My dear Grishaverse family,
We're all heartbroken after Netflix announced the cancellation. For most of us, this wasn't just a TV show but what saved us from the depth of despair as we were struggling with some of the darkest chapters in our lives. A few years back, I was very sick and almost died. This show gave me hope, courage, strength, and a reason to fight, survive, and see another day. I met great friends through Grishaverse conventions and online fandom groups. After losing all my biological family, this fandom has become my home, family, and refuge from the darkness of real life.
And let's not forget that aside from a few stars and famous names on the show, for most of the cast and crew, this has been the most important project in their entire career. People often make the false assumption that actors are all rich, looking down at us from the penthouses of their ivory towers. But if we look past the few stars, every frame & scene involves the efforts and toiling of dozens or hundreds whose names we ignore within the credits as we click on the next episode. The majority of people working in the movie industry don't have stable jobs, pensions, or even health insurance. The majority of them struggle to make rent. Imagine their lives and the lives of their children when they come back after a long strikes season to be hit with the news that they don't have a job to go back to. Imagine yourself, your parents, siblings, & children going through that. Some of us, working in other industries, like service, know that feeling too well & can very well relate. For the rest of you, I hope you will never experience that.
So it's crucial that we stay together, united and strong as a family as we call for a renewal.
But recently, as I joined others in campaigning and raising funds to convince Netflix or any other streaming service to bring back the show, I've been confronted with a divide within our fandom family. I do understand some of the points of view and every single person is entitled to their own opinion. In fact, there's disagreement in every family. My sister and I fought a lot, often over the most trivial things. But from the outside, we always represented a united family. Sometimes, I would be jealous of her getting a gift. But she would tell me that as long as one of us got a prize, we could both share it. It doesn't matter whether it would be the 3rd season of Shadow And Bone that we'll get or a Six of Crows spinoff. We can share in each other's success because one will lead to the other. That has in fact happened for many shows, which have gotten both further seasons and spinoffs thanks to the strength of their fandoms.
We're currently campaigning on two fronts: the petition & the Kickstarter to raise money for billboards
We've gotten a number of objections I wish to respond to:
Why not invest all that money, time, and effort in supporting a more important cause?
This argument makes a few false assumptions. One can support more than one cause. I know for a fact that many of our donors to the Kickstarter campaign and all the organizers also donate and support various charities and noble causes. There are indeed wars and genocide going on in our current world. I have donated to Doctors Without Borders (MSF.org), and I highly encourage everyone to do so. Moreover, as I've mentioned earlier, this show isn't just entertainment. As a war, genocide, and abuse survivor, I know the value of hope and having a little respite from the brutalities of real life to gather enough energy to survive another day. The 9,000 dollars this Kickstarter has raised so far isn't enough to end wars or world hunger. But we have been getting messages from people in bomb shelters who have gotten to watch the show and it helped them. The show also provides positive representations for people like us who cope with genocide, human trafficking, civil war, abuse, chronic illness, disability, mental illness, and even being bullied and alienated for just being different. It gives us hope that we can turn our lives around. That we aren't too broken to save ourselves. That we matter. And again, let's not forget that for the crew working on this show, it is a matter of survival, it's how they feed their children and make rent. If our 9,000 dollars would have a chance at saving a hundred crew members from homelessness, I would take it.
Why should the Darkling fans care about another season or a Crows spinoff?
Putting aside the bitterness of "why should I care about a cause that will not benefit me personally?", we can still hope that another season or a spinoff could eventually give us back the Darkling as per how the Rule of Wolves book ended. Another season or the spinoff can have the plot of saving the Darkling (if you haven't read RoW, you need to check it and the ending of it where the crows are to be given a mission for that very purpose.) I won't go into more details due to spoilers.
Why should the fans of other non-crow characters care about a Crow's spinoff?
Based on the Crooked Kingdom plot, characters like Nikolai, Zoya, Genya, David (we don't know exactly what happened to him in the show, so let's hope for the best), Tamar, and Tolya are also featured. As for Mal and Alina, we can hope that based on the direction season 2's ending has taken, both could be featured in the spinoff. And even if the current script didn't feature them yet, we can still convince the writers to remedy that and include both of them. We do have our channels to do so if only we get the show back.
So, I ask you, my dear family, please help us save this show that is much more than just a show.
Please donate to the Kickstarter if you are able & ask friends, social media followers, and anyone you can influence to do so: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/647648562/save-the-crows-six-of-crows-spinoff
Please sign the petition: https://www.change.org/p/save-shadow-and-bone-5ff54b93-d127-44a9-9f77-dfc410bdc2ba
Please let us all keep a united front on social media and in public. Like every family, we can have our differences, but together we stand stronger than alone. Don't let them divide and conquer us.
And please, please let's keep it civil, respectful, and polite both in the comments here and anywhere online, on social media, and on any other platform.
I wish you all the best and hope we'll get our show back. Lots of love for all of you my dear Grishaverse family.
