#kaz brekker is a morally grey and complex character sure

[teenagemutantninjaskrtels]

Hello! i saw your book blog asks bottom aren't showing :( was going to ask for tips on how to write eris or any gray character without accidentaly excusing them like sjm does to rhysand (I admit i havent read many books like this and i am well insecure about my writting)

I've closed it for a little while. I'm not an expert, but I would suggest with any writing, the more you read, the more you come across great pieces and also not so great pieces that help shape your own style.

With a morally grey character, I would first work out why they are morally grey. What is their motive/history? Is there a goal they want to achieve and will stop at nothing to achieve it? Or is it simply their character doesn't know the difference between right and wrong and feels little guilt with what they do. Don't just make them morally grey because it's sexy (which it is most the time lmao). I'd say most morally grey characters have a complex history that makes them that way. If you grow up surrounded by goodness and righteousness, there's little need to go into the darkness. Usually there is something traumatic that feeds into their personality.

My favourite morally grey characters are ones who get a little squeamish when they do the right thing.

Take Kaz Brekker from Six of Crows. Innocent boy thrust into a big city, trusts somebody, loses all his money, brother dies, goes through a massively traumatic incident that has impacted his every waking moment since - and is then hell-bent on revenge. Does he do a lot of bad stuff? Yes. Does he feel guilt over it? No. Why? Because he is determined on that path and seems unshakeable to remove himself from it. However, he is not completely bad. He doesn't seek to hurt just anybody he comes across; he always has his target in mind. But sure, if somebody became an obstacle, he'd have no issue in removing it. Take the way he behaves with Inej; calls her his investment, knows that hurts her to consider her as little more than a lavish spend, but does it to protect himself because he doesn't want to admit that he has feelings for Inej and she is more than an investment. (Close your eyes for spoilers - but by the end of the series, he's shifted that and even if he won't admit it, he's bought her a ship and brought her parents to Ketterdam because he knows it will bring her joy - and that doesn't benefit him in the slightest to lose her)

There are many book boyfriends who are "morally grey" - Wrath from Kingdom of the Wicked, Slade from the Plated Prisoner, Casteel from From Blood and Ash, people will say Rhys too. But it seems to me they just hurt people who dare speak against their love interest. Cardan Greenbriar from the Folk of the Air is one of my favourites because he falls into the trap of "crap, I have feelings so I'll disguise them with nastiness". He's cruel to Jude but if he acted on his feelings for her, it goes against the grain of what's expected of faeries. However, I don't feel like these are actually morally grey because they are only good to a select few and just tend to be bad as much as they can otherwise. In my opinion, the Darkling is not morally grey either. He wants power and doesn't care who he steps on. There's no goodness in him. His damn name is the Darkling.

If we take love out of it, for me, a morally grey character is somebody like Lorcan from Throne of Glass who knows he's probably not doing the right thing when he's hunting for Aelin, knows it will piss of Rowan, but he is duty bound to do it and that is the more important thing to him. That desire to fulfil his goal and please Maeve supersedes everything else.

If your morally grey character is motivated by achieving a goal then they hurt people in the process and don't apologise because their goal is what drives them. Or, if they do apologise, would likely do it again. However, it might be that internally, they do feel guilty, they do feel shame for hurting someone but their goal just matters that little bit more. I would amp up the internal conflict within them. The desire to do what's right vs what you want. (If you've watched Squid Game then I'm thinking Sang-Woo).

Morally grey characters:

use others to achieve their goal - this could be a way to generate that conflict "you used me!" yeah i told you i would, what's the issue

Lie so that others never know if they're being honest with them - and that feeds into the distrust

have flaws - Kaz is so dogged with his revenge that it rules him sometimes

believe what they do is right with little regret (azriel beating the crap out of eris in the high lord's meeting which in turn spooks mor but to azriel, he was doing the right thing defending her)

get their hands dirty even if it puts off other characters

get their hands dirty to benefit the people they care about e.g. wrath ripping out a tongue because they spoke against emilia

This might be controversial but I kind of wish sjm kept some of the things that rhys did UtM, including the winter court children because he was forced into that situation and had to keep up appearances for the sake of Velaris and the mask he was wearing. Would it be an absolutely horrendous thing to do? Yes. Do I think he would do it to protect the people he loves? Yes. Would he feel guilt? Absolutely. Which would make for a much more interesting character and change how his family perceive him. But then it got retconned away.

