Shadow and Bone is ACTUALLY Great? | Explained

so shadow and bone the new netflix series based on the grisha verse novels by leigh bardugo you may think that the show's only based on shadow and bone because it's called shadow and bone but no it also blends in characters from bardugo's wildly popular duology the six of crows and i think that was a great choice as much as i dunk on what ends up on netflix i love so much of what they do and they've made some of my absolute favorite adaptations now i hadn't actually read any of these books before watching the show it's something that i had been meaning to get into for a while but then when the show was announced i decided i was going to wait watch it first and then see how it was adapted for general audiences then go back and read the books and see how it shapes up and see how they blended these two stories that take place on different timelines together into one consistent narrative and honestly as someone with no prior experience to this world and its characters i thought they did a great job and then after reading the books i really think they did a great job the central story focuses on alina starkov a map maker in a war-torn world plied by something known as the fold as alina gets pulled into a larger purpose she becomes the target for a great number of people including this ragtag group of thieves now the shadowmoon bone book is entirely in lena's perspective and the show obviously could have kept with that but instead they gave us perspectives from multiple characters in this book and implemented the characters from six of crows essentially giving them a prequel storyline in which they're trying to kidnap alina for a guy named dreesen meaning that not only do we get all the stuff going on with her but also a series of fun heist adventures with who i believe to be the most interesting characters in the story great stuff now all the stuff going on with elena is also interesting but in terms of like pure adventure and excitement and personality the crows take it even the camera movements are snappier and the storytelling is quick and does this thing where they explain what they're gonna do but then it's showing them do it i i love it the old ocean's formula i know some people might be worried that the two narratives winding together might get muddied but i absolutely think it works better than just following elena it's more interesting and it adds a lot more urgency to the story as well otherwise i think that the casting was all handled really well the characters all have really good chemistry with each other especially the crows who all just seem to bounce off their own certain personalities and skills i really love the world that bardugo built and i think that they showed that off really well in different areas of the world feel different and aligned well with the characters in those areas so i'd like to think that if you're a fan of the books you'll enjoy this but let me know obviously there's going to be some changes and adjustments to make this work better for tv and obviously make room for the crows but overall i think they did a really great job and if you're not at all familiar with the books i don't personally think that's a barrier it wasn't for me it is young adult but i don't think it ages out an older viewer base and i think that there's a lot of really rich lore that she's established here for people who want to dive into that but it's also not essential to understand the story to know every little minute detail about every different character and area in this world and after reading the books i really can't imagine a better way to tackle this for an adaptation and it makes me very excited to continue on with the series especially the second book in the crow's duology and with today's sponsor audible that was easier than ever audible is the leading provider of spoken word entertainment and audiobooks from new releases to podcasts biopics and guided meditations audible has you covered with thousands of different titles i've said it before and i'll say it again audible has been like an invaluable resource anytime i'm making a video that involves a book it allows me to get through stories faster while taking care of daily responsibilities so i can get these videos out to you faster and for this video in particular it was super cool to have the audiobook for six of crows where every character has a different voice actor for their individual chapters if you're someone who has a long commute wants to make through more books or just likes having something to listen to while working or doing chores i can guarantee that audible is a fantastic choice for you with audible you get one credit to use every month on any title of your choosing including new releases that you get to keep for life the membership also includes access to the new audible plus catalog which provides members with unlimited access to select audio books podcasts guided wellness programs audible originals sleep tracks and more so if you want to try out audible for yourself head on over to audible.com jedi or text jedi to 500 500 to get 30 days completely free but let's get into it spoilers ahead so the story starts with alina traveling to the fold which we find out is a giant black shadow wall that's loaded with dragon-like creatures known as volca and it split a country called ravka in half it's possible to travel through the fold but it is highly dangerous death is likely and not something that you particularly want to