#shadow and bone reviews

[reyreadersblog]

i'm actually pissed off.

I am sure everyone in grishaverse fandom has seen this negative review of six of crows. If you don't know who i am talking about..

This, i'm talking about this specific review.

(Go watch it if you haven't but know that it the dumbest review ever)

(I couldn't take a better screenshot, *cough* she didn't deserve it *cough*)

At first when she started critisizing the book, i though "woah.." because it's one of my favourite books, but since everyone has different opinions, i decided to watch the video, in order to understand what she disliked about this book.

I don't know why, but i expected logical a explanation from her, mabye because she is a grown ass woman...

and what came out of this woman's mouth actually shocked me💀

First of all "it's a fucking heist for god's sake" and mabye she has sight problems? Because it litearlly says "six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist" on the freaking cover so wtf did she expect?

"Do i look like that's something i would enjoy?" (Keep in mind she read the full summary) let me answer your question with a question, are you dumb? It's a ya book about group of teenagers with a heartbreaking past who go on this dangerous heist, if it is something you know you will not enjoy, then why tf did you read it in the first place?

Oh and uhm..this is her bio

She also said "half of the book was written in different laguage" saying that at your grown age is insane...

A. I understand that it is a little difficult to get into it, especially if you haven't read shadow and bone, and i haven't read it so it was a bit hard to understand certian magic elements in the book, but nothing that a human's brain can't comperhend...

B. Saying those kind of things about a YA book is crazy. I've seen her videos before and she is definitley one of those "i can't read a book if there is no smut" kind of reader, (litearlly her bio) so when you are reading a ya book and you decide to critisize it just because there was no smut in it is EMBARASSING, the book is about literal teens with trauma and you expect them to have sex??? DISGUSTING.

C. Soc has one the best romance subplot(s), oh wait let me spell it: S-U-B-P-L-O-T.

Definition:

And again, if you know you're a an adult romance girlie (with a lot of smut) , why are you reading a ya fantasy book with a HINT of romance in it and then start shitting about it??

Atp it's not even a "negative review" it's an insufferable blabbering.

Six of crows is an amazing duology and mabye next time she shouldn't read a book she know she won't like!?!

Like...go read Credence or any book by Penelope Douglas tbh

And leave ya books alone from this fucking smut for god's sake.

[galaxydefenders03]

I love how 1 star book reviews are either like a whole analysis of the book and how the plot is bad and the characters are unrealistic and how the author is problematic etc or just "this book sucked lol"

[savethegrishaverse]

Just a reminder our fandom is large and trending on Tumblr- we aren't invisible! And no matter what happens, we aren't going anywhere!

[shit-people-probably-didnt-say]

Wylan:

—

Inej:

—

Jesper:

—

Kaz:

—

Nina:

—

Matthias:

[vanebookrecs]

My simple review on "Shadow & Bone" by Leigh Bardugo. This book has been on my bookshelf since 2021 and finally decided to read it. I have to say... it wasn't all that interesting. I don't know if I'll go through with the series.

[ismahanescorner]

Six of Crows | Book Review

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Series: Six of Crows

Genre: YA Fantasy

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co

Release Date: 29/09/2015

Rating: 4.5/5 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫

Synopsis:

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone. . . . A convict with a thirst for revenge A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager A runaway with a privileged past A spy known as the Wraith A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.

Review:

tw//: murder, mental illness, bad coping mechanisms, panic attacks.

so if you don’t already know, this novel is about a heist! Kaz Brekker gets a job worth millions of krugers to break someone outta the ice court. thus, he brings together a group of six misfits (the crows) to carry out this “impossible” mission! chaos ensues!

it’s been a few years since i read this book, yet i love it the same! i was a bit hesitant going in due to the overwhelming hype, cuz i had already read bardugo’s shadow and bone, and while it was good, it wasn’t a literary masterpiece! six of crows isn’t either; however, it lives up to the hype! i was throughly entertained and intrigued all throughout. additionally, i read this for my phd thesis and it provided me with valuable insights and data for conference papers!!

definitely recommend it, as well as the audiobook (it’s a full cast!!)!

