[00:00:13.400] - Caitlin

Hello and welcome to Enter the Fold, our new podcast! I am your host, Caitlin.

[00:00:19.040] - Mandi

And I am your other host, Mandi Kaye.

[00:00:21.560] - Caitlin

And we are very excited about Netflix's new show, Shadow and Bone. I'm your host who has read the books.

[00:00:28.880] - Mandi

And I am your host who has not. This is going to be awesome.

[00:00:33.200] - Caitlin

So much fun! I'm actually really excited about that because I saw a lot of people on Twitter interested in the trailer who also had no knowledge of the books. So I think doing a completely spoiler-free discussion podcast will be interesting for them and a challenge for me.

[00:00:50.780] - Mandi

Yeah, it's definitely going to be a different experience than what we've had with our Discovery of Witches podcast, because we had both read the books and we're both trying to keep the podcast spoiler-free. And that's really hard when you're familiar with both sources. And so I'm really excited about going into this one without having read the books.

[00:01:11.390] - Caitlin

And like, one of my favorite things in the world to do is spoil someone. So..

[00:01:15.500] - Mandi

Please don't.

[00:01:16.650] - Caitlin

No, I know. I'm not going to. I'm just saying it's going to be difficult for me because I don't know why I like it, but I do.

[00:01:23.630] - Mandi

You just like to talk about things you're excited about that's all.

[00:01:25.910] - Caitlin

This is true. This is true. So despite both of us having multiple podcasts that we're doing currently, I really wanted to do one about Shadow and Bone. Both because I am a very big fan of the books and a longtime fan of the books. I think I had an advance copy of the very first book and I've loved it since then.

[00:01:45.620] - Mandi

Wow. OK, when did these books come out?

[00:01:48.440] - Caitlin

So Shadow and Bone came out in 2012.

[00:01:51.620] - Mandi

Huh. I'm really surprised I didn't read it.

[00:01:54.380] - Caitlin

I'm surprised also. Honestly, I think it's sort of right up your alley.

[00:01:58.220] - Mandi

Yeah, and 2012 is right when I was in the middle of my book blogging. That was probably peak book blogging. That's the year that I went to Book Expo in New York by myself.

[00:02:08.200] - Caitlin

Oh, wow.

[00:02:08.870] - Mandi

And so like I don't know why I wouldn't have read this book, but I didn't. I completely missed out on it.

[00:02:14.970] - Caitlin

It's really interesting because not only was this one kind of everywhere, and now we're actually really getting into it here, the sort of follow-up book called Six of Crows was hugely popular.

[00:02:26.150] - Mandi

Yeah, I vaguely remember when that one came out, and I think that might have been right as I was winding down and not blogging anymore. And then I was like, well, I can't read this one because I didn't read the first one and I just never did.

[00:02:39.800] - Caitlin

Interesting. So that sort of brings us to when the show was announced, or, not announced. When the trailer came out, I was like, oh man, this looks good, but I don't just want to watch it. I have to talk to somebody about this in a podcast form, because Netflix has made a very interesting decision to adapt two books at the same time that have nothing to do with each other.

[00:03:01.370] - Mandi

Okay!

[00:03:02.090] - Caitlin

So the first book in the Grisha trilogy, Shadow and Bone, that we just said came out in 2012, that is sort of the main story and it's the main focus on what we get in the trailer that we've seen. And it has two sequels, Seige and Storm and Ruin and Rising. And then Leigh Bardugo wrote a duology that takes place in the same world but is in a completely different part of the world, takes place two years later, and it's about a completely different set of characters. And the story has absolutely nothing to do with it. And that's Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom, and they're doing Six of Crows at the same time.

[00:03:37.250] - Mandi

Interesting.

[00:03:38.600] - Caitlin

Yes!

[00:03:38.900] - Mandi

OK, so that's information I would have not known at all.

[00:03:42.500] - Caitlin

Yes. So what we see in the trailer with Ben Barnes and Jessie Mei Li, that's all Shadow and Bone. But we get these like brief images of some people later on in the trailer who-- Like, there's... The actress's name is Amita Suman playing Inej Ghafa, my favorite character. We see her, and we see Freddie Carter's Kaz Brekker. And Kit Young is Jesper Fahey. And that's all Six of Crow stuff taking place elsewhere.

