#all my homies hate crow crow

[morrigansredbow]

headcannon #4

when mog was little and living with corvus in the republic, he would constantly keep one hand on her shoulder and steer her around in public, making sure she never goes too far and would tighten his grip immensely whenever she did something he didnt like (ie. speak, draw attention to herself, etc.). thats when she knew she was going to be in so much trouble when they got home.

now cue mog as a teenager, living in nevermoor, and shes freaking out about something or maybe having a panic attack and crying, and jupiter tries to comfort her by putting his hand on her shoulder.

[lynsstrange]

a list of some of the horrible things jan van eck did that get forgotten:

Proudly fessed up to beating Wylan when he was a child as a method to get him to read

Married a teenager TWO YEARS OLDER than his sixteen year old son and got her pregnant

Watched unfazed as Wylan got tortured by gang members in front of him (not that he literally hasn’t tried to have Wylan killed several times but I feel this takes a certain kind of evil)

Put his wife in a mental institution because she gave him a son who couldn’t read

Kidnapped a sixteen year old girl and tried to break her legs with a mallet so it’d induce as much pain as possible (who the fuck does this)

[drieddpetals]

do y'all ever think about the fact that Wylan literally bet Kaz money that Jan wouldn't care if he died, and then went, "Pay up, Kaz." after Jan blew up the ship?? i love him so much he's such a smartass.

also i think about Wylan saying "Maybe you can pray to Ghezen for understanding, Father," when Jan was confused about the whole Kuwei situation about fifteen times a day. it's genuinely one of my favorite Wylan quotes like yes get his ass‼️‼️

[morallyambigous]

I feel like often times people completely miss the point of the darkling and just further prove pretty privilege. Like the whole point of his character is to critique the overused trope of the dark, brooding, “morally grey”, immortal love interest that too many romance books fall into. Like the whole point is that he’s attractive and charming and STILL IRREDEEMABLE AND EVIL. Almost everything he does and all the ways he connects with Alina is a manipulation tactic. His character also critiques and highlights how creepy the immortal love interest trope is, especially in YA romance novels, where the man is hundreds or thousands of years old and the girl is still a teenager. There is a reason they always go for teenagers who don’t know any better instead of an actual adult who’s at least on a somewhat similar plane of maturity as them, and that is because they are vulnerable and easy to manipulate and it is creepy. straight up. there is a reason that the darkling consistently surrounds himself with vulnerable teenager girls like alina, zoya, and genya. its because he knows what to say to manipulate them and use them for his own ends with literal regard for them as people. and people totally miss the point of his admittedly tragic past which is that you can have a sad upbringing and it still doesn’t excuse or make up for your own horrific actions. so yeah all jokes about turning to the dark side for ben barnes aside, if the darkling wasn’t hot people wouldn’t sympathise with him nearly as much and he does not deserve to be redeemed. literally a canon woman abuser. although his character and what he represents and what he critiques is very fascinating to me. anyway stan literally almost any other man in the grishaverse 

[saltywinteradult]

i’ve said it before and i guess i have to say it again:

FUCK NETFLIX

[skeleton-to3s]

Yk what I wanna see? Wylan “We could wake them up” Van Eck go crazy in the S&B series. Like if we get a spin off I wanna see him go bat shit. He don’t need to be able to read to stick his flute up someone’s ass and bomb their house. I wanna see this kid go crazy.(Preferably at Jan Van Eck)

[ultimatetrashgoblin]

Sent this to my gf, thought tumblrland might enjoy it (this is an anti Darkling/Darklina account)

Bonus:

[ID: Texts read “Here in the grishaverse every woman is girlboss and every man is babygirl” “Except for the Darkling”

“Fuck the Darkling we hate the Darkling anyone who doesn’t hate the Darkling can not be trusted” “Idc if he’s played by Ben Barnes you can still love Ben Barnes and hate the Darkling” It’s not that fucking hard Jfc” “If I see one more pro Darkling/Darklina edit or post I am going to explode the internet with my brainwaves”]

[phantomantz]

Genuinely never been so upset over a cancellation. Gonna delude myself even more now by hoping it'll get picked up by another streaming platform

[moonlight-seraph]

👹-tell me of demons

The pest in the long coat and the wide brimmed hat darts back a half step, the crescent-shaped blade's handle gripped tightly in one hand, like it will save her from death.

Her grip shifts, thumb pressing some tab near the nearly disintegrated leather wrap, and the mechanisms shriek protests as they grind apart and let the blade be jerked down with some fancy wrist-movement into...

His eyes squint.

A... sword saw-cleaver? Sword-cleaver?

