Understanding amplifiers is key to Shadow and Bone season 2

Shadow and bones has a lot of complex lore, combining storylines and mythology from all seven Grishaverse books by Leigh Bardugo. Season 2 focuses on some aspect of the Grisha culture as Alina (Jessie Mei Li) and Mal (Archie Renaux) take on the mission to track down amplifiers to destroy the Fold. Their quest reveals startling truths that create ripple effects far beyond expectations and pave the way for a possible third season that would encroach on new Grishaverse territory.

Understanding the history of amps and how they work is key to understanding this season of Shadow and bones – especially the ending. So let’s break down everything you need to know about amps, including that last twist.

What is an Amplifier?

Amplifiers can be traced back to Ilya Morozova, one of the first known Grisha. Hundreds of years ago, Morozova tried to create a way to increase Grisha power to help them better protect themselves from persecution – the same line of fake altruism that Kirigan hides his own pursuit of 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 the body of a Grisha, increase their strength. The moment the amp is fused with a Grisha, they can see the creature’s last memories, which sounds like a very unpleasant experience since this is usually the animal’s POV to be killed.

While rare, there are several amps, including humans, such as Baghra (Zoë Wanamaker) and General Kirigan (Ben Barnes), whose bones can also be used to craft amps. However, this practice is considered heresy for obvious reasons.

The degree to which an enhancer increases a Grisha’s power varies depending on the animal. Some only minimally increase a Grisha’s power. There are three legendary amps – Morozova’s beasts – which, however, are so powerful that most believe they only appear in children’s stories. But like so much Ravkan folklore, these stories are firmly rooted in truth.

Since amps are made using merzost, Grisha only took one amp in their lifetime, believing that multiple amps would make them lose control of their powers. But with so much at stake, Shadow and bones In Season 2, Alina races to collect all three of Morozova’s amps, convinced she is destined to bring them together to destroy the Fold, regardless of the risk to herself.

What are Morozova’s amplifiers?

The deer

The deer played a prominent role in the first season of Shadow and bones. Alina dreamed of the creature all 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 strengthen his control over Ravka.

In the books, the deer is said to be part of “making the heart of the world”, which is the source of all Grisha power. Ravkan folklore also paints the deer as a friendly creature who grants wishes and can talk. Unfortunately, that last part is not true – although the benevolence of the deer is.

When Mal and Alina find the deer, Alina learns that she doesn’t have to kill it as the deer chooses to share its power with her. As she is bonding with the deer, Kirigan and his supporters arrive and shoot Mal with arrows. Alina is then given a choice: save Mal or stop Kirigan from killing the deer. A distressed Alina chooses Mal, and Kirigan beheads the mythical deer as a grieving Alina looks on.

Kirigin forces David (Luke Pasqualino) to fuse the deer’s antlers into Alina’s upper chest, but they don’t fully merge into her body. Horribly, the antlers stick out of her collarbones. Kirigan also has a small piece of antler embedded in his own hand to forge a connection that will allow him to control Alina’s powers. (In the books, David makes an unbreakable collar for Alina, which is enough for the Darkling to control her powers and save us all from the disturbing images of breast antlers.)

(Ed. remark: The rest of this post contains spoilers for Shadow and bones season 2.)

Once Kirigan and Alina are in the Fold, she takes back control of her abilities when she cuts the piece of antler out of his hand. Now that the deer’s power is her own, the rest of the antlers are completely absorbed into Alina’s body (hallelujah). However, a remnant of the deer is left in Kirigan’s hand, creating a psychic bond between him and Alina that lasts until Baghra cuts off his hand in her final moments in Season 2.

The sea battle

Photo: David Lukacs/Netflix

Morozova’s second beast is the sea whip. With the help of Nikolai (Patrick Gibson) and his crew, Mal and Alina track down the ice dragon in the caves of a remote island. Alina gives the order to capture it alive, trusting that the sea whip will choose to give her the same power as the deer. But when the sea whip attacks Mal, Alina kills him – once again choosing an amp’s death to save Mal’s life. Alina has two of the sea whip’s scales fused into her body, but unlike the antlers, they remain visible on her wrist like an embedded bracelet.

