So I finally (finally!) finished watching Shadow and Bone, the limited Netflix series —which I am glad is getting renewed for a second season — and boy, I sure have a lot to say!

Now I am really, really bad at watching Television so it’s not the show’s fault that I couldn’t get myself to sit down and watch it. That said, there were some Problems with this show, which probably contributed to me losing focus and wandering away from it.

Lots of people who know more than me have talked about the show’s problem with race, so I’m not going to dig deeply into that here. I recommend Xiran Jay Zhao’s video on the topic if you’re interested.

Anyway. I came here to talk about stakes.

Wait. Not those steaks. Stakes, as in: what a character stands to gain or lose depending on how they resolve the central tension.

If you read my previous blog post, you’ll know that I’m a new believer in a specific story ideology and it’s this: a story can have one and only one primary tension. The question we’re here to explore today is this: what does that one tension mean for the stakes? What stakes make for a good story?

Now, stakes are closely related to the main tension but they seem to have more flexibility. To demonstrate this, I want to talk briefly about a Song of Ice and Fire, which people keep holding up to me as an example of a story with multiple “primary” tensions. No, you’re wrong. There’s one primary tension: who, if anyone, will sit on the Iron Throne? What there are, though, are many, variable stakes.

For Daenerys Targaryen, the stakes are: if she doesn’t get the Iron Throne back, she will never claim her birthright. She may never get to return to Westeros. She may never be queen of anything.

But for Arya Stark, if her enemies continue to sit on the Throne, that means she hasn’t gotten revenge on them, and her family will continue to be in danger.

And for Cersei Lannister? If her children are no longer on the throne, that will mean that they’re dead.

Okay, now leaving aside all the things that suck about ASOIAF (or Game of Thrones, whatever) these are great stakes in my opinion. They’re personal. They’re sticky. You can’t just get rid of them simply. There’s also one really big set of stakes (one really big stake? hmm) which is the wall melting and the existential crisis of everlasting winter, but there’s a reason that storyline is extremely slow: unless you’re north of the wall, for most of the story, it’s not tangible!

Which leads me back to Shadow and Bone. The primary tension appears to be: will Alina Starkov use her light magic powers to eliminate the Shadow Fold? (spoiler: no, not yet, that’s why there’s a second season). But this doesn’t tell you what the stakes are.

Now, I’m going to go on a little tangent and talk about the secondary plotline because it is much, much better and, in my opinion, the reason why is stakes. Far away, in fantasy Amsterdam, a crew of thieves and thugs are in a tight spot. Learning about Alina Starkov, their leader bets his club — everything they have — on being able to capture her for some other thugs. He needs his best girl Inej for this mission, but she’s an indentured servant at a whorehouse. With very little leverage, this character (Kaz Brekker, who is the best) demonstrates perfectly why this story is so much better: if he and his crew are unsuccessful in their mission, they lose everything — including Inej’s contract. Over and over again, Inej demonstrates to us that although these stakes are small in one perspective — the country won’t end if she goes back to the whorehouse, after all — they are world-ending to her personally. Inej cannot go back. Now, these are stakes you can sink your teeth into. (heh, heh)

Alina Starkov, on the other hand, doesn’t quite understand the stakes of her own story until the very end. One could argue that the stakes are personal to her, too: if she doesn’t learn to use her power, it’s not just that she won’t destroy the Shadow Fold which is quite literally tearing her country apart; she’ll also probably not survive now that people are after her; and, she won’t ever be reunited with her boyfriend, who she kinda can’t decide if she likes or not, and which is maybe okay cuz there’s this other sexy guy*, who is also the one teaching her to use her powers?

I think you see the problem.

But even if you didn’t see it right away — you probably felt it while watching it.

Be honest now, would you let Ben Barnes bind you with a magic collar? You would, you know you would, don’t lie to me.

* I am unapologetic Alarkling trash and if you don’t know what that means… don’t worry about it.

sometimes the highest stakes are also the smallest