#book kanej is my beloved

[bitchthefuck1]

I feel like people sometimes have a tendency to paint Inej as a little too wide-eyed and borderline naive and I feel like that's such a misread and disservice to her character, because her faith and hope for a better future isn't some misguided assumption that everything will be okay or that the world isn't so bad. She knows exactly how bad things can be and exactly what kind of evil people are capable of, and she's saying "fuck you, you can take my autonomy and my childhood and maybe I'll never see my family or home again, but I will literally die before I let make me think that the shit I've been through is all there is. The beauty and love I experienced was real and valuable and nothing you do or say will make me let go of that or believe it's not possible for me to have again," and it is genuinely the most incredible and real thing in those books.

Inej has fought tooth and nail for every ounce of goodness she has and she'll keep wringing it out of the world because those things are real and possible no matter what, and there's nothing naive about it.

#it's crying about inej hours again #it's literally always crying about inej hours #she makes me soooooooooooo #i will literally kill for this girl #like time and time again the books prove her right and Kaz's extreme nihilism wrong and yet people will talk about it like he's the one who #'really sees the world as it is'. AND HE KNOWS SHE'S RIGHT AND SHE'S STRONGER FOR STILL HAVING FAITH. HE LITERALLY SAYS IT. #deadass wanna be like her when I grow up #not to say kaz doesn't have every reason to believe what he does about the world's cruelty but these books are literally full of these kids #creating the space of love and safety they were denied for each other even as he says it's not possible #inej ghafa #kanej #six of crows #soc #crooked kingdom #inej ghafa my beloved

[flowersforfrancis]

My loves.

#the crows #six of crows #kaz brekker #inej gafha #jesper fahey #wylan van eck #jack wolfe #kit young #freddie carter #amita suman #shadow and bone #shows #my loves #my beloveds #wesper #kanej #leigh bargudo #books and literature #dark academia #fantasy #dark fantasy #aesthetic #crooked kingdom #inej #six of crows jesper #wylan #jesper x wylan #wylan and jesper #jesper my beloved #wylan my beloved

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Just re-listening to my ck audiobook and I realised that the oyster knife Kaz used to cut Oomen’s eye out in six of crows is the same oyster knife that Inej uses to kill a Stadwatch officer in Crooked Kingdom by throwing it so it hits him directly between the eyes. Not only is this a great Kanej parallel, but it could also be symbolically representative of their approaches to violence; Kaz’s is slow, deliberate, designed more than anything else to cause pain and to bring across his point, whilst Inej’s is faster, neater, and perhaps more predictable in action because she has clear purpose and intent whilst Kaz’s true intentions are buried beneath layers of façade. She kills this officer on the bridge during the hostage exchange, and Kaz famously kills Oomen after he attacked Inej, so the use of the same knife could also be representative of Kaz’s care for and need to protect Inej, emphasised by him giving her the oyster knife in the seconds before the kill in crooked kingdom. It could also be linked back to Kaz being the one who gave Inej her first knives and how empowered she felt by him believing her to be “dangerous” - even when she thinks she’s going to die she considers what will become of her knives, and decides that “perhaps they could go to some other girl who dreamed of being dangerous”. It’s these moments, these seemingly tiny things Kaz does, that truly solidify him for her and give us so much understanding of all the specific reasons she loves him.

#grishaverse #leigh bardugo #six of crows #crooked kingdom #inej ghafa #kaz brekker #kanej #kanej headcanon #kanej supremacy #kanej my beloved #kaz x inej #book analysis #fantasy books #fantasy analysis #literary analysis #analysis #nina zenik #jesper fahey #wylan van eck #matthias helvar #freddy carter #amita suman

[tev-rainbow]

FINALLY READING SIX OF CROWS IS OVER.

#six of crows #leigh bardugo #kanej #wesper #nina zenik #helnik #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #reading #another book off the tbr #wylan van eck #jesper fahey #jesper my beloved

[lynsstrange]

i once read a Pinterest comment that said “do you think Kaz sometimes holds Inej in a way where he can remind himself that the person he’s holding is alive and breathing?” And I have not been mentally well since

#Six of crows #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #kanej my beloved #kanej #bookworm #ya books #the dregs #grishaverse #leigh bargudo #shadow and bone #leigh bardugo #jesper fahey #nina zenik #wylan van eck #matthias helvar

[liliancmiller]

Kaz and Inej

One thing I love about Kaz and Inej´s relationship is that Inej never asked Kaz to get over his struggles with physical contact - she just asked him to try.

The entire bathroom scene was just one huge show of trust and patience, proving that Inej completely understood his limitations. And she knew that it was hard for him, and knew that it would be hard for her to stay by his side, and still, all that she asked was for the smallest amount of change from Kaz. Just the smallest touch. Just so she knew he would try.

