But That Time When Inej Thinks Something Along The Lines Of 'what Am I Supposed To Do, Marry A Normal

but that time when inej thinks something along the lines of 'what am I supposed to do, marry a normal man, have his kids, and sharpen my knives when they sleep?' and the way it makes me think of how amazing kanej is, because their connection is so deep that they could not even try to replicate that with anyone else. there's no one, not even the other crows who know each other as truly as they do, and there's nothing to hide when it's the two of them. it's inej and kaz, kaz and inej, against the world, all armour shed except the one they share that helps them protect each other.

Reasons I despise Shadow and Bone

• Inej Ghafa in the books was an SA survivor and a girl who despite all that she went through, held hope close to her chest. Book Inej was so scared of the menagerie, she couldn't walk past it without the fear of being recaptured. She finally moved on from this fear when she choked Heleen at the Ice Court, stole her diamond choker and ran, calling her silks feathers. And finally believing that she was free after facing her fear, her abuser head on. So seeing the show Inej casually walk into the menagerie as well as merely shrugging upon hearing of Heleen's death this season, was not just extremely ooc but disrespectful and had zero depth.

• Kaz Brekker's disability was basically neglected this entire season and his cane treated like an accessory. Not only that they butchered the entire Kaz-Nikolai meeting in CK. Kaz would've immediately recognized Nikolai, like that was such a downgrade. Not to mention Nikolai threatening Kaz (and Jesper). Kaz wouldn't be threatened. Instead he'd make negotiations with Nikolai on his terms. Oh and most importantly, his entire backstory was rushed and played off like it was nothing serious. That intensity of two innocent small-town boys being tricked by an adult with agency and power, I couldn't feel it as much as I felt reading the books.

• Jesper Fahey's backstory is very emotional and beautiful. The memories with his mother and his coversations later on with his father, all lead up to him slowly accepting his grisha side more and embracing it. Embracing being a zowa. The show speed-ran through it and well, it lost its depth.

More importantly none of the backstory material makes much sense and lacks so much depth because there was nothing that lead to that development. The books, whatever transpires in SoC is what leads to and triggers their individual character developments. So any backstories stuffed in the show made no sense.

• Nina Zenik's bisexuality is completely erased by the show. Its like netflix is allergic to sapphics 😭

• Now Kanej! We got so much Kanej content we should be happy right? I agree. The scenes did give me a momentary high because those are some of my favorite parts of the books and its a blessing to be able to see them adapted on screen. Except, none of those scenes made sense, especially since season 1 barely hinted about some chemistry between the two and then season suddenly escalated all that slow burn into significant moments badly stashed into the show plot. I mean ofc we got the chapel scene and all but.. The whole wound patching-up scene was a pivotal moment in their relationship and it was completely downplayed in the show. And then there was also Kaz getting mad at Inej freeing some children from slavers? Like ofcourse even book Kaz would be slightly miffed but he wouldn't outright reprimand Inej and tell her she's off the team due to it, but thats what show Kaz did. And then after everything that happens, the sudden drop of “how will you have me” and the “without armor” dialogue completely did dirty to that moment. Like ofc she says “gloves on, fully clothed, head turned away so our lips never meet”. But in the books, Inej utters those words because of all the secrecy and lack of effort for pursuing a proper relationship between them. The “no armor” Inej says is addressed towards wanting him to be more open about himself (since Kaz knows basically everything about her, from her full name to how she was captured and ended up in Ketterdam) but Inej knows nothing about him, not even if Kaz Brekker is his real name. But the show made the “no armor” dialogue so bad. Its made Inej look so shallow as if she is merely speaking in terms of her physical wants.

Ohh and I did mention this in another post but everybody fucking knowing about Kaz's backstory? Everyone but Inej? The only person he actually tells in the books. Him even telling the fraction of stuff he tells Inej spoke volumes about their bond and how he trusted her enough to reveal this truth about himself. Show Kaz's past is revealed to Nina and Jesper casually walking in and listening??? WTF was that? And no Inej in thaf moment. Call it nitpicking but it was WRONG.

• Wesper has been reduced to the token gay couple of the show. Their sweet first encounter has been completely eradicated and they're turned into this typical trope of people who had a one night stand and accidentally met again. Their romance is so sexualised in the show, as many tend to do with queer ships (which is extremely disgusting imo). More importantly, we'll most likely never see the “no, not just girls” in that possible spin-off 🙂

• Ketterdam: the show has given no proper insight on Ketterdam. I bet most of the show only people don't understand much about the city and the gangs. I wonder if many even know whats a Dime Lion. And Pekka randomly having the stadwatch in cahoots with him was so shitty writing?

And these are just a few that i can remember right now. Also i don't want this post to get too long.

–» If you're one of those sheep fans, don't comment shit like “creators already told us its different from the books, so you shouldn't be mad” 🤪 cause I'll definitely delete your comment.

If you are one of those, scroll past this post. Cause what do y'all even mean? People can't freely discuss or criticize a piece of media now? STFU!

Happy 9th birthday to:

“Please, my darling Inej, treasure of my heart, won’t you do me the honor of acquiring me a new hat?”

“Who’s Mark?”

“Scheming face?”

