Shadow and Bone amplifiers and firebird, explained

Shadow and Bone has a lot of complex lore, blending storylines and mythology from all seven of Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse books. Season 2 focuses on one aspect of Grisha culture. Alina (Jessie Mei Li), and Mal (Archie Renaux), embark upon the task of finding amplifiers to end the Fold. They discover shocking truths which create ripple effects far greater than expected and open the door to a third season, that could explore new territory for Grishaverse.

It is important to understand the history of amplifiers, and their workings. Shadow and Bone — particularly the ending. So let’s break down everything you need to know about amplifiers, including that final twist.

What’s an amplifier?

Ilya Morozova is the first Grisha to have discovered amplifiers. Hundreds of years ago, Morozova set out to create a way of increasing Grisha power to help them better protect themselves from persecution — which is the same line of faux altruism Kirigan hides his own hunt for power behind. Also known as the Bonesmith, Morozova used merzost and his finger bones to create impressively powerful animals that, when killed and fused into a Grisha’s body, boosts their power. At the moment the amplifier is fused with a Grisha, they’re able to see the creature’s final memories, which sounds like a very unpleasant experience since these tend to be the animal’s POV of being murdered.

While rare, there are several amplifiers in existence, including humans, such as Baghra (Zoë Wanamaker) and General Kirigan (Ben Barnes), whose bones can also be used to create amplifiers. This is forbidden for obvious reasons.

The extent to which an amplifier magnifies a Grisha’s power varies depending on the animal. Some only increase a Grisha’s power a minimal amount. There are three legendary amplifiers — Morozova’s beasts — that are so powerful, though, that most believe they only exist in children’s stories. Like so much Ravkan folklore these stories have a solid foundation in fact.

Grisha believes that amplifiers were made using merzost and will only take one amp in their lives, as they believe having more would make them lose their control. With so many at stake, however Shadow and Bone season 2 finds Alina racing to collect all three of Morozova’s amplifiers, convinced that she’s destined to bring them together to destroy the Fold, regardless of the risk to herself.

What are Morozova’s amplifiers?

Image courtesy of Netflix

The stag

In the initial season, the stag was a key character Shadow and Bone. Alina dreamed of the creature throughout the season, but it was Kirigan who led the hunt for it — not to destroy the Fold, as he claimed, but to expand it and further establish his control over Ravka.

In the books, it’s said the stag is part of “the making of the heart of the world,” which is the source of all Grisha power. Ravkan legends also portray the stag to be a compassionate being, who can speak and grant wishes. Unfortunately, that last part is not true — though the stag’s benevolence is.

When Mal and Alina find the stag, Alina discovers she doesn’t need to kill it, since the stag chooses to share its power with her. While she’s in the process of bonding with the stag, Kirigan and his supporters arrive and shoot Mal up with arrows. Alina has to choose between saving Mal and preventing Kirigan’s death. A distraught Alina decides to save Mal. Kirigan then decapitates Mal as Alina, still in grief, watches.

Kirigin forces David (Luke Pasqualino) to fuse the stag’s antlers into Alina’s upper chest, but they don’t fully absorb into her body. The antlers still protrude from her clavicles, which is horrifying. Kirigan also has a small piece of antler embedded into his own hand to forge a connection allowing him to control Alina’s powers. The books show that David creates an unbreakable collar to allow Alina control of her powers. This allows the Darkling to save us from disturbing images like chest antlers.

[Ed. note: The rest of this post contains spoilers for Shadow and Bone season 2.]

Kirigan, Alina and Alina become part of the Fold. She regains control over her powers when she cuts off the antler in his hand. With the stag’s power now her own, the rest of the antlers are fully absorbed into Alina’s body (hallelujah). However, some residue of the stag remains in Kirigan’s hand, creating a psychic link between him and Alina that persists until Baghra cuts off his hand in her dying moments in season 2.

