Page to Screen
Jessie Mei Li’s Portrayal of Alina Starkov in Shadow & Bone
On top of turning text on a page into real people and scenes on screen, adaptations often bring changes to the source material. For those of us who read the Grishaverse books first, watching Netflix’s Shadow & Bone TV show also meant observing the places where things changed or stayed the same.In some respects, this pertained to elements of the plot or world. In others, it came down to actors’ interpretations of their characters—and how they brought them to life! In this post, we’ll be exploring how Jessie Mei Li approached and enriched Alina Starkov’s character through her portrayal in the show.
(Spoiler warning ahead for Seasons 1 and 2 of the Shadow & Bone TV show and the events of Shadow & Bone, Siege & Storm and Ruin & Rising!)
An Orphan From Keramzin
Though Alina Starkov still has no memory of her childhood beyond her time at the orphanage in Keramzin, one of the main things the show changed from the books is Alina’s cultural heritage: initially written as Ravkan, Jessie Mei Li’s Alina is also half-Shu.The decision only enhances Alina’s difficult relationship with her sense of belonging in a world entrenched in conflict, particularly as she comes to grips with a new part of her identity: her ability to summon light.
What Jessie Mei Li Has To Say
In an interview with Comics Beat, Jessie spoke to the importance for her of representing the two sides of Alina’s background and bringing more diversity to people’s screens in the leading role, saying:
“[Alina] doesn’t know where she belongs. She doesn’t know how important she is. It really shapes who she is, [in] the same way it does for me. My race is a big part of my life, but it’s not everything that I am, and they’ve done such a good job of making Alina’s background important to her as a character and important to shaping who she is, but it’s not everything that she is.”
This is completely true, and accords with what Leigh Bardugo and Eric Heisserer (the series showrunner) had to say about the change as well. To use Eric's words: “I would say from my end, the choice has stemmed from the fact that the thematic question for so many of our heroes, including Alina, is, where do I belong?” This conflict came to life in the decision to change her heritage, and of course led to a fantastic casting choice in Jessie Mei Li.
Filled with Inner Sunlight
Because the books are written in first person, readers stay in Alina’s head the whole time—meaning we were always going to see Alina’s personality in a very different way once the series was translated to the screen and we had to see how her personality came to life from the outside.
But there was nothing to worry about, because Jessie Mei Li’s depiction only builds upon what we already knew of Alina! What results is a character who has tenacity, inner strength, a streak of good humour and a willingness to get up and keep going even when circumstances continue to knock her back—as well as loyalty, strong morals, and a bit of an inclination towards power.
Both Light and Dark
Talking about this, Jessie admitted that one of the things which worried her was bringing Alina’s humour to life—which author Leigh Bardugo emphasised was quite important to her—alongside the pain from all of the difficult events the character had to go through.Throughout the series, both on the page and on screen, there’s a continual battle in Alina between lightness and something darker—fittingly, considering what she can do and who she is up against.
What Jessie Mei Li Has to Say
In an interview with W Magazine, Jessie said:
“I had such a clear idea of how Alina would be. She’s a character whose power is about bringing light, but she is trying to hide. And that was the main concept: she has so much inner strength, power, and warmth but had hidden it away. I’ve always been told I’m quite a friendly sort of person. I thought that would be quite a nice quality to lend to Alina as well. If you’re talking about wanting her to be a benevolent leader and have people follow her, she needed to have that inner sunlight.
“I was really excited about the idea of having a protagonist that lots of people, not just East Asian young women, could relate to. It was important to have this character who felt like a real person, who didn’t look perfect all the time and was weak. She was, to be honest, a bit pathetic at the start.”
“I was really excited about the idea of having a protagonist that lots of people, not just East Asian young women, could relate to. It was important to have this character who felt like a real person, who didn’t look perfect all the time and was weak. She was, to be honest, a bit pathetic at the start.”
We can definitely see how that character development came to life throughout the series, and think the concept of “inner sunlight” is a really fantastic way of summarising Alina—both as she began and as the person she became! That Alina is flawed and human is really important in the books as well, and the attention to that in the show is one of the reasons why we think the adaptation of her character worked so well.
From Summoner to Saint
Perhaps the largest change between “Book Alina” and “Show Alina” comes at the end of the television series, where the battle between Alina and the Darkling transpires. There, events differ in a few significant ways, and so do a few aspects of Alina’s character arc.A Sankta is Born
At the conclusion of Siege & Storm, a fight between the Darkling and Alina leads to her using merzost, the forbidden practice of creation—the same practice which led to the existence of Morozova’s amplifiers, the Shadow Fold, and all of the Darkling’s corrupt creatures.This is such an intense concentration of her powers that she almost completely drains herself: her hair turns white, and at the beginning of Ruin & Rising she’s significantly weakened. At the same time, however, a cult forms which follows this new version of her, and Alina’s life begins to morph into one of sainthood.
Over to the Dark Side?
While we don’t see these events in Season 2 of Shadow & Bone in the same way, we do see Jessie’s Alina still develop a very interesting relationship with merzost when, at the very end of Season 2, she uses it to bring Mal back from death.
Doing this leads Alina to develop the ability to manipulate shadows as well as light, and the final scene in the show shows this corruption at work when Alina uses a shadow version of the Cut to defeat an attacker at the King’s coronation. The last shot is of Jessie looking shocked—and a bit like she’s come into her power.
Viewers had a million questions: Is she still the Alina we know, or will she become as corrupt as the Darkling? While we might never know the answers to these questions (though who knows, maybe we can still save Shadow & Bone!), it certainly is an intriguing point of difference between the books and the show!
What Are Your Thoughts on Jessie Mei Li’s Depiction?
Personally, we think Jessie did a fantastic job of bringing Alina to life in a new way on screen, simultaneously staying true to the character we saw in the books and deepening what was already there!What about you? Do you think the Shadow & Bone TV show did a good job of adapting Alina Starkov’s character? Did you like the show version of Alina more or less than you liked Alina in the books? We’d love to hear your opinions!
WoGV
