#i dont support the darkling but i also think ben barnes is hot

[thegayraven]

ok so final thoughts on shadow and bone, in no particular order:

im glad they put a lot of work into mal and alina's relationship because i dont mind being more invested in them. and i really liked jessie and archie in the roles and they did a great job

i think its pretty funny that archie renaux and ben barnes are jokingly playing up the rivalry irl and as a nikolai girl im excited for him to get in the mix and offer up his hand in marriage

zoya could have been meaner. she just could have been meaner! i would have supported her being meaner. i appreciate her turning on the darkling sooner because i like zoya but i also want her to be a little meaner. she deserves it!

oh speaking of zoya the fact that they made it canon that she and the darkling have had a thing...? big skeevy vibes for me personally considering he has known her since she was like 9. just saying

did zoya and mal actually bang in this version? i feel like they didnt. also i think its lowkey really funny that zoya and alina have the exact same taste in men apparently. also i kinda hope zoya loses the bangs next season...they were ok but not my fave.

it took me a while to warm up to danielle as nina but ultimately i did like her and i think i will like her even more in season 2. same goes for whoever's playing matthias he was p cute and he did a good job. no idea what his accent was supposed to be (it was fine tho i liked it) and i wish they spoke more fjerdan between the two of them but thats fine

oh speaking of languages are we just pretending kerch and ravkan are the same language? because realistically only inej speaks ravkan between her, jesper and kaz right? lmao.

at the halfway point i felt the crows' plot was quite stupid but episode 5 improved things significantly and i am not immune to wanting to see characters i like team up. i will say that alina literally giving inej the sankta alina knife was kinda cheesy but its fine. super funny how mal and alina are literally on the same ship as the crows in the end but theyre like "nah nah its cool we travel separately from now on"

omg speaking of alina when i heard they were going to cast an asian actress and make alina part shu i did not think she was going to experience 60 microaggressions per minute...like ok i guess it makes sense for ravkans to be xenophobic considering like the country's hardships and the wars and the ensuing nationalism but oh my god.

also also, alina being shu is kinda cool because that gives her another thing to connect with tolya and tamar about, yes? i know shadow and bone is less popular than six of crows but tolya and tamar deserve SOME of the hype being afforded to nikolai and wylan

daisy head was soooooo good as genya and its so fucked up that they pronounce her name "jenya" in my heart it will ALWAYS be a hard G. i got kinda mad on her behalf when alina was chewing her out tho...like alina i totally get that ur mad. but you literally do not know what she has been through 🥲

i honestly think the guy playing david is a little too hot to be david i always imagined him dweebier but its what genya deserves and he was excellent in the role so im fine with it.

ben barnes was an excellent casting choice for the darkling. theres gonna be exponentially more darkling fuckers now but thats the price you pay for good casting i guess. i'll be honest he and jessie mei li have good chemistry and all but the makeout scene still weirded me out because he is 39 and shes around my age.

omg SPEAKING of the makeout scene it was extremely funny to me that he's all like "are you sure? [about having s*x presumably]" when theyve been making out for literally FIFTEEN SECONDS and have taken NO clothes off. like what is she supposed to be sure about? you have put the cart SOOOOOO far ahead of the horse my dude! but i guess in tv kiss + "are you sure" is just meant to tell the audience "these two plan on banging" so whatever.

the antler collar was much creepier than in the book but that is fine. i was expecting mal to be the one to be like "alina you spared the stag's life so actually you still own your own power" but shrug. oh and we have very little foreshadowing of mal being an amplifier so far...and there was NO mention of the sea serpent or the other amplifiers which disappointed me a little but only because sea serpent foreshadowing counts as nikolai foreshadowing.

oh im very neutral on the effects for alina's powers...at points i thought they looked kinda lame but in the fold they looked cool

kaz and inej kept having these (for them) very sweet heartfelt conversations and every single time i turned to my sister and was like "this is soooo sweet...but in the book they would NEVER say this." however i understand that tv is a different medium than books and freddy carter did well with what he was given. jesper and inej were PHENOMENAL though and im excited to see all the crows together.

i still have no idea if this show is coherent to those with no prior knowledge but i'd love to know what its like to watch with no prior knowledge. like my sister said she wouldnt have picked up on alina being "sickly" prior to using her powers if i hadnt told her thats a thing in the book. or like genya having purple embroidery on a red kefta to show shes sort of between corporalki and materialki. also if youre watching without having read the books is it obvious that the darkling is evil or?

speaking of keftas, based on the teaser trailer i was worried they would look bad. but they looked very good! mostly the costuming was excellent. nina was the only character whose costumes i didnt like as much and to be fair shes stuck in one outfit until the end of the show so im sure she'll look better next season. oh and jesper could have been in brighter colors imo.

i was a little upset that they didnt call the merchants merchers...and also that theres no mention of the dregs? is kaz just the leader of his own gang in this world?? to be fair establishing the dregs might have taken up too much time but i want answers next season. also it was kind of wild to me that kaz uses the crow club as collateral when like the audience barely knows whats up with the crow club.

here and there they had very fun scene transitions or good soundtrack moments and that was fun. only moment that u can think of that seemed poorly edited was the fight scene with mal in episode 1, which just felt weirdly choppy. i am not a cinnamon topography expert tho.

overall i am happy because the show was very entertaining (all i can ask for) and i think it was maybe even kinda good!

#mine #long post #shadow and bone spoilers #shadow and bone