Morally grey characters are supposed to make you squirm. They have to do the morally bad things to be grey. Just hurting bad people is being the hero. There does need to be darkness. It's a spectrum; sometimes they're a little bit closer to the light. There needs to be moments when you think "no way have they done that".

There seems to be very few morally grey female characters that I can think of. Maybe Vanja from Little Thieves who commits crimes for revenge, hurts friends to meet her goals because otherwise it's her neck on the chopping board. Or maybe Sera from A Shadow in the Ember who is told she must kill Nyktos who she is slowly seducing whilst also falling for him too.

This was a very long ramble. Sorry.

Here's some links!

#writing advice

[howtostandinsilence]

I can’t believe I have to say this, considering the man was literally about to sell a Grisha woman - Alina Starkov - into slavery not half an episode ago, and we should all have better object permanence than that of an infant, but Kaz Brekker telling the Darkling Alina didn’t want to be his captive anymore was not even close to being a feminist moment.

#the grisha trilogy #leigh bardugo #shadow and bone #sab salt #this is the same person who said inej was worth saving #because she was more valuable than all the other women in the menagerie #the same person who visited the menagerie for years for the intel the girls there gathered #and who only started caring when one of the girls offered him something in turn #and then he only started caring about that one girl #kaz brekker is a morally grey and complex character sure #even call him a good person #but feminist?? #i dont think so #at least not in any of the scenes people scream feminist about

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hey! Do you have any advice on writing morally grey royal characters, but more specifically those who were born into royalty? I’m thinking obsession with wealth, power and class attitudes. Thanks!

Writing Morally Gray Royal Characters

Lots to say here, so I'm going to break it all down into a list!

1) It Depends Somewhat on the Setting - As with any character portrayal, some part of the depiction depends on when and where your story is set. The attitude and behavior of an 18th century British royal will probably differ from that of a 15th century Aztec royal. Both will probably differ from a 21st century monarch of a Muslim country, which would differ somewhat from a 21st century royal in an Asian or European country.

2) Beware Royal Snob Cliché Territory - Money-obsessed, power-hungry, elitist jerks appear so often in fiction that they've become a cliché, and one it's best to avoid. For one thing, it's a silly stereotype. Sure, some royals may be accustomed to the finer things, and may enjoy their power and privilege, but that doesn't mean that they can be described as "hungry" or "obsessed" with any of those things. Also, part of what makes the "royal snob" character such a cliché is that tends to be the extent of their character development. They have no other personality beyond this hunger and obsession. In reality, royals have a lot of the same problems, dreams, fears, and hang-ups as everyone else, even if they may play out a bit differently because of who they are.

3) Obsession with Wealth, Power, and Status Does Not Make a Character Morally Gray - A "morally gray" character isn't a character who has some unpleasant characteristics like an obsession with wealth or power. Morality is a distinction between right and wrong as it applies to the well-being of a society. Since wealth is almost always unevenly distributed and kept out-of-reach from a segment of a society's population, one could certainly make the argument that wealth and obsession with wealth are immoral, but here's the problem: immoral beliefs or behaviors isn't what makes a character morally gray...

4) "Morally Gray" is About Motivation, Actions, and Goals - Morally gray characters are neither good or bad, but somewhere in the middle. What puts them in the middle is that their motivation and goal is generally good, but their actions are a bit on the fuzzy side of morality.

A great example is the character Kaz Brekker from Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows duology and Netflix's Shadow and Bone series. Without getting into spoiler territory, Kaz was a nice, innocent kid once. Then someone really bad betrayed him and a loved one, and his number one priority became getting revenge. But, along the way he built up a family of skilled misfits, including one who is also haunted by an event from their childhood, and this person burrows their way into Kaz's cold marble heart. The result is that Kaz is primarily motivated by three things: 1) Avenging his loved one by defeating the very bad person who betrayed them, 2) Protect his love interest's life and freedom, 3) Do what he reasonably can to protect his found family. Kaz isn't afraid to murder someone, which is generally considered a bad or immoral action, but he's also not going to kill good/innocent people but people who are pretty awful anyway. And that's what makes him morally gray. He kills (immoral) but only bad people for good reasons (gray area.)

5) Morally Gray Characters Need Complexity Too - Morally gray characters need the same depth as any other character. The exact depth obviously depends on whether they're main, secondary, or background characters. However, no character should be defined solely by their moral grayness. What else is interesting about them?

