Gotta admit as vanilla as Mal can be, "You will die alone. And I will die in her arms." was metal as fuck. Honestly, so what if his entire personality and arc revolves around Alina? After all the female love interests who only exist to bang the male lead, I say we ladies deserve a few simps of our own.
I love the show, but I feel like they only focussed on Kaz' trauma with touching naked skin and forgot about Inej having difficulties being touched because of her sexual abuse at the menagerie. Because for me thats what made them perfect for each other, their bond of trust and human connection surpasses the physical needs and it's the only reason either of them has any interest to work up to touching each other, the reason why they want to be able to be close to each other in the first place. That's why I can't get on board (lol) with Inej and Tolya, it feels like it cheapens what they have.
Basically the reason mal is the third amplifier is bcus baghra's sister died but got better thx to merzost and her coming back yassified her into an amplifier and that yas gene was passed down through her bloodline to mal which also means mal and the darkling are related
@@siyas2510 I don’t find Kaz as toxic at all. To me it’s obvious he’s pushing her away because he knows he can’t physically be with her. I guess it depends what you mean by toxic. As in not opening up? He gives her freedom, leaves alina out of love and respect for Inej, and looses his club just to take her on a mission etc. As for Inej and Toyla, I see the appeal but one second look between Toyla making eyes and Inej clearly still in love with Kaz isn’t convincing yet. Their story definitely translates better on screen in my opinion lol. Kaz’s inner thoughts are romantic sure but what comes out of his mouth is literally to Inej: “you’re an investment” that would look more toxic to me. Kaz in the show tells Inej “no saint ever watched over me not like you have” lmaoo book Kaz would never.
@@stormy6029 I think tolya and inej is a really disrespectful ship that erases tolya's aroace identity and inej's trauma and the fact that she and kaz are obviously in love with each other
when they showed matthias playing in the sand i was like "who's this man? a new char?" 💀💀💀 also Mal being "idk if i really loved you or it was my power" kinda giving Jacob's "i didn't love you Bella I loved Renesmee inside you" vibe 💀
FINALLY I could not stand anymore people complaining about the ending. YES it is different, so what?? It is much better than the book ending and sets up perfectly for what comes next. Mal finally getting something for himself, alina dealing with A DARK SIDE and the crows, of course. I just think they played their cards very well (i could even accept a sort of friendship between tolya and inej) and I am super excited even for the shodow and bone plot. I will be so disappointed if the show gers cancelled bc people can't accept it is not EXACTLY like the books
I think there are different groups of people complaining about it. There are the ones who didn't like Alina getting shadow powers and becoming queen of ravka, because they think it undermines Zoya and that Alina apparently loved being ordinary and settle down on a farm with mal (they are so scared of dark Alina). But then there are people like me, who liked the ending, but who do not believe the writers will do justice to Alinas character in the future, since they already sidelined her so much this season for the sake of the crows. And the fact that they are only talking about getting the spin off (not season 3), I have no faith in them 🤷
@@reekaren2609 this is legit, but they also state they are going to separate the plots and the crows will not be in shadow and bone season3, so alina nikolai and the court surely will get more screen time and development
@@gaia218 Didn't they also say, that the plots will happen around the same time, so I just know they will somehow still manage to shove the crows into season 3 😂 Also, it doesn't fix this seasons mishaps with the darkling for me. Even if he comes back, their book dynamic/iconic scenes were destroyed and it's just so sad when you're expecting to see certain moments from the books, but get this walmart version of them 😞
@@gaia218 oh I haaate this. the show is good because there's breaks and different paces for the storylines. making people watch two shows sounds awful.
