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Can we petition to get Calahan and Danielle into cast interviews because I love them so much ASLO SIMON AND JULIAN THANK YOU!!!

@ssahoodrat

Wed, 12 May 2021 12:10:55

‘Shadow & Bone’: Six Of Crows Spin-off Series In The Works

Ummm, I’m sorry…. WHAT?!!! Like WHAT!!!!!! I NEED MORE INFORMATION RIGHT NOOWWWWW

Cuz like does that mean the Crows actually won’t be in season 2 of Shadow and Bone? Or they will, but they’ll also be getting their own thing? I - omg!

#amita suman #freddy carter #inej ghafa #kaz brekker #kaz x inej #sab netflix #shadow and bone #six of crows #jesper fahey #kit young #helnik #nina zenik #matthias helvar

@maleficentrox

Wed, 28 Jul 2021 21:42:09

Yo, peeps. It’s Shadow and Bone Season 2 Speculation Time.

Now that we know season 2 is coming and the script is already written, I’m gonna speculate what that story might look like. This is more of an “overall events of season 2” speculation post with theories and thoughts rather than specific episode-by-episode summaries predictions.

So, settle in for some reading, kids. It’s all fun and games. Some spoilers if you’ve not read the books and you care about that kind of thing.

Preface

Firstly, I think there might need to be a time jump, maybe about a year. In Siege and Storm (S&S), it’s been a few months since events in Shadow & Bone. But a year’s time jump would also help the Crows. For example, in Six of Crows (SoC), Nina’s been in Ketterdam for almost that long trying to get Matthias out of Hellgate. It also gives the Crows time to develop offscreen kind of like Luke Skywalker between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Secondly, using the jurda parem drug as a plot device seems like a good way to keep the Crows and the Malina/Kirigan storylines tethered. The Iron Throne, for instance, was the connective tissue for all the different characters in Game of Thrones. Think about it: If Kirigan starts giving the Grisha in the Second Army the drug and half of them are not ok with that because it’s basically meth and while it makes them insanely powerful, it willkill them, then, it lends weight to Alina coming back to take command of the Second Army to liberate them and lead a rebellion against Kirigan. Also, as we know, the Crows’s Ice Court heist is centered around the same drug.

Alina/Mal/Nikolai/Kirigan Storyline

I think this storyline will follow S&S for the most part with a few changes here and there, of course. For instance, Kirigan will need something to do since he’s virtually absent throughout S&S except at the beginning, the end, and smatterings of weird, creepy visions throughout (please don’t go heavy with that shit, show people).

Alina and Mal are hiding out in Novyi Zem. They left Ravka on the same ship as the Crows, but I’m 100% sure that it was a boat service. They dropped the Crows off at Ketterdam before going onward. I think we’ll find them kind of settled into a tentative life there, possibly in a romantic relationship given all that epic development they did last season. But they also might keep the “hiding their feelings from each other” nonsense going for a little bit longer.

Meanwhile, Kirigan made it back to Os Alta with his shadow babies. He’s working in tandem (for now) with the Apparat, who took power last season. In S&S, the Apparat didn’t take power after the King mysteriously fell ill and had to go into hiding, so that’s an interesting change…

Kirigan discovers the benefits of jurda parem, and hebeing the one to champion the drug doesn’t seem like a far reach to me. He persuades the Grisha that it’s a good thing because, you know, he’s like that. But he only has a limited supply from Shu Han. In SoC, it was Jan Van Eck (Wylan’s dad) who had possession of the drug from the Shu Han government, but it makes much more sense for Kirigan to have that connection because in the show they made him so involved with politics and the running of the Ravkan kingdom. And although we know he killed all those diplomats from other countries, no one else knows that except for Malina and the Crows. So, it won’t be hard for him to just go back and do what he does best. But he does need to get his hands on the original fabrikator of the drug in order to keep giving it to the Grisha. Enter Yul BoBo (I can never remember his exact name) and the Ice Heist.