be doing the fault well of course certain death pays a million it essentially blocked off a lot of ports and destroyed anything that resided within it they can't go around it because the northerners want to kill all the grecia for being slights against god and humanity and the south won't let people pass through the mountains so all these different groups are at war with one another which brings us to the idea of grecia people that can control small sciences and essentially do things that seem like magic some can alter aspects of the body both to a healing and a harmful capacity others can create and alter matter from textiles to chemicals and the last one works within the elements water wind and fire but within this group there are more powerful cases which we'll get to so because of their abilities they're the more important side of the ravkin military but they're also largely judged and hated by a majority of society there's an entire group called the druskela from fiora who specifically exists to hunt down and make grisha stand trial and certain execution for being demonic so the theodens of the north and the shuhan of the south are who the first and second armies are battling so elena serves the first army as a cartographer and this is where we get one of our first major changes from the book when alina is traveling to the fold in the book she knows she's going to be traveling through it with her lifelong best friend mal someone who used to be quite weak and scared but now seems to have grown into the opposite and this is a bit more than a regular friendship both of their families died in the fold which resulted in them becoming orphans together at the same time and they've spent their entire lives growing up together with that same loss another change the book made is that elena is part shuhan which adds another level of separation and distrust with the people around her elena's grown up in ravka fought for rafka and she's still seen as an outsider and i know a lot of the writers were specifically excited to be able to implement aspects of their own experiences into the show again big change in the show is that neither one of them is supposed to be going into the fold but then mal an expert tracker gets selected to go on a supply run mission and elena who's just been reunited with him who spent her entire childhood protecting him ends up burning the maps for the other side of the fold so she can volunteer to go along to recreate them but unlike katniss who faces her fate alone it ends up condemning all the cartographers to go on this mission so when they get into the fold and some dumbass cartographer like the lantern the only light we use is the blue one at the mast it gets dark but we like it dark that keeps us from drawing attention which attracts the vulca all this devastation is kind of a result of elena's actions and the vulca are terrifying they're ripping people apart this guy jumps off board which is something else i thought was cool they sail through the fold even though it's not the ocean it's chaos everywhere mal ends up getting hit hard basically leaves alina saying that he'll meet her by the meadow they used to spend time in because what is young adult fiction without a meadow but just as a volcker is about to kill them both a burst of light explodes from alina surprise you're the chosen one today elena starkov because it looks like she's the legend known as the sun summoner the one who can destroy the fold with the pure power of light and when she comes two they're back at the harbor and she's instantly being pulled away to the grecia commander the darkling himself now in the first book he'll only ever be known as the darkling but in the show he goes by general kirigin and tells her that she can call him alexander which i guess is something that's only recently been put in the books but it makes sense to call him by a name like general kirigin rather than the darkling and the second they showed this [ __ ] on screen i assumed he was a baddie and not the misunderstood baddie because of the dark clothing or the ominous reputation but because he looked like this [ __ ] but also because he is this [ __ ] and instantly everyone seems afraid of her specifically wanting to know what she is apparently it's particularly interesting that someone with this level of power could have snuck by everyone because all children are tested to see if they're grecia and alina definitely is we end up getting a flashback that elena botched her testing because she knew if she was grisha they'd take her away from mal in the book it's something she just suppresses as she feels it happening actively beating it down and the book actually mentions that this had physical repercussions she instantly got these dark bags under her eyes she couldn't sleep she was weaker for visual aid the show made it so that if you're in some kind of existing pain the test won't work so while it's being conducted she's cutting open her hand and the looked on his face when he sees those powers that's the face of power but somehow this kid alexie that jumped off ship made it all across the fold in the book he just gets ripped apart this is what lets people of the other areas know that the sun summoner might be real and the powers that be that benefit from the fold would want her dead the shoe and the theordins rely on it to control their areas while the west ravkin general zlatan wants to break away and be their own country which wouldn't be as easy or possible with the fold