[artemisiatridentata]

I just finished reading Fourth Wing after picking it up because of all the hype, and because I love dragons, and... I have to say it's the worst book I've read in quite a while lmao. the dragons were its only redeeming quality

[lightthewaybackhome]

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo My rating: 4 of 5 stars I read this after watching Shadow and Bone on Netflix, which part of me liked and part of me didn't. Season 2 was especially hard to get through. I felt like some episodes lagged and found the way they left Nina and Matthias extremely unsatisfying. @sheppardsmckay took pity on me and passed me this book.

Oh, look! Closure.

Completely unexpectedly (sarcasm) this book is better than the whole show put together. I'm shocked to find yet again a much deeper world and deeper characters than the show projected.

I also hadn't expected such a gritty story. It wasn't overly graphic. No sex scenes. No long-running torture scenes, but it does present a dark, gruesome, violent world. I appreciated the balance between being gritty and not turning into an overindulgence.

The part that I had the hardest time with was the ages of the characters. This is probably because I watched the show first. In the show, the only person who looks young enough is Wayln. I kept forgetting that the Crows were all children. But, as I thought about it, I actually like it. I think we've had a lot of literature that tells teens to be teens well into their twenties. This book treats them with more gravity and also gives them a lot of responsibility. It reminded me of the "YA" books I grew up reading where young adults shouldered grown-up responsibility. I really enjoyed that aspect of the book.

I'm not going to go into the world-building, bickering, and characters because much has already been written about them. They are well done.

While I don't see this series becoming something I reread, I am glad I read it. View all my reviews

[theaddictedwatcher]

Hello everyone!

Here again to introduce you to another fantasy show. This series, made for Netflix, is for now composed of two seasons. First broadcast in 2021, the story is an adaptation from the literary world created by Leigh Bardugo. Today, the show I will introduce you to is Shadow and Bone !

And now, to begin with as always, a little summary : The kingdom of Ravka has been cursed for millennia. Its fate now rests on the shoulders of an orphan, Alina Starkov, who works as a cartographer in Ravka's First Army. When her childhood friend, Malyen ‘Mal’ Oretsev, an orphan like her, is enlisted to take part in a boat crossing the Shadow Fold, a dangerous, dark and evil fog that cuts Ravka in two, Alina manages to go with him. In the middle of the Fold, as the crew is decimated by evil flying creatures, the terrified young cartographer begins to project beams of light that drive them away and allow the boat to emerge from the Fold. Word of her feat soon spreads and Alina discovers herself to be the Sun Summoner, a Saint steeped in beliefs dating back thousands of years and the only one capable of destroying the Fold to reunite Ravka. In this world, the Grishas, people with various magical talents, form the Second Army of Ravka under the command of General Aleksander Kirigan. Alina is taken by Kirigan to the royal castle at Os Alta to be trained and to meet the king. Meanwhile, in Ketterdam, a team led by Kaz Brekker, the Crows, have been offered a very large sum of money to capture the Summoner of Light. To complete their mission, Kaz, assisted by Jesper Fahey and Inej Ghafa, must find a way to cross the Fold… Who can Alina trust? Will she be able to rid Ravka of the Fold? Will she be able to escape the Crows? Who is Kirigan really? And a little technical description : - Created by : Eric Heisserer - Music by : Joseph Trapanese - Main cast : Jessie Mei Li, Archie Renaux, Freddie Carter, Amita Suman, Kit Young, Zoë Wanamaker, Ben Barnes, Daisy Head, Danielle Galligan, Callahan Skogman.

As I said above, the series is a Netflix adaptation of two of Leigh Bardugo's literary sagas: the Grisha trilogy and the Six of Crows literary duology. Having read the books a few years ago and the author herself having been involved in the project, my expectations were pretty high. So I'm going to tell you what I thought of the resulting product.

I'm going to start by talking briefly about the production team because, in my opinion, this gives a pretty good idea of the quality of the construction of the atmosphere of this universe. Between Eric Heisserer (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Final Destination 5, Bird Box), Shawn Levy (Stranger Things, Deadpool and Wolverine), Dan Cohen (Stranger Things, The Adam Project) and Dan Levine (Arrival, Freedom Writers), the producers of Shadow and Bone are used to fantasy and fantastic productions that require particular attention to special effects and atmosphere. That's why the team they've built around them (costumes, sets, music and visual effects) has been meticulously chosen, and I'll be coming back to the work of each of them later.

