#my money is on matthias

[writtenbylenora]

[midnightcrows]

The Sleeper whipped her baton into the side of Nonius's face, sending him staggering, and followed up with a vicious knife thrust to his belly; he turned it with the thick part of his blade, but awkwardly, and the Sleeper managed to knee him in the flank and score the knife's point down his sword arm for good measure before he shoved her away and fell into guard.

[funnyao3]

Wylan mulled that over. “So I should try and make sure I get something tangible out of it.”

Nina tilted her head. “Does he remind you of anyone? A young K – “

“Don’t say it,” Jesper said, looking pained. “Don’t even say it.”

[freddycartr]

y’all are sleeping on calahan skogman’s performance as matthias helvar in s2 and it fucking shows

[strawberryloveyyy]

Just some of my Six of Crows annotations, and me freaking out about kanej <3

Don’t mind the messiness of it, my handwriting isn’t the best but I’m working on it 😭 Also just to flex but my copy doesn’t have the stupid netflix sticker <333

[topographicanomaly]

As much as I like Xavier Dolan's films... if he said all that then he's kinda a little bitch... like...

[crazy-together-cambria]

i literally love the crows so much i need to read the books rn.

[exams-will-make-me-cry]

I don't know any shit about this but I still love this entire post holy macaroni-

I think a lot about The Bathroom Scene™ and how Kaz's selfless actions towards Inej are contrasted with their discussion about whether he's any different from Pekka, but Chapter 26 as a whole also does a lot to show how much Kaz cares about all of his Crows and not just Inej. He spends a lot of time in that chapter thinking about how he's probably about to die, and yet he does everything in his power to make sure his Crows get out alive.

He specifically zeroes on Inej's safety, of course (because when isn't Kaz focused on her?) but his actions, dialogue, and internal monologue are all entirely centered around how guilty he feels for getting everyone into this mess and how desperate he is to make sure he's the only collateral damage of his own scheme at the end of the day:

Kaz sits down and (more or less) fully explains his entire plan to the Crows instead of keeping them in the dark

Kaz gives Jesper's dad the only protection he's still able to give: his own family's name and reputation

Kaz ruminates on why he called Jesper by his brother's name and implicitly acknowledges that it's because he's scared to recognize Jordie in Jesper (that he's afraid to lose another brother)

Kaz thinks "But they’d landed in a trap, and if he had to chew his paw off to get them out of it, then that was what he would do."

Kaz pays off Inej's contract by liquidating "every asset he had" and explicitly tells her "I don't want you to be beholden to Per Haskell. Or me."

Kaz tells Inej about his emergency money stash and charges her with getting everyone out of the city safely if he doesn't come back from the Slat

Kaz tells her "Whatever happens to me, survive this city. Get your ship, have your vengeance, carve your name into their bones. But survive this mess I’ve gotten us into."

Kaz leaves on a suicide mission, telling Inej not to follow, because if he's going to die he wants to be the only one in active danger

And of course Kaz had already offered to serve himself up on a silver platter to the stadwatch and give them a way out even before he came up with the auction plan (though we don't get Kaz's point of view of The Clocktower Fight, I suspect it's also why he picked that fight with Jesper: he knew Jesper would never leave him to die unless he made him mad enough to "walk away" for once in his life).

What separates Kaz from other Barrel Bosses like Pekka isn't just that he would never sell a person or con/otherwise harm children. It's that at his lowest, when all the bravado and scheming and masks are stripped away, Kaz chooses to put himself on the line and sacrifice his own safety over putting his people in any more danger than they have to be. Because despite his ruthlessness and casual assholery, Kaz simply doesn't have it in him to watch those he cares about get hurt if he can prevent it. He ended Chapter 26 saying he intended to leave damage behind when he's gone, but also spent the entirety of the Geldrenner chapters spending time and effort and money he didn't have to minimize the damage as much as possible for his friends (his new family) if the worst should happen to him.

So he gives them a safe place to land where the gangs won't find them. He tries to push them away and make them mad enough that they won't grieve him when he dies. He gives them multiple ways out even if none of those options guarantee his own safety. He gives them money and as much safety as he can provide with the whole city out for their blood. He gives Inej her freedom. And he gives them time to rest, recharge, and prepare for whichever plan they end up doing while he goes off to stage a coup he's not sure he'll come back from.

