Okay so if you are like me, you have probably binge watched Shadow and Bone on April 23rd then promptly rewatched it a few more times over the next couple of months to let it all *sink in*. Now that we are done sighing over Milo, seeing how perfect the Crows were, what a step up it was to actually see Mal’s point of view on screen, and how we would still go with the Darkling (General Kirigan) even knowing he is bad, we can get into the nitty gritty bits of the show! And by that, I mean it’s time to do some in-depth analysis of how well the show actually adapted the books.
We are all very well aware that no book to movie or TV series adaptation will ever be a page-by-page adaptation. Everything in a book does simply not translate to the screens and some changes are understandable, even if not liked by everyone. Let’s try to whittle out some of the biggest changes that were made in the show!
This article will contain some heavy spoilers for the show and the books so do keep that in mind! Time to get our magnifying glass out.
The Crows
We have to talk about the Crows and their involvement with the whole plot. We know from the books that Alina and the Crows never met in either the Shadow and Bone trilogy or Six of Crows duology, but that obviously had to be changed if we wanted to tie the two stories together. In the series we have Kaz, Inej, and Jesper being hired to kidnap Alina Starkov for Dreesen, one of the members of the Merchant Council and a new character for the series. This of course added an unexpected layer to their stories and some pre-Six of Crows titbits that will later affect their heist story and their relationships.
The wonderful thing about this change however was that we could see in real-time how Kaz, Inej, and Jesper slowly started growing closer, forming those (in a way reluctant) bonds of friendship (and possibly love?). In Six of Crows the three are already working together and we don’t get much more than small glimpses into the events that formed their relationships. The series portrays some of the most formative experiences for them, such as Inej making her first kill. We learned from the books that Inej had a very difficult time after her first kill and the show represented this beautifully on screen as well, but we also got something more—Inej killing for the first time to save Kaz, which added another layer to their “we save each other” dynamic and made all the Kanej shippers squeal in glee.
Of course, we also have to take a closer look at the Six of Crows villain that already made an appearance—Tante Heleen and her involvement with Inej. In the beginning of the duology, Inej has been away from Heleen for a while already, having had her indenture paid by Per Haskell on Kaz’s prompting and working full-time for the Dregs. But the show took a different approach—Kaz was still in the process of paying off Inej’s indenture, which made her still indebted to Heleen in a way and forced to do her bidding when instructed. This created a new dynamic between the characters and laid some groundwork for their relationships in the future seasons.
We also have to talk about Kaz giving Heleen his shares of the Crow club as leverage so Inej wouldn’t be left in Heleen’s clutches if the Sun Summoner job went awry. Very Crooked Kingdom of you, Kaz, we stan.
Another miniscule change from the books that could manifest itself later as the series progresses is Jesper having a crush on Kaz. While there were a few tense moments in the series, it wasn’t explicitly shown that Jesper has feelings for Kaz, which plays a big role in the books since a lot of Jesper’s motivations stems from those feelings. Let’s not forget about Jesper wanting to please Kaz, doing everything to keep his trust, and after getting locked in the Fjerdan prison complaining, that he was too stressed to pay attention when Kaz was stripped down upon entering the prison… We see you, boy. We have our fingers crossed that we have yet to see Jesper having an adorable (if unrequited) crush on Kaz—maybe in season two with the Crows back on their own turf?
Alina and Mal
The star-crossed lovers were privy to quite a few changes from the books, but the heart of their story stayed the same: two orphaned children finding solace in each other while growing up together and finally realising there might be some romantic feelings involved. The most obvious two changes from the books were that while both characters were white in the books, they were mixed-raced in the series, adding another layer of “otherness” to the two otkazat’sya soldiers and how their journey through the Fold was supposed to look like. In the book, both Mal and Alina were supposed to cross the Fold with their regiment, but in the TV series, only Mal was chosen for the crossing with Alina later ruining the maps so that her mapmaking skills would be required on the other side of the Fold and she could volunteer to cross with Mal.
Another important detail worth noting is how Mal’s point of view changed the fans’ opinions on Mal. In the book, Mal seemed a pretty bland character who didn’t notice Alina’s feelings for him (or his for her for that matter) until she was gone and whisked away to the Little Palace. But in the series, we could see from the actual journey Mal undertook in order to find his way back to Alina. How it all happened didn’t diverge from the book, what was different was Mal’s perspective, which added another layer of heartbreak and made the pairing a fan-favourite. Add in the heart-wrenching letters the two wrote to each other (Mal’s letters are included as bonus material in some editions of Shadow and Bone) in form of their voiceovers for a perfectly weep-worthy friends-to-lovers romance!
