#inej knows of course

[isthataraccoon]

headcannon that kaz actually loooooves sad girl music but he’s desperate to try to hide it so if anyone asks he “despises listening to music”

[sleepless-crows]

zoya and nikolai making fun of kaz is what gives me life

[fanaddicted2000]

Hi.

Kaz with black nail polish.

That's it. That's the post.

[the-wraith-and-demjin]

Rule of Wolves spoilers

I would also do anything for Inej

[thebirdandhersong]

sigh

[averrse]

just gonna sit here thinking about the crows playing mario kart

[rat---king]

Finished episode one and both Nina and Inej continue to not only the best but also my beloveds

[wraithblogging]

I do love the "I would crawl to you" quote. But it's quoted so often that I can't fucking see it anymore. It's overuse robbed it of its beauty and intent for me.

[aroyalpaininthecass]

I fangirl the most over Kaz because he's the most interesting character-wise (to me) but you KNOW if Inej or Tamar were in the room, I'd be so incredibly gay for them

[mediocrgatsby]

Inej Ghafa is so real, man.

She cared about Kaz, of course, but she had zero interest in trying to “fix” him, you know? She was rightfully thankful for buying her out from Tante Heleen (for good reason), but she was never there to be his savior.

She noticed he had issues and offered her advice/perspectives, but let him come to his own conclusions. His problems weren’t her main focus.

All she wanted to do was find her family again, and whether or not she gained a boyfriend along the way was purely a bonus.

[martinakl13]

I think a lot about what the way they talk can tell us about our Crows. For example, interjections.

Unsurprisingly, Nina and Inej use all variants with Saints (Saints; All Saints; For Saints' sake) and Wylan uses Ghezen (Ghezen; Ghezen and his works). Matthias of course has Djel (Djel; Sweet Djel; For Djel's sake).

Now comes the interesting part. Jesper uses Saints, many times in his own creative way (Saints; All Saints; For Saints' sake; All Saints and your Aunt Eve; All Saints and the donkeys they rode in on) and (!) he also uses Ghezen (Sweet Ghezen). It's quite obvious that Jesper adopted Ghezen during his long stay in Ketterdam, but since he uses Saints much more often, it seems like something he got from his father as a child, since Colm also said many similar things in CK (All Saints; Saints; For Saints' sake). Do they recognise Saints on Wandering Isle? Probably.

And then there's Kaz. What do you think of his interjections? Have you noticed or thought about it? Kaz out loud never used any! Not Ghezen, not Saints, not Djel. There is only one exception where the interjection was part of his inner monologue.

Chapter 3, SoC:

"As Kaz headed down one of the little canals that would take him past Fifth Harbour, he realised he felt – Saints, he almost felt hopeful."

Oh yes, Kaz in his head when no one could hear him automatically used Saints and it wasn't because he wanted to mentally tease Inej about her Saints. I think the moment he felt almost hope, something from his past slipped out of the dark parts of his mind where he buried everything related to his family. Do we know for sure that Ghezen is the only god the Kerch people know? What about people from the countryside? Do they honour the god of industry, commerce and trade, or someone else who is closer to them? Who remembers where Marya Hendriks was kept? The Church of Saint Hilde. In addition, we also know two Kerch saints, Sankta Margaretha and Sankt Emerens. Coincidence? I don't think so.

[evellynssocbrainrot]

Kaz: I have a job for you. I need you to hitch a ride east to the Little Palace

The Conductor: Hmmm

Kaz: Make friends

The Conductor: But that's the hardest job

Kaz: You managed to win us over, didn't you?

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Inej: A bit slow on the draw there

Kaz: Or just in time

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Alina: Will you still be trying to kidnap me?

Jesper: Of course, not

Kaz: Have you found religion too?

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Nina: How do you think it tastes?

Kaz: Like tea

Nina: Yes, but is it floral? Bitter? Mildly sweet with notes of buttery—

Kaz: Warm. And wet

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wesper: *kissing*

Kaz: Everyone's lost their mind

Also Kaz a few minutes later: *Makes heart eyes at Inej*

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Kaz entering the battlefield: *mutters* What nightmare have we gotten ourselves into?

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Nikolai: Didn't know you were patriots

Kaz: *fixes him with bitch glare* Well if we die we don't get paid

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Who said all his humor and charmingness was gone? At least there were some traces of it, and they are wonderful.

[stevenrogered]

Okay, we’re about to get real deep here. Ready?

This immediately made me think of that Doctor Who quote, “Never trust a hug. It's just a way to hide your face.” 

Jesper often gets used as the comic relief and uses humor to deflect quite a bit. Even here, he makes a joke about “of course you’ll miss me.” He wants to let Inej know that it’s okay she’s leaving, that she doesn’t have to worry about him or Kaz, he’ll take care of them. 

But the second she can’t see him, his face betrays him. And the second she leaves, he starts to sob. Quietly, so she won’t hear and turn back. Because he knows that this is something she needs to do, and he knows how much it will hurt her to see how much it’s hurting him. It so beautifully portrays their relationship because yes, he’s Inej’s family, but she’s his too. 

[olskuvallanpoe]

something that I can never forget about soc is inej and the scene with the mallet, how it breaks her and reduces her to her most vulnerable form as she realizes that no one, not even kaz, would come to save her if van eck had her legs broken. because in ketterdam she only had the illusion of being worth anything more than her body and what it could do to benefit others, whether that be sex work or her ability to climb. of course, we later find out that kaz would have come for her anyway no matter what, and he tells her this, but that moment when she was so sure of the opposite and realized how afraid she was just STICKS with you, ya know?

