#( CHARACTER META; KAZ. )

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

It’s one in the morning let’s talk Six of Crows analysis - it feels like it’s been ages since I did any analysis, which is like the entire point of this account so sorry about that but here we go: We should talk more about Adem Bajan you guys okay because first of all he effectively comes to represent the vast majority of everyday people in a clear juxtaposition to both Inej and Van Eck, but he also is in a position of far less choice than I think we give him credit for.

As a reminder, Bajan is a young Suli boy (presumably somewhere around 19 but we have no confirmation of that) working in the Van Eck household teaching Alys music. He is highly implied to be having or to have interest in having as affair with Alys, and was Van Eck’s chosen jailer for Inej at the beginning of Crooked Kingdom. Van Eck claims he made this choice because he thought “a Suli boy would be most conspicuous” when he was attempting to lure Kaz into a trap to save Inej, but it was also an inarguably smart decision in that, as Inej even comments herself, Bajan was easy to talk to, made her feel nostalgic, homesick, and alone, and very nearly succeeded in drawing information out of her without having to restore to torture. If anything, resorting to torture was Van Eck’s major mistake at this point but that’s really a conversation for another time. Bajan is a really interesting character because he doesn’t want to hurt Inej and specifically encourages her to tell him things so Van Eck won’t escalate things further, but when Van Eck does escalate things Bajan is unable - or possibly unwilling - to stop him. For this Inej calls him a monster, and when he claims he did nothing replies “no, you’re the man who stands idly by congratulating himself whilst the monster eats its fill”. She draws a Suli phrase on him that effectively means he’ll be rejected by the community forever and his spirit/soul won’t be accepted, and she describes it as the worst fate or something along those lines sorry I can’t remember exactly. But what’s the most interesting thing is that even though he claims not to believe in any of it Bajan gets noticeably upset by this and says “that’s not fair”. Inej is surprised that he’s this soft, and there’s a very clear juxtaposition between the lives they have lived.

BUT - let’s look at this from Bajan’s perspective. And remember - this is important - Bajan is not described as an employee of Van Eck’s, but an indenture. An indenture. So Bajan is a young boy indentured in a foreign country to a man as high up in the country’s government as you can get and who has clearly been illustrated to the reader as a terrible person on several different levels that I won’t dissect in too much detail right now. He appears to have acclimatised himself to Kerch surroundings and acts with elevation above his status, because that’s what he has to do to survive in the upper echelon of a deeply classist society that actively diminishes and disapproves of his culture. (<<if anyone wants references for that let me know and also I’ve written about it quite a bit before so that’s kicking around on my page somewhere) He refuses to speak to Inej in Suli because “it makes me maudlin” and my question to you is: is he rejecting the language to further attempt to fit in and as a product of internalised prejudice, or because it’s so incredibly painful to be half-connected to a culture not only that he has forced himself to reject but also that he feels he can never safely return to? Probably both. He tells Inej he doesn’t believe in Suli superstition, religion, or culture, and yet is deeply upset when she uses it against him. Is this because he actually does believe, or wants to believe, in the Saints and the Suli interpretation of them but has rejected them for survival and the supposed betterment of himself? Possibly.

Bajan strikes me as very similar to Jesper in the way he presents himself as free, flirty, and casual, but had a considerable weight to almost everything he says and considerable pain hidden closer to the surface than he may have realised. I think there are parallels between him and Inej if we want to see them, but also a very stark difference in the way Kerch and Ketterdam have treated them. Bajan may not be privileged but even as an indenture he has - or at least as far as we know has had - a far safer and kinder experience than Inej has. This could be related to gender since the hyper-sexualisation of Suli culture is mostly centred on women - “the Menagerie always stocked a Suli girl” (I’ve intensely analysis this quote before so I won’t now but ugh there’s so much to say) - but we do know there are young boys captive at the pleasure houses as well although less commonly and it’s also possible that this difference is linked to Bajan’s decision to turn his back on Suli culture in order to appeal more to Kerch society whilst Inej continually embraced her culture and arguably became more religious in response to her experiences.