Matthias and Nina’s Fate
One of the most joyful storylines for me in the show was that of the formidable enemies to lovers couple, Nina and Matthias. Not only did Danielle Galligan (Nina) and Calahan Skogman (Matthias) manage to capture their characters perfectly, but their scenes contained full-on scenes from the books with identical dialogue that made all the Helnik fans screech. We got the heartstopping shipwreck, Matthias and Nina barely surviving on the ice (and doing so by huddling together naked in a whaler’s hut and traveling together for weeks), and slowly forming a friendship that could’ve easily turned into something more.
But there were still some pretty glaring changes made to their stories, probably in service of their storyline fitting together better with that of the Ravkans and the Crows. The first one being that Nina was a spy in West Ravka when she was taken and not on a recruiting mission in Fjerda. And then we have Matthias and Nina finally finding civilization and shelter in Arkesk (still in Ravka) and not in Fjerda, which also changed how the two ended up on a ship to Ketterdam. In the book, Nina stumbles upon some undercover Grisha in Fjerda and denounces Matthias a slaver in order to save both him from the Grisha and the undercover operation from the Fjerdans. In the series, however, Nina is faced with a full battalion of Grisha who tell her that Matthias will be tried for his crimes – and then Nina betrays her people in order to save Matthias while also condemning him by selling him out to the slavers.
By the end of the first season, we are left with the two on a ship set for Ketterdam, Matthias’s hatred for Nina and her kind reignited, and Nina determined to right the wrong even if it means possibly working for the criminals of Ketterdam. This little predicament of theirs does pose some question about how their storyline will progress in the future seasons, especially knowing that the Six of Crows plot will come into play later on, which means that Matthias could be stuck in Hellgate for a while.
General Kirigan and Alina
If you’ve read the books then you know that Darklina’s relationship was always somewhere between questionable and downright manipulative at best. Alina was blindsided, never truly privy to the Darkling’s real motivations until Baghra told her about them. The series built on this foundation of the relationship but added the question of consent in it—both in terms of Alina approaching the Darkling first and of him actually making sure that she was okay by getting physical with him. In Jessie Mei Li’s own words, they made the relationship more 2021. Of course, there was still a fair share of manipulation and gaslighting involved, but the Darkling is a villain and not your run of the mill boy next door or hero type.
A couple more unexpected changes when it comes to “General Kirigan”? In the books he always went by the moniker “the Darkling”, while he was given a different name (Kirigan) in the show. Plus let’s not forget how easily he gave up his real name, Aleksander, to Alina in the show, while in the books his name was a close-held secret which he revealed to Alina only later on.
As for some smaller changes that could affect the plotlines more in the future seasons…
The first one that I have to mention is that there is apparently no Per Haskell in the show. Now of course it is possible that his character will appear later on, but knowing what we know from the books, Per Haskell was there from the get-go, running the Dregs and letting Kaz elevate them to their later glory.
Also did you notice Big Bolliger in the series? I missed him the first time around mostly because I was expecting a young bruiser-type of guy and we got someone middle-aged, which could tie into the fact that apparently Kaz mans the Crows himself and will therefore have a crew loyal to him that spans different age groups (and not only the younger members of the gang like in the books).
And let’s not forget about the sweet Inferni, Marie, who met a different fate in the series than in the books. In the latter, Marie actually survives till the end of Siege and Storm (book two of The Grisha Trilogy) being killed during the Darkling’s attack on the Palace during a dinner hosted for Nikolai’s birthday. In the series, however, Marie posed as Alina during the Winter Fete, having been altered to look like her by Genya and was later killed by the Conductor on General Zlatan’s orders.
Marie’s fate ties into two important changes from the books—the first one being the West Ravka’s storyline and specifically how they are vying for independence with General Zlatan as their leader. In the books, the two sides of Ravka separated by the Fold always worked together and the Civil War that later exhausted Ravka’s coffers came from the Darkling’s army fighting against those loyal to the Royal family and Alina. Only season two can tell what will come of this interesting series-only development and if Zlatan’s death means the end of the silent rebellion as well or not.
As for the other Marie-related change: Genya changed Marie’s appearance with little effort while it was explicitly stated in the books that Genya’s work takes time and precision (evident in Crooked Kingdom when it took Genya hours to give Wylan back his natural looks). This makes us wonder (and worry slightly) about what this could mean for both Nina’s and Wylan’s storyline in Six of Crows, since a big part of Kaz’s closing scheme of the book depends on Nina—high on jurda parem and with powers never seen before—making Wylan look like Kuwei. The revelation that such changes are possible so early in the series could take away from the surprise reveal by the end of the Six of Crows plotline, but considering that we haven’t been disappointed yet by the way these books were adapted, maybe we can trust that the show writers will do the books justice.
Moreover, we are a while away from the Six of Crows plotlines seeing the light of day and who knows what other changes and surprises could be made until then. We just got to keep rewatching the show and make it a success so we can one day, probably years in the future, finally see the infamous Ice Court heist come to life. I am ready—are you?