To give you as brief an idea as possible of the characters and their respective stories, I'll start by giving you a little background on the universe in which the series takes place. The chronology of the two merged sagas was certainly the point that made me the most sceptical. The Grisha trilogy doesn't take place at the same time as the Six of Crows duology and, although some of the characters can be found in both sagas, I couldn't quite see how they were going to merge. So I'm going to tell you a little bit about the three different stories that run parallel in season 1, with slight spoilers about the first episode. I'll only be concentrating on season 1 so as not to give too much away, so there are characters and stories I'll be deliberately omitting, although I'd love to talk about them…

THE UNIVERSE

The Shadow and Bone series plunges us into a fantasy universe in which the different populations of the six nations of Ravka, Fjerda, Shu Han, Kerch, Novyi Zem and Wandering Isle adapt elements of the language, culture and traditions of the countries of our world, drawn from different periods. Each of these populations is partly made up of people with magical abilities. These people, called Grishas by the common people, can be categorized into three different sections depending on their abilities:

Corporialkis are Grishas who have the ability to alter the physical state of a living being, either to heal them (Healers) or incapacitate them (Heartrenders).

Materlialkis are Grishas who have the ability to transform materials such as iron.

Etherealkis are Grishas who have the ability to manipulate the elements.

THE PREMICE

The nation of Ravka is divided in two, from east to west, by the Shadow Fold (also known as the Unsea), a region plunged into darkness and filled with beasts created centuries ago by a Grisha known as the Black Heretic. Ravka is also at war with Fjerda, which is seeking its independence from the king of Ravka. General Kirigan -played by Ben Barnes- leads Ravka's Second Army in these conflicts, which threaten the lives not only of the people of Ravka but of the whole world. To ensure the survival of his people, he searches in vain for the Summoner of Light, who, according to legend, is the only one who can destroy the Shadow Fold.

When the series begins, we meet the various protagonists:

* ARC GRISHA

Alina Starkov -played by Jessie Mei Li- is a young woman, half Shu, who grew up in an orphanage with her best friend Malyen "Mal" Oretsev -played by Archie Renaux. In the first episode, we discover that she is a cartographer in Ravka's army and that Mal has been enlisted as a tracker. But when, during an expedition, she reveals herself to be the Sun Summoner -an Etherealki with the rare power to summon light-, her destiny eludes her. Mal does everything in his power to protect her, but General Kirigan takes her to the Little Palace. He wants her to learn about her power there, but also to give hope to the Ravkan people that the Fold can be destroyed. We discover in the first episode that he is an Etherealki capable of summoning darkness, which is why he has been nicknamed "The Darkling". It's a very rare ability, like that of the Sun Summoner, which is why he is admired and feared by many. At the Little Palace, Alina meets Genya Safin - played by Daisy Head -a Healer known for her great beauty. Genya, initially sent to train her in the customs of the Little Palace, becomes Alina's confidante. During her stay at the Little Palace, Alina also meets Baghra Morosova -played by Zoë Wanamaker. She is introduced as one of Alina's instructors at the Little Palace, the Second Army's training facility. She is strict in her teaching of Alina's mastery of light summoning.

* ARC CROWS

Kaz "Dirtyhands" Brekker -played by Freddy Carter- is an experienced thief with a reputation for completing any mission if the price is right. He is the de facto leader of the Crows and has a personal vendetta against Pekka Rollins. Severely haptophobic -a rare phobia involving the fear of touching or being touched, an acute exaggeration of normal protective tendencies in personal space- and suffering from osteonecrosis in his right leg which causes him to limp, he has to use a cane with a pommel shaped like a crow's skull to help him get around and sometimes in combat as a weapon. Together with Inej Ghafa known as "The Wraith" -played by Amita Suman- and Jesper Fahey, a Baelish-Zemini sharpshooter -played by Kit Young- Kaz embarks on a new mission for a mysterious sponsor: they must find, kidnap and bring back to Ketterdam the Sun Summoner. If their mission is successful, Kaz will have the means to take revenge on Pekka and save those closest to him.

* ARC NINA / MATTHIAS

While Nina Zenik -played by Danielle Galligan- was on Wandering Isle on a mission for the Second Army with Zoya Nazyalensky, she found herself trapped in a Fjerdan drüskelle camp amongst whom was Matthias Helvar -played by Callahan Skogman. As Fjerdans consider Grishas to be evil, Nina was taken prisoner, interrogated and tortured. The ship on which she was held prisoner was caught in a storm and destroyed. Matthias survived the shipwreck thanks to Nina's powers which kept their bodies warm long enough to reach the shore, and so they survived together for three weeks in the wilds of Fjerda.

