#grisha triumvirate

[stromuprisahat]

Six of Crows- Chapter 14 (Leigh Bardugo)

The Darkling's hated for "forcing" Grisha to become soldiers when he had no say in their inclusion into society, yet the only position "The Heroes" offer once at helm is canon fodder in Ravkan wars they're losing.

The Darkling's judged for offering safety in return of service, when he wasn't in position to change the later, Nikolai's lauded for similar thing he does as a rich normie with absolute power. Wait, no. The trio of his suddenly accepted witch puppeteers does, not him.

The Darkling had Grisha come to him, offering them relative safety and community of alike from a position of a serf. KING Nikolai sends people to look for them (Possibly drawing attention to their whereabouts.) to offer them servitude and a promise there won't be even inquiry into crimes against them. It's enough they're outlawed, isn't it?

Don't worry, it's only understandable- he needs support of his First Army fans and even his special mixed units were founded with very specific ideals in mind. (We hate the Darkling, remember? ~That's~ what matters.)

[thecrxwclub]

Go home and tell them what you’ve seen…tell them the demon king rules Ravka now and vengeance is coming.

[doc0bill]

the grisha triumvirate really went from zoya thirdwheeling genyadavid to genya thirdwheeling adrikleoni lmfao

[koroleva-nazyalensky]

The Grisha Triumvirate

[multifandomconfusion]

Genya: Hey, I’m getting in the shower. Wanna help me out?

David: ...Have you never taken a shower before?

[six-of-velcrows]

I loved season 2, but I have to say it, we were robbed of the Grisha Triumvirate!!

It was one of my favourite parts of the King of Scars duology, and with David gone it's not gonna happen now! 😭

[mostly-delusional]

academic rivals to lovers zoyalai where nikolai has had a crush on zoya for a very long time but doesn't know how to confess or talk to her (she seems to believe he's a pompous git and isn't the least bit interested in talking to him) so he engages in arguments discussions with her during their classes and tries his best to annoy her, to get a reaction out of her. this one time, nikolai finds out about a book zoya has wanted for a very long time but she either couldn't find it anywhere or it was always out of stock. so he pulls some strings and buys a special edition of that book, reads it, annotates it, and gifts it to her anonymously. zoya is ecstatic when she finds the book and she's curious to know who went so far as to annotate and give it to her. she's unable to figure out who it originally belonged to, until one day she notices nikolai's handwriting which looks vaguely familiar to the annotations in her book. she realises it's nikolai who gave it to her and—

—and rest is part of a fanfic i would love to write but have zero motivation to :)

[milosupremacy]

No one:

Absolutely no one:

Nikolai: scared of a spider wearing a suit

Me (in my head): 🎼Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can🎼

[grishaverse-chaos]

darkl!ng stans: he's an example of the vilified revolutionary trope, he wants what's best for grisha, he is powerful + competent + a visionary

the darkl!ng: separates ALL grisha from otkazatsya society entirely which creates alienation, murders innocent people, seemingly does not know the meaning of the word "negotiation", decides that an eleven year old child is his best option for a spy, murders more innocent people, ignores and even encourages divisions between grisha, creates the fold (which kills people regularly and has basically destroyed ravka's intranational relations), murders even more innocent people, grooms a seventeen year old girl (even worse if you believe he genuinely loved her! aleksander that is a Child!), tortures people who disobey him - oh yeah, and my personal favourite, literally murders 95% of ALL RAVKAN GRISHA purely because they..... didn't think he should murder hundreds of innocent civilians by using the fold as a weapon.....

darkl!ng stans: yeah but he wanted what was best for grisha!!!!!!1!!!1!1!1!1

[stromuprisahat]

I keep insisting that while a lovely idea, appointment of the Grisha triumvirate is more of a joke and recipe for disaster, than a political step forward.

Today, I’m going to question Genya’s part specifically.

