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19burstraat · 7 months

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proving kaz is a tidemaker, even tho it's not canon and shouldn't be, but I'm gonna argue for it anyway

I already made this post ages ago and now this has been in my drafts for even longer, I just unearthed it... but I'm making it again, more in depth, bc I didn't hit on everything I wanted to last time. obviously this isn't canon bc the point of kaz is he's Just Some Guy and how that really really pisses off more powerful people, and I think that's definitely best, Kaz NEEDS to be otkazat'sya for his function in the story... but if you ever wanted to prove it in a fic, shit is EASY. (I am vaguely considering how it might work out in a fic. we'll see. I've done stuff that couldn't/I wouldn't want to be canon before with my jordie-lives fic, so...) I'll mostly talk in the context that he'd be a tidemaker bc I feel like that's the conclusion a lot of this comes to, but some of the points are more generalised.

obviously the basic argument everyone makes for this is that the reason kaz was able to get back to shore from reaper's barge is bc, subconsciously or not, as a tidemaker he could control the currents to help him, since that's one of the most basic tidemaker powers. in the harbour scene, he notices that the tide has moved to work against him, but it doesn't seem to prove much of a problem; he attributes it to his new will to survive, but... Well. Kaz is exceptionally good at withholding information, even in his own POV.

grisha not using their powers become ill or weaker; kaz isn't really physically ill but he has an element of the underfed and sallow about him that's generally attributed to living in the barrel.

kaz is also ESPECIALLY horrified by the state of mikka, the tidemaker under the influence of jurda parem at the start of SOC; this is attributed to his past trauma and his dislike for things he can't rationally explain, which, yeah, but he is thrown in a way we don't really see again for the rest of the series. he instantly thinks of jordie, and it's maybe the one time he succumbs to superstition in the whole series.

the obvious explanation for how kaz knew that coffee extract and paraffin hid the scent/evidence of grisha is that he's very clearly involved in smuggling (jesper mentions how coffee grounds were used when packing smuggled jurda shipments) but the second explanation,,, is that he uses them himself. he comes up with the solution with IMMENSE speed and he just like, has the coffee extract around. ok, sure, not that hard to get hold of, but still. and coffee gets mentioned in relation to him at least a few times, most noticeably the 'bitter coffee eyes' thing inej uses, which is amusingly romanticised, but also... inej why do you associate coffee w kaz... something you've noticed abt him?

(but then, you wonder why he didn't suggest this to jesper previously; the answer I'm sure he would give you is he did, when it was a problem. before that it wasn't a problem and jesper was doing fine at staying hidden on his own)

the gloves can also add to this one, since they presumably at least cover his wrists and therefore his pulse somewhat, though obviously that's not their main function.

recovers with startling speed from nearly drowning at the ice court; matthias has to get his breathing going again but he's almost immediately fine after. I know yk, heist fantasy book, gotta keep going, but still

kaz is almost completely correct about the methods, powers of, and appearances of the council of tides (one single thing, the method of hiding their faces, is wrong.) impressive, no...? he is also shockingly apathetic in the face of their threats; they fill his lungs up with water and he just coughs it up and then is like "lol" immediately after. this is funny no matter what the fact of the matter (major general of the idgaf war) but the fact his link to them is left hanging is also a thread that could be easy to pick up. I think it would be hilarious if he was secretly in the council, but I won't stretch it that far bc they clearly don't like him lmao, that would have to be a proper AU.

in the dregs, kaz has a corporalki (nina) and a materialki (jesper) but no etheralki. wouldn't it be prudent to recruit one, if he could find one? or maybe he doesn't need one. if he already has one around, for an emergency of emergencies... for a rainy day... (ha ha)

the way kaz's trauma is often described as manifesting, is with the rising of the harbour waters; so it's pretty reasonable to suggest that in suppressing that, he'd also, inadvertently or not, suppress any kind of tidemaker/etheralki impulse or power. possibly he can't even tell the difference between the two, or they're so tangled up he can't really separate them anymore, which is why he doesn't so much as even think to attempt to use it. still, if this was the case I think improvement with one would not necessarily improve the other, or vice versa. kaz hypothetically using grisha power he'd had suppressed would not magically make his touch aversion go away, I think that'd be weird, and I'd not want his PTSD to be passed off as solely being the sickness from not using grisha power, that's reductive as hell. but I can see them certainly being two things very much intertwined.