CASTING

It took me a couple of episodes to realise that I shouldn't see season 1 of Shadow and Bone as an adaptation of the first Six of Crows novel but rather as a mission carried out by Jesper, Kaz and Inej before the first Six of Crows book. While this may be uninteresting for readers of the novels, I find the idea of allowing us to learn more about the characters we love before the adventures in which we discover them quite interesting. It includes us even more in the evolution of the characters, and allows readers to discover a new adventure. And I'm thinking that, if I hadn't read the books, this isn't a detail I would have dwelt on. I actually loved discovering the characters I love so much in this adventure, before they were them, before they all met each other too.

I particularly enjoyed that they developed the meeting between Nina and Matthias in season 1, which makes sense as their meeting happens long before the adventures of Six of Crows. To me, it is far more interesting to have it as a story spun throughout a season than as a 5 minute flashback told by a character in a later season. It was always with the greatest relish that I relearned to love their meeting and I must salute once again the quality of the casting, particularly for these two characters who for me have the most beautiful chemistry this first season.

I must also applaud the casting of Jesper and Inej. I hadn't imagined Jesper to be exactly the same physically (in truth, I saw him with his hair shaved like in the illustrations), but Kit Young won me over from the first minutes he appeared on screen. His carefree energy, empathy, humour and ego immediately struck a chord with me and restored the image of Jesper I had in my memory from reading the books. As for Inej, Amita Suman is perfect in the role. Perfect casting. Whether in her appearance, her posture, her uprightness or her facial expressions, her performance gave me the impression of seeing the character straight out of the book come to life before my very eyes. It was magic.

I was a little less enthralled by Kaz in season 1. Mind you, Freddy Carter is very good, but for me there was an essential element missing from Kaz's story that we didn't get until season 2, and, for me, that's what makes all the difference in the way I feel about the character between the two seasons. But he's still Kaz, with all his faults and a few qualities too, and Freddy Carter brought this complex character to life perfectly.

As far as the Grisha novels are concerned, this first season follows the first book of the series rather well, although there have inevitably been a few adaptations, particularly in terms of the characters present. Yet, it's nothing too different from the events of the first book of the saga. The various performances by the actors and actresses fill out the characters rather well and the range of emotions portrayed is interesting but, and this is a personal opinion, some of the chemistry is unfortunately not there and that's a shame because it's a crucial part of the story…

I'd still like to make a special mention of three characters who, although they barely appeared in season 1, are developed in season 2 and whose actors deserve to be praised for their performances. I won't go into detail about the characters, but I'd like to thank Suzanne Smith for casting Jack Wolfe, Patrick Gibson and Sujaya Dasgupta in the major roles they play. They perfectly complemented the expected chemistry with the first-season characters and I was delighted to discover them in these roles.

REPRESENTATIONS

I'd also like to say a few words about the respect for different representations, whether racial -respecting the different characteristics of each nation, Novyi Zem and Shu-Han in particular- but also the representations of the LGBT+ community with different homosexual relationships. Of course, these aspects were already present in the novels but, given the current international climate, I think it's important that, during production, these aspects were not smoothed over or exaggerated. Whatever our origins, sexual orientation or gender identity, we're all the same, we're all human, and that's what should come first. To be honest, this is one of the subjects I enjoyed most when reading the novels: tolerance and acceptance. Beyond anything that might set us apart from one another, instead of pitting us against one another, let's stand together, let's be united.

SETTINGS

I'd now like to talk a little about the filming locations. The main shooting location for the first season was in and around Budapest and Keszthely in Hungary. Various locations were used to symbolise Ravka, such as the Ethnographic Museum, which served as the throne room of the Grand Palace, Buda Castle for the exterior of the Royal Archives, the exterior of the same castle and in particular its medieval roundel as Grisha's training grounds and Os Alta's gates, the old Stock Exchange for the interior of the Royal Archives and finally the main square for the Novokribirsk city set.

Outside Budapest, the exterior and interior of the Festetics Palace were used to create the Little Palace, and the Winter Festival was held in its concert hall. There's also the Amadé-Bajzáth-Pappenheim mansion that gave birth to the Keramzin orphanage, the town of Szentendre gave birth to that of Ryevost, and the royal palace of Gödöllő for the stable and chapel. A flashback scene was filmed in the ruined Széchényi-Wenckheim manor house in Békéscsaba.

