Okay, so... as a collective fandom, we can agree that bullying Kaz is fun, yeah? There's just something about seeing the guy down at his lowest and then prodding him with a stick and going "Come on, do something."

But I'm going to stand in his corner for a bit in this post.

Something that never really sat right with me is the collective implication that Kaz isn't good enough for Inej (and never will be).

I'm totally with you: he didn't deserve Inej in the first book and maybe not even yet in the second because he didn't give her anything to work with. He didn't even visit her after she was stabbed, or show her how relieved he was when she recovered. And this is just the thing: he didn't deserve her because of his BEHAVIOUR, not because he's inherently less important or less valuable or less of a person than her.

However I've read so many post-CK fanfictions where Kaz has been working on himself, is openly communicating with her, basically kisses the ground she walks on, treats her as his equal and goes above and beyond to make her as comfortable as possible, and still everyone INCLUDING Inej (and Kaz) goes "I/she deserve/s so much better than me/him". And THAT implicates that the reason Kaz wasn't good enough for her was not his behaviour towards her, but the fact that he as a whole human being is just "not enough" and "less valuable" than her, and that viewpoint has always made me super uncomfortable, especially considering his trauma.

Now I know what you're going to say, and I absolutely agree: trauma never excuses abhorrent behaviour. But there's just something icky to me about looking at a traumatized person who has not only been making an EXTREME effort to overcome their issues, but also shown amazing results, and going "They don't deserve X", "They're less than X" etc. just because they haven't fully healed yet or might never fully heal. It gives "Traumatized people are damaged goods"-vibes, which is especially weird considering my next point: INEJ IS TRAUMATIZED TOO AND HER TRAUMA GETS IN THE WAY OF A GOOD AND LOVING RELATIONSHIP JUST AS MUCH AS HIS.

She literally admits to herself that she wears as much armor as Kaz does and was being kind of hypocritical when she told him to remove his. Inej is a flawed character (which somehow seems to be a controversial take in the fandom), and to put her on a pedestal because of how virtuous and "better" she is than Kaz takes all the nuance out of her. There are definitely some parts in the books where I felt like she was in the wrong or toeing the line, but the others never really call out her behaviour the way they do with Kaz, not even in their internal monologue, so we're left with this image of an Inej who can do no wrong and a Kaz who simply got lucky.

The fact that in aforementioned fanfictions (that I still absolutely adore btw) Inej too thinks he isn't good enough for her despite everything he does for her and for himself, and despite how far he's come also turns her acknowledgment of her own self worth into something ugly and vain in my eyes. She loves herself, but she also loves Kaz, so I don't think she, or any good partner, would look at her boyfriend who clearly already thinks very little of himself and go "Yep, this fucker isn't good enough".

So often people will look at a healthy happy couple and go "He/she could do so much better than her/him". Like that's a whole person you're putting in a competition of "Who's more worthy?" as if they were some object that is of better or worse quality.

I don't think I articulated this too well and there's a lot more to be said about this, but I hope you understand the gist of it. Post CK-Kaz who works on himself and openly communicates ABSOLUTELY deserves Inej, and I will ROT on this hill.

Now I've been nice to him for long enough I think *whacks him with a crow bar*

just learned my first card trick and officially feel like i could best kaz brekker. fight me bitch

i think the six of crows fandom has a real problem with acknowledging complexity in the characters which is ironic because it’s literally a book about morally grey characters. like yes kaz is a cold blooded murderer who cares more about money than being a good person but he’s also a dumb teen boy with a crush and a bad haircut. inej is a knife-wielding spy as well as a deeply religious girl who never stopped believing in kindness. jesper is a confident, reckless sharpshooter but he’s also incredibly scared and angry. wylan is an empathetic and kind artist along with being a dangerously intelligent explosives expert. nina is a fun, food-loving girl but she also stands up for the oppressed and struggles to recover from an addiction. matthias is an angry druskelle but he’s also the boy who learned to love grisha unconditionally. even kuwei has more depth than we give him credit for. he’s the flirty troublemaker as well as a grieving kid who’s had too much pressure put on him. they all have nuance, please don’t take that away because it’s such an important theme in the books

i wanted to wait till valentines day to post but i jst finished this and i havent drawn kanej in a while ☹❤

rip kaz brekker, you would’ve loved monopoly

we all joke about the ice court heist being a triple date but also consider. they went to fjerda on a ship. kaz gave inej a ship and a berth. jesper thought that wylan blew up with the ship. matthias and nina nearly drowned in a shipwreck. all three ships have ship significance and it drives me insane

with Wesper already being canon in the show, I'd love to see a scene in the Crows spin off where Jesper risks the whole mission to keep Wylan safe and Kaz yells at him something along the lines of "we can't work as a team if you're being distracted by love!" and Jesper would just look him in the face, calm, asking "really? you're the one lecturing me about how love clouds my judgement?".

fuck off you’re telling me we won’t ever get to see these beautiful people together again?

Literally fuck off Netflix you deserve to burn to the ground

Sometimes I just think about how the first time Matthias met Inej he tried to tackle her and she just sidestepped, easily dodging him, tripping him, and then she just goes “clumsy, this one”

Like-COME ON! how could Kaz NOT fall in love with her????

Imagine this. The stadtwatch finds a tunnel underground somewhere in Ketterdam. They're like "Wtf is this doing here", climb in and follow the tunnel, thinking it's leading them to an underground crime syndicate or something, only to find Kaz freaking Brekker at the end of it with a shovel in his hand. They just stare at him for a moment and he stares back until he eventually says "Leave" with his appalled, scratchy ass voice as if they just broke into his living room and invaded his privacy. The stadtwatch officers are entirely confused and unsure how to handle this situation, so they just awkwardly retreat, one of them even mumbles a "Sorry".

Kaz turns back to his work shaking his head, being all like "The NERVE of some people"

inej and kaz having issues with touch due to trauma. kaz and wylan drowning and being reborn in the ketterdam harbor. wylan and jesper feeling like they have to hide a part of themselves due to their fathers. jesper and nina being grisha with addictions. nina and matthias being raised as a weapon rather than a human. matthias and inej being deeply religious. inej and wylan making themselves smaller because of the abuse they suffered. wylan and matthias being forced into a life of crime. matthias and kaz losing their parents and siblings. kaz and jesper being thrown into the barrel because of reckless behavior involving money. all of these characters being so different yet so similar and forever interconnected with each other because they know that no one else will understand

Any of y'all remember when kaz puked up his lock picks or whatever in soc

Good times

Matthias: When I first met you, I did not like you. Kaz: I'm aware of that. Matthias: But then you and I had some time together. Kaz: Uh-huh? Matthias: It did not get better.