Sea whip

Photo: Dávid Lukács/Netflix

The second of Morozova’s beasts is the sea whip. Mal and Alina are aided by Nikolai (Patrick Gibson), along with his crew to track the ice dragon down in remote caves. Alina orders the capture of the sea whip alive. She is confident the sea whip will give its power to her in the same manner as the stag. But when the sea whip attacks Mal, Alina kills it — once again choosing an amplifier’s death to preserve Mal’s life. Alina has two of the sea whip’s scales fused into her body, though unlike the antlers, they remain visible on her wrist like an embedded bracelet.

In the books, we’re given a bit more backstory on the sea whip. Rusalye is the cursed dragon prince who created this creature. Rusalye, who is forever bound in the shape of a sea serpent, was created to protect the waters around the Bone Road. This northern section of the True Sea. While this tale may seem tragic, Rusalye isn’t exactly a sympathetic figure: According to folklore, Rusalye routinely kidnapped women to be his underwater companions, but since there was nothing to feed them beneath the sea, they all starved to death.

The firebird

Here things can get a little confusing and even a little weird. The last of Morozova’s beasts is the firebird. But the firebird isn’t the third amplifier; Mal is.

Photo: David Appleby/Netflix

Wait. What is Mal, the firebird?

People are, in fact, just AssumedThe firebird was the third amplifier. Joke’s on them, though, since the third amplifier was Baghra’s previously unmentioned sister.

In season 2, Baghra reveals that she’s Morozova’s daughter, but that he never accepted her due to her shadow abilities. When Baghra’s sister broke her cherished clay swan, the only gift her father ever gave her, Baghra lost control of her powers and killed her. Morozova resurrected the girl using merzost and his finger bone — the same way he resurrected the stag and sea whip — and turned Baghra’s younger sister into the third amplifier. This power was passed to Mal through her lineage.

Mal is unaware that he was born a Morozova. He doesn’t even know his birth family. But the signs were there all along: After his parents were killed in the war, a young Mal wandered the country looking for an orphanage and passed several before choosing Keramzin, which he says “felt like home.” Mal being subconsciously drawn to Keramzin, where Alina was, and his heightened tracking ability are consequences of him being one of Morozova’s amplifiers. This revelation leads Mal to question whether he and Alina are truly meant to be together romantically, or if he’s only a tool to serve in her journey to bigger, better things.

Overall, we have to say that Mal takes the revelation of being an amplifier fairly well — or at least a whole let better than Alina does. Having killed the stag and sea whip to save Mal, Alina’s devastated to learn she’s now supposed to kill Mal to save Ravka. Martyr Mal is ready to sacrifice himself, but Alina is still convinced there’s another way.

Unfortunately, the decision is taken out of Mal and Alina’s hands when he’s injured during the final battle with Kirigan. Alina stabbing Mal in his heart as he lies dying, in an attempt to harness Alina’s amplifier power to end the Fold. Alina, Nina Galligan (Danielle Galligan), and Alina later kill Kirigan. But it’s Alina’s secret use of merzost that ultimately restores him. Though Mal gets his life back, he loses his abilities as an amplifier, and with it his tracking abilities and innate sense of his “true north.” Alina also must pay the cost of using merzost. Alina finds out that her powers as a saintly Sun Summoner have been lost and she has instead taken on the shadow abilities of Kirigan.

So there isn’t even a firebird at all?

The show says no. According to the book, no. However, the firebird isn’t CompletelyA bird.

Myths claim that Sankta Vasilka, a Grisha-powered weaver who escaped a sorcerer intent on forcing her to marry him, became the first firebird. Vasilka is the saint of unwed women because of this total slay.

Firebird lore doesn’t stop there. It is the emblem of Ravka. The history of this creature is closely linked to it. According to legends, the firebird’s flight path is what drew Ravka’s original borders and the Lantsov family is even said to be descended from the creature. (This myth makes a lot more sense knowing that the firebird has — or at least Had — a human form.) Stories also claim the firebird has the ability to weep diamond tears. The wings of the firebird show you the future.

In a brief moment, the firebird even appeared in Ruin and RisingMal and Alina manage to catch it down after it attacks them. But after Mal’s amplifier powers are activated, the firebird leaves them be, understanding they’re no longer a threat to its life.

It has a pretty impressive record and skills set. So it’s no surprise that people thought the firebird was the third amplifier, instead of the lovable himbo who had a remarkable sense of direction.