IT WAS A GUNSHOT.

The Moons, The Suns & The Stars 🪶

Finished Six of Crows couple illustrations; Full versions below!

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“I send my luck”

favourite characters: wylan van eck

What gives Jan such power over Wylan is his emotional detachment. He's not constantly seething over Wylan's illiteracy; he is simply unresponsive. He talks in a very clinical way about his son's failures. He doesn't gloat when he sends Wylan away; he is logical and matter-of-fact. He talks about beatings as just another technique to 'fix' Wylan instead of a real emotional response. Wylan spits in his face and all he does is calmly wipe it off and then get his lackeys to do the beating for him, as if his son isn't even worth the effort of bloodying his hands. The only time we ever see Jan act with an emotion stronger than vague disdain towards Wylan is when he poses a threat to Jan's empire (on Velgeluk, after the auction) because the only thing he cares about is money. He loved Wylan as an heir, not a son, and once Wylan proved he couldn't fill that role, Jan completely lost interest. Even his hatred for Wylan wasn't really personal.

If Jan was irrational in his abuse, Wylan would have hated him, might even have sought vengeance for the way he was treated. But Jan was cruel and logical. He got into Wylan's head and made him believe he deserved the things that happened to him, that the abuse was necessary to 'fix' him, and the cruel words were just the way the world would treat him. Wylan wasn't angry at his father more than he was angry at himself, believing himself responsible both for his failure as a son and what happened to his mother. Even until quite far into book 2, Wylan was still subconsiously seeking his father's validation and forgiveness.

Jan is a successful villain because Wylan doesn't even really perceive him as one until the very end. He was righteously angry at his father because of what happened to Inej and Marya, but never really about what happened to him, because he truly believed that Jan had his best interests in mind, and that he was right about Wylan's shortcomings. Throughout almost everything, Jan was logical and composed, and that's where his power comes from.