This is all to say: Kaz could never be Pekka, no matter how tough of a game he talks about burning everything to the ground, because Kaz cares too much to ever become Pekka. Even as he continues to pretend not to care about anything but the money, his love for his city and his Crows are baked into every one of his thoughts and actions in those chapters. Unlike Pekka, who flees first Ketterdam and then Kerch entirely when his son is in (percieved) danger, Kaz stays to fight for the city he bent to his will. And unlike Per Haskell, who lets other people do his dirty work and sells out at the first opportunity for glory, Kaz puts himself on the front lines first even when doing so comes at a great cost to himself.

Pekka chases money and power for their own sake. Per Haskell chases money and power for the decadence, glory, and laziness it allows him to get away with. Kaz chases money and power because he knows what it's like to be powerless and wants to, in his own weird way, protect others from suffering his trauma and himself from losing anyone else he cares about. And that's why even at his most unhinged Kaz could never become Pekka Rollins: his quest for power and fame and riches comes from a fundamentally different place. Kaz Brekker doesn't need a reason, but he has at least six at all times during the course of the duology (the Crows+Jordie)...and while those reasons are often filtered through his two primary reasons (revenge for Jordie and Inej's freedom, safety, and happiness), none of them are ever far from his mind.

[witchcraftandgeekness]

Things we (me) are forgetting about Six of crows, not in order:

• There were rumours that Wylan was caught in an affair with his tutor

• Inej killed rinca moten (the desert lizard) that Matthias claimed he never seen being defeated before. She did it in few seconds too

• Jesper and Nina had chloropellets that they used to put other prisoners to sleep stitched under their skin. And had to cut them out to use them

• Matthias had a buzzcut for whole two books and half; also, half of SoC he had brown hair and brown eyes tailored

• Kaz had lockpicks and bloody explosives swallowed for the entirety of heist, and had to regurgitate them every other hour

• When Nina was young, she wanted to go to Fjerda as an avenging warrior or a spy (foreshadowing, I guess)

• Inej used Kaz's gloves to climb in the incenerator scene

• After learning Inej's real name, Kaz asked if that's what she preferred to be called

•Kaz's pov has shown that he probably had fracture or other injury from when he jumped while carrying Inej in his arms, and it was never mentioned him getting any medical attention. My boy been running this heist like this, AND without his cane for hours

• They blew up the nation's holy magical tree (somehow I keep forgetting this part)

• Matthias gave Kaz an agressive CPR until Nina took over. So his heart probably stopped during heist? (Somebody just give him a vacation or something)

•Nina flirts/ed with Kaz (as he had mentioned himself, she just loves flirting with everybody and everything)

•Inej seems to be the ONLY one in the Dregs without their tattoo

•Matthias labeled Inej as a demon in his head as well, not only Kaz

•Matthias' middle name is Benedik. I think only his and Jesper's second names were revealed (very likely that they are the only ones who have them)

•Kaz gave Matthias the "you wouldn't last an hour in the asylum where they raised me" talk (like, literally)

•“You can’t spend his money if you’re dead.”

“I’ll acquire expensive habits in the afterlife.”

•Inej thought that Kaz "at least owes me his best imitation of a human being".

•Wylan was standing up to Kaz several times, even at times when others wouldn't (like right after the Oomen incident)

•Matthias has the coolest nicknames for everybody in general

•Kaz kinda thinks more of Inej than others do? Has more faith in her and how strong she is, if you will

•Kaz went back for the Black Tips after Inej was injured and "there was enough blood to paint a barn red" (reminder that he still has a fracture after running with her in his hands and jumping off great heightswhile carrying her)

•Tolya was mentioned in SoC ("There’s a Heartrender at the Little Palace who can recite epic poetry for hours. Then you’d wish you had died.”)

•Matthias thanked Inej personally for being the reason they made it out of the harbor alive (that's right, everybody must respect Inej)

•Kaz wants reassurance that Inej believes in him once in a while

•Everybody feels kinda good about sharing secrets with Kaz cuz he's Dirtyhands and he wouldn't judge anything

•Kaz and Inej have a series of silent signals?

