching everything come together the way it did, i think they really succeeded in making you (me) ooh and ahh this season.

the fight scenes gave me chills like the grisha powers being brought to life like that? slayed. the musical score and the special effects and the cinematography? popped off. the crows bringing guns to a grisha fight? never before seen. inej slicing up daddy darkie monsters? extraordinary. shit had me breaking out in chills.

i think besides kaz's face-off with pekka rollins in ep4, aleksander's death scene and his death monologue was the high point of the season for me. the whole "you need my darkness to balance your light thing"? the whole "let me be your monster so you don't have to" thing? literally took my breath away. he encapsulated every thing i loved about the darkling's character so well and his relationship with alina. he did warn her that she needed him for balance within herself and she just couldn't accept that. now she'll get what he was on to the whole time. it's amazing. it shows the darkling isn't just a character in alina's life.

i feel like splitting mal and alina up at the end wasn't... right? idk, the whole point of malina was supposed to be childhood friends-to-lovers-to-soulmates and her making this huge sacrifice for mal and then have him go away while she stays to... rule ravka??? that fell flat for me as an ending like what was the reason for that change cus i have no idea??? it makes sense from an irl perspective but idk what the showrunners were going for with that.

jessie mei li cannot act. i am not some tv and film expert. but this girl just cannot act. i dare you to change my mind.

oh I absolutely hate how they changed wylan and jesper's relationship. idk what was the reason for the whole "we once hooked up and forgot about each other" thing like WHAT WAS THAT HOW DID THEY MISS THE PLOT OF THE MOVIE SO BADLY IDC I CAN'T VIBE WITH IT NO-

i'm sorry on-screen kanej is still just as dry as book kanej for me like i felt nothing at all during their interactions this season, even the hallucination ones. as individuals they're great, but they made me feel absolutely nothing. not a single tingle.

if i had to cut something from the show, i'd probably either cut matthias' entire presence since he did nothing this season, or, i would cut genya and david's relationship because i do not and never did care about that pairing (or either of them as individuals tbh)

alina doing the darkling's shadow cut at the end??? i was cackling in joy like a maniac. yeah. that was a moment in time.

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sophiemars · 1 year

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Absolutely HATE the way season 2 ended

Every single good thing about the books was completely destroyed or dismissed, and for what? A possibly cancelled season 3?

Kanej did not get the representation and nuance it deserved or required, and their story out of order makes no sense, it doesn't weight the same. He gives her a boat and gets her family and fights for her and tells her so much more

Genya and David were supposed to have so much more time together... they get married and rule together for some time and they are HAPPY, actually happy for some time

Alina and Mal's sacrifice was completely overlooked and pointless. They are supposed to loose their powers (and thus being free from their burden), Alina's summoning is passed on to hundreds of soldiers, and they get to be happy together, go back to Karamzin and live an ordinary life full of ordinary things... Not whatever the fuck happened there

Oh Helnik? No, absolutely not

It was all so bad, I can't believe Leigh had a hand in the show... or the books

I can't be the only one who was disappointed for Saints Sake

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone spoilers #sab #sab spoilers #malina #kanej #helnik #mal oretsev #alina starkov #inej ghafa #kaz brekker #nina zenik #matthias helvar #david kostyk #genya safin #six of crows

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oretsev · 1 year

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hi helloo, i'd just written a novel in ur askbox about s&b and then tumblr crashed and it was all lost :') maybe for the better because it was a total mess of thoughts lmao so let me try to summarise my feelings a bit (im sorry this turned out REALLY long)

i HATE that they speedran s&s and r&r in the most bullshit way possible. the entire amplifier hunt was basically removed, at least journey-wise - they just. find the sea whip in that one cave and then they go to morozova's workshop and thats it?? wheres the shu han quest. where the fuck is the ACTUAL spinning wheel. and why is alina not hounding everyone to find the firebird??? she's supposed to be obsessively seeking it now, why does she barely seem to care? also where's the actual ending to siege and storm. WHERE is my darkling & alina fight. wheres her being saved by mal... where's her white hair !!!! idk that scene was my favourite and once i knew we were getting a tv show i really wanted to see this on screen :((

all the characters and relationships they cut... harshaw, misha, ONCAT, tamar&nadia (because lbr they basically weren't there), honestly i even missed sergei and stigg (who i'd barely even remembered before), nadia and adrik as siblings even. they just cut all these people and their journeys with alina for what, a fetch quest for a magic sword?