“But, wait,” you say, “Kirigan loves his Grisha. Everything he’s done has been to protect the Grisha. Why would he give them a drug that eventually kills them and is harmful to them?” Like many complex villains, he started out with good intentions, but they’ve become twisted over the centuries. He’s become blinded by his own bullshit and can’t see that he’s actually doing harm to those he intended to/meant to protect and elevate.

Kirigan also needs to find Alina because he still needs her power. It’s an obsession now. He teams up with the privateer Sturmhond (who shall be revealed as a Prince of Ravka a little later) to find her and goes on a sea voyage to Novyi Zem. Before going, he sets in motion plans to acquire Yul Boy by recruiting a team in Ketterdam via Van Eck. Kirigan will be hoping Kaz takes this job so that he can eventually get revenge on him for blowing a bomb in his face and escaping him (petty, I know. It’s not my favorite theory, but it could be another way to keep it all connected).

Back in Novyi Zem, Malina are captured by Kirigan and taken aboard Sturmhond’s ship. Kirigan decides to force Mal to track the second amplifier, Rusalye, and is being all horrible and awful to both Mal and Alina, etc. Unlike in the book, they don’t find the sea whip beforeSturmhond betrays Kirigan and rescues (rescues, not kidnaps) Malina.

Ok, I have some winded THOUGHTS about Book Nikolai:

I know he’s a fan favorite, and maybe Book Nikolai gets better, I don’t know yet. I haven’t moved on to Ruin and Rising (R&R) or his duology. But I had issues with him in S&S. If you liked him in that book, that’s cool. To me, though, he came off as a bit of a creep and douchy dickhole, especially at the beginning, which colored my opinion of him for the rest of the book.

I felt his motives were a bit weak, too. Book Nikolai teamed up with the Darkling to re-capture Alina, but he throws one over on the Darkling and abducts Alina himself to use her for hisown purposes. These purposes are:

1) Usurp the throne from his LEGITIMATE, older half-brother, Vasily. Nikolai thinks his brother can be persuaded to just step aside, which is silly to me. My impression before actually meeting him in the book was that Vasily is a spoiled bitch and he’s been raised to believe with all his heart that he WILL be king someday. He probably believes that it’s his God-given right like many monarchs in our world did (especially the Russian ones, for far too long I might add, and that arrogance is what got their monarchy destroyed). Vasily also believes the rumors that Nikolai is a bastard. So unless there’s a gun pointed in his face or another life-threatening reason to motivate him, it’s just not believable for Nikolai, a prince himself, to think Vasily would give up the throne just because he’s lazy. This whole plan makes Nikolai look like a massively naïve dumbass.

2) Marry Alina for political reasons to help cement Nikolai’s own claim. Firstly, I don’t know how marrying a Sun Summoner would support someone’s claim to a throne unless you were intending for her to blast everyone’s ass who opposed you, but that wasn’t Nikolai’s plan with this proposal. He explains the marriage would be purely a political arrangement –and then immediately takes it to hardcore Creep Town by saying they can maintain sexual partners outside the marriage until it’s time to make babies *wink, wink*. Like what is this Handmaid’s Fucking Tale shit? Now, I don’ think this would be that weird if he and Alina knew each other before this. Yes, they spent some time on the boat before getting back to Ravka, but this whack proposal hit the wrong key on a piano for me. ***And after Alina says no that first time, Nikolai continuously brings up the proposal plus Vasily proposes to her and they think she’ll change her mind. It made me insane. She fucking said “no”. No means no, ya boners! It really chaps my ass because neither one of them needs to marry her for anything they want to accomplish and she doesn’t need to marry either one of them in order to help Grisha. She’s the fucking Sun Summoner, she can do what she wants***

Now, this Nikolina thing is clearly in the book to create angsty tension for Book Alina and Book Mal because they suck. But they don’t suck in the show, so do we need another triangle as their conflict? The show eliminated Book Mal’s Toxic Man Mode and even made a point of Kirigan asking consent for sex (that ended up not happening, but that’s not the point). Nikolai’s proposal in the book is just weird, grossly outdated sauce. I also just think there won’t be justifiable time or space for another triangle; remember, we’ve got the Crows to cover.

