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#wylan is def dying first sry #“nina has powers” nina needs to see her opponent #inej is taking her out #in turn jesper is taking inej out because he guides his bullets and doesnt need to see people to kill them #kaz kills matthias because he has proven to be able to beat him easily #he could also hit the guns out of jes' hands with his cane (we've seen him do it on geels. he's real quick w/ it) #and then kaz is def winning a fight against unarmed jesper #that's ONE scenario

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Why do you dislike Mal? I get that he has some flaws but as compared to darkling he is a literal Saint.

He’s fucking boring. Also see: the tantrum he was throwing through the entirety of S&S

I’m also very much not going to judge a protagonist/ endgame love interest and the villain by the same standards lmfao. Characters exist to serve narrative functions, they’re not real people to hold to moral standards.

Anyway I was actually rooting pretty hard for Malina in book one because Alina seemed so invested! Then he showed up at the fete scene to yell at her and I was like. oh. never mind.

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My headcanon that isn't actually a headcanon because it's freaking dumb (but it made me laugh):

Jesper and Wylan have a guest room for Kaz that he can crash at whenever he wants, but he always refuses to and snaps at them to leave him be and stop mothering him.

They eventually do and one day, after months of Kaz refusing to spend a single night there, they let someone else sleep in it.

They wake up to someone prodding them in the middle of the night. It's Kaz looming over them and matter of factly asking why there's a stranger occupying his room. Jesper takes him by the scruff and kicks him out of the house.

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It is mentioned that Kaz is frequently underestimated because of his age, but the truth is, he's been on the streets since he was nine. That is eight years of experience.

i'm reading six of crows (FINALLY), and it's so good. my only complaint is the gang being 16-18. like,,, i've just been imagining them as young adults in their 20s, bc it just doesn't make sense for them to be so young. KAZ IS NOT 17. a 17 year old is not capable of the shit he does!!!!

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WHAAAAAAAT

You guys really liked my last poll so

#understandable tbf

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Well I put you in the microwave

You guys really liked my last poll so

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thinking about this moment again:

particularly in regards to this conversation:

thinking about inej, who is actively dying, asking kaz for an apology. inej, whose native tongue leaves no room for triviality here. this isn’t “you were mean to me and you need to make nice,” it’s so much deeper.

this is “promise me you won’t treat me like a piece in your chess game again. promise me you won’t keep acting like i’m replaceable. promise me i’m not just another one of your investments.”

this is the first time we see inej holding kaz accountable, the first time we see her ask him to be more, to do better. this is the precursor to the “without armor” conversation. and i think it’s fitting that we never hear whether or not kaz did apologize. because at this point, i don’t think he’s ready to give inej what she’s really asking for here, and in a way, it’s best that she doesn’t hear him say the words. he’s not ready to mean them yet.

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I think my favourite name that Kaz could be short for is: Lukas

I just prefer it out of the variations I've seen.

What's your favourite?

#the only one i can visualise is kasper #but lukas is the only other viable option imo

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Makin this before i go to bed so I'll see the anon hate TOMORROW! Ahem.

IN THOSE POLLS WHERE IS LIKE "WHO WOULD WIN IN A FIGHT TO THE DEATH" the only right answer is NINA. i will stand by this!!!!

Nina has powers and would kill them all before they even reach her UNLESS Inej gets the jump on her.

If there are no powers, Inej would win because she is sneaky, or mb wylan cuz bombs. Im sorry Kaz lovers but he is truly just a guy 😞

And I know Kaz took on a whole gang save your um actually's, but Nina took on a whole ARMY??? LIKE??? And she can raise the dead so shed just kill one and immediately get a team mate. Wake up yall!!