also, where's the apparat and the soldat sol? we hear people call alina 'sankta', sure, but the entire religious part of ruin and rising is just. completely sidelined. which is really weird because it's so important!! tolya and tamar's faith is basically nonexistent and i don't like it at all

the whole firebird reveal was soooo boring. like i'm sorry but that scene in the book? absolutely perfect. but in the show... it's just a story! baghra just tells mal and thats it! honestly this entire season was so much telling and not showing too, soooo much exposition and it just really didnt work

now then. ive put this off long enough but. the fucking ending. dude... i don't even know where to begin. how do you fuck up the rewrite of your book so badly that the entire moral of your book is just. completely lost?? literally the entire trilogy is built on the "what is infinite? the universe and the greed of men" quote. you CANNOT disregard that in this way. the point of the entire story is that alina's greed is punished! she loses her powers and she loses mal (sort of). the fold is destroyed by her power but not by her, because she never should have had that much power! now... she loses nothing. she has her power, she has three amplifiers, she brought mal back with merzost (which is still. insane to me like i legit laughed out loud when that happened) and now she's general of the second army and also soon probably queen of ravka??? she doesnt lose ANYTHING to her greed.

and with the ending too... where the hell are they going to take this next? because theyre sure as hell not following the kos duology storyline, what with alina now being nikolai's general instead of zoya (which im also. really pissed off about because zoya's story is SO important and theyve just. shoved her to the side)

i also have some thoughts about the crows and how theyve been handled of course i just don't feel as passionately about them (also because they shouldnt have been in this show in the first place but thats just my opinion <3) but i do wonder how theyre gonna start the soc spinoff when theyve basically done so much of the crooked kingdom plot already? and inej is literally already sailing and finding slavers like... i have no idea how theyre going to dothis spinoff and make everyone happy

very small last points but im so mad that they did the "an ordinary life full of ordinary things" line and then decided to. include nikolai? what the actual fuck? and then they didnt even GIVE malina their ordinary life... sorry im so so angry about this ending

i'm sure ive got more to say but this is already wayy too long and i don't wanna bother u anymore but ive just been mad for 3 days straight and really needed to get this off my chest <3 im really disappointed that theyve managed to screw up my favourite book series of all time so i'm just going to reread r&r and forget this season exists :D hope u have a nice day and thank u for reading this dump slfksdj

RIP but ty for venting!!! i totally get everything you’re saying. all of this comes down to the writers smashing basically all of the books into one season for NO reason. all of the things that make the trilogy & duology interesting & compelling & complex are gone bc there’s no time to show them. it’s constantly going GO GO GO with the plot, & for what?? nothing got added to these characters this season, i didn’t feel any impact during any of the big reveals, i didn’t get any emotional payoff from these characters’ journeys.

& why change the ending the way they do? eric’s already said that a season 3 would go back & touch on s&s things they didn’t address. so this ending is meant to draw out alina & mal’s stories, but why do it this way? why backtrack like that? you could certainly draw out the trilogy without speed-running the original ending like this, but that doesn’t fit whatever weird narrative he has for the crows ig.

#i’m tired!!!! let these characters breathe!!#he’s so determined to just tell his silly crows story that he flattened literally every character including them #answers #shadow and bone #genjasafin

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arillusionist · 7 months

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shadow and bone s2e1 reaction - i said i would watch this episode on sunday but i lied. haha

they should've put 6 crows in the sky are they dumb

kaz gave them papers?? when?? he probably did it offscreen i swear i didnt forget the last episode that quickly

ok oh my god by the way. they better have fixed malina in this season too because i'm halfway through siege and storm and i literally want to kill mal hes so fucking annoying and literally SO toxic. i miss the soc relationships they were all so well written

fuck this after i finish the s&b triology im rereading soc

ooh nice map

YAYY WE'RE IN KETTERDAM i hope they have more episodes here this season. aka more than 2

i have a feeling this is where they meet wylan... or nina maybe

"are you saying we have no home" ?? what about the slat

KAZ'S BACKSTORY??

thats how you pronounce inej's last name?? my whole life is a lie wtf

"she does that" aw he sounds so proud

stop this is like that one scene from soc except if he faints inej's voice wont be there to ground him when he wakes up ☹️

omg thats nikolai/sturmhond right

PLEASE KAZ'S SIDE EYE WHEN HE LOOKS AT JESPER

take your damn shoes off

ok they better tell him where shes going because while theyre on the verge of going to prison shes just making out with her boyfriend

i love alina but am i supposed to feel bad for her?? bc i dont

yayy he told him but good thing inej isnt here

Kaz side eye 2.0

theyre revealing the jesper grisha thing already...? interesting

omg novyi zem looks exactly like how i imagined it "these fugitives are wanted for crimes against our country" this isnt your country dawg

i can already tell theyre toyla and tamar

is this ketterdam again is that inej

so they kill heleen ofscreen. and inej has literally no reaction to it.

I am so confused rn didnt kaz buy inej's indenture??