This is complicated because I’m not entirely sure how I feel about Bajan. I understand and support Inej’s perspective and everything she saw whilst in a far more dangerous position that he was, but is it possible that this was a lonely boy who saw someone he thought was like him and tried to communicate with her the only way he thought was safe? You are completely isolated in a foreign culture and hate yourself for having suppressed your own upbringing in order to survive, but now you meet someone else who yes, is in more danger than you, but who you might be able to help so that she can help you in return. You aren’t safe to speak freely and so you subtly tell her that you are an indenture, hoping she acknowledges that none of this is of your free will and because you know that she was indentured too (and remember from a societal pov there is very little understanding of what indentured girls at the pleasure houses actually go through and although that doesn’t excuse ignoring Inej’s trauma it may explain why he doesn’t fully acknowledge that their positions aren’t equal), you tell her that speaking your own shared language makes you feel maudlin, hoping she realises that you desperately miss your homeland and using your language makes you feel even further from your family than you already are because you can’t share it with them. She doesn’t seem to be taking any of it in, your employer has every intention of hurting her and you don’t know what else to do, so you make a last plea: you ask her about home. You think you’ve already made it clear that speaking about home is painful, so you ask her about it to invite that pain, to share it, so you both understand. But it fails, because she only sees your employer puppeteering you. You openly beg her to tell him the truth so that he won’t hurt her but she refuses to comply, and after all of your efforts and your desperate attempts to connect and beg her to help you both go home, her response is to turn your home against you and banish you from it for eternity. So when you see her the next morning, how could you possibly look her in the eye?

Bajan did not make all of the right choices in his brief time on the page. He didn’t. But maybe he was trying really hard, and he had no other options left.

Anyway I’m not saying this is definitive one way or the other it’s just an interpretation but I find him a very interesting and very sad character and I although I support all of Inej’s actions in these scenes from her point of view I do find myself wondering how she appeared to Bajan and how he felt in the aftermath.

[fantastic-nonsense]

SAB/SOC twitter is talking about how the lead character of Six of Crows is Kaz and like...even disregarding the fact that it's very explicitly an ensemble work with six leads, the 'main lead' of the duology is pretty clearly Inej. She gets the most POV chapters, she gets the most character development, she's called 'the lodestone and heart' of the Crows multiple times, several vital pieces of the plot and everyone else's character motivations basically revolve around her, and the Crows' story begins and ends with her narration. Show some respect for my girl!

[desidarling123]

We do NOT talk enough about post-breakup Kaz Brekker.

Mans was rocking a fresh cut, brand-new fit, deadl(ier) cane and (most importantly) plans to massively expand his reach across the city of Ketterdam like oh my GOD!!

[six-of-cringe]

I think that one of the reasons why people misinterpret Wylan's character and arc, among others, is because they misinterpret the relationship between him and Kaz. This post has kind of mitosised off from the BFWP (Big Fucking Wylan Post) I'm writing because it's a bit of a different focus and constitutes its own post.

A lot of people talk about Wylan's character and development as though it's meant to match Kaz's - starting out as a nice kid who the city forces to become amoral, indifferent to violence, and well-versed in crime. These qualities are usually talked about with a weird reverence as an irrefutable symbol of "badassery", as though it's always a positive development for any character regardless of the story's narrative, which annoys me but is not the topic of this post. That's part of the BFWP's job.

Following Kaz's exact development is not the point of Wylan's character. The point is that Kaz and Wylan narrative foils - very similar in many ways, but with a fundamental difference that creates the "broken mirror" effect/shows how they could have turned out if they'd chosen differently. I think that difference is how they respond when they climb out of the harbor after their respective betrayals. Narratively, Ketterdam represents a very harsh system that presents the people struggling there with very few options. You can either choose to ditch decency, play by the Barrel's rules, and live, or you can hold on to decency and die.

When Kaz returns to the streets after Jordie's death, he chooses the first option. He copes with what happened through ideas of revenge, and to survive long enough to see it he quickly turns to thievery and violence. He thinks to himself after he robs a kid for money and food that it was much easier to survive when you've left decency behind. He survived through violence, creating the Dirtyhands persona around himself for protection.

When Wylan has to fend for himself, he choses the second option. He finds "honest work" at the tannery, where they exploit workers and expose them to toxins. He wonders if he'll live long enough to use his savings to leave the city, or if the chemicals would kill him first. He was smart enough to steal and survive, but he chose decency, and with it, he chose death. There are a number of reasons why he chose differently than Kaz despite their similarities - his older age and thus more developed moral code, having no one to avenge but himself when he believed himself worthless, his more privileged upbringing, and his relatively low drive to live. Alone, he would have died.

