If you are looking for answers after the end of Season 2 of Shadow and Bone – Legends of Grisha on Netflix, you will find them here. We explain how the magic threads are brought together in the finale and how the book changes are meant to benefit the fantasy series in the long run. Here you will find:
Attention, follow Spoilers for the end of Shadow and Bone Season 2.
1.) The finale of the 2nd season Shadow and Bone explains: Morozova’s power multiplier and Alina’s destruction of the shadow hallway sun warrior Alina (Jessie Mei Li) recognizes in season 2: She needs three power multipliers to equal the evil shadow guide General Kirigan (Ben Barnes) in power to become: the stag, the sea serpent and the firebird. Only with the trophies of the three mystical animals killed can she destroy the shadowy corridor that divides the land of Ravka. In the end, however, it turns out that Alina’s boyfriend is in fact Mal (Archie Renaux) the third power multiplier is.
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Shadow and Bone: The Bonesmith and his multipliers
To understand that, we have to travel more than 400 years into the past in Shadow and Bone: The Grisha Ilya Morozova was a powerful fabricator, so could manipulate hard materials. As a “Bonesmith,” he created three power multipliers from his finger bones using forbidden dark Merzost magic. The third, however, did not become the firebird as planned because of an accident: Morozova’s older Grisha daughter, the shadow driver Baghra (Zoë Wanamaker), killed her younger (only human) sister after she broke her toy.
To resurrect his dead child, Morozova used Merzost, making it his third power multiplier at the same time. Fearing his unnatural power, the Bonesmith and his resurrected daughter were then bound in the river by villagers. But they survived. So Morozova’s second daughter, believed dead, founded one unnoticed Bloodline in which the power of the third multiplier persisted. Mal is her descendant. As an orphan, however, he knew nothing of his parentage or relationship to Baghra’s son Alexander (“cousin” Kirigan).
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Shadow and Bone: Alina and Powersmultiple times
Because all multipliers of power only transfer their power to the Grisha who end their lives, eventually has to kill Alina Malto seize the power within him. All previous plans to achieve this without murder or with only a brief cardiac arrest fail. When Mal dies at her hands, Alina is able to destroy the Shadow Corridor and subsequently kills Kirigan as well.
In the end it’s not Nina, it’s Alina who Brought back to life with Merzost. But dark magic always comes with an unexpected price. With Morozova it was the transformation of his child into a power multiplier. For Kirigan, that was his health deterioration after creating his shadow monsters. With Alina it is her own transformation from sun warrior to shadow guideas shown in the final scene of Shadow and Bone Season 2.
2.) Alina’s story ends so differently in the Shadow and Bone book template
The 2nd season of Netflix’s fantasy series Shadow and Bone mainly adapts the 2nd and 3rd novels of the 7 Grishaverse books by Leigh Bardugo. As a trilogy conclusion, Blazing Wings * ends Alina’s story. But the season 2 finale moves massively away from the template. The reason for this, according to showrunner Eric Heisserer, is simple: you wanted to keep the stars and characters of Alina and Mal in the cast, even if they were robbed of their happy endings (for the time being).. They also wanted to continue to explore their goals, desires and intentions. That wouldn’t have been possible with the ending of the novel. (Danger, Spoilers on the Shadow and Bone books.)
Also in the 3rd book of the Shadow and Bone trilogy, Mal turns out to be the third power multiplier (where they actually find the Firebird). Here, too, Alina kills Mal in tears. But the price of their immense power is different: Alina pays for the union of the three multipliers with the loss of her power. In a great explosion of light, her ability to direct sunlight spreads to the non-Grisha (Otkazat’sya) present in her wide radius. She creates many new sun warriors who then destroy the shadow corridor.
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Shadow and Bone: the dark dies
Alina then kills the Dark One with the knife stained with Mal’s blood and a tiny bit of Shadow power that she had coaxed from him through Merzost in a previous encounter.
Finally, in the final book of the Shadow and Bone trilogy, the Entherzer siblings Tamar and Tolya resurrect Mal with some difficulty. In the end, their closest confidants help Fake Alina and Mal’s deaths. The now mutually powerless lovers takes over leadership of the Keramzin orphanage with new identitieswhere they grew up, and henceforth lead a quiet life.
It cannot be ruled out that the series Shadow and Bone will end up reuniting the lovers who were separated in the season 2 finale in a similar or different way. (spoiler end.)
3.) The season 3 hints at the end of Shadow and Bone explained
Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse doesn’t end with Alina’s story. Eric Heisserer hopes for up to 3 more seasons and a spin-off series. That’s why Season 2 Shadow and Bone has another one after the end of the destroyed shadow corridor 50 minute epilogue full of hints to what is to come. In a nutshell, without any spoilers, we present the references to elements from the crow saga * and the 2 Kings of Scars books * here:
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Shadow and Bone prepares Six of Crows
But there are also hints in the Season 2 finale of Shadow and Bone that have no basis in the book: what the series creators are doing with, for example Alina’s transformation to the mighty Shadow Guide or with the search for Inej’s brother plans remains open to all in the Netflix audience.
Shadow and Bone Podcast: Pros and Cons of Netflix’s Fantasy Series
What makes good fantasy? Raised as a big event by Netflix, Shadow and Bone takes us into a complex new world filled with shadows, monsters and war, but also magic and romance. In a stream-buzz argument from a fan and a critic, we take a close look at the series.
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Find out how convincing the first 8 episodes of Shadow and Bone are, what the gang of thieves the crows do right (and what wrong) and why everyone should celebrate the goat Milo here.
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