And I’m not really saying that Nikolai proposing political matrimony, or falling in love with Alina a smidge are necessarily bad things. I’m just saying none of it belongs at the very beginning and it needs to make more sense. Work towards that shit. Leave out the “you can have as many sex partners as you want until it’s time to make babies” talk because it makes Nikolai seem like a creep. Keep Nikolai’s crush one-sided or leave it out completely and save it for Zoya.

But the biggest issue I had with Nikolai the way he is at the start of S&S is that his storyline as it involves Alina strongly repeats the “Alina-is-a-prisoner-pawn” bit. Do we really need/want to see her taken as a prisoner-pawn TWICE in the opening episodes of season 2? Kirigan capturing her is a given, I think, but come on – Nikolai, too?! We literally just came off an entire season 1 arc where Alina was a prisoner-pawn to Kirigan for almost the whole time, but in the end she said, “Fuck this shit!” and got herself out of it like a badass. She even says to the Crows, “I’m not being anyone’s captive ever again!” (Book Alina was never so direct). It is literally stupid.

And I don’t want to see a marriage proposal up front because it paints the picture, again, of becoming a PAWN in someone else’s scheme. Yes, I know she rejects the proposal, but do we need to see Alina repeatedly refusing to be the star puppet in a puppet show? Do we, I ask you?!!!

***But for reals, I am fully prepared for the writers to have kept all of this nonsense in because “it’s the story told in the book”, and I’m fully prepared to be disappointed by it. It wouldn’t be the first time a show or movie did that to me and it won’t be the last.***

End Book Nikolai THOUGHTS.

Speaking of Zoya: There’s no way she went back to Kirigan after he obliterated her family in Novokribriks, so wouldn’t it be cool if it’s revealed she teamed up with Nikolai? Being a Squaller, she’d have a use for being among his crew. If we have a time jump, the idea that Zoya joined Sturmhond’s crew wouldn’t be unbelievable. Can’t you just see her being the one to swerve in on the boat they escape on after Nikolai stages the revolt? It would be good for setting Zoya and Nikolai up as a couple and there’s a reason for notmaking him horny for Alina.

Malina and Sturmhond decide they need to find Rusalye before Kirigan. Meanwhile, Kirigan is like, “Well, Plan B is that I’ll just let them find it and bring it to me”. So, he goes back to Ravka and launches bait: Slaughters the royal family and takes control using Grisha under the influence of jurda purem. That’ll get their attention.

Because Book Nikolai wants to essentially steal the throne from his lazy, dumb brother, it makes him seem like any other greedy ass with good intentions who thinks they can do better (*cough* KIRIGAN!) It may be a bit predictable, but I think there would be more room for character development if Show Nikolai is more of a reluctant/indifferent prince at the beginning because of his questionable parentage. In the book, he does mention not feeling like he belonged at court because of how the rumors made living there kind of suck. But it feels like a footnote tacked onto the bigger goal in the scene, which is wanting to kiss Alina. I say show me more of that prince who’s had to struggle all his life with rumors about his paternity, was treated lesser for it by the entire court and so is bitter towards the institution; a prince who doesn’t want the throne and needs convincing. Kirigan slaughtering his family gives Nikolai motive. Book Nikolai didn’t seem very close to any of his family, but it would add depth to his character if, for example, he did have a bond with his mother and Kirigan kills her. Who else would have been able to pass Nikolai’s bastard ass as a Prince of Ravka except the Queen? She is the only one who knows the truth for sure, and if she hadn’t passed Nikolai off as the king’s son, she would have lost him.

