YMMV / Shadow and Bone

• Adorkable: As in the books, Wylan is a handsome Badass Bookworm who is socially awkward and with a constant tendency to test himself despite being out of his element most of the time.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Did Baghra's Adaptational Villainy go beyond ordering Mal and the soldier who accompanied him to be killed, and did she intend for Alina to be disposed of as well, thus removing any possibility that Kirigan could access her power? Was the catacombs she directed her to truly a refuge or was it a trap with assassins? Her parting shot to Kirigan - 'I’d wager you’d need a skilled tracker to find her now. Pity.' - could be just a taunt, or it could be her believing that Alina is dead by this point and far beyond his reach.
  • Polina's furious rant to Inej about how she would kill everyone Inej loves: was it an impulsive threat that she paid for dearly, or did Polina prefer to die rather than live thanks to Inej's mercy?
• Badass Decay:
  • More than one fan of the books felt this towards Kaz, as his plans were seen as mediocre and too dependent on pure luck. However, some people see this as justified since, this being a prequel, he needs more time to become the Magnificent Bastard he is in the books.
  • Much mirth was had at the expense of General Kirigan, who finds himself constantly being thwarted by a bunch of people many centuries his junior during the latter half of the season.
• Broken Base: The Darkling's change of name to "Kirigan". The Darkling is meant to be an in-universe title, rather than a name, akin to "the General" or "the Doctor". Some (specially fans of the character) were pretty upset by this, while other people embraced this since they considered "The Darkling" a pretty Narm sounding name to begin with.
  • Adapting The Crows into The Grisha Trilogy storyline and how well it was handled was divisive. Some believed it was forced since the characters only interact with each other a few times in the finale and part ways again immediately afterwards and it was pure fan-service. Other people were exited for character interactions that were not seen in any of the books and enjoyed the blatant fan-service since a lot as they only watched the show for the Crows. Yet another handful of fans who only liked the Six of Crows duology had voiced that they'd rather have The Crows in a different series since the adaptation and compressed storyline meant: 1) Having to wait more time to get into the book's plot 2) Changing Nina's background and some of her personality traits 3) The absence of fan-favorite Wylan in the first season and overall not seeing the six crows together as a group at all.
• Crack Pairing:
  • Jesper's hookup with Dima, the stablehand who in the original source only appears in the opening chapter of The Nikolai Duology and never even gets close to any interaction with Jesper. It's either a meta example of this or a character with the same name as a Mythology Gag.
  • Jesper/Milo. For those who don't know, Milo is the name Jesper gives to the goat that serves as an emotional support animal for him.
  • The end of season two has Inej and Tolya, two characters that have never interacted in any of the books, sharing an interested Held Gaze as the latter helps the former onboard the Hummingbird. It suggests Inej getting the chance to form a relationship with someone who doesn't Hate Being Touched but it still threw the fandom for a loop.
• Die for Our Ship: Luda, Kirigan's former lover who was non-existent in the books. On the one hand, she only appears on-screen for about ten minutes only to be Stuffed in the Fridge, but some do wonder if her legacy will have any sort of effect on the Darklina pairing.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Darkgoat, as it were, Milo quickly became popular with fans. Some consider him the real MVP of the season.
  • Fedyor was already a popular side-character in the novels. His show counterpart is no different for his friendliness and his implied coupling with Ivan.
  • Alexei proved well-liked for his expanded role and crush on Alina. Quite a few fans were pleased to see him survive the voyage through the Fold. Much to their dismay when he doesn't survive Ketterdam.
• Evil Is Cool: If this didn't already exist for the Darkling, it's been even more amplified by the casting of Ben Barnes.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Calling Jesper gay instead of bisexual. The fandom is patient towards newcomers who are only familiar with the show, since Jesper only shows obvious attraction towards a male stablehand in the first season; but big figures such as the host of the Netflix After Party calling him gay and not being corrected definitely got under some people's skin.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The decision to not only make Alina half-Shu but have her experience (pretty clunkily written) racism aged poorly as the show premiered in 2021 when there was an uptick in anti-Asian racism and hate crimes. A lot of Asian audience members and reviewers expressed frustration that they couldn't just enjoy an escapist fantasy series without constantly being made uncomfortable, and without the payoff of having Alina connect with her Shu heritage in a positive way.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Jesper's scenes with Milo.
  • Jesper and Kaz are willing to give up one million kruge because Inej is conflicted between her faith and their mission. They assure her that everything is entirely up to her, and they'll follow through with whatever she chooses. It really sells that the Crows aren't just connected by their desire to get money, but they truly care about each other.
