It’s been over a month since the second season of Shadow and Bone aired on Netflix, and as of yet there is no word on whether it will be renewed for season 3 (or whether a Six of Crows spinoff will be greenlit). As more time passes, a dangerous mood has set in among some parts of the fandom: apathy.
I was one of the fans counting down the days until season 2 came out. I own multiple editions of the Grishaverse books, I watched season 1 of Shadow and Bone more times than I can count, I can quote the most random and objectively unmemorable passages from Leigh Bardugo’s novels, and yet I feel complete apathy towards season 2 of the Netflix show. I’m not even angry at it. I just quite simply do not recognize the story they told. The characters and themes I love from the books? They weren’t present.
I could ramble on for hours about all the ways the characters were shadows of themselves in season 2, but at the heart of this story is Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li), the Sun Summoner tasked with the job of tearing down the Fold: a vast swathe of darkness teeming with monsters that divides the country of Ravka in two. In season 1, we saw Alina grow from a shy and unsure girl to a confident young woman who embraced her Grisha powers. She went from wanting nothing to do with her Grisha identity and struggling to summon sunlight to feeling capable and sure of herself. We saw her go from being manipulated and controlled by the Darkling (Ben Barnes) to taking control of her own life.
We also saw her grow into her relationship with her best friend Mal (Archie Renaux). The two went from being co-dependent to separated to being reunited and clearly choosing to belong at each other. they could be apart, but they were stronger together. There is a reason each of author Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha trilogy books begin and end with chapters about “the boy” (Mal) and “the girl” (Alina). This is their story, together, as Bardugo herself said after the release of the final book in the trilogy: “This has always been the story of two refugees—orphans who the world views as expendable, the impact they have on the future of their country, and the cost that war exacts from them both.”
Season 1 ended with Alina sure of herself, sure of her abilities, and sure of her place next to her best friend. She was uneasy with the way people viewed her as a Saint due to her powers. She was funny, kind and strong. She was curious about her powers, but heeded advice from Baghra (Zoë Wanamaker) about the danger of amplifiers, animal bones fused to a Grisha to enhance their powers.
All in all, season 1 understood the core themes of the Grisha trilogy when it came to Alina: how power cannot be endlessly enhanced without consequences; how endless power corrupts both the world around you and you yourself; how Alina’s powers are seen as Saintlike, which exposes her to the Darkling’s manipulation; and how in Alina’s heart what she craves is peace and safety with Mal.
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