#see but i can write this off as an intentional character choice bc matthias is unhealthily obsessed with theo so. <3

[firelxdykatara]

i get why a lot of ppl, especially SoC-only (or primarily) fans, are disappointed with the crows, particularly kaz’ characterization. i do. but at the same time, i think the biggest reason i’m not (and i only watched the show for the crows&ben barnes to begin with) is because i knew this pretty much had to happen. it’s the only way they could make the crows fit into the s&b storyline--and i’m reasonably sure that they had to make them fit to draw viewers, because s&b just isn’t enough on its own (even with ben barnes knocking it outta the park) given the constraints under which they were working.

(am i shading leigh? possibly. just a bit. cough.)

they couldn’t meaningfully change s&b itself--except mal’s characterization&storyline, to make him and malina more palatable to the audience. (which i almost wish they hadn’t? because as it is now, they’re just kind of... boring. if mal kept his book characterization, at least i could be properly angry at him instead of just zoning out during his scenes. and it kind of sucks because i love archie, he just wasn’t given much to work with.) and if it were just shadow&bone, i suspect that a whole lot of viewers wouldn’t bother tuning in. i know i wouldn’t--i’d have gone to youtube for the darkling/darklina scenes and ignored the rest, and i know i’m not the only one. so they had to do something to really hook viewers and make sitting through the less engaging parts of the show worthwhile.

but therein lies the rub. because Six of Crows and The Grishaverse Trilogy are fundamentally different genres. they may exist in the same fantasy world, but they do not fit together thematically. the characters wouldn’t really work in each other’s worlds--and that sort of tonal clash could have worked in the show, except that they were already running up against the problem of the crows completely overshadowing alina’s narrative, even though she’s supposed to be the centerpoint of the story.

it’s shadow and bone with crows for added flavor, not six of crows with a bit more emphasis on magic. (sorry: Small Science. which still kind of makes me laugh but. yknow.)

if the crows were just like their book counterparts--if kaz were every bit as brilliant and brutal, especially--there... wouldn’t be any room for the s&b storyline. no one would pay it any mind. you already have the ‘six of crows can exist without shadow and bone, shadow and bone can’t exist without six of crows’ problem--and it really is a problem, which i suspect could have been corrected if leigh weren’t an executive producer--but that would’ve been turned up to 11 if the crows, and kaz in particular, were more true to who they were in the books. you can’t have a meaningful thematic&tonal clash if one half of it gets completely obliterated by the other, and the s&b side of the story just wouldn’t stand a chance.

you even kind of see it with nina&matthias, whose storyline existed completely separate from the main show until the very end of the season and who followed their SoC backstory beat for beat. they pulled off the enemies-to-grudging-allies-to-almost-friends-to-maybe-something-more and right back to enemies with The Betrayal, and when you contrast that with the way we all know darklina is going to be treated.... the difference is striking. and helnik was extremely distracting in terms of the overall narrative, mostly bc i was quite happy to forget that s&b was the focus any time they were on screen. and it may partially be my own bias, but i think it says something that there could have been a helnik-centric show, or even just an entire episode, and they could have easily stood on their own in a way that malina (which is supposed to be the true central romance of the series) simply can’t.

ultimately, what i think the show suffered most from was leigh calling the shots and refusing to allow any meaningful change from the original storyline. a lot of what makes the s&b segments better than the book is simply jessie’s phenomenal acting (and ben’s, of course), but once you get past her dazzling smile and charisma, you realize that alina really doesn’t have any more agency here than she did originally. she makes almost no choices independently--when she does decide to do something, it’s almost always because of mal, making her storyline revolve around him in a way that was ultimately detrimental to her character and the show as a whole--and even things like discovering the darkling’s true intentions are dumped in her lap rather than her taking any initiative. she is buffeted this way and that by the Plot’s whims, and her characterization is all over the place. again, jessie does amazingly with what she’s given and it’s a delight to watch her on screen, but the writing just doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.

they simply couldn’t bring the full power of SoC’s phenomenal writing and characterization to bare, here, without completely destroying the central storyline and making everyone wonder why we’re even bothering with the Grisha when the crows are so much more interesting and thematically resonant.