Netflix’s Shadow and Bone has captivated viewers with its electric action sequences and lush fantasy setting, but it’s kept fans hungry for more with its insanely sexy star-crossed romances. Whether we’re talking the hot and heavy love triangle brewing between Alina (Jessie Mei Li), her childhood sweetheart Mal (Archie Renaux), and the smoldering Shadow Summoner, the Darkling (Ben Barnes), or the tortured crushes characters like Inej (Amita Suman) and Kaz (Freddy Carter) carry for each other, Shadow and Bone is full of steamy, dreamy, sexual tension.
In fact, one thing the show does well is capture the wistfulness of sexual tension in almost all its budding romantic storylines. Shadow and Bone understands that desire is something that starts in the head and heart, and then explodes like a supernova physically. Because Shadow and Bone Season 1 gives us only the start of Alina Starkov’s epic journey, it’s full of that torturous type of attraction…with a few outright horny moments.
So what are the sexiest moments in Shadow and Bone Season 1? Well, some of them are rather obvious. We’re talking the Darkling and Alina’s two insanely steamy kisses in Episode 5. (You know, the ones that Ben Barnes put a crazy amount of thought into getting right.) Then, there’s the key moments in the budding romance between Heartrender Nina Zenik (Danielle Galligan) and drüskelle Matthias Helvar (Calahan Skogman) and the awkward attempts at flirtation from otherwise aloof Grisha Genya Safin (Daisy Head) and David Kostyk (Luke Pasqualino). And, you know, basically anything Jesper (Kit Young) does or says.
One key Shadow and Bone character who shocking didn’t make the list for Season 1? Mal Oretsev himself. Though the show definitely improves his character — making him enormously more crushworthy – even Mal’s most intense moments with Alina feel firmly planted in the friend zone. (JUST KISS HER ALREADY, MAL!!)
With that in mind, here are Decider’s seven sexiest moments in Shadow and Bone Season 1…
7
Genya and David Being Babies for Each Other
One of the best on-going love stories in the Grishaverse novels has to be between Tailor Genya Safin and Fabrikator David Kostyk. While Genya has been prized (and basically enslaved) as a Tailor, a Grisha with the unique ability to transform physical appearances, David’s genius often goes under appreciated. The Fabrikators are the backbone of the Second Army and are treated like second-class citizens within Grisha culture because they create instead of fight.
Nevertheless, the beautiful Genya only has eyes for smart, awkward, nerdy David. It’s an attraction that gets called out in Episode 5 of Shadow and Bone when the usually frosty Genya actually melts in front of David. She calls his creations “ingenious,” prompting Alina to tease her later. Eagle-eyed viewers however might have spotted that David also awkwardly returns the compliment with the smallest of smiles.
The moment is hot because it’s full of that fumbling that two people clearly crushing on each other can’t ever avoid. It’s also hot because Genya and David are being total babies for each other.
6
Inej Kills for Kaz
Hey, who says murder can’t be foreplay?
Okay, but seriously, there was a heartbreakingly romantic undercurrent to the moment in which Inej kills an Inferni just to save Kaz’s life. While Inej is known as an accomplished assassin when we meet her in Six of Crows, Shadow and Bone Season 1 introduces us to a younger Inej. This version of the character has yet to kill and is reluctant to take a life. The fact that she kills to save Kaz is as great a declaration of her love as could be — and it’s not lost on Kaz.
Shadow and Bone star Amita Suman told Decider that she “certainly felt the change in who Inej after that first kill.”
“Because once you go there, you can never go back. It’s something that always stays with you,” Suman said. “Someone like Inej, she’s made a vow to try and always do good and this is a sin that she’s made.”
And it was all for Kaz.
Freddy Carter also told Decider, “I think a lot of what we see in this season is two people who are so traumatized and broken by their pasts that they’re incredibly bad at articulating what they’re actually feeling. They’re so sort of unable to open up to each other.”
“I felt anyway, when I was reading it, and then watching it, just tell her [you love her]!” Carter said.
Alas, the only way these two can communicate their feelings is through actions. For Kaz, that’s putting the Crow Club up as collateral for Inej’s freedom. For Inej, it’s making a first kill. And that’s why we were a little swoony over an otherwise awful moment.
5
Nina and Matthias Get Up Close and Personal
There’s something so eternally alluring about tales of star-crossed lovers. The Romeo and Juliet of the Grishaverse? Nina Zenik and Matthias Helvar. Shadow and Bone Season 1 delves into their bitter introduction and shows how nearly freezing to death got them to finally be vulnerable with one another.
