Something that always makes me a bit emotional in Six of Crows is Kazās remaining scraps of morality.
He would never call them that, of course. He wouldnāt even in his head. But thereās something there nonetheless.
These scraps show up in ways that are shockingly good morals for someone who is filled with shades of gray and darker.
He never opened a brothel like every other crime boss in the Barrel. Even though we can certainly assume that makes good money, he didnāt touch it ā even before he even knew Inej and her story. He never participated in the trade of peoplesā bodily autonomy. Iāve heard arguments that this is due to his touch phobia, but that wouldnāt really make sense, because in order to run a brothel he obviously wouldnāt have to physically participate as well.
He believes that fathers must love their sons until Jan Van Eck proves him wrong. He was willing to bet on it ā and he LOST. He believed a parent must love their child so certainly, and he was surprised and disgusted that even that was a line people crossed.
He doesnāt harm young children ā or he at least avoids it as much as possible. He scares them and threatens them into compliance ā which yeah is a shade of gray morality for sure. But he doesnāt harm them, and he doesnāt kill them, and he rarely offers people his age or older the same mercy.
He also has certain morality for how to treat people that work for you. In the beginning, when Jan Van Eck has kidnapped him, Van Eck calls him and his methods violent. Kaz points out that most of Van Eckās ships never come back, that people who worked for him died on those ships, and tells Van Eckās to not speak of violence when that is something he does. Heās not denying his own violent nature, but heās clearly showing an opinion that that is yet another unjust action Van Eck takes, and also shows distaste at the hypocrisy of it.
To further prove show this point, in chapter 26 of SoC, if I remember correctly, he is looking for Pekka Rollins in the cells, BUT once he gets there he realizes itās making him late to meet the others, and that they could all die without him performing his part of the heist, he feels guilt, and so he restrains himself from actually wasting time murdering Pekka and goes to continue the heist. Now, heās already very bonded with Inej and Jesper at this point, so that makes sense, but even though he is somewhat less bonded with the others crows, he still thinks about wanting to get his whole crew out safe. I feel like this ties into treating his workers/crewmates with a form of respect/equality/responsibility.
So, for a man who has so little regard for his shortcomings (until Inej), who kills and takes advantage of peoplesā foolishness and darker natures and doesnāt give it a second thought, thereās still something in there. Maybe you couldnāt call them morals in the traditional sense, but thereās a sense of justice there that still shifts his actions.
To me, itās even more beautiful paired up with his unapologetic wickedness too, and I think about it far too much.
