#inej's father propaganda

[capinejghafa]

One day, someone will realize Inej's dad value in her story... not today, though 😔

[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".

[a-mythologynerd]

Actually all of the six of crows characters have a traumatic or deeply developing character motif associated with water and I just think that's neat.

Inej in the belly of a slaver's ship to a new baptism by rain in the furnace's chimney where she decides she wants to sail the seas and "flood" the streets of Ketterdam

Jesper's mother died because someone drank from a poisoned well to he makes the Khergud swallow the Wyvil cause it reacts to sugar/saliva

Matthias and Nina only bond after the shipwreck and storm,

Matthias, Djel as a wellspring and river that connects us all from a thing that is used as propaganda to reprograming and acceptance of grishas

Nina, stops being connected to the living world but connects to death which she describe as an icy river or depth

Wylan and Kaz both nearly drown because someone they trusted and saw as a father figure only saw them as expendable in pursuit of their own greed.

(The reason Wylan doesn't really have a second changed moment is because of Kaz and the crows who save him from having to go through what they did. This is my essay on why Kaz is not Wylan's dad, they are character foils and if we are gonna draw parallels to family members Kaz is doing for Wylan what Jordie couldn't do for him)

And finally, Kaz's second drowning in the Djel wellspring where he is again reborn into something less like Dirtyhands and more like Rietveld.

But also the drugged tidemaker as the first time the reader is introduced to jurda parem, Jordie, and Kaz's grief, to the fake tidemakers in the auction for the scheme, to the council of tides as our last narration scene of Ketterdam before the epilogue. The idea of a being reborn from a baptism of sorts is a crazy important motif.

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Sword gays showdown, round 2, bracket three

Propaganda:

For Inej:

She taught herself how to kill people with knives. We stan a queen. 

My beloved knife wife ❤️🗡️

For Castiel:

His weapon is his angel blade, gaslight gatekeep girlboss. He is the absolute most character of all time. He’s a father, he’s a war criminal, he’s gay, he thought he was god. Angel of Thursday who defied the divine plan who has so much blood on his hands he deserves everything 

For Xenk:

His sword isn't just a sword, it's a daggersword. He can use it as a sword, a dagger, or a shortsword AND he can use it as a projectile and still have some sword left over. As for the queer side of the tournament: dude literally gave the smuggest smirk ever in response to a guy saying "I hate you" to him (image the submitter linked). WHOSE RESPONSE TO "I HATE YOU" IS A SMUG SMIRK LIKE THAT.

He gets a scene where he fights a bunch of bad guys while the rest of the party watches his skills in awe. Also the way he acts just gives off gay vibes.

[bestgrishaversequotes]

OFFICIAL LIST OF QUOTES FOR THE TOURNAMENT (under the cut)

if any of these quotes catch your eye, please feel free to submit propaganda!! not all of the quotes here were submissions, I picked out fandom faves that didn't get submitted plus one or two personal favourites, so if you see your favourite quote here go ahead and rant in my inbox about why you love it!!

all propaganda will be published with the polls

quotes crossed out have been eliminated; quotes in bold are still in the tournament!

Hug the goat, shut the hell up

He knew the look of a man defending his home with nothing but a rock in his hand

What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men

I'm sorry it took me so long to see you, Alina. But I see you now

Make me your villain

She's everything, you dumb son of a bitch

Because I am a pretty thing and a soldier all the same

Anything worth doing always starts as a bad idea

You're my flag. You're my nation

When people say impossible, they usually mean improbable

I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret

I know metal

I am not ruined. I am ruination

I make it a policy never to seduce anyone prettier than I am

That's weakness. That's a man afraid

They had an ordinary life, full of ordinary things

Joost had two problems: the moon and his moustache

We'll be kings and queens, Inej

My darling Inej, treasure of my heart

Matthias was dreaming again. Dreaming of her

What's the easiest way to steal a man's wallet?

The heart is an arrow. It demands aim to land true

I protect my investments

My Wraith would counsel mercy

My ghost won't associate with your ghost

I'm going to pay someone to burn my kruge for me

What bound them together?

We could wake them up

No. Not just girls

I have been made to protect you. Only in death will I be kept from this oath

Stay in Ketterdam. Stay with me

I will have you without armour, Kaz Brekker

I would come for you

Meeting you was a disaster

This action will have no echo

I recommend a cane

We do not take orders from Kerch street rats with dubious haircuts

This was the kiss he'd been waiting for

Someone I didn't want to lose

I'm right here, Father

When the world owed you nothing, you demanded something of it anyway

I can read to him

How about I push you in the canal and we see if you know how to swim?