WAIT NO I GET IT STOP IM SO DUMB

"im not leaving you. not now" ☹️☹️☹️☹️

HEARTRENDER NINA PLEASEEEEE 🙏🙏🙏

tf is he waffling about

talking about pekka btw

if theyre doing the whole pekka plot now what did they leave for the spinoff?? ik its probably not happening but they thought it was gonna happen and they wrote the scripts but what even are in those scripts

then again i think they only wrote the scripts for the first book

but what were they planning on putting in it for the second book if they got it 💀

WYLANNNNNN!!!!!

so he already had wylan employed (??) or whatever interesting

NINAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

"funny guns and angry hat" speaking of hats can kaz please stop wearing one it looks so fucking ugly

aww nina talking to inej in suli

MATTHIAS!!!

all the crows in one episode this is crazy

and they've been onscreen for 9 whole minutes?? even crazier

i spoke too soon 💀💀

is this a cult

GENYA!!!!!

i need to stop doing that everytime a character i like shows up

but seriously i just need zoya now and i'll be so happy

is he a fucking cannibal

IS GENYA A CANNIBAL TOO

WESPER MEETING!!!! i wasnt excepting it this episode but yay

ALL THE CROWS IN ONE PLACEE except matthias but ik thats not happening this season

"in truth hes the love of my life" kaz im sure you know so much about that

"he does this" "does he" lmfaooo

omg its the iconic scene i've seen in way too many edits

Inej in the middle i knew she was the main main character 😍😍

ughhhh i thought the episode would end with the crows but ofc not

ok now it ended

#shadow and bone #grishaverse #sab reaction

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sassy-cass-16 · 1 year

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hate to put a downer in the tag but is anyone else majorly disappointed in s&b season 2? it feels like the show was rushing to get to all the "important bits" without giving them the weight and buildup they deserved. they front-loaded the entire plot of Crooked Kingdom and got to the ending of Siege and Storm in, like, episode 2. And that ending... holy shit, that sucked.

No white-hair-Alina, no orphanage happy ending for her and Mal, no mention of Alina's full-ass cult. Does no one remember the girl with suns tattooed on her face??? I do. she was cool. And what the fuck is up with David dying in the assault on the Fold? He wasn't supposed to die until Rule of Wolves, it makes no sense why they pushed his death to this season. They're clearly expecting to get a season 3, based on the ending with the Crows (which is, inexplicably, the hook of the book that came before the one they adapted for this season????) so why would they not expect to play David's death out the way it happened in the book? And, again, why the fuck did they front-load the plot of Crooked Kingdom? Why is Kaz's most famous scene just kind of tossed in the middle of the season with no actual narrative buildup? Why does the show feel like Matthias, of all people, needs to have beef with Pekka Rollins??? Those two characters have exactly nothing to do with each other--iirc, they don't even interact in the books. It feels like the writing team just sat around a table and went "ooh what if" until they wrote enough words to fill in a script. I can't tell if Leigh Bardugo gave all of this her blessing, or if she just looked away too long and they went rogue on her.

(side-note, killing the king and Vasily at the same time wasn't a great choice. the scene in the book where Nikolai looks his not father in the eye and tells him to get out, or he'll be charged for his crimes against Genya is such a good moment of catharsis for her character, and the queen isn't in enough of the show for her little replacement scene to fill that gap.)

And I know I've mentioned this before, but the Darkling's death in the show is robbed of its weight by the way the show treats the name Aleksander. It's tossed around so flippantly that Alina's final extension of respect for him--calling him by the name he had when he was innocent--feels like she's just... saying goodbye. She's using the name he's had this whole time, rather than specifically calling him Aleksander as a show of respect for the dead. The Darkling is supposed to be a tragic character--not likeable by any standard, he's thoroughly and truly the villain of the Grisha Trilogy, but you're supposed to understand that at one point, he was innocent. At one point, he could have done something good. His death is a reminder of that, in the books. In the show, all you really feel is relief that you don't have to listen to his manipulative dialogue anymore.

Honestly, the season doesn't suck. It's not bad (I have some extra gripes about the sound design but that's definitely a budget issue and not really anyone's fault), it's just disappointing. There were some bits I really did like, too!! Every scene with Genya in it was absolutely incredible, the show did her so well. The humour in this season was consistently good. Show-Wylan lives up to his book counterpart very well. And the subplot with the saint in Shu Han was really well-done, even if I do wish the show had kept the original catalyst for Jesper using his Grisha powers. I know the show can do the books justice (the two Nina and Matthias scenes in season 1 that are literally word-for-word accurate come to mind as examples), and I do want there to be a season 3 so I can find out where they're going with all this. I was just expecting better. I'm sure people who haven't read the books, or are more forgiving of "high-budget fan fiction" style adaptations will really enjoy it, and that's not bad by any means.

Idk. I was just hoping for something the show didn't want to give, I guess.

#long post #shadow and bone #shadow and bone s2 #shadow and bone spoilers #shadow & bone spoilers #shadow & bone

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biblade · 1 year

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Okay, so now that I’ve had some time to think about it, I’m gonna go ahead and dissect the issues I found regarding s2 pertaining to Mal.

It feels strange to say considering I was expecting the opposite when anticipating the new season, but I didn’t hate the direction that they took his character in. A lot of the other characters were changed to fit the narrative, but I feel like at their core book Mal and show Mal are very much the same with some parts omitted for the sake of the storyline.

