#s&b critical

[theweeklydiscourse]

My reasons for disliking the Shadow and Bone Netflix adaptations had very little to do with its “book accuracy” and had more to do with it being a terrible adaptation. In fact, I would’ve preferred if the writers had taken some liberties and revised certain flaws of the original trilogy to create a more compelling narrative.

However, they instead made superficial changes that added little to the value of the show and were bandaid solutions to deeper problems with the source material. They didn’t expand on the original story, they only narrowed the scope. This, was its ultimate flaw that ended up culminating in a watered down version of what we once knew.

For example, the rehabilitation of Mal’s image seemed agreeable initially, but harmed the story in the long-run. The writers understood that book!Mal was disliked, but instead of re-examining that character and expanding (and perhaps improving) his arc, they refashioned him into a boring and frictionless character that offered little to the emotional stakes of the story. This choice, was a prime example of the dilution of the characters and story for the adaptation that ended up creating a weaker experience altogether.

The girlbossification of Alina, the lobotomizing of the Darkling to make it easier for the heroes to defeat him, cramming the Crows into a plot that didn’t concern them, blaming Grisha persecution on the Darkling, making Zoya a racist/the Darkling’s side chick, all of those idiotic flashbacks, were symptomatic of the writers inability to take risks.

#lb critical #shadow and bone #the darkling #alina starkov #s&b critical #s&b netflix #s&b salt #darklina #aleksander morovoza #anti leigh bardugo #zoya nazyanelsky #six of crows #malyen oretsev #netflix

[xalonelydreamerx]

I think I'm gonna write an analysis as soon as I finish rereading the trilogy but yeah s2 was fucking terrible.

I've seen many people saying they're happy about Alina, and while yes, I'm glad she didn't lose her powers and didn't end up with Mal, there are so much bigger problems with this season

Aside the costume still looking bad, pacing being all over the place because there are simply too many characters and the annoying repentance of the flashbacks, Alina comes as extremely annoying, stuck up, tone deaf and overall a bitch.

Unlike some, I do love book!Alina because she's a very flawed character but lots of her mistakes actually do make sense if you're able to let go of the grudge that comes from reading a YA 2010 book.

Show! Alina was intentionally supposed to be portrayed as strong, bold, confident and smart since s1. She's not supposed to be naive, ignorant, selfish and emotional like book!Alina but somehow she ends up coming across as so much worse.

The Darkling is no better. He comes off as extremely pathetic. He already was in s1, but I was hoping he was gonna have an arc in this season and become more like his canon self. Sadly, that wasn't meant to be.

Show!Darkling has no personality other than wanting Alina in such a desperate way that is hard to look at. I know the girlies gash over him being a ✨ simp ✨ but there's a difference between pathetic (affectionate) and pathetic (degoratory). He wants to keep the grisha safe but even that a aspect suffers from a very detrimental alteration they did on the show which I will now mention.

Apparently, grisha aren't the oppressed group we know in canon. On no, the season hits you with the hammer about how it's the fold and everything that happened in s1 that made everybody turn against grisha. Not that they've been capturing them, enslaving them and burning them for hundred of years, na-ah.

I have no comment on the crows since I hardly ever cared for them. Some scenes were good, but they suffered with how much the story was rushed.

The ending was shit, because while it's cool that alina kept her powers and an arc of her becoming basically a new antagonist is interesting on paper, it doesn't work here because it wasn't built up well and as I mentioned Alina came off as incredible unlikable and darklina was extremely one-sided.

The script was very poor and this isn't a hate towards the actors because they don't really have any control of it.

While I'll continue shipping darklina they were both done very dirty because they were ooc since the first season and the second one reduced them both to something beyond recognition.

#darklina #s&b critical #I'm one of the few souls who still defends the trilogy because it was meant to be as it was - a nice mid writing fantasy romance #but both Alina and the Darkling were much better in the books #idc that Jessie and Ben look hot #their looks can't fix how fucking terrible the script was #the Darkling was also very cartoonish which is an irony because for years I've been heading he's like that in books (newflash he isn't) #the fact that the grisha oppression was better portrayed in the books than in the show is a tragedy itself #congrats Eric Heisserer you somehow created an ever worse story wow #grishaverse #my venting #I'll just go back to loving book darklina 'cause I have no clue who these ppl on screen are

[kallypsowrites]

I hope another streaming platform or TV channel will someday make a new adaptation of Shadow and Bone from scratch and give these characters the depth, complexity, and development they deserve. Slow burn would have been the way to go. Cramming multiple books into 8 episodes was never a good idea and I cannot believe the writers think they can trick Netflix into approving a spin-off by asking the fans to generate fake views through background streaming.