Malina and co. find the ~~macguffin~~ sea whip about the same time the Queen and Vasily are slaughtered. At some point, maybe through some connection Alina has to Kirigan as a result of that heinous binding ritual David did, Alina and Mal figure out Kirigan took over in Os Alta. Nikolai reveals his true identity at this point, and they convince him to return and take back the throne, and/or Nikolai decides to do that on his own. Let’s give him agency, why not? Zoya and Nikolai can also bond over losing their families to Kirigan’s insane ambitions and the Zoyalai ship is launched!

Alina agrees to support Nikolai’s claim to the throne (without a marriage proposal!) and, fully embracing her identity as the Sun Summoner, decides she will take command of the Second Army, which will be BADASS AF.

Edit: Baghra meets up with Alina in secret when they get back to Ravka. After literally 1 minute of reluctance, she agrees to teach Alina how to use her Sun Cut and be badass. I know in R&R she eventually teaches Alina to use the Cut, but that logically correlates to season 3 unless they start cutting some books in half. So I say either have Baghra teach her the Cut in season 2 (because somehow Book Alina just knows how to do that so I don’t know what she even wants Baghra to teach her), or leave Baghra out of it entirely until for season 3.

Mal takes command of the First Army, which doesn’t happen in the book, but would be pretty cool. Because what else is Mal gonna do? He doesn’t do much in S&S except trail along as Alina’s personal bodyguard (boring) bitching and whining at her for doing her own thing; practically fucks Zoya; gets mad constantly at Alina for hanging out with Nikolai, not to mention RESENTING her for her burgeoning powers. Nobody wants to see that shit. They can come up with a better conflict if they need one. Personally, I think it would be refreshing to NOT see a main couple having a major conflict between themselves for once, but that’s just me.

Kirigan slaughters the Apparat and finally takes complete control. Cue Alina’s epic showdown with Kirigan. Maybe they fight over Rusalye’s amplifier if she hasn’t absorbed that into herself yet, maybe Alina uses merzost to merge it in and it fucks Kirigan up. Cue using the Sun Cut, cue controlling his Shadows against him, cue BADASS MOTHAFUCKING BITCH SHIT!!! End of season! Roll credits! Season 3 renewal, please and thank you!

Some last thoughts for this storyline:

Because I don’t want the Nikolina triangle for no other reason than it would just be too fucking much, I’d prefer them to stick with the Darklina thing. Yeah, I know, it’s wrong, it’s bad, it’s whatever. But it makes more sense. It’s been established that they’re connected on more levels than one, it’s an interesting dynamic because of that, and because they did make Kirigan more sympathetic it helped lower his toxicity a bit. Obviously, I don’t think Darklina is endgame though.
As with the first book, there needs to be some story changes to make it more exciting and continue giving agency to Alina. S&S was extremely boring especially when they got back to Os Alta. It was like meetings, meetings, meetings, Alina is in meetings all day. Like… why? And also I don’t wanna fucking watch that. The fact that we have so much to do with the Crows and the fact that you could sum up the plot of S&S with maybe 5 bullet points makes me hope that more time will be given to the Crows. But we’ll see, I guess.
And maybe that stupidest of book characters, Vasily, will still be there to play the part of making that completely stupid deal with the Fjerdans that allowed the Darkling to attack the palace. But it’s weak sauce. I don’t believe Kirigan needs any kind of political cover to sneak in anywhere. The show made it obvious that he can just come smashing in and do whatever the fuck he wants. Doesn’t need the cover of some flimsy trade deal with a useless prince. So off with Vasily’s head. He didn’t matter the first time, why the hell would he matter the second time? WE’VE ONLY GOT 8 EPISODES!
How cool would it be if Nikolai gets turned into the hybrid nichevo'ya at the end? Like maybe Kirigan is fighting Alina with merzost and it hits Nikolai? That would be a great cliffhanger, just like Kirigan emerging with the nichevo'ya at the end of season 1. But it might fuck a bit with R&R events since it happens in that book. Still, sometimes things need to be rearranged like that because it’s more exciting or serves the movement of the story better ~~or is motive for renewal~~. Take Kaz’s explanation to Inej about why he named them “Crows”, for instance. It was put into season 1 to further their development, but it happens in their very last scene together of the last book in their duology.