gone this is something the first book mentions as a possibility but we actually get to see it in action in the show but it's dreesen here that gets her name by using a heart render to pull alexi out of his traumatic state and then he gets his freedom the only way criminals know how to give it he'll set me free now of course which brings us to the crows kaz ineja and jasper see they brought the heart rendered to drison to get a jump on the job and this ragtag bunch is my favorite of the show the lucky nine casino of the block has had trouble with counterfeit coin lately zemene coin can take a bullet for the knockoff i've been here for hours where'd you get that coin one of these has a hole in it they're a group of scheming thieves con artists gunslingers wraiths and their leader kaz runs a casino known as the crows club one looking i can tell criminals those familiar with the books will know these characters well but this is kind of a built-in prequel for them doesn't cause any major changes to the central plot of shadow and bone but it adds a lot of pizzazz so they get dibs on this job that'll pay off the ass as long as they can make it through the fold and back with elena but the main reason kaz is into it is because it was supposed to go to pekka rollins which is one of the many aspects of the larger six of crows story that gets adapted into this rollins is someone kaz desperately wants revenge on it also adds in the painting that van eck mentioned was stolen from him when he hires kaz and six of crows in a conversation about not needing a demolitions expert so no island i thought those were nice touches if you're fans of the books let me know what your favorite six of crows easter eggs were down below and honestly they might as well be grisha they all have special skills that they've honed so well that they seem far more than average foreshadowing so with some sherlock holmes level deduction reasoning kaz manages to get information on how to safely cross the fold and they find the conductor which almost goes sells because everybody's trying to botch the crows getting this job you see anesh is a victim of childhood trafficking and kaz is currently in the process of buying off her debt but the person who currently owns her tries to convince her that the conductor is a supplier of women and children which he may be but he mostly seems to be smuggling grisha that don't want to participate in the war efforts out of that area it's like jedi they find the grisha as kids and then take them away from their families thankfully kaz manages to stop her and they go on their way and getting through the fold is highly entertaining they get attacked by vulkra jesper freaks out and the conductor tells him to grab the goat and he's like i'm not feeding it the goats it's not bait it's for you i need you to calm down cut the goat which gives jasper the calm confidence he needs to lay out the vulkra that one well and as all this is happening lena is brought to the little palace where grecia are safe and kerrigan here or the darkling really feels like a magneto type character his men explain that being grisha was a death sentence and thanks to him they're protected and feared so they don't have to hide and if a grecia can bring down the fold maybe they wouldn't need these walls to protect themselves because they'd just be accepted and respected elena's still not too sure about him though even after he saves her from a feared attack but she essentially becomes royalty overnight she has her own private quarters assistance truly more than anything she's ever experienced especially where not only was she an orphan but also mixed race which is sadly something that not even being a grisha can protect her from when they're getting her own prep to see the king a grecia named jenya is there and she can make temporary altercations to people's appearance and someone suggests that they should start with making her eyes look a little less shoe don't change my eyes jenny has no interest in any of that and sends them all away and i love jen yeah her and jasper are probably my two favorite characters in this whole show we learned that kerrigan gifted her to the queen as a gift which kind of makes me feel less than positive about him especially when she later tells elena to be wary of powerful men and let slip that the king regularly assaults her there's also these other two girls that are friendly with elena that seem to actually like jenny in the show but are super rude to her in the books showing that even amongst the grisha there's these clear hierarchies so the reason for this introduction to the king and queen is to demonstrate her power so they know there's a chance to destroy the fold and at first she can't obviously she didn't even know she had these abilities a few days ago but then kiragan grabs her wrist and people are amazed they're lining up to speak with her until a girl named zoya who's on the boat earlier drops in with a super kind hug while whispering that she still smells like a stinking half breed from an orphanage you see she's a little jealous because elena's the darkling's new favorite but things aren't perfect without kiragan she can't seem to access her powers at all even with training from bagra she also gets her ass handed to her in physical combat all the while she's writing to mal who's never writing back and it's when she gives up on him which was pretty abrupt considering this boy was hobbling injured trying to run after her carriage when they took