we don't know a lot about grisha who are native to kerch, but assumedly he'd not have had much cause to use it in his childhood, on a farm somewhere inland, so most, if not all, of his experience with using it would likely be irretrievably tied to ketterdam and jordie so no wonder he just wouldn't use it. I don't think he'd even see it as feasible. perhaps it would be a very very final resort, but he'd never let it get to that point, he'd always want to try something else first. and anyway, he'd not be trained.

the sankt vladimir story is also thematically quite close to Kaz; holding back the harbour waters until he's finally too exhausted and lets it drown him. I like this regardless of this analysis actually it's a good comparison. patron saint of the drowned and unlikely achievement....

even if kaz wasn't an otkazat'sya, after all that happened, I think he'd try very hard to pretend he was. it couldn't save jordie, therefore in his extreme as hell thinking around that entire thing, I imagine he'd reason it wasn't useful, that he could get on better without it, and, like jesper, think it was a liability.

this would add a wild layer to him being the one to have the jurda parem on him for almost all of crooked kingdom; it would make it feel like his plan z was to take it himself. certainly he'd sooner do that than let jesper take it.

and finally: thematically, it slays. like half of the imagery around kaz (and kanej) centres around water (think the bathroom scene, how he only washes in front of her, etc) and that plays into both of their trauma, plus religious imagery, all this... it's a fantastic bit of extra theming. it just doesn't really work with how his character operates.

basically I think you could DEFINITELY make it work and it'd be a killer fic but again it's one of those things, like jordie living, that I don't really want to be canon because it undermines something about kaz's character that I consider pretty critical; in this case, that kaz is not really endowed with any special power or circumstance, he's just bloody-minded and clever, but that's enough for him to pull off almost impossible jobs anyway.

#six of crows #crooked kingdom #kaz brekker #soc duology #soc #my post #six of crows duology #this has been in my drafts for sooo long lmao #it'd be an interesting fic but idk how I'd frame it. I'll have a think

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she-posts-nerdy-stuff · 6 months

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Daughter of the Rain and Snow

Concept: Around ten years after the events of Crooked Kingdom, 25-year-old Captain Inej Ghafa frees Maya Olsen from a pleasure house in Ketterdam. Maya is looking for revenge against the man who put her in her position, a man who she knows nothing about except his name: Kaz Brekker.

Tags: @wraith--2 @lunarthecorvus @just2bubbly @real-fragments7 @ethereal-maia @cartoon-clifford @origami-butterfly @lady-a-stuff

Content Warnings: in more general terms I want to remind people to be aware of the nature of Kaz and Inej's experiences and relationship since even if I'm not directly addressing these things they tend to be implicit in any writing about them, but specifically to this chapter there's threats and ptsd references.

Chapter 20 - Kaz

The five of them sat in the living room of the Hendricks house, staring at the ominous array of letters spread across the coffee table. There were seven in total, the two he and Inej had found in their house, Wylan’s, Jesper’s, Nina’s, and the second ones for him and Inej. Six of them lay open, their neatly inked words staring at the ceiling, their folded edges refusing to quite lie flat. Inej’s new envelope lay next to them, still sealed. Kaz had set them out in the order they’d been delivered - Nina’s, his and Inej’s, Jesper and Wylan’s, his, Inej’s. He let his eyes slip across the pages and read them for the thousandth time.

Do you like living in the fortress you almost destroyed? Does it amuse you? Enjoy your cage, little red bird, be it gilded or not.

You're losing your touch, Brekker. I hope you've enjoyed your time on top. Shame these things never last.

Hello, little lynx.

Did you think paying your debts made us even, Fahey? You may not owe us anymore, but I definitely owe you. See you soon

Enjoy your blood money.

And then the one he’d found on his desk this morning.

The countdown’s started, Brekker, how many breaths left til your last?

Kaz sighed. They had no clear starting point, no clues that pointed to any particular party.

“Only two of our names are used in the notes themselves,” he said eventually, even though he wasn’t sure that was particularly relevant, “Nina who was your letter for?”

“What do you mean?”

“Was it addressed to you or to Mila?”