His split second of hesitation, of confusion, spells doom, as in the next moment a glass bottle shatters over the face of his helmet. The milky liquid soaks his coat, and as the air licks against the liquid, mist hisses into the air. His blood goes dead in his veins, losing all feeling, and the girl- the pest- darts in. The sharp, broad point of her confusing weapon slamming into the paper-thin silver of his helmet and through his eye.

It withdraws as he staggers, and the mechanisms scream once more as she spins, momentum swinging the blade back out, and he doesn't have time to regain himself as the inner edge of the blade, lined with steel and sharpened impossibly fine, rips through the flesh of his throat.

His body crumples to the ground, his dead blood gushing from the stump of his neck, already hissing into mist, and...... the Girl rounds, brings her foot up, and brings it DOWN ON-

[weiwx]

what doesn't sit well with me about all this anti-aging, anti-wrinkling, anti-humans-who-have-lived-their-lives propaganda, is that aging is a privilege not many get to experience. and yeah, you will eventually get lines in your face showing that you laughed and you cried and you Felt Things throughout the years, so what? that's your life, it's your right to age. you have earned all that time and each wrinkle in your body is proof of that. so fuck the anti-aging industry

[wylansworkshop]

Wow I think that soc has managed to pull me out of a depressive episode again

[ohmrcrow]

hey so im gonna post-pone, maybe even shelf the welcome home oc crossover idea out of respect for the creator. I get being super excited for a project, the potential mysteries and stories. but everyone seriously needs to chill. especially the mfs on tik tok and insta, you guys are actually so gross for being disrespectful to their boundries.

today has been pretty eventful for me (good and bad), and i need some time to relax myself before i get too overwhelmed.

[transrightsyamaguchi]

blue lock fic rec list #1 (?)

i always liked when people made long masterlists of fic recs but i haven't seen anyone do it for blue lock yet. at least not recently. so in the spirit of Be The Change You Want To See In The World here's my list.

not in any particular order just going through my bookmarks lol.

sound of breaking down. chigiri-centric, 4k words, rated T.

“Is he dead?” “No, of course not.” A pause. “I hope not.” “Yo, Princess, are you alive in there?” The door rattles. OR Determined to prove himself, Chigiri disregards his health and deals with consequences. None of it is pretty. Set during the neo-Egoist league arc. it's a sickfic. it's a really good sickfic. it hits all the beats i like my sickfics to hit and then some. it's a genfic which is a major bonus. no romantic subplot just chigiri being vulnerable and getting taken care of. there's some sweet moments between him and chris prince that made me melt inside.

2. the rituals are intricate, bro. karasu/otoya, 2k words, rated E.

Otoya offers to groom the homie's wings. Things escalate in ways he did not expect. this is by one of my beloved mutuals but i'd still be recommending it even if it wasn't. great title. there's an "it's not gay with socks on" joke in there. there's the ever-present Otoya Eita Sexuality Crisis. the porn is less sexy and more funny (as tabieita deserves).

3. six facts about lobsters. bachira/isagi, 4k words, rated T.

What it says on the tin. (In fine print: six facts about you.) can't remember if ghost is on tumblr or not but this is another mutual fic. it's a take on the 5+1 format, tracking the bachisagi relationship through lobster facts. isagi's autism radiates through the text. it's so cute and so sweet and so very bachisagi essence. as expected of ao3 user smallghosts (<- the bachisagi essence writer)

4. counting crows on the windowsill. kaiser/ness, 18k words, rated M.

“How much,” you ask, “would you let me do to you?” The feeling of vibration on your fingers comes again, and he is thinking, or perhaps toying with you even more. Your grip tightens on his skin, and Alexis twitches slightly in the grasp. More than once have people told you to learn some patience. “You already know my answer.” “Doesn’t mean I don’t like hearing it in your own words.” Inhale, exhale, and they all fall onto your skin. There is a chill in the room—it is rising up your arms, your neck—but the whole of you is hot. “If it’s you, I’d let you do anything.” Seven snapshots of life through the eyes of Michael Kaiser. this is a longer one but if you have time and you want to feel some Emotions read this one. nskins contain such multitudes and this author understands them so well.

5. shidou-ctionary. shidou/sae, 4k words, rated T.

Contemporary linguists agree that achieving proficiency in a new language requires between six months and four years of study. Itoshi Sae knows better. He has anecdotal evidence to suggest that a person can become fluent in a new language in as little as one week. A week of Shidou Ryuusei's attempts to ask Itoshi Sae on a date: a story in emojis. yet another mutual fic. i can't help it that my mutuals are all extremely talented and correct about everything. it's got some experimental formatting going on and (in my opinion) it looks best on desktop. ft. shidou being shidou and sae being smitten (in the emotionally constipated way that sae is smitten with shidou)

6. puppy love. kurona/kiyora, 9k words, rated G.