But there still was a lot omitted and changed that left much to be desired. Ultimately, show Mal is the “best” version of him. Show Mal was catering to the people who hated him in the books, and for that, he was stripped of all of the struggles he faced and the pain and instead reduced to one thing: the simply happy ending for Alina, the obvious choice, the perfect endgame love interest. Is this what Mal was always meant to be on the surface regardless of portrayal? Yes. Does it work for the direction the show was going? Yeah, sure.

So, I didn't hate it. If anything, it feels like he was one of the least disrespected characters, and Archie gave it his all.

But here's the thing:

If you're going to entirely change a character's ending, you have to have some force driving behind that besides one randomly dropped line late in the game about him thinking "like Sturmhond." Because stripping him of characteristics that don't pertain to his relationship with Alina (like showing that he craves freedom, like letting us see how comfortable he is at sea and around people and him laughing and joking and being free) just doesn't work when you've made a character whose entire personality is Alina. Am I supposed to feel happy for Mal to have gained that freedom when at the same time it feels like he's lost everything, has lost everything? He's grieving that piece of himself that died, and now he's losing Alina too. Why don't I feel like he's getting something back?

And the running gag of "don't touch that" when he's on the ship, subjecting him to playing a character but given no control of the ship, just doesn't work. The humor loses all meaning when you feel like he's not suited for this. One scene of him being explained how being a pirate works, of being trained, of talking to the crew of the Volkvolny would have made a difference.

That's not to say I didn't like the ending! It worked for him, for who he is in this story! He's been given the chance to have agency and find a purpose beyond being the love interest, the promise of having some complexity that was taken from him to rush the narrative along. It just very much feels like, with everything they did in the season, his character went from Point A to Point B without much thought of what happened between those two. Isn't it supposed to be about the journey, the adventure?

I'm not going to discuss the way in which he was brought back. As much as I love the idea of "comes back wrong," if s3 happened did ANYTHING to him they would not be safe from these hands. It's a good concept, and probably makes more sense than the book's resurrection, but right now I don't like it. He has been a puppet to his bloodline and merzost for long enough, don't make it worse. (But also, if merzost brought him back, why did he still lose his amplifier powers? It feels like they just wanted him to lose something.)

Regarding the revelation of him being the Firebird — it worked well, but was a little too in-your-face about it. The entire appeal for me is that you aren't supposed to know, Mal is supposed to be Just Some Guy Who's Really Good At Tracking until he's the key to everything. But from the moment the season started, everyone was questioning why he knew what he did. It lost some of the gut-wrenching realization of what would have to happen to him, to see the pieces fit together so early on.

So, yes. I have problems with it, but I didn't hate Mal. And down the line, I will likely make an au to explore the show's storyline, but I will keep my focus on book based interactions because that's my Mal.

#grishaverse spoilers #s&b spoilers #this went on longer than i expected but i have so many thoughts and this is just surface level #mal is my boy. i own the rights to him now.#╰ 🗡 𝐎𝐎𝐂 — himbo energy but like lesbian

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lpycb42 · 1 year

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Shadow and Bone Season 2 Opinions:

SPOILER DON’T READ IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED

The first thing I’ll mention is that I have not read the books. That being said, I know of the books and what they deal with a bit.

Anyway:

I like that Alina was developed into a take charge badass. I heard that Alina in the books is more of a Mary Sue. I’m glad she’s not that this season. She was far more interesting to me and far more likable this time around. I liked her before but I love her now.

I also love that Mal was given importance. They were obviously hinting to him having special powers and potentially being a Grisha, but I love that they made him a KEY piece in the puzzle. I also appreciate that he gets to live his life away from Alina and not be her lapdog.

The new characters were immediately likable which is so important, especially when you are going to pair them up with characters like The Crows and Alina/Mal. It’s tough to gain the interest and sympathy of the audience when they’re already invested in a specific group of people, so I’m glad they were able to fit right in and have good chemistry with the rest of the cast.

Now for some criticism

This season was fun to watch, but it felt a little bloated to me. I liked the slower pacing of the first season, which took its time building the world and the relationships a bit better.

I also felt the editing was a big messy because of how many stories were being told at the same time.

One thing I disliked was how the Matthias/Nina situation was handled. Again, I haven’t read the book, so idk how accurate it is, but, I was hoping to see more anger on Matthias’s side towards Nina.

I understand that some of the changes have happened because since the book was written, a lot has changed and depicting violence against women on TV is a big no no. You also don’t want to make Matthias irredeemable, but I wish they had shown more of Matthias’s inner conflict regarding his feelings towards Nina. I do wish they would’ve had him both dream of her romantically and also his nightmares in which she’s a monster without showing him actually hurting her. In addition, I wish that he hadn’t already seen her. I would’ve been fine with him seeing her while fighting, but thinking she was just a vision and not the real her. Idk, but I was hoping for more angst there and more of a buildup to their reunion.

I also know that they are supposed to rebuild their relationship and trust in one another. Nina shouting to the whole world that Matthias is the love of her life is kind of counterproductive, because now I’m going to have a hard time believing that they will be at odds. I hope they don’t change that, because that’s one thing I’m most excited about in their story. I do LOVE that they added Pekka to that mix, though. I like him as an antagonist. The actor is amazing.

