#looks like he hasn't slept in twenty years despite being a teenager

[andromeda3116]

Having only seen the show, I think a lot of it is the look. That was definitely my first impression, that Cameron Chapman looks way more like book!Kaz than Freddy Carter, and does carry himself with that sort of recklessness bordering on death-seeking and high intelligence/arrogance that Kaz does. And Lockwood/Lucy does give severe Kanej vibes in the way they interact and connect in a way that is deeply emotional rather than purely physical, and see a certain kind of mirror in each other. I mean, I can't see Lockwood ripping out a guy's eye and then drowning him, but I can see Lockwood thinking about Lucy the way that Kaz thinks about Inej, that her laugh makes him believe in magic again.

I kind of feel like Lockwood -- or at least show!Lockwood, since, again, I haven't read the books -- kind of comes off like how Kaz might have been, if Jordie hadn't died. Like, still traumatized by the death of his father (and possibly mother, although she's never mentioned) and being scammed by Rollins, but he didn't lose everything, he still had something to hold onto and keep him grounded as himself. Lockwood still had his home, Kaz would still have had his brother. They seem to have similar core personalities -- usually the smartest person in the room and wants to make sure everyone knows it, reckless with their own safety yet fiercely protective of their people, snarky and cocky and bold leaders -- but the circumstances that shaped them were very different and led to very different people at the end of them.

I mean -- I can't see Lockwood ever deliberately killing anyone, unless it was a matter of immediate life or death, and he's much more open with his emotions, willing to apologize, and reach out to others than Kaz is. He's also not motivated by vengeance or rage, isn't nearly as misanthropic, and he reacts to situations differently -- for example, Kaz wouldn't have flinched at the agent dying (apparently) because of him, whereas it sent Lockwood into a panic attack. They live in very different worlds, and it's shaped them in very different ways.

But there is some overlap there, and I definitely see Lockwood appealing to the Kaz fans, perhaps more than the Netflix version of Kaz does. He definitely appealed to me a lot more than show!Kaz, who, the more I think about it, really disappointed me. He's a better portrayal of Kaz's soft side than the show's version of weirdly-soft-Kaz, while actually looking how the seventeen-year-old Kaz Brekker was supposed to look.

So, like. I get it. My first impression of the show was "Kaz Brekker, ghost hunter," although that changed as I kept going and the differences between Lockwood and Kaz really began to show and become more relevant to the plot and characterization. I feel like the comparisons might not have become so popular if not for the Netflix show's version of Kaz being kind of disappointing to a lot of fans.

Look, I’m a Shadow and Bone/Six of Crows enjoyer myself but the Kaz and Lockwood comparisons or similarities stop at the “asset”/“investment” thing and the fact that they both prefer formal clothes. They are not the same character. Lockwood cannot be “Kaz coded” because he existed before Kaz. Just because two male protagonists of a series aimed at young adults have both experienced trauma does not make them exactly the same.