In the books, we get a little more backstory on the sea whip. According to legend, the creature is a cursed dragon prince named Rusalye. Stuck forever in the form of the sea serpent, Rusalye was created to guard the waters bordering the Bone Road, a northern part of the True Sea. While this story may seem tragic, Rusalye is not exactly a sympathetic figure: According to folklore, Rusalye routinely kidnapped women to be his underwater companions, but since there was nothing to feed them under the sea, they all starved to death.

The firebird

This is where things get complicated and a little weird. The last of Morozova’s beasts is the Firebird. But the firebird isn’t the third amp; Mal is.

Photo: David Appleby/Netflix

To wait. How is Mal the firebird doing?

It turns out that people just assumed the firebird was the third amplifier. The joke is over though, as the third amp was Baghra’s unnamed sister.

In Season 2, Baghra reveals that she is Morozova’s daughter, but he never accepted her due to her shadow abilities. When Baghra’s sister broke her cherished clay swan, the only gift her father had ever given 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 deer and the sea whip – and turned Baghra’s younger sister into the third enhancer. This power was then passed down through her bloodline and eventually to her descendant, Mal.

Being Morozova is news to Mal, who has no memory of his biological family. But the signs were there all along: After his parents died in the war, a young Mal roamed the country looking for an orphanage, passing through several before choosing Keramzin, which he says “felt like home.” Mal is unwittingly attracted to Keramzin where Alina used to be, and his heightened tracking ability is a result of him being one of Morozova’s amplifiers. This revelation leads Mal to question if he and Alina are really meant to be together romantically, or if he’s just a tool on her journey to bigger, better things.

Overall, we have to say that Mal takes the revelation that he’s an amp pretty well – or at least a whole lot better than Alina. After killing the deer and the sea whip to save Mal, Alina is devastated to learn that she must now kill Mal to save Ravka. Martyr Mal is ready to sacrifice himself, but Alina is still convinced there is another way.

Unfortunately, the decision is taken out of Mal and Alina’s hands when he is injured during the final battle with Kirigan. As Mal lies dying, Alina stabs him in the heart to use his amplifier powers to destroy the Fold. Alina then kills Kirigan and has Nina (Danielle Galligan) try to resurrect Mal using her Heartrender abilities. But it’s Alina’s secret use of merzost that eventually restores him. Although Mal regains his life, he loses his abilities as an amplifier, and with it his tracking ability and innate sense of his “true north.” Alina also has to pay the costs of using merzost. In a major breakthrough with the books, Alina discovers that she no longer has the powers of the holy Sun Summoner, but has taken on Kirigan’s dreaded shadow abilities.

So there’s not even a firebird?

On the show, no. In the books, yes. The firebird, however, is not whole a bird.

According to myths, Sankta Vasilka became the first firebird after using her Grisha powers to weave herself wings that would allow her to escape a power-hungry wizard who tried to force her into marriage. This total murder has earned Vasilka the title of saint of unmarried women.

The Firebird lore doesn’t end there. The creature is regarded as the symbol of Ravka and is closely associated with its history. According to legend, it is the firebird’s flight path that drew Ravka’s original boundaries and it is even said that the Lantsov family is descended from the creature. (This myth makes much more sense knowing that the firebird – or at least had – a human form.) There are also stories that say that the firebird can cry diamond tears, its feathers can heal any wound, its wings can show you the future, and that it can sing an army to sleep like one great, fiery Jigglypuff.

The firebird even pops up for a moment Ruin and rise when it attacks Mal and Alina, who manage to track it down. But after Mal’s amplifier powers are activated, the firebird leaves them alone, knowing that they are no longer a threat to his life.

The firebird has a pretty impressive resume and skills, so no wonder people thought it was the third amp instead of the lovelorn himbo with a surprisingly sharp sense of direction.