Matthias is a Fjerdan druskelle, which means he has a religious imperative to hunt Grisha like Nina. The open-minded Nina, however, sees some kind of glimmer of humanity in the handsome warrior. When a storm tears the Fjerdan ship she’s imprisoned on asunder, she saves Matthias. She realizes that they have a better chance of survival together. He reluctantly agrees.
When they’re finally ashore, they find an empty shack and the savvy Nina realizes they will freeze to death if they stay in their wet clothes. Because of this, she convinces the prudish Matthias to strip down…just so she can literally touch his heart and warm him.
It’s survivalist sexy and it’s also some of the only skin we get in Shadow and Bone. Well, almost.
4
Jesper Gets to Bone
Finally! Shadow and Bone gets to the boning!
Terrible puns aside, some of the only fun action we get in all of Shadow and Bone Season 1 is courtesy of Jesper and a Stable Boy. Sure, it seems like the flirty Jesper is getting distracted on the job, however it’s also a stroke of strategic genius. By hooking up with the handsome stable boy, Jesper manages to secure horses for the Crows’ getaway car. Er, carriage.
Even though it might have seemed like a bit of mindless sexy fun, actor Kit Young told Decider he thought the scene foreshadowed Jesper’s future relationship with a character waiting in the wings.
“I think it was quite important to see him kind of pre that big relationship, given that we don’t get to explore it here,” Young said. “Given that it’s a fleeting relationship, I think it was really important to make it count. Because I think it’s important to see Jesper as this kind of flirty kind of charismatic person, but he also is someone that cares, and is considerate of others feelings.”
Hence why he’s even sweet to a stable boy he took for a roll in the hay.
3
Nina and Matthias *Almost* Kiss
Controversial to put this moment so high? Sure. But also I’m a sucker for vulnerability and almost kissing.
This moment is sexy because for the first time, Nina and Matthias are not at odds. They are playfully daydreaming about running away together, somewhere they can just be Nina and Matthias and not Grisha or druskelle. Their wistful flirting crescendos when Matthias promises to keep Nina warm. They come close in for a kiss…and Matthias’s stomach growls.
It’s a silly, human way to break the sexual tension…and it leads to an unexpected showdown over waffles that could tear these could-be lovers apart forever.
This moment is sexy for the way it shows the possibility of true love, all while pulling the rug out from under our feet.
2
The Darkling and Alina's First Kiss
Ah, yes, at long last…true horniness can reign!! Every scene between the Darkling and Alina in Shadow and Bone Episode 5 is hot. Sorry, but it’s true.
After a few episodes of the Darkling attempting to forge a real relationship with Alina — she gets to call him Aleksander!!! — our girl finally gets the confidence to kiss him. The convention in any YA tale (or real life story) where an older male mentor figure seduces a younger mentée is 100% problematic to the core. However, by taking control of her own desire, and acting upon it, Alina gets to reclaim some measure of autonomy in this seduction.
This was actually incredibly important to Darkling actor Ben Barnes. As he told Decider, “I thought that if he’s this ancient and he is abusing this power like how does she have agency in this situation? How is it not just a pure manipulation?”
“We added the fact that Alina is the one that kisses Kirigan. She makes that move,” Barnes said.
It’s a kiss that not only relieves a pressure valve of boiling sexual tension that’s been building for the past few episodes, but it gives the Darkling and Alina’s ongoing relationship something of slightly more equal footing.
1
The Darkling and Alina's Last Kiss?
The Darkling and Alina’s flirtation continues to blossom in Shadow and Bone Season 5, crescendoing with a hot and heavy tabletop make out session that leans into the sexy side of their relationship. However, maybe the hottest part isn’t the moment where Kirigan makes Alina gasp in ecstasy, but when he rushes back for more.
After bidding adieu (until later, THEY THINK), the Darkling surprises Alina by rushing back like a schoolboy for one last kiss. It’s a move that is full of need and passion, and suggests that he really is sprung on his Sun Summoner.
Once again, this kiss was super important to Barnes who wanted it to represent the idea that Aleksander wasn’t wholly diabolical.
“I walked up out of the frame that was on Jessie and then just walked back in to give her another little kiss,” Barnes said. “He just wants to [kiss her] and you know that’s not a manipulative part.”
If Darklina fans want to cling to any hope that Alina and Aleksander might be endgame, this moment seems to lean in that direction.
It’s also just incredibly sexy to see such a handsome and powerful man completely desperate to kiss our girl.
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "The 7 Sexiest Moments in 'Shadow and Bone' - Decider"
Post a Comment