Six Of Crows Thoughts: The Scene At The End Of The First Book Is A Direct Parallel To The Parley Disaster

Six of Crows thoughts: the scene at the end of the first book is a direct parallel to the parley disaster at the start of the book, which Kaz wins both by outplanning/maneuvering/staging a situation, and by relying on another person’s humanity- that the guard will run because he thinks his mistress is in danger. Over and over again, despite being a pessimist, Kaz relies on the strength of human ties between other people, whether romantic, as between Nina and Matthias, or familial, as between Colm and Jesper. He loses against Van Eyck because Van Eyck is better at maneuvering and outplanning and outposturing Kaz, using the image of respectability- the merchant’s council seal, his place in the community- to provide an image of legitimacy that Kaz buys hook, line, and sinker. But Kaz also loses against Van Eyck because he relies on Van Eyck’s love for Wylan, and because Van Eyck spots Kaz’s concern for Inej and uses it against him. Kaz loses because he expects someone else to be human while he is the monster, and instead finds himself human and someone else heartless. 

so i’ve seen far too many comments since s&b came out that are comparing kaz to the darkling. things like, “how come kaz gets to be a hero loved by everyone who hates the darkling when they’re both morally grey murderers?” and frankly i’m sick of every variation of the sentiment.

even though they never meet in the books and their stories have nothing to do with each other, kaz and darkles are foils of one another. just so what i’m saying doesn’t get misconstrued at any point in this point, a foil is “a character who contrasts with the protagonist, in order to better highlight or differentiate certain qualities of the protagonist.”

what we know about the darkling: he dabbles in merzost and the end result is the fold. centuries pass and he doesn’t figure out a way to get rid of it (because he can’t). alina comes along and instead of actually eliminating the fold like he says he will, darkles exploits alina’s powers to push boundaries of the fold and sacrifices thousands of lives in order to expand his own power. he quite literally enslaves her for months and puts her through so much psychological abuse—and that’s excluding the torture and deaths of her loved ones. darkles’ ultimate goal is power power and more power. nothing else. he starts by wanting safety for the grisha but delving deeper and deeper into merzost corrupts him from the inside out. by the time we meet him, grisha safety is no longer his main concern; if it was, he wouldn’t have served genya to the king. individual grisha lives are disposable to him. alina is disposable to him, bar her sun summoning powers.

Continua a leggere

Steve has a tell when he starts dating someone, which is why Robin always knows when Steve is going on a hot date. There is a cologne that he designates only for date nights. This is how Robin finds out that Steve and Eddie are dating.

"So, who's the lucky lady this time?" Robin asks, leaning over the counter dangling Steve's keys in front of him with a shit eating grin.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Steve responds, rolling his eyes.

Before he can grab for his keys Robin pulls them away. "I know you're going on a hot date because of what you're wearing."

Steve scoffs, trying to grab for his keys again with no luck, watching Robin pocket them in horror.

Robin smirks as she looks him up and down. "You're wearing a Henley tucked into the tightest pair of Levi's you can squeeze that ass into..."

"Jesus, Robin." Steve breaths out, ears turning a shade of pink. "I'm..."

Robin puts up a hand to stop him from speaking even further. "Let me finish." She says smugly. "And to top it off you're wearing Drakkar Noir, which always screams, STEVE HARRINGTON IS GETTING LAID." Robin finishes her sentence with a wide grin, seeing as the pink from his ears has now spread to his entire face making it's way down his neck.

Before either one of them can speak the bell jingles as the door to Family Video opens.

"Come on Harrington," Eddie booms from the open door. "I want to get to the diner before anyone can take our booth."

Steve offers a slow smile to Robin, seeing that her jaw has dropped in pure shock. "Can I have my keys now?"

Still speechless, she digs his keys out of her pocket and places them in Steve's hand.

Just as he's about to pull away she grabs his wrist, "I want details, Harrington."

"In your dreams, Buckley."

Okay I love Wayne “the Ally” Munson with my whole heart, but I’d love to see more confused Wayne

Like he sees Eddie dressing nicely, and smiling more, and listening to Tears for Fears, and he’s hanging out with Robin and Nancy and Steve basically all the time, so he think’s he knows what’s up

Eddie’s dating one of the girls

(he’s almost right)

So one morning after just Steve stays the night (cause Eddie might be grown, but he’s still Wayne’s kid, and he’s not allowed girls overnight in the house, he’s too young to have grandkids yet) Wayne corners Steve in the kitchen before Eddie’s up, and asks

“So, which of those girls you boys are always hanging out is Eddie’s, and which one’s yours?”

Steve, who is literally wearing Eddie’s shirt and boxers, sporting at least four visible hickeys and has slept over more nights than he hasn’t in the last week can just barely splutter out a pathetically false “We’re all single actually,” before running back to Eddie’s room to hide

And that’s when it clicks for Wayne

You know what’s hilarious about SoH? Thalia and Nico watch Percy, on the brink of death and he passed out several times while they gave him ambrosia, lift up the Lethe for them and then see him go into the Lethe twice, keeping his memory both times while wiping a Titan of his, and then never mention this again. They see him do something that shouldn’t be possible, his father doesn’t rule all liquids and Underworld Rivers aren’t even water, and just go along with their day, business as usual. Also, this is presumably never mentioned to their fathers. Nico and Thalia went “Well, our dads already hate Percy and if they knew he was this powerful, they’d kill him. Let’s just not tell them.” They see him threaten to toss Persephone into the Lethe, and decided that was to be expected. Percy is off threatening a god again, and Thalia and Nico are just chilling to the side. Thalia sees this whole quest go down, and only asks if he wants to get burgers now that it’s over.

Percy: absolutely devastating power and control while on the edge of death, threatening Gods and wiedling immortal rivers as if they were his own

Thalia and Nico:

Shadow and bone text posts 8/? (A chaotic conversation)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 , Part 7, Part 8,  Part 9