Alina will have a “perfect” arc in Shadow and Bone season 2
Shadow and Bone showrunner Eric Heisserer and writer Daegan Fryklind recently revealed plans for the direction of Alina’s (Jessie Mei Li) character arc throughout the upcoming second season of the show.
Following on from the season 1 finale, we are set to watch Alina continue her fight against the Darkling (Ben Barnes), who plans to oppress the war-torn country of Ravka. The season 2 trailer gave us more information about how this fight will go down, and emphasized the importance of Alina hunting down amplifiers in order to strengthen her chances of tearing down the Fold, a vast shadowy swath of darkness teeming with monsters which cuts across Ravka.
Amplifiers are artifacts (or living beings) who can enhance the magical powers of Grisha like Alina or the Darkling. In the second season, Alina is trying to hunt down three amplifiers: the Stag, the Firebird and the Sea Whip.
The Darkling will be “very gaslighty” towards Alina in Shadow and Bone season 2
Speaking to Collider, Heisserer and Fryklind explained that the three amplifiers mean more to Alina’s character arc than simply extending her powers. “The stag is strength, the sea whip is anger and rage, and this is part of Alina dealing with her past trauma,” Fryklind said. “And the firebird is love. Those three things together really create a perfect arc for her.”
Heisserer and Fryklind also say that Alina is still tethered somewhat to the Darkling, reminding us of how a residue of the stag amplifier in season 1 remains with him and creates a link between the two characters: “That residue has created a mental tether between the two of them, that he is the first to figure it out. At first, it’s dreams, and then he figures out this is something more than dreams, and that he can use this tether to get into her mental space and try to influence her thoughts.”
Fryklind describes this behavior as “very gaslighty.” The Darkling will definitely be trying to manipulate Alina this season, even though they’re no longer in the same place physically. Actor Ben Barnes also weighed in on the Darkling’s new connection to Alina:
"Kirigan can see a little bit of his former hopeful self in Alina, but I think he’s also trying to school her in cynicism. He’s trying to instill in her this idea that as she goes through life, as she loses people that she loves over and over again, and as she tries to keep the peace, eventually she’s going to have to rule with a bit more of an iron and fist and do things more his way. In the second season, they’re kept physically apart. But then they start thinking about the other, and the other’s ideologies, and what the other is doing. They start to meet in what we’re calling the “Mind Palace,” and they start to connect in this different way."
Shadow and Bone Season 2 premieres on Netflix on March 16.
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