At the beginning, Genya’s introduced as a unique talent with predispositions to work of both Corporanik and Materialnik. She chooses her kefta’s colours herself- blue on red (which still doesn’t make sense, since blue is established as Summoners’ colour- literally the only Order she DOESN’T belong to). At the end ot the trilogy, Alina picks her as a representative of all Corporalki.

The obvious favouritism aside, ignoring lack of experience in leadership, I’m asking- what does Genya know about her Order itself?

Due to the nature of her assignment, she spent most of her life away from Little Palace. While she would understand the inner workings of the Grand Palace, Second Army and the woes of its people isn’t something she’d be closely familiar with. She even admits there’s a distance between her and other Grisha.

More pressingly- what does she know about the work of her Order? I’d like to assume she got some sort of basic training, but she doesn’t seem to know about anything more advanced. Although she could’ve lied (or withhold), according to her tour in Shadow and Bone, she’s never even been inside Corporalki worshops (while she’s spending a lot of her free time with Materialki).

“We’re on the other side of the Corporalki anatomy rooms.”

“Don’t they need light to … do their work?”

“Skylights,” she said. “In the roof, like the library dome. They prefer it that way. It keeps them and their secrets safe.”

“But what do they do in there?” I asked, not entirely sure I wanted to hear the answer.

“Only the Corporalki know. But there are rumors that they’ve been working with the Fabrikators on new … experiments.”

How can she represent people she isn’t particularly close to, and whose work she knows virtually nothing about?!

[barrel-crow-n]

The Darkling trying to weaponise the Fold was an understandable course of action for him to try and take but I don't think some of you guys are ready for that conversation

[a-taken-url]

GUYS LOOK IT'S THEM

[toohaughthotdamn]

a WIP animation of Zoya Alina and Genya to Son Lux

[dani-luminae]

I'm led to understand that in the end Alina doesn't end up with the Grown Asshole or her actual love interest who is both her age and her childhood friends, instead she's randomly married off to a prince who is neither of them.

For whatever reason.

Fantastic work I suppose, ensuring that all the ships lose.

Smart move, Netflix

I really wanna watch Shadow and Bone on Netflix but I’m not sure I can take the whole “adult man puts all his effort into manipulating and controlling a young woman and this is played as romantic/widely shipped” bullshit again

[siriuslyobsessedwithfiction]

Six of Crows did a great job showcasing ordinary people don't care about Grisha. (And Zoya turning into a dragon and the propaganda of new "saints" won't solve centuries of prejudice, lack of education in common folk, and capitalism taking advantage of Grisha.)

Most of the characters in SoC duology have known misfortune and discrimination in their lives. You'd think they show solidarity to Grisha, right? Wrong.

Kaz

Kaz is a businessman. No more, no less. He says so himself. Once again, the fandom is blurring the line between the canon and the fanon persona. Kaz is not a "mother hen" who would do anything for his crows but will grumble about it. If Nina and Matthias crossed him as they originally planned in Six of Crows, he'd notify the druskelle to come catch them without any regrets.

Kaz's defining trait is that he takes everything too personally. Kaz is not some vigilante who protects oppressed minorities. He couldn't give a less of a shit about Grishas' struggles, as he makes clear to Nina on more than one occasion. Kaz had no problem indenturing Grisha and giving them less than favorable terms. The only line he wouldn't cross would be selling their bodies. (His disgust of brothels and their clients, once again, comes from a personal reason of his touch aversion).

Even after everything Nina did for him and his crew, even after she took parem, he was ready to kick her off the job in CK when she protested that they needed to evacuate the Grisha from Ketterdam. The only reason he agreed is because he needed Inej for the job and Inej refused to help him unless he helped Nina.