#six of crows #crooked kingdom #kaz brekker #kaz x inej #inej gafha #kanej #kanej supremacy #intimacy #books #books and reading #inej my beloved #grishaverse #Soc #leigh bardugo #Cm

[stop-ur-losing-me]

My comfort characters (in no specific order)

Percy Jackson

Sadie Kane

Annabeth Chase

Xander Hawthorne

Maleficent

Death (from the Book Thief)

Inej Ghafa

Mare Barrow

Kaz Brekker

Katniss Everdeen

Wanda Maximoff

Lorelai Gilmore

Peeta Mellark

Lucy Gray Baird

i will add more once i think with my two brain cells

#percabeth #percy jackson #pjo #annabeth chase #sadie kane #kane chronicles #the inheritance games #xander hawthorne #maleficent #the book thief #inej gjafa #inej ghafa #*cries in kanej* #inej my beloved #mare barrow #red queen #kaz brekker #six of crows #katniss everdeen #the hunger games #thg #wanda maximoff #lorelai gilmore #gilmore girls #katniss and peeta #peeta mellark #thg peeta #peeta supremacy #lucy gray baird #the ballad of songbirds and snakes

[hyper-fixated-princess]

As much as I hate the idea of Inej and Tolya as a possibility in the show, I gotta say… jealous Kaz Brekker is something I will gladly witness.

#sorry not sorry #we didn’t get to see it in the books as much so that will be fun #kanej #tolya x inej #inej x tolya #kaz brekker #kaz rietveld #inej ghafa #kaz x inej #inej x kaz #kanej headcanon #kanej my beloved #six of crows netflix #six of crows #six of crows spinoff #six of crows duology #shadow and bone netflix #shadow and bone series #shadow and bone #shadow and bone season two spoilers #shadow and bone s2

[canseethebrushstrokes]

the -i’ll have you without armour kaz brekker or i won’t have you at all- scene in six of crows is so necessary for ya fantasy because too many times do female protagonists have to put up with less than the bare minimum and genuinely shitty behaviour from love interests due to their feelings. thank god inej was written in such a way where she know she deserves better and her own goals and story come before him.

#love kaz but like #inej my beloved #inej supremacy #leigh bardugo #sixofcrows #ya books #is this one of the reasons why kanej works so well in crooked kingdom because these boundaries are already established???

[cyanightmars]

So anyways I think “Fire on Fire” by Sam Smith is a Kanej song

#LIKE THIS MIGHT JUST BE ME #BUT IT FITS THEM SO WELL??? #I can just image the lyrics #‘then I saw you and I knew’ #where Kaz sees her for the first time and his eyes light up ever so slightly but inside him fireworks are going off #AND ALSO #‘they say we’re out of control and some say we’re sinners / but don’t let them ruin our beautiful rhythms’ #I MIGHT BE INSANE TBH #BUT I SHALL NOW FOREVER ASSOCIATE THIS SONG WITH THEM #anyways thank you for coming to my ted talk #these books have been driving me insane /pos #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #kanej #kaz brekker x inej ghafa #*cries in kanej* #kanej headcanon #kanej my beloved #they make me insane #six of crows #smartie speaks

[bitchthefuck1]

Tearing up also counts as crying.

#Inej's reunion with her parents is the only scene in these books to make me shed actual tears so she's my answer #really curious about how this will go #Matthias might do actually really well in this one. I feel like hes one of the less popular of the crows (but still beloved) but his death #will give him an edge #inej ghafa #kaz brekker #kanej #jesper fahey #wylan van eck #wesper #nina zenik #matthias helvar #helnik #six of crows #soc #crooked kingdom #six of crows polls #polls #kuwei yul bo

[libertyreads]

Screaming, crying, throwing up. How does this still get to me even on my third time reading this duology?

#kanej my beloved #crooked kingdom #six of crows #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #kaz x inej #spoilers...i suppose? #soc spoilers #ck spoilers #booklr #books #bookstagram #bookish #book #screaming crying throwing up

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Absolutely banger content!! Love it! When Kaz calls Inej "treasure of my heart" he's cheapening an otherwise meaningful phrase. Do you think he is being totally sarcastic or is he deadpanning his feelings to a degree? Because a little later he describes another time he said something cold-blooded to Inej and says to himself "in moments like that he thought she might hate him." Can the second quote be used as context to explain the "treasure of my heart" quote?

Hi, thank you so much!

I definitely think that this is a prime example of using sarcasm as a defence mechanism, so although he comes across completely sarcastic - as confirmed by Inej’s reaction, which is to look pointedly at his cane and wish him a long trip down the stairs before she herself slides down the bannister - I would agree that to some degree he is voicing his genuine feelings. It could be viewed in a somewhat self-destructive nature, because by voicing these feelings in a manner that he knows will elicit a negative response from Inej he can use it as evidence for her not returning his affection and therefore use it as a reason not express his feelings in any real way - claiming that she won’t be interested, when actually he simply has a massively debilitating fear of being vulnerable bred in him by Rollins and the general attitudes/environment of the gangs in the Barrel (and arguably to some degree Jordie as well; by trying to protect his younger brother he doesn’t necessarily convey the full severity of their situation when they first arrive in Ketterdam, inadvertently leading to the belief that such vulnerabilities should never be spoken of or discussed becoming a highly complex and difficult aspect of Kaz’s character)

