Seriously considering going through my original and dregs edition copies side by side page by page line by line to make a comprehensive list of all the edits that were made so that we can have a definitive place to go to inform and educate ourselves on what exactly was changed so that we can form more complete and informed opinions and also cite our sources when making points about the situation.
Like if they’re not gonna tell us why they changed it we should at least know how they changed it and to what extent lol
No one asked for my take on the SoC and CK edits in the Dregs edition, but I’m gonna give them anyways!
Warning: Opinions!
TL;DR: While them being teens vs vaguely early 20s doesn’t make a difference to me personally in my enjoyment or experience of the book. I do take issue with the secrecy of the edits, the extent of the edits, and the practice of editing already published books years down the line in general. I also think everyone is entitled to their own feelings and opinions about the situation and it’s all valid.
For me personally, the crows being younger is definitely an aspect of their characters and creates a specific vibe of like the young scrappy underdog thing. But, I don’t think them not being teenagers specifically in this new edition breaks the story or their characters or the vibe. Like for me them being teenagers specifically vs vague early 20s isn’t a huge jump and is basically the same thing. It’s not the teen thing it’s the young thing that matters to me personally like that divide between Peka and the merchants and stuff being older and the crows being younger is what is important to setting the scene in terms or age when I read not them being teenagers specifically. (And even if they were edited to be older than vaguely their early 20s now while I don’t think I’d prefer it, for me personally it doesn’t necessarily ruin the story or their characters it just makes it feel a little different).
I feel like what I’m gonna say next is sort of a hot take, but I think whether or not their age is important is totally subjective to the reader and whatever your feeling is is valid (hence why I kept saying “for me personally” above). Like whether it impacts your feeling when reading depends on you as an individual. For some people the young aspect (ambiguous or not) matters and for some it doesn’t. People can make (and have made) arguments that their specific ages or their youth matter to the plot and their character arcs definitively, but the fact of the matter is that there are a decent amount of people out there that don’t feel that way and in this case I kind of err on the side of perception is reality. Like, for me personally their youth impacts how I feel when I read but I have a friend who said it doesn’t because when she reads she pretends they’re older anyways and she just doesn’t feel differently about the characters or the story even if the timeline of their lives is shifted so that things happen later or they have to live with their trauma a longer before the events of the book and she said she’d feel the same even if they were edited to be even older than vaguely early 20s or young adults. Idk I just think everyone is entitled to their opinions and the discourse is a lot right now especially when there’s so much speculation and rumor going around.
Now what I do agree with in terms of outrage about this is that it is absolutely wrong of them to not advertise this and to make no statement or indication that these edits happened. It feels like they’re trying to hide it and it’s shady (and I feel like that’s part of why the reactions are so strong, the secrecy makes it feels more like a betrayal).
(Disclaimer for all of this but specifically for my last two points: I haven’t gone through the entire series and seen every edit made I’ve just gone into my copies and done a quick scan to compare parts of the new edition to the original to find a few examples and that’s what I’m basing this all off of)
Putting aside arguments of if their ages are important or not and if they should have been edited or not, the fact is they were and I have some thoughts about the edits they did make assuming again the goal was to make them more vaguely young adult like in their early to mid 20s (again we don’t actually know the motivations or goal because no statement has been made I just feel like that’s what their intent was). Anyways, to me, objectively, I feel like they edited more than they needed to for their goal and if I was the one tasked with going in and making their ages vaguer I would have done it differently. Like sure take out mentions of specific ages, “sixteen” “seventeen” “eighteen” etc that makes sense, but taking out the line “Brekker’s eyes were ancient, but he couldn’t be any older than Matthias.” Was unnecessary and could have been left in imo. If they wanted to make the ages vaguer I would have, and feel like they should have, done so in a way that changed as little as possible and edited the text very sparingly.
This leads me into my final point and thought on this, from a history standpoint I don’t personally love the practice of editing books after they’ve been published (especially anything more than grammar and especially with no indication or concrete statement to explain to people what was changed and why). Changing their ages to be more vague and not specifically teenagers I’m sure was mostly a marketing decision so they could better be shelved in the adult section (these editions actually only initially caught my eye because they were in the adult section at my bookstore) and it’s not technically censorship and probably not anything more sinister than corporate greed, but it feels vaguely censorship adjacent to me, especially with the fact that they made the changes so quietly, and that feels a little icky and just doesn’t sit quite right with me just on principle. And so again while I don’t personally take issue with the idea of their ages being vague instead of specifically teen (though as I just said I do take issue with how they went about it), since I err on the side of changing as little as possible and don’t feel that it makes a difference to me, I do wish they hadn’t done it because I just feel it wasn’t necessary and they should have left their ages as is and changed as little as possible. especially since the books have been out for 10 years and reached plenty of adults even with them being teens. Like the juice was not worth the squeeze imo.
I totally see why this upset so many people and why people are having strong reactions and I think all the criticism and everything is valid, I myself had a negative gut reaction to finding out about the edits, but these are just my thoughts and opinions on all of this after sitting and thinking through my own feelings and observing the response the last couple days!