Inej

The only reason Inej took Nina's side (in standing up to Kaz to evacuate Grisha from Ketterdam to save them in CK) is because she cared about Nina as a friend, not because she was very concerned about Grisha. Inej never directly acknowledges the injustice Grisha face even in her thoughts in her pov even though the Suli and the Grisha are both minorities, are being weirdly fetishized for profit and have not been treated particularly well by Ravkans. Moreover, she refuses to meet the Triumvirate, claiming the Ravkans have not been good to Suli in recent years, even though the Triumvirate has only been formed for two years and its members were ordinary Grisha until then. They were servants, serfs. And even after the civil war, they don't have that kind of political power, they obey the Crown. So, what do they have to do with anything? Why does Inej refuse to meet them? Is she afraid they'll be racist towards her? One of the members and the general of the second army is Suli. Who, btw, is known for her temper and pride and not tolerating disrespect. Shouldn't Inej feel proud that a Suli woman is commanding the second army? If Inej doesn't feel comfortable meeting them even with her friend Nina, is it possible Zoya never really acknowledged her Suli heritage? At least, until KoS duology, that is. In RoW, Inej suddenly remembers Zoya is Suli and tells her they don't abandon one of their own. I'm sorry, but it doesn't make much sense. There are two routes of explanations:

It's the author's mistake. Zoya was never described as Suli in the Shadow and Bone trilogy (maybe even in SoC duology? I'd have to check). She was said to have blue eyes and raven hair and that is that. She is also said to have "perfect nose", which doesn't necessarily mean she had a straight or a small nose, but it feels it's written like that. What gives me that idea? In the trilogy, the Suli aren't exactly written very respectfully, considering the two main "good guys", Alina and Mal, impersonate Suli fortunetellers (which is sacred to the Suli), very poorly imitate their accents and have a laugh about it. Zoya acts like a rich, materialistic brat in the trilogy, calls Mal's commoner mannerisms foreign and enticing and we only find out her father was Suli and she comes from an extremely poor peasant family in KoS. It seems like instead of making her own up to her mistakes and making her grow as a person, the author gave her an excuse in a form of a sad backstory.

Inej is a sixteen year old acrobat, who might not be well aware of political situations and doesn't realize what role do Grisha really have in Ravka. I don't want to diminish her intelligence or make her ignorant, but the author isn't giving me much to work with. It also might be possible that during Nikolai's father's rule, while the Suli were on the Ravkan soil, they were tested for powers and taken to the second army since the draft was mandatory and that's why Inej didn't like them.

Wylan

Wylan is a good person, and he had many, many things to deal with in CK, so I didn't expect him to start drawing a plan on how to make Grishas' life better while hiding in a tomb from his father, but it doesn't take much to spare a sentence to at least acknowledge how messed up their existence was. When they're discussing the Kherguud soldiers, they're only worried about Nina and Jesper, not the grand scheme of things. It's a whole race of people we're talking about. Idk, it just feels weird.

Matthias

Oddly enough, the only person who thinks how certain events will affect Grisha is an ex-druskelle. I cannot write his entire redemption arc here, but he definitely shows more care and concern.

Joost

Honorary mention to the boy who knew how dire the situation was and didn't shy away from it. He couldn't take a girl he liked out on a date because she was an indentured Grisha, knew he couldn't buy out her contract but wasn't planning to give up on her.

Also, he demands to know where Anya is as an authority because she should be working. So, not only the merchants and businesses who own them control them, but the Stadwatch are authorized to find them and drag them over to them if they're not at work.

Do you have to have a crush on a Grisha in order to care whether they live or perish? Grisha are an integral part of almost every profession in Grishaverse, they're written as the primary reason for technological advancements, and yet, the ordinary people never stop to think what their eradication would mean to their world.

