My most controversial soc take is definitely just that adult kanej should (narratively) have kids.
Part of it is that, at the end of ck, it’s very clear that they’re beginning a romantic, physical relationship. Bathroom scene…final scenes…come on. Even though it’s difficult. Even though they have to carry each other through it, and won’t see each other for months at a time now. Even if they don’t have biological kids, many years down the line, just the fact that they can be physically and emotionally intimate (they are already obviously fighting to get there in the hand-holding, meeting her-parents-moments of the ending) is such a beautiful healing story.
Either way, them adopting first. A kid Kaz sees alone on the streets too often. A kid Inej is horrified to find on a slave ship. Taking in kids that are just like them: have nowhere else to go. They’re cautious about it being a temporary situation, but before they know it they’re all three of them attached.
They’re also both so mom-friend coded, frankly. Kaz more so. Inej has literally made a life out of looking out for people, and now for saving the people, the children, in her past-self’s place. And Kaz really does nothing but take care of his people. Family is what motivates his anger and revenge in the first place. He gets other kids off the streets and into the gang. He has such a positive view of his father and decent parents in general. He’s comparatively gentle with children and treats them (maybe too much) like autonomous people. Now, I’m not saying that Kanej would be perfect parents, because that’s not a thing. But come on.
Yeah, they don’t seem ready because they’re teenagers in the duology. But you cannot tell me they aren’t building towards being able to have a family someday in some way. To make each other their family. And to raise children that don’t have to grow up so soon and so afraid.