I hate zoya but she was so right when she said what right does Alina have to become the general/queen bc literally she knows nothing of politics and strategy, she isn't even that well trained, all she has is raw power
not you being Tonej shippers 🤭 like honestly I'd be all for Inej exploring her options a bit (I am still a kanej girlie at heart tho), but I'm pretty sure Tolya is aromantic in the books which I really love and I'd hate to lose that representation... so I hope they do like a platonic soulmates kind of thing, cause I think Tolya could really offer her a lot
@hi ily yes to all of that. I already didn't like that they erased Tolya and Tamar being part of the Sun Saint cult (or whatever it was) because it was such a vital part of their characters so if they erase his aroaceness I will riot
@@nyxldx I'm not judging anyone for shipping what they wanna ship, but in Nikolai's duology, there is a conversation between him and Tolya, where he asks Tolya why he's alone and if he ever had anyone or wished for a relationship and Tolya basically replies that his faith has always been enough for him and that he didn't want a relationship. I mean obviously he wouldn't use the terminology we use for sexualities and say he's aromantic or whatever but I think we can say it's heavily hinted and implied 🤷♀️
@@artemis1796 but it's not implied. Leigh has been pretty straight forward with characters sexuality (jesper, nina etc) Tolya having no interest in relationships doesn't mean he'd never have any. Many people have that mindset irl and they're not arorace. Of course there's absolutely no problem with headcanoning him that he is. But fans could also claim he's asexual (and asexual people still have romantic relationships) so again, it's up to interpretation until Leigh confirms it. I've seen many fans being angry about the show "erasing" it and people shipping tolya with other characters and that's just ridiculous because it's a simply headcanon
I’ve read every Grisha book and I still loved this season!! I didn’t mind any of the changes at all. I understand book readers are very passionate but the discourse started to get a little too picky and I NEED THAT RENEWAL
I AGREE! Also I think they definitely improved on Shadow and Bone cause the books weren’t very good. But now they are connecting all the Grisha Verse books and I really like it actually!
I think it's good to be different because people can be surprised by their reading experience, if they want to read the books. I haven't read the SOC duology, but I agree with others that the show improved immensely the plot of the Grisha trilogy. I like the trilogy, but it is a little bit dated, and I don't like the female rivalry. Seen Alina Genya and Zoya together saying they will rebuild Ravka was an excellent example of the improvements the show did to the source material.
@@victorialopez8459 I only read the first book of Shadow and Bone but I think it's very obvious how adding the Crows to the mix improved on it substantially. Surely season 3 should be a banger if they do Six of Crows justice
I loved the ending I feel like they finally treated ALL the charachters as if they had personalities and letting them split up and follow their own desires was such a good decision
I struggle with Tolya/Inej because Tolya's implied aromantic in the books, and I was really looking forward to having that representation. As much as I love Inej, it's kind of a bummer if they go that way. But I guess I can accept it! I really liked the changes to the ending and I'd love to see more of Mal, Inej, Tolya and Tamar being awesome on the seas together.
My main complaint about this season is I feel like they put the majority of the Crow’s character growth and pivotal moments in this season where they were just side characters and the mismashed B plot. Now that we’re Finally going to focusing on them what’s left to do? We already know everything about them and their growth has caught up to where it was at the end of crooked kingdoms. It would’ve been nice to see a lot of that where it felt more essential to the plot instead of just filler for Elaina’s story.
I mean we still have all of Wylan's trauma to go through and we haven't met Jesper's Dad so I can already see them drumming up the parallels between the two fathers. And the relationship that Wylan and Kaz have is really interesting to me. Kaz becomes a mentor figure and kind of (not really?) big brother figure to Wylan, which is awesome cause it's like Kaz becomes the older brother that was robbed from him. Also, I don't know what they are going to do with Nina and Matthias. I can see them keeping it the same as the books but the whole thing with Pekka Rollins might have skewed things a bit. Honestly the fact that Pekka Rollins is already in jail and might try to retaliate against Kaz is just a huge wild card and it makes me nervous. I would honestly love it if we saw more of what happened to Inej's family and her life before being taken to Ketterdam. We get very few glimpses into her background throughout season one and two. And if there are some sweet moments between her and Kaz after they settle all their scores that would make my heart happy. And then there is the actual heist itself. The only thing that I would improve in the show is the actual plans that the crows think of. I want Kaz and his plans to be even more grand and clever so that it would be closer to book Kaz. So to me that is a lot to explore between 6-8 episodes. I really, really hope they get their own season. Please Netflix!
mal was the third amplifier cuz of what the firebird represents (rebirth and resurrection). morozova brought his daughter back to life (phoenix rising from its ashes), and the merzost descended to Mal, since he's related to morozova through that daughter. it's also why mal's whole life was Alina, cuz of the Like Calls to Like.