Anyway sorry for ranting in ur fyp continue scrolling 👍

#a few things #1 most of the polls explicitly say no powers #2 nina could only take on an army with parem which isnt her usual #3 she can now only effect dead bodies so can't use heartrender abilities to help her kill people #and sure she can raise the dead to help her but we know that def kaz and inej can take on more than two enemies simultanously #and nina would not win without her powers. she wont be the first to die (sry wylan) but she wont win #wylan's aim is canonically shit (especially under pressure) #jesper is such a good shot mainly because of his powers #kaz beat matthias easily #its between kaz and inej #now kaz vs inej #kaz taught inej how to fist fight so in a fist fight he would def win. especially because he has more experience #however he knows (and explicitly states) that getting that close to inej is a death sentence so he wouldnt. unless it was no weapons #in which case she's getting sucker punched sry inej #kaz also probably taught inej how to throw knives because inej was on the high wire and i dont think the ghafas had a knife toss? #and inej has only been with the gang for a year-ish #kaz has more experience plus is more ruthless #inej's stealth doesn't work on him either #kaz is literally a viable option #and even inej was taken aback at how he destroyed the dregs #even if you dont think kaz would win he is NOT “just a guy” #“just a guy” could not pull off the slat fight #crazy that you said it could be WYLAN though #bombs are good but it really depends on scenario and speed and skill and i cannot see wylan pulling that off #not even matthias or jesper??? #sry but crow fights really interest me #not trying to start discourse just throwing in my two cents

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I don’t get how y’all can talk about how much of a sexist and bigot matthias is. The whole point of his arc is that he was brainwashed and raised to believe this but he learns that the bullshit he grew up with isn’t true. Ofc he’s gonna flip back and forth because it’s a very stressful situation to open your eyes and realize that you’re in the wrong and even harder to be willing to relearn and “reprogram” yourself

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#he was a young boy who was manipulated and brainwashed and despite all that decided to change and unlearn his prejudices!?!??! #WHO IS SAYING NO???

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This post by @dwyntwo has been in my head

#(british accent) “oi wots all this then?” #ur art makes me crazy

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I'm in the middle of rewatching Shadow and Bone, and I still can't believe that a group of ragtag criminals outsmarted a whole lot of trained Grisha.

Inej killed that inferni in the time I take to tie my hair.

Jesper brought Ivan to the floor despite him wearing a bullet-proof kefta.

And Kaz? That badass hot bitch has audacity!

He met the Darkling, roasted the hell out of him by saying that his girlfriend ran away because she was sick of him, made him cry, evaded his cut with a magic trick, knocked out his Materialnik, and stole his carriage.

Honestly, who's doing it like the Crows?

#no one does it like them #kaz is just built different

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I think everyone knows which scene this is

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I found this scene so funny. When they looked out the window and saw how many people wanted to kill them

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Dude, poor Wylan was having one hell of a day when they appeared

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It’s gone midnight and I’m thinking about Six of Crows so y’all know what that means: it’s time for a long rambling thought process that will hopefully have some interesting insights into the books in it.

I want to talk about the animal, mostly bird, symbolism of these books because although it’s obviously something we’re very aware of I also think it’s something that runs a lot deeper than we necessarily always realise/talk about. Even when people aren’t being directly involved in bird metaphors (crows, pigeons, peacocks) they are often described as “squawking”, “flapping”, or with other phrases that further this semantic field.

Now the crows is obviously the main source of the symbolism, and it’s openly talked about in the book with the speech on how the recognise human faces and how they support each other. I’ve also seen a few people online talking about the Crows in conjunction with a poem/nursery rhyme about crows (it’s one of those that has many different versions spun of it, some know it was counting magpies rather than crows) wherein 6 crows symbolises gold, of course greatly linked to the plot of the novels as well as their anti-extreme capitalism message. It’s also key to mention that crows are massively underestimated birds in the general public view; they’re far ‘smarter’ animals than we would typically expect. Crows have a very high brain to body mass ratio, I believe the highest of any birds but don’t quote me on that, and although we understand very little about the brain the size ratio is currently considered a very good indicator for the general intelligence level of the animal. Crows can make tools, hide their food, mate for life, and - VERY interestingly for this book analysis - have even been suspected to hold funerals. Now I want to be clear I’m working on a mix of random knowledge and the first helpful looking website that came up when I googled ‘fun facts about crows’ so I am by no means an expert here, but to my understanding the practice that was initially considered to be a ‘crow funeral’ is actually a process wherein crows will gather around a dead crow to look for potential danger. So I feel like the links I’m establishing here are relatively obvious, the point is that, like the birds themselves, the Crows are undervalued, underestimated, and unexpectedly successful. But the symbol of the crow in these books arguably goes even further.