When Kaz comments “in moments like that, he thought she might hate him” it’s coming off the back of him effectively defending the appropriation of Inej’s culture. She is horrified to see the Suli Jackal masks on sale and being worn by pleasure seekers in Ketterdam, because they should only be worn by Suli seers and are “sacred symbols”. In return, Kaz says that he’s seen the seers “ply their trade on party boats and in pleasure houses” and that “they didn’t seem very holy”, and when she says that “they are pretenders” and “they’re laughing at you behind those masks” he responds coolly that he would never pay to have his fortune told, whether it was from a conman or a holy man. When Inej is visibly upset by this conversation, he comments that he wonders if she hates him, and I think that a large aspect of this is because he is the only person who knows what she went through to its fullest extent. And the specifically relevant aspect of what he knows here, is that Inej was forced to appropriate her culture herself when she was at the Menagerie (slight tangent, but so was Nina, it’s very interesting, I’ve mentioned it in a post before). Inej describes her room at the Menagerie to be a farcical mockery of a Suli caravan, she was forced to “donn false Suli silks”, and it’s even mentioned that the only reason she was ‘the lynx’ is that the Jackal masks were seen as unattractive - “but what man would want to bed a Jackal? So instead, the Suli girl - and the Menagerie always stocked a Suli girl - wore the lynx”. What a quote. What. A. Quote. Starting with the Jackal, it makes it clear that there are no lines that won’t be crossed, and that’s emphasised by other girls at the Menagerie wearing animals sacred to their countries such as the Fjerdan woman being the wolf, and that the only reason Inej didn’t have to wear an outfit similar to the one she’s so horrified by here is that it couldn’t be sexualised and exploited the same way the lynx could. And then we have “and the Menagerie always stocked a Suli girl”. Wow. That gets me every time I read it. There are two main things I want to comment on in this quote, so I’ll start with “stocked”. This singular world is so dehumanising; the idea that the women and girls at the Menagerie are seen as stock, produce, literal consumables that can be bought and traded and sold. There’s also the point that Inej herself is the one using this word, and I think it’s left purposefully ambiguous as to whether this is a satirical usage of the word on her behalf as a criticism of the culture surrounding pleasure houses and cultural appropriation in Kerch (although more specifically Ketterdam), or if it’s the product of indoctrination to this toxic culture - similar to Nina’s horror at releasing that the appropriation and disdain for foreigners she’s been surrounded by has actually led her to judge traditional Ravkan dress as old-fashioned in Crooked Kingdom (I think it’s chapter 13). The second thing about this quote I want to mention is “always”. “Always”. It so subtly introduces so early on in the books the deeply ingrained over-sexualisation of Suli culture, which is evidenced time and time again but most specifically in the ‘Rare Spices’ billboard that Inej describes un Crooked Kingdom. I could talk about that billboard for DAYS so I won’t go into it here because this is already a long post.

But I think it’s incredibly important that Kaz knows all of this when he makes these comments, every time he mocks her gods or her “depressing Suli wisdom”, he knows that he is part of a culture that dehumanises and sexualises and appropriates and reduces everything about who she is, and he knows that it’s hurting her, of course it would hurt her anyway, but especially hurting her because she was forced to do it herself as a cherry on top of the worst year in Inej’s life, a year made of unending pain and terror. But arguably this is once again all that self-destructive nature; the pushing her away, similarly to the sarcasm as a defence mechanism, because it is easier to hate than to love, and because if she hates him then he never has to be vulnerable with her.

Oh wow I just looked at that and realised it’s way longer than I thought, sorry about that… Thank you for reading it, and thank you so much for the question this was really interesting to think about! :)

#grishaverse #leigh bardugo #six of crows #crooked kingdom #inej ghafa #kaz brekker #nina zenik #jesper fahey #wylan van eck #kanej #kanej brainrot #kanej my beloved #kanej supremacy #analysis #fantasy books #book analysis #long post #amita suman #freddy carter

[constellama]

Reading King of Scars after having finished the Six of Crows duology and I’m lowkey losing my mind cuz

Sound familiar??

#GOING INSANE #ZOYALAI MY BELOVEDS #IM NOT EVEN DONE WITH THE BOOK YET #BUT !!!?!!;!; #THEM?! #please don’t let anything bad happen to them oh god #also kanej and zoyalai double date when #maybe this is a stretch actually #listen I’m just having fun ok #grishaverse #six of crows #king of scars #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #nikolai lantsov #zoya nazyalensky #six of crows spoilers #king of scars spoilers #constellama talks

[1997eitheror]

the more i think about wylan and jesper the more annoyed i get lol like yeah the scenes were cute i guess but literally none of it was book accurate at all 😭

#my beloveds…….i’m so sorry #like i know the kanej scenes were too early but at least they were book scenes #same with the helnik stuff in season 1 but wesper get nothing 😭 #the closest we got was the i like your face line

[lynsstrange]

this online review of six of crows basically sums it all up for me <3 “all the feminism left my body when I wished for a white boy named Kaz Brekker to protect me like one of his investments.” 

#six of crows #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #jesper fahey #wylan van eck #matthias helvar #the dregs #kanej my beloved #wesper #helnik #ya books