Speaking of Crows…

The Crows Storyline

I feel strongly they’ll re-introduce us to the Crows with SoC’s truly masterfully epic Chapter 2 where Kaz obliterates the rival Black Tips gang, simultaneously exposing a traitor in his crew – which I guess will be that older guy who was always running up to Kaz in season 1 at the Crow Club with info. According to IMDb, that guy was Big Bolliger.(I thought Bolliger was supposed to be a young guy, but whatever).

Not sure if we’ll see how they deal with Dreesen and Pekka upon coming back to Ketterdam without Alina. It’s something I think they could allude to without having to show it in order to get going on the Ice Heist. I guess it will depend on if there’s a time jump. If there is a time jump, I think we’ll just get an off-hand reference to what went down, which I would prefer in favor of getting the massive Ice Heist going because who gives a shit about a guy we saw for not even 10 minutes and who we never saw again? *whispers**8 episodes!*

As I posited in the other storyline, Kirigan’s contact in Ketterdam for extracting Yul Burbur, the fabrikator responsible for jurda purem’s creation, is Jan Van Eck. Van Eck is in league with Kirigan for the distribution of jurda purem once they get hold of Yul Booboo. He approaches Kaz to do this job, as he does in the book, saying, “I’ll pay you an insane amount of money to do this heist so we can prevent this horrible drug getting out into the world”. But, really, Van Eck wants to be able to control the manufacturing and selling of this drug himself for financial gain, and part of the deal he has with Kirigan is to become his supplier. That would be a pretty powerful position for a greedy ass like Van Eck.

So, Kaz begins assembling the team including Wylan, who he needs to fulfill Jesper’s dream of having a demo guy on the team. But, really, Kaz needs Wylan for insurance against Van Eck as Wylan is his son, but that shan’t be revealed till the end. Kaz approaches Nina about finally breaking Matthias out of Hellgate because they need him to tell them about the Ice Court. She’s probably pissed at him that he’s like, “Oh, yeah, now I’ll break him out because I need him for a job.”

So they break Matthias out of Hellgate. He’s pissed, Nina’s sad and angry, but it all works out. We’re in for lots of fun stuff with the Hellgate prison break, I think.

Jesper will inadvertently betray the Crows by accidentally revealing the job to Pekka and the Dime Lions, but we won’t necessarily see that. Jesper’s betrayal will probably play like a massive surprise at the end of the season as it does in the book. Like there’s no scene, book or show, where you go, “Hey, I think Jesper just fucked up.” It’s something they could play out like they did with Arken, but I think it would be better if it plays out the way it does in the book given that Jesper is one of our beloved characters and not some rando created for the purpose of being expendable later.

Pekka hopes to steal the job as revenge for Kaz stealing (and failing) the Alina job. They sabotage the Crows, leading to the confrontation at the docks, Inej’s stabbing, and the eye-ripping of a lifetime!!!

Kaz’s backstory, I hope, will be told in flashbacks that parallel present events much like they did with Malina’s flashbacks in season 1. I love the use of showing brief scenes in the past to enhance the present-day situation. These flashbacks probably include Kaz leaving his childhood home after his dad’s death; his and Jordie’s close relationship; the revelation that Pekka wined and dined them before fucking them over, which inevitably led to Jordie’s death and Kaz’s haphephobia, thus finally explaining why Kaz hates that goddamn guy so much and wears gloves – all that good stuff. I think that’s all we’ll have time for as far as people’s backstories. Inej and Jesper will have to be saved for later. It’s possible (dare I say even probable?) that they will include Kaz’s first meeting with Inej and in so doing maybe show a little of Inej’s awful life at the Menagerie. We can only hope.