“Me,” she fidgeted with her sleeve, “That was almost the most frightening part. Who would use my real name?”

Inej looked up sharply, panic in her eyes sending a shockwave through Kaz’s heartbeat.

“I do,” she said, “Always. An envelope that says Nina, inside an envelope that says Mila - with a little ‘X’ in the corner so you know to open it alone. Could someone have intercepted that, to find out who you are?”

“It’s possible,” said Kaz.

Inej flushed, dark eyes slipping to a downcast gaze. Nina took her hand and squeezed it tight.

“So the envelopes were all correctly addressed,” said Kaz, “Except for Wylan’s. Yours, Nina, had to do everything it could to get you to Ketterdam - scare you with your real name, reference the Ice Court heist, bring to surface doubts you presumably already had about living in Fjerda,”

“Gee, thanks, Kaz,”

“But it doesn't seem like ours were supposed to connect us straight away,” he continued, “Until I saw you were here, I had no reason to think these were coming to anyone but me and Inej. Did they want to keep us separate from the three of you?”

“I don’t think so,” said Wylan, “They clearly know enough about us for it to be a safe assumption we’d tell each other - especially if they wanted Nina to come to the house. If you two weren’t already here, we’d have been coming to find you anyway - at least when we saw they knew about the Ice Court,”

Kaz nodded.

“But I didn’t come straight to the house,” said Nina, “I went to Inej and Kaz’s first, then here when I found their place empty,”

“Then were we meant to be kept separate?” asked Jesper

Wylan shook his head.

“You’d have still known it was linked to the Ice Court,”

“So we still would’ve come to you,” finished Nina.

“I’d like to think you’d come anyway if you were in the city,” added Jesper, “I’m rather offended you went to find Inej first,”

“It’s because I’m her favourite,”

“I thought you were on a job, Inej” said Nina, “I went to find Kaz first,”

“Well now I’m especially offended,” said Jesper, “So I’m not going to offer you a coffee. Would anyone else like a coffee?”

Everyone requested one. Inej was refused one - on grounds everyone else seemed to be aware of and Kaz had no interest in trivially learning.

Kaz heard Jesper asking the maid for 4 coffees and a cup of tea from round the corner, that mousy little question mark of a girl he’d found wandering around the Crow Club like a lost lamb a few years ago. She didn’t seem to have changed much since then, still scrawny and nervous - and intriguing. There was mystery there he didn’t understand; the way she seemed to exist at odds with herself like there was something being kept from her about her own personality.

It was a trivial thing to think about. He nudged Inej’s unopened letter across the table towards her.

“Last piece of the puzzle?”

“I wouldn’t have high hopes,” she replied, picking it up.

Considering she wasn’t wearing any of her usual sheaths or quickdraws, Kaz had no idea where the little knife that appeared in Inej’s hand had just come from. She sliced deftly through the envelope and discarded it on the table as she slipped the paper free. Her eyes scanned the page and Kaz watched the tension in her fingers tighten, crumpling the edges of the paper ever so slightly where she held it.

“They’re listening to us,” she whispered, eyes not lifting from the words.

Kaz frowned.

“Right now?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. But they were listening in the shelter,”

“That’s not possible,” said Kaz, “No-one knows it’s there,”

“No-one knows I’m Mila Jandersdat,” Nina reminded him.

Inej passed the letter across the table and Kaz picked it up, brow furrowing as he read.

Do your Saints demand penance?

He passed the paper to Nina.

“Why does this mean they’re listening?” he asked

“That’s what she said to me,” murmured Inej, flicking that little blade between her fingertips, “When…”

Kaz nodded. He wouldn’t make her say it out loud again. If it became necessary for the others to know, and she couldn’t face it, he could give them the summarised version.

“What who said?” asked Nina

“A girl Inej sprang from the Tulip Mill,” said Kaz, ignoring the questioning expression that crossed Nina’s face.

Inej was sure to talk to her later alone, she would get her answers then.

“Anyone fancy telling me what this girl said?” asked Wylan

Nina read the question out loud, and Wylan frowned.

“Penance for what?” he asked

Inej looked away.

“She called me a traitor,” she’d told him in the bedroom, “for being with you. A betrayal of all the people like us. Like me,”

“Do you agree with her?” he’d forced himself to murmur.