In summary... your best bet is to start with what drives these characters. If you absolutely must make them driven by wealth, power, and status, at create a sympathetic reason why those things matter so much to them. And try to give them some benevolent actions, too. Like, they may be obsessed with wealth, but they also give generously to charity. Or they're power hungry, but it's because if they lose power, the family most likely to fill their shoes is deeply evil and would harm the kingdom. Also, remember that it's not just about what drives them but what they do. Maybe they spend money hand over fist, but they would never spend money in a way that causes harm or embarrassment to someone. Hopefully this all makes sense, but if you need a little more help, let me know! ♥

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[synecdochereads]

Six of Crows – review

Someone said, “heist movie but it’s a fantasy setting,” and I’ve been on the lookout for this book ever since. I finally found it in the clearance section of Half Price Books, and then—couldn’t read it. I got through the first chapter, I started the second, I put it down, and I didn’t pick it up again. Not sure why, but frankly this has less to do with the book than with me. I’ve been erratic about reading for, oh, years now – either I can’t focus for more than a few pages at a time, or I spend every waking moment with my nose in the book. There’s no middle ground. There’s no telling which way the cards will fall.

All of this to say, it’s not the book’s fault that it took me so long. But then the show came out, I watched it gleefully with my mom, and somehow having seen the characters onscreen made it easier to slip into their heads on the page. Two days later, I’ve inhaled the entire book as fast as I could get away with, and I’m in love.

This isn’t a regular book review – I’m terrible at ranking things, and the five-star system gives me anxiety. It’s mostly just some Thoughts™ neatly sorted for clarity, and hopefully reading over them will help you decide if you should pick this book up and fall in love with it like I did.

Mind the cut!

Characters

I am in love with them.

It probably helps that I’ve been looking forward to this book for ages, I’ve seen lots of gifsets and the occasional meta post, and of course I did watch three out of six crows swan about being fantastic for an entire season of a show that’s not even about them. But it’s not just that. There are a lot of technical literary ways you can analyze characters – arcs, themes, etc – but quite apart from all of that there’s just…are they compelling? They don’t have to be, for a book to be good, but it sure does help. And these six characters are so compelling.

(Also really likeable, which is even less necessary for a good story but which I do personally value. And I like these kids, I really do. Even Kaz “I commit atrocities without shame or remorse” Brekker. Wouldn’t want to meet him in a dark alley, or even a well-lit avenue! But I care about him and want him to succeed.)

It’s hard to devote equal time to six character arcs while also running a fantasy heist. Bardugo doesn’t try, but even the crows who get less screen time have complexity and depth. They’re all well fleshed-out, with full and distinct personalities and all that – on a technical level, these are really well-crafted characters. Top notch. Plus everyone struggles with different traumas and goals, and handles them in different ways, which gives us wonderfully varied arcs as they each move toward a deeper understanding of themselves, for better or for worse.

It also gives us really varied dynamics – some of them hate each other, some of them love each other, some manage to do both at once, some are just along for the ride. It’s as they pull at each other’s ragged edges that the story forms, in their different desperate needs and in what they can and cannot be for each other.

The show smoothed over a lot of the sharp edges and grey morality, most notably in Kaz. Kaz Brekker is a bad person. He does bad things for selfish reasons. His arc isn’t Learning To Be Good, it’s an ongoing question of whether he might, for the sake of the first person he has (quite accidentally) let himself love, consider maybe perhaps being slightly less of an amoral monster. I’ve seen this book described as “fantasy Leverage episode” but it’s really more Ocean’s Eleven, if Danny Ocean was a vicious bastard and everyone was seventeen.

And that’s great. I love that so much! Especially because the other crows run the gamut from shining idealism to casual self-interest (with a fun detour into “shining idealism but the ideal is violent bigotry”), so we really do get a morally complex story, without any easy black-and-white answers. One of the most kind-hearted people in the whole story has committed multiple murders and dreams of becoming a pirate. Kaz Brekker may do bad things for selfish reasons, but a lot of those selfish reasons boil down to “survive.” It’s complicated! It’s compelling!

Plot

It’s a fantasy heist, what more do you need?

Plots and counter-plots, double-crosses and last-minute improvisations. Magic, though it’s used as just another tool, as impressive and as prosaic as the gunslinger’s pistols. Dramatic climbs, elaborate disguises, cunning grifts, and some good old-fashioned sleight-of-hand. Six wildly competent teenagers, one impossible job, and four million fantasy dollars waiting for them if they can pull it off.

