#also people saying that Kaz doesn't care about people is insane | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

she-posts-nerdy-stuff · 7 months

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Hi,

Do you ever think on the first conversation Inej and Kaz had in Heleen's office? It feels like theres a lot there and I wondered if you have any thoughts on it. I come back a lot to when Inej asks Kaz if he convinced Per Haskell to buy out her indenture because "you like Suli girls" and Kaz answers "i don't know enough Suli girls to say"

that's a very interesting sort of snarky answer to me because he refutes the idea that he's the type to fetishize the Suli culture to the point of being "into" Suli women just because they are Suli. But also he doesn't just shut down the idea of him being into anyone. Which ... This is post Imogen debacle, he's resigned himself to not being "into" anyone at this point for several years. He doesn't care how people see him for it either. He could have been ruder or more just more direct about this, but he wasn't. And its like that with many of his early actions towards Inej. He's nicer than you'd think he'd be and its interesting becuase i don't get a sense that Kaz fell for Inej "at first sight", i think his love for her was gradual and snuck up on him (heh) so really everything he did at first and especially not demanding she gets a dregs tatto must have been from some basic sense of compassion, although he'd shank me for saying so.

Also, i always wondered how Kaz explained to Haskell why Inej didnt get a tattoo, then i re-read the books recently i realized omg i bet he totally probably just didn't?! Inej wasn't the type talk about it, she wears concealing clothes and is not very seen/social within the gang so my theory is that lazy ass Haskell didnt ask and assumed she got a tatto and kaz just let the assumption happen. Do you think that's believable?

Hi, thanks so much for your question - and so sorry it’s taken me an eternity to reply!

When I tell you that I think about this meeting once a week… well I’m hoping that you think “woah so cool she knows so much and thinks so in depth about these characters literary analysis is awesome” and not “Jesus Christ she’s insane”. But genuinely, the Kanej meeting is something I think about a lot and I think holds an awful lot of meaning.

The “you like Suli girls” “I don’t know enough Suli girls to say” to me is such a wonderful moment because, as you quite rightly said, it immediately refutes Kaz’s endorsement of the hyper-sexualisation of Suli culture that we see so prevalently in Kerch / Ketterdam (I’ve gone into this at length before but in a whistle stop tour think about the way the Menagerie customers talk about Inej and place so much emphasis on her skin colour, her bedroom at the Menagerie being a “farcical” version of a Suli caravan, the way “the Menagerie always stocked a Suli girl”, the Rare Spices billboard, etc). And this is so important for so many reasons, but in particular because the second Heleen exits the room and she’s alone with Kaz, Inej immediately tenses at the assumption that he is going to rape or assault her- “braced herself for what would come next, fingers twisting in her silks”. And what happens instead? He asks her for her name. Her name, that has been ignored and erased for an entire year as yet another roll of dehumanisation piled against her. Even though the pair discuss and make a clear understanding of the fact that this isn’t some kind of rescue mission and Inej’s world isn’t going to suddenly fix itself, this moment makes an instant connection for Inej between Kaz Brekker and safety. Because somehow, despite everything that’s happening, this moment in Tante Heleen’s office is the safest Inej has felt for an entire year. It’s also interesting that you mentioned he doesn’t shut down the idea of not being interested in anyone and I definitely agree with that, personally I don’t believe that Kaz is asexual although I know some people headcanon him that way it’s just not something that works for me and my perception of his character, and that’s because of situations like his attraction to Imogen and several situations he’s in with Inej. His exact words when considering being with Imogen are “he knew the things he was supposed to want. He did want those things”, which to me very clearly shows that he does experience sexual attraction and sexual desire, and the limiting factor is his ptsd and touch aversion rather than his sexuality/orientation. I agree that Kaz and Inej didn’t experience a love at first sight kind of moment, but I do think that this meeting really solidified their relationship to a level of immediate understanding between them, in essence an acknowledgment of them being “twin soldiers, marching on, pretending they were fine”. They are both able to see the other, clock that they understand to some extent, and respect each other.

