Marvelous Geeks

Netflix’s deleted scene between Jesper Fahey and Inej Ghafa in Shadow and Bone’s Season 2 finale, “No Funerals,” is the kind of moment that expertly and beautifully weaves the story together. It’s the type of scene the show shouldn’t have cut as it answers the question some fans were apprehensively asking upon finishing the season. At the same time, it’s a sweet parting slash love letter to the found family heart of the Crows.

The screenplay here is astounding as it gives viewers the necessary information while simultaneously allowing actors to add layers and convictions to the spoken word. Similarly, setting the moment in a secluded open area enunciates the vulnerability both characters are showcasing. Like the open air, Jesper and Inej are fully transparent with one another, giving Kit Young and Amita Suman some breathtaking junctures to exhibit how profoundly the characters care for one another.

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Portrayed by: Amita Suman Book | Show: Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows, Crooked Kingdom, and Netflix’s Shadow and Bone

Inej Ghafa is one of the most exceptional characters of our time—a character I hope people will talk about for years to come because everything that she represents is reflective of what complexity looks like in the face of a strong woman robbed of so much, yet still, a beacon of hope in spite of it all.

Inej has had too much taken from her, stripped of agency from age fourteen, and sold to a brothel called the Menagerie. In both the book and the TV series, Inej’s history is primarily the same, except in the TV show Inej has a brother she was separated from, as well as her mother and father. (Whether they’re alive, we’ll hopefully learn someday.) Characters like Inej, especially in the Grishaverse, often lose parts of their humanity through their pain, but Inej fights through the darkness even when life forces her to do terrible things.

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Shadow and Bone Season 2, Episode 3, “Like Calls to Like,” is one of the show’s strongest narratives, drawing on little moments to add layers and depth to the characters, as well as their most meaningful relationships. The episode’s theme probes the audience to pay attention to what truly matters, despite where our allegiances might lie, asking us to look toward what’s best and necessary. Still, moving elements from Siege and Storm onto the small screen, the show finds its more compelling chess pieces when taking from Six of Crows.

While we’re headed toward combining worlds again, it’s hard not to wonder what the shows would’ve been like if they remained separated from one another, coming together in crossover fashion as network television does. This isn’t to say that the Grisha arc is bad by any means, but it needs more work to be as captivating as the events at Ketterdam. Or perhaps, that’s merely this writer’s preference. That said, there’s a clear picture in this episode that veers us toward the season’s primary objective—destroying the Shadow Fold.

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Type: Romantic Book | Show: Six of Crows duology and Netflix’s Shadow and Bone Featured Characters: Kaz Brekker and Inej Ghafa

It is a truth universally acknowledged that every romantic relationship has their song. For Kaz Brekker and Inej Ghafa, that song is “Beautiful Crime” by Tamer. Stop what you’re doing, listen to it, then come back. It’s as if it was written for them and only them.

What begins as a desire for freedom in the form of helping one another turns into a partnership none of them thought they’d ever find with another human being. It’s a story about equals, two people in a world with trepidations and lingering shadows no one could understand as closely as they could. It’s a story about a boy rescuing a girl from the worst kind of fate and saving himself in the process while she becomes the most significant source of light in the world. Inej Ghafa might not be a Saint, but she is the dawn that follows his nightfall—the magic that comes to life in everything she touches, the way she moves, and the choices she makes.

Theirs is the story of two people from whom the world has taken too much, leaving them with crosses to bear heavier than they could carry alone. In staking rooftops, nearly intolerable missions across deadly fields of grey, arcane heists and every quiet moment between Kaz Brekker and Inej Ghafa found someone with whom they could slowly break down their armor. There’s an entire battlefield waiting for them to conquer in the series, but with every passing episode, they’re one step closer to understanding that together, there are no barriers too impenetrable with the other’s presence. Together, there’s always a safe space for them to crumble, even when it might not feel like it.

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Best of 2021: Characters features spoilers for various shows. Please be advised if there’s something you don’t want to know.

We all have a different definition for what makes a character great or why they become a favorite of ours. Here at Marvelous Geeks, it’s often been the characters with the most growth of the season and the most layered. It’s been the characters we’ve stayed up late thinking about, wanting to know more about, and loved as though they’re someone we know. Somehow, the best of 2021 characters are always the ones there for you in a way you never expected them to be, and in our books, that makes them extraordinary.

For more end-of-the-year coverage, be sure to check out our Best of 2021: Ted Lasso Season 2 Special, as the shining example of what excellent TV looks like in its entirety. There’s also the Best of 2021: Scene-Stealers and Best of 2021: Performances who made this year a joy ride through and through.

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Kaz Brekker and Inej Ghafa speak in a language that is so visibly intimate, we see it in their effortless means of trusting one another with armor, their ability to bounce back after arguments in moments of transparency, and ultimately, the undeniable ways in which they both need each other.

Serious question, does anyone read chapter twenty-six without having a full-fledged, chaotic breakdown themselves? If you do, teach me your ways. This is also top-tier in any hurt/comfort bandaging scene that’s ever been written. Nothing compares and nothing ever will. Period.

People so often equate intimacy to sex or physical touch, but intimacy is an ever-present tether, a lodestone that moves, heals, and adores every part of another’s soul. It’s always present in a myriad of ways, connecting two people even while they are physically distanced from one another. In the shadows, with burnings embers of fire, wherever the place, whatever the situation, where intimacy resides, it’s perpetual.