I was hoping there would be more of a courtship between Jasper and Wylan. That relationship felt rushed, but at the same time, I understand what they’re doing. It’s the Friend’s formula. You already have many angsty couples, so you need one that will be the foil to that. The couple who just wants to be together and happy.

Inej and Kaz were done to perfection, in my opinion. I also liked that little moment between her and Tolya.

I was also hoping that Nikolai and Zoya would have a bit of a moment in the end, but oh well.

I’m honest, I’ll be fine if Shadow Daddy doesn’t return. I don’t see what the purpose would be for him, moving forward. But, if he does, then cool.

All in all, I enjoyed it. I will rewatch to really take everything in.

#shadow and bone s2 #shadow and bone #helnik #wesper #kanej #malina

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mayhemwrites · 10 months

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beauty

Everybody's heard of Razrusha'ya, the Ruined One, who lives alone in a castle in the forest, but nobody's heard of Genya Safin, the young woman who managed to piss off a sorcerer. Alina Starkov goes out looking for her best friend who went missing in a blizzard, and ends up stranded, trapped with Razrusha'ya - but what if the Ruined One didn't deserve to be cursed?

read on ao3 here! written for the AU roulette challenge, with the prompt "fairytale AU"

full fic under the cut - beauty and the beast au, one-shot, if I ever wrote this as a full fic it would be genyalina, 595 words

Why had Mal volunteered to go out hunting in the middle of a blizzard? If he was still alive when she found him, she was going to kill him.

--------

Alina trudged through the snow, cursing idiot men who were too damn heroic for their own good.

But the longer she walked for, the more afraid she was that she wouldn't find him alive at all - that just like everybody else who went out into the woods in a snowstorm, he'd have been killed. If he was dead, then she'd be all alone in the village. Alone with everybody who would have been happy to leave her to die. So that really wasn't an option. She had to find him.

It didn't matter if the snow was getting deeper as she got further into the woods, or that it had started raining. She was going to find her stupid best friend and get back home, preferably before the rain turned into an all-out storm.

She searched for another three hours before stumbling across a castle in the middle of the woods. Who puts a castle in the middle of a forest?

Anyway, Mal might be in there, she guessed, so she walked up to the front door and knocked as hard as she could, hoping she'd be heard over the storm.

The door swung open.

It was creepy, but not as bad as being stranded in a storm, so she walked in.

The castle was lit with candles and a roaring fire, and despite her wariness, she sat down in one huge armchair. Just for a few minutes. Just to get warm.

Before she knew it, she'd fallen asleep, and she only realised once she was being shaken awake.

She sat up blearily, peering at the face of the person shaking her. Their face was turned to the side, but she saw the strap of an eyepatch and a long scar down one cheek.

“Who are you?” she asked.

The person blinked their one eye at her. “I live here. Who are you?” Her voice was rough and raspy, like she hadn’t spoken at all in years.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realise anybody lived here,” Alina explained. “I’m looking for my friend. Have you seen him? He was out in the forest last week during the blizzard, and he hasn’t come home.”

The person shook her head. “I haven’t seen anybody. When the storm eases off, I can help you look. Or you can borrow a horse.”

“I, um. That’s okay. I should get going, actually.”

Then she looked out of the grand windows. The storm hadn’t stopped. If anything, it had gotten worse.

As if reading her mind, the person shook her head again. “Please don’t. I’d hate if anything happened to you.”

This whole thing was incredibly creepy, but Alina supposed that she could see the sense in not leaving the only shelter for miles in the middle of a thunderstorm.

“Alright. Are you sure it’s okay for me to stay here? I wouldn’t want to intrude, if this is your home.”

“No, it’s perfectly alright.”

Her face turned towards the light of the fireplace, and Alina saw it properly for the first time. The one scar she’d seen before hadn’t been all of it. Her entire face was covered with deep black gashes, burned into her flesh. Immediately she regretted agreeing to stay.

She should have known. This was no ordinary castle in the middle of the forest. This was the castle of Razrusha’ya, the Ruined One, and now she was stranded there.

#kind of body horror?#but like. canon typical body horror ig #mayhem writes #grishaverse #shadow and bone #genya safin #alina starkov #genyalina #feat. me trying to write past tense and hating it (did it anyway bc i wanted to try something new lmao)#auroulette2023

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basimsenkidu · 1 year

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how did they ruined the Shadow & Bones - Six of Crows?!