Ya know, I'm not holding out too much hope for a "more complex" adaptation, simply because the trilogy itself isn't what I'd call super complex. The fandom often finds complexity in what it could have been, but other than the Six of Crows duology, I think that the books are rather lacking.

That being said, the show could have been WAY better than it was and does make me wish for the emotional levels of the books lol.

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone critical #s&b critical #shadow and bone season 2

[pocketgalaxies]

I just start doing crunches, and that’s how I wake up the group. (requested by @sunshinekeyleth)

#critical role #criticalroleedit #orym cr #laudna cr #ashton greymoore #gifs #* #*cr #*request #cr3 #r: laudna x orym #r: orym x ashton #laugh tag #1k #scheduled #49m c3e26 #best worst roommate ever dkfjskdjfsd #TUMBLR THESE LOOK SO FUCKING SHITTY P L E A S E FIX YOUR GIF LOADER. PUT IT B A C K

[gay-jewish-bucky]

can we talk about the ableism/sexism of people having the serum change steve's sexual preferences?

so many people cannot fathom a disabled/chronically ill man who doesn't fit the masculine ideal (due to said health issues) being a dominant and/or a top, especially with a partner who is closer to normative masculinity, and must automatically be a bottom and submissive

yet once he gets the serum and becomes the perfect example of the masculine ideal there is no possible way that he could be a bottom or be submissive because that's not "manly" and magically turns into a dominant top

the serum amplifies what's already there, it wouldn't change what he likes in bed, it would strengthen it.

#part of the reason i have set in stone headcanons about preferences for s&b is how ableist i've found a lot of fics #anyway pre-serum bucky wanted to be topped and dommed by pre-serum steve soooo bad #so bad it made him look stupid #marvel #mcu #steve rogers #steven grant rogers #nsft #fandom critical #fanfiction #fanfic

[ragingstillness]

Gotta love how S&B season two completely forgot that Baghra tried to kill Mal in the first season.

#sab #sab critical #grishaverse #grishaverse critical #grishanalyticritical #s&b #shadow and bone #shadow and bone season two

[thereisnolumos]

darklina thoughts: I wanted to get into the shadow and bone Fandom(books and show) because of the amazing gif set of the darklina kiss I saw

Like who are these two that are sharing such a beautiful kiss. And look so aesthically pleasing together with the darkness and light vibes. I was so excited to find out who these two were because these kind of ships are my everything. Than I find out and 😨😱😤😠🤬!!!!! It was like running full steam a head with tons of excitement and crashing face first into a wall when I find out everything about this Fandom. Both about the books and show. The author and this beautiful ship. And I'm like God why do authors do this ship. Tease us with everything we want and the full potential. But than do a completely one 80 and waste are time on things we don't care about, or find insulting or toxic, and tells us are tastes are dumb and toxic. So now I just read fics and look at beautiful art of Darklina and the potential they could have been. It's just so annoying because this stuff happens all the time!!! And don't get me started on what I heard about the author. I don't know if their true. And wish I could find out real stuff about her. But if it is. God she is so messed up for doing this to us.

I only got in the fandom bcs I randomly saw a teaser for the first season and Ben Barnes was there in all his dark glory. I knew nothing about the books, but the way that show was promoted I was expecting the epic dark romance, villain who’s not really a villain gets the girl all the vibe. Plus cool world build and complicated detailed story overall.

I got none of that.

That show was interesting and hopeful for the first 5 episodes (we will always have 1x05🖤). It wasn’t as detailed and complex as I expected, but it had potential and the main pair - the one they based THE ENTIRE promotion on by the way - was having one of the most fiery and spark inducing chemistry I’ve ever seen on the screen, so I kept my hopes up for the overall plot and focused on them. And then… then they backpedaled SO HARD on everything that made that show interesting for the broad audience, I wonder how they didn’t give themselves a whiplash… though considering the horrible quality of s2 they probably did

Though I didn’t like the way s1 ended, I still thought there is hope, and “we need a conflict for our main pair, I guess”. I truly, wholeheartedly believed that creators and writers of the show are not complete idiots and know how to read the room and what the most of their audience is there for, so that’s what they’ll deliver. But oh my, how wrong I was.

The second season is downright unwatchable with how horrifyingly terrible it is. I only suffered through the entire thing for Ben, who, bless his heart, tried his hardest to deliver the complexity and depth of his character, who he only agreed to play if they “won’t make him a cardboard villain”. And they did exactly that in s2, or tried to, bcs Ben Barnes and his talent didn’t let them, despite all their efforts. The rest of the cast I guess didn’t have enough experience to fix the worst writing imaginable with their acting, so most of the characters became absolutely bland and uninteresting and SO IDIOTICALLY STUPUD, I yelled at them constantly, scaring my cat the entire time.

