FIRST (second If You Count ‘next’) LYRIC VIDEO FOR STARBOUND IS UP!!!!! My Six Of Crows Inspired

Kaz Brekker.

Climbed over rooftops to sneak into his old gang house so that he could put on a suit.

Because he needed to be properly dressed in order to stage a coup against the owner of the gang he’d actually been running for years.

Got in a fist fight with half of that old gang.

Won said fist fight using only a crows-head-cane, rusty nails that he dug out of the floorboards, and his unquenchable well of anger and revenge.

Then gave a speech that scared the other half of that gang into submission, ran the old boss out of the building, and took over the entire gang.

And he did that alone. Without any help.

So when I say Kaz Brekker is iconic, I mean that he is SO iconic that no one else even compares.

Minor six of crows spoiler

“Go little rockstar” but it’s aditi watching Jesper overcome his addiction and find peace within himself

six of crows by leigh bardugo

"Fine, make me your villain".

- The darkling (shadow and bone) by Leigh Bardugo

That single sentence really struck a cord with me. It exploited multiple things about the darkling and his character.

1. It conveys that he knows Alina (and many others) see him as the bad guy. He understands that they look at him as the villain who must be stopped because what he stands for and does is wrong.

2. He’s trying to make Alina understand that well what he is doing is dark and dangerous business, it’s not the wrong thing to do. He’s trying to make her see that sometimes bad actions must be preformed to generate good results.

3. Despite the fact that he’s attempted to explain his vision of a different future to Alina, he has come to understand that she simply doesn’t see it the way he does. He has come to understand that all she sees when she looks at him, is a monster doing monstrous things.

4. He is upset and frustrated that Alina can’t understand his vision and his actions, that she can’t understand him, that she only sees him as a villain.

5. That sentence also touches upon the subject that the villain never truly sees themselves as a villain. The darkling knows what he’s doing is bad, but he believes in his core that it’s ultimately the right thing to do. He believes that by preforming certain destructive actions, a positive result will emerge from the ashes.

6. That single sentence also shows that in Alina’s perspective, The darkling is her villain, but he doesn’t think he is. He thinks she should be with him, on his side.

The darkling is a very interesting villain because he is written to be very dark and very motivated, yet you can understand his motivation, you just probably don’t agree with his methods.

SOC SPOILERS

Meanwhile in the tank:

But wasn’t that what every girl dreamed? That she’d wake and find herself a princess? Or blessed with magical powers and a grand destiny? Maybe there were people who lived those lives. But what about the rest of us? What about the nobodies and the nothings, the invisible girls? We learn to hold our heads as if we wear crowns. We learn to wring magic from the ordinary.

That was how you survived when you weren’t chosen, when there was no royal blood in your veins. When the world owed you nothing, you demanded something of it anyway.

Crooked Kingdom, page 460

How to destroy a SOC fan

“Wait.” …. “Is my tie straight?”

So, everyone keeps complaing about what Cardan did in the end of twk but I'm like??? I have never been more proud of someone in my life like HELL YES Cardan is THE perfect High King, where he bleeds things grown. He had such amazing growth and he is so strong now and I am proud proud proud I love him

I love Cardan’s story arc. Like, love love love. 

And I won’t complain about what Cardan did when he exiled Jude (though it did break my heart a little because THEY MADE SO MUCH PROGRESS). BUT I also understand that he was trying to protect her. And, looking at the language, I mean…Jude is royal! She can say “hey my exile is over I’m coming back now” and she can. She’s just way too stubborn to even realize it. She’s just all “oh my god I’m so mad” and I mean I would be too, like being exiled from the place you call home is heartbreaking. 

I digress. 

Point is, I agree with you about Cardan. He’s opening up, we’re learning what he’s been through and why he’s had to become what people would consider a monster, and we learn that hey, maybe he doesn’t want to be cruel or wicked. Maybe, deep down, he wants to do good. And the land thriving off of him, the power he’s receiving, well, I think he wants to do good with it. He wants to be king and wants to do right for his people. And Jude. 

But he still has a long way to go. 

Me, naive, reading this Crooked Kingdom scene:

‘aww, so Kaz is one of those characters who, despite everything, is kind to little kids’

Me, paragraphs later:

’nevermind’

I think one of my favorite aspects of the Six of Crows duology is the fact that Kaz and Inej do not end up together.

And that’s not because I don’t ship them.

It’s because Inej, unlike so many YA heroines, isn’t what “heals” Kaz. Her love doesn’t magically fix him or make him a better person. He wants to change for her– he wants to get over his phobia of human touch. He wants her to love him. But it isn’t some overnight happening. He doesn’t suddenly overcome his affliction because of his love for her.

In the end, Kaz is still morally ambiguous, sometimes outright corrupt, and still has severe PTSD trauma.

And while Inej might love Kaz despite those things, she is not willing to lower her worth to accept them in a relationship. “I will have you without your armor, Kaz Brekker. Or I will not have you at all.”

That was one of the most powerful YA heroine lines to her love interest that I’ve ever read. So many fictional girls (and real girls, for that matter) stay in the hopes of fixing a man, of healing his brokenness. Inej wants to heal him, but she understands that she cannot. Only Kaz can heal himself. Only he can want it enough to change. And it won’t be some overnight affair. Wanting to change and actually changing are two entirely different things. Kaz will have to go through agonizing changes if he ever wants to grow.

So far, he has accepted that he is the “demon of the barrel”. He still wants to burn the world down. He is still angry and hurting. He talks about wondering why over the years, with every violent turn his life takes, why his phobia has only gotten worse. It’s because he’s let himself rot in it. He’s stripped any and all goodness in the world down to the barest threads.

That’s why he is not ready for Inej. Inej, who might have her own issues and flaws, but who still has hope for a better world. Who is still willing to fight for it.

It’s not Kaz’s inability to touch her that she wants him to work on. It’s his mindset. His finality in the evil in his heart and his acceptance of it. He will never get over his phobia until he can understand goodness, the goodness of touch, the goodness of man.

And Inej will not accept him while he still holds on to that armor of hatred. And I think that is beautiful. It is healthy. It shows a level of self-respect that is often sadly absent from our fiction today.