Okay so it's been over a week since I saw the content for Shadow and Bone season 2 that released at Tudum and
I saw it at 5a.m. so the way I was trying to contain myself... agonising. The amount of times I've watched both the teaser and the character video is concerning, and I've had a good few days to think about what I saw and to digest my thoughts, theories and hopes for the next season!
This is split into two parts: first, my personal breakdown of the footage we were given and just very unhinged thoughts about what this season might entail; then, what I hope to see in the new season.
So without further ado...
SPOILERS FOR BOTH SHADOW AND BONE AND SIX OF CROWS (BOOKS AND SHOW) AHEAD! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.
RANT
— I'm sorry but how concerned Jack looked every time one of the other cast members mentioned something about showing the trailer had me ON THE FLOOR. His facial expressions were absolutely adorable and he looked genuinely TERRIFIED like "damn we might actually kill them if we show them this" and I'll never get over it, it was so cute!!
IT'S LIKE HE JUST REALISED WHAT HE SIGNED UP FOR, RUMOUR HAS IT THAT I'M STILL SOBBING.
— BUT THEY WERE SERIOUSLY RIGHT WHEN THEY SAID WE WEREN'T READY FOR THIS. THEY KNEW IT AND THEY STILL DID IT EVEN THOUGH THEY KNEW IT WOULD PROBABLY KILL US SJSDKNCJKNCDFJNFJ.
I'm getting this hyped over a teaser trailer and shots of the new characters, imagine when the actual season comes out.
— Speaking of which, I have a tendency to flap my hands aggressively whenever I get excited, so seeing Wylan in costume was almost enough for me to lose my hands HAHA. I remember finishing the first season and being blown away by the entire cast and just how accurately they managed to portray their characters, so I was like "there's no way they're going to get Wylan right with how successfully they've managed to cast the other Crows, they're going to stuff him up big time". I was watching their little snippet they put up for Geeked Week and when I saw Jack I actually GASPED??? So seeing him in costume doing his little Chemistry set haul while the others showed off their weapons gave me butterflies from how excited I was.
— THE TWINS!! LOOK ABSOLUTELY STUNNING!! I don't remember picturing them this gorgeous, but I do remember really enjoying their characters when I read the books and getting to see them on screen is super exciting. I also realised how their relationship with Alina could be portrayed with a bit of a twist since show!Alina is half Shu, so I hope we have a scene where the three of them like talk out the difficulties of being Shu in what's practically enemy territory!
— I was very sceptical about Patrick Gibson as Nikolai when the casting choice was first announced (he just didn't fit the version of Nikolai I had in my head for some reason??? Even though he looks eerily similar to the fan art??? ), but seeing him in costume in (particularly) the character video... I'm actually kind of sold now! I think I still need to see his performance to fully make up my mind about how I feel about him, but so far I'm a lot less sceptical than I was a few months ago!
— I'm just scared that we won't get Sturmhond this season, which is super disappointing since it's what made Nikolai's introduction so cool. And I feel like it's also an integral part of Nikolai's character that he was essentially a different person for so many years. I think it's really symbolic of how he's straying from the prince everyone expects him to be, trying to detach himself from the rumours of being a bastard child even though they're true, and just discovering who he is outside of that life of obligation if that makes sense?? That's how I always perceived his character, and I really hope the show is just not showing Sturmhond clips to not give away the reveal and that we actually get Sturmhond. Even if they introduce him later, it will kind of get rid of that connection Nikolai has to this other persona because he's been a different person for a shorter period of time.
BREAKDOWN
— This clip could be set anywhere at this point. It could be on a boat or in the palace when they get to Ravka judging by the window behind Nikolai. Also Nikolai's clothes are giving me Prince of Ravka vibes but it could also be a Sturmhond coat (it was described as looking like it belongs to a royal rather than to someone who lives at sea) if we're even getting Sturmhond and if this is on the boat.
— Also seeing Jessie Mei Li as Alina again made me hyperventilate because THE SUN SUMMONER IS BACK EVERYONE.
— This shot here could mean a lot of things. My initial thought was "JESPER LLEWELLYN FAHEY" because of the long coat and the colour scheme of the outfits, but the next shot has me convinced that this is Mal while he and Alina are on the run in Novyi Zem.
— MALYEN ORETSEV MY BELOVED. His coat looks eerily similar to the one in the shot above (even with the red beneath it), and someone pointed out that he might be running from Ravkan soldiers just like in the first chapter of Siege and Storm. This seems to be the most likely since you can kind of make out the shapes of people running after Mal in the same First Army attire we see in season one.
— Matthias is clearly in Hellgate here (yes I censored the fact that he's shirtless because it makes me uncomfy), maybe we're getting a "break Matthias out of Hellgate" plot this season or this is just part of character building, which I feel is going to be a huge part of the Crows' story this season. More on that later.
— Here it seems like Nikolai, Tolya and Tamar are saluting someone. My initial response was "they're showing respect to the Sun Summoner" but someone pointed out that they might be saluting the Darkling — you know, when we as the audience still think that they work for him.
— MY DARLING INEJ. I'm getting worried now... is she hurt? WHO HURT MY DARLING? If they're really going for the plot of breaking Matthias out of Hellgate, this could be a fighting montage from that scene. It looks like she's on a boat or (more likely) a rooftop — but, again, there's not enough information to deduce that.
— I don't have anything to say about this except Jesper kissing his guns... iconic. He probably killed someone judging by the body in the back but it's still iconic. Best boy right there.
— NINAAAA. I'm hoping this is the scene where she's being recruited by the Dregs, but again I'm not 100% sure because we only have a split second's worth of footage to go off.
— LOOK AT OUR MERCHLING!! MY BOYYY!! It's pretty clear here that he's talking to Jesper, so this could be the scene were they first meet after Wylan gets his first proper job in Ketterdam and Jesper's inviting him to join the Dregs.
— I wanna crash my car into a telephone pole standing on the gas with no seatbelt on. (Ironically since I don't even have a license.)
— I'm not putting up the screenshot of the Malina kiss because I'm approaching the 20-images-per-chapter limit and I needed to save space for the reaction memes above. But I've always been a Malina shipper so seeing them again made me feel things.
— Okay is this a vision??? Because he doesn't have his scars that he had at the end of season one. Anyways I don't care for this man at all and he can rot for all I care. (We love and respect Ben Barnes in this house though. Ben can stab me and I'd thank him.)
— THIS SHOT MADE ME ABSOLUTELY LOSE IT. LOOK AT THEM. FIVE OF OUR SIX CROWS ARE STANDING TOGETHER. IT'S A CROWSHOT. I'M ECSTATIC. *takes deep breath* Anyway, there's a flash of light that makes me think that it could be one of Wylan's bombs, which makes some sense if you pay close attention to the way Jesper is side-eyeing him looking very confused and/or sceptical. This might also be them breaking Matthias out of Hellgate, which seems feasible as like a season finale moment that wraps up the Crows' story for this season.
— HERE'S DIRTYHANDS EVERYONE. THE B*STARD OF THE BARREL. I'm trying to figure out what might be going on here — is he stealing the painting? Or is it a slower moment where he's in a room with this painting and just... reflecting? He's holding a knife (he flicks it open in the next frame but my phone was being annoying when I screenshot this so this was the best I could do) as though he's going to destroy or steal the painting. Maybe he has something behind it? Like a secret compartment? Maybe we find something belonging to Jordie and this is when we get Kaz's backstory... this is pure speculation and I'm not sure if I believe this entirely, but either way I'm not remotely prepared. My stomach just turned at the thought of seeing little Kaz using his brother's decaying corpse as a float on screen. Netflix is paying for my therapy.
— Genya my love. I know what this scene might be and I'm not ready.
— This final shot of Alina most likely has to do with killing the sea whip to obtain the second of Morozova's amplifiers.
WHAT I WANT FROM THIS SEASON
— I mentioned this earlier, but I'm really hoping the show doesn't drop Sturmhond, but the show's history of just dropping important information (mainly the Darkling's real name) is giving me this bad feeling that we might not see him. At least not in the beginning. The shots could be from after it is revealed that Sturmhond is Nikolai and Netflix doesn't want to give away the reveal, but I don't want to get my hopes up. If they do go with it, I hope Patrick is the one playing Sturmhond and he's just tailored (*wink wonk*) using CGI or makeup to look different.
— The introductions of the other Crows have been top tier so far so I really hope our introduction to Wylan is something like him blowing something up or like "Jesper, meet your demo man". But something tells me that his introduction will be less ✨ theatrical ✨ than the other Crows': I own the collector's edition of Crooked Kingdom, and Leigh Bardugo had a note at the beginning saying that the reason why Wylan never got any POVs in book one was because he "wasn't a Crow yet", so I don't know if the show's going to play on that and start with him being on the run or something (i.e. something that's going to make me ugly sob). Here's part of the note from the collector's edition:
Maybe the show's going to play on this idea? Mayhaps, but also mayhaps not.
— This is such a niche thing but just give Wylan any excuse to sing this season. Even if it's just like he's humming a song to himself PLEASE do it, not just when he's pretending to be a drunken Fjerdan guard and he starts singing the Fjerdan national anthem. I stumbled across a video of Jack singing and cried because I'm in love with his voice. Also get a shot of him playing a flute but also don't do that because I might spontaneously combust.
— Dark!Alina!! Siege and Storm is really when she starts to become power-hungry at the thought of having all the amplifiers and destroying the Fold. It was really interesting to me seeing her experience that conflict and I hope the show explores that.
— KANEJ. But like not sexualised please. There's enough sexual tension between them without them having to touch and I will throw something at my screen if their relationship is sexualised, or if their trauma is romanticised, in any way, shape or form. My brother once chucked a tennis ball at the TV screen when we first watched Merlin and Arthur's father came on screen and I'm not afraid to continue the family tradition.
— The show has done such a good job of improving Mal's story, but I'm anxious about how they're going to tackle his Siege and Storm... stuff. Even though I'm an avid Book!Mal fan, Show!Mal really encapsulates how I perceived his character and how I think Leigh Bardugo would have represented him had she written the series later. Alina's book perspective is rather biased, and unfortunately we don't see how Mal is responding to certain situations and a lot of people have blown his flaws out of proportion (this is a rant for another time so please don't start fighting in the comments about it), especially in Siege and Storm. So Netflix, don't disappoint me.
— Character building for the Crows. I'm not sure what's going on with them this season apart from Matthias in Hellgate and Wylan's introduction, so I think it's the perfect opportunity to do some character work if we do get a spin-off show. In the Six of Crows book, there's an entire chunk in the middle of the book dedicated just to character backstories — and while this is extremely effective in books, it's not going to translate very well into television because it's perceived that TV is generally more fast-paced (at least, that's how people like them because you have less time to work with). Having Nina and Matthias' backstories in season one cuts out a lot of time if we get a SoC spin-off, and also having Wylan's this season as we lead up to his introduction will also save a lot of time. In the US, the show's age rating changed from 14+ to 16+ (here in Australia it's still MA15+ because we have more broad classification categories), and Jordie has been cast, so... Kaz backstory? It makes sense. Enter Dirtyhands stage right.
Anyways this turned out longer than I anticipated (we're at little over 2,400 words oops) so expect a full on thesis/dissertation when the actual trailer comes out.