Is my tie straight?

Call me Grisha. Call me zowa. Call me death, if you like

Yuri Vedenen, if you upset my wife again, I will kill you where you stand

Why did it matter to him what became of Ravka?

A king never kneels, brother

My ruthless Zoya, I'll load the gun myself

Because I'm fairly certain I'm hallucinating, and in my dreams you're much nicer

But she was already a queen

You are strong enough to survive the fall

It had the unfortunate effect of making him want to untie it

You list off atrocities as though I'm meant to feel shame for them

Maybe the gift of being human is that we do not give up

I loved him and he loved me

Because I am greedy for the sight of you

There is nothing in it worth loving

As my friend, as my general, as my bride

This is what love does

I will leave this world on a hammer blow

Then I will love her from my grave

None of this had been fated; none of it foretold

I will always seek to make it summer for you

[pagesofkenna]

Propaganda:

Jade Harley: omnipotent space dog god, but also She Who Sleeps. most powerful character hidden in the sweet lovely kid archetype. one of the Four Main Characters of Homestuck and also arguably the one with the least screentime or narrative utility. she was isolated and neglected in the story and out of the story. she deserved so much more. I love her your honor.

Haydee: Greek princess sold into slavery who gets brought into France to deliver her vengeance on her father's betrayer. I wish she'd gotten to kill him with her own bare hands but she's too elegant for that vulgar an act. not a fan of the romance arc the book gives her, personally, but a HUGE of how she flips the 'vengeance will consume you' script; she gets her revenge, and immediately moves on. no moral dilemma. your honor, I love her.

Ema Skye: SHE WANTED TO BE A FORENSIC SCIENTIST BECAUSE SHE WANTED HER LOVE OF SCIENCE AND THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE TO HELP HER SISTER'S DETECTIVE CAREER BUT THEN HER SISTER WAS ARRESTED FOR FORGING EVIDENCE AND EMA COULDN'T GET A JOB IN FORENSICS AND I WOULD DIE FOR HER! I LOVE HER!

Fi: In the beginning area of the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, there's a scene where Link's Master Sword, irreparably damaged by Ganon's power, is put onto an alter and sent into the past. In that scene the sword gives a brief pulse of light, and a short musical theme plays—that's Fi's theme, because Fi IS THE MASTER SWORD. a sentience bound in the sword, introduced in Skyward Sword; seeing her hurt in Totk hurt my heart, because I love her.

Ayda Aguefort: the definition of autistic rizz. she's a hot dark phoenix girl and she's got a section in her pirate library about how friends work. she doesn't understand why it's supposed to be a secret that her girlfriend kissed her. she wrote a spell for her best friend that is 'wizard punch'. she wrote a love letter to her paramour on primordial comets. her dad's the sucky school principal. need i say it? i love her.

Falin Touden: listen if you know me you know i love me a necromancer and this babe can fit SO many necromancers in her. she's dead. she's dragon meat. she IS a dragon. when her party got attacked by ghosts she immediately started making friends. when she finally made a friend she was 100% ride or die, immediately, no questions asked. powerful mage. lesbian. your honor? i love her.

Kate Bishop: I am physically incapable of seeing a hawkeye and not loving them but Kate Bishop is perhaps the most deserving of them all. got hurt, learned how to hurt back. archery, swords, fists, laserguns, she's got 'em all. teenage superhero turned young adult superhero. ignore the fact that her parents are rich. i love her.

Riza Hawkeye: i am physically incapable of seeing a hawkeye and not loving them but Riza Hawkeye is perhaps the most deserving of them all. she was used as a tool by everyone and everything she ever trusted and instead of falling to despair she leaned into it. she'll be a tool but on her own terms, under her own control, and for her own goals. one of which is to kill the man she loves at a moment's notice. and she never misses. thats sick as hell, i love her.