Jin doesn’t fight the small smile forming on his face. It’s been a long time since he meshed well with anyone. People tend to avoid him; he avoids them in turn. He stopped caring (or so he had told himself), but he doesn’t hate the weight around his shoulders—doesn’t mind it at all, really. He wraps his hand around Ranze’s wrist, and he laughs along with him. Kiyora Jin has a number of problems. A growing crush on Kurona Ranze is not supposed to be one of them. this was the inaugural fic in the ranjin tag and. not to pat myself on the back or anything. but i beta-read it hehe. another mutual fic. kiyora jin character study before kiyora jin was even a character, with an adorable little romantic subplot. somewhat negated by the Recent Developments in canon but it's still good!!

7. pink light. shidou/sae, 19k words, rated E.

Fifteen years ago, Shidou took a pass from Sae that shattered his knee and ended his career, and Sae hasn't been able to speak to him since - and Sae wants it to stay that way. Deserves for it to stay that way. Unfortunately, the world has other plans for him, courtesy of a little art studio a five minute walk from his new post-retirement apartment. this is not a mutual fic but i'm trying to change that. it's post-canon ryusae ft. cane user shidou (!!) and emotionally constipated sae learning how to live without soccer. not quite old man yaoi but it has the spirit of it.

8. year one. snuffy & lorenzo centric, 3k words, rated T.

"When's your birthday?" Snuffy asks him carefully, moving on to the next field. "Today," Don answers immediately. "Really?" Snuffy looks at him suspiciously. "No," Don replies without hesitation, turning back to a poster describing professional tooth brushing. Snuffy tries not to look at the tense faces of the receptionist and the surgeon peering out of the room. Snuffy's first year of parenthood. what is it about snuffy & lorenzo fics that just hit so different. i swear everyone who writes for them is a genius. this fic is short snapshots of snuffy and lorenzo navigating their newly-formed parent-child relationship and it's heartwrenching and heartwarming and poignant. this writer has a few snuffy & lorenzo fics and they're all wonderful. (she's also on tumblr and writes in-depth lorenzo meta so you Know she understands him)

9. pov: you just want the world to be quiet. itoshi brothers, 4k words, rated T.

his big brother and football have become the only hope to which rin can cling to dream of better days. without them, he only and just remains that little six-year-old boy destroyed by the senseless atrocities of evil hands. hesitated to include this one because the tags are scary but fuck it we ball i do what i want. it's a rewrite of rin's backstory with a darker spin on it and it follows rin and sae's relationship through that lens. as par for the course with pre-canon itoshi studies, it does not end happily. it's incredibly well-done and it will give you Feelings. (this is one of those cases where the author drops a life-changing bombshell of a fic on you and then you go to their profile and there's no bio. there's no public bookmarks. this is their only blue lock fic. they haven't posted anything in a year. who are they)

10. peak male living space. kunigami/chigiri, 3k words, rated E.

Raichi and Kunigami had met at university; playing on the football team, sharing many lectures, and living through the shitshow that was university halls together. It seemed only natural that they’d move in together, and it had been great for the past few of years… Until Kunigami’s new boyfriend asked why he never invited him over to his place, and he was forced to deal with the realisation that he and Raichi have the most boyish disaster of a flat. part of a series but it can stand alone. t4t kunigiri smut. kunigami and raichi are disaster roommates and bachisagi play wingmen. lionel messi makes a cameo in the form of a cardboard cutout. all the kunigiri fics in this series are good but this fic in particular is just so funny.

if you notice any ships or characters Conspicuously Absent it's because they were positively dominating this list at first so i'm planning to make a separate list for only them hehe

there are many more fics that made my soul ascend from my body so i might make another of these

[drieddpetals]

(warning: literary analysis ahead) i know i'm not the first person by far to say this, but there are so many similarities between kaz and wylan in six of crows and ESPECIALLY crooked kingdom.

there's obviously the big one of both of them having a re-birth type experience in the harbor, but that's not where the similarity stops. during my ck reread, i noticed that the reason kaz and wylan are in the harbor in the first place is because a father-like figure.

pekka rollins was a father-like figure to both kaz and jordie, and the book says this. the rietveld boys had just lost their father, and one of the big reasons pekka was able to scam jordie and kaz so well is because he provided them with a comforting and parental like space. kaz ofc eventually ends up in the harbor, and it can all be traced back to pekka rollins.

wylan has his rebirth in the harbor due to his father. the connection is more direct with his, but even then there are middle men and other things involved. but again, it can all be traced back to his father.

going off this thought, they both lost a close family member due to a father figure.

another big similarity i found that i feel like i haven't seen anyone talk about his what kaz and wylan are both motivated by: revenge.