her away the book at least establishes that there's no reason why her letter shouldn't have been getting to him but it's when she says frickit that she can finally tap into her powers now this is an area i actually like a lot more in the books they really explained that it's something she had to push down in herself so they wouldn't be separated now she has to make amends with it it makes that direct connection that suppressing it was how she stayed with mal so now that she's let him go she can free it and then she instantly starts feeling better when she uses them she has a bigger appetite she sleeps better the bags are gone from under her eyes we're also taught about amplifiers pieces of mythical animals infused with the bones of one of the first grecia that amplify their powers and a stag that elena has dreamt about her entire life is one of these creatures which explains why elena can use her power so well when kerrigan is touching her he's an amplifier and this is where mal who's finally realized his feelings for lena gets us in apparently the general is looking for the stag and anyone who can find it can go visit the little palace and now being an amazing tracker immediately takes the job for a chance to find alina because he has been writing to her too something just seems to be stopping the letters from getting to each other i wonder who could be doing that because the darkling has some ulterior motives he says he's the descendant of the black heretic the man whose thirst for power resulted in the fold and wants to write that long so he has a vested interest in elena she's his solution now in the book he abruptly makes a move on her at one point which felt weird he even seemed shocked that he had done it in the show there's some tension between them but it's alina that makes the first move and they said that it was really important for them to do that in terms of consent stuff and i was like oh no sweetie stop he's at least like 15 years older than you the book makes it seem like there's this uncontrollable pull between the two where the show's kind of like smell who but you definitely do get the connection vibe these are two of the strongest grisha that have like opposing powers so they kind of work like a yin and yang so it makes sense that there'd be that draw there now the book also specifically mentions that using their powers keeps them young and healthy and the more powerful egretia is the longer they live which is where kirigan reveals that he's roughly 120 years old it's edward all over again without the addendum that they're frozen mentally and physically in time ah but i get it he's the first person that's made her feel like an equal and resonates with the feeling of being looked down upon by the world around them and it seems like he very much wants to put her on the same level as him the summoners all wear blue keftas with different stitching to signify their abilities but the darkling wears black robes which is what he wants alina to wear but she insists on the blue and so she's suddenly ready to get all sexual with him completely giving up on maui he's putting his life on the line to find a magic deer getting his two friends killed and then getting himself shot by a machine gun but hey he found the stag and even as he's healing from a bullet wound he insists on being the one to go to the palace while alina is being prepared for her grand societal reveal with circus performances and everything the crows see this as their in at this point they know they're looking for the alleged sun summoner the concept of which is seen as a saint in many religions including inejas making this mission a little bit more difficult but because they're such a talented group of con artists they managed to sabotage another performer and get themselves put in place as the replacement [Music] so they figure out what room they believe alina is going to be prepped in and the conductor offers to be the one to grab her because he knows how to bypass grisha locks meanwhile alina finally feels like she understands her purpose and how she can offer hope to the world which is good because after her demonstration people are dropping to their knees calling her saint alina including an edge but surprise mal is here but won't tell kerrigan where he saw the stag until he sees alina which i feel we all know isn't gonna happen he even uses some of the info mal provided to get elena her favorite flowers because he's a slippery [ __ ] and this is where things flip when bagra is informed that someone found the stag she's instantly like we can't let him attain that kind of power and she tries to kill mal and it then cuts to the conductor who's supposed to be grabbing alina slitting her throat but this was the classic queen amidala body double switcheroo and this was one of the other girls whose face had been altered to look like galinas for her protection that's something that wasn't in the book that i feel fit this story so well for the crows and kaz was fairly certain that this was going to happen because earlier when they were getting supplies to cross the fold he saw the conductor talking to zlatan which is why he let the conductor go get the decoy while they could focus on the real alina if you're wondering why he did that it's just because he got a better offer from zlatan that rathkin general to kill her than he would have gotten by splitting the reward four ways with the crows and kazan and edge almost get her out before kerrigan intercepts kazan gets hunted