Well, okay, that’s just half of the story – maybe two thirds. The rest is flashbacks, showing us how these characters met and how they came to be the people they are; and stolen moments in between the action beats, where we see how they’re changing each other. It’s woven in really deftly. Our knowledge of the characters expands in time with the forward momentum of the plot, so that both parts of the story – the sorrows of the past and the edge-of-your-seat excitement of the present – get their hooks in you in tandem.

Worldbuilding

There are two settings in this book: Ketterdam, where we begin, and the Ice Court, where the bulk of the action takes place. The wider world outside these two cities is sketched in, alluded to in offhand comments and minor details of backstory. In theory, reading the Grisha trilogy would fill in those sketches, but I suspect it doesn’t matter. This is a heist story, after all: one entrance, one exit, and all the traps laid firmly between the two.

You know that thing authors do sometimes where they use the aesthetic of a real time and place, in the names and the architecture and so on, as a sort of worldbuilding shorthand? I’m a big fan of that. Ketterdam is clearly based on post-medieval Holland, perhaps in the late 17th century or so – a city of canals and commerce, with a ruling merchant class and a thriving criminal underworld, and a stock exchange at the heart of the wealthier district. The similarities feel like they’re just skin-deep – I don’t know that much about post-medieval Holland, but I’m pretty sure Bardugo has her own plans for the political situation in the wider world, which I assume is relevant in the Grisha trilogy. Here it’s not, and we have just enough detail to get a quick feel for the city, with extra importance granted to the politics of the various criminal gangs Kaz needs to worry about.

If I’m honest, I would have enjoyed a bit more detail in the worldbuilding. Ketterdam is vibrant and crowded, but it feels shallow; the only information we get is what relates directly to the characters’ actions. We’re told that it’s a big and complex city, but I don’t really have any idea what goes on there beyond, vaguely, “trade, gambling, and tourism.” But that’s probably just me. I’m unreasonably invested in worldbuilding. And anyway, we do get everything we need to understand the actual story.

The same is true in the Ice Court, the frozen capital of the Fjerdans. It’s a beautiful place, white and gleaming, and the parts that we see are incredibly vivid. We get scant glimpses of history and religion, the faintest suggestion of politics, and exactly enough of the city layout to understand the heist. We do, however, get a much deeper understanding of Fjerdan culture than we did of Ketterdam’s, because one of the crows defines himself utterly by the Fjerdan worldview, and his arc is largely about the difficulty of losing his place in that world and not knowing if or how he can ever get it back.

So yeah, we really do get everything we need to appreciate the story and the characters. I would have liked more, because I like worldbuilding, but what we do get is varied and satisfying.

Themes

I can’t really go in depth here without spoilers, so this’ll be a pretty vague section. I haven’t gone full lit-major on this book and I don’t especially plan to, but at a glance, the central theme is the tension between, in short, love and vengeance.

In long, several of the crows have the choice to embrace love as a force for healing and joy, or instead hold onto the (often violent) goals that have driven and defined them for so long. If they embrace love, it’ll mean letting go of the driving purpose that has kept them alive, and risking their whole identity (and possibly their lives) on a new purpose. It’s scary! It might ruin them! And it’s really not as easy as “love conquers all.”

(Big advantage of an ensemble cast: you can explore the same theme in different ways, with different outcomes, without having to settle for a single “answer” to the question posed by the theme. I really love it when that happens, honestly.)

It’s also not just romantic love! I mean it mostly is, but one of the crows has an arc that’s really about self-love, about learning to trust and prioritize not just your survival, but your happiness, your goals, and your ideals. About putting yourself first, not in a selfish way, but in a healthy, loving way. It’s really lovely, and although it has no bearing on the plot (it’s an internal moment of revelation), it’s one of my favorite things about the whole story.

#six of crows #grishaverse #book review #book ramble #booklr #book blog #booklover #book reviews #bookish #book blogger #reading #bookworm #book ramblings #books #there that's all the tags I can think of #I want people to find my blog but folks I am BAD at marketing #literally all aspects of it #and one of those aspects is definitely 'how do I tag things so they get in front of the right audience?' #akk I hope it gets there #if you're reading this: hi I love you #I hope you're interested in long and perhaps overenthusiastic book reviews! #that's what this blog is going to be #I don't think this one got overenthusiastic but the next one is going to be queen's thief #and I love those books to death #there's no way I'll be able to contain my glee

[lostinastory]

This tag is created by Debbie from Debbie’s Library and I’ve taken my time to get to it, but it’s here! I barely do tags anymore like you might have noticed, but I couldn’t pass on this one. I love books and I love music so this is a perfect match! Thank you Debbie, for creating this tag and tagging me!

