#rule of wolves

[catbayunthestoryteller]

The most unappreciated crow is actually Nina. And I mean in canon, not just that the fandom reduces her to a flirty waffle eater. They all did their parts, but Nina did 110%. Inej was Kaz's ace up his sleeve because he knew how to use her. Not even Kaz could anticipate what Nina did. Nina was a miracle worker. Nina performed what Kaz couldn't think of when his plans went to shit. Nina literally revived Kaz and restarted his heart (I'm not gonna touch the fact that oddly enough that was Kaz's first kiss and Nina breathed life back into him.) Nina took jurda parem and saved them all. Nina survived jurda parem and still went on jobs for Inej. Nina controlled the bone dust and saved them again. Nina raised the dead to catch Inej when she fell from 20 stories high. Nina brought the King of Ravka to their side for their plan. We know Kaz sees Inej as a saint but Nina was the guardian saint of the group.

None of these were anything anyone could've asked her to do because it was physically impossible and she still did it. And then she just left. The crows keep in contact with Inej and drop everything to aid her, but what about Nina? In King of Scars, she's in disguise and misses the crows, but what about after the dust settled after Rule of Wolves? Zoya and Nikolai are in regular contact with the crows, but what about Nina? She now permanently wears a different face and body, she has nothing left of her old life, she pretends to be someone else 24/7. Can she not have her friends? Do they just not think about her?

She spent a year working with the Dregs. They've been through so much together. I'm sorry but Nikolai and Zoya randomly befriending them (thanks to Nina!) makes less sense than them not keeping in contact with Nina.

[midnightmart]

zoya nazyalensky

Let’s goooooooooooo!

[saraespa]

I just hate how people tend to soften or romanticize the Darkling, justifying his traumas or good motivations. Like, DUDE, this man is evil. Yes, at one point in his life, he was a good person with good intentions, like making the Grisha respected and accepted. BUT he became corrupted over the years, and after using merzost, he's a horrible person, and Bardugo reinforces this several times in KoS and RoW. This is the same man who willingly let Genya be raped, encouraged Zoya directly and indirectly to be a bad person, manipulated a 17-year-old Alina who was clearly desperate for love, BLINDED his own MOTHER, punished and killed several people and THE GRISHAS THEMSELVES. HE KILLED THE PEOPLE HE SWORE TO PROTECT, it's in the books, he is not a good person, he doomed Ravka and the Grisha. In KoS, we see the destruction he caused in Ravka and how the Grisha continue to be frowned upon and die, and indirectly, he helped the enemies of Ravka and Grisha grow stronger and go after them. If it weren't for Nikolai, Zoya, Genya, and everyone else, there would be no Ravka, no Grisha. It doesn't matter if he was once good—he was—but focus on this: he WAS good, he HAD good motives, he tried to fight for the right reasons, but he was corrupted and took everyone with him in that corruption.

Yes, Darkling is an extremely complex character, but he is a villain, a very well-constructed villain. THAT is his nature. There is no gentle, weak soul struggling to escape his cruelty. He is cruel, accept that.

*Unfortunately, I had to add the anti-Darkling tag because people were crying in my comments, but I appreciate him as a character and I LOVE reading about him, like I was extremely happy when that bastard came back. But God forgive anyone who points out that the villain of the franchise is a villain.

[cryptidstealingyourcreditcard]

never forget: “Jesper threw open the door, revealing a grand entryway and his shockingly bright combination of turquoise waistcoat and houndstooth trousers. The ensemble shouldn’t have worked, but Zoya was forced to admit it did” (rule of wolves 370).

…even zoya had to admit that jesper made the most godawful outfit combinations work somehow

[obscuregreen]

"whos your favorite characte-"

inej ghafa

"ok now favorite book charac-"

inej ghafa

"uh. favorite show ch-"

inej ghafa

"...morally grey-"

inej ghafa

"...female charac-"

inej ghafa

do u want me to continue or

[theseventhcrow55]

zoyalai is just as compelling a romance as all the ones in six of crows. i said what i said.

[wraith--2]

I just realised that Nina left before Kaz got Inej a ship so does that mean Inej showed up at the end of rule of wolves on her ship and Nina was like oh did you use your share from the heist to get this and Inej was like uhhh....

I just know the debrief on the way to Ketterdam went crazy

[fantastic-nonsense]

Things Kaz canonically does in the two years between Crooked Kingdom and Rule of Wolves:

(presumably) massively expands the Dregs' territory

buys Pekka's old club (the Emerald Palace) and completely renovates it, turning it into The Silver Six

massively expands the Crow Club to the point where it's "three times the size of every other establishment on the block"

builds an underground tunnel that goes from the Crow Club to the Geldstraat, where the Van Eck Mansion is

takes Jesper out on jobs with him often enough that Wylan has jokingly banned Jesper from answering the door when he knocks

learns about Ketterdam's Suli laborers and picks up additional knowledge of Suli culture

keeps up with Inej's whereabouts and helps her take out slavers

expands his information network to the Kerch colonies

is on friendly enough terms with the King of Ravka that he taught Nikolai how to pick locks and Nikolai feels comfortable personally writing him a letter when he needs to steal the titanium from Kerch

disguises himself just to follow people around on the streets

was planning to steal the titanium from the military base anyway just for fun

And that's just the stuff we see from Nikolai's and Zoya's incredibly limited perspectives during their Ketterdam sidequest

I 100% agree with Zoya when she thinks that "maybe Kaz was like Nikolai, a boy with an unquiet mind, a man in perpetual need of challenge" because ROW makes it so obvious that Kaz is bored and incredibly restless in his success. Someone get our boy a new life's purpose and a subscription to a long-running unsolved mystery podcast stat