#sab critical

[greensaplinggrace]

"You can say 'all are welcome' but if wolves and sheep are both welcome you're only going to get wolves" is a quote that I think maybe end of season two alina needs to hear at some point tbh

#shadow and bone #grishaverse #sab salt #sab critical #there is so much wrong with this story in both the books and the show #but the fact that alina herself (by virtue of the authors not understanding) lacks such a fundamental understanding of oppression #and basic power structures #is uhhhh disorienting and more than a little disconcerting #'i want the lp to be a safe haven for everyone!' #girl... #it all sounds so perfect on the surface level the way centrist politics sounds pretty and perfect #but it's ridiculous lmfao #alina starkov critical #not really #i mean ill blame the writing till the cows come home #myramblings

[ohdeadlynightshades]

Remembering we don’t know anything when it comes to Sun Summoners and their origins fills me with rage.

Ms. Bardugo, you were presented with an amazing opportunity of making Baghra’s sister—a nameless character supposedly important to the narrative—the very first Sun Saint, the one who spread the myth and make Alina her descendant… It would’ve made so much more sense. Saint Ilya could’ve conquered the darkness and the light and turned his daughters into his monsters. Instead you randomly decide to make Malyen an amplifier to add substance to your raspberry.

#leigh bardugo critical #sab critical #alina starkov #alina starkova* #the darkling #Pro Darkling #GIVE ALINA SOMETHING #SHE IS YOUR MAIN CHARACTER #GODDAMN IT #grishaverse #shadow and bone #aleksander morozova #aleksander morozov* #sun summoner #shadow summoner #tagging pro darkling because only sasha fans understand my rage #pro darkling and pro sun saint

[howtostandinsilence]

“The SaB writers looked Darklina shippers right in the eyes and said this is an unhealthy ship.” - No, the SaB writers avoided the entire fandom’s eyes because they don’t have the balls to be direct about anything and said “we are so afraid of backlash from the puritans if we add even an an ounce of nuance to this story that we are going to sanitize every character in our show and flatten this story into nothing.”

You all will really attribute any kind of activism to a bunch of people convinced that the fandom is so childish it can’t even handle Alina slightly having complexity. It just goes to show that anti rhetoric isn’t feminist or morally superior at all. It’s the naïve handwringing of a bunch of sheltered centrists over fake morals as a stand-in for real world activism.

#anti darklina bs #no wonder these people think lb is a good writer #they think the netflix sab writers were actually doing something or making a statement with their word vomit second season #anti sab #sab critical #anti shadow and bone #sab salt #sab discourse #anti darkling bs

[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

[when-wax-wings-melt]

OKAY. finished sab2 you can rant to me now tell me all your thoughts bc im still stewing

OKAY. OKAY.

overall opinion is that the crows should not have been in sab at all. it should have been solely Alina and her story. maybe a cameo of inej or Nina at MOST but certainly the crows should not have been involved.

because they WERE, they spent the whole season trying to find something for them to do, and settled on.???? ruining their characters. LMAOOO . first of all, they made it very much about romance which was strange, but mostly they fast tracked relationships and gave characters dynamics that were not true to their characters. the whole point of wesper is that wylan is near scandalized but then warms up to jespers jokes and all that. but they?? hooked up??? previously??? like what the fuck.

also severe erase of inej trauma! why does kaz get a full flashback backstory and inej doesn't? taking away tante heleen (particularly by someone else's hand) was a shit move since a woman being in charge of the brothel was super important!! pekka is supposed to be a reasonably irrational hatred of kaz (in that it's a grudge he specifically holds, and inej hates him by proxy) he's not supposed to OWN INEJ. also, when everyone else was having the hallucinations, why did everyone else get to imagine family and then inej got kaz's stupid ass?? where's her fucking brother???

also the Jesper and aditi hallucination was super expositiony and did his backstory dirty. I don't like that kaz got the only flashbacks it's kind of rude.

all in all, the crows overshadowed the shadow and bone cast w a kind of weak plot. it felt like major fan service. it also felt like they didn't know how to properly develop relationships and had to use everything from soc and ck instead of actually slowburning properly (kanej fucking SPEEDRAN, not to mention wesper)

onto the actual sab plotline

I detested mals character this season. he felt like a second choice, and they really erased the core of his conflict with Alina so the conflict they did have felt very manufactured and out of nowhere. the contrast of him fitting in anywhere and her always out of place was supposed to affect their relationship as well as her relationship w the darkling and it felt too rushed.