• Ho Yay: Fedyor and Ivan's closeness was not ignored by fans. Fedyor attempts to feed Ivan a treat like they're a couple, and he even calls the latter his "better half".
• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: "Heartrender Husbands" became popular for Ivan/Fedyor.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • A lot of fans of the original books were only interested in watching because of The Crows.
  • There was also a great deal of excitement about General Kirigan, as many fans found the Darkling to be the most interesting thing about The Grisha Trilogy (there's also the added bonus of fans being downright giddy after the announcement that the Darkling's most popular fancast would be playing the part).
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Alina, besides her canon love interest Mal and General Kirigan, is also shipped with Zoya and Genya. Those were already present in the original books, but the show adds Inej and Kaz to the mix.
• Les Yay:
  • Just like in the original source, Alina and Genya become friends almost immediately and touch each other a lot.
  • Sure, it comes more from a place of religious devotion, but Inej has many scenes staring lovingly at Alina.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The Jesper/Milo vs. Jesper/Wylan "shipping war."
  • Milo the seventh Crow. Or Sankt Milo. Or even just Milo in general.
  • Prince Caspian's cameo. ^Explanation A flashback scene has Ben Barnes with longer hair. Needless to say, between that and a clean-shaven face, fans were getting Caspian-flashbacks.
  • "Take note, Titanic." Lots of viewers brought up the age-old argument about whether Jack and Rose could both have fit on the door, noting that Nina and Matthias managed just fine when surviving their own shipwreck. Danielle Galligan also spotted the similarity.
  • Outside of the context of the series itself, gifs and webms of Kit Young practicing Gun Twirling reached a minor meme status and even ascended into a reaction macro.
• Moe:
  • Alina, just Alina.
  • David Kostyk, specially when he politely raises his hand like a child in class in order to ask permission to talk.
• No Yay: Zoya & Kirigan, people not familiar with the books did not cheer up with the reveal that the used to be lovers, some due to shipping and other because of the very obvious power imbalance. People who are familiar with the books on the other hand took it way worse, as (assuming the show doesn't change Zoya's backstory) the Darkling pretty much raised a young Zoya.
• One True Pairing: Kaz/Inej and Genya/David are shipped by pretty much the whole fanbase, just like in the original source.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Most of them are the same as the original source (see The Grishaverse), as well as the added Fivan for Ivan/Fedyor, (jokingly) Jilo for Jesper/Milo, Alinej for Alina/Inej.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • More like Base-Breaking Character heap, but Mal has been received much better than he was in the original book. People who hated him in the books are pretty much okay with him (if indifferent) and people who already liked him agree he is better handled here by showing his side of the story that gives the viewer an idea of everything he's been through and interacting with more people than just Alina.
  • Alina herself (also more Base-Breaking Character than straight up Scrappy); by having more agency in the show she becomes a more active player and her overall friendlier personality makes her easier to sympathize with and root for.
  • Zoya, for people who were not familiar with the original material, was extremely disliked until the last two episodes where she turns against Kirigan to help Alina.
• Salvaged Story:
  • Many fans of Zoya weren't keen on her portrayal in the first season, as up until the final two episodes she comes off rather nasty and petty, in particular bullying Alina out of romantic jealousy over Mal and especially the Darkling, and even making racist remarks towards her; while Zoya is similarly flawed in the books, her behaviour is given a more sympathetic explanation there, while in the show she comes off much worse (e.g. she didn't display any racism in the books) and she isn't given as much depth. Some viewers also felt the emphasis on jealousy over male love interests as the source of Alina and Zoya's conflict came off as shallow and a bit sexist. Season 2 presents Zoya in a far more positive and nuanced light; she apologises to Alina for how she treated her and admits it was because she was jealous of her taking her position as the Darkling's favourite, but that considering everything that's happened since then, she's now over it. Alina for her part doesn't hold it against Zoya and they both acknowledge they were used and manipulated by the Darkling, deciding to work together from now on. Zoya does still tease Alina and other characters, but it generally comes off more as playful than malicious. Zoya is once again given some conflict with another major female character, this time Nina, but it's presented as a case of clashing personalities and differing priorities, as opposed to romantic jealousy.
  • For fans who hated the ending of Ruin and Rising, many were absolutely overjoyed at seeing Alina break up with Mal and becoming Queen of Ravka, seeing it as a thematically fitting ending that should have happened in the original story.