He needed the answer even though he thought he knew it. Because if Inej didn’t think that, at least to some amount, why would it ever have upset her this much? Baseless accusations don’t make people sink like that. There has to be truth to a thing for it to drown you.

Kaz thought of Nina’s letter, raising doubts she’d surely felt herself. Was he Inej’s gilded cage, trading one prison for another? And if he knew that, should he set her free?

Inej had swallowed, hand twisting in his palm.

“No,”

He’d nodded, watching her hand raise to slowly cup his cheek. He didn’t stop her.

“I promise you,” she’d whispered, like she’d known what he needed to hear, moving closer as they breathed in tandem.

Kaz tightened his grip on his cane. She was a good liar, his mind told him, that was all. He wondered if there was a way of throttling the taunting voice inside his head, as if it weren’t the only one in there.

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shesnake · 1 year

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sab season 2 thoughts

sooooo. overall in itself as its own story, i think the show is good. alina's story is in an excellent place. nikolai's story is now presumably bearable because he and alina are sharing this now. it's good if you don't care about the books but can also only be understood with the books so idk what that really means.

crooked kingdom was butchered to hell. the crows duology is so meticulously structured and they threw that out the window. it's all out of order. it's all too fast. the groundwork for all the characters development and their epiphanies was Not there in this season. seeing the same end result is so jarring and just not as satisfying. the actors are so good I could enjoy the individual scenes but the speed-run to get to those points was awful. it's nowhere near as bad but for some reason I felt what I felt watching the cowboy bebop remake like seeing all my favourite scenes repurposed/appropriated for totally different contexts god I can't believe just frankensteined them like that.

I also just have no idea how good the ice court heist could possibly be without the stakes, which have all been resolved this season far too conveniently. I'm especially upset about how they nuked everything between kaz and jesper. jesper knowing about pekka in season 1, the fact that kaz should've already known jesper was zowa because he was the Only one who knew. that's all gone now. can't imagine the "ask me why, jesper" and "what does my forgiveness look like jordie?!" scenes making any sense now. can't imagine the "stop thinking of your pain as something you imagined" scene hitting either. jesper's sudden "you know what I'm gonna start loving myself and embracing who I am" 180 is great but that only came from dreaming about his mum, in a very "okay I'm gonna be normal now" way which just sucks because he and alina's (also abandoned) arcs of self-repression were so good..

and then there's the fact that we have no idea if the show is even going to come back for season 3 and/or crows spin-off... there's so many moments in this season that feel like the writers going "we're going to give the fans this in case we don't get to come back" including the kanej hallucination (which I ate up regardless). god i don't know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#shadow and bone #sab spoilers #six of crows #crooked kingdom

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nataliescatorccio · 1 year

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What do you think would have been a better storyline for the Crows this season to tie-in directly to where they start in SoC?

well what i thought they were going to do was focus on breaking matthias out of hellgate and i actually think that would have been a better set up for the ice court? i know they do it at the beginning of soc and it would involve some changes such as them breaking him out more for nina than the heist, but i also just think it would have been such a fun storyline to really delve into and make into more of a mini heist that could set up well for the ice court heist. it also would have been so fun to end the season with all six crows finally together. i think that would be the perfect build up for a spin off because honestly, if they're breaking matthias within an ice court season (presuming we get the spin off) it's going to be so rushed as to both how they do it and the subsequent reunion with nina, as they'll want to get to the ice court quick because there's just so much action there. i just think that would have been more fun to establish them as a team together, because splitting them in half as they did for the final two episodes felt odd to me. i get why they did it with their focus on the s&b trilogy, but as a crow fan, i think it would have worked better for them and their arc as well as leaving things in a great place for a spin off to effortlessly pick up from.