Nikolai I was also disappointed in. the point of him turning into the monster was that Alina loses everyone all the time, and it's more proof that the darklings words about her immortality and power means something. she has to witness him become a monster and turn to the darkling; now impossible, because unless they're launching immediately into kos (wonky idea) the darkling is fucking dead.

also WHY did they kill David off. for literally what reason. also they did zoya dirty and also they did not give genya as horrifying scars as she probably should have had but that's a separate issue. also tolya?? for no reason he was really outgoing suddenly.

putting both books 2&3 together WITH the crows was a bad move in my opinion, it made everything too rushed and felt like we didn't get nearly as much out of it as we could've. I liked some parts of it such as baghra and stuff but overall I was. I was pretty pissed by what they did LMAOO

#summer gets an ask #avery asks #sab crit #sab critical #ask to tag

[readerinpassing]

Oh good, Zoya and Nikolai using bloodletter as a slur. The same slur. Bonus points for Nikolai saying it right in front of Tamar and Tolya, *corporalki twins*.

If I'm mad, it's because these characters could tell such good stories about becoming good people, but LB's outer bigot never let that happen.

#anti sab #sab critical #sab meta #anti leigh bardugo

[twoheartsoneclara]

i think the problem that i have with sab’s plotlines for the crows in season 2 is that it’s not just that they took events from crooked kingdom but it’s that they literally took the climax of crooked kingdom and removed it from its context and expected it to work. 

and they put it in the first half of a season and then gave the crows an admittedly interesting but not very special adventure to go on the second half.  the plotline of them fetching the sword is entirely superfluous in nature (the only concrete character moments resultant is of their visions via hallucination).  kaz’s entire character arc from the soc duology is reduced to a precursor to a plotline that doesn’t even really affect the main storyline.  more than that, kaz’s revenge on pekka is contextless of the attempt both of them have at the ice court to pull off the heist.  “brick by brick” means little to nothing when kaz is able to accomplish everything so easily, without all the other obstacles that the heist + van eck + literally everything else that goes wrong for them and yet he’s still able to pull off the firepox scam + threatening Pekka’s son.

jesper’s ability to manipulate metal is similarly just like.  not a problem for him.  the reveal that he has those abilities and his progression of skill is admittedly very cool and fun to watch but his curving the bullet was just as much a part of the twist as everything else was at the auction in crooked kingdom. 

similarly, inej going off on the ship to hunt slavers is such a big part of the ending to crooked kingdom.  kaz and inej’s relationship is an integral part of that moment in the books, and they are secure enough in who they are to each other, whereas here they are left in the precarity of “i will have you without armor” which y’know.  happens a full book prior to the events at the end of crooked kingdom. 

even wesper - who are completely adorable, don’t get me wrong - are together almost immediately.  even excusing the fact that wylan is there at all instead of being introduced for the ice court heist, they already know each other’s main secret (namely jesper being able to manipulate metal, and wylan not knowing how to read).  the only thing that haven’t yet revealed is wylan’s origin as a van eck. 

what is at least somewhat good about this is what they’re going to explore as a result of having already wrapped up those storylines, and could potentially result in something interesting.  they’re clearly trying to explore who kaz is without vengeance (and have made the interesting move to make pekka an enemy of matthias’, which is actually quite fascinating and something i’m legitimately excited to see more of), and inej’s journey will make it all the more interesting if she still decides to leave that life and come back to help kaz and the other crows with the heist, and...idk what they can do with jesper’s newfound embrace of his ability.  there doesn’t seem to be any struggle left there to be had.

but the fact remains that these storylines were rushed, and stripped of their context.  i know that the status of netflix shows getting renewed or not is always going to be hit and miss, and that they needed to give the characters journeys to go on.  but couldn’t they have picked different journeys that aren’t the culmination of two full 500+ page books.  now even if they do get the chance to adapt those whether in the same show (ugh) or as a spinoff, the storylines won’t be effective.  the six of crows duology worked because it was just as much a character book as it was a plot book.  things were revealed the audience when it was necessary, and as the external stakes heightened, so did the personal stakes for the characters, and as we learned more about the characters, they became figures that we wanted to root for even more, as we learned about their drive and their stubborness and intelligence and fears and nastiness.  it worked because the triumph of the plot was also a triumph of the characters over all that they had feared and achieved their ultimate goals.  now we have the end result of that but none of the journey that brought us there.

of course if they’d just gone straight to a six of crows series this wouldn’t have happened in the first place but i guess we just stay losing

#claire.txt #sab spoilers #sab critical #claire's sab thoughts

[jebbifurzz]

Watching episode 1 of Shadow and Bone season 2:

Okay, let me get this straight...

