#ah two absolute badass monarchs

[xiexiecaptain]

Shadow & Bone rewatch live-commenting that was started on twitter and is being moved/continued here!

This is the post for EP 03: The Making at the Heart of the World

[Episode 01 post] [Rewatch Commentary Links Masterpost]

((There WILL be spoilers mentioned for the books in the Grishaverse including the Crows duology & King of Scars duology! This is basically from the perspective of watching the show as someone who knows the books well.))

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I like that we're getting to hear her letters to Mal in voice over because it returns some of the interiority we've lost through the translation from 1st person narrative to screen 

bUT immediately my brain supplied the hilarious AU that Mal runs one of those Dear Abby advice columns

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*sob laughs in Book 2*

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GENYA!!! SHE'S HERE!

God I love Genya 

And the way Daisy Head carries herself here, the polished demeanor, all of it is so Genya

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This was such a great moment between them 

And even though Genya had to do what she does later on, you can tell she's really earnest about how quickly she warms to Alina

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THESE TWO BICKER LIKE AN OLD MARRIED COUPLE AND IM LIVING FOR IT

["Good to know Van Eck didn't cure you of sentiment."

"Glad to be back, Kaz."]

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SHE'S HERE, THE GLORIOUS, THE INCOMPERABLE NINA ZENIK

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Lmao right "despises" 

As in "the two people I'll fall in love with in my life will both be Fjerdans"

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That fight scene !!!!!!!

What a fckin badass I absolutely adore Nina 

Everyone needs a Nina Zenik in their life tbh

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This is the SECOND time I've noticed Jesper randomly helping himself to food/drink from other people's tables/houses and I fucking love it (he also did it in Dreesen’s basement)

Kit Young is a gift

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Wraith mode: activated

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The way his gaze lingers and he stays turned toward the window for a solid few seconds after she's gone-!!!

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He tries to stop himself, he really does!!! 

Can we just appreciate in general the nuanced and compassionate, yet realistic way addiction is portrayed with Jesper's character???

(Not to mention the fact we see TWO portrayals of addiction in this series--psychological addiction with Jesper and physical addiction with Nina) 

Like, it's not a comic relief bit--it legitimately has life-altering consequences for both Jesper, all his loved ones, and those he works with. 

We see Jesper both deny to himself and others he has a Problem, yet also struggle against it 

["Why didn't you just stop?" Jesper wanted to laugh. He had pleaded with himself, screamed at himself to stop.]

He fucks up and hurts people he (and we the readers) love because of it. Yet the narrative remains continuous in its portrayal of Jesper as someone with steadfastly good intentions and a good heart who is struggling with unhealed issues

["There's a wound in you, and the tables, the dice, the cards--they feel like medicine. They soothe you, for a time. But they're poison, Jesper."] 

 Listen, I just have a lot of Feelings about Jesper Fahey

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Alina Starkov is truly a woman of the people

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SA mention////

"Ah, our shitty monarchs: The rapist king, the queen whose focus on appearance trumps any real issues, and the vapid entitled weasel of a prince. The only decent one among them, I've disguised so he could go play pirate to help Ravka by doing Ocean Crimes."

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Yes, I hate him 

Yes, he is occasionally funny

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Yeah this was fckin shitty of her and I’m definitely not excusing it ever

But its interesting seeing this understanding where it’s coming from re: Zoya’s heritage.

Zoya's got so much internalized racism and fear around being mixed race herself because of her upbringing, seeing how not only just her father was treated but Suli in general

She's lashing out because she's afraid and conflicted

And she's also feeling jealous and uncertain about her place being favored by the Darkling (which he has fostered because he's a manipulator of the worst kind)

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Kaz carrying Milo the goat and looking absolutely Done will never not be funny to me

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More show-added worldbuilding appreciation from me

The posters styled after Bolshevik revolution/soviet propaganda posters is such a wonderful touch by the props/set folks 

And again, the invented script for written Ravkan (and all the languages, but we’ve mostly just seen Ravkan and Kerch written so far) makes my linguist nerd heart sing

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Kaz: initiate mastermind scanners for useful information and/or potential blackmail

Kaz: BEEP BEEP impending betrayal detected 

Kaz: initiate 5-D chess-level planning consisting of labyrinthine layers upon layers of traps, feints, and manipulation

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I love that they gave her a physical object for Inej related to her family.

In the books (again, because of interiority) we get literal flashbacks of them, as well as many phrases from her parents she repeats or hears internally ("The heart is an arrow...", "Climb, Inej")

But that’s not easily translated to a visual medium. So instead we get this great little physical/visual token of that. 

It does such heavy lifting not only in that it shows us how deeply Inej's faith directs her morals (like how torn she was when Arken connected over their faith), but also shows how much she still holds the memory/hope of her family close to her; that she's never accepted that her life in Ketterdam was just it now.

 Good, good storytelling work

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ARE YOU TALKING TO HER OR TO YOURSELF, KAZ?????? 

That little glance down and then away-!!!

And then immediately he's harsh and cruel about it to try and push her away from him--to push hIMSELF away from her!!! 