Other shootings took place in Vancouver such as the scenes taking place in Ketterdam that were entirely built in the studio.

SPECIAL EFFECTS

Speaking of studio-built sets, I'd like to focus on the series' special effects. Under the artistic direction of Attila Digi Kövári, Francesc Masso and Zoltán Sárdi, the series' special effects were meticulously created. Whether it's the rendering of the Grishas' spells -particularly those of the Etherealki, which are the most visual- or the creation of the Shadow Fold using a green background, the care that has gone into these effects is extremely meticulous. I'm not saying that at certain rare moments you can't see the use of the green screen, because that would be a lie, but on the whole I'm quite impressed by the visual rendering that has been given to this magical universe.

COSTUMES

Before my last stop, I'd like to talk a little about the artistic direction of the costumes. Supervised by Wendy Partridge, the costumes I'm going to talk about can be divided into three categories.

First of all, the first costumes we see are those of the soldiers of the First Army. They have influences reminiscent of the dress worn by Russian soldiers during the first half of the 20th century.

This Russian influence is reinforced later in the season when we attend the festivities at the Little Palace. The outfits of the Ravkane royalty and the Grishas soldiers present remind me of the visuals in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace -particularly the adaptation made into a mini-series in 2016.

The second aspect that the costumes inspire in me would be a more Western influence with the costumes in Ketterdam. Kaz's in particular, with his greatcoat, hat and walking stick, reminds me a lot of Peaky Blinders with Cillian Murphy.

Finally, and this is something I've already mentioned, I appreciate that the various cultural influences brought by each nation are visible. I'm thinking in particular of Inej's outfits, which, as a Suli, have South Asian influences in them, or the outfits of the Shu people - mainly visible in season 2- which are more reminiscent of traditional Asian outfits. It's important in costume to show the diversity of the world -whether real or imagined- but above all to do so in a way that respects the cultures from which we draw our inspiration.

MUSIC

Last stop before the end of this very long article: the series' soundtrack. I really enjoyed the work on the soundtrack created by Joseph Trapanese -who is behind the soundtracks for The Greatest Showman, Quantico and The Witcher amongst others- and in particular the different themes written for the characters over the two seasons of Shadow and Bone. The diversity of the instruments used also reflects the multicultural nature of this rich universe and contributes to a varied representation in the same way as the work on the costumes, the different languages and the casting of the actors themselves. In an interview with AwardsDaily.com, Joseph Trapanese explained that the music for season 1 was composed over 11 months during the pandemic and how he conducted an orchestra through meetings on Zoom. He also explained that Russian and Slavic influences were incorporated as a basis for his compositions, as Leigh Bardugo -the author of the novels- had cited Sergei Prokofiev and folk music as examples of inspiration when she was writing. Joseph Trapanese cited other musical traditions such as gamelan- the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese and Balinese peoples of Indonesia consisting mainly of percussion instruments, being inspirations for certain pieces.

CONCLUSION

And that's it, I think I've gone on long enough with this review of Shadow and Bone. I hope you've enjoyed it and that I've managed to make you want to get involved in this adventure, despite its cancellation by Netflix before season 3 due to "the writers' strikes in 2023" as Netflix explained.

Personally, I had high expectations having read the books, and I have to admit that never before has a series adaptation of a work I've read won me over so much. Whether you've read the books or not, if this type of adventure appeals to you, I can only warmly advise you to go for it! And if you want to, why not read the novels!

In the meantime, I hope you have a wonderful week, enjoy your viewings and see you soon!

Eli

[inthegoodbooks]

shadow and bone (review)

So, according to StoryGraph, I have already read this book before… in 2016… that probably tells you all you need to know about what I thought about this book.

I enjoyed this book. Don’t get me wrong, the book is not bad. It is very expositional and reads very YA… but then again, that is exactly what it is. And I don’t hate it.

In this book, we are introduced to Alina, a Grisha (magic user, basically, although the book does a pretty bad job of describing this to you) who discovers her powers very late. And what a power she has: Alina is a Sun Summoner and the seemingly omnipotent Darkling plans to use her to change the world.