Then Kaz steps in. Kaz's role in all the crow's lives is that, intentionally or not, his ruthless rule of the Barrel creates a sort of haven that allows them to survive where they would have died had they stayed alone. Wylan is a really clear example of this, and though Kaz's intentions were at least partly self-serving, his involvement both kept Wylan from dying of exposure or street violence as well as prevented him from needing to do the more terrible things that it takes to survive in the Barrel. Throughout the books, we see Kaz kind of taking the brunt of enacting violence in Wylan's place - traumatizing Smeet's daughter, killing the clerk on the lighthouse. Wylan could get by making explosives in the workshop rather than having to shoot or stab or beat the life out of people. And at the end of the series, Kaz sees to it that he never will have to. Of course Wylan did bad stuff to survive when working with the Dregs, it's the Barrel. But the extent is greatly lessened because of Kaz's involvement.

Wylan's arc was never about becoming comfortable with violence, or becoming just like Kaz - the way people characterize him as some sort of ruthless murder mastermind is inaccurate and redundant with Kaz's character. He isn't nonchalant or celebratory about crime or death or violence by the end of the book. He doesn't HAVE to become like Kaz, because Kaz himself gave him the space to continue being decent, intentionally or otherwise. Understanding that dynamic is important to understanding what Wylan is like as a character and as a person. If you assume Wylan's trajectory is to become "Kaz 2.0", then you're going to mischaracterize him. I've seen posts about how Kaz was the Jordie that he didn't have to Wylan, and I think that makes a lot more sense. Because Kaz is willing to do the horrible things in his stead, Wylan has the third option otherwise impossible in the Barrel - maintaining his decency and surviving.

[chippuyon]

Oh I’ll talk about Kazurei’s development this ep too [SPOILERS]

I like how they showed their regression this ep! Kazuki still doing chores around the house because it’s been ingrained in him to always be useful to himself and the people around him, but not having the heart to cook anymore because he’s missing that extra voice that told him his food was yummy :(( Someone before said cooking is Kazuki’s love language and yeah it’d be hard to show love when you’re missing half the people you usually show it to.

And Rei going back to all his bad habits, binge gaming late into the night and smoking. With the addition of him sleeping with Miri’s duck oughhh. Love their little rooftop rendezvous scene and Rei giving Kazuki his lighter, there’s some symbolic significance there I need to unpack(symbolizing their capability to change or foreshadowing for the second half of the ep where Rei gives Kazuki hope they can change? :0 He’s literally giving him light. Or maybe foreshadowing for the next ep, they’re gonna burn down the Suwa mansion lmfao)

Also their conversation outside the safe house! As I said before, Kazuki is willing to let go of his happiness because he’s used to it and doesn’t want his loved ones to get hurt because of him(again), while Rei wants to fight for it because this is his very first happiness. They really carried it through this ep which is awesome.

(I do have a little nitpick and it’s Kazuki wanting to put Miri in an orphanage. Since he’s an orphan himself you’d think he’d be wary of them due to personal experience 🤨 And maybe Kazuki’s change in opinion could have happened over a longer period of time but budget time constraints yada yada)

Kazuki asserting the house rules as soon as he’s in on Rei’s plan LOL get that bread Kaz you’ve been taking the brunt of the housework for too long

[harbingerofwhump]

Your new tumblr name (title? pseudonym?) is terribly intriguing will you please share your wisdom/headcanon

Ahahaha, so, I have to be honest it came more from an inside joke with a couple friends than a specific "kaz is a femboy" headcanon. But also, I think it works well with Thoughts/headcanons that I've had about Kaz anyway so I stand by it lmao, so!

I've kind of always imagined Kaz as being very gnc (if not trans or enby). He presents himself however is convenient for him in the moment (for jobs, cons, etc.), or to make a statement (mocking the merchers), but when the way he presents doesn't really matter, that all goes out the window. Which doesn't have to be tied to Femboy Kaz but it can be, and I think he'd very much be the kind of person to say "fuck gender norms I do what I want" (insert tangent about autistic!kaz and social norms/expectations in general here) and at some point he realizes that what he wants is to wear pretty dresses and makeup thank you very much

And it can serve a purpose beyond personal feelings too! It's no 'mock the merchers and make them uncomfortable by dressing as one of them' but I think he still could (and would) use it to make a point and as a a sort of... act of rebellion? (since we have at least some indication that sexism/misogyny is prevalent at least to some extent in the grishaