One of my friends suggested that I post this on tumblr. I wrote it when the show came out and feel like it needs to get shared. Enjoy The Rant(tm)
Spoiler alert for Shadow and Bone(Show) season 2, Six of crows, and Shadow and Bone(Book)
So just to start off this whole thing; I love Leighs books, especially SOC and KOS, and I really enjoyed the first season and the majority of the second of the TV show
BUT I have some major gripes with the last episode, because I think they kinda massively fucked it up. I'm going to start with general things, then go into specific characters, and then just get annoyed about cannon-ness and stuff.
To start off, the last episode felt like it was written by someone who had skimmed the books and quit halfway through. It was tiring to watch, not very well written imo, and had barely any ties to the original, which annoyed me. I also felt like the directions given to the actors made it feel unreal. I kept getting distracted by the many main characters in the backgrounds of big important scenes who were just looking around shocked instead of HELPING. For example, when Nikolai is stabbed by the Nichivoya, Tolya and Tamar start fighting, but the rest? They just kind of.... wait. They don't do anything. Just sit.... and wait.... for the fight to.... progress..... I just generally felt really annoyed by it. Then further, even some of the camera and lighting felt sloppy, there was a huge amount of backlighting all the time, it felt like certain fights were just ugly, and not in the good way -Imo the best example of this was Zoya and Inej fighting the Nichivoya, it looked sloppy and fake, not like a real fight.- and overall it kinda felt like a drag. I could go on and on about this, but I am going to move on.
Starting with the title character, Alina... and oh my God did this episode make me so annoyed. I've heard people criticizing Jessie Mei Li for her performance, but honestly, with the shit she was given for lines, I think she did fantastic. It felt like everything she did lasted to long, she couldn't seem to do anything smart in the episode and on top of that, they just made Alina a bad friend/lover too. I'm talking about where Mal pours his heart out to her, telling her how 'He feels like he achieved all purpose in his life and now he didn't have anywhere to go' and she responds with 'Your... your alive!' Like no shit Sherlock. Now tell Hime he's worth something without you, like any good person would do. Idk, that just pisses me off. And speaking of things that pissed me off, the ending, this whole things was supposed to be an end to their ark. I thought, when I read SAB the first time that what she does at the end is give up what the darkling always said made them special for the man she loves. She gives away her immortal life. The end of this season? It felt like that impact wasn't there at all. It was just... another magical thing. And don't even get me started on the implications of her becoming like the next darkling at the end of the show because G O D that is literally half of the books and shows plot! They don't need to do it again. The camera again felt like it did horrible for her character because half of the times we saw her she was staring wide eyed in shock at something predictable.
Moving onto Mal, there is a lot less. Similar to Alina I felt like he got screwed by the writers, but at least it felt like he was dealing with the emotional turmoil of Dying, coming back, and losing a part of him. If it had happened to Alina too, like in the books, I think it would have been even stronger, but, it is what it is. HOWEVER I am not okay with them deciding that after all this he would take on the mantle of Sturmhond, especially since Nikolai is legally not allowed to retire(/j) I just feel like they kind of decided, oh shit we want and Alina villain arc, but Mal stops those from happening.... how do we get rid of that?
Nikolai in my opinion was one of the best of the SAB characters in this episode, though I am biased. However, they decided that specifically him being stabbed by the Nichivoya meant he would become a shadow monster, which made no sense with the rest of the world, and made me sad because demon Nikolai. I also feel like they in this episode and many others focused too much on Alina's affect on Nikolai, and not enough on his environments affect on him. Also him giving us Sturmhond is completely out of character for him.
Genya and David are going to be paired together, and I'll just be upfront, they fucked over them in this season. We should have seen them have a great time together for at least an episode before they decide to kill(for Real or not) David. They ruined the emotional impact and they didn't give genya a chance to shine in that grief. I love what they did with the engagement ring, however, the notebook is simply the superior thing. Also no one else really talks about his death??? It should be big!!!! David deserves to have everyone recognize him!
Onto the Crows, I have one big issues for first; they are set up for going to the Ice court, however, all of the reasons they had for going on a almost impossible missions are worthless.
Inej first because I'm mad. Inej isn't a part of any pirates crew, she is the captain, and them doing otherwise makes me angry. Other than that though, she felt like she was put on a side burner for the majority of the episode. I love her conversation with Kaz at the end, I thought it was amazing, but for her to then leave changes things entirely for the ice court mission. Plus, the whole reason that she goes on the mission in the books is because she needs to pay off her indenture and she wants to get herself a boat. Guess what happened at the end of S2? Both. She has n reason to go on a nearly impossible mission.
Kaz I felt was decently done, however, he didn't do anything for the majority of the episode, and then at the end he had no reason to accept a near impossible mission. He got payed a lot by the ravkans, and, as far as he knows, he fucked up Pekka badly. What would he put himself, and more importantly, his crew in danger for???
Nina yet again did Jack shit through most of the fights, and felt very much like she was a disposable heartreander. I thought the way that things sorta ended for her was pretty good! She lost the bail paper, and even if she hadn't, he attacked someone. She still needs to free Matthias. But genuinely her getting the freedom ticket and it not working, plus her being an idiot about it? I wanted to shout.
Matthias - well in all honesty he wasnt really there, but why in the world would he ever agree to work with Pekka? Speaking of Pekka, how did Pekka get control of the HellShow while inside the prison? Since when did he decide the animals people fought? It just generally makes no sense to me. He does still need to get out of Hell gate tho- sooo...
Jesper was one of the saving graces of this episode, with his comedy and non-comedy both being quite good, also his work with learning about Fabrikation is great. The issue yet again comes with the end. Kaz calls on the Crows for a job. Jesper has no reason to go on the Self-unalive-al mission. Why would he say yes? He has the money to pay off his debts, and pay some to his father, and to gamble some- he was given things by the Ravken king after all. I just feel like it doesn't set up the pressure like the books.
Wylan is one of my all time favorites so I am very biased on this one, though, I still have my issues. Throughout this episode if felt like they had him lean into the soft boy stereotype a bit to far, and kind of lost a bit of wylan for a while, but it ended up fixing itself. The ending however; in SOC Wylan joins the group out of pure necessity, and a lack of better options. This is his only choice. At the End of S2 he has other options, and reasons to not throw away his life, I don't understand why he would do that. Also, if he is going to still be Wylan Van Eck(He BETTER) then they need to show some sign of Kaz knowing it, because that is the only other big part.
Onto my last section of rambling, I just feel like by creating this mesh of stories, in this episode the stakes were off the everything was generally off. Storylines like the Shu lady and her sword were brought up unnecessarily, like oooOoOoOooO look at all this season 3 feul oOoOooOoOoo. I want a s3 but yk, the s2 ending just felt bad.
That's my ramble, thanks for sitting through it, Im getting tired.
Tldr; the show is pretty good but the s2 finale sucks because it screws up everything.
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