the crows are so much funnier than the fandom give them credit for
here are just SOME of the funniest moments throughout the books
“….you can find your way to Ravka or Matthias’ grandmother’s house for all i care” “leave my grandmother out of this”
obviously the ghost scene
pay someone to pay someone to pay someone to
“you speak Fjerdan about as well as i speak moose” “moose is probably your native tongue”
‘Had they blown up the lab? Kaz had definitely NOT told them to blow up the lab’
The deadpan ‘He had not been shot’
Kaz trying to justify his decision if bringing Wylan along to the rest of the crows: “ i told you, ✨hidden depths✨” “see Jesper, ✨marketable skillz✨”
‘“You all look so young, where are your parents?” Wylan and Jesper burst out laughing’
“This many people having fun in one place might have shocked the Fjerdan right out of you”
“I.Should.Let.You.Die”
Nina trying to bring Kaz back: “The Ice Court, remember? 3 million kruge?” Kaz’s eyes cleared. “4million”
“You couldn’t look guiltier if you were performing the role of Thief #3 in a penny play on East Stave”
“Who wants to buy i coat in the dead on night?” “Tourists”
“Tiny and Ferocious, just like you”
“Unless you have a unicorn for him to ride away on, there is no scenario that guarantees Kuwei’s safety”
‘They could fake a pregnancy. They couldn’t fake an actual birth. Or maybe they could, he wouldn’t put anything past Kaz at this point”
“He has a very soothing baritone”
‘“I’d prefer a pair of sable-lined swimming trunks, but we can’t always get what we want” A furrow appeared between Kuwei’s brows. His understanding of Kerch had apparently been reached and surpassed’
The Wyvil
Matthias thinking they should just let Nina and Jesper flirt the entirety of Ketterdam into submission
That MASTERPIECE of a scene where Jesper and Kaz have a random petty fistfight, and all the other crows literally move out of the way, and then when Wylan tries to get someone to stop them they just shrug and go ‘I mean they aren’t using their weapons let them fight it out’ and THEN Colm coming him and scolding them and both of them IMMEDIATELY stopping
“Whatever you say, Llewelyn”
Nina’s singing
Wylan and Kaz falling through the ceiling onto Van Eck’s dinner party will ALWAYS be iconic
Kaz’s chapters in general are absolutely HILARIOUS, but my personal favorite is when he’s depending on Matthias Not Betraying them, and he thinks something like this:
‘Either he was right and Matthias’ feeling for Nina would prove enough, or Kaz was about to pay for all those talking tree jokes’
The talking tree jokes in question
The initiation ceremony where the tree teaches you the secret handshake
‘His first thought was that this boy had the most beautiful lips he’d ever seen, and his second was that he was probably about to die’ Wylan honey we’ve got to talk about your priorities
“Is it that bad?” “No, you just have really ugly feet”
That scene at the start of Six of Crows where Van Eck has Kaz tied to a chair and is explaining what he needs, and then is explaining why he needs Kaz specifically, talking about how his De Kappel painting was stolen which is a really impressive feat, while Kaz is vehemently denying that he had anything to do with it although it was obviously him
Wylan being passive aggressive while Jesper is trailing after him trying to apologize for the Kuwei thing
“Can’t we just enter as performers? I hear Wylan really kills it on the flute”
Inej getting Nina’s cookie jar after she gets back and Jesper being offended that he didn’t get to take some
Nina making fun of Kaz’s haircut
“Is my tie straight?”
That’s all I can think of for now, i’m sure there’s more so if you think of something feel free to add on
• I would have come for you. And if I couldn’t walk, I’d crawl to you, and no matter how broken we were, we’d fight our way out together-knives drawn, pistols blazing. Because that’s what we do. We never stop fighting.