At 13:06 I felt like Alina was expressing that she felt this perverse connection to alexander because he used her without her permission, it really gives me the ick that people think she’s head over heels for him when she has been through something traumatic and feel’s disgusted and scared Just my opinion🤷🏻♀️
Nikolai is an acquired taste, as in, you acquire the want to taste him the second you see him. (also I'm lowkey hoping that Kaz finds help for his phobia outside of Inej bc the "i can fix him" trope? tired. Maybe Jesper or Nina, ooh tea)
Inej and Kaz are literally quite the opposite of the "I can fix him!" trope. It doesnt come across as well in the show but in the books Inej refuses to fix him or settle for him if he doesnt put in the effort to overcome his issues and open up.
@@pakrus67 oh yeah i read the books. i think the show does a terrible job at representing that aspect of it unfortunately but there's potential to make their relationship way less toxic than it seems to be turning into.
@@evie1919 I think it could be possible if they gave six of crows a proper spinoff show otherwise theyre going to stay as background characters in shadow and bone and be robbed of their development
I was real mad at a lot of the massive changes and using scenes from Crooked Kingdom but tbh I can't deny that I'm curious about what they're gonna do next season, it's a mystery and I wanna know what they gonna do with all this
I'm rewatching season 1 and I realized Inej quoted something Kaz said to her in season 1! "Hope is dangerous. It clouds your judgment." NETFLIX BETTER RENEW-
Ok someone hear me out, if they’re going to go with the whole Nikolai and alina being into each other thing that leaves zoya with no love interest and since david is dead and, let’s face it, was not good enough for genya, zenya! I want genya and zoya together it’s a perfect solution for the new direction and we’d have some more wlw representation (i love tamar and nadia but they didn’t even kiss like cmon)
It also might just be me, but like Zoya and Nina. Like Nina ily, but Matthias is giving you NOTHING!!! Like Zoya is an equally powerful badass girl boss so imagine the power they would have together.
@@ITZ_VIOLET_ No AGREED! mathias is really sweet in the books after all the learning and unlearning he does but like is it worth to wait for him and be that patient like nina deserves sm better and she had a lot of chemistry with zoya this season, she cared a lot about what zoya thought about her… I totally see it ( we just need more badass grishaverse women together)
I'm pretty sure they're not gonna go with Alina x nikolai, Alina and mal are gonna find each other again this time "organically" so we will probably still get zoya x niko which sucks bc they will forever be such a random couple to me and malina remains boring as usual
@@aimun5255 you’re def right, it’s not like writers ever sit down and be like let’s get rid of all the boring het couples and replace them with amazing sapphic ones anw, and if they did netflix would probably cancel them 😭
I cannot believe Cindy, who had a wholeass video of crying about CK forever in the internet, now calls Wylan illiterate (he's not he's dyslexic) and Kaz a germophobe (he's not he has haphephobia) so this is what how it feels to deal with amnesiac CINDY I'M IN YOUR WALLS 💀💀💀
@@urmom33619Knowing Cindy she's just being a troll. Just before the shows came out she said she'll riot if Kaz and Inej even touch each other too soon
oof watching this way late and seeing y’alls reaction to the ending after it’s been cancelled hurts so bad 😭😭 netflix will not know peace from me until they change their minds…
I don’t care enough about the S&B changes but it made me so mad that they inclueded Crooked Kingdom scenes and plotlines already, rushing them and giving it zero emotional impact - emotional impact we could have had if they just wrote a proper backstory and left future scenes alone
I like the way that they posed for the thumbnail but it ended up WAAYYY far from what they intended to use 😂 Edit: Tolya and Inej is the ship I never expected to see 😂
the way they shipped mal and inej and then immediately a wild Tolya appeared the way they clapped I LOVEDDDD this omg i didnt even think of this when i watched the show but now i want tolyaxinej action
the grisha army and camp rock i died laughing. I love that in the books there were a lot of grays because it was a war and in the series they only put a little bit of people
seeing your reactions to this is so FUNNY because I was genuinely SOBBING during the entirety of the last three episodes and y'all are so nonchalant haha
Ellias shipping anyone on screen together lmaooo. I really like them mixing it up and changing the ending. The main series book ending was pretty boring and now I'm like oooo what's gonna happen?! I can't wait for next season bc I need that Nina/Matthias story arch. Maybe seeing Inej with Tolya will make Kaz jealous enough to make a move lol.