[00:04:14.840] - Mandi

OK, so it kind of sounds like they took the world and just made it bigger at the same time?

[00:04:21.230] - Caitlin

Yeah, I'm intrigued how they're going to pull it off just because the stories have... They don't cross over. They have two different sort of plots and themes. Shadow and Bone is like a big political fantasy drama. And Six of Crows is a heist novel.

[00:04:38.990] - Mandi

OK, interesting, huh. You're kind of making me want to just go and read the books.

[00:04:43.820] - Caitlin

Yeah. [laughter]

[00:04:45.920] - Mandi

But I just have to watch the show. I mean, honestly, and I've only watched the trailer at this point, so I really know nothing about this world.

[00:04:53.570] - Caitlin

I will say about Six of Crows, they have confirmed that what's happening in season one is like prologue Six of Crows. It's stuff that happens with the characters before the book. And I assume that's because there's three Shadow and Bone books and only two Six of Crow books. They want more if they want to do three seasons. They want to match that up.

[00:05:15.410] - Mandi

OK, that makes sense.

[00:05:18.380] - Caitlin

So there's a lot of discussion about whether or not they're going to change the timeline about when Six of Crows happens. Because you could without it really affecting things. Or what I would personally prefer is if they do it like how they did The Witcher with the different timelines and they just don't mention it. But they have like people in the Six of Crows timeline referring to the war in Ravka that's over. And that would be interesting.

[00:05:46.640] - Mandi

I'm curious to see what all of this looks like.

[00:05:49.910] - Caitlin

So do you want an introduction to the world? Because I can sort of go over stuff.

[00:05:55.560] - Mandi

Sure. I mean, I know there's like some shadow thing called the shadow fold, maybe?

[00:06:01.400] - Caitlin

The shadow fold.

[00:06:02.450] - Mandi

And Alina's the main character.

[00:06:05.690] - Caitlin

Alina's the main character. And she grew up with her friend Mal in an orphanage. And they are part-- they live in a country called Ravka, and they are part of the First Army in-- which is-- so Ravka is a country that is culturally sort of inspired by Russia.

[00:06:23.840] - Mandi

OK.

[00:06:24.380] - Caitlin

And it has the First Army, which is made up of normal everyday people and the Second Army, which is made up of Grisha, which are the people who have magic powers. And there are three types of magic powers you can have. Well, vaguely speaking. You can be a Corporalki, who is somebody who does stuff to the human body. So healers, heart renders, which are people who can, like, fuck you up just by looking at you,

[00:06:54.140] - Mandi

OK? [laughter]

[00:06:55.010] - Caitlin

And somebody who we do get a brief glimpse of in the trailer, Genya, she's a tailor. She can kind of make you look different and do stuff to you.

[00:07:02.400] - Mandi

OK, that's interesting.

[00:07:04.310] - Caitlin

Yeah. And then there's Materialki, and they're people who can... They're basically like people who are 3D printers.

[00:07:11.210] - Mandi

OK, that's cool.

[00:07:12.750] - Caitlin

I actually don't know if they can make stuff out of nothing. Well I guess a 3D printer doesn't do that, but they make material goods and they invent stuff and manipulate the material world, I guess.

[00:07:23.540] - Mandi

OK.

[00:07:24.440] - Caitlin

And then there's-- I'm not going to be able to say this word, etherealki. OK, sure. Sure. That's good. And that's people who can summon elements, I guess. So most people, there's like squallers who summon wind and other stormy things, people who summon fire, and then people who can summon water. And then there's one Grisha who can summon darkness.

[00:07:46.880] - Mandi

Only one person?

[00:07:48.350] - Caitlin

Only one or only one at a time, I guess.

[00:07:50.810] - Mandi

OK.

[00:07:51.350] - Caitlin

Because there were others. And then if we can assume anything from the trailer, there is now one Grisha who can summon light.

[00:07:58.910] - Mandi

And that is going to be Alina.

[00:08:01.580] - Caitlin

Alina.

[00:08:01.580] - Mandi

And Ben Barnes is the one who can summon Shadow, right? Based on the trailer?

[00:08:05.450] - Caitlin

Yes.

[00:08:06.200] - Mandi

OK, all right. Interesting.