Also, as much as I understand it from exploring the fandom, the creators and writers of the show are die hard fans of the Crows, and they don’t actually like Alina’s trilogy at all. So… why didn’t they just do the books they wanted I’ll never know. Instead, they forced the Crows in the plot they were never a part of (making all of them okay with selling a girl to slavery in the process. Despite one of them being the former slave and the other one being the one who got her out of it… make it make sense, I beg of you), in the second season they wasted SO MUCH time on their plot lines that 1)didn’t matter one bit for the overall story, 2)were absolutely uninteresting to everyone who isn’t the Crows fan beforehand. In the end we got half-assed Alina and Aleksander’s story with half-assed Crows’ story. They should’ve just made the Crows show, without touching Alina and Aleksander

I haven’t read the books, but from what I gathered in the fandom, though still committing the same sin of putting all the promotion and marketing into the Dark romance trope without actually delivering on it, and force feeding the fans one of the worst and most toxic pairings ever with Malina, at least Alina and Aleksander’s characters weren’t made so cardboard and stupid, and there was tragedy in their story, not the shit that they gave us in s2. Though I absolutely DESPISE the fact that Alina looses her powers in the end and goes on to live Mal’s dream life… Like WHAT THE FUCK?? What levels of internalized misogyny do you need to have as a woman, to write this plot line for your female protagonist???? I can’t.

On Mal’s toxicity: at least that made him a fleshed out character in the books. Absolutely horrible one, how could the author make him “get the girl” is beyond me. But at least he had a personality, however terrible one. In the show, I guess understanding, that no one would root for that asshole, they removed his toxicity almost completely, but that made him as bland as stale porridge. There wasn’t ANYTHING left on his character. At all. How anyone could’ve rooted for him I absolutely refuse to understand. Any woman deserved better than Blade😈

I don’t know anything about Leigh Bardugo, except for the fact that she butcher my native language and makes me furious. If you don’t know the language at least on a medium level, perhaps don’t use it in your books. Or at least hire someone who does. The way she butchered it, I’m not sure she even used Google translate…

So yeah, I’m with you on only reading Darklina fanfics and admiring fan art. I’m not at all sad that they cancelled the show, and I’m even giddy that those creators and writers didn’t get their wet dream of the Crows spin off. They didn’t deserve it after the shit they pulled in the second season. I do hope that they won’t ruin any other shows in the future. I am sad for the actors, who deserved much better and who were actually good at their parts, while the writing was okay. Poor Archie Renaux suffered the most, his character didn’t have good writing at all, not for a single scene. I hope we’ll see more of all of them.

And we need Ben and Jessie to do a film together. Preferably a rom com, but I’m not picky. Just that their characters are together. Such chemistry can’t be wasted

#shadow and bone critical #anti shadow and bone #anti shadow and bone writers #anti s&b #anti s&b writers #anti leigh bardugo #darklina #the darkling #pro the darkling #pro aleksander morozova #pro darklina #anti malina #alina starkov #aleksander morozova #ben barnes #jessie mei li

[scentedmiracleobject]

#anti shadow and bone #anti leigh bardugo #anti lazy writers #anti s&b show writers #s&b season 2 plotholes #grishaverse criticism #s&b salt #S&B plotholes #shadow and bone critical

[biherbalwitch]

Bit of a rant but I feel insane bc I just saw a BUNCH of people saying the show "made Jesper hypersexual" and like "he sleeps around" like I'm sorry did we read the same books??? Since when is Jesper "let Jesper and Nina flirt the entirety of Ketterdam into submission." Fahey innocent? It was implied he actually does sleep around. if anything the show subdued his (& Nina's) flirtations and only paired him up with one person before wylan. I'm begging people to have two ounces of critical thinking and learn to read between the lines for 500, Alex! It's almost comical how much people are trying to infantilize these characters that it turns them one dimensional.

#for the love of god #have some lore #literary analysis #critical thinking where? #people are acting like they're never consumed media before #jesper fahey #six of crows #crooked kingdom #nina zenik #wylan van eck #jesper x wylan #shadow and bone #s&b netflix #sab #s&b spoilers

[legendarytragedynacho]

William Seward Burroughs

#william s. burroughs #writer #novel #beat generation #visual artist #social critic #b/w photography

[theweeklydiscourse]

Alina loving her powers would mean for her to love herself. Whenever she loves her light, the way it makes her feel, the way it protects her, she is loving who she is and defying the will of an oppressive society that wants her to hate herself. She was meant for another story where the author doesn’t chastise her for loving herself and create a bizarre message that if you love yourself too much, you need to be humbled and put in your place.