Kaz has a serious trauma. Trauma doesn't go away with jealousy. Also, he would never "make a move" to keep Inej with him, he thinks she deserves better and would never use her feelings to trap her with him and his trauma. The only thing that's gonna happen if he sees her interestead in Tolya it's that he is going to be sad. And that's all.
Also I can't lie, Mal and inej and Tolya and inej are so intriguing I wonder how it will pan out. Ik inej loves Kaz but I feel like she also deserves to be in a relationship to explore what she wants and not just wait around for Kaz to be ready
I initially didn't like the idea of Tolya X Inej but seeing you and Cindy ship them so hard changed my mind lol you guys are so cute 😂😂 I'm also very happy with all the changes this season - it's interesting!!
i think the shadow and bone runners are operating in the idea that the show can be canceled any moment, if we did slow burn wesper and the show was canceled we would be so angry
honestly coming to see the part two reaction simply waiting for you guys to reacting at inej and tolya interaction at last episode, and couldn't be more excited watching both of you have the exact same reaction over it....
Didn't Tolya say ( in Rule of Wolves) that he's not interested in relationships? I took that to mean he's aro ace. So if they change that in the show..., it's basically turning a LGBT+ character straight. What is this, Riverdale???
Yes, I was looking for a comment about this, he is very aro/ace coded (literally says he doesn't need anyone but his books and faith) but it seems to be a pattern to erase aspec people in TV shows and no one cares because they get to ship their favorite characters 😢
I really enjoyed the changes, cus making a tv adaptation that follows the original exactly is kinda pointless and usually not as good anyway… I just think the changes keep me guessing and engaged since I cant be too sure what will happen. Not sure where they will take this next season but excited to see how it plays out!
Amplifiers were MADE with forbidden magic. The final Amplifier was made with a forbidden magic, but essentially the first two were experiments with ressurection and the third was intentional ressurection: of his daughter who died, making her an amplifier and anyone she birthes one too
YES I loved the way Tolya looked at Inej throughout the show and was like HMMMMM. Would love to see them be friends or . . .😏? Like his poetry and her proverbs, they both use blades when they have to, and the new crew on the ship was really fun and unexpected. Not to mention Alina's journey to meet the living saint in Shu Han, her and Alina have a lot to talk about. Excited for s3
Elias: i dont ship friends to lovers 2 seconds later with Nikolai and his childhood friend: I ship it 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 im also totally blanking on the dude's name
ahh loved ur reactions sm as always 😭❤️ but damn im kind of scared netflix will cancel the show because apparently s2 did a lot worse than s1, like there was a huge drop in viewership after the first week. but i want to know did anyone get ads for the second season release? i legit found out it came out a whole WEEK after release bc of some random tweet on my tl. like no wonder there aren't that many viewers
10:37 direct connection between Mal fucking up Alina’s plan and Baghra literally dying plus the Darkling figuring out Mal’s his cousin. Like this convenient interruption influences the plot for the next 3 episodes.
So many things were so corny and dumb this season, but yea the endings twists kinda make up for it. Still standing by my previous stand that they ruined the six of crows plot line in favour of redeeming s&b, like how they gonna do the heist without inej?