down by an infernai and anez has to kill him which actively goes against her religion but she's loaded with knives and she'll kick ass but she had to break her one central rule to save kaz and elena so happy with her accomplishments makes some serious moves on the darkling who even pauses for her consents which we do applaud but that idea of consent is going to get thrown out the window here since just but he's called away almost immediately to deal with the in-house murder which is where bagra pops in and instantly ushers her out saying she's saving her from spending the rest of her life as a slave because kerrigan doesn't want to end the fold he wants to expand and control it so that people will have to submit to him which is what he wanted all those years ago when he created it that's right he's not the descendant he's the real deal and centuries older than we thought one-upping eddie because surprise bagra is his mommy and the horrible beings inside the vulcara all used to be the men women and children that lived in those villages and cities before the fold took over they're the one aspect of his creation that he can't control but with lena he can so he wants to use the stag to amplify elena's powers but be the one that's in control of them and he's going to try to reason this later with hey like when we first met you said you just wished you could transfer your powers to me so like who's really to blame here so she gets up and ends up with her crows because she happens to crawl right into the carriage that jesper has sights on but then anez lets her get away and considering kaz put the crows club on the line to complete this deal they're kind of screwed but anez didn't know because he didn't tell anyone he had to use it as a bargaining chip to bring a nedge on the journey and we finally see the full links of the darklings brutality when he's interrogating the conductor when he realizes who he is he becomes enraged because he smuggles grecia out of the palace who won't take part in the war so he eats him with darkness then as alina is fleeing mal manages to track her down and tells her how hard he's been trying to get to her i've been trying to get back to you this whole time so now she's feeling real guilty about cuddling up with prince darkness over here who tries to nab the crows but these bastards manage to outsmart them all i think marduko explained that as like a batman versus superman moment and how batman would have shaped up and i like that but lena instead of running decides hey let's go find the stag ourselves so that i can take its powers without him and end the fold problem being that kerrigan knows she's with mal knows what they're gonna do and she's wearing a ring that can let one of his men track her we then get a background flash to the day that darkly made the fold because of his insistence on trying to use forbidden magic to create an army to protect grecia after losing his love and he likes what he made what did you do i made something then finally mal and elena find the stag traditionally you're supposed to kill one of these animals to have ownership over these amplifier powers but she realizes she doesn't need to it chooses her too bad the darklings here and kills it anyway and the only way she can save mal is to let him do it and i am upset that this majestic beast is dead but he makes her necklace out of its antlers and fuses it to her collarbones mild body world was not what i was expecting going into this but here we are then has a piece fused to his hand that allows him to control her powers completely because he was the one who killed the stag this is different from the book there isn't a physical link here it's literally just the fact that he killed it and like gave her the powers that gives him the ability but i understand why it's important for the show to have a visual reference for audiences so it's not just something happening inside her which brings us to the grand plan the darkly gets a bunch of high-ranking officials from different areas on this ship to show them and the fold but it's actually to show them that he has the ability to control and increase the fold and take out anyone who stands in his way he even uses jenya to get the king out of the way so everything is in place for kerrigan's takeover he knew she'd want revenge for everything he put her through be careful of powerful men you should have included devious women i waited for years for my chance of revenge even though you know he's the reason that she was in that position and lena rightfully points out that she could have made grecia safe if he had just given her the chance and as much as he says he sees her as an equal he truly wants all that powers he wants to be seen as the one who rights this wrong he wants to be seen as the one who made the world a better place for all grisha absolute magneto energy right down to the power amplification but even through all this manipulation i do think he wants to be with alina like so many baddies he doesn't see himself as the baddie and in the book she acknowledges that a part of her still feels drawn to him way worse than eddie stalker vampire boyfriend seems a little bit better why am i compare it's it is better he is worse in the book though he ends up forcing a kiss on her when he's about to kill mal but again that whole idea of consent almost goes out the window here he made sure to ask if she was okay continuing things when they were kissing but not like hey are you okay with me like literally