Yorda: the premise of the game Ico is you're playing a young boy who was left in an empty, ancient castle as a blood sacrifice, and you come across this girl Yorda in a birdcage. you work together trying to escape, unable to speak since you don't share a language, running from the shades sent by Yorda's mother, the evil queen. Yorda is passive in all this, following the player character around, and yet that is part of what endears her to me. she knows escape is almost impossible and yet she tries anyway, because you're trying. without working together neither of these characters could make it to freedom, and they do it all without words. i love her so much

Inej Ghafa: nicknamed "the wraith" in the story given her ability to move silently and out of sight - and you know i love ghosts. she can do anything she sets her mind to and not because of innate talent but because she puts in the work. one time she climbed up the inside of an on-fire chimney stack, burning her shoes into her feet, and when she finally came out the top she decided to dedicate her life to hunting slavers, and then she just did that. she can do anything. i love her.

Elaine Marley: Elaine could very easily be (and in some games has been) the astonishingly more-competent woman who's bafflingly taking the back seat to the dorky incompetent main character she's in love with—but instead it feels to me like she's the protagonist of a different game we're just not playing. Especially in the last game, she's got her own thing going on that really has little to do with her partner. She works in politics and philanthropy and fights bad pirates with both her sword and the law. She really also deserves more from the story but yeah, your honor, I do love her.

Temperance Brennan: I love necromancers, and I love science, and Temperance "Bones" Brennan is the closest you can get to a necromancer in a non-fantasy setting. This show started airing when I was a kid and it honestly may be the reason I'm a necromancer fan now. In every episode Brennan works with the final bare traces of the human condition and gets criticized for being emotionally distant from the death and murder surrounding her, and yet she restores life to dead bones. She sees their humanity and fights for their dignity. She's oh-so autistic coded. Her best friend is Billy Gibbon's daughter. I'm literally quoting her every time I tell someone "I don't know what that means." I know she's just a fictional character but I really highly respect her. Also? I love her.

apparently this is a bandwagon and i'm hopping aboard

[fericita-s]

The Princess and the Barbarian

“It’s a tale not unlike ours - one of countries at war and a brave Fjerdan warrior who wanted to save his country from darkness.  Of a Ravkan woman who was far from her home but determined to return.”

“Hmmmm,” Matthias murmured and Nina saw the corner of his mouth turn up into a smile.  She dropped her voice to a whisper and ran a thumb across his lips.

“It’s the story of The Princess and the Barbarian.”

As Matthias recovers from a gunshot wound, Nina tells him the story of the Princess and the Barbarian. He interrupts a lot as his Fjerdan sensibilities are bothered and the Ravkan propaganda gets to be unbearable.

Rated T for now, some later chapters will be rated E for sexy cave times. Told over the course of 15 chapters, 10K words total, will be posting daily. Chapter one below the cut.

Thank you @theburnbarreljester​ for your fantastic ideas and suggestions that gave this story shape and for your timeless and wise counsel that canon is just a suggestion, that everyone, not just the Grisha at the Little Palace, wants to read about a barbarian stealing away a princess, and that the guiding aesthetic of this piece should be "Wow, look at his abs glistening in the moonlight."

Chapter 1

It was maddening. 

They were finally free after weeks of living in a damp cemetery, months on a perilous mission that crossed a sea and a hostile nation and brought Nina to the edge of sanity and control, a year with Matthias in the worst prison and her staggering under the weight of knowing her words put him there.  They’d had daily brushes with death and the dead and his own blood had soaked both of their hands, the life bleeding out of him before she drew out the death. 

They were together.  Alive.

Able to trust and love each other in the splendor of the Hendricks Mansion with servants eager to demonstrate their allegiance to their young master and his curious band of friends.   

And they couldn't enjoy it.

Wylan brought his mother to the city and Jesper escorted his father out.  Inej and Kaz disappeared and reappeared without speaking to each other, though Inej always spoke with Nina, bringing news of the Druskelle ship stuck in port and a warm blini or two from Little Ravka. The city remained frozen in place, the barges lined up like an armada ready to carry away the dead who succumbed to the Queen’s Lady Plague. And Nina kept watch in an overstuffed armchair two feet from the bed where Matthias slept day and night, his groans waking her from any fitful sleep she found.  

Nina knew that none in the city had firepox, but death still lurked too close to Matthias.  She’d drawn the death out of him but there had been no healer to repair what remained.  They’d carried him to a guest room with large windows that cast beautiful light during the day and accorded a gentle breeze at night when his fever reached its nightly peak. The laundry maid came to fetch his soaked sheets every morning and the housemaid put the fresh ones on while Nina and the steward rolled Matthias to one side and then the other. The steward had a bed brought in for Nina on the second day.  The cook brought up broths and ales that Nina fed Matthias gently, wiping at his mouth as he swallowed and breathed in fitful bursts, eyes not open, his scent and his manner not his own.