The Rules

Tag the creator of this tag and the one who tagged you

Pick 5 songs (or more) that you just have to listen whenever they are played

Pick the books/characters you think fit that song the best, and explain why you pick this book/character for this song

Tag some friends!

The Books!

The music!

Horns by Bryce Fox

In her heart, there’s a hole There’s a black mark on her soul In her hands is my heart And she won’t let go till it’s scarred Try to breathe, but I can’t ‘Cause the air she feeds me is damned Got a touch like a thorn ‘Cause the girl, she’s hiding horns

This song reminds me so much of Kaz Brekker and Inej Ghafa from Six of Crows. Kaz and Inej have a complex relationship if you can say so, they are both very morally grey characters and Kaz has a thing for Inej but doesn’t want to admit it. Also the vibe of the song fits perfectly. I can create an entire post talking about music that fits with this book (but I won’t). I recently created a Six of Crows themed playlist and I love listening to it, so if you want to as well, the link is here.

Link to the song.

Steady As She Goes by The Raconteurs

Find yourself a girl and settle down Live a simple life in a quiet town […] Well here we go again You’ve found yourself a friend that knows you well But no matter what you do You’ll always feel as though you tripped and fell

I might talk about this book a little bit too often but this song reminds me a lot of The Serpent King, and especially of Travis. The Serpent King is about three friends in their final year in high school. Travis is a simple guy and he just wants to live in his little hometown, with the girl he likes, but life takes him in another direction.

Link to the song.

All I Want by Kodaline

All I want is nothing more To hear you knocking at my door ‘Cause if I could see your face once more I could die a happy man I’m sure

When you said your last goodbye I died a little bit inside I lay in tears in bed all night Alone without you by my side

I could quote this entire song because it’s so perfect. This song reminds me so much of Clay and Hannah from Thirteen Reasons Why. Hannah commits suicide and Clay the boy who loved her now has to live with the regrets and pain of her loss and this song captures that perfectly. (but if you loved me, why’d you leave me?)

Link to the song. Link 2 (if you haven’t seen these videos yet that’s right there are two, you should it’s so wonderful, they have made me cry many times over. KODALINE GIVE ME A PART 3!! I NEED IT.)

Demons by Imagine Dragons

Don’t want to let you down But I am hell bound Though this is all for you Don’t want to hide the truth […] Don’t get too close It’s dark inside It’s where my demons hide

This song reminds me of Will from The Infernal Devices, he is a very mysterious character because of his tragic background story that leads him to hide his true self. I think this song really reflects the darkness inside of him and the secrets he’s keeping. (also it’s about demons 😛 )

Link to the song.

Greek Tragedy by The Wombats

I love this feeling But I hate this part I wanted this to work so much I drew up our plans on a chart Cars are flipping, I’m in hot pursuit My character’s strong but my head is loose

She hits like ecstasy Comes up and bangs the sense out of me

I only just finished The Sun Is Also A Star (like last night 1 am) but I realize this song fits perfectly with it. In The Sun Is Also A Star, Daniel and Natasha meet in New York, and Daniel falls head over heels for her, but it’s Natasha’s last day there, because she is an illegal immigrant and has to leave the country. I think this song perfectly describes the complex, quick and dramatic nature of their relationship (also the song mentions karaoke bars 😀 ).

Link to the song. (warning: the video is a bit very psycho)

I tag…

Because I barely do tags anymore, I’ll tag some people, but everybody is free to do it 🙂

I tag… Mahriya, Anushka,  Julianna, Sydney, Bex, Kelly, Jackie, All The Jazz (no pressure, I just thought you might like it, so if you don’t want to, don’t 🙂 )

Also, if you liked this post, I once did a similar one, which you can check out here.

What do you think of my choices? Do you like this music? If yes, any recommendations?

The Your Favourite Music Tag: Books & Music -> a perfect combi This tag is created by Debbie from Debbie's Library and I've taken my time to get to it, but it's here!

#music #tag #your favourite music tag