•Kaz said "You don't want a look at what's inside my head, Nina dear" while wearing fucking dumb goggles

•Inej is the only sacred thing in Kaz's life, and she made him feel like a boy still believing in existence of magic

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

The Crows are to the Grishaverse as the Guardians of the Galaxy are to Marvel. Like all the avengers and shadow and bone characters are like “ahh the weight of world is on our shoulders” but all the crows and the guardians just want their goddamn money

I have too much time on my hands and I wanted to prove my point, so enjoy these guardians quotes replaced by the crows characters

Van Eck: [insert long villain monologue here]

Kaz: yeah, blah blah blah but WE’D LIKE TO GET PAID

Inej: The contact is making me wait.

Kaz: That’s just a negotiation tactic - trust me, this is my speciality. Whereas yours is more… stab, stab, stab

Nina: I have no need of the money

Kaz: Well great, more money for the rest of us!

Jesper: What’s that?

Wylan: Don’t touch that, it’s a bomb

Jesper: AND YOU JUST LEAVE IT LYING AROUND!???

Wylan: … well I was gonna put it in a box

Matthias: I’m a warrior, an assassin. I don’t dance.

Nina: Really? Well, in my country we have a legend about people like you. It’s called Footloose. And a great hero, named Kevin Bacon, teaches an entire city of people with sticks up their butts that, dancing, well it’s the greatest thing there is.

Matthias: Who put the sticks up their butts? That is cruel.

[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.

[sprnklersplashes]

Inej and Matthias and Kaz and Nina are both sibling duos but they exist on complete opposite ends of the siblings spectrum.

Inej and Matthias are the siblings that post cute photodumps for each other's birthdays and go on trips together and text every day. They loan each other money and Matthias drives her around and Inej always brings him back something when she gets food.

Nina and Kaz are the siblings that fight over the smallest things and do the "he's touching me" "I'M NOT TOUCHING YOU I'M TOUCHING THE AIR" bit. Kaz just walks into Nina's room, stares at her for 30 seconds and walks back out. They eat each other's food despite Kaz labeling everything he owns and nearly kill each other over it.

Inej brings Kaz home and Matthias asks why he thinks he's good enough for his sister.

Kaz brings Inej home and Nina says, in full view of everyone "you're too good for my brother".

[padfoot-lupin77]

Crooked Kingdom, a summary

Kaz: money. Inej. Money. Inej. Murder Pekka Rollins. No wait murder Van Eck he hurt Inej. Also money. Yes. Inej and money.

Inej: I actually have a purpose and a reason to live for!! Wow, I’d missed that feeling. Also I deserve much better than Kaz but… well…

Jesper: I was happy until you pointed out the void inside me. Why did you do that? Now I’m sad. Wait Wylan is here? Nvm I happy again

Wylan: what am I doing here? Every day I’m more shocked by how evil people can be. Do you guys want me to explode anything? Set Kuwei on fire? No? Oh come on! Oh hi Jesper :)

Matthias: that was an unholy thought. For the 100th time today. Why is Nina so hot I wish I could just f- oops 101st unholy thought for today

Nina: parem parem NO NOT PAREM okay Inej needs my help okay WAIT DID I JUST RAISE ZOMBIES what’s going on MATTHIAS NO

+Bonus Kuwei: pretending not to speak Kerch was my best decision cause I’ve overheard so much shit while they think I can’t understand them

Six Of Crows version

[funnyao3]

Maybe, he thought grimly, if I lay here long enough and manifest it hard enough, I’ll just sink through the bed, into the floor, through the earth’s crust, and come out on the other side where nobody knows that I’m a massive idiot.

The other side of his brain offered helpfully: Well, you’d still know.

[i-love-soc-a-very-normal-amount]

Reasons to read Six of Crows

1. Actually good representation

- all the crows have ptsd of some sort that actually affect their actions

- religion also affects their actions (eg. Inej with her saints and unwilling to kill, Matthias with djel)

- Jesper and inej are darker skinned

- wylan is gay and jesper and Nina are bi

- wylan has dyslexia that he's really ashamed of because of his father(and when he told Kaz he(Kaz) literally just shrugged!!)