I found Alina quite annoying tbh. But only in the ways I often find YA protagonists annoying… She’s clearly beautiful, but she “doesn’t realise it.” She’s a plain Jane. And it gets on my tits. She also sticks out her tongue at least three times in this book and I just refuse to believe that anyone does that over the age of 3. Just me? Very much gave me the ick, regardless.

Another YA trope in Alina which irritated me was her suggested love interests changing every five minutes. It made rooting for Alina quite difficult and, by the end, I no longer cared whether she found Mal again or not.

On the topic of tropes, boy are the men in this book bloody awful. The king, the creepy priest, the obviously evil Darkling (I mean, come on, he’s called the DARKLING ffs.), even the bloody trainer! Suggestive lines such as, “You don’t want to attract too much attention from the King.” and, “Lock the door…” made a lot of the plot twists predictable, dry and just a lil obvious. Not that we don’t need more stories about men abusing their power - that’s always going to be relevant and especially important in YA circles - but I just wish it was a little more subtle.

Speaking of subtly - did you know Alina had a scar on her right palm? Because she tells us more than five times in a very short book. All the build up with this and the reason behind it is because she didn’t put down some pottery when she hugged Mal once? Are you joking? This was such a lacklustre climax that it should’ve been called a clilow.

The ending of this book also gave me proper Harry Potter vibes. Not that I want to credit she-who-must-not-be-named with anything more than being an awful transphobe HOWEVER, there’s something very Voldemort about ‘mercy was something the Darkling would never understand.’ A little close to the bone of the only kind of magic Voldemort can’t understand being love. Just me? Idk. It did make Alina sparing the stag make sense though, otherwise that was a bloody ridiculous decision which was OBVIOUSLY going to result in the deaths of lots of people.

And it goes without saying that the Darkling isn’t dead, right? Suppose I’ve got to read book 2 to find out…

⭐️⭐️⭐️

[stromuprisahat]

Shadow and Bone season 2 review*

When the good guys kill people, it's Cool™. When the baddies kill people, it's EVIL! You can tell who is who by what the creators say in interviews…

This is what it looks like when incompetent screenwriters get their hands on an average book. Eight hours of action and embarrassing speeches, which - according to many reactions - successfully diverts attention from the psychopathically one-dimensional characters and primitive plot, possessing the naiveté of the first grade of elementary school. (You can recognize the good guys by the fact that they all know each other and like each other terribly.)

While the worldbuilding was only touched upon in the previous season, now they simply don't give a fuck about any of that. You learn all the necessary information five minutes before use, usually by lucky chance. Which, of course, doesn't matter, because the viewer is not expected to remember any of it, or perhaps to draw their own conclusions, not pre-chewed by one of the "heroes".

The book!Grishaverse introduced a caste of wizards physically dependent on their abilities, hated worldwide and persecuted for their "unnaturalness". The creators of the series dropped practically everything that distinguishes Grisha from dime a dozen fantasy mages, including the socio-political situation. They are left with a few random mentions, usually by the villain, who seems to live in a completely different reality than the one presented to the viewer.

If in the book fandom I encountered the observation that the world of Grisha is presented in a surprisingly anti-Grisha way, the second season of the show seems like pure propaganda of the ruling regime.

Are you different? Then cease being so… or perish!

#aleksander was completely right #the darkling was a general and acting like one #the darkling for the main character movement

* Yes, it took me over half a year only to translate this, why do you ask?!

[that-sweet-thief]

just finished binge-watching season 2 of shadow and bone. my thoughts are mostly in disarray but the cringe is real.

this was an off-paced, haphazard fanfiction. it'd be just fine if the writers weren't paid for it but they actually are, so it's just... wow. I'm at best mediocre when writing in english and i reckon even i would do a better job of writing dialogue.

anyway, here's a list of my thoughts on the show, though it's more of a word vomit than a comprehensive series review:

no ivan or fedyor. immediate downvote for that alone. ivan should've survived so we could have a heartbreaking moment between him and fedyor across the two sides of the battlefield. i guess they thought there were too many characters and couples to juggle already. or maybe the actors weren't available, who knows.

costume design took a surprising turn for the worse: for example, nina's and zoya's dresses were eyesores. how anyone could make these two very attractive women look that frumpy i've no idea but they've managed. i liked sankta neyar's costume, sturmhond's coat aaand that's about it.