*spoilers* might be in these areas IF you didn’t read the books

I don’t know where to begin but I’ll start somewhere;

and if I missed or said something wrong you can write me...

it was like they united last two books but at the same time they removed the middle parts that I think has really important effect on the story line. there are so much parts in Six of Crows books that they didn't put on the show to just make it suitable for the Shadow and Bone books. and also deleted many more parts from the second book Siege and Storm in the middle of somewhere when Nina met Kaz, they were supposed to save Mathias and go to a heist together at Ice Court to steal a DeKappel painting by making deal with Rollins that Kaz saved from Prison. but instead they went on some other robbery that even doesn't exist and Kaz just said that 'I can only give you a guards name and you can visit him.' that's all... and the story-line completely changed. “We’re going to untie you,” said Brekker. “I hope prison hasn’t robbed you of all your manners or good sense.” Matthias nodded, and the bronze girl took a knife to the ropes binding him. “I believe you know Nina,” Brekker continued. “The lovely girl freeing you is Inej, our thief of secrets and the best in the trade. Jesper Fahey is our sharpshooter, Zemeni-born but try not to hold it against him, and this is Wylan, best demolitions expert in the Barrel.” “Raske is better,” Inej said. The boy looked up, ruddy gold hair flopping in his eyes, and spoke for the first time. “He’s not better. He’s reckless.” “He knows his trade.” “So do I.” “Barely,” Jesper said. “Wylan is new to the scene,” admitted Brekker. “Of course he’s new, he looks like he’s about twelve,” retorted Matthias. “I’m sixteen,” said Wylan sullenly.

Jesper & Wylan happened too fast. there was a man named Van Eck that becomig problem for Kaz at the beginning where he’ll deal too. what happened to him?! we only saw Rollins because he was the one who killed the brother. “Meet Wylan Van Eck,” said Kaz Brekker as the boy’s cheeks flooded crimson. “Jan Van Eck’s son and our guarantee on thirty million kruge.”

Inej says a line that "Inej shook her head. “When I go to Ravka, it will be on my own ship, piloted by my own crew." and also wanted to save refugees, so they made her leave like that in the show. Stupid! she wasn’t going anywhere in the middle of everything like that.

Alina suppossed to travel with Nikolai's men and Apparat at underground tunnels like a month or so, while they were running from Darkling but that wasn't in the story at all. in that moment there were times that Nikolai and Alina got really close to each other and like kissed etc. while Mal is feeling a little bit distant and blame himself that he can't give her much so let her decide some things etc. and in that process the Darkling's end came in a really stupid way! that it doesn't even suit his power at all. From miles beneath the earth to miles above. I could scarcely believe any of it, that Nikolai had found us, that he was safe, that we were all here. A tide of relief washed over me, making my eyes fill. “First vomit, then tears,” Nikolai said, coming up beside me. “Don’t tell me I’ve lost my touch.” “I’m just happy you’re alive,” I said, hastily blinking my eyes clear.“Though I’m sure you can talk me out of it.” “Glad to see you too. Word was you’d gone underground, but it wasmore like you’d vanished completely.” “It did feel like being buried alive.” “Is the rest of your party there?” “This is it.” “You can’t mean—” “This is all that remains of the Second Army. The Darkling has his Grisha, and you have yours, but...” I trailed off. “All that remains,” Nikolai repeated.

Genya and David with them at the underground too. David wasn't dying like that and he seemed much more strong and tough in the books, at least for me, in the show he's like weak and cry baby... not what I've imagined at all. Genya was getting that scars on her face by defending Alina on the ship when she's with her.

“You will remain untouched and protected, Sankta Alina,” said theApparat. “I cannot extend the same courtesy to those you would callfriends.” Apparat was this disgusting to let her hostage... in the end there was a part where it showed Alina's power turns Dark; that was happenning when she was linked with Darkling while they were escaping/fighting, not she kills him and use Mezost and her power turns dark.

when they were going for destroying the Fold Nikolai was with them too. not some trio women march was it.