The protagonist, whom the narrative says is soooo good and pure and morally upright: is on a quest to kill a bunch of ancient sentient animals so she can steal their power.

The antagonist, who we are told again and again is SUPER evil: is freeing his people, who are being imprisoned and killed due to how they were born, and fighting against the oppressors.

The cognitive dissonance is killing me. I don't know if I can bring myself to watch more.

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone critical #alina starkov critical #the darkling is right...? #alina starkov is like kill all the amplifiers for their sweet sweet power #netflix #sab netflix #the darkling #aleksander morozova

[starlessmistake]

The problem with S&B S2's magic system

(And why it weakens one of the best moments of the series)

Before I start, I just want to preface with the fact that I am talking about the show only here as it's own entity. I know that some of my complaints can be said of the books as well. However from S1, the show substantially altered the concept of amplifiers, so clearly they're not above making changes to the way the magic system when it suits them.

Diving right in to my analysis...

S1 for all its faults does a solid job of setting up the magic system within Ravka. The grisha orders are presented as being very strictly defined with no suggestion that there is any choice involved in a grisha’s sub-order.

(This is in contrast to the books where it is established as early as Alina’s carriage ride with Fedyor and Ivan that a grisha’s sub-order is more of a specialisation that they have some choice over.)

This strict delineation has consequences for the plot of S1.

In S1E3 we meet Genya and are given a fairly comprehensive overview of her powers. As a tailor, her main power is in modifying an individual’s appearance. This includes being able to mend surface level injuries.

In S1E5 when Marie is attacked, Genya is unable to heal Marie’s wound and Marie subsequently dies. This in many ways is the trigger point for the whole second act of the first season. Marie’s death is what causes Aleksander to leave Alina alone in his War Room, and therefore what gives Baghra the opportunity to convince Alina to flee.

(The show then goes on to never mention Marie’s death again, but that’s a separate rant of mine.)

Genya not being a Healer (or at the very least, not knowing that she can heal) is important to the story of S1 and established concretely to the audience.

And then we have S2…

S2 makes the decision to expand on the magic system by blurring the line between the various orders. This is not necessarily a bad decision in its own right – many stories successfully add nuance to their magic systems as the audience grows familiar with how it works. However I would argue that the show does not manage to do this successfully.

We are first introduced to this change through Alina’s travels to Novyi Zem and aboard Nikolai’s ship. Characters like the librarian and Tamar tell us that other countries do not distinguish between grisha in the way that Ravka does. Which is fine in theory, except this is one of the many, many things that we are told and not shown.

None of the non-Ravkan grisha actually demonstrate any powers outside of their one specific sub-order. With the possible exception of Sankta Neyar who uses a form of blood-bending. However we are explicitly told that this is because there is iron in blood and not because she can control blood itself. Therefore her powers still fall neatly into what we might expect of Durasts.

So who doesn’t fit into a neat box…? You guessed it - Genya.

Genya gains all kind of powers this season. First of all is healing. In S2E4 Genya is able to easily heal Baghra’s broken wrist -  something that goes well beyond Genya’s established powers in S1. The show could have possibly explained this by having Baghra amplify Genya, but that’s not what happens as Baghra doesn’t touch Genya while she’s working.

The fact that Genya has the capability to heal is not in itself a problem – given what the show clumsily tried to establish earlier in S2. However, the problem is that Genya should not know that she has these capabilities. Because she explicitly didn’t know about them in S1, and nothing has changed between the seasons to give her this information.

Now that we have all that established, let’s talk about the scene I referred to back at the start of this rant.

In S2E5 Genya and Baghra find Alina’s underground hideout. In one of the best scenes of the series David asks Genya how she managed to find them, to which Genya replies that she was able to follow David’s heartbeat with the help of Baghra’s amplification.