• Ships That Pass in the Night: A few, some examples are Kaz/Alina, who talked to each other no more than 3 times and never meet in the original books. And Mal/Jesper (who hardly interacted at all) as a very minor example and mostly due to Pairing the Spares by Darkling/Alina shippers that: 1) Don't dislike Mal, 2) Are not familiar with the books where Jesper has a canon love interest so just pair the two remaining main characters.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat:
  • The Alina/Mal vs. Alina/Darkling conflict is carried over from the books. Due to Mal getting the Adaptational Nice Guy treatment. Rest assured, there are still Darklina shippers, but they generally do prefer the show's take on Mal over the book's.
  • A small and quite unusual one, since they are not competing ships: Darkling/Alina vs Kaz/Inej. When fans of the former claimed their ship to be the most popular, fans of the latter jumped in their One True Pairing's defence.
  • Jokingly one started for Jesper between Milo the goat, Canon Foreigner and Ensemble Dark Horse, and Wylan, his canon love interest in the books, who has yet to make an appearance.
• Special Effects Failure: The special effects are good for the most part. However, there's a brief moment in "No Mourners" where Kirigan pulls a knife out of his chest; the blood dripping from the blade is very obvious CGI.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Alina killing Mal to make use of his amplifier, followed by her desperation as Nina tries to revive him.
  • Inej leaving the Crows. Kaz confesses his love for her but she says she cannot be with him while he's unable to touch her.
  • Genya going through David's things after his Heroic Sacrifice to save her. She finds her favorite gemstone and drawings of the engagement ring David was planning to make from it.
  • Nina going to free Matthias with a letter from the King, but Matthias kills a prison guard in a fight and the pardon doesn't cover that.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Zoya fans were among the most upset by her portrayal in the show. Although she starts off the books as a Hate Sink as well, she was not racist and while it's true minorities can be bigoted, it makes little sense for Zoya to attack Alina for being biracial specifically when she is biracial herself, rather than display casual xenophobia/nationalism. Some fans also did not like the show making Zoya and the Darkling's dynamic sexual when it was not in the books – an overachiever, her main motivation was proving herself. She is threatened by Alina because she takes her spot as top of the class, not because of a romantic rivalry. Alina may be insecure enough to feel that way over Mal and Zoya, but Zoya is not. Her irresistible beauty, confidence, and popularity is one of her defining characteristics. The show portrays Zoya as coming onto men, when in the books men threw themselves at her, not the other way around. It feels like her character took a hit to make Mal look more noble in that moment in that particular.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Luda as General Kirigan's old flame could have been used to explore his life before he created the Fold and his more human side. Instead she barely appears and is quickly Stuffed in the Fridge.
  • In the books, Alina has a strong student-mentor relationship with Botkin, who is Shu. This would've taken on an additional dimension in the show now that Alina is half Shu and faces racism frequently, plus it would have given the show a chance to explore how Grisha are treated in Shu Han. Instead, Botkin is Demoted to Extra and the two barely interact.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Some fans would have prefered Darkling original backstory portrayed in the prequel short story ''The Demon in the Wood" instead of a made up a Fridged Woman backstory. It was the resulf of Serendipity Writes the Plot. See trivia page.
• Vanilla Protagonist: Some viewers argue that the adaptation turned Mal into this. Pretty much all of Mal's problematic traits from the books — his womanizing, his flightiness and his distrust of Alina's Grisha powers — were removed, but it leaves him without any flaws that he needs to overcome, just his determination to reunite with and protect Alina. However, other viewers might not view this as a bad thing since his toxic behavior in the books could be perceived just as bad as the Darkling's actions and the show provided a healthier substitute.
• The Woobie:
  • Alina, who was orphaned at a young age and had to deal with Fantastic Racism her entire life. And after discovering her powers, she's thrust into the world of politics and royalty against her will and away from her friends, surrounded by people who either want to kill or manipulate her for their own gain.
  • Inej, who was separated from her parents and brother at a young age before being sold into sexual slavery. Tante Heleen exploits the fact that Kaz has not "paid off his investment" as something to hold over her head in order to use Inej for her personal gain.
  • Zoya may not be the nicest person, but it's not hard to feel sorry for her when she panics about her family after the Darkling extended the Fold into her family's hometown. It's also implied her relationship with the Darkling was similar to his relationship with Alina, and we later find out he's been manipulating her so she that she'll eventually become his attack dog. That and the way that Baghra tells Alina that he's had plenty of time to "master lying to young girls" doesn't paint their relationship in the best way.

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