Shadow and Bone: What are Alina’s powers?

The Netflix original series Shadow and Bone takes viewers into the fantastical world created by best-selling author, Leigh Bardugo.

In Ravka, there are people known as Grisha endowed with abilities that label them as witches to the Fjerdans and a group to be feared by their own nation. With a history plagued by prejudice and persecution, the Grisha are revered as much as they are shunned by Ravkans who are not practitioners of the small science.

Alina Starkov thought she was simply an orphaned girl, overlooked by everyone but her best friend, Mal. As Half-Shu, she rarely felt like she belonged in Ravka where the people treated her as less-than for a heritage she can only claim through her features, not a culture that she knows no more than the faces of her deceased parents.

She, however, was mistaken. Her talent for drawing which she used to become a map maker in the First Army wasn’t her only gift. As shown in Shadow and Bone season 1, a Volcra attack while on a mission in the dangerous Fold triggered a hidden power. She lit up the dark space with a blinding light that obliterated the Volcra in its path, allowing her fellow troops to return to base safely.

Alina Starkov is the Sun Summoner of legend in Shadow and Bone

Brought before the Darkling, the infamous Shadow Summoner, Alina discovers that the light marks her as his counterpart. The literal light to his dark. Combined, their powers can bring down The Fold which has split Ravka in two for centuries. Or at least, that’s what he tells her he intends to train her to do.

Under the careful, as well as painful, teachings of Baghra, Alina grows in her powers once she is able to accept her new place, not only as Grisha but as the Sun Summoner.

What can the Sun Summoner do?

But lighting up like a star isn’t Alina’s only ability. She can focus her light into balls of energy that she can manipulate and move at her will. The brightness of her light is capable of blinding people. Alina can also create a shield of light, protecting those within its radius from anything that might seek to harm them. This includes The Fold as well as the Darkling’s own shadows.

In a discussion of how a Summoner’s powers work, the Darkling told Alina that “The Cut,” a weaponized version of his darkness that can slice through flesh, was an ability only the most powerful of Grisha like them can use.

Considering Alina has yet to tap into the depth of her abilities, it’s likely that Shadow and Bone season 2, or subsequent seasons, will see her using her own version of “The Cut” and more manipulations of her power as she grows into her abilities.

Shadow and Bone season 1 is now streaming on Netflix.