the settings were more varied, so glad we've seen a little of bhez ju. the introductory map-to-location shots were very helpful for people who haven't read the books, namely my gf who fell asleep halfway through the show. also, if the music had any tracks that weren't already from the first season i'll be incredibly surprised, it's that repetitive.

they've messed up nikolai as a character mainly because the actor misunderstood his assignment, though i don't know what else he could've done with the mess he was given. while he's still sympathetic, lovely and witty, paddy's nikolai thinks of sturmhond as just another disguise, rather than who he really is, to the point of gifting said disguise to mal. that's irreconcilable with my understanding of nikolai, whose real mask is the bastard prince.

tamar & tolya were better realised than expected. along with the exclusion of the soldat sol cult, their zealotry's scrapped which is a big win for them. i enjoyed their scenes, great casting too. though, as an ardent kanej fan, i cannot in good conscience support the blink-and-you'll-miss-it tolya/inej moment. tamar/nadia had maybe a minute of screen time but better than nothing.

sankta neyar was a pleasant surprise, great idea to show how powerful durasts can also be. people often disregard materialki so this was refreshing. what i liked about her is how formal, collected, old-fashioned she both appeared and acted, as if her manners and speech style were leftover from a few centuries ago, kudos to her actor tuyen do.

the crows' arc was... lacking in some way. maybe it's because pekka rollins' attitude towards kaz and his group is very different than how it was established in the books, here he was way too proactive and less secure in his position in ketterdam for some reason; anyway rollins' framing of the crows felt off to me.

the crows' character dynamics are interesting and the saving grace of the show, all kanej and wesper scenes were great. seriously, the tension of kanej & cuteness of wesper nearly destroyed me.

they did helnik dirty, of course, but that was a given.

freddy carter outperformed everyone this season, i really think out of all of them he's given the best performance, sometimes even better than ben barnes and that's practically heresy coming from me, his devoted fan since ages ago when i first saw narnia.

i kinda dig that they brought in a tidemaker (fruszi) who's practically an early version of zoya for the darkling's side but her death felt cheap. i mean, the crows arriving to help out nikolai and his team at the very last second was already eye roll inducing, but then nikolai shoots her in the neck? cheap. also, if she and zoya came to face off that'd be interesting since they share so many similarities. i personally don't think it will but if the series continued along with the darkling's canon resurrection, i wish she'd lived and replaced elizaveta, she certainly seemed devoted enough.

david and genya made me cry. that's all i have to say on them.

baghra... where do i even start with her? baghra's nonchalance, her one-eighty about deciding to help alina find more amplifiers is stark raving bonkers imho. yet at least most of her scenes weren't as bad as they could've been, her proving to mal he was the firebird and her saving genya as well as alina actually came across better than the ultra passive, constantly berating version in the books. her death felt less dramatic but more spiteful, though aleksander's reaction to her death was appropriately heartbreaking. ben & zoe sold it so well, my eyes actually welled up.

speaking of sasha, his death is soooo badly executed, it's impossible not to be pissed off at the way they filmed it. even the books were more sympathetic to his demise and alina herself showed much more empathy for him at the end. it's genuinely disturbing how they framed it, makes alina seem more like a villain than the reluctant hero she used to be. i guess it fits with the surprise ending: how she kinda becomes what she sought to destroy, poetic irony and all, but still...

aleksander's whole arc this season makes him seem more desperate and pathetic and so, less of a tyrant: he doesn't even take control of the country or more than a small group of grisha let alone become tsar, instead the apparat rules over ravka on behalf of the lantsovs till nikolai is coronated. he and his people constantly lose to some clever last minute thwarting by alina's allies. the only thing scary about him is the nichevo'ya, the shadow monsters, which in the books are entirely under his control and that of course makes it all the more terrifying. here though, sick and tired and dying, he's merely desperate and fearful. the lack of wins on aleksandr's part really defeats the purpose of the writers' continuous attempts at making him simply the most terrible, horrifying and supreme villain of gregverse.

nope, can't get over it, aleksander practically died in her arms in the books, here she just looks down at him like she's the villain. i guess she now is. oh and mal's retort to sasha about dying in her arms was somehow a foreshadowing, see, but sasha doesn't get that because he's evil, see? gosh, so patronising.

