The Raven Boys Ch 4 // The Raven Boys Ch 21

imagine the aglionby rowing team was super intense about winning championships or whatever and then gansey, the literal captain of the team, is like “hey sorry, i have to quit, i think i need to really commit to focusing on my dead welsh king hunting and i have to be home more so my best friend doesn’t drag race with his situationship :/“

Adam and Declan finally put aside their differences to focus on their true enemy:

Handcat

as funny as it is to joke about Adam taking matters into his own hands and shooting his Latin teacher (and you can rip all those jokes out of my frigid and lifeless hands) i feel an obligation to remind people that Adam did not have that gun with the intent to kill anyone, doesn't view it explicitly as murder, and expresses multiple times he's very uncomfortable having aforementioned gun in the first place. which speaks to his overall character in ways these jokes can forget. like, yes, playing semantics over whether it "counts" as him killing a guy is genuinely hilarious in retrospect, and Adam absolutely brought that gun knowing he might use it despite hoping it wasn't necessary. He also took the gun from his father in the first place to make sure it was never pulled on his mom and holds onto it to prevent a random kid finding it. He feels better when Whelk makes him get rid of it. It's used less as a weapon and more as a bargaining chip. I think it says a lot about Adam's age and his relationship with violence, actually, that he has a general disdain (and fear) surrounding guns and is all too eager to get away from it.

ronan was so real for skipping having a crush and going straight into para-religious devotion at the first sight of adam

fanon: Jesper wants Wylan because he is a second Kaz

canon: Jesper doesn't want Wylan to be like Kaz

oh you're besties? which one of you is the nepo baby infused with a sense of doom so deep after dying because of a wasp sting he’s obsessed with finding a dead welsh king in his ugly bright orange camaro and which one is the sepia photograph boy who's soul is connected to a sentient forest that his boyfriend accidentally dreamt when he was a child?

Something that always irks me is when people create an imbalance between Kaz and Inej. What I mean by that is... Kaz is not superior to Inej, but Inej isn't superior to Kaz either. Which is something a lot of people tend to believe. Neither one is more superior to the other. On the contrary, they are equals. They have always been equals, and that is one the most beautiful aspects of their relationship.

Kaz and Inej are both severely traumatized

They are both flawed characters who make bad decisions

They both have questionable coping mechanisms

They are both closed off from other people and tend to share little to nothing personal about themselves

They are both violent and vengeful

I bet you Inej has killed as many people as Kaz

One helps the other feel less isolated

They both help each other's trauma (Inej's voice grounds Kaz when he is drowning and Kaz's ability to always "see" Inej helps her feel present)

They are both so devoted, supportive and protective of each other, but simultaneously, are also able to pick up things they do that are wrong

Kaz shedding enough blood to paint a barn red = Inej wanting to kill a whole room full of people for Kaz

They are crime partners, confidants, and best friends first and foremost

Kaz trusting Inej enough to expose 1/2 of his skin in her presence = Inej trusting Kaz enough to let him stand super close to her while her arms were exposed (chapter 26 of CK)

Kaz calling Inej an investment and joking about Inej being at the Menagerie due to bad luck = Inej being slightly insensitive about Kaz's trauma at the end of SOC (the "gloves on, fully clothed" line) and joking with him about having to limp down the stairs

But Kaz and Inej making up for these things in CK by Kaz admitting to Inej that she matters more than her skill and that he would come for her regardless, as well as selling every asset to pay off her indenture while Inej reflects on what she said to him on the boat and beginning to be more patient and considerate with him, not wanting him to immediately remove his gloves, loving him regardless of the things he's unable to do currently realizing that she struggles as well with intimacy and telling him that she would return to Ketterdam

Kaz and Inej healing together and finding happiness and love with each other

You see? They are equals. One is not better than the other. It's one of their defining qualities and also proves why Kanej is the best ship to ever exist.

say what you will about leigh bardugo's worldbuilding choices but "guy who's hiding his superpowers is so constantly understimulated he developed a gambling addiction to cope" is fucking brilliant actually

absolutely no other fictional character will EVER top ronan lynch in yearning. in devotion. "a combination that focused most of the objects of Ronan's worship into one downtown block" oh. "his feelings for Adam were like an oil spill" oh!!! "it was a choice between death and hurting adam, and that wasn't much of a choice at all" OH. he was on a whole other level

So I finished reading six of crows. Goooood book good book

Accept my offering dear SoC tumblr fandom

Based on this meme!!