Baghra wasn't with Alina when she was searching for Firebird. and... I don't remember that Mal being Sturmhond and getting away with one of Nikolai's flying boats and Inej going with them at all. THAT'S NOT EXIST!! Sturmhond never give up on his alias and Mal doesn't leave Alina like that. sure Mal is a Firebird, right? NO! I wanted to say this but they even made me doubt myself that he wasn't the Firebird!! so hear the lines on the books; “Mal!” I shouted. My pack was at the edge of the plateau, along with my rifle and bow. I made a dash for them, and the firebird came straight at me. It was huge, white like the stag and the sea whip, its vast wings tinged with golden flame. They beat the air, the gust driving me backward. Its call echoed through the valley as it opened its massive beak. It was big enough to take my arm off in one bite, maybe my head. Its talons gleamed, long and sharp. this was the time when Nikolai gets his scar on his shoulder, not from the fight in the palace; if I'm not wrong... A shadow soldier swooped down. In horror, I saw it held Nikolai struggling in its arms. Any bit of courage I had evaporated. I couldn’t see Nikolai ripped limb from limb. “Please!” The word tore from me, without dignity or constraint. “Please don’t!” The Darkling raised his hand. I clapped my fingers over my mouth, my legs already buckling. But the nichevo’ya didn’t attack Nikolai. It tossed him onto the terrace. His body hit the stone with a sickening thud and rolled to a stop. “Alina, don’t!” Mal tried to hold me back, but I broke free of him and ran to where Nikolai lay, falling to my knees beside him. He moaned. His coat was torn where the creature’s claws had shredded the fabric. He tried to push himself up on his elbows and blood dribbled from his mouth.“This was unexpected,” he said weakly. “You’re okay,” I said. “It’s okay.” “I appreciate your optimism.” there was so many adventures with Nikolai's crafts etc. all that fight and excitement were gone. and all there was a fight with Grisha army of Darkling.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said firmly. “I’ll pay it.” Nikolai considered this, then said, “Very well.” “That’s it? No sage words? No dire warnings?” “Saints, Alina. I hope you weren’t looking to me to be the voice of reason. I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret.” He paused, his grin fading. “But I’m truly sorry for the soldiers you lost and that I didn’t do more that night.” Below us, I could see the beginnings of the white reaches of the permafrost and, far beyond, the shape of mountains in the distance. “What could you have done, Nikolai? You would have just gotten yourself killed. You still might.” It was harsh, but it was also the truth. Against the Darkling’s shadow soldiers, everyone—no matter how brilliant or resourceful—was close to helpless. “You never know,” said Nikolai. “I’ve been busy. I might have some surprises in store for the Darkling yet.” “Please tell me you plan to dress up as a volcra and jump out of a cake.” “Well, now you’ve ruined the surprise.” He pushed off the railing. “I need to pilot us over the border.” “The border?” “We’re heading into Fjerda.” “Oh, good. Enemy territory. And here I was starting to relax.”“These are my skies,” Nikolai said with a wink. Then he strolled across the deck, whistling a familiar, off-key tune. I’d missed him. The way he talked. The way he attacked a problem. The way he brought hope with him wherever he went. For the first time in months, I felt the knot in my chest ease. Nikolai's father The King wasn't dead but just has inflicted from the poison by Genya and says those line himslef after the attack. “I poisoned my skin,” Genya said harshly, “my lips. So that every timehe touched me—” She shuddered slightly and glanced at David. “Everytime he kissed me, he took sickness into his body.” She clenched her fists.��He brought this on himself.” “But the poison would have affected you too,” Nikolai said. “I had to purge it from my skin, then heal the burns the lye would leave. Every single time.” Her fists clenched. “It was well worth it.” Nikolai rubbed a hand over his mouth. “Did he force you?” Genya nodded once. A muscle in Nikolai’s jaw ticked.“Father?” he asked. “Did you?” “She is a servant, Nikolai. I didn’t have to force her.” After a long moment, Nikolai said, “Genya Safin, when this war is over, you will stand trial for high treason against this kingdom and for colluding with the Darkling against the crown.” The King broke into a smug grin. But Nikolai wasn’t done. “Father, you are ill. You have served the crown and the people of Ravka,and now it is time for you to take the rest you deserve. Tonight, you willwrite out a letter of abdication.” Mal was like this; “What changed?” “You. I saw it that night in the chapel. If I hadn’t been so scared, I could have seen it before.” I thought of the militiaman’s body falling in pieces. “Maybe you were right to be scared of me.” “I wasn’t afraid of you, Alina. I was afraid of losing you. The girl you were becoming didn’t need me anymore, but she’s who you were always meant to be.” “Power hungry? Ruthless?” “Strong.” He looked away. “Luminous. And maybe a little ruthless too. That’s what it takes to rule. Ravka is broken, Alina. I think it always has been. The girl I saw in the chapel could change that.” “Nikolai—” “Nikolai’s a born leader. He knows how to fight. Knows how to politic. But he doesn’t know what it is to live without hope. He’s never been nothing. Not like you or Genya. Not like me.” “He’s a good man,” I protested. “And he’ll be a good king. But he needs you to be a great one.” I didn’t know what to say to that. I pressed a finger to the window glass, then wiped the smudge away with my sleeve. “I’m going to ask him if I can bring the students here from Keramzin. The orphans too.” “Take him with you when you go,” Mal said. “He should see where you come from.” He laughed. “You can introduce him to Ana Kuya.” “I already unleashed Baghra on Nikolai. He’s going to think I stockpile vicious old women.”

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morganadelacour · 1 year

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Now that I have finished Shadow and Bone season 2 I want to give my two cents about it. There are spoilers for the show and for the grishaverse books ahead!

The thing is, as much as I'm uspet about a lot of choices that were made, especially regarding the plot and the character development, I can't get myself to hate the show completely. I absolutely adore the cast, I love the set design and the costumes and I loved certain scenes. It was a captivating story and at times I was at the edge of my seat. So I would lie if I said I haven't enjoyed watching the show. However, regarding the crows and their character development I'm thoroughly disappointed. The scenes in itself were mostly good but they just didn't make sense and didn't feel impactful to me because there was no buildup. The character arcs of most crows were ruined and can't be fixed in my opinion and that makes me incredibly sad.