#Anonymous #shadow and bone for ts

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kazraza · 9 months

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i haven’t finished rule of wolves yet but i don’t think there’s enough content in king of scars for a full season (esp if they take out nina’s part since presumably she’ll be involved in the ice court heist) so i’m guessing we’ll get one last season to do six of crows, king of scars, and rule of wolves and then netflix will probably cancel the show for good after that because nothing seems to go past a third season

#so we’ll get monster nikolai and shadow summoner alina #ice court heist of course #the darkling will come back obviously so we’ll get elizaveta and her bees #wonder if they’ll turn zoya into a dragon or what #i feel like they have to give alina her role in king of scars since she’s still around to be the main character

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littlebigmouse · 2 years

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Thinking about it, I don't think we'll ever get a properly faithful adaptation of the Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom books, at least not without some serious retconning of everything that happens with the Crows in Shadow and Bone. Let me explain:

As of now, the Crows are cleanly split into two groups. Those who are right where they should be for the Ice Court Heist to begin right now in S&B Season 2, and those who aren't.

Kaz and Inej were clearly set up to be prequel characters that explicitely still have other stuff to do before the Ice Court Heist can happen. They aren't as ruthless or violent as their book counterparts, they work better as a team, Kaz isn't reporting to a boss or running a gang that can usurp him later (we see him running a club, not a gang), Inej is still looking for her brother in Ketterdam and has only just killed a person for the first time, and we didn't see Kaz get violent with anyone at all.

So it wouldn't make sense for these two at all to start next season off with some kind of Ice Court-ish subplot, because that Heist relies on two leads with rather different personalities, and the story would lose a lot if that were changed.

So let's assume we won't get anything Ice Court-ish next season, but instead some sort of plot that gets Kaz out of the the other barrel leader's sight, the Crow Club back (presumably Kaz and the Crow Club are 'saved' by Per Haskell, if they ever want to actually do something resembling the books), potentially a subplot for Inej to find her brother, etc.

But then what the hell are Nina and Matthias supposed to do for another two seasons?

Right now, these two are exactly where SoC starts off. Matthias is in prison, Nina got him there, she still cares about him, he hates her now. Sure, Nina needs to get herself work in Ketterdam and needs to get to know the Crows, but we already got a shot of all Six Crows together in the Sneak Peak for S2, so they won't just slowly get to know each other, they'll already be working together. All six. Matthias, presumably outside of prison, then.

I suppose they could do that. By some ploy, Matthias gets out of prison, Wylan joins the team, they (probably only briefly) all team up to briefly intersect with whatever Alina has going on in her plot. For the team up to make a bit of sense or at least for Nina&Matthias to not remain ultra static for the next two seasons, they'd need to make up again, or at least begin to tolerate each other.

Two possibilities from then on out:

1) The SoC books do get adapted and by some strokes of probably pretty awkward writing Matthias is put back in prison by the end of S3, they hate each other again, Wylan didn't tell anyone (except maybe Kaz) about his dad, everyone's all set up for the Book Heist now. Which would be awkwardly doubling a few points and/or retconning a bunch of plot.

2) No retcons, no changes, but the Ice Court Heist starts from a different point/gets changed to fit where the Crows are at the end of S3.... Which would also make the Heist almost boring, if not completely different, because the biggest factor of that adventure was that everyone at least majorly distrusted one other person on the team and at least half of them would have easily betrayed the rest. That's a big part where the tension came from. Matthias as the hostage, hating them all but Nina in particular, Nina absolutely planning to assassinate Kuwei behind Kaz's back, Kaz and Jesper fighting over Jesper's accidental early betrayel, Kaz having how own unresolved revenge plot for which he endangers the whole mission, no one really knowing Wylan or the truth about why he left home, etc.

I have a feeling S2, if not then S3 will already dig into Wylan's backstory a bit, probably showing him escaping his father's assassins, but if they spoil/reveal the "If you read this, you know how much I love you" plottwist, I will be so mad. It was incredibly well done in the books and to this day one of my fav plottwists ever.

They already gave us Nina's and Matthias' whole backstory, uncovering which was also a pretty nifty part of the Ice Court Heist because it meant you didn't know exactly where these two were coming from until they discussed openly betraying each other & Kaz in the forest the earliest, but I guess the story still works if their backstories aren't revealed gradually. An early reveal of Wylan's entire backstory would tank a lot of tension of the first book, imo.

Since they didn't really do anything with Jesper in the first season, he and Wylan are kinda wildcards. They could both start into the SoC Heist right now, since Jesper's power- or ruthlessness level doesn't really change (he's arguably way weaker in the books) and the only things missing (a serious treatment of his addiction, his crush on Kaz, his relationship to his father) can all still be added later without breaking what has been already established about his character (since he doesn't really have an arc or an inner struggle in S1, that is, not much in the first place).

