Lol, Zoya telling Alina she needs to find new allies when they part at the end of s1. Little does she know she really means Alina needs to go find Zoyas future husband 😅

Shadow and Bone’s Crows Answer Their Characters’ Most Searched Questions

Literally cannot believe Matthias spent the whole season in regular jail AND horny jail. I’m so sorry, sir 😔

A moment of appreciation for Freddy Carter's acting, please.

This man conveyed every one of Kaz's unspoken thoughts in his expressions. I could almost hear what he was thinking in the church scene. His face just screamed YOU! I WANT YOU! when he looked at Inej and then you can see him swallow the thought and look away so he could sprout some bs about his weight in gold

And don't even start with the scene when he sees her after the battle. Holy shit this man, you can see the guilt and regret in his eyes

Kaz's eyes narrowed. "Sturmhond."

"He knows me!" Sturmhond said delightedly. He nudged Genya with an elbow. "I told you I'm famous."

Zoya blew out an exasperated breath. "Thank you. He's going to be twice as insufferable now."

― Leigh Bardugo, Crooked Kingdom

This is all I saw in this scene… the memes make themselves with this show

I just wanted to say that by the rules of cinematography

No body = being alive

David is alive and you can't tell me otherwise

The Darkling literally growling

No, but like, there was no way Inej was ever going to say, yes, okay, I'll stay in Ketterdam with you instead of looking for my brother. And Kaz knows this.

He literally just gave her the lead on where to start looking for her brother. He knows this has been her whole purpose for so long, just like avenging Jordie has been his. And she may actually be able to find some peace and happiness by achieving her goal, unlike Kaz, who is left adrift after completing his revenge.

Four times over the course of this season he sends her away. Her response to each one shows her own character development as well as the arc of their relationship.

The first time is when they first arrive back in Ketterdam and find out that Pekka Rollins now owns everything, including Inej. Kaz tells her to get out of the city and says, "This isn't your fight anymore," which, honestly is totally ridiculous to say that her own indenture contract is not her own business. Her response: "I'm not leaving you." Matter-of-fact, knee-jerk, and he doesn't argue. This feels like a well-worn routine for them.

Then we have the "bathroom scene," where her resolve and energy are refocused by Kaz telling her Pekka killed his brother. Before the main event, Kaz again tells Inej, if things go awry, get out of the city, find your brother, and never look back. Once again, she refuses to promise this. "I can only promise you that Pekka will beg for his death."

Then she makes the choice to get the trafficked women off the boat instead of being there in the shadows to watch over Kaz. I think he genuinely was upset that he didn't know that she was okay, and genuinely upset that she wasn't there to watch over him. But he uses those genuine emotions to push her away a third time. He has finally secured her freedom. He can finally really keep her safe, and the safest thing is for her to leave the city, because also, in securing her freedom, he has shown Pekka his hand, revealed his true "tell," which is his love for Inej. So he pushes her away again, this time more forcefully, by really hurting her. But, she gets drawn back in by the quest for the Neshyenyar. "You have your freedom. Why would this be what you choose to do with it?" "I'm not here for you. I'm here for Sankta Alina." It's a half truth.

Then we've got the toxin trips, which move both of them forward, but kind of in opposite directions. Even though for Inej it's her really confronting what she wants from Kaz, it's also confronting the reality that she is not going to get that from him, where he is right now. Just hours ago she saw him have a serious flashback / breakdown just from bumping into someone. And though she understands it, because of her own trauma, she also understands she can't save him from it.

So by the time we get to the end, Inej has made some kind of peace with this. She is leaving the phase of her own healing journey where she needs him to lean on as a fellow traveler, and where taking care of him serves as a way to avoid taking care of herself. And he, meanwhile, has had Inej rescue him from his trauma nightmare in reality at the teashop, in his toxin dream where she pulls him out of the water (oh, not to mention, literally saves his life by forcibly touching his face and making him eat the butterfly). And then he's had the philosophical talking-to from Ohval about how loving someone isn't a weakness, it's what makes life worthwhile. He is opening up slowly, confronting his feelings for her and how that vulnerability fits in with his life philosophy.