But let's dive in a bit deeper, starting with the positive points. As I said before, the cast is in my eyes pretty much perfect and even the one's I'm not 100% happy with made it work. They portray their characters so well and have also mostly acted really impressively. The whole show is held together by this cast and by the wonderful set design that makes this world feel incredibly real. I also still really loved the keftas and also the other costumes, for example Jesper's suit jacket and skirt combo, or Nina's red dress!

I also really enjoyed a lot of Genya's scenes. They were written well in my opinion and Daisy Head did an amazing job. The scenes made sense in their order and they built one another up nicely, so that's why her lines felt so impactful. The ending was absolutely heart-breaking to me, a real punch to the gut (but not necessarily in a negative way).

In general, there were scenes that I really enjoyed, that made me laugh, cry or squeal. Some of the scenes with the crows were simply wonderful to watch, I especially loved Nina and her interactions with Kaz. I also loved the scenes between Alina and Nikolai and their friendship in general, it was really cute. Even though I was more attached to Mal and Alina and their relationship in the first season, I still loved them and was rooting for them.

Those are the positive things that come to mind right now, I certainly forgot some. But let's continue with the negative points.

The whole season just felt incredibly rushed. Which honestly is no wonder because they tried to fit in (parts of) four books and some aditional stuff. The crows and their story suffered most because of that, in my opinion. Their character arcs were completely butchered. I think I could have lived with Kaz' backstory being revealed but putting the Pekka Rollins plot into this season simply made zero sense. It was so disappointing to watch the "I'm begging you" - "Are you?" scene when it felt so unearned. This scene is supposed to be almost some sort of climax for Kaz' story, and it can only be impactful if we get to see - slowly and over a certain amount of time - how much hate Kaz has for him and how much he's willing to give to defeat him. We got to see glimpses of it, for example when he blows up the crow club. But it's not nearly enough and just feels incredibly rushed.

Same with the scene in the slat where he fights the dregs. This scene was so important in the books and absolutely nerve-wracking to read because Kaz had to prove himself, he had to stand up for himself and establish himself as the powerful man he had become. But in the show it was put in almost as some sort of afterthought, simply a necessary step for Kaz to gain some more men.

The relationships between the crows (and I don't mean just the romantic ones) were also not given the time and space they would have needed. What really drives me mad is that they completely changed the nature of Jesper and Wylan's realtionship and story! The whole point of their relationship is to be slowburn, to let us see the crush Wylan develops and the way he's blushing when Jesper is flirting with him. One of their most iconic lines "Just girls?", "No. Not just girls." doesn't even make sense anymore! And they tried to replace their bickering with unnecessary drama and I simply hated that.

Kanej felt slightly less rushed but still didn't feel right to me. Again, unnecessary drama was added instead of deepening their mutual yearning for eachother. And while Freddy's acting made the "I'll have you without armour" scene absolutely heartbreaking and wonderful, I felt like in the show it's not clear enough that Inej is not only talking about his physical armour. In the books it was completely clear to me that she is mostly talking about his emotional unavailability and not (or only as a second point) about the fact that he has a problem with touch (because surprise, she has a problem with touch, too!). But in the show that's not clear at all, in my opinion, which makes the scene feel as if Inej is rejecting Kaz because of his trauma and that's just so so wrong and feels icky to me.

Nina and Matthias didn't really have screen time together, the only thing I can say is that the ending where Matthias looks ready to go back to Nina feels wrong to me. He's supposed to still hate her and that's what makes their relationship fascinating in the books, because they kind of have to start over from square one. I also really missed the relationships between Nina and Inej (they had a few short scenes but not enough to establish their friendship) and between Jesper and Inej.

I have to say, even though the Ravkan plot also felt a bit rushed, it was fine to me. I liked certain changes and I think they did overall a good job at adapting the grisha trilogy. The ending, however, felt very strange and wrong to me. I know that a lot of people didn't like Alina losing her powers and moving to Keramzin with Mal but honestly that was my favourite part of the books. In my opinion, it's exactly what Alina and Mal deserve. They both were dragged into this civil war and were almost forced to save Ravka, a country that wasn't always kind to them. They sacrificed so much and worked so hard to save it, even though they never wanted any of it. Alina herself didn't really want her powers at the beginning and afterwards she simply wanted them to destroy the fold. So to me it felt right for them to finally have the life they actually wanted. A quiet life, a peaceful life, a life together. So to now have Alina be the queen of Ravka (or to at least send or on that way) and to have Mal be apart from her as Stormhond, that feels like a slap to my and to their faces, honestly. As if they didn't deserve the peaceful life that they so desperately wanted.

All in all I have to say I'm just not happy with how they handled the crows. I think it could have worked out, even after the first season, if they had just left the crows out of Ravkan affairs for this season. They could have had some scenes, maybe the first half of Six of Crows could have been adapted, they could have made a bigger thing out of breaking Matthias out of hellgate. That would have prepared them for the ice court heist, which could have been told in a spin-off series. But how it is right now, with their chatacter arcs butchered, I just don't see how they could make an actually good spin-off series.

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone netflix #shadow and bone spoilers

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