#Nikolai shadow and bone

[anon-s-s-k]

I don't know if it's been spoken about yet, but

In season 2 of Shadow and Bone, we find out that Sturmhond the Privateer was the one behind Dreesen, the wealthy merchant who hired the Crows to kidnap Alina the Sun Summoner and bring her to Ketterdam.

Where in Season 1, we saw the entire scene with Alexie and the heartrender Milana, and it kinda seemed like Dreesen wants the Sun Summoner for his own profit.

Turns out, Dreesen was just another pawn in the grand plan and the real mastermind behind it all was Sturmhond all along.

What a twist!

But Sturmhond the privateer is actually Prince Nikolai of Ravka under disguise.

So all this time, Prince Nikolai of Ravka was trying to get Alina Starkov the Sun Summoner, kidnapped from the Little Palace, which is under the protection of Ravkan Royalty and is the home of the second army of Ravka, the Grisha themselves. That too by a gang of the Barrel of Ketterdam.

I mean, look at them

Yeah, definitely not sketchy at all.

So why is it, that the Ravkan Prince wants their Sun Summoner, the one and only saving grace of his country, to be taken from the most secured place in all of the world, which is under the protection of his own family and is in his own country, and brought to the literal bottom of the hell that is Ketterdam, by a sketchy gang of the Barrel.

Really, it doesn't make much sense.

Most of the YouTube videos explaining SaB season 2 I saw said it was just lazy writing or a plot hole or just something the writers wrote to make the characters more interesting and so on and on and on.

Honestly, I too, had thought the same. However, that was until I re-watched the show for like the 20th time, and saw this scene very closely.

And this got me thinking.

What if? *Drum rolls please*

What if, Prince Nikolai had a hunch about what the Darling was planning to do with Alina and the fold?

Just hear me out here.

Prince Nikolai, as shown in Season 2, is not new to the family political scenarios in the Royal family of Ravka, as well as the political stances of Ravka and the other countries. He is aware of a lot of information that even his family may not be aware of. And with his Sturmhond persona, let's just say this man has quite a lot of sensitive and private information under his belt.

But other than valid information, Prince Nikolai is also incredibly intuitive in nature. We know that Nikolai doesn't trust even the King's Aparet, so it might not be a long shot to say that he doesn't trust General Kirigan either. So maybe, it is possible that Prince Nikolai had a doubt about General Kirigan's loyalty to the crown and to the country. He could've had a hunch that General Kirigan might turn on his own people and use Alina in a way that can cause severe damage to his country.

It's not like Nikolai hasn't seen this man his entire life and doesn't understand how much he's capable of with his shadow summoning powers.

But unlike his elder brother Vasily, Prince Nikolai understands politics. He understands and respects Grisha powers and the second army. He understands that he cannot go against General Kirigan as Prince Nikolai. He knows that the second army is loyal to General Kirigan, and if he goes after General Kirigan directly, it will only cause another war between the first army and the second army. And this will cause an immense amount of bloodshed within the country as history will repeat itself, and this time even the Royals won't be spared from it. He knows that with the neighboring countries being at war with Ravka, the fold being a major concern for the country, and the western parts of the country trying to get independence, a war between the first and the second army will cause the ultimate collapse of Ravka. And Nikolai being the ideal king, the self righteous man and the patriot he is, could not let that happen.

Which is why he decides to go for it by kidnapping the Sun Summoner and handling it all in a more politically balanced way. My guess is that Nikolai intended to keep General Kirigan at a distance from Alina, and get her to destroy the fold while standing beside her himself (which he eventually did, bless his soul!), so that if Kirigan ever tried to weaponize the fold (which he did!), he won't get the chance to get on with it.

Things, however, definitely don't go according to his plan and we know the rest that happens in the show.

Well in the end, things did work in his favour though, well except that damned Nichevoya.

(Also ignoring the whole first army slaughtering the second army and the bloodshed thing that went on in season 2, which I'm pretty sure could have been avoided if the Crows had brought Alina to Sturmhond in time as it was planned, but alas!)

So this is entirely my theory. I've no clue if it's already been stated or is there any other theories or if there's anything specified by the writers or actors. If there's any gap or any wrong information or a grammatical mistake there, please forgive me. I wrote this instead of sleeping.

[iamthemain-character]

I saw someone talking about how ridiculous it was that the army didn’t recognize their own prince, but clearly this means that Nikolai Lantsov went through MAJOR puberty while away as Sturmhond and honestly that is such a funny concept to me.

[swiftie-as-a-coursing-river]

Hi! Heard you are Nikolai Lantsov's no ! stan. I love that man. What songs do you think would associate with him?

LMAO I LOVE THIS ASK SO MUCH OMG.