She wanted them to be feeding each other waffles in bed, to be sketching out plans for the horrid Fjerdan costumes she would wear for their missions, to be discovering more about his body than if it was hot to the touch.  She wanted to be studying his face and the way his eyes changed as he caught on to her jests, not examining the edges of his puckered and swollen wound, anxious as she compared them to her memory of how it looked yesterday.  She wanted to be exploring the gardens with him, finding hidden alcoves and just what kind of sound he would make if she kissed him in the spot behind his ear that turned red just before a blush bloomed on his cheeks.

Instead she never left the room, wanting to stay with Matthias as much as she wanted to avoid seeing the gaping hole in Jan’s study, too close to the shape of the gaping hole in Matthias’s middle that seeped red.  

A few months ago she would have been able to effortlessly bind it together with her powers.

It was maddening. 

She paced and rearranged his pillows and accidentally summoned dead tulips from the neglected terrace.  She read and reread the novels Inej brought her from Little Ravka, her native tongue a balm.  She yelled at Kaz and then watched, glowering, as Kaz brought a terrified looking medik into the room.  He administered a draught of something that smelled horrible and looked worse and then covered the wound in a thick paste.  She spared him her singing, but whispered stories and promises, fussed with his hair, alternated a cool washcloth from his neck to his forehead, ran her hand along his arms before entwining her fingers with his.

His fever broke on the tenth night. 

When he woke, sweaty and pale, he reached for her and Nina clasped his hand so tightly he winced. 

“Little red bird.  You didn’t go.”  

“No Matthias, I’m here with you.  I’ll stay here with you.”

He ran a hand over his face and then let it fall limply to his side.  Nina dipped the washcloth in the bedside basin and traced the path his hand had made. “Keep resting.”

“Tell me something.”

“Anything.  Everything.  What do you want to know?”

“Just talk to me.  So I can hear your voice.  So I know you’re here.”

He closed his eyes and Nina thought about the stories they had told each other in the Ketterdam-bound ship, her body weak from parem.  The stories they had told each other at night in the whaling huts and winter encampments that helped them survive the ice.  The ones she had been telling him for the past ten days, stories of what they would do when he was recovered.  Her eyes settled on the pile of books Inej had deposited by her bed and Nina smiled.

“I know just the story to bring you rights.  It’s a tale not unlike ours - one of countries at war and a brave Fjerdan warrior who wanted to save his country from darkness.  Of a Ravkan woman who was far from her home but determined to return.”

“Hmmmm,” Matthias murmured and Nina saw the corner of his mouth turn up into a smile.  She dropped her voice to a whisper and ran a thumb across his lips.

“It’s the story of The Princess and the Barbarian.”

[emoyuuta]

Six Of Crows Italian AU

let's start with where Ketterdam would be. You probably are thinking "a merchant city by the sea, with lots of canals and bridges, often foggy, ruled by the bourgeois class, and with a tradition of masks and theater??? That's Venice!!!" No bitch. It's Naples.

Kaz is from Rome, because Roman is the only accent that is edgy enough to be Kaz's. He has left Rome for Naples in his pre-teens and he has put aside his Roman accent so he could blend more with the new city and to create a fake edgy criminal backgroud story, where he is the natural son of a certain Gennaro Esposito. Which one of the many is it, no one knows it. Now he can perfectly talk in Neapolitan and "we take back what's ours!!!" is his life motto.

Inej is actually from Venice. She comes from a family of gondolieri (the people who sail gondolas), but she has always watched merchant vessels with fascination and her dream is to take action against the trading of slaves in the Mediterranean.

Jesper is from Sardinia. He spent his childhood in the countryside between goats and donkeys. He discovered to be a grisha when he started modifying some milking and cheese-making equipment. His father probably thinks he is in some Northern city studying at a university, but he dropped and went to Naples to live a debauchery life. He has definitely blended with the city, thanks to his charming personality and to his terrible fashion style.

Nina is from Sicily and she has a very thick Sicilian accent. She is strongly active in the arancino vs arancina discussion, supporting the latter because yes preferring the female name of a street food is feminist propaganda. She probably calls people with basic Sicilian names/nicknames both for annoying people and as a demonstration of love.