- Kaz is physically disabled (his leg) and needs to use a cane

2. Nina is canonically thick and curvy but is still described as beautiful and badass

3. Again with Nina

- she does eat more than the other crows and they don't judge her for it

- when she starts to eat less bc of parem her friends panic and try to get her to eat more

- and when she starts eating again they're so fucking happy

4. All the crows have their own horrible backstory and yet none of them have ever been in a toxic relationship

5. The boundaries that characters set are actually respected (eg. Kaz with his gloves and no-touch rule)

6. It's so funny ("My ghost won't associate with your ghost", "I'm going to get someone to burn my kruge for me / you could pay someone to pay someone to burn your kruge / I'll pay someone to pay someone to pay someone to burn my kruge / you know what the really big bosses do? They pay someone to pay someone...", "MAYBE I LIKED YOUR STUPID FACE" among other examples)

7. There are such impactful and beautiful quotes ("I would come for you", "I have been made to protect you" etc)

8.

9. To elaborate with the 'horrible backstory' thing

- Inej is a victim of sex trafficking

- Wylan was nearly murdered by his father's men for not being able to read

- Matthias was brainwashed from a young age to hate Grisha

- Nina (and other Grisha) were kidnapped and abused by Matthias and his fellow drüskelle

- Jesper's mum died when he was 7 years old

- Kaz's dad died when Kaz was 9 and left him and his older brother (Jordie) to sell the farm and go to Ketterdam. Jordie died from a plague a short time later and Kaz had to use Jordie's dead, plague-ridden body to swim to shore after being mistaken as dead and loaded onto the Reapers' Barge along with Jordie and then find a way to survive with no money and no family to go to

[sarastellasari]

❄️Crows Secret Santa headcannons! ❄️

I don’t know if they even have Christmas in the grishaverse and also I forgot Matthias was dead, but enjoy!

❆ Nina is the one who organizes it, cause she thinks it would be fun for all of the crows to get together and do something

❆ Kaz thinks it’s dumb but inej gets him to go along with it cause Nina is super excited and she doesn’t want to disappoint her

❆ Also I feel like Kaz would try to get out of it but Nina would be like “NO, you need to do it, we have to have an even amount of people or else it won’t work! Do you want us to have to get kuwei to do it with us? He’ll try to give Jesper a kiss as his present!” Or smth like that (fun fact, secret Santa does work with an odd amount of people, me and my friends learnt the hard way :/)

❆ Kaz gets Matthias and tries to bribe Nina to switch with him (Nina has inej) Nina’s like bitch no, and Kaz buys Matthias like. An expensive sweater or something.

❆ Matthias has no idea what secret Santa is and Nina has to explain it to him and stop him from just giving his person (Jesper) money

❆ Nina eventually just gives up and buys the gift cause Matthias doesn’t rly know what Jesper likes, but he writes Jesper a 4 page long heartfelt card about how much he values their friendship

❆ Jesper forgets to get the gift until last minute but still buys his person (wylan) a rly thoughtful gift that they love

❆ But since he literally IS DATING his person, he almost accidentally exposes himself like 5000 times and by the time they do the exchange Wylans like, whoah :/ I didn’t know it was you at all :/

❆ Wylan is really stressed about it cause he has Kaz so he’s like, wtf do I get him? He literally doesn’t like anything! But he ends up making Kaz some homemade explosives or smth

❆ When they finally gather to do the exchange it’s going fine until Nina pulls out the matching pajamas and everyone is like ew, no

❆ They end up compromising and just wearing the pants

❆ When the actual exchange starts, it goes well

❆ Jesper cries when he reads Matthias’ letter, and then Matthias cries too, and everyone starts getting very emotional

❆ Wylan is super scared Kaz won’t like his gift but Kaz likes it

❆ Matthias likes his sweater a lot and Nina is like, see Kaz, I told you being his person was a good idea!

❆ Nina gives inej a super expensive knife named Nina and Kaz is like, I could’ve given her a better gift if I was her person >:( and then they start fighting

❆ And then somehow the explosives that wylan gave Kaz start going off and they all freak out and someone calls the stadwatch but because they’re all criminals, they end up having to hide from them since they think they intentionally commited arson

❆ And that’s the first and last secret Santa the crows ever have