[barrel-crow-n]

I was just thinking about how Kaz built this heartless persona for himself and how everyone falls for it to varying degrees: He's widely regarded as a monster and as "not made right"; Inej thought he wouldn't come for her and that once she was useless to him that he would discard her; Jesper never knows where exactly he stands with him; Nina "doesn't want to know what dark hole he crawled out of"; Wylan calls him "the most vengeful creature he had ever met"; Matthias believes he's a demon. But in reality his true motives for most things are love and grief and loss of family.

Kaz only wanted money for revenge, he didn't want to try and build a meaningful connection with Imogen because she would distract him from pursuing his vengeance, he only mentions how Pekka conned them out of money to explain how they ended up on the streets, how it was never about the money but about Jordie.

Kaz says that he and Jordie were such easy marks because they missed their dad. Kaz's biggest gripe was not just the loss of Jordie but the illusion of a home and family that Pekka had snatched away before the plague snatched Jordie away too.

It all always leads back to Jordie and his loss and avenging him and about never wanting to be that vulnerable again. Kaz created Kaz Brekker to protect himself, to hide his vulnerabilities. His grief is hidden behind a fake name, his naivety is hidden behind violence, his touch aversion is hidden behind the gloves.

Kaz pushes people away because he fears what will happen if he lets them in. He gets mean when he's vulnerable to hide said vulnerability. He did it in the clocktower, he did it in the bathroom. After he accidently calls Jesper Jordie he lashes out verbally and physically, when Inej asks about Jordie and Pekka's involvement in what happened he recounts how he tortured someone. In both incidents it's again Jordie that he's hiding, that is causing him to be vulnerable. It always leads back to Jordie. Even with Van Eck! He's again angry that he fell for what he fell for before, the thing that made him lose Jordie making him temporarily lose Inej.

In both the Jesper and Inej examples he hides behind violence - by brawling with Jesper and recounting a time when he tortured a young boy. He does this because he loves Inej and Jesper, and it scares him, and he doesn't know what to do with it. Because everyone he's ever loved has died in horrible ways (his father was torn apart by a plough, his brother died from a horrible sickness) and he doesn't want to go through it again - especially since he still hasn't let go of Jordie, although it has been eight years.

Kaz is a person who loves so deeply. Who is mainly motivated by love. Who, when Pekka asks him what he wants, replies "Bring my brother back from the dead." because he never cared about money, nor power, nor anything else. He just wants his brother. All he wanted this whole time is his brother, and since he no longer has him he lashes out, all hurt and grieving. He's hurting so badly that he destroys everyone even mildly involved in what took Jordie away from him. But he only did that because he loved Jordie. It wasn't revenge for the sake of money it was for the sake of love. It was for the sake of Jordie.

Kaz loved Jordie so much that he became the most feared person in Ketterdam, that he took down the King of the Barrel and a merchant from one of the oldest families in Ketterdam (because even if his gripe with Van Eck was unrelated, it's because of Jordie's loss that life snowballed into their interactions and the consequent betrayal and destruction of everything Van Eck held dear). Kaz loved Jordie so much that it changed the entire course of the narrative.

If not for Jordie's loss the heist wouldn't of happened, all of the Crows lives would've been different, some of the Crows would even most likely be dead, and this extends even further to much more major things. The King of Ravka managed to steal the titanium because of his help which will aid Ravka in wars, the path to jurda parem is no longer in the hands of the Fjerdans and a cure is being safely developed in Ravka because Kaz rescued Kuwei, Wylan took over the Van Eck empire because Kaz tampered with Van Eck's will and papers, Inej is working on taking down the slave trade which is only possible because Kaz freed her from her indenture, Nina became the queen of Fjerda because of things that Kaz started (her joining the Dregs instead of being indebted to the Dime Lions, him freeing Matthias, him organising the heist, Matthias dying in the aftermath, her going to Fjerda to bury Matthias and the results which ended up being her and her new lover on the Fjerdan throne trying to fix prejudice against grisha, and women, in the most conservative country).

All of it leads back to Kaz. And he did all of it for Jordie. It all always leads back to Jordie. Jordie and Kaz's love for his big brother and his grief over having him snatched away from him.

[insignificant457]

There is a nebulous jordie lives au which lives entirely in my head in which jordie recovers from the plague while Kaz is still sick. He gets up to find them food and water only to return and discover Kaz is nowhere to be found. Still recovering from the fever, he searches the barrel for days before he finally sees Kaz wandering down the staves in a sort of fugue state, soaked to the bone with a haunted look in his eyes.

Kaz won’t tell him what happened, but jordie knows it’s bad because his baby brother flinches every time he touches him, and soon enough he’s started wearing gloves, even in the height of summer.

Soon, they discover kazs gift for cards, and it keeps them fed and clothed, if not much else. Kaz is angry at jordie for losing the money, refuses to let him make any decisions. Jordie is beholden to his angry traumatized little brother because he can’t deny that he failed them the first time around.

Kaz is offered a place in his pick of the gangs, but the only one willing to take both him and his tag along older brother is the dregs. Jordie dies a little bit inside when they join up, when they take the tattoo side by side, but he’s not sure they’ll survive another winter on the streets.

And the plot of SoC generally goes on from there. Jordie tags along on the ice court, he and Jesper test kazs patience at every turn, he’s constantly offering unsolicited annoying older brother advice about Inej.

This lends itself to a really interesting exploration of Kaz and jordies relationship, what holds brothers together in the face of incredible trauma, the skewed power dynamic of Kaz becoming the breadwinner for them both at the age of nine, etc etc. But mostly, this au is a vessel for the sailing of the ultimate crack ship, which is of course, jordie/alys Van Eck.