Matthias's hypocrisy
I get that Matthias was a product of indoctrination but his hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance is truly appalling.
When Nina pointed at the evidence of what his country does to people like her, suddenly it was not him. The others did it and the dead Grisha were given a fair trial(something he believes her kind does not deserve). So it was not a big deal as they did the right thing.
He tells what happened to his family(I'm convinced that those were Brum's action to increase druskelle recruits). He is holding Nina accountable but he refuses to take any himself. He is justified in killing any and all Grisha however when the Grisha retaliate it shows their evilness. He mocks them as 'precious, persecuted Grisha' just after Nina saw a pyre of her dead colleagues. This is the peak of his cognitive dissonance. He thinks his cause is personal while hers is not.
If this isn't indoctrination at its finest then I don't know what is.
1)My pain is bigger than yours. I'm the victim, not you.
2)One of yours did something vile so all of you are vile.
3)I'm allowed to kill you because I'm doing Djel's work but you cannot retaliate.
4)I'm a holy warrior and my fight is for a righteous cause unlike yours.
5)You are not human, you are an abomination. Killing you is basically cleansing the lands.
And finally we have this gem.
We don't see Grisha hanging trophies of dead druskelle in the Little palace. Circling back to LB calling both parties as soldiers in war can be refuted by the above little nugget alone. One is in war for the purpose of committing hate crime while the other is defending or retaliating. So, as much LB wants to refuse, she wrote a nazi/jew romance.