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Shadow and Bone is full of incredible performers left and right who’ve each done a compelling job of bringing their characters to life with range and nuances that have made them even better than they were on paper. This is a series that demanded its characters show more and the performances do. When we say they all understood the assignment, we mean it. 

Nevertheless, from the very first episode to the last, it’s Amita Suman who stands out impeccably, bringing to life parts of her character that would have otherwise been relatively unknown to non-book readers. In our Character Deep Dive for Inej Ghafa, we state: “Suman has masterfully brought a plethora of grace, humility, curiosity, and eons of empathy to Inej. When you look into her eyes, sincerity pours through like heavy rain on a clear night—there is no doubt about Inej’s heart or her intentions. Through her mannerisms and the wide range of emotions, Suman lays everything bare for viewers to see—she has mastered the character’s quips with brilliantly meticulous performances that bring to life thousands of emotions even in silence. I mention it in almost every episode review, but she is easily the performer who stands out almost effortlessly.”

Having gone through training for both Inej’s acrobatic routines and in order to manage the knives, Suman has brought both physical essentials to life organically. However, most inimitably, it’s crucial to touch on the emotional strokes she’s layers the character with. Whether she’s front and center or in the background of a scene, in all eight episodes, Amita Suman excels at delivering a full range of emotions.

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Trust is a convoluted spectacle at times, a labyrinth of endless security that relies heavily on excavation—searching, cherishing and cementing. It seldom requires words in this form, it’s either buried deep or boldly on display, and when there are words, they are a parallel to what’s been established before. Trust is hard to come by, it is a rare state of ease and a deliberate exhibition of emotional revere, a promise that entails, this is it—this is a constant.  

Sometimes, the physical manifestation of trust comes at an actual showcase. It’s preserved, cultivated, and fortified in moments between two people that speaks on all sorts of complex emotions with vehemence.

And yes, this is the new romance hand flex.

There is a level of intimacy that’s unparalleled in this moment that touches on meticulously placed trust in the physical hands of one’s closest confidant, which ultimately paints a picture of belief. A moment of silence that speaks immeasurably loud—eye contact that questions, pleads, and surrenders. The most intimate moments on Shadow and Bone come to pass most effortlessly in the form of zero physical contact between Kaz Brekker and Inej Ghafa. It goes deeper. It’s as close as they get to a physical touch, and yet the beauty of it all lies in the unveiling weight of the act.

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“Crows don’t just remember the faces of people who wronged them. They also remember those who were kind. They tell each other who to look after and who to watch out for.”

Brick by brick. Word for word. Glance after glance. There is so much vulnerability and beauty in this scene, I can write my entire thesis on it. It’s not just a moment between two characters who have rarely opened up to others, but it is a moment of homecoming. It is a moment where layers are stripped and promises are made, but more than that it’s the exhibition of profound gratitude in its most subtle form.

Consequently, few actors have mastered the art of speaking without conversation. I have an entire list, which I can count with my fingers where this is an established skillset that gets better and better with every season. Because the Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom duology has an omniscient narrator, we are given insight into the characters’ inner most personal thoughts in a way that could not have been as evocative on-screen without words actually being spoken. That is why it was crucial for the actors embodying the roles to be able to establish the sense of intimacy on-screen and in such a way that the general audience could pick up on.

From the moment we see them on-screen Inej Ghafa and Kaz Brekker have an established language we can almost immediately pick up on, which Amita Suman and Freddy Carter bring to the surface brilliantly. It’s subtle but boldly telling. There is a very clear push and pull followed by tangible differences between them, and yet there’s a closeness that’s immensely palpable right now. They both have their own separate traumas, but Kaz and Inej rely heavily on each other, which we get glimpses of in how often they speak without words.

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Portrayed by: Amita Suman Book | Show: Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows, Crooked Kingdom and Netflix’s Shadow and Bone

“She was not a lynx or a spider or even the Wraith. She was Inej Ghafa, and her future was waiting above” (Six of Crows).

Inej Ghafa is one of the most exceptional characters of our time—a character I hope people will talk about for years to come because everything that she represents is reflective upon what complexity looks like in the face of a strong woman robbed of so much yet still, a beacon of hope in spite of it all.

Inej has had too much taken from her and robbed of agency from the age of fourteen and sold to a brothel called the Menagerie. In both the book series and TV, Inej’s history is mostly the same, except in the TV show Inej has a brother she was separated from as well as her mother and father. Characters like Inej, especially in the Grishaverse often lose parts of their humanity through their pain, but Inej fights through the darkness even when life forces her to do terrible things thus, one of the main reasons she stands out so remarkably.

Inej remained an idealist even as she is often practical–as a girl who fought through the cages of heartache, she clings to the glimmers of hope she could find, looking towards fairness even in the dead of nights. A little Suli idealist, as Kaz Brekker once said. She fought through uncertainties more intricately than often depicted in the fantasy genre, and at such a young age, too she mastered the art of grounding herself (both literally and spiritually). In a lot of ways, she reminds me of Leia Organa, brave, commanding, and strong, but a deeply warm presence who is easy to adore by all who know her.

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