I Adore The Character of Nina Zenik and Jasper Fahey in Shadow and Bone
Yesterday I finally open my Netflix again after a while. I didn’t have anything in mind, then I saw the teaser of Shadow and Bone and decided to watch it because only one season.
To me the story is interesting because they mentioned about data, breaching, and yet all their tools look traditional. I enjoy the fantasy of some people have power to control and read heart beat, heal the wound, bend the air or fire etc because it is quite similar with some traditional folklores.
Jasper is introduced in the first episode as a sharp shooter who loves gambling. While Nina is being introduced on the third episode as someone who can use her charm to get out of a bad situation.
While other female characters seem to have hidden motivation and being passive aggressive, Nina is very out spoken and has advance thinking as someone who grew up in Little Palace, that all Grisha should have a choice if they want to serve the king or not. She can formulate her words in seductive way when she speaks with the hunter. At first the hunter shows how much he sees that as improper behavior of women to speak the way Nina does. And when the hunter starts to touch the values of his people, Nina proudly defend herself with her values of being raised to fight side by side with men. From her choices of words, I can assume that she has experience interacting with men, on the other hand the hunter does not have the same amount of experience towards women, and we can see that when the hunter asks, “Why do you have to say things like that?” which Nina responds to “I like it when you turn red.” In interaction with the hunter, Nina has to swallow her words at least once like when she mentions there’s nothing special about Fjerdan men and yet she find the hunter’s body looks very attractive. Nina’s charm and being a heartrender however does not often make her life easier, and we can see this when the hunter is in a puzzle and asks her “How do I know you are not messing with my insides and making me feel like I like you?
For Jasper, he’s very easy going, always see the way out, he chooses to kill the Volcra instead of giving up a goat, he knows how to enjoy life yet deliver some of his task correctly, and he’s often lucky. Kit Young does a very good job in bringing the character of Jasper alive, especially with his theatrical moves, you can see this from the way he’s walking, or his eyes movements on the bar on the second episode. He’s quite narcissistic too, and you can see this from his dialogs in several times, such as “I know , I’d miss me too. I’m fantastic” when he ensure Inej that Kaz is a good leader. Or when he told the ticket checker that he looks amazing for his age. He’s quite intimate in the way he speaks, as he says to Inej, “Of course, love. Doing what?” before Inej mention he needs to kill someone for her. His only motivation is about greed for money and I think that’s what makes his life is far from complicated things compare to Inej who has inner battle especially during the mission of kidnapping the sun summoner. Jasper is often lucky because when the rest of the Crow still not know how the sun summoner looks like, Jasper happens to be in the same location in carnival. Or when the sun summoner voluntarily get inside the carriage that Jasper has set. Regarding delivering his task, even though he lost all the money in gamble, he manages to steal alabaster coal less than what originally requested by the conductor. In episode 5 you can see that Jasper is the type of person who know how to have fun when a deadline is coming, because according to him “That when there’s something you want, better to act without thinking, than think without acting.”
Over all, I enjoy the series for its lighting even though it was a bit too dark for the fighting scene between Mal and General Kirigan, their wardrobes especially the shoes and boots are amazing, and looking forward for the second season.