Kaz is quite abrasive in this scene, but what always gets me is how confrontational Inej is able to be - “And what happens when you take their money, and you become a rich man?”. (The quote is something to that effect, sorry I don’t have my book with me right now). I think that a big aspect of her being able to summon the confidence to put herself against him so immediately is that she genuinely feels this level of safety with him, because this far he represents the opposite of everything that had tormented her. Or at the very least the polar end of a spectrum that she has been tormented by another part of. And controversially to the image of everything Inej has experienced in the Barrel so far, Kaz is amused by and enjoys her standing up to him, in fact he almost seems endeared by it saying “Then you can steal all my secrets too”.

And ohh the tattoo, or lack thereof, makes me so happy! It doesn’t require much reading between the lines to understand the relevance of Kaz not forcing Inej to take the Dregs tattoo on, she even says herself that he refused to be the one who marked her again, but I love the idea that he didn’t actually tell anyone she’s not got it!! I hadn’t considered this before but it makes perfect sense with everything we know about Inej’s relationship with the Dregs - Nina doesn’t know she lacks the tattoo, and Inej comments on the fact that the others can’t see her scars from having the Menagerie feather removed but that “they all knew it was there”, suggesting she keeps her forearms covered most of the time, and the emotional disconnect she feels from the rest of the Dregs is always discussed at an intellectual level and in the way she spends most of her time with Kaz or alone rather than with them rather than any dislike/distrust/etc of her because she didn’t take on the tattoo. I absolutely love this theory because it takes away any feeling of guilt around lacking the tattoo and also makes it a far more personal thing to be shared only between Kaz and herself.

Thank you so much, I’m so sorry it took me so long to reply, but I hope this made sense and that you enjoyed reading it! <3

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ibrahim-mazur · 1 year

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do you have any soc fic recs???

oh i do, i definitely do! but please tell me what you're interested in and what you're not! i read mainly kanej fics so i could link you to a bunch of those if that's what you like and i'll add some wesper/general ones.

i'll link a few down here

Monsters at Midnight by DecafPerception

This is the Jordie lives fic I mentioned the other day, in this au Jordie becomes Dirtyhands and Kaz just gets to be a kid. It's hilarious, makes me cry and I love seeing a version of Kaz where he just gets to be a kid (doesn't mean he changes completely don't worry AND HE STILL MEETS ALL THE CROWS and they annoy the hell out of jordie)

Good Enough by SixofProse

More of a Jesper & Kaz being besties fic as they get drunk and talk about their relationships and their insecurities a bit, but I love them

ten thousand miles away by pyrrhlc

Post CK - Ketterdam gets hit with the Queen Lady's plague again. Kaz loses his shit and focuses on keeping his friends safe and alive.

That fic is good. But heavy. With the pandemic it all hits a bit closer to home I think, the fear, the desperation, the not-knowing. But honestly it's a great fic.

Five Times People Thought Kaz was Like Them (And One Time Matthias Decided he was a Demon) by rainstormdragon

the title is really self explanatory lmao but it's a quick one shot and i like other people's perspective on kaz, it's super interesting to read how other characters interpret kaz in their own way

Leave This Place Unbroken by rainstormdragon

honestly i think i binged rainstormdragon's fics in two days and i don't regret it. this is a super angsty fic about kanej getting kidnapped before they leave to fjerda in soc. kaz gets tortured. all is pain.

die for you in secret by downn_in_flames

another 5+1 fic! 5 times Kaz Brekker didn't say what he was thinking, and 1 time he did. it's fluffy. it's frustrating because it's kaz. i love it

The Astute Tourist's Guide To Ketterdam by terribletruths

honestly i haven't read this in a couple of years but it was in my bookmarks. i remember the amount of detail for kerch culture is insane and the author is one of my favorites

also kaz gets a dog <3

Tatoeëren by Thesuncameout

another dive into my 2021 bookmarks i wrote: who needs soc3 when you have fics like these. kanej fic that spans pre-soc and post-ck. it is rated m if you're not comfortable with that kind of thing.

