Anyway, soc fandom really sleeps on Nina and Kaz’s relationship:
-They’re not exactly friends; they more so use each other for their own ends. And over that relationship they do develop a begrudging fondness for each other, which I think is very important because this a mixed group of people and the relationships are all gonna be different. Kaz learns to open up and trust others slowly, and the fact that this trust extends to Nina is really important for his character.
-They’re both masters of BDE. Putting them together is too much power. They obliterate everyone in their presence.
-Everyone’s got their own way of standing up to Kaz, but Nina’s really obvious about it. She’s not afraid of him or soft on him the way Jesper, Inej, and Wylan are. She’s not easily bested by him like Matthias. That leads to Nina flat-out challenging him multiple times. He wants to leave the Grisha in the city, and she’s like “Fuck that. You may be a horrible person, but I’m not” and then proceeds to get his biggest player (Inej) on her side.
-I think of everyone, she poses the biggest threat to him because he can’t exactly stop her from plunging his heart rate. (And she threatens it a lot.) He relies on her goodness and his bargaining chips to prevent her from actually doing it.
-Also, let’s not forget her fun little dig at his hair. Everyone thinks he looks a little ridiculous, but who the hell is gonna say it to his face but Nina?
-Calling each other by their last names. But ALSO, “Nina dear” and “Nina sweet”. Like how the heck did that get started. Is it the fact that he knows that she can best him so he has to be sweet to her but he’ll only do it sarcastically? Anyway, I love that he has pet names for her.
-Go reread her introduction in SOC. It’s literally full of internal praises from Kaz. He admires her skills, her surviving, her power, etc.
-While you’re rereading her introduction, notice that she’s the first one he tells the plan to. He doesn’t tell Inej or Jesper. He tells Nina about it first. He probably figures she won’t be game unless he tells her, but he could also just have been like “Yo, I need Helvar. Let’s go.” But he takes the time to explain it and bargain with her into going along with it. He clearly respects her.
-They have great comebacks. “How about I crack your skull open like a robin’s egg?” “You don’t want a look at what’s inside my head, Nina dear.”
-They don’t have a lot of interactions in CK which is a fucking shame because they are the definition of Power Bro couple.
Disclaimer, this isn’t a dig at any of the other characters. I just want to highlight that Kaz and Nina are both incredibly powerful in incredibly different ways and whether they conspire or clash, the results goes off in a huge way. And I think we need to appreciate that more
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