As for KoS duology, it's a fever dream. I've read fairytales that make more sense than that. Yes, it's YA, but the author is not acting or writing like it's not supposed to be taken seriously. And once you've established a universe with certain laws, you can't throw it all to the wind, give the readers a half-baked explanation and say it makes perfect sense. The SoB trilogy showed us how Grisha were not accepted even when they fought the Kings' wars for centuries and a Grisha saint destroyed the Fold. The SoC duology told us that the civil war destroyed the second army and Ravka was bankrupt and collapsing. Since the draft wasn't mandatory, no one wanted to go fight and die for a country that has given them nothing. But suddenly, the nation of Fjerda, who has hated and hunted the Grisha for centuries, is swayed by cheap tricks to worship them as saints and Ravka will be fine because Zoya can flap her wings and burn whoever opposes her? Yeah, 'cause that went so well for the Targaryen dynasty.

P.S. I am not calling the author or the characters racist. SoC duology is one of my favorite books ever. But as LB herself wrote in this book: "You can love something and still see its flaws".

[shootwithintenttokill]

Can we talk about Jesper Fahey unintentionally being one of the most powerful Grisha in the Grishaverse? (Bear with me)

Okay, agreed, Jesper struggles with doing basically anything intentionally. Makes sense - he was never trained.

But if we consider what he can do; controlling the path of bullets. Taking tiny chunks of metal moving at ~120-370 m/s, and directing them. And not just a little bit. He literally managed to make his bullet curve 90° around a right-angle corner. This is a skill we see no other Fabrikator able to do, and you would have thought, if it was a common ability, or even ever seen before, the Darkling or the Triumvirate would have utilised it in the Second Army. They have not. The only people known to use it are Jesper and his mother.

(And let's just give an honourable mention to Aditi Hilli, who could extract poison from the bloodstream of another person. You remember how the tidemakers in the Ice Court needed to be on Parem to mess with a person's blood? But Aditi Hilli? ...I don't want to say no problem, because she did die, but she saved Leoni too, so... half-marks? I'm just saying Jesper has some serious badass genes.)

Actually, talking about the tidemakers on parem, Jesper, with no training and having all the blood in his body sucked out of him, still managed to kill them with dust. A rather dark trick, but one we've never seen David Kostyk, or Leoni Hilli, considered the two most powerful Fabrikators alive during canon, replicate.

But the real reason Jesper is so powerful has very little to do with that, so much as HOW he does it. Every grisha alive used their arms to direct their abilities. After being captured by the Darkling in S&S, Alina has her hands bound, and says something about how she can summon, but not direct light without her hands, so she's basically powerless. It's obviously a common tactic, because the Druskelle do the same thing with Nina and the other Grisha they captured, and only after they get their hands freed on the sharp edge of a broken cup can they use their abilities again.

The only people we see not using their hands for the small science, in fact, are Adrik, who has to relearn his technique after he loses an arm, and, of course, Jesper Fahey, who can direct bullets with his mind - no hand movements required.

If anything, it's probably this ability that makes him so good at directing bullets. After all, at the speed a bullet is going, you don't have time to be waving your hands around to control it. What's especially funny to me is that before Wylan pointed it out, he had no idea he was even doing it. He was using an ability no other Grisha can, and Didn't Know. Can you imagine him mentioning that to Nina... or basically any Second Army Grisha.

("You can control bullets?"

"...you can't?"

"...how?"

"I'm not sure. I mean, my mother sort of taught me, but also I didn't really realise I was doing it until my boyfriend pointed it out, you know?"

"...YOU WERE ACCIDENTLY CONTROLLING BULLETS?!!!")

This is, of course, all book canon, but somehow the show takes it even further. It hasn't been officially revealed Jesper's Grisha in the show, but there are enough clues - Jesper repairing Kaz's cane, Ivan's cut-off comment after their fight, not to mention the fight itself - that I'm taking it as canon. In this, it is accepted NO ONE can use their grisha abilities, except merzost, without first touching their hands together. Not The Darkling, not Alina, no one. Except, of course, Jesper Fahey, who can shoot his bullets and direct them to the exact same point on a kefta, after deflecting them off random objects first.

Tl;dr: Jesper Fahey is amazing and crazily powerful and should be appreciated.