[00:08:08.540] - Caitlin

And so Ravka has been split in half by the fold, the shadow fold. So it-- most of the country exists on one side of it, but their entire coastline and bits of their country exist on the other side. And this sort of darkness is also full of monsters that kill people who try to cross. So it cuts their country off from being able to be like a big, powerful country because they can't access their ports.

[00:08:36.290] - Mandi

So what is it? Where I mean, where did it come from?

[00:08:39.800] - Caitlin

Well, that's the question, isn't it?

[00:08:42.530] - Mandi

OK, got it.

[00:08:44.900] - Caitlin

I suppose what everybody in the world knows is that 400ish years ago, there was one of the other people who could summon darkness, made it. He's called the Black Heretic.

[00:08:58.550] - Mandi

So I... Question then. In this world, there's one who can summon darkness and one who can summon light. So being able to summon darkness does not automatically equate with being evil. Is that right? Or is it...

[00:09:12.320] - Caitlin

Not necessarily.

[00:09:14.300] - Mandi

Like it's not a... Is it a given that if you can summon darkness, you're evil?

[00:09:19.820] - Caitlin

No, I wouldn't say that.

[00:09:21.320] - Mandi

OK.

[00:09:21.890] - Caitlin

And I wouldn't say that there's... Like as far as we know, Alina, as far as is known in the story, Alina is the first known person who can summon light. I don't think that's spoiling anything.

[00:09:31.610] - Mandi

Oh, OK.

[00:09:32.690] - Caitlin

That's, it's never come up before.

[00:09:34.640] - Mandi

OK, that's why in the trailer he kept asking, "what are you?"

[00:09:37.790] - Caitlin

Yeah.

[00:09:38.390] - Mandi

OK. This sounds like a very interesting kind of fantasy world that we haven't really seen before. Although I definitely see elements of other stories for sure.

[00:09:50.760] - Caitlin

Yes. One thing that I like that Leigh Bardugo says a lot about her inspiration for the story was she sort of thought about, "what if darkness was a place?"

[00:10:01.000] - Mandi

Oh, that's good.

[00:10:02.320] - Caitlin

Yeah.

[00:10:03.010] - Mandi

OK. All right. Listening to you talk about it, I'm excited.

[00:10:06.610] - Caitlin

I'm excited, too.

[00:10:07.720] - Mandi

So what are you most looking forward to?

[00:10:12.760] - Caitlin

Well, I'm most looking forward to see how the two stories come together. Because I'm just so intrigued. Like, I understand why they made this choice. They made the choice because if they did one over the other, they were going to be upsetting a large chunk of fans.

[00:10:26.350] - Mandi

[laughter] OK.

[00:10:26.350] - Caitlin

You know, so they just were like, well, let's do both. Which, I can see where that would make sense. But I get... But... [inaudible] What am I most excited for, I don't know. Hearing the Crows say, "No mourners, no funerals" maybe? That's great. That'll be great.

[00:10:41.620] - Mandi

OK, I have no context for that. This is going to be amazing because you're just going to be so excited about all these little Easter eggs in the show from the book. And I'm going to be like, "what are you talking about?"

[00:10:52.120] - Caitlin

Yes.

[00:10:53.020] - Mandi

It's going to be great.

[00:10:54.190] - Caitlin

I will say my favorite character from Shadow and Bone isn't introduced until the second book, so I'll just have to wait on that, that's fine.

[00:11:03.210] - Mandi

That doesn't necessarily mean they won't be in the first season.

[00:11:05.850] - Caitlin

Oh, no, I've looked at the cast list. They're not.

[00:11:07.980] - Mandi

OK.

[00:11:09.090] - Caitlin

If this person had been cast, everyone would, we would all know.

[00:11:12.540] - Mandi

Oh, OK. All right.

[00:11:14.070] - Caitlin

Oh, something I should say for people listening who have read the books. I do plan on just lying when Mandi asks some questions, until things are revealed.

[00:11:24.910] - Mandi

[laughter] OK.

[00:11:25.680] - Caitlin

So just FYI.

[00:11:27.690] - Mandi

You're gonna lie to me. I cannot trust anything that you say. All right.

[00:11:31.050] - Caitlin

Or well, I'm going to give you the information as you would know it. Unless you're going to binge because it's Netflix. So it's all going to be out right away. So I guess it's up to you.

[00:11:39.300] - Mandi

I will probably. I mean, I probably won't watch all eight episodes in one sitting, because that's a lot. But I probably will be kind of bingy because that's what we do during COVID.