who is the lamb and who is the knife by OceanEyes1n

jesper takes the jurda instead of nina in soc. this author is incredible and their ideas with the use of durasts and parem is really, really good. this story goes on to have several different parts and it's really well written.

shaking the wings of their exultant and terrible youth by lovebeyondmeasure

some inej stories before soc, her early days in the dregs <3

i love the og crow trio so much so i love seeing things like this. also. another 5+1 lol

only love can hurt like this by leehab23

wesper fic set post ck, in the future. a lot of angst... a lot of smut as well lmao. jesper and wylan broke up and jesper left for novyi zem, returning to ketterdam to finally finish university and finds that wylan (and everyone else) has moved on. :(

sweet as a bowl of candy by demigodbeautiies

modern au wesper fic where jesper is taking care of kanej's daughter and meets wylan and little plumje. it's fluffy as fuck and i want to re-read it right now actually lmao

welp. i went overboard from my original idea of linking five or six fics but i hope any or all of these fics sound interesting to you and if you tell me your interests i'll be glad to send more recommendations if i have them. hope you enjoy <3

#ask #soc

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constantly-in-a-state-of-change · 6 months

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I'm in a new era

I love all types of music. I do. And before this week i would have said the same thing, however i hated country music with a burning passion. I thought it was just the same old 'i'm drinking whisky whlie plowing the field thinking of you!' type stuff. (which is my own fault) I also thought there wasn't alot of acceptance for marginalized people in the country music scene, which there isn't, however i came across a queer country song titled "You wanted a cowboy" by Johanna Wacker and instantly fell in love with it. So i began searching for more queer country music and to my surprise, it wasn't hard to find. From POC and LGBTQ+ singers i have found a new love for country music. One that is free from hate, and instead loving and passionately queer.

I learned more about the wild west and how queer it was by Kaz Rowe's video: "Exploring the Queer History of the Old West... Yeehaw". It was insane to me how it truly was. (not saying that it still wasn't terrible, i mean the whole thing was the catalyst for trying to eradicate Native people [to my limited knowledge]) It was then i remembered another video: "The Battle of Blair Mountain - West Virginia Coal Wars I THE GREAT WAR 1921" by "The Great War". It talks about an amazing labour uprising and the power of unions. It also just so happens that West Virginia, the same place in which this powerful battle took place is not a safe place for marginalized communities today...

I guess what i'm trying to get at here is we need to look at the past to better the present and future, but really, what im saying is we need to stand together as a united front, because to rich capitalists they don't see the difference in us (say city folk vs country, queer vs straight/cis, POC vs. white, etc.). They only care about two things, making money, and making sure we stay divided. I understand it's hard to care for people who don't care for our beliefs, but we need to if we want to make change. (something i am still learning everyday, most likely will learn all my life. that's why im posting this) Maybe this whole thing doesn't make sense and y'all just view this as rambling, but i hope that at least some of you will understand what i am trying to say with this <3. Thank you for reading. Stay educated, and love/care for eachother as we are all we have in the battle.

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demonsfate · 8 months

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same anon here… if i may shift the rant to kazuya a bit… i think it's a very, very fine line here between what many Kazuya defenders say and what i'm about to say, but what makes Kaz so interesting to me is that, while he was definitely shaped by the trauma wrought on him by Heihachi and likely would've turned out fine under different circumstances, he still chose evil. He embraced it. Heihachi was thought dead and gone between TK1 and 2 and that didn't stop Kazuya from doing any of the long laundry list of crimes he did. That doesn't make him without humanity and he's plenty sympathetic, but it's a very important distinction to give him that agency because the implication otherwise is that being abused makes you evil when that obviously isn't true in so many real life cases, and is actually quite insulting to the many normal people out there with completely batshit parents!

