cannot be chill about this

Kaz vs the Darkling

Happy 10th anniversary to Six of Crows!

This book is so important to me, thanks to it, I met so many amazing people, and it helped me so much accepting parts of myself I was struggling to accept. I don't have enough words to explain how much it means to me and how much I love this found family.

No mourners 🖤

Everyones favourite zemeni sharpshooter 💰

In fact, as soon as Dryden’s note had arrived requesting a meeting, several investors had been invited to a presentation on Zemeni oil futures that had nothing to do with the fictional Johannus Rietveld. Of course, Van Eck and Dryden didn’t know that. The important thing was they believed they might lose their opportunity to invest. Nina was almost sorry she wouldn’t get a chance to hear Jesper hold forth on the resources market for an hour. 

   ‘Radmakker,’ said Van Eck. ‘You were there. You met with Rietveld.’    Radmakker’s nostrils flared.   ‘I know nothing of this Mister Rietveld.’ ‘But I saw you. We both saw you at the Geldrunner-’  ‘I was there for a presentation on Zemeni oil futures. It was most peculiar, but what of it?’

“Were you trained as a dancer?” “An acrobat. My whole family are acrobats.” // “Some people see a magic trick and say, ‘Impossible!’ They clap their hands, turn over their money, and forget about it ten minutes later. [..] And then there are the ones who stay awake, running through the trick again and again, looking for that skip in perception, the crack in the illusion that will explain how their eyes got duped; they’re the kind who won’t rest until they’ve mastered that little bit of mystery for themselves. I’m that kind.”

here’s my two cents. obviously, beware spoilers ahead.

specifically, this is going to be about how they handled the crows. and as a little disclaimer, you obviously don’t have to agree with me.

what i’ve seen people most upset about is how they took events from crooked kingdom (kaz’s revenge on pekka), or created scenes that somewhat resembled those events (kanej bandage scene, etc) and squashed them into the first four episodes of s2 with no build up. and i can agree that when you view it like that, it’s upsetting and underwhelming.

here’s the thing- i don’t view it like that.

the way i see it, the crows content we got in the first half of season 2 were teasers for what’s to come in their spin-off. a preview for the character development they’re about to go through in their spin-off, and laying groundwork for what’s ahead.

for example, the kanej bandage scene we got in the show was not the bathroom scene from the books. their conversation was not the same and didn’t hold nearly the same weight because it was a conversation from early in six of crows before they had relationship development. what differed was the setting and the actions, but even so, kaz attempting to clean inej’s wounds with his gloves on and telling her simply that pekka rollins killed his brother, having the “tells” convo, WAS NOT kaz opening up about his trauma while pushing himself to clean inej’s wounds without gloves and having that intense intimate moment with her. i keep seeing people say that that WAS the bathroom scene, to which i strongly disagree. what i think will happen is that in the future of the show, we will get the bathroom scene, and we’ll have that on-screen full-circle moment to when kaz was cleaning her wounds in s2 and could barely do so.

and i think that goes for all of the ck-resembling content we got from s2. save for the alby confrontation, which was directly from the books. we did get a version of the slat fight— and based on what i’ve seen with the writer’s talking about the spin-off, we’ll get something equal in emotional weight when the time is right for it. perhaps something with even higher stakes than in the books. because let’s face it, pekka rollins is probably going to be back to haunt kaz. he’s already teaming up with matthias. that guy’s gonna be back, and that’s going to mean something. the new content that will generate is almost like getting six of crows 3 and mixing it into the plot of soc and ck.

and i’m excited for that. i’m excited for the new relationship dynamics we have to work with. inej is getting a taste of her dream going with sturmhond, but we know that isn’t the end for her. she hasn’t had her arc yet where she realizes that she needs to hunt slavers for herself. when she comes back for the six of crows story, it’ll be interesting to see how the realization that something is still missing in her journey to reclaim her life will affect her.

and then there’s kaz, who’s going to be dealing with the realization that revenge is not the end, and like was lightly touched upon in the latter half of the show, he needs to figure out what’s next for him.

and sure, jesper’s getting more comfortable with being a durast where the show leaves him, but what happens when he realizes that his gambling debts have doomed his father? what happens when colm comes back into the picture? those questions from the books are still left unanswered in the show.

wylan in particular i think was done so brilliantly in the show. people were mad that they dropped that he couldn’t read early, but i think it’s genius, because it just leads casual viewers who haven’t read the books away from his other secret even more. people like my mom who haven’t read the books but seen the show just assume that he’s illiterate because he was never taught to read, because he’s presented as just some penniless guy in ketterdam with no money for food. when his true story is revealed, it’ll come as even more of a shock, and put the casual viewer in the same boat as the characters— we thought we knew this guy, but turns out we don’t know him at all. and with wylan and jesper already being in a relationship? something tells me jesper isn’t going to take that well— hence the “merchling” teasing will ensue, and the tension. if anything, their established relationship just ups the stakes. jesper thinking his friend and crush is on the ferolind when it blows up in the books is one thing, but jesper thinking his BOYFRIEND is on the ferolind when it blows up in the show? jesus christ, we aren’t ready for kit young.

what i’m trying to say is, it might help your enjoyment of the show to not view the crows scenes as THE scenes from the books, because with all my heart i don’t think that’s what they are. i’m not saying these “teaser” scenes were necessary, but that goes back to the crows’ inclusion in the shadow and bone plot being forced and unnecessary. which is unfortunate, because the crows deserve to get to the good stuff in their story, but at the moment they’re in a holding position because they just don’t have enough time sharing the screen with s&b to do their story justice. which is WHY GETTING THE SPIN-OFF IS SO IMPORTANT. if you want the storylines we love the crows for, if you want the REAL crooked kingdom scenes with their buildup and emotional impact, we gotta help the crows get their own show. even if that means watching them be filler in the s&b show. which is still completely possible to find enjoyment in, at least from my perspective— you just gotta view it less critically and more like foreshadowing for what’s to come, getting to see these characters build relationships early so that they might in fact be stronger when we get to their story in the show.

1.07: The Unsea || 2.08: No Funerals

who are you kidding kaz?

—Work Song, Hozier