I actually have so many I associate with him, it’s a little crazy, but I’ll list some of my top ones (they’re all Taylor swift lmao)

*apologies for how long this is and how bad I am at explaining things LMAOOOO

1. Castles Crumbling by Taylor Swift- I could write PAGES UPON PAGES about this. The whole song is him but that BRIDGE?

“Smoke billows from my ships in the harbor/People look at me like I’m a monster”

TELL ME THAT WASNT WRITTEN ABT HIM?!

2. The Archer by Taylor Swift- Don’t even get me started. I’ve seen so many edits of him to this song (and I made one myself but it’s not on my edits tumblr yet). Once again, the BRIDGE of that song?!

“They see right through me”

“All the kings horses and all the kings men couldn’t put me together again”

“Cause all of my enemies started off friends”

But also a lot of the lyrics outside of the bridge

“I never grew up, it’s getting so old”

“I wake in the night/I pace like a ghost/the room is on fire/invisible smoke”

This song is insanely Nikolai coded.

3. Mirrorball by Taylor Swift- I saw the most insane edit to this months ago that lowkey changed my life. It was to the speech from the long pond studio sessions film where she discusses the song, saying:

“We have mirrorballs in the middle of a dance floor because they reflect light, they are broken a million times and that's what makes them so shiny, we have people like that in society, too. They hang there and every time they break it entertains us. And when you shine a light on them it's this glittering, fantastic thing, but then a lot of the time when the spotlight isn't on them they're just still there on a pedestal but nobody's watching them”

If this is not Nikolai I don’t know what is. Some other lyrics I connect with him are:

“I can change everything about me to fit in”

Really reminds me of how he kinda completely changed himself and his various identities to match what others wanted

“I'm still a believer but I don't know why”

“I’ve never been a natural all I do is try try try”

“I���m still on that trapeze/I’m still trying everything to keep you looking at me”

4. Dear Reader- Taylor Swift

This song has always been a Kaz song for me but is insanely Nikolai.

“Dear Reader, get out your map/pick somewhere and just run”

“Dear Reader, burn all the files/desert all your past lives”

“And if you don’t recognize yourself/that means you did it right”

All of these make me think of how Nikolai grapples with self image and identities throughout the books. The second part makes me think of Sturmhond, the demon, and also lowkey Isaak.

And then the BRIDGE?

“So I wandered through these nights/I prefer hiding in plain sight”

“These desperate prayers of a cursed man”

“You wouldn’t take my word for it if you knew who was talking”

“To a house not a home all alone cause nobody’s there”

“No one sees you lose when you’re playing solitaire”

That’s all I’ll be talking abt for now but there are so many more. Some honorable mentions are:

The Lucky One

The last great American dynasty

You’re on Your Own, Kid

Bejeweled

Anti Hero

epiphany

And so many more. I’ve actually made edits to a lot of these at @to-assess-the-equation-of-you and on tiktok @cassles.dazzles! I could talk about this all day and sorry for how long this was 😭

[heyitsspaceace]

EPISODE ONE NIKOLAI WAS SO FINE. WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT IT

[justanothermortalsworld]

I love Nikolai the pirate- ah sorry PRIVATEER

[megumismom]

fuck you *ungingers your tv show nikolai*

[just-gingerkat]

[shadowandbone]

[reggieslocket]

[eggsaladstain]

shadow and bone season 2 but it's just memes

(season 1 version)

[downn-in-flames]

kaz brekker 🤝 matthias helvar 🤝 nikolai lantsov:

[mal-zoya]

Honestly? Netflix should pay me for my quality promotion work I do here.

[stealingpotatoes]

this is what peak romance looks like ok

(commission info // kofi support!)

[heyitsspaceace]

my thoughts on show!king of scars

when i read the book version of nikolai getting “shadowed” i was actually devastated. he was such a stand out part of the books for me and i was so upset to not see him. so as we neared closer and closer to the end of the season and nothing had happened i was having some mixed feelings. While i was glad my boy was okay so far, that is such an important part of nikolai’s character and his development.

that being said. i do really like the way they did it in the show.

coming from a show running viewpoint, nikolai is a very useful character. a fan favorite in the storyline that normally falls second to the crows storyline despite being the name sake. if they had nikolai disappear as a demon for half the season it wouldn’t help and it would cause less engagement in the s&b story line.

from a plot standpoint! i think this is a very cool way of doing it, the fact that you can’t tell what’s wrong until the end, and then nik seeing the nichevo’ya in the mirror and breaking the chair. (and yes did i enjoy seeing him shirtless? yes sue me he’s fine as FUCK) this also enables the king of scars plot line to happen.

so here’s the tl:dr:

i enjoyed the way the show dealt with the nichevo’ya attack on nikolai. it makes sense from a show running pov, and i also liked it in a plot sense.

but please give me your opinions!!! i’d love to hear!!

[kaetor]

wanted to draw my take on some of my favorite grishaverse characters

[shadowandbonecentral]

#sometimes soulmateism is getting punched in the face by the same smol angry sun summoner