“Definitely”

“I protect my investments”

“My ghost won’t associate with your ghost”

“Because I’ve been looking for an excuse to talk to you for two days”

“We could wake them up”

“SHED LAUGHED AND IF HE COULD HAVE BOTTLED THE SOUND AND GOTTEN DRUNK ON IT EVERY NIGHT, HE WOULD HAVE. IT TERRIFIED HIM”

“She was lovely and brave and better than anything he deserved. That he was twisted, crooked, wrong, but not so broke that he couldn’t pull himself together into SOME SEMBLANCE OF A MAN FOR HER. THAT WITHOUT MEANING TO, HED BEGUN TO LEAN ON HER, TO LOOK FOR HER, TO NEED HER NEAR. HE NEEDED TO THANK HER FOR HIS NEW HAT.”

“I. should. let. you. die.”

“I want you to stay. I want you to… I want you”

“I WILL HAVE YOU WITHOUT ARMOR KAZ BREKKER OR I WILL NOT HAVE YOU AT ALL”

“MAYBE I LIKED YOUR STUPID FACE”

Six of Crows has my heart ❤️

The thing is, I can forgive a lot of it. The scene where Kaz tries to help Inej with her wounds? I guess it was a nice nod to the CK scene, if slightly too soon. The "I will have you without Armour?" Fine. We all wanted to see that anyway. Rushing Wesper into a relationship rather than keeping as the slow-burn from the books? Okay. I really loved them on screen despite that. Kaz beating up the dregs? Definitely could have done without it for obvious reasons, but whatever. I can brush it off.

But the two things that are really grating on me are Kaz's face-off with Pekka Rollins and Inej leaving to hunt slavers. Because the POINT of these things happening towards the end of the second book is that there's a build up.

These characters go through so much. We learn everything about them, we see their struggles and we root for them. We spend SO much time learning about Kaz's thirst for revenge. We see moments where he starts to lose it when it comes to Pekka, and slowly start to learn why. And at the climax of Crooked Kingdom, there's so much on the line. We finally see him snap. There's a build up there of something that he's spent his entire life and two whole books working towards.

The first season of Shadow and Bone consisted of 8 episodes. So we can estimate that the crows had probably less than 4 hours of screen time. And we learned nothing about them, really. They were the mysterious trio that were hired to steal something. And then suddenly S2E1's "Brick by brick" turns into the peak of Kaz's character arc. It takes away the impact and the reasoning behind it.

And the same for Inej. Where is the journey? Where's the trauma that was inflicted by a woman who was truly evil? When we see Inej running into Tante Heleen for the first time in the duology, she freezes. She can't do anything. Are you telling me that the same girl who is so terrified of this woman can face her without a problem?

Again, there's so much of a development here as well. Inej has this realisation and this epiphany about what she wants to do. She wants to hunt down these slavers. She wants to make sure that nobody goes through the same stuff that she did. And when she sees Heleen after that, it's when she slowly starts to lose power over Inej. I mean, she steals the necklace straight from her neck, for crying out loud. Erasing Inej's trauma from S1 was a problem but they dug themselves in a deeper hole by killing off Heleen. She can't go through the journey that she's supposed to. Her entire character arc was just completely erased.

And the thing is, in the duology, Inej still goes through even more hell before she can get free from her indenture. The Ice Court Heist, Van Eck's torture, Dunyasha, etc. And yet... she's free before the start of the heist?

The heist is an important job for each crow. They all have a reason for being there, and they all have something on the line. None of them really think they're going to survive it, but they're trying anyway because, at this point, what do they really have to lose? And for Inej, this is her chance to get the money to leave the barrel. So... are you telling me that she's going to willingly come back to help on a life-threatening job for freedom that she no longer needs? What's going to happen with Kaz now that he's already had that stand-off?

Would love to know because right now I'm as lost as the rest of the book fans.

Hey! How’s my favourite cutie pie doing today? Seriously, I’ve been thinking about you, and I just had to check in. You know I can’t go too long without hearing from my absolute favourite person—I don’t want my day to be all boring and grey without a little sunshine from you! So, tell me, what’s that adorable little mind of yours up to? Have you been melting hearts with that killer charm of yours? Because let’s be real, you could knock anyone off their feet without even trying. Just existing, you’re doing amazing things. I mean, you’ve got that effortlessly cute vibe going on, and I live for it. And, Don't you miss me, anymore????

you stupid cute person you got me grinning like an idiot!

I will be honest,i went on a reading rampage ╥﹏╥ I holed myself up in room and read the whole Six of duology in a few days (highly recommended if you haven't read it) it brought me out of my reading stump.

And if we're gonna talk about being real then aren't you the one who's the honey in my tea? Please, your presence fills my flowers with their colors. Tell me what it's like to just smile and have the stars shining brighter?

also like how's your day ᐠ( ᐛ )ᐟ

One of my favourite things about SoC is all the dynamics between the characters. The romantic relationships? Banger after banger. Platonic soulmates trope? Jesper and Inej. Also whatever Kaz and Matthias have is just hilarious. There isn't one character in the main 6 (7 if you want to count Kuwei) that would be left out and wouldn't interact with others. Leigh's character writing and the description of relationships is just *chef's kiss*