And as you said, this also contrasts him with Jin. Kaz was saved by the devil and embraced it (and his actions reflect that), Jin considers himself cursed by it (with his actions showing the insane lengths he'll go to get rid of it lol [why did they take the worst possible approach to this though lol i'm in pain]). The contrast is so much more interesting than yet another villain protagonist in a series made of them.

ps I do wonder how much modern moral purity has to do with all this, like. just from casual observation it seems so many Mishima fans keep trying to argue why their man of choice is "the good one". Missing the point much? In this series as well, Tekken is not at all subtle about everyone being a rat bastard (which is why i love them haha)

pps btw you've near single-handedly opened my eyes to how funny DJ is and i've gone from ew cringy ott edgelord to him becoming my beloved fucked up catbird creature who fills my heart with joy

And that's also why Jin can't work as a villain. I cooooould be wrong, but I'm pretty sure some of the devs had once said that Jin was like if Kazuya made better choices and attempted to better himself instead of giving into hatred. Which would make sense, as they both grew up similar. Only that, Jin's "hardships" came a little later in his life. But both still essentially lost their mother, was abused by Heihachi, betrayed by Heihachi, and then found out they both a fucking devil. Kazuya and Jin show how two people can react very differently to similar scenarios. Which, beyond Jin being the "good Mishima" and the "protagonist" - Tekken 6 also ruins the entire point of that.

Like I don't care if Jin was doing it for a ""good cause,"" once he's crossing his arms and smirking, and literally calling people "pitiful" after beating them in battle... that's just - that's just Kazuya!!!!! Which Jin isn't supposed to be. Like it's also what made Jin so interesting as a main character - because he really was meant to be Kazuya's contrast / foil. They go well together. Which, is a shame most of that potential got tarnished after they refuse to acknowledge them in Tek5, then they do have a rivalry again in Tek6 but Jin might as well not even be Jin, and then Tek7 Jin was mostly absent... so. Let's see if 8 can do better.

Also I don't wanna hear the rubbish that "Mishima Bad" that every Mishima is cursed to be an Irredeemable Jerk. Because Lars and Jinpachi are both fine people who were a lil misled at first but were good people in heart. Jinpachi was only "evil" when he got literally possessed by an evil spirit - and much like Jin, Jinpachi was wanting to die in order to be free of the evil spirit and save the world.

I don't mind Jin making mistakes sometimes, or lashing out in anger, or not being able to control DJ. But I don't think they should ever go to the extent of what Tek6 did. I think Jin should always just struggle with moral in the sense he just doesn't know what would be best to do. (Tek4, for example, where he had to decide from committing murder-suicide or not) Jin isn't the ideal hero, he's not a knight in shining armor. But in the end, he should still be somebody who's compassionate toward his friends and the other fighters who deserve that compassion, and someone who doesn't get innocents killed because he's trying to awaken some stupid doomsday chicken.

AND THANKS OMG - funny enough when I first started this blog, I wasn't as invested in DJ. I just had him around because it felt kinda hard to write Jin without him. But then as I started becoming even more familiar with the series, and I started developing my own ideas - I started really liking his character. A good thing I will say about Tek6, regardless if it was intentional or not - he was pretty funny in scenario campaign should you choose to play as him. Maybe the "eating people" think was solely included to be Edgy; but I just found it funny how much he kept CONSTANTLY bringing it up, and then making other characters confused LOL. But I also like the inclusion just BECAUSE - when I see a nonhuman character, even if they do appear somewhat human, I do like to give them traits that separate them from humans. But also with the idea of Azazel seeing DJ as nothing but a tool and thus creating him to be nothing more - I also like to have the depiction that DJ isn't necessarily "evil," he's more so just the response of a scorned God who felt betrayed.