Commence Ice Heist stuff! I don’t remember everything that happens during that, but I imagine the events are going to have to be pretty heavily pared down to its bare bones. For instance, I doubt there will be those scenes with Tante Heleen and Brum. Maybe one or the other, but not both. If I had to say which one they’d include, it would probably be Heleen for Inej’s story development. Nina and Matthias are lower on the rung in terms of character importance at this point in time. Plus, they’d have to introduce Brum whereas we already know Heleen, and if we’re given a prior flashback scene where she’s mistreating Inej, it will be just desserts. But, again, I don’t know that there’s time for any of that.

Oh, shit! Yul Boogo is dead! But wait. His son, Kuwei, is here, and he knows how to make the drug. Grab him!

There’s a lot that happens with the Crows escaping the Ice Court, but operating on the assumption that they did fit all of SoC into season 2: Jesper, Wylan, and Inej steal a fucking tank; Kaz frees Pekka (who is locked up in the Ice Court after his own attempt to break Yul Boyardee out failed) to help intensify the flavor of their beef; Nina’s big, sacrificial jurda purem moment that helps them escape Fjerdan soldiers and get back to their ship.

Before Nina starts struggling with jurda purem withdrawals, she has the conversation on the ship home with Inej about breathing and Inej and Kaz have a convo about armor. You know what I’m talking about, ya book readers.

And then we’re on the Ketterdam beach getting fucked over by Van Eck, Kaz fucking him right back with fake Kuwei (secretly Wylan); Inej being captured and flown off into the sky because Kaz looked at her when they were threatened, giving away that ~~he loves her~~ she’s important to him; Jesper’s betrayal revealed, Kirigan’s involvement revealed; Kaz’s “Gonna get my money, gonna get my girl!” line, and END OF SEASON! ROLL CREDITS!! SEASON 3 RENEWAL, PLEASE AND FUCKING THANK YOU!!!

***I love that I don’t feel the need to figure out justification for any of the characters’ actions in SoC; I can just say what happens and it makes sense, because it was written that much better than Shadow and Bone trilogy lol.***

Some last thoughts for this storyline:

I feel like there’s a lot of SoC to cram into the second season when the Crows aren’t the sole focus of the show. However, like I said before not much happens in the S&S book, so that may allow more time to devote to the Crows and sort of shift the story so it focuses on them a little more this time around. I have complete faith the writers pulled it off, though. They pulled off Crows being in the first season, so I’m really not terribly worried about the Crows in season 2 because I know it’ll be good. I’m just more curious – ironically – about the S&S side since I had real, raging struggles with that book.
Sweet baby Wylan is heeeere! I would love it if they credited Wylan in a callback to the bomb Kaz used to get away from Kirigan. I mean, I think it’s been confirmed that Kaz got it from Wylan for the trip to Ravka, that the bomb was a nod to him. My only thing is: Are they REALLY going to keep Wylan looking like Kuwei for god knows how long? Are they really going to do that? Great twist for SoC ending, but that was probably the most major thing I didn’t like about Crooked Kingdom – that Wylan spent all of that book stuck looking like Kuwei. I just don’t think it’ll translate well onscreen and wonder if they’ll keep that for season 3, if there is one. But that’s season 3 speculation.
More Nina and Matthias and Wylan and Jesper is a given. It won’t be hard to start repairing Helnik’s relationship and lay the breadcrumbs for Wesper. If they could shove Helnik’s origin story into the first season (and I have thoughts on how successful that was, but it’s not important), then they can damn well fit in more Helnik and set up Wesper.
We got a lotta ships here and a lotta characters, and – I'ma say it again – only 8 goddamn episodes. So I won’t be surprised if some characters like Tolya, Tamar, Genya, David, Fedyor, Nadia, and Zoya don’t get much time, or even any time. But I’m fine with that. At this point in the show, those characters – with the possible exception of Zoya, maybe Genya – are not 100% crucial to the forward momentum of Alina or the Crows, so to devote precious minutes to them is really not a good idea unless they are going to forward the main characters in some way.

Well, those are my thoughts and theories. What are yours?