TL;DR: We'll either get a significantly changed SoC/CK adaptation after S&B, or they'll have to seriously change some things up in S3/post S3 with regards to Nina&Matthias especially for SoC/CK to still work out similarly to the plot in the books.

#soc #sab #s&b #six of crows #shadow and bone #sab netflix #shadow and bone s2 #sab theories #sab speculation #kaz brekker #crooked kingdom #the crows #wylan van eck

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ravenya003 · 1 year

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Review: Shadow and Bone: Season 2

I finally got around to getting down my thoughts about Shadow and Bone: Season 2.

Well, it was incredibly scattershot and chaotic, which is inevitable when you’re squeezing three separate novels (plus some of the short stories) into eight episodes of television, so it’s best to watch this as a series of fun scenes rather than a coherent, well-structured storyline. Because it’s definitely not that.

Surprise MVP was Lewis Tan as Tolya – he was always going to be good, but whereas other characters embody their book counterparts, he elevates Tolya into someone completely new, which is for the better. And thankfully they remembered to add a scene in which he could show off his martial arts skills (*stares at Westworld completely wasting Daniel Wu*). And everyone ducking to avoid being hit in the face with the hilt of his sword was probably the season’s best running gag.

Also, Zoe Wanamaker as the requisite elder bringing unselfconscious gravitas to an otherwise rather silly YA project, and Jack Wolfe was perfect as Wylan. All we need now is to see all six Crows in the same frame.

You could definitely see some of the cracks in the production, presumably brought about by either Covid restrictions or Netflix’s scheduling: from the complete absence of Fedyor and Ivan, to weirdly structured confrontations (Alina faces down an illusion of the Darkling, and then a few seconds later he appears in full view of everyone) to the final battle scenes unfolding with everyone standing at vast distances from each other.

Even having read the books and watched the season twice, I’m still a little fuzzy on how exactly Mal is the firebird. It’s his bloodline? But then, how did that revelation get tangled up in the imagery of a phoenix?

But you know what – it doesn’t matter. All I want at this point is a dramatization of the Ice Court heist. That’s all! Clearly it’s what Eric Heisserer has been wanting to do this whole time, and now that the preliminaries are over with, we’re left on tenterhooks waiting to see if Netflix will greenlight what we’re all here to see, or drop the axe like they’ve already done with so many one-or-two season shows.

Please Netflix, just give me the Six of Crows on the Ice Court heist and I promise not to care about any of your shows ever again.

Longer review on blog...

#rav's watching log

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captainsupernoodle · 3 years

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okay i Know somebody already asked kaz what he's going to do after pekka rollins and he was like "build an empire watch it burn" or whatever because he has Drama Lines ready whenever someone asks him a question he doesn't want to answer but i Need to see him having his crisis. 'oh no pekka rollins isn't coming back and all of my friends left what do i do now.' inej got her crap together well enough that she chased rollins off entirely and gave him Exactly what kaz wanted him to have - mindless, circling, crippling fear, always looking over his shoulder - but now what?? he's got the dregs and jesper is still in the city, is he just going to 'brick by brick' all the other barrel bosses now? this guy is capital-d-Driven but he needs some kind of engine

#six of crows #noodle speaks #presumably this is one reason why there isn't a third soc book #what if he just moves to the country??#what if he accidentally takes over all of ketterdam?#what if he takes over ketterdam on purpose?#mob boss kaz or politician kaz or master thief kaz?#what if he just goes full ham and takes over kerch in general?#what if he starts taking lessons from wylan's mom and just quits to be a painter?#hares off to take a vacation as a pirate with inej and doesn't come back?#starts a thief armada because he's bored and inej needs backup?#breaks into all the other impossible heist places in the world?#reverse ice court job where they're trying to give nina a hand with something and accidentally get jesper elected king of someplace?

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misterbrekker · 3 years

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Some thoughts on the crows kidnapping Alina: Why only 1 million kruge?

1) The sun summoner does not exist.