Fucking helllll

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 I'm so glad they basically got to keep Nina's and Matthias' story the same (aside from minor details obv) down to exact lines 

Danielle Galligan and Calahan Skogman breathe such life into the cores of these characters and all their nuances

[Matthias had always fought his own decency. To become a drüskelle, he’d had to kill the good things inside him.]

 All through this episode, even in this first scene, you can see Nina's words start to scratch away at him

He's gonna have her in his head for the rest of the night

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Jesper Fahey, everyone

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LOVE THE WHOLE CONCEPT! 

Love this addition to the world, love how it's not finished/is kinda ramshackle with sliding between the two tracks, love the weird systems set up he's developed to cross multiple times with the sound of hitting the metal, love it all

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I'm so happy Nadia is a black woman!!! 

We get so many queer characters of color! I can't wait until we get Tamar (and Tolya ofc) introduced in the show so we can have the badass wlw couple we deserve

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BOTKIN!! So glad he makes an appearance!! 

I could so easily him being cut from another version of an adaption so this makes me so happy

Part of what endeared Botkin to me in the book was how, even though he is a harsh teacher, he always treated Alina like every other student and demanded her best work 

Like "idc you're the sun summoner, your right hook is pathetic!"

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ALINA KNOWING HOW TO THROW A PROPER PUNCH BC MAL TAUGHT HER IS 🙏🙏🙏

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Like I know this is supposed to establish character dynamics and how Zoya has this social position she's defending and how Alina is gaining credibility 

But me & my gay-ass brain just went like "Ok but I would let Zoya punch me in the face and I would say THANK YOU"

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If only I were so lucky 😔💦

Somewhere, King of Scars!Nikolai getting shackled to his bed by Zoya every night for his own safety just liked this^^^ as a tweet

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See, Nadia gets me 

She's pickin' up what I'm puttin' down

This also establishes Nadia’s type is women who can knock your lights out and smirk, which is good news for future Tamar

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And we here see in Alina's face the echoed experiences of women, femmes, and assumed-women everywhere having forced unwanted interactions with creepy dudes

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Zoë Wanamaker is soooooo good as Baghra, hot damn 

A fellow Zoë out there making us proud

Another character I can’t wait to see interact with Nikolai on screen because their relationship is hilarious to me

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I've mentioned it before, but the show more heavily leaning into the idea that Grisha power can sort of be drawn out or kicked on by sudden pain and/or fear is such an interesting one

Because it implies about the nature of Grisha power that it developed similar to other unconscious survival mechanisms--like adrenaline numbs out bad injuries or allows muscles to surpass normal limits, its something that helps keep Grisha stay alive in a life or death situation

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"I WISH I WERE WITH Y- ...WITH THE FIRST ARMY" 

I'M-!!!!!

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SEE? THIS IS THE SHIT I LOVE 

The worldbuilding always contains all these tiny details that realistically reflect how humans build clever systems over time to address issues and get what/where they want to

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Alina's fuckign face-

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I CANT GET OVER THIS 

Yes, the emotional support goat was Absolutely Mission Critical

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I'M FUCKIN EMOTIONAL BC I just noticed when Arken says the situation is dire, please take note of how Kaz isn't even looking at him, he's staring diRECTLY AT INEJ sitting across from him?????

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[That sound--the swift, shocking report of gunfire--called the scattered, irascible, permanently seeking part of his mind into focus like nothing else.]

[...Jesper could feel himself coming alive, the worry that had been dogging his steps ... falling away. He felt free, dangerous, like lightning rolling over the prairie.]

[He'd knew his guns better than he knew the rules of Makker's Wheel. Jesper focused on the bullet, sensed the smallest parts of it. Maybe he was the same. A bullet in a chamber, spending his whole life waiting for the moment he would have direction.]

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So I just want to examine the Crows' "we were pretty sure we were going to die but we actually pulled through and are somehow still alive???" reactions for a minute:

1) Inej, ofc, her first reaction is prayer which makes me emotional 

And then, she looks over at Kaz because she wants to see if this finally shook something loose from that cold exterior (because tbh, at this point, it's probably the first time she's ever witnessed Kaz escape death first-hand)

2)  How fucking beautiful Jesper looks?? 😍😍

[Jesper's hair was mussed, his pupils dilated. He seemed almost drunk, or like he’d just rolled out of someone’s bed. He always had that look after a fight.]

3) And Kaz, of course as always, is looking at Inej (and then looking away from it all) 

It's gonna get you in big trouble one day, Kaz

AND how Inej and Kaz hold eye contact for a moment before they both look away???

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And I feel Malina in this chili's tonight

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Oh! Something I forgot to add I noticed during the train fight scene, Arken has these depictions of saints hung up on the walls!!!! 

Again, major major ups to the prop/set people for adding all these small details!! It makes the world feel so full and lived in!

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So that's the end of episode 3! 