I agree. I’m not super mad at the ending but the script being so corny and the way they butchered and spoiled the end of crooked kingdom??? for what???? The ending of that book was so tightly knit, they unraveled all those character arcs and either didn’t put them back together again AT ALL or half assed it , why just why
so excited to see what you think about the other episodes. I was so disappointed after finishing it because they skipped so much and changed almost everything. 🙁
As someone who never read any of the books, it was pretty enjoyable! (I actually didn't like S1 all that much and i was going to decide if i would continue after S2.) I felt like the Crow scenes in S1 were a bit boring but i loved them this season! S2 felt like there were higher stakes, they weren't afraid to show the darker parts of the show, and the characters were way more interesting. I think the characters all have more substance. The dialogue, effects, and especially the fight choreography are still a bit rough (the weird sound effects and slow motion with Inej fighting that guy on the roof made me crack up). Overall, I like the ending and the direction it's going! I'll definitely be watching season 3.
Its true Wylan and Jesper were very rushed. They should’ve shown reasons for them to fall in love with each other. We didn’t even see their first kisss
I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS. YOU GUYS REACTING TO TOLYA X INEJ IS EXACTLY HOW I REACTED ASDGDHJKK. Two hot asians....it just makes sense... ok but totally with you guys on the ending and changes I looooved the ending the last few eps especially were bomb!!!! and I'm so glad they're mixing things up with the characters and so here for the privateer boat storyline. Also your Nikolai thirst is highkey relatable. REAL ONES GET IT (also cindy is so right nikolai would top in the mal situation). Why is everyone so hot like damn
THANK YOU! I loved the ending, esp Mal’s direction. Everyone complaining that he dumped her after she brought him back and thirsting after the Darkling who manipulated and physically abused her several times??? Like side eye to those who think being dumped is worse than what the Darkling did to her. Not to mention ur right, he needs character growth beyond Alina. I’m so curious to see how they’re going to do the next season, especially since I heard a rumor that the Crows might get their own spin-off??
I've given up on caring ab book accuracy for the most part cause imo the s&b books were super mid anyway, so in that respect I actually really liked s2 cause I found all the changes to be super entertaining. Is it the best show ever? No. Does it have amazing writing? Also no, but it's really fun and that's what I care about at the end of the day.
ellias and I seem to have the same taste in men and it's so funny every time he makes juicy comments. Also I felt so validated when you shipped Nikolai with his friend!! like they had such gooood chemistry and they would've been so refreshing as a gay couple instead of the boring love triangle with Alina. let her be with Mal already, i never cared about their romance anyway.
Ngl I was severely disappointed by this series, felt like an hours long highlight reel missing highlights. Maybe I’m exposing my geography degree but it really annoyed me how the Fold was ALWAYS only a couple of kilometres away while in Ravka, made the world feel so small. I’d hope that if there’s another series they’ll focus on just Crooked Kingdom cos writers have not done well with such a large cast but doesn’t seem that’ll be the case.
20:18 Thank you for saying it, Cindy! They was no proper build-up to their relationship at all... Though that might just be me comparing the show to the books. I'm kinda jealous of Ellias for having the benefit of not having read the books ^^'
Not gonna lie, I wasn't a fan of the ending, but I can live with it as long as they don't steal all of Zoya's KoS/RoW storylines for Alina next season. I s2g if they do I will not be responsible for my actions.
Ok mals the 3rd amplifier as he’s a descendent of the girl that morozova (the girl was miorozova’s daughter) brought back to life. I guess the process left an effect of her and her descendants were able to be amplifiers
18:22 the other of Morozova’s amplifiers were all real living creatures that died, and he brought them to life using merzost. His plans to make a third amplifier, the firebird, went awry when he spent that power resurrecting his daughter instead.
I thought your commentary on the first half was so entertaining. I couldn't make myself watch the second season but thanx to you guys I now know what went on anyway ❤ thanx
