Portrayed by: Danielle Galligan
Book | Show: Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows, Crooked Kingdom, and Netflix’s Shadow and Bone
“You aren’t a flower, you’re every blossom in the wood blooming at once. You are a tidal wave. You’re a stampede. You are overwhelming.”
No one can wax poetic about Nina Zenik the way Matthias Helvar could. He makes us all look bad with quotes like the one above, but he’s already said so much that it’s hard to top him. And he’s right. Nina is a force to be reckoned with—a Heartrender with one of the biggest hearts to exist, a woman with sharp humor, and a profound loyalty that goes beyond the average human’s level. She feels so deeply that it’s indeed overwhelming, even to the reader. She crashes down on us like necessary rain showers after horrifically hot summer days. She’s a field of perfectly picturesque wildflowers. She’s so many things all at once and every part of her feels real.
Many of the characters in Leigh Bardugo’s world grew up in orphanages, but there’s something inherently lovely about the nurturing spirit Nina picks up from it. She takes care of everyone who crosses her path, uses her powers for both good and complex reasons and doesn’t know when to give up. She’s clever and intuitive, making her a true survivor in a world that’s determined to deal with terrible cards consistently. But best of all, it’s Nina’s ability to see people as they could be that makes her such an overwhelming powerhouse of a woman.
Nina Zenik and Her Big, Beautiful Heart
One of the reasons why Nina Zenik is such an incredible character is due to how Danielle Galligan portrays her. It’s easy to adore Nina in the books, but it’s even more effortless to love her tenfold in the show because of Galligan’s range as an actress. She shows viewers everything they need to understand that this woman would fight through hell and high water for those she cares for. She makes it clear that her ability to decipher what people are capable of makes her the best match for everyone. Nina sees through both Matthias and Kaz Brekker (the most armored Crow of them all), and it’s not because she has the advantage of hearing his heartbeat. It’s because she’s observant enough to clock in his bullshit from miles away.
Related Content: Relationship Deep Dive: Nina Zenik and Matthias Helvar
She’s attentive because she wants to know people. She wants to see who they really are because, for years, she shielded her true self from others.
She’s like this because her heart is big enough to contain magnitudes of love, which makes it even more wholesome that she gets to love twice in her lifetime: first, with Matthias Helvar and later with Hanne Brum in the King of Scars duology. Nina’s ability to love people entirely, therefore, makes wherever she goes a safe space for people to be who they truly want. She makes it clear that she’ll accept and adore the parts of them they’re most scared of revealing. With this, even when characters say very little, they show the most when Nina’s around because her bravery is infectious. Her choice to love against all odds gets to people, making even the most stubborn amongst them question everything they know.
The fact remains that there could’ve been no other woman on the planet to beguile Matthias into changing all his ways and becoming a better man. She might be a big flirt, but it’s her infectious goodness that leaves a mark on people. It’s her love for waffles and justice and protecting those who need her that gets people to see that light is indeed possible after only knowing continuous darkness.
At the same time, while Nina can see when others are right or wrong, she’s also wise enough to understand her flaws, too. She knows when she’s made a mistake, and she can acknowledge what needs to be done to grow into a better version of herself. She also backs her promises with action, making her even more compelling. Often, characters with Nina’s qualities don’t have enough weaknesses to showcase their development, but her stubbornness is a double-edged sword that allows her to be multifaceted. It’s this very stubbornness that both gets her in trouble at times and saves the people she cares most for. It’s what isolates her from the Grisha and simultaneously brings her to the Crows—the place where she belongs.
She’s a woman who knows great fears, even while she fights against the opposing monsters in her path. She doesn’t wear a facade, but instead, Nina’s armor, like Wylan’s, comes in the form of her honesty. Her truth is her greatest strength in more ways than one. It’s her most distinguished weapon, despite her Grisha powers, because it’s the very thing that saves her when she’s under the influence of jurda parem. It’s the fight she puts up in the midst of temporarily losing herself because she sticks to the truths she knows. Nina Zenik, in more ways than one, is a true fighter, and it’s because she knows more than one form of fear. She understands the right cause from the wrong one, even when it gets muddied and complex. She chases what’s important, ultimately choosing to fight against what could hurt her and the people she loves most.
And lastly, Nina Zenik is a girl’s girl. She’s the person who will show up for women when they need her most. She’s the one who’ll remind them of their worth when they’ve forgotten it or someone else has broken them. She shows up for the underdogs and cares for them, ensuring with both her actions and words that they know she’ll always be in their corner. Nowadays, characters like Nina are thankfully more common. They exist because when we allow women to tell our stories, we don’t pit them against each other for petty reasons. Women like Nina uplift each other instead.
With Shadow and Bone’s cancellation, the worst thing is that we won’t get to see how else Danielle Galligan plays with Nina’s most important qualities and storylines. We won’t get the chance to watch her unwavering loyalty and understanding of people play a crucial role in how she continues to grow. (We get fragments of it in “Every Monstrous Thing,” “Yuyeh Sesh (Despise Your Heart),” and “Nih Weh Sesh (I Have No Heart).” We see her loyalty and love for Matthias in her refusal to give up on bringing him home from Hellgate, and we understand how much she already cares when she learns the truth about Kaz’s brother. These bits and pieces gorgeously bring the character to life and ensure that she’s memorable, but they also showcase Galligan’s chops during the smallest moments—every look speaks a thousand words at once, and that alone is something to always acknowledge.
First Featured Image Credit: ©Netflix