Crooked Kingdom / Leigh Bardugo
—————————————
This is the second and final books in the soc (six of crows) duology. The crew managed to break into the most secure prison (the Ice Kingdom). But now they’re having a bit of a rough patch trying to get out of their own city. As always, Kaz has the most flawless plans, Inej is the Wraith, Wylan has a useful knowledge for chemistry; Nina and Jesper have their powers, and Mathasis was a soldier. Yet the book will leave you in tears. No mourners, no funerals? 5/5
KAZ, NINA, MATTHIAS AND KUWEI BARELY MADE IT OUT ALIVE FROM THE ICE COURT AND NEXT THING YOU KNOW THEY HEAR JESPER, WYLAN AND INEJ JUST BARRELING TO THEM IN A FUCKING FJERDAN TANK I LOVE THEM SO MUCH
Kaz: doesn’t post or use his real name but follows everyone to get as much blackmail as possible
Inej: has a private account that only the crows can follow, posts the occasional group photo, which nina always hypes up
Jesper: has a vent/spam account where he posts obscure memes about his personal life with regular updates of him and Wylan, works with Nina to keep the groupchats alive
Wylan: uses text to speech to openly campaign against his father and the entirety of capitalism, with the occasional cute update photo of him and Jesper or his art
Nina: regular selfies and group photos, most of her pictures are waffles bc she can’t help but post a picture every time she has them, keeping the groupchat alive with Jesper
Matthias: refused to get social media for the longest time, now barely checks his notifications except to like the crows’ photos, pretends to hate being tagged in group photos
BONUS
Kuwei: Wylan reported his account for being too young until it got taken down
Hanne: messages Nina regularly, has pretentious, promotional purposes main account and a secret private account that only Nina can follow
So! Shadow and Bone came out - og book fans will know it depicts the story of the first instalment of the Shadow and Bone trilogy, along with new unseen prequel content for Six of Crows. Some things are intentionally shifted around, especially in terms of timeline and who meets who, but if I had to quickly summarise my thoughts: THAT WAS SO GOOD! Sorry in advance if this review is absolutely incomprehensible!!!
Part 1: Characters
Alina - making her more assuredly half-Shu seemed to work, though I can’t speak on the topic as I am a pasty bitch. Otherwise, Alina remained largely the same and I’m here for it - she was already a pretty interesting protagonist imo. Nothing but love for Jessie’s performance, I loved seeing Alina’s growing confidence though I wish there were more training scenes.
Mal - they made him so much more interesting. Archie brought a lot to the character, and even though seeing Mal get fucked up every episode was a tad repetitive, I think it made him far more sympathetic and actually showed us that awful suffering he mentioned in the first book. Seeing his close friends die was just an incredibly powerful scene, and Malina feels a lot stronger with Mal being a more rounded character.
The Darkling - just because I dislike Darklina doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the Darkling as a character. While I dislike that he revealed his true name so casually, that he and Alina seemed to fall for each other so quickly (I liked it better in the book because she had more training scenes, indicating more time had passed for their relationship to develop), and that they removed “the problem with wanting is that it makes us weak” line, I do enjoy Ben’s portrayal of the character. He was rendered a little pathetic by the Crows, but I do love the Crows so I’ll excuse it. Where his character really shined is with the flashback scenes and his interactions with Baghra. I’m very interested to see what they do with him next.
Kaz - a lot of people have said Kaz is a lot softer than we’re used to. I agree, but it makes sense. Kaz was that mean but well meaning leader at the start of Six of Crows - he was only made harsher as he was forced to confront his traumas, and go on a difficult heist. Also, I think it gives a bit of context to why he and Inej end up having feelings for each other. We know in the books that they worked closely together for a long time, but actually seeing those moments makes all the difference. Freddy did an amazing job showing Kaz’s rough exterior battling his inner demons.
Inej - amazing, 10/10, can’t applaud Amita enough. I’m not sure about the choice to give Inej a brother? It could cause more grief later but it’s another weirdly jarring difference from the book. However! Inej was done perfectly in the show in my opinion. We see her stealth, knife and acrobatic skills, we see her initial horror at taking her first kill (amazing scene) and her motivations and religious beliefs are not ignored in favour of pairing her off with Kaz immediately. I do wish they kept Kaz gifting her that knife instead of Alina though. I always wanted to see that scene.