Wylan is from Parma and his father is a rich industrial who has factories all around Northen Italy. He can't pronounce the R letter and has a thick Emilian accent, so he probably gets bullied in the though environment of criminal Naples. He probably ended up playing the organ for some local church before meeting the dregs.

Matthias is from Alto Adige. He is probably more Austrian than Italian. He comes from one of those Northen towns that trashes about Southern regions. He probably knows how to dance that weird Tyrolean slappy dance.

Kuwei is from Milan. Everybody, of course, believes he only cares about working and thinks of him as a "cold" person. He doesn't talk much, but he ends every sentence with "figa".

[wafflesandkruge]

SoC Mr.Sunshine insp. AU

[I will NEVER get over this show.]

Ketterdam was annexed by Ravka about twenty years ago, around the time of Kaz’s birth

Jan van Eck was appointed as the Prime Minister by the Ravkan king, but everyone knows he’s just a figurehead

The Kerch chafe under Ravkan rule, but there is no open revolt. Under the surface however, the Resistence is brewing...

Inej Ghafa is a leader of the Army of Liberation. She was sold to a Ravkan sympathizer when she was young, but the AoL saved her and she felt indebted. She wants to free Kerch from Ravkan rule so the slave trade will once again be abolished.

Jesper Fahey is another member of the AoL. A Zemeni native, he has experienced Ravkan colonization first-hand. His mother was part of the Zemeni Liberation Front, but she was caught and executed after trying to smuggle children out of the country. Jesper and his father fled to Kerch under assumed identities for safety. 

Nina Zenik is a Ravkan defector eking out a living by running a brothel/inn in the red-light district of Ketterdam. Her grisha powers are highly sought after as Ravka drafted most Kerch grisha into the Second Army. She wishes for Ravka to return to a time before the imperialist and power-hungry king.

Wylan van Eck is the sheltered son of Jan van Eck. Though he will never be his father’s heir, Jan cannot get rid of him without Ravkan scrutiny. Wylan cannot see through the lies and propaganda he is surrounded by. Multiple resistance organizations are trying to groom him as one of their own so they can have eyes and ears inside on the van Eck mansion.

Matthias Helvar is a Fjerdan mercenary with nowhere to go. He helped Ravka annex Ketterdam and now deeply regrets it. He spends his days in the slums of Ketterdam, drinking to forget. He finds no meaning or purpose in life.

Kaz Brekker was a powerful gang leader before the Ravkan occupation, and continues to be one- he just greases different hands and steals from the people he once paid off. It’s a tidy life and he’s determined to wait this whole mess out because if there’s one thing that will never change, it’s that money means power.  

Eventually, the paths of these six will intertwine and tangle until they are comrades under the same flag...

[heka-write]

Six of Crows Thoughts and Discussion

Just finished this book a week ago. 

Not doing a review because I find that boring. The book was amazing. That’s all you need to know. Definitely recommend for buying if you can. 

A solid 4.5/5. 

I thought I’d do my thoughts on the book and story as a whole, since that’s more fun and would love to open it to discussion. 

(Spoilers are a given)  

Again, I loved this book. It reminded me a lot of The Lunar Chronicles in the sense that this book was a archetypical revenge/heist plot set in a fantasy world and The Lunar Chronicles was a traditional fairy tale plot in a fantasy/sci-fi world. 

I also did not read the original Grisha Trilogy but was still able to read the book and understand the story completely. There was plenty of world-building that intertwined seamlessly into the story, and while a few details went over my head, I was still able to have a decent understanding of the environment and politics and enjoy the story. You don’t have to read the original series to understand the spin off, and that’s another reason I would recommend the book. 

(Though, now that I have read this I am quite interested in going back and reading the original series. )

I especially loved the cast. The morally grey, chaotic neutral characters are my favorites. The ones that are victims of society and rebel against it to survive, but still have heart and care about each other. They are Bad and ruthless but sympathetic and forgivable. They are the type of Bad that you wanna be. #SquadGoals. 

They remind me a lot of Team Taka from Naruto, a team of people that were also victims of their societies and taken in by a bad crew, but learned to care for each other. Unfortunately, the author dropped the ball on those characters so the “good” characters could have their happy endings, but I’m glad I get to experience that dynamic in this book. 