The crow-headed handle of Kaz’s cane represents everything about the crow I’ve already mentioned on top of his own symbolic layering to the cane as a sign that no part of him has not been broken, and no part him is not better for having been broken. So in Chapter 27 of Crooked Kingdom, when Kaz returns to the Slat and fights the Dregs before leading a coup against Per Haskell, the cane with the fake crow’s head that Haskell has contrived to mock him effectively represents the failing of everything the Dregs represent. They’re last, the remnants, the people with nowhere else to go: they are the people who have been broken and have made something new for themselves. Except Haskell. So the sheer ridiculousness of him mocking Kaz’s cane, something he clearly thought would win him favour and success, in the end becomes one of the biggest aspects of his downfall. Inej describes the moment when the Dregs begin to support Kaz, the way the look at Per Haskell with discomfort - “the feathers in his hat, the canes in his hands” (and then she goes on to highlight how they’ve seen Kaz use his cane in fights, “wielded with such precision”, whereas Haskell is washed-up, pathetic, never could have taken the fight Kaz did and walked out the other side). Of course they realise, then, how completely and utterly wrong all of this was. Because when they’re confronted with both of those canes they realise something. They know what Kaz’s cane represents; it’s power and strength in spite of a world that has that has scorned him, it’s taking something that was broken and not fixing it but emphasising it and making it into a threat, into a symbol, into a strength. They know that, even though they don’t know what happens in Kaz’s head, because they see themselves in that. The Dregs; the literal bottom of the Barrel, who have been broken and who have clawed their way to survival. They cannot see themselves in Haskell’s mockery cane. Haskell is not a man who reflects what the Dregs are at their core, but Kaz is. The emphasis on the feathers is also really interesting, because I think it’s implying a sort of gaudy, colourful feathering that (despite fitting in with the style of the Barrel) does not represent the symbol of the crow; it is not something shadowed, something half hidden that could have an unexpected bite. It’s almost more akin to Heleen’s gaudy peacock feathers than it is to anything the Dregs understand, or represent through being Crows.

The pigeons I don’t really see anyone talking about, but I think it’s pretty interesting. The idea of ‘the pigeon’ is the same as ‘the mark’; they’re the victim, the fool who’s easy to swindle. I think the imagery of the fools being pigeons, ie being everywhere and massively populating big cities, is really clever to show a divide between the few, the Crows, and the many, the pigeons. However, it’s not only the Crows who remark on others being ‘pigeons’, but other gangs as well. When Kaz confronts Pekka about the scam he ran on him and Jordie, he says “you were just two pigeons, and I happened to be the one who plucked you”. I’m not gonna lie to you guys I’m losing my point slightly, but I just googled ‘crows and pigeons’ and the first thing that came up was about how crows sometimes eat pigeons so I reckon that’s pretty relevant.

Ok I’m really tired and I feel like I’m clutching at straws here, so I dunno I guess if this does well then I’ll cover peacocks, lions, and the general semantic field of birds in another post. I hope at least some of this made sense, thanks for reading it if you bothered to get this far

#also the emphasis on birds in the language of the books that you mentioned (squawking. flapping. etc.) #links to kaz (and by extension the dregs) taking over #the lion (pekka rollins) is dying (the older gen being a “dying breed”) and the carrion birds are ready to pick apart what is left