Wheee I fuckin' love the Grishaverse and my beloved Crows and we're so lucky to have this cast

[Rewatch Commentary Links Masterpost]

[averlym]

domestic araleyn two: electric boogaloo

[elel-kyutto]

1.Hello! This is anon who asked about snb gods times ago! XD Now i want to asked your analysis about something... I read on charinina blog about how bahamut will come again as ever and it made me really convinced because i think what if Tromos, the weapon Charioce &co had made is actually built to destroys bahamut, not gods? And now while Tromos is under reparation, the "bahamut sealing time" will be over soon and that what made Charioce must doing all he can to protect mankind! (it includes

2. teamwork with demons and gods,making a peace agreement) what do you think? Lastly, i read your post that mention about charioce xvii reign similar with renaissance era and just after contemplating on latest episodes, i think you’re absolutely right! Because i think the magic there like science in our world and when in previous reign the great length of magic was only provided by gods and some demons,in cheerios’ reign,knowledge of magic really advanced. He even had some magic researchers and

Ey~! Good to see you again in this lonely blog! xD 

And…. You let me in suspense, but I gonna do my best to aswer the problem of Bahamut and his return. 

Certainly I would like to think that Bahamut will return for this season, i mean, all races would join again to fight him, but to be honest, if I were the one in charge of the script I would not do that. Why? Well, there are two simple reasons:

1) We already saw that in the first season with Favaro and team. To return to the same in the final plot and with a different cast would be somewhat annoying. I don’t like that word, but if in the first season they sold me a character as spectacular as Favaro, Nina will not meet the expectations of those who fell in love with Favaro and Amira. That is, we would not see it as epic as we saw it in the first season, because it’s something we already saw before. So, I think the scriptwriters in charge would not bet on something so dangerous.

2) Charioce, mankind and Dromos. Indeed Charioce is undoubtedly the central hub of the story of this season, not Bahamut. Of course, he is encouraged by power to thus fight against the gods, demons and even Bahamut. However, the director introduced Charioce (villain or not) since the start, short moments but enough to know that his actions would affect the plot. One of these actions is the construction of the prohibited device: Dromos. 

You say something very important, the fact that the magic here was only destined to the gods and the demons by nature. The human could have access if it was chosen by the gods as a “holy warrior” (Jeanne as example) or as those who learned magic of the demons, dark magic that put them in situation of being looked for by the bounty hunters. That is to say, man only had the right to magic if the gods granted it and the man was punished if he sought by his own sources to be a user of magic (and the bracelets were only delivered by Bacchus, a god). 

Therefore, Charioce, a thief of sacred palaces, not only killed and enslaved, but also stole the cultural treasure of magic, treatises, books, and so on. So that his intellectuals and the most capable men could construct this device. Charioce opposed the laws of the gods, man seeks his knowledge to be able to live up to the gods and demons, so much they can about passing them in many ways: Alchemy, architecture, art, politics (military-civil organization), mathematics, astrology and even philosophy have been reborn: That is why I consider Charioce more than a cruel and tyrannical monarch, a man of revolutionary and modern convictions. It’s giving power to the man and not to the gods. Is forcing a rebirth of man and his culture (that’s sugoii~ xD) Then Dromos will undoubtedly have an important role in the plot and there are many possibilities but the only ones I can think of is that this machine is too difficult to handle, a man can not control it forever and will create an unbalanced in the universe. Chaos and death. So, we no longer need Bahamut here.

So I fear for where the director want to take the story because if they go for the first, everything would become very repetitive; But if they choose the second they would have to sacrifice the letter they have handled perfectly so far: Charioce XVII. Choosing the second is a double-edged sword: it has pros and cons.

It doesn’t bother me that he dies for trying to achieve his ideals and dreams, to see characters as he clashed with the sad reality of man and his limitations is something I enjoy a lot, but I worry about how they gonna handle it. I don’t want Charioce to be victimized, that’s all I ask. I know he suffers because of his decisions, but he has chosen them, as someone who assumed that this could have happened and that he hold firm even in front of the limited forces that man can achieve. But hey, it’s a matter of taste xD (cofcofmytastescof) 

I really would like to know his past so I can say it for sure, but we have to be patient, what surprises have the scripwriter because I have liked so far how s/he has led the story. The intrigue of what is going to happen is an important aspect for the narration. I only see two possibilities, but the scripwriter can bring us another much more interesting and certainly I am anxious for that. Also, for the new opening I like to think that Charioce will wage a battle in the city of the gods to hegemonize the entire universe. What a badass, to take your army to fight against the sky is something that is marveling to me, I hoping for that!! >:3 

For the moment I can only speculate. I don’t assure anything cos’ the scripwriter likes to surprise us xD 

Ah, I forgot: When I spoke of the Leviathan, I also remembered the figure of Behemoth, for Hobbes the war between nations is a creature far more formidable than that of the State (Leviathan) and destructive than other apocalyptic creatures. 

My friend, we may not have a Bahamut in this season, but a Behemoth as a metaphor for the cruel war that is looming. But that would be well to analyze it another time (for now, I can’t, but here in the fandom there is someone who is doing a serious job with Hobbes, s/he could help us). 

Thanks for share your thoughts with me again (/*3*)/~