This is such a powerful moment due to Daisy and Luke’s fantastic acting, but it’s undermined by the writing. This reveal about Genya’s Heartrending should have been a great shock – to the audience and to Genya – a discovery of an unknown power that she was only able to tap into in her most desperate moment to find the love of her life.

But because we have already seen Genya’s unexplained ability to heal, this reveal instead comes across (at least to me) like Heartrending is a power that Genya has always known about, she merely forgot to mention it earlier in the show.

And so a fantastic acting performance is hampered by weak writing. It’s far from the only such moment (believe me, I could rant for hours about S2’s writing). But this one particularly frustrates me, because it would be so easy to fix! All the writers would have to do would have Genya not heal Baghra’s wrist, or have Genya only be able to heal Baghra’s wrist with the help of amplification.

(rant over. thanks for reading)

#shadow and bone meta #shadow and bone critical #grishaverse meta #genya safin #david kostyk #genya x david #anti sab #my meta #i have a lot of thoughts about s2 #and very few of them are positive

[sleepless-crows]

Why The "Kaz Beating Up The Dregs" Scene In The Show Is Wrong

There is so much I disagreed with in the show and adding this scene from CK is one of the ones that get me angriest. This post is clearly going to criticize decisions the showrunners made and if you don't want to read that, you can skip this post and scroll ahead. And this post is just my opinion, we can differ in opinions, that's alright.

First of all, in the books, this was a chapter in Inej's POV. In the show, Inej wasn't even present. Why is this relevant?

This scene took place right after the bathroom scene. It showed how even if Kaz told her specifically not to follow him, she still did. It's such an important moment in the books when we find out that Kaz knew the entire time that she was there. It shows how he senses her presence (although some may argue that he sensed Inej's absence in the show when he was facing of Pekka Rollins in Episode 4). And it shows their dynamic as partners, they don't leave each other, much less let the other walk to their death, and referencing the show, she watches over him. But this is also affected by the fact that this scene was given less meaning and was less dangerous in the show, which I will touch on later.

This was also a big moment for Kaz and Inej's relationship. At first, Inej says that she would respect Kaz's wishes that she not be seen because they would be looking for any signs of weakness. But when she sees Kaz getting beaten up so badly, her chapter goes:

"She couldn't just watch him die, she wouldn't. They had him down now, heavy boots kicking and stomping at his body. Her knives were in her hands. She'd kill them all. She'd pile the bodies to the rafters for the stadwatch to find... She wanted to scream. To hell with your pride, with the Dregs, with this whole wretched city."

We also got moments like Kaz stealing Inej's line and Kaz and Inej reclaiming their home. But since Inej wasn't there, those details are nonexistent in the show.

My next point has to do with Per Haskell's addition. It doesn't even make sense to add him in. He was supposed to represent the lazy and greedy people in the Barrel who take advantage of people like Kaz. In the books, Haskell betrayed Kaz and turned his gang against him. Haskell who Kaz has done nothing but make him richer. But in the show, Haskell was just an indifferent gang leader, any gang leader wouldn't want to cross Pekka Rollins. But Kaz forces Haskell to give up his gang because he just knew Haskell's gang wasn't successful or strong like how Kaz could make them be. Haskell didn't owe Kaz anything, Kaz just felt like a plain bully in the show. We don't even know if Haskell did anything wrong in the show to deserve that treatment from Kaz, but I guess Kaz in the show doesn't really care about that.

And here is my last point and what I think is the biggest and most awful change that the showrunners chose. And it has to do with Kaz's character.

In the books, this scene was much more dangerous. In the books, Kaz was willing to do whatever it took to save his friends from this mess he put them in (which highly contradicts whatever he was doing in the show). Kaz says:

"But they'd landed in a trap, and if he had to chew his paw off to get them out of it, then that was what he would do."

-> In the show, it seemes as if they took away a huge characterization scene just to show Kaz beating up some men. In the books, Kaz could literally have walked to his death if it was his last effort to rescuing his friends from the trap he led them in. A huge part of Kaz's character is that he is loyal to the people he cares about and he would do everything in his ability to protect them, no matter the cost to him. But that wasn't at all the context in the show.

