#zoya nazyalensky

[cassandra41924]

Now let me ask you a question :) If everything Darkling did is not "forgivable" from your moral perspective, why are theft/murder/crimes forgiven to Crows?

the most obvious answer is that the darkling is responsible for the murders of hundreds, if not thousands, while the crows are relatively small scale criminals and are working for the greater good.

my two main problems with the darkling are: 1. he's hundreds of years old, and alina was seventeen 2. though he claimed that he wanted a safer place for the grisha, he slaughtered practically all of the second army that didn't side with him. i have no respect for a man who betrays his own kind and his own beliefs.

and i am biased, towards the crows and against the darkling, because that's what leigh bardugo wants her readers to think. objectively, the crows are cast as the main characters, the protagonists, and the 'good' or good-adjacent characters. meanwhile the darkling is cast as a mass murderer.

of course that isn't to say that he's only an antagonist; he is, like many of the grishaverse characters, nuanced and complex. but still, i find it hard to support him in the least.

[bsalwant]

small kindness

[evellynssocbrainrot]

When you think about it, Kaz is currently the most powerful person in the whole Grishaverse.

Why?

Well. Two of his best friends (Jesper and Wylan) literally run the merchant council of Ketterdam, one of his best friends (Nina) is the literal queen of Fjerda, he's acquaintances with the king and queen of Ravka (Zoya and Nikolai) who sometimes rely on him for missions, and his girlfriend (Inej) is an awesome, ass-kicking, and well-feared pirate empress.

[reggieslocket]

[dragonqueenstormwitch]

to be loved is to be seen

and it’s kaz choosing a ship for inej that he thinks suits her

it’s mal knowing alina loves the blue irises, not the white ones

it’s jesper memorizing wylan’s face and telling genya how to tailor him back

it’s david keeping a list of all the ways genya likes to be complimented

it’s nikolai designing a structure to protect zoya’s garden and promising to always make it summer for her

[fantastic-nonsense]

Things Kaz canonically does in the two years between Crooked Kingdom and Rule of Wolves:

(presumably) massively expands the Dregs' territory

buys Pekka's old club (the Emerald Palace) and completely renovates it, turning it into The Silver Six

massively expands the Crow Club to the point where it's "three times the size of every other establishment on the block"

builds an underground tunnel that goes from the Crow Club to the Geldstraat, where the Van Eck Mansion is

takes Jesper out on jobs with him often enough that Wylan has jokingly banned Jesper from answering the door when he knocks

learns about Ketterdam's Suli laborers and picks up additional knowledge of Suli culture

keeps up with Inej's whereabouts and helps her take out slavers

expands his information network to the Kerch colonies

is on friendly enough terms with the King of Ravka that he taught Nikolai how to pick locks and Nikolai feels comfortable personally writing him a letter when he needs to steal the titanium from Kerch

disguises himself just to follow people around on the streets

was planning to steal the titanium from the military base anyway just for fun

And that's just the stuff we see from Nikolai's and Zoya's incredibly limited perspectives during their Ketterdam sidequest

I 100% agree with Zoya when she thinks that "maybe Kaz was like Nikolai, a boy with an unquiet mind, a man in perpetual need of challenge" because ROW makes it so obvious that Kaz is bored and incredibly restless in his success. Someone get our boy a new life's purpose and a subscription to a long-running unsolved mystery podcast stat

[elainiisms]

you ppl love villains/morally grey characters UNTIL they're a woman, then all of a sudden they are annoying, evil and irredeemable

[clairvoyantly-yours]

it felt so satisfying getting to know in crooked kingdom that genya, after all the pain and humiliation she went through, had become a respected figure in the society- "a legend", "the first tailor", etc. i love how nina talks about her with awe (not as much as zoya, but yeah still) and it's obvious she has really found herself. she even retained her bubbly nature after everything.

they could never make me hate you, genya safin.

[exyzedd]

cannot stop making textposts😔👍🏼

(pics used aren't mine)

[grishaverse-only]

Malina this, Kanej that. WHAT ABOUT THEM???

Not my art******

All credits go to @kolarpem

[downn-in-flames]

random grishaverse as text posts because i love making these

[adalindofcabinsix]

“zoya will live a very long life,” the darkling said. “despite the demon, you may not do the same.”

“then i will love her from my grave.”

[kaetor]

wanted to draw my take on some of my favorite grishaverse characters

[fedzzzart]

shadow and bone girlies + alina and genya by the end of the trilogy✨

[dragonqueenstormwitch]

went a little meme crazy over on brekkerbybrekker today

[questioning-pisces]

nothing is stronger than the bond between an aroace and their favorite fictional character