#like....leigh's writing isn't perfect but inej as a character is just. so good and we love to see it

[wiitzend]

okay but the reason why inej ghafa makes such a good YA character despite not being the protagonist is because she’s so intensely relatable in many different aspects, but one aspect i want to focus on specifically is her religion because it truly is the source of her being. she doesn’t drink, she doesn’t gamble, she doesn’t even swear as much as the rest of the crows and is known to outwardly recite suli proverbs. every YA book protagonist has something about them that makes them different from everyone else, (in most cases when it comes to fantasy, it’s usually a special power/prophecy) but in this case, the thing that separates inej from the crows is her religious beliefs (matthias is religious as well, but you get the point). and it’s not written in a way that makes her morally superior than everyone else. we see inej grapple with the weight of her actions when she makes her first kill, and when she says that kaz will cut open the stomach of van eck’s pregnant wife and hang the baby from a balcony at the exchange, inej wonders if her saints would ever forgive her for saying something so horrible when she’s burning with rage for a man who intended to torture her. and all of that is just so!! relatable!! because holding fast to your religion when faced with violence and death and cruelty is not an easy thing to do, and it would’ve been so easy for inej to gradually abandon her beliefs the more ketterdam began to change her. and the fact that she simply refuses to do that, even when she feels hopeless, even when she suffers, even when her prayers might go unanswered and the boy she loves mocks her for it, exemplifies not only the depth of her faith, but the strength of her will. there’s something so important about having a book targeted to young adults that features a character who holds her own religion to such importance, and it’s never played for laughs nor is it seen as a hindrance. personally speaking, i took great comfort in that when i read this book in high school and it’s especially comforting now since it’s unfortunately common and considered funny nowadays to mock and degrade religion. inej ghafa is clearly main protagonist material, and i for one give leigh bardugo props for writing her so well.

#this ended up being so long oh my goodness i'm sorry #like....leigh's writing isn't perfect but inej as a character is just. so good and we love to see it #there's so much to say when it comes to inej and her religion but this post is already long enough #and i don't want to keep adding on to it so maybe i'll make another post about it in the future idk #inej ghafa #six of crows #crooked kingdom #shadow and bone #does this make any sense?? like is it making sense? because i feel like this post is very rambly