#✏️ - ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴏsᴛ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏsᴛ // (ooc)#✏️ - ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ? // (inbox)

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suuho · 10 months

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Hey Kaz, i really love your thoughts on seventeen. So im wondering if you have any for Vernon's ships? I love that guy so i was surprised to find out that he doesn't really have any popular fic other than verkwan. Which is a pity since he has many interesting dynamic with the other members

first of all, sorry this is so late! life got in the way, yada yada yada, but here we are!! so, huh, vernon ships. why not go by them one by one?

vernon and scoups: i don't have many feelings towards them; they are clearly friends to me, brothers at that, and they get along well enough. i do love that they're the oldest and youngest of their respective units, though. that always makes things fun.

vernon and jeonghan: that is so funny to me, to be honest. they are both such uncanny communicators with opposing energies that i feel like it is partly the reason why we see them so rarely together, just the two of them. interesting dynamic, tho. in, like, theory.

vernon and joshua: rocket line! one of my favorite seventeen units EVER. i honestly think they should do a full duo album, maybe when the members enlist. love that pop punk sound they had going for them on 2 minus 1, but i also love rocket a lot. they fascinate me endlessly, to be honest. i always love to see a new yorker and a californian interact.

vernon and jun: so interesting to me. vernon is super drawn to minghao, so i always find it peculiar when he instead singles out jun or vice versa.

vernon and hoshi: they used to be roommates, which is just insane to me. like, think about that? but in a way, you can tell they were because they get along in a quiet and sensible manner that can only exist because you've shared close quarters with someone, no matter how (un)willingly.

vernon and wonwoo: one of my favorite dynamics in the entire group. they are both extremely introverted, they are the heart and soul of the hip hop dynamic, i love seeing them together because visually they are both just absolutely stunning. i love watching them hang out together. much like wonwoo and jihoon, these two compliment each other really and have a quiet understanding of one another, vernon is just way more laid back than jihoon could ever be. this is two, low energy level individuals interacting with each other, and i love them for it. also, they are bad bitches. to me, anyways.

vernon and jihoon: best friends. my favorite vernon dynamic by FAR. yes, they are both my biases in the group and yes, that does make me indeed biased, but i don't care. vernon is jihoon's closest confidante in terms of song writing and production (besides bumzu ofc), they genuinely get along REALLY well, they have been roommates on tour for ages to this day. jihoon takes care of vernon and vernon understands jihoon. i love them so much, oh my god, like you can just tell that they are very close friends. one of the best friendships in the entire group and i hate that no one pays attention to them. they just love hanging out with each other and i love that for them.

vernon and minghao: oh, whew. verhao... my god, what a can of worms. all i am saying is, that verhao should have and be what verkwan is. in fact, verhao IS what people think verkwan is. vernon is drawn to minghao like a moth to a flame, and minghao loves to play coy with him, while he also takes a lot of care of vernon. idk, i just love them together. maybe the vernon dynamic with the most chemistry.

vernon and mingyu: i love them. i just. i feel like it's hard to explain what i see in them, but whenever they interact, i feel so giddy. there's something special to vernon and mingyu. if you get it, you get it.

vernon and dk: the 218s! i love our 218s. it is so funny, because they have very opposing characters, but it is honestly just a classic mash up of sunshine (dk) and tsundere (vernon), one of the oldest tropes in the books, which we just love. they are both unhinged in different ways. the main rapper and main vocalist of svt, baby!!!

vernon and seungkwan: i mean, do i think that verkwan is overrated? yes. they have none of the romantic chemistry people claim they have and i do absolutely not understand how it survived for this long? what are people seeing here? but, i do love their dynamic as friends. it reminds me of me and my close friends.

vernon and dino: these two just bring me so much joy. i seriously would die for the entire svt maknae line, no joke. and vernon and dino are also unhinged, but in more alike ways. another one of those complex dynamics that doesn't make sense on first glance, but that you feel could be the foundation of something brilliant.

#ask #anon #kaz talks svt #this was fun!!! sorry it took so long

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