It can be predicted from the way Kaz says "she's real" in the trailer, that he's in awe and somewhat surprised. Kaz would be the type of person to not believe in the existence of a sun summoner. So, if he believes Alina is not actually a sun summoner, why not take the 1 million? If they find Alina, they get the money. It would be easy money too, because odds are she’s just an ordinary person. And sure, it could be that Kaz believes Alina does not exist at all, but in order to accept the job he’s going need a decent amount of information on her. So odds are, in Kaz’s mind she exists but she’s just not who everyone thinks she is.

“Sure, I’ll kidnap the sUn SuMmOneR, who totally exists, for 1 MILLION kruge.”

Inej on the other hand, would be more likely to believe in the sun summoner. Evident in her slight nod when Kaz says “she’s real,” she appears to also be in awe, but unlike Kaz, not surprised. Her nod is more symbolic of confirmation.

This is something that could even cause conflict among the crows as they journey to Ravka. As they face any extreme danger, they could be questioning why they are even going after an ordinary girl for just one million. It could also be as simple as Kaz insisting Alina is just an ordinary girl and Inej insisting otherwise.

2) Kaz is less experienced.

Now, it can be predicted the crows will end up at the Ravkan palace at some point, both by the setting when Inej is on her ropes in the teaser, and also by the fact a Darkling and Kaz encounter has been hinted at. So, Kaz needs to be capable of getting into the palace and kidnapping Alina both for him to be hired and for this storyline to work. Yet, with this being season 1, Kaz is not yet the version of himself that will break into the ice court. That doesn’t mean he is not as skilled, but it could mean that at this point in his career, 1 million kruge is a great amount of money for a job. Maybe it’s even the most he’s ever been offered, so it makes sense for him to take the job.

3) To set up the ice court heist.

If kidnapping THE sun summoner only earns the crows 1 million kruge, the offer of 30 million kruge is going to immediately show the audience this new job is a HUGE deal. Especially since there’s a chance Kaz will be offered the job at the end of season 1, the audience is going to be left wondering... 30 million? If THE sun summoner was only 1 million, what job could be even BIGGER?

This is trickier to predict, as we do not know whether the crows will actually get the money. I personally think there are two ways things could go, although with either option I do expect the crows to end up helping Alina after they reach her. So, option 1 is the crows help Alina and give up the money. But, knowing Kaz, it is highly unlikely he is okay with not being paid. For that reason, option 2 is more probable, where the crows are able to help Alina and somehow able to still earn their money in the process.

Circling back to my point on Kaz’s experience level, within six of crows, Van Eck originally offers Kaz 20 million for the ice court heist. In comparison to 1 million kruge, 20 million is a lot more. But let’s say just for the sake of discussion, option 2 is what happens and the crows are able to both help Alina and get paid. Kidnapping Alina was a success at least in terms of Kaz proving he could do it. If that is the case, Kaz has now shown himself to be highly skilled. Consequently, his skills are more in demand. Not only does he have the ability to negotiate a higher price, but maybe he knows better than to pass up a chance to negotiate too. When he set out to kidnap Alina, 1 million seemed reasonable for an ordinary girl. Yet, she ended up being a real sun summoner. After everything they went through, 1 million no longer feels like a reasonable amount for the job. Thus, Kaz won’t be making that mistake again. If he’s going to the ice court, he’s getting paid 30 million kruge.

What does this mean for season 2?

And just to address my thoughts on the fact the crows being hired to kidnap Alina in season 1 means their storyline will be comparable to season 2, where they are hired to kidnap Bo Yul-Bayur... I don’t think this is a bad thing.

At least personally, I think it’s cool we’ll get to see the crows complete two “heists.” Will this establish the crows as “heist” people? Yes, but that’s also what they are. They’re thieves: they break into Van Eck’s house to steal the DeKappel, they break into the Ravkan palace, they break into the ice court... It’s the way they make their money. Of course, there is an undeniable similarity in that both seasons 1 and 2 will presumably involve kidnapping a person (which is a pretty specific job description). But, reducing season 1 and 2 to “kidnapping Alina” and “kidnapping Bo Yul-Bayur” strips the storylines down to their most basic forms. I don’t love the ice court heist because the crows kidnap someone, I love it because of the journey the crows take in order to do so. Ravka and the ice court are two completely different places. Plus, most importantly, the season 1 team is only Kaz, Inej, and Jesper. When the ice court heist occurs, Nina, Matthias, and Wylan will be there too. It’s going to be a new dynamic with new stakes, and because of that--the ice court heist will feel completely different.

