#gv asks

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

im glad u asked !! 

first of all I think there was a TON of foreshadowing for this exact ending. in tgt and kos zoya was described as “saintly” and referred to as a “queen” multiple times:

“Toss him over,” Zoya said. “Break his heart cruelly. I will gladly give our poor prince comfort, and I would make a magnificent queen.”

“Zoya was not kind and she was not easy. But she was already a queen” 

“What is a mortal king to a queen who can summon storms?” 

and for nikolai: 

““Lay down the thorn, boy king. Haven’t you earned a bit of rest? Aren’t you tired?'He was. Saints, he was. He thought he had grown used to his scars, but he had never grasped how much of his will it would take to hide them. He had fought and sacrificed and bled. He had gone long days without rest and long nights without comfort. All for Ravka, all for an ideal he would never attain and a country that would never care.”

boiled down to it....zoya was always going to be a queen. nikolai is all strategy and charm, and yes he made a good king, but even we felt like it was too good to be true. and all in all while he was a soldier and always desired the throne, I think he was too much for ravka more than ravka was too much for him. maybe it was recklessness, maybe it was his age or his trauma but I doubt ravka was ready for nikolai, but it was made for zoya. nikolai selling his inventions left and right, pleasing peasants while pissing off nobles, creating ties only to turn around and break them...in a way, he needed restraining, and as a king, no one could restrain him. 

zoya is more clearheaded. the only real fatal flaw i would attribute to her would be her rage. but unlike nikolai, zoya isn’t taking on the throne as a rage filled girl fresh from the war. she maintains her anger, wears it like armor, but she is guided by juris, the dragon, and the ancient knowledge that live in her head. and if anyone thought she lacked empathy...well that was solved too. hard not to feel someone’s pain when you can quite literally feel it. 

I don’t think the people have much of a choice honestly? I feel like in order to please everyone, she can please no one, and vice versa. she fits into all tje categories. she fits into none. she is a soldier, she is a grisha. she is ravkan and suli. she is saint and girl. and honestly she is exactly what ravka needs. 

plus...would you challenge a dragon sitting on you country’s throne? cuz like...personally...i wouldn’t 

NIKOLAI PRIVATEERING !!! I REPEAT NIKOLAI PRIVATEERING !!

ok first of all we know his place is beside zoya, but that he would become sturmhond again, if only on occasion makes me so happy!! he was always happier at sea, and you can tell the way he flipped with alina in tgt and the same with zoya in row. its like when he’s on his ship, there’s less weight on his shoulders and like...he just generates so much more happy energy?? he’s known for optimism and cracking jokes but I honestly think he’s happier at sea!

There is no arguing because zoya wins every argument and nikolai refuses to believe he lost an argument so he just goes with what she wants the end 🙏

BUT in theory:

Zoya and Nikolai have complete opposite aesthetics bc we associate zoya with blue and silver, and Nikolai with gold and green so their room has to be some combination of both

of course zoya is queen so the whole thing is gonna be mostly tailored to her liking with the occasional sprinkle of nikolai

first: the walls are painted a light teal because nikolais blue was too depressing and most of the furniture is decked in gold, silver, and teal to sorta combine it but in a sexc russian royalty way yk? Kinda like this

Much less crowded tho because zoya insists they don’t need that much furniture

“how else will I lounge distressfully at any inconvenience?” “we’ll get you a bench.”

they do end up getting a bench it’s cushioned and fancy and inevitably becomes home to a cat zoya adopts which Nikolai thinks is her way of replacing him. It might be.

aside from that they make it feel as homey as possible in an attempt to keep out work and make it a little haven for them…which doesn’t always work but it’s a nice idea

god me too <3

there’s something sooo comforting about their whole dynamic and the way they grew to love each other ALSO the more I think about it (and I hated row) them only admitting their feelings for each other during the FINAL CHAPTERS of the last book in the whole series. like mind u the gap between sab series and kos is ab three years? that’s three years of working side by side three years of seeing each other grow and standing by each other through every challenge. and about six months of her chaining him up. I’m pretty sure another 10 years could have gone by before they admitted they liked each other had the issue of marriage not come up and yet !!!! ugh I love them

TOTALLY AGREE !! actually did some hcs a while back here (it explains who these characters are) but let’s expand on this <3

• okay so the energetic one is obviously Dom, he inherited his dads restless energy and insomniac habits (which in his case, is used to attend late night revels in the dirtier parts of ravka where his parents wouldn’t approve of him going)

• he’s smart, but he’s scatter-brained and unlike Isaak, he doesn’t have the patience to sit down and learn anything from his tutors or anyone else

• in the end, he turns to literature. he becomes obsessed. tolya is immensely proud.

• he mainly gets into poetry, which pleases no one more than tolya and makes nikolai dig out his ancient attempts at poetry. and then promptly bury them again because they’re awful.

• he gets pretty into it and since he’s a total romantic, starts writing the most award winning my cringy love letters to his conquests (there are many and they never last very long)

• also he’s a big trouble maker, naturally. as well as a drama king but I won’t get into that too much

• basically he’s a lot like nikolai and every time he does something particularly nikola-esque zoya casts him a glare and goes “well he’s your son”

Wylan didnt appear on screen, but he still did his part in the heist. (I already figured it out before it was announced, but I love that they confirmed it)

WAIT ACTUALLY ?? I DID NOT KNOW THIS ?? 

ok but the possibility. this could mean jes asking for a demo man is just him trying to get kaz to recruit wylan!!

I LITERALLY ADORED THEM AHHHHH

their dynamic was so well put?? I loved the addition of Inej initially refusing to kill even for her own freedom but for kaz?? when his life is in danger man she doesn’t think twice. and the way he lets go of some things for her like literally offering up the crow club and risking his whole business and letting his beliefs slide to tell her that her saint is real I was so??