since they've constantly emphasised this season how it was the fold's and thus sasha's fault that grisha were persecuted (not that this explains the ceaseless mistreatment, endangerment and more often death that grisha face everywhere they go, of course, nor does it explain his backstory) i gathered they'd go for a retcon but i didn't imagine they'd exonerate baghra, the apparat and tie the border wars with shu han and fjerda to the fold's existence entirely. the reason the war broke out in the first place was because those countries' fundamental approach to grisha was to kill them or worse. that is what grisha persecution meant. and now... what, the war is over, just like that? i have no words.

also, the exclusion of the "don't let me be alone" line. now that I think about it, those writers should be fed to nichevo'ya.

alina, alina, alina... sure, she's a self-insert, so her motivations don't make sense anyway, but as sweet as jessie is and how hard she tries, show!alina is now an equally awful mess as book!alina. the two things i liked about her this season were her manipulation attempt through the tether and the ending where she goes a bit darkling. the latter, i really like. i wrote a fragment of a power reversal fic before but never put it up, might just do that now.

i'll admit: it's rather funny how mal dumps alina after losing his amplification because he doesn't feel the same way anymore. he doesn't know if it was him being an amplifier that made them love one another. see how easily he turns away from alina? if i were aleksander, I'd be laughing at her from the grave.

[howtostandinsilence]

Leigh Bardugo employs ‘tell don’t show’ in her writing so much that the series eventually becomes a reoccurrence of telling with no meaningful showing. This is because Leigh Bardugo is so bad at writing that the only way she can get people to understand what she wanted to convey in what she showed is by telling them later on in the books - usually in a fashion that is both out of character and ham-fisted in it’s insertion into the story. 

Unfortunately at this point the telling doesn’t match the previous showing, because Leigh Bardugo is incapable of maintaining consistency. Overall, Shadow and Bone is one of the worst written series’ I’ve ever read. Simply because the author cannot maintain her own consistent world state, and because she so badly understands how the real world works that she cannot properly convey the messages she wants to. Even worse, she will change her mind about the message she wants to impart halfway through and ‘tell’ the readers misinformation about what was ‘shown’ before in a blatant attempt at gaslighting them and retconning the story.

The reason this works for some readers aside from some people’s clear lack of literary analysis skills is because anybody who questions the sudden shift the novels take into ‘critiquing abusive men’ is subject to cult like tactics of isolation, shaming, harassment, and abuse from within the fandom, ending in the ultimate revoking of their ‘woke’ card, which it appears they must maintain on the regular by posting factually incorrect cross-tagged anti darkling hate with the most amount of ‘woke’ buzzwords and morally catholic beliefs possible.

[klausbrekker]

Is it just me, or is Six Of Crows, like, the book I’ve been looking for my whole fucking life??? It’s just everything I’ve ever wanted.

Queer representation and relationships, good and well rounded female characters with not, totally dog shit/toxic love interests, found family, fantasy, mastermind, dark and angst but also sweet and funny.

I love it to bits and is now taken it’s rightfully place as one of my hyper-fixation next to, LOTR, The Witcher and SALLYFACE. If all these things appeal to you, READ IT!!!!

[garbagebagwithbooks]

Kaz Brekker

[fandom]

Et tu, Tumblr?

The second season of Shadow and Bone is here, and with it, some brand new ships, so don’t forget to tag and filter your spoilers. Things are getting awfully dark in Trigun Stampede, while the first episode of Ted Lasso’s third season has given everyone a new way to pronounce “POO-peeeh.” Taylor Swift is in her Eras era, and we hope everyone who managed to get concert tickets has a blast. The My Chemical Romance reunion tour is wrapping up with two final concerts in Japan this week. Fanfic authors rejoice—there’s a whole new Hozier EP to pull fic titles from. The Sims 4 has infants now so modders are hard at work. Finally, the Ides of March came and went, and with it, a slew of polls, memes, jokes, and history lessons. This is Tumblr’s Week in Review.

Shadow and Bone

The Ides of March

Taylor Swift

The 95th Academy Awards

The Last of Us

Julius Caesar

Six of Crows

Trigun Stampede

Hozier

The Sims 4

Artists on Tumblr

Ted Lasso

Joel Miller | The Last of Us

Kaz Brekker | Shadow and Bone

Critical Role

My Chemical Romance

Pedro Pascal

Wesper | Wylan Van Eck and Jesper Fahey, Shadow and Bone

Buddy Daddies

RWBY