I loved all the characters, but I think my favorites would be Kaz, Inej and Nina. Nina was great throughout the novel but her ending was so hardcore. I’m hoping we will get to see her struggle in the next book, and she won’t be out of commission for too long. She’s sassy and her relationship with Matthias reminds me a lot of Anastasia and Will from Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (another spin-off series! Much better than the original imo). Both these relationships are about a couple who loved each other making mistakes and working to forgive one another. The tension between them sliced through the page and I really felt their struggle. They have a great reason to love each other too; each taught the other about the common humanity among people. Matthias showed Nina kindness that she didn’t receive from her oppressors, and Nina showed Matthias friendship that he didn’t see in the propaganda he was taught. The flashbacks and progression really helped solidify them as a believable couple. I think what works the most about fictional couples like them is that you are shown how much they care despite being mad at each other. That’s how real relationships should be like. 

I was also pleasantly surprised by Jesper and Wylan as a couple. Growing up it was pretty much impossible to see gay relationships in mainstream books (only in the LGBT genre could you really find them), so I was pleasantly surprised. At first I saw Wylan as very young (for some reason) and probably a little brother figure to Jesper, but I’m glad I was proven wrong. They are hilarious together, and it was really heartwarming to see someone care for Wylan after witnessing his father reject him. 

Even though I did like these two couples I wasn’t a fan of the need of having everyone paired off. I mean seriously? Can no one be single in fiction? 

I feel this was especially since I did not see Inej and Kaz as a strong couple. I love them both as characters. Inej is a tough girl who had to work through her insecurities and heal from her past. Not to mention her cool skills. Kaz is the intelligent boy prodigy who is dark and out for revenge. They are both badass with tragic pasts, but I don’t think that’s a good enough reason for them to be together. Kaz is the bad boy type character that I usually would rather see stay a loner than have a romantic interest. If he has troubles keeping friends, how would he be ready for a romantic partner? I’m glad the author addressed that in the book, when Kaz asked her to stay and she said she needed commitment and he was too cold to give it to her. Bardugo did a good job of addressing that at least. 

But the flashbacks and longing looks didn’t really convince me for this couple as they did for NinaXMatt. They both have tragic pasts, and can sympathize with one another, but nothing of what I saw gave me reason to believe that Kaz would bond with her more than Jesper or any of the other characters. 

What really annoyed me about their relationship was that it seemed that all the moments used to show how much they cared about one another required Inej getting kidnapped or hurt. Kaz shows how much he cares for her by torturing the person who hurt her. The author shows how much Kaz cares by having a villain kidnap Inej and making Kaz go to his worst enemy for help. I’m not against female characters ever getting hurt or needing help but Inej didn’t even get a chapter in her POV after getting kidnapped. It doesn’t sit well with me. I know another book is coming, so I’ll reserve my final judgement for then. 

Again, I liked seeing Inej overcome her fears and achieve her goals. The chapter where she was able to climb up the chimney was the most empowering to read, personally. Even though I’m glad she got her revenge on Tante Heleen, I’m annoyed that we had to repeat the trope where women have to sexually please men to survive. I know the author was trying to do a subversion, because Nina and Inej were working undercover (and seductresses are staple in the Heist/Revenge plot storyline) but men are never put in this position in fiction unless it’s a joke (if anyone can come up with serious examples I’d still stand by that women are subjected to it more). Yes, I’m glad that this plot point was brought up in the issue of poverty (the author is very cutthroat about the dark aspects of the book, which I like), but I don’t understand the need to put females in this position after they escaped it. 

It was an especially frustrating point in the book because Inej spent so much of her dialogue talking about how girls were trafficked into the pleasure houses, how much abuse she suffered there, and how she left for the Dregs because it was so awful, and then says something about someone “choosing” to do it. I think the author was trying to paint that she hoped someone would choose it so it was less horrible (this is a real tactic that women in these positions use in order to cope with abuse, btw), but the fact is women in these lines of work in third-world countries rarely choose it.

 (Speaking of Inej, here’s a fun fact: My friend rented the book from the library and someone was kind enough to leave their artwork of Inej, I’ll post it if I ever get permission to). 

I think those are my most solid opinions just based on the first book. Kaz turning to Rollins for help was interesting...to say the least. I think I’ll need to see what happens next to really understand if he has given up his Revenge for Inej or if he does intend on coming back to fry that evil man’s ass. 

Let me know your thoughts ~