Jesper - DID YOU MEAN STAR OF THE GOD DAMN SHOW? Normally a comedic relief character has me rolling my eyes, but it makes all the difference that Jesper actually has troubles and flaws and motivations and HILARIOUS DIALOGUE. I love him. Kit Young did such a good job, he played Jesper perfectly and I also love the foreshadowing of Wylan’s appearance! Love love love Jesper. A+. Also he is bisexual look at him go!!! Representation!!!
Others: NINA AND MATTHIAS ARE AMAZING!!! ENEMIES TO LOVERS A+ EVEN IF THE TIMELINE IS ALL WEIRD. David and Genya. My loves. Perfect. A+ as well. Nadia, amazing. Very gay. Not sure why they killed Marie off like that. Pekka is scary but why did they make him kinda hot? Milo is my hero. I would die for Fedyor. ZOYA?? That is not my Zoya. Why did they make her say something racist to Alina when she herself is mixed race. Zoya would never. But all the actors did a great job even if the characters were a little different.
Part 2: Plot
The rest of these parts should be shorter. So, the plot is mostly the same in terms of Shadow and Bone, but the stuff for the crows is all new and some parts of the story were changed to include them. While the crows on their own were amazing, I think the parts where they interacted with the Shadow and Bone cast felt forced and added some good moments at best, or actively damaged other characters at worst. For instance, Inej witnessing Alina was amazing. But Kaz outsmarting the Darkling, while it made sense, just lessened the Darkling as a threat. Otherwise I think everything was really good! The new Crows stuff was brilliant on its own, even if Nina and Matthias’ story was moved forward I still adored it, and Shadow and Bone stayed loyal enough to the books in terms of plot to remain engaging.
Part 3: Worldbuilding
My main concern about the show was how they would handle the language differences, but they did a great job. Like, they had Fjerdans speak in their own language, they made a new alphabet for Ravkan? I think they know what they’re doing. Seeing the Crows and the Shadow and Bone cast communicate in the same language didn’t really make sense but that’s just a nitpick.
Also, all the settings look amazing. Not much to say, they’re just great.
Part 4: Effects
Music, perfect, visuals, great (the volcras look amazing but Alina’s light power looked a little…fake), costume design and props, best I’ve ever seen. Enough said.
Part 5: Final thoughts
When a book is adapted into a show or film, I usually just assume that it will serve its purpose, maybe be a little frustrating or terrible at worst, and go. Shadow and Bone though, it adapts the books faithfully while still including worthwhile changes. It isn’t perfect, but it comes close. I imagine show-only watchers will like it a lot.
Alternative take: Jesper and Milo carried the whole thing. Goodbye.
Every queer friend group needs the edgy one that acts like they don’t care (but definitely does), the voice of reason who would stab someone if needed, the beautiful disaster bisexual, the powerful high heels bisexual, the token straight who’s just going through it, and the repressed gay nerd trying their best
Beyond the realisation that I can draw sheer fabric using a layer effect on my app, this drawing was inspired by the heavier topics that SoC addresses, so only proceed if you are okay with the content. (CW: s*xual ab*se, f*tishisation)
One of the things I really appreciate from SoC is how Leigh wrote in the issue of fetishisation and exoticism of cultures and how harmful it is to the person of that identity. Beyond the abuse Inej endured in the Menagerie, it also broke her connection to her culture. Inej stayed away from silks after the Menagerie, even if it was part of her Suli identity. This made me wish for more insight on her relationship with her culture now after surviving the Menagerie, as sexualised stereotypes have always been very harmful and often seen when portraying female POC characters in the media.
Although my culture has yet to be fetishised in Western media (probably cuz it never appeared anyway lmao) this maltreatment exists in my own country against the women who don our own TRADITIONAL CLOTHES. They censor the exposed skin that traditional clothing cuts give in the name of “decency”, when our culture gave very similar clothing shapes for both male and female wearers. It’s all so disturbing, so I’m glad that Leigh addressed such a big topic that is still prevalent today, even if it isn’t as blatantly racist or sexist as it was before.