When he comes to say goodbye in the chapel, he is finally sincere. Finally him pushing her away isn't because of what he wants or needs emotionally, it's about what's best for her, which is being able to follow her own path to completion, the way she has enabled him to follow his Jordie path. And it's because he's in this place where he can finally, authentically let her go, that he can finally, authentically ask her to stay, out loud. All the other times he told her to leave, he was really asking her to stay. And now, when he is really ready to let her choose to leave, he is able to ask her to stay.

And she is also ready to say, yes, I am going to leave, for real this time, on my own path. Because I know that I actually need and deserve more from you now, and I know that you can make it without me, I am asking you to stand on your own two feet.

And of course he understands that too. Even with all the vulnerability and hope he allows himself in that moment, if she had said yes to staying with him, it would have felt wrong immediately.

She's not rejecting him, she's laying out her terms, which she's finally able to do because they are finally able to voice their true wants, both of them. (Yeah they both still have a looooong way to go, with healing and with not communicating via riddles and omissions).

It's also a narrative parallel to Alina letting Mal go on his own path. Both stories are about allowing the one you love to choose their path, be the main character in their own story.

So, I think this is a beautiful, if heartbreaking, end to their arc this season. Growth! Being together is not off the table, but they are one step closer to laying out what it would really look like for them to be together.

I think Inej's "I will have you without armor" scene is a good example of why you can't just randomly insert scenes from the source into an adaptation and call it a character arc. In the book, Kaz believes the only way to solve his issues is to brute force through them. When he tries to solve his touch repulsion, he does it by removing his gloves right away instead of dealing with the trauma that caused him to wear them in the first place, treating it as a physical failure instead of an emotional one. He isn't trying to solve his trauma, he wants to remove his "weakness". In fact, he is scared of letting go of the emotional damage done to him and reduces himself entirely to a "hurt guy looking for revenge who will destroy everything and everyone", since that's what has been keeping him going for years. Inej notices this, even if she doesn't have the full context. She witnesses him repeatedly trying to brute force his way through their relationship, opening up to her a bit only to shut her away the next second, because his only goal is to keep her by his side and not to actually heal himself. She understands his touch aversion is not just a physical thing, his gloves aren't just a way to cope with it, they are the symbol of everything that makes him a bad person - not his trauma, but the fact that he uses it as an excuse to hurt others. Inej herself has PTSD related to physical touch, but she doesn't let it define her, and she wants to heal and get over her past, so there is no way she could ever settle for a partner who is actively trying NOT to forget at the expense of hurting her and everyone around him. In the show, there is none of this buildup. We still don't know a single thing about Inej's trauma, except that one implied scene in s1 where she was scared of that dude touching her arm. She isn't even present for the wagon scene, which was supposed to be the first time Kaz was plainly suffering and in need of help. And Kaz is not running away from emotional responsibility - he has repeatedly told her how much she means to him, he tried to give her money to skip town, he got her indenture paid off, and all of that BEFORE this scene. So why is she saying it? What is the armor she is talking about?? It's word-for-word the same, but with none of the weight. It almost seems like it's literally just the gloves, just as all the bad-faith readers have been interpreting the scene for years, which makes me believe the writers went with that surface interpretation too and that's really sad

"I know you've already gotten out of those cuffs. And if I had more time, I'd insist you tell me how."

if they had more time, they would've been besties

Shadow and Bone book series spoilers :

Just realised how funny it is that the Darkling pulls a knife out of himself and says 'it will take more than this' (to kill him), considering in the books he does die from being stabbed by a knife 😂

Ah the ending.

Alina keeping all her power and not sun summoners popping up everywhere? Perfect

Alina getting all power hungry and getting a bit of shadow powers cuz balance is needed? Perfect

Alina not living on a farm with no purpose after she built it throughout 3 books? Perfect

Alina almost becoming queen? Perfect

Mal setting off on a boat while they both find themselves without each other before they(probably) come back to each other and be endgame? Perfect

Them making mal generally better and making me finally see a bit potential in Malina? Great(tho I’m still here for single powerful Alina)

so who's coming with me to get nanami the hell out of shibuya

SHADOW AND BONE SEASON 2

#fellas is it gay to hug your childhood best friend who is also your king and tell him while he’s in your arms that your heart can beat once again

― Leigh Bardugo, Crooked Kingdom

(Guess which path Show!Jesper went with?)