By Andrea Wang, Kira Allen & Merit Barz | June 21 2021 |
Being one of the biggest hits, having more than 55 million viewership just with over 721 million minutes of viewing time in just the first 28 days, the iconic “Shadow and Bone'' series comes to Netflix, basing off the book series “Shadow and Bone” and “Six of Crows” by Leigh Bardugo. This popular book series recently became popular off of the social platform “TikTok” with the segment of “BookTok”. The series is a fantasy, romance adventure book suitable for teens, and is set in the fantasy world of the “Grishaverse”. There are many diverse characters (including LGBTQ+ characters) and a non-problematic author, giving this book a well-deserved spot for a chance for a series to appear on Netflix. Although many viewers enjoyed the plot and surface of the story, this elusive article would give you a better understanding behind the series. We dig deep into the characters, themes, cinematography and much more.
Characters
Shadow and Bone is a new Netflix show based on the Shadow and Bone trilogy and Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, featuring Ben Barnes as General Kirigan, Freddy Carter as Kaz Brekker, Amita Suman as Inej Ghafa. Up and coming actors Jessie Mei-Li playing the show's lead, Alina Starkov, Kit Young as Jesper Fahey, the show's comedic relief and Archie Renaux as Alinas childhood friend and colleague in the army. Ben Barnes perfectly portrays the unreadable villain leaving watchers guessing what his true motive is. The darklings' depth split many fans in terms of ships and motives. While the show has many YA cliches in it, it still is captivating. Fan favorites Jesper, Inej and Kaz also known as The Crows are represented very well, with Kit Young being everything I wanted in Jesper. He perfectly plays the sharp-shooting flirt, embodying all of book Jespers characteristics from jokes that were said too soon to be funny and gambling away important thinThemes
The themes in Shadow and Bone include betrayal and deception, with friendship and love keeping the characters united, like a good versus evil conflict. In Alina’s plot, Os Alta, the Darkling manipulates Alina into giving him her powers. The Darkling seems welcoming and protective at first, but in the end, it is completely the opposite, masking his true intentions(deception). In Image 1, the contrast between Darkling(the villain) and Alina(the hero), gives us a good VS evil theme. The colors between them are the complete opposite, fascinated by the power of the sun. The villain, Darkling, seems to have more power, because of the towering gesture over the hero, Alina, who is like a midget and is scared of him. The facial expressions of the Darkling represent greed and arrogance, whereas Alina has the facial expressions of being scared and intrigued. They represent good and evil in the story, by the difference of color and facial expressions. In Shadow and Bone, the ending where Alina starts to get defeated, all of the characters from different plot lines come together: Crows’, Alina’s life, and Mal’s life, to all work together(the heroes) to defeat the villain.
Image 3: S1E2 (We’re All Someone’s Monster) 7.50, the contrasting colors between Alina, the protagonist, and the Darkling, the antagonist, are very evident and controversial.
Consistency to the book:
Shadow and bone follows the first book in the Grisha trilogy, and Six of Crows. The two books are mixed together, which caused a lot of the plot to stray from the books. There is very little, if any recognizable plot from six of crows, as that book is set after shadow and bone and the characters never interacted in the books. Shadow and bone follows the Grisha trilogy more, but many major events were still created for the show, such as Alina being kidnapped. Many of the characters were aged up or matured, and many others were given a character makeover to make them more likeable.
Conclusion
After discussing the background and unnoticed aspects of the series, the series now will seem much more interesting and different than your first time watching it(or maybe after reading this, we’ve convinced you to read it!). The incredible world of the “Grishaverse” created by Leigh Bardugo is one too interesting. Most importantly, a second season will come out soon! If you have time, you should read most books by Leigh Bardugo, as they are all set in the “Grishaverse” with the same characters. Feel free to take the quiz below to see where you take part in the “Shadow and Bone” world. Thanks for reading!
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