Shadow and bone glorifies repression in a disturbing way. It almost seems to praise Alina’s repression during her adolescence as an accomplishment that eventually allowed her to defeat the Darkling and proof of her humility. In RoW, she condemns her supposed greed in the past in an act of self-flagellation because OBVIOUSLY she must perform her humility to prove that losing her powers wasn’t a horrible thing. This self-hatred is then transformed into condemnations of the Darkling and reveals her (and the narrative’s) fear that she will become like him. It’s almost hilarious how scared the story is of Alina potentially understanding him and sympathizing with his ambitions.

That’s ultimately the great fear of the story. That Alina will care enough about something to actually use her power to change the status quo and help other people aside from Mal. That she will embrace who she truly is and become active in her life. Taking responsibility and stepping up to the challenge is wrong and evil, so she should just sit down and quietly hate herself while the problem gets worse

#shadow and bone #the darkling #lb critical #alina starkov #s&b critical #s&b salt #aleksander morovoza #anti leigh bardugo #darklina #grishaverse meta #s&b netflix

[xalonelydreamerx]

I dislike s2 of s&b like any other person. Hell, s1 had a bunch of problems that people aren't ready to face yet. But the sudden anti Alina hate i see e v e r y w h e r e is beyond frustrating. Because every character was butchered and people will criticize the writing, but somehow Alina is a special case and deserves bashing.

Same goes for book readers who very obviously are reading the books recently. s&b writers/ showrunners aren't the only misogynists here, the fandom - and that include's darkling/pseudo darklina fans are also sexists and they mask it as "criticism"

#alina starkov #shadow and bone #s&b critical #darklina #the darkling #grishaverse meta #grishaverse critical #my venting #in both show and books alina is held in such high standards while aleksander gets a pass because he “tried to keep the grisha safe” #as if he isn't alina's antagonist who commits a bunch of crimes left and right . Having a noble cause doesn't erase that #and don't get it twist it. he's my fav character but i acknowledge his flaws instead of blaming everything on alina #some shippers straight up despise her and make her his villain. I'm so tired of this fandom seeing everything in black and white

[lenakluthor]

LOSING MY MIND BC WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE CROWN KEEPERS ARE BACK AND I'M NOT CAUGHT UP TO SEE IT

#katie speaks #EXU IS MY COMFORT CAMPAIGN THOSE ARE MY B A B I E S #cr spoilers #critical role #cr: bell's hells

[isagrimorie]

I think worse than the whole Janeway/Chakotay and Seven/Chakotay thing?

The way Starbuck/Apollo didn’t resolve.

At least the Janeway/Chakotay analogs= Roslin/Adama became a thing.

Kara just disappeared on Lee. Because she’s an Angel.

Everything beyond season 3 of BSG, except for a few exceptions, I loathe with a passion.

Especially when every beginning it went: “We had a plan.”

No Mr Ron “I hate Voyager with a Passion and I can do Better” Moore you DIDN’T.

Babylon 5 had a plan. You didn’t. And lied about it every single season and got some stupid ass pulls the more seasons happened.

First 3 seasons? Great!

Everything after?

Nope.

Seriously, most of the best BSG reboot ideas are all redressed Voyager ideas.

I think why I’m so annoyed and mad a out Ron Moore, and it’s something that’s been building is how everyone praise him as an auteur and in the same breath (on reddit at least) disparaging Voyager.

Voyager isn’t perfect, and yeah god knows I want some consistent carry over, and for the writers to give a damn for the final season. The writers have checked out but the actors (except Beltran) haven’t.

But I can watch Voyager over and over.

I won’t front either, I used to advocate for a full season of Year of Hell, until recently when I realize doing so will stop Voyager from being Star Trek and turn it into BSG.

Two good shows and franchises with different goals.

Did I wish there was someone who remembered Year of Hell? Yeah. Or maybe some damage on Voyager carried over? Sure.

But as I realized it, while there was a reset… the characterizations weren’t actually lost.

Because YoH!Janeway’s characteristics are Janeway’s throughout the show but essentially culminating in Endgame!Admiral!Janeway.

But also the ending of Voyager, while it had frustrating elements didn’t leave me furious, like BSG.

#not tagging the other show #but for #my archival purposes #b #s #gee #star trek voyager #rdm critical #critical b/ s / gee

[samandhislostshoe]

young simon baker is so nikolai lantsov

#i take no criticism #nikolai lantsov #king of ravka #king of scars #rules of wolves #grishaverse #zoya nazyanelsky #zoyalai #shadow and bone #sab #s&b s2 #leigh bardugo #netflix shadow and bone #simon baker #i might be little biased but psssshh

[ragingstillness]

#me #shadow and bone #sab #s&b #grishanalyticritical #grishaverse #grishaverse critical