I really don’t like debating or arguing with people and again I truly feel like everyone is entitled to their feelings and opinion on this I’m not saying any take is definitively right or wrong so replies, comments, and asks trying to provoke an argument will probably be ignored! (Though if you have genuine questions about anything in this post or about any other thoughts I may have on the situation I’m always happy to discuss things and explain why I think the way I do!)
Everyone forgets that Kaz and Inej are Friends to Lovers just because Kaz is a sassy edgelord. Inej was literally his right-hand woman and most trusted confidant, they’re proof that Friends to Lovers isn’t a “boring” trope when your characters are individually interesting while having a great dynamic even outside of romance.
The only enemies to lovers pairing in SoC are Helnik because Matthias was literally a witch hunter that tried to kill her at one point.
Jesper and Wylan were not friends at first or enemies but a secret third thing; Annoyances to Lovers, which is a very underrated and fun trope. Not all characters who bicker and banter are enemies/rivals, especially when they’re on the same side from the beginning. Hermione and Ron are another popular example of this.
matthias going from “Nina, has it ever occurred to you that maybe … you weren’t meant to exist?” to “perhaps Djel extinguished one light and lit another” after seeing nina’s powers change to something absolutely terrifying will never not make me emotional, helnik are so dear to me <3
Morning Doodle: Before his death Nikolai will have written Zoya over a thousand letters, each sealed and placed in a wooden box. Some of them contain little stories, some of them admit embarrassing secrets, and some of them are simply reminders that he loves her.
When did he find the time to write these? Well, I imagine some of them were written while in his workshop, some while in long meetings, many on Sturmhond’s ship, and a few while Zoya slept beside him…messing up his penmanship whenever she rolled around.
I need to get this off my mind, here are a few things I hated about row.
Well, first of all I expected the plot to be a mess but not that much of a mess, I thought it would make some sense at least. It wasn't even that bad but went downhill in the last 25%.
Nikolai giving up the throne, I understand it I really do and I didn't even mind it but it was done so quickly without any real build up just one or two hints and a monologue. I'm glad he is happy but these sort of things deserve a whole book.
Nikolai didn't have an arc, he didn't have a story in his own duology once again.
I love the idea of Nazyalensky dynasty really do but people just accepting her as queen because she turned into a dragon (also genuinely wtf was that) was lazy writing.
What is Nikolai's title now? He is still Co ruling with Zoya from the sounds of it, so what is exactly his job now? What does he do I wish that was made more clear in his last chapter instead of focusing on darkling
Nikolai was barley in the last chapter? Zoya had moments with everyone but him, the last chapter was used as soc3 buildup. We were robbed of a sweet epilogue or any zoyalai moment alone. Nina and her love interest spent their last chapter in each other's arms why didn't Zoyalai get the same treatment?
The last chapters being dedicated to Darkling, Nikolai's last chapter being about Darkling pissed me off. It was possibly the last time we were in his head, I wanted to know more about him, how happy he is now. What his job is now. Where his damn bedroom chambers are but no instead we had to see Darkling going into a fucking tree.
In the last chapter Zoya had moments with everyone but Nikolai, you cannot tell me he wasn't more excited than her for her coronation. Zoya got moments with Nina, Genya, Alina and even Inej for crying out loud but barely any moments with Nikolai.
Zoyalai fans deserved a better goodbye than that, Bardugo doesn't even plan on going back to grishaverse soon so why couldn't we get a Zoyalai epilogue? Just two of them sitting in the quiet peacefully next to each other. Like Zoya defined their relationship.
Was there really any need for Mayu chapters and for them to be so long? Those chapters also could've been gone to Tamar who we already know and love. The Darkling chapters were useless, I feel like more time could've been given to Nikolai's character instead of those unneeded povs.
The last chapters have left me so disappointed. Nikolai I'm so sorry wish your author could've seen your potential. Zoya and Nikolai deserved a better book.
Nikolai being calm and composed at all times, showing Zoya he lets nothing get to him, until someone insults her to his face and his immediate reflex is to just deck them in the jaw.
nikolai "I'm not going to ask anybody for help but I wish somebody would notice how tired I am" lanstov, nikolai "I want a fucking break but nobody else can do everything quite as well as I can" lantsov, nikolai "can somebody please hold my hand and insist that I rest even though I don't want to" lantsov, nikolai "I can handle this workload very well but it's still tiring and I almost wish that I couldn't handle it so that I'd be forced to do less work" lantsov, nikolai "everybody loves me for the person I hate being" lantsov
Zoya having a comfort blend of tea that her aunt made specially for her, that she snagged the last dregs of from the destruction of her shop in Novokribirsk.
And how she doesn’t have much of it left now that her aunt is dead, so she only ever drinks it sparingly, when she really needs something to boost her morale.
Genya spends years working on a formula to help recreate it so that Zoya will always have a supply.
Everyone giving Sujaya a crown at the con made me want to cry, because the show did her so fucking dirty and stole that moment from her to give to Alina, in this essay I will-