taking over your body basically so they're about to sit sail the crows are planning to bust elena out so they can use her as leverage kaz knows his plan can't be to destroy the fold considering they're sailing right to an opposing army's leader specifically a leader that hired someone to kill elena malz also managed to sew away on the ship because unlike the book where kyrgin was going to make alina watch a bulk or kill him he was just fine letting him rot away you will grow old and she will remain ageless i'm not going to kill you time will do it for me he's also smart enough to realize that mal makes for great leverage and once people realize what his plans are they are not super stoked he starts expanding the fold through zlatan's men in west ravka and zoya has family there so she's not on board with him anymore and just as everything seems lost lena has a vision of the stag when she realizes that she was chosen so she grabs a knife and cuts the piece of bone off his hand that gave him control over her and uses what was rightfully hers all along so they get to safety leaving kerrigan in the fold being descended on by volcara i don't have to kill you darkling apostle did for me to keep kaz quiet and as a consolation prize for not actually kidnapping her elena hands over this ornate piece of jewelry so he can at least get the crows club back and pay for initial freedom while alina sets off to get stronger so she can learn how to destroy the fold so they set off on their separate ways the crows headed back to ketterdam where kaz has a plan to avoid having their heads cut off when they come back to dreesen and pekka without the sun summoner a plan that will require a heart render and hey would you look at that they got one right here nina now fans of six of crows will recognize nina i didn't mention it earlier but she was a grisha that was supposed to be able to help the crows get into the palace but she was kidnapped by juskela first she manages to escape after a shipwreck but ends up with one of her captors matthias and even though matthias was raised to hate grecia the two actually forge a bond and get all lovey-dovey until it's revealed that she had been working as an informant for keurig and his men track her down and planned to kill matthias for crimes against grisha so she has to lie and tell people that matthias was a slaver so he gets arrested and pulls in for a trial rather than instantly killed by kerrigan's men which is what gets him locked up in hellgate which is where he's rescued from in six of crows which is why he hates her so much he genuinely believes that she played some kind of long con deception on him then it ends with kiragan crawling his way out of the darkness having learned how to make a literal shadow army so i'm actually really excited to see what comes next after reading parts of each of these series i'm more invested with the crows and i think they did such a good job folding them into this larger story and i'm so excited to see what they do with them next lussolina which is super weird her story is the stuff of legend it's a legend i really want to learn about but the crows are the ones i want to follow along on their adventures overall i really enjoyed this i think it sidestepped some of the issues that i had with the book doesn't fall super hard into any of those y-a tropes that we all know and love and sometimes hate but you know is still a great representation of why a fantasy fiction but i'm also kind of wondering the show will significantly differ from what the books did or if they'll just continue making scenarios where these two groups barrel into each other until they get on their own timelines so that is gonna do it for today's video let me know what you guys are thinking down below did you love the show did you hate the show are you fans of the book are you not if you are a fan of the book do you feel like they did it justice do you enjoy the world they built i know that i'm speaking as someone who read the books after the fact but i really enjoyed this i had a great time going through it the two times i did to make this video somehow i'm super late like netflix gave this to me at the beginning of april or end of march and i'm just like here late but that is going to do it for today's video thanks so much for watching thanks as always to my patreon supporters subscribe to the channel if you're new leave a like on the video if you're into that kind of thing i hope you're all having a fantastic day i'm mostly okay and we'll catch you all later

Channel: Amanda the Jedi

Views: 131,933

Rating: 4.9780116 out of 5

Keywords: shadow and bone netflix, shadow and bone cast, shadow and bone review, young adult fantasy, grishaverse, six of crows, shadow and bone explained, six of crows explained, leigh bardugo, netflix adaptation, best of netflix, jessie mei li, shadow and bone, shadow and bone netflix review, book adaptation, shadow and bone kiss, amanda the jedi, amanda the jedi shadow and bone, Edward Cullen, netflix review, grisha, the fold, volcra, the darkling, ben barnes

Id: xQqg1V9Szi4

Length: 26min 23sec (1583 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 29 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/AdeptBedroom6906]

I saw this video just now, you beat me to posting it lmao

[u/rollerskatebutterfly]

I love amanda!!

[u/JagerJack7]

Why so?

[u/c_russ]

I've never heard of her and I see why she's got a large following! Super fun to watch and hear her explain S&B and her opinions.