Yahoo Autos The Key Differences Between ‘Shadow and Bone’ Season 2 and the Books
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The Netflix series Shadow and Bone is an adaptation of Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse novels in the truest sense of the word "adaptation" – and IMHO, that's a good thing! Fans get to see the characters they love but still get to be surprised by what happens. The series condenses, rearranges, and adapts the Grishaverse's trilogy and two duologies to fit the medium of television. Here are some of the major changes from the books in Shadow and Bone season 2. This is kinda obvi but spoilers ahead for Shadow and Bone season 2 and several books in the Grishaverse.
Basically, Shadow and Bone season 2 covers the second and third book in the trilogy: Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising. It also folds (no pun intended)in details from the two Six of Crows books, King of Scars, Rule of Wolves, and The Lives of Saints. This means that characters that never interacted in the books now work together in the show. But overall, there's MORE story in the three Shadow and Bones books than in the two seasons of the show. Listing every little thing that the show doesn't include would take forever, so let's focus on what the show does differently, and touch on a few other major changes here and there.
The Shadow and Bone Trilogy Boxed Set
$13.19
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First, here are some rapid-fire things that happen in season 2 and don't happen in the books
Mal becomes the next Sturmhond.
Alina accesses a darker side by using merzost and can summon shadows.
Alina and Nikolai get married.
David dies in the battle against the Darkling. *sob*
Baghra dies because the Darkling's out-of-control nichevo’ya attacks her, not by suicide.
Matthias refuses to kill the
puppieswolves in the fighting ring.
The Darkling's doing his own thing in season 2
In the second book, after he survives the Volcra, the Darkling tracks Mal and Alina pretty easily. He's the one who takes them to the Sturmhond's ship. On the show, he uses the weird connection to magically FaceTime Alina, and rules Ravka by building his army rather than trying to capture her right off the bat. Actually, this storyline is basically what happens to him in the third book... so he kind of just skipped ahead.
Alina's story ends differently in the books
In the books, Alina creates new Sun Summoners, loses her powers, and fakes her death before defeating the Darkling. None of that happens in season 2 even though it ends in relatively the same place as the third book. She also has white hair at one point. At the end of the Shadow and Bone trilogy, Alina and Mal get married and run an orphanage together. That doesn't happen on the show, but I think that's smart. If Shadow and Bone is renewed for season 3, it is set to adapt Grishaverse stories that don't really involve Alina or Mal. Since the show didn't get them all the way to their happy ending, there's a reason for them to be in future seasons. It will be like what the show has done with the Six of Crows characters in the first two seasons (more on that below).