wylan does not start off the books being motivated by revenge. he ends up in the barrel and with the crows out of a desperation to both hide from his father and because he genuinely has no where else to go. later on in ck, after wylan finds his mother at saint hilde, the book very clearly states that his motivation changes. at the begining of chapter 31, there's a scene where wylan is staring at himself in the mirror. there are lines that say, "What am I doing here? But he knew the answer. Only he could see his father punished for what he'd done. Only he could see his mother freed." which drives me INSANE!! because it's a DIRECT PARELLEL to things kaz says/feels about jordie!! in the chapter right before that (30) there's a line that says, "He'd found his way to shore, devoted himself to the vengeance he and his brother were owed." (there are other and better lines that reference wylan's "only he could *take revenge*" line, but this is just the closest one that comes to mind)

there are differences between their motives—you could say that kaz's revenge motive is more direct and violent—but there's also the fact that we see both kaz and wylan get their revenge in the book.

both kaz and wylan want revenge for one of their family members, and themselves, from what a father figure in their life has done.

they've also both been kidnapped by jan/held in captivity by him. i know this happens to inej too, but i think it's important that one of the first scenes we see with kaz is him negotiating with jan after being captured by him, and then towards the very end of the series, we (very simplified and on the surface) see the same thing happening to wylan. i know the two jan captivity scenes with kaz and wylan are very different, but i think the basic similarity of these scenes really attest to how far wylan has come and how much he's been assimilated into the crows.

there's also of course the part where wylan's expression is said to be something that looks kaz-like, which i feel also shows how far he's come and how he's truely developed into a crow.

in conclusion, as others have said, they truely are two sides of the same coin. they're so different but so alike, and i absolutely love how leigh bardugo was able to directly juxstapose wylan and kaz when they're so different on the surface.

[b-b-brekker]

One of the things that fascinates me about the end of the Crooked Kingdom is how it almost seems to reverse the roles between Kaz and Inej.

Inej already thinks their relationship is over before it could even truly begin, she's the one withdrawing now...but Kaz meets her bare-handed and vulnerable. For the first time, he does things that are entirely and truly selfless, without any ulterior motive. He buys her a ship. He brings her her parents. He makes her laugh. And despite his incessant paranoia—his need to manipulate/control/ensure that things go the way he wants—he buys a berth out of pure, blind optimism for if she might return, not when.

And Inej is the one on a mission for revenge. I know people tend to ascribe very pure motivations to this quest—and its true that Inej will save many over the course of her sailing career—but it's funny to me how Inej herself doesn't talk about it in terms of saving people or freeing slaves. In fact, she doesn't mention that aspect of it really at all. She says to Kaz, "I'm going to hunt slavers." (SOC 432).

And in the incinerator, she first conceives her dream she talks about violence. About destroying the system that hurt her:

"She wanted a storm—thunder, wind, a deluge. She wanted it to crash through Ketterdam's pleasure houses, lifting roofs and tearing doors off their hinges. She wanted it to raise the seas, take hold of every slaving ship, shatter their masts, and smash their hulls against unforgiving shores. [...] She would hunt slavers and buyers. They would learn to fear her, and they would know her by name" (SOC 311).

Even when she discusses her dream to Kaz here at the end, she reiterates that her goal is to tear it all down.

"It's not just the slavers. It's the procurers, the customer's, the Barrel bosses, the politicians. It's everyone who turns a blind eye to suffering when there is money to be made." [...] "That could be half the people in Ketterdam—and you want to fight them all." "Why not?" Inej says, "On the seas and in the city. One by one." "Brick by brick" he [Kaz] said (CK 526).

Inej is the one dismantling now, brick by brick. In the barrel, she had to kill people to survive. Now, she's going to be killing for retribution.

Not to say that ending slavery is not a noble pursuit—it 100%, absolutely is. Fuck slavery, all my homies hate slavery. I just think it's fascinating how bloody and violent Inej's chosen path is. And how she doesn't talk about the more noble aspects of her goal—saving people—even once in the duology.

Just...Kaz's story ends with him reuniting a family. Inej's story ends with her threatening to kill Rollin's innocent child. It's not what I would have expected from them.

P.S. I've only read the duology, though I have heard that there are mentions of the crows in some of the other books. I don't know if there's any more information on Inej's time at sea or how Kaz fares in Ketterdam without her? But I don't mind spoilers, they might even motivate me to pick up the other books lol, so feel free to bring up whatever if you feel like commenting :)

[saltywinteradult]

so you’re telling me that the witcher can continue without henry cavill and riverdale can get seven goddamn seasons of nonsense, but shadow and bone couldn’t get more than this? fuck you netflix