#shadow and bone #six of crows #schemebean post

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kurisus · 3 years

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I’m still reeling from how much I enjoyed Shadow and Bone. More thoughts (and spoilers) under the cut.

I feel like someone going into this show with no knowledge of either book series would be hella confused by all the worldbuilding and politics but as I have read all the Grishaverse books I can’t say firsthand

That said the SAB parts MASSIVELY improved on the original books. The books were not...good, to put it mildly, and the show fixed a lot of what I hated about the book. There was still some dumb shit, they didn’t completely fix it, but I enjoyed what I saw onscreen a hell of a lot more than in the book.

Mal was a completely different character in the show and it was so much better. In the books he’s an asshole to everyone, not just Alina, and I could never see why we were supposed to root for him. But in the show, they dropped and changed his awful moments one by one and gave him the personality he should have had all along--I can see why they care for each other, and I actually want things to work out for them.

Basically, book TGT has no rights. Show TGT has many.

But the crows plot...not so much. It felt like they were mostly just there for comic relief and didn’t impact the plot at all, so it’s going to be weird when they do the Ice Court heist.

I LOVED the Helnik scenes. The mix of original scripting, the actors having perfect chemistry, and book dialogue won my heart over completely. I really think the showrunners took a gamble with including them at all, since they served even less of a purpose than the crows and if they didn’t get another season there would be no reason for them to be there either. I’m also glad they somewhat changed Nina selling out Matthias to fit the context of the TGT plot, but not enough to where it didn’t happen at all, since he still needs to be convinced she’s the enemy.

The rest of the crows were a mixed bag. Some of the individual scenes I liked, some I did not, overall the plot for them and the logic and reasoning for why they were in Ravka at all was shaky at best.

For example, WHY THE FUCK IS THERE A MAGIC TRAIN THAT CAN CROSS THE SHADOW FOLD. WHY IS THE FIRST ARMY NOT USING IT. WHY ARE THEY CROSSING OPEN AND EXPOSED LIKE FOOLS. HOW DID THE CONDUCTOR EVEN LAY THE TRACKS.

It looks like season 2 will be opening in Ketterdam rather than Novyi Zem like the books, which I’m fine with at a basic level. I’m just not sure where the crows will go from there--will they continue their anime original story arc until the TGT plot is over (2 more seasons, presumably), or will they head off to Fjerda after the Darkling reclaims Alina? I kinda hope the WHOLE plot of season 2 doesn’t take place in Ketterdam, since that would be a lot of filler.

The plot of SAS takes place partly at sea and mostly in Ravka and revolves around Nikolai building rapport with the common folk by having Alina at his side, so they would have to do a LOT of changing if they wanted to do the plot in Ketterdam, aside from just the opening scenes. As fun as it might be to see the crows fighting the Darkling in their own territory for a whole season, most of my problems with season 1 of the show stem from them trying to cram two vastly different book series into one plot rather than just adapting them separately. And I have mixed feelings either way they try to progress the crows’ plot in season 2.

If the writers decide to keep them fucking around with filler until the TGT plot is done, it’s going to be real weird both for book readers and for people who have only seen the show to watch these comic relief sidekick characters suddenly become serious and the stars of the show after not impacting the plot of three seasons, with no more nods to the Ravka storyline unless they decide to adapt KOS alongside SOC (doubtful). But it does work chronologically, since the SOC duology takes place years after TGT.

On the other hand, if the crows go to the Ice Court in season 2, they’ll actually get to do stuff but it’s still going to be really weird having this heist plot for money getting tangled up with the end-of-the-world plot in TGT. I have a bad feeling they’d make the Darkling seek out jurda parem for his final battle on the Fold, and Alina would take parem to stop him or something, which is just all kinds of weird. I would also throw hands if they dropped the auction from Crooked Kingdom to have them battle it out on the Fold instead.

Bottom line: I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how they do it. I’m hoping for a season 2 announcement soon, and casting for Wylan and Nikolai as well as other characters, which should give me a hint as to what they’re planning plot-wise.

#live update #Shadow and Bone

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