Something that really first stood out to me was the absence of the younger Dregs like Anika, Roeder, Keeg, and Pim. And of course they wouldn't be in there, the whole Crow Club and The Dregs thing the show has going on messed up everything. But specifically when Kaz says his speech in the books that was adapted to the show:

"'I didn't come looking for friends. And I'm not here for the washed-up cadgers and cowards, or the losers who think the Barrel owes them something for managing to stay alive. I came for the killers. The hard ones. The hungry ones. The people like me. This is my gang... and I'm done taking orders.'"

-> he was talking about the younger Dregs. Not at all the random men he needed for a job in The Dregs Gang in the show. In the books, Inej says they're Kaz's best support, and that is because the younger Dregs like Anika and Pim are a testament to Kaz and how he built the Dregs and their reputation, how he spent his own money to fix up the Slat to make it livable, how he takes in these kids from the street and offers them protection, the one he didn't have and had to make himself. Inej says:

"Behind them, Inej glimpsed a few Dregs who didn't seem to share the excitement—Anika with her crop of yellow hair, wiry Roeder who Per Haskell had suggested Kaz use as his spider, the biggest bruisers Keeg and Pim. They hung back against the wall, exchanging unhappy looks as the others whooped and postured. They're Kaz's best hope for support, she thought. The youngest members of the Dregs, the kids Kaz had brought in and organized, the ones who worked the hardest and took the worst jobs because they were the newest."

->They are the real Dregs. They were even the first ones to defend Kaz. Pim tells Varian to quit it when he was going after Kaz again. And Anika blocks the exit when Haskell tells the Dregs to pull the alarm and alert Pekka that Kaz was there. When Bastian told Kaz he had no friends there, Pim shook his head and crossed his arms and the other younger Dregs bristled. And all because Kaz had done so much for them. They never liked Per Haskell, they knew Kaz was who to thank for, who protected them. And that was such a beautiful moment in the books that shows these kids that Kaz offered protection for were the first to protect and defend him as well. Those are the true Dregs. That is Kaz's gang. And it's really saddening that none of that was shown in the show.

#there's so many posts defending the show so don't come after me after one post that criticizes it and where i just state my opinion #grishaverse #six of crows #shadow and bone #soc #sab #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #per haskell #crooked kingdom #soc meta

[greensaplinggrace]

every day I think about how much better sab would have been if baghra was the villain and nikolai was another antagonist...

#baghra morozova #shadow and bone #grishaverse #sab #*sigh* #if only #godddd it would have been so good #ouaghhhhhh #i have to stop thinking about the possibilities to avoid going insane #this is how sab gets you #with all of its lost potential #leigh bardugo critical #sab critical #sab salt #it actually isn't cause this is more of a what if #but just to be safe #myramblings

[ohdeadlynightshades]

In the prologue, Alina explains she never finishes her food because it tastes like mud. When Mal says it tastes fine to him, she simply teases him by saying he will eat anything.

I find this particular interesting for two reasons:

It could possibly mean she used to eat good food before going to the orphanage, or something of a decent quality. However, we know nothing of her parents or origins other than her birthplace which happens to be a battlefield between Shu-Han & Ravka, leading me to believe they were most likely trying to survive day by day, saving money and food.

Or, the suppression of her powers (and her sickness) comes from before Mal. We know the Duke's orphanage is not the best environment to grow but surely he could give them access to good ingredients as far as I remember. Sweet girl, why aren't you eating?

#Sasha Rambles #Leigh Bardugo Critical #sab critical #alina starkova #alina starkov #Rereading S&B #why not #I have nothing better to do

[howtostandinsilence]

Shadow and Bone and Nimona have striking similarities, especially where the Darkling and the Grisha are concerned. I love seeing an allegorical piece of work that actually properly addresses the corrupt power structures instead of inadvertently supporting them at the cost of vilifying and stereotyping an entire race of outcast people considered monsters. Especially because it really delves into what such prejudice does to a person, like Nimona and the Darkling - and Ballister as well. Where Shadow and Bone failed, at least Nimona succeeds. 

#shadow and bone #the grisha trilogy #sab critical #the darkling #aleksander morozova #sab meta #leigh bardugo critical

[ragingstillness]

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

[lilisouless]

this are the winner of previous polls

#shadow and bone critical #shadow and bone season 2 #sab tv #kanej #malina #wesper #grishaverse #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #malyen oretsev #alina starkov #jesper fahey #wylan van eck

[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