[00:11:52.290] - Caitlin

Do you want to ask or say or talk about anything?

[00:11:55.260] - Mandi

I mean, I think the main thing right now is what can people expect to get from us every week? Because I assume that even though Netflix is dropping all eight episodes on April twenty-third, we're not dropping all eight episodes of our podcast on April twenty-third.

[00:12:08.820] - Caitlin

I don't know how that would be physically possible.

[00:12:10.860] - Mandi

Right. So we will still be releasing week by week.

[00:12:14.560] - Caitlin

Mm hmm.

[00:12:15.060] - Mandi

On whatever date we decide to do such things. I don't think we have that much of a plan worked out yet because this was a spur of the moment kind of thing.

[00:12:24.450] - Caitlin

Yes.

[00:12:25.110] - Mandi

Well I mean, April twenty-third is Friday. And we already drop podcast episodes on a Friday, so..

[00:12:30.510] - Caitlin

That's true. But we'd... I have booked it off work also.

[00:12:34.860] - Mandi

[laughter] Of course, you're going to watch all eight episodes that one day aren't you?

[00:12:38.010] - Caitlin

Oh my god, yes, I am. Yes, I am. So we could record an episode that day, and I would be insane enough to edit it.

[00:12:47.140] - Mandi

OK, yeah, let's shoot to do, at least have our first episode drop that day too.

[00:12:54.310] - Caitlin

OK.

[00:12:54.910] - Mandi

Or at the very least recorded that day and get it out on Saturday.

[00:12:58.060] - Caitlin

Yeah. OK, sounds good.

[00:13:00.130] - Mandi

So.

[00:13:01.030] - Caitlin

Wonderful.

[00:13:02.950] - Mandi

So, yeah. I'm really excited about podcasting with you, especially something you're this excited about.

[00:13:11.800] - Caitlin

Yes.

[00:13:12.310] - Mandi

I mean, literally, as soon as you saw the trailer, you texted me and was like, "I need to podcast about this."

[00:13:21.100] - Caitlin

[laughter] I'm glad that you decided to join me on this because I was having difficulties with it. I just, I thought about it for a really long time before I was like, "no, absolutely. I just have to. I just have to."

[00:13:35.950] - Mandi

You just have to. I mean, some things are just ordained. You have to do it.

[00:13:40.720] - Caitlin

Yes. And I would actually like to before we wrap up here, give a quick shout out to my friend Allie, who designed our wonderful logo, kind of under duress. And I appreciate that.

[00:13:52.030] - Mandi

[laughter] It is beautiful. Like she did it for us and there were no edits or changes or anything. It was just perfect.

[00:13:59.170] - Caitlin

Yes. OK, um, so yeah, that's it for now. Oh, you know what? We have a Twitter. You can Twitter at us or whatever @enterthefoldpod on Twitter. Yes. OK, I remember that. And we have an email which is enterthefoldpod@gmail.com. And if you have any questions or anything that you want us to talk about in the show or just want to tell us that you're excited, please contact us there.

[00:14:26.080] - Mandi

I will say I'm going to leave Caitlin in charge of the email so that if you guys want to send her thoughts--

[00:14:33.370] - Caitlin

Spoilery stuff.

[00:14:34.630] - Mandi

Yeah, spoilery stuff. Things that you think might happen, or things that you hope might happen. That's completely fine. I won't see it. And Caitlin can kind of moderate and read through that for what we talk about on the show itself.

[00:14:47.560] - Caitlin

Wonderful. And if you have lies that you want to tell Mandi also, those are welcome.

[00:14:52.330] - Mandi

Absolutely. Bring it on.

[00:14:54.460] - Caitlin

All right. So we will see you all on April 23rd.

[00:14:57.550] - Mandi

Well, hopefully, yeah. How about April twenty-third-ish?

[00:15:00.940] - Caitlin

Yes. We'll see. We'll be back April twenty-third-ish to talk about Shadow and Bone.

[00:15:06.370] - Mandi

See you then. Bye!

[00:15:32.120] - Caitlin

Enter the Fold is an Eloquent Gushing podcast, and you can learn more about all the other Eloquent Gushing shows at EloquentGushing.com, and we're also on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @EloquentGushing.

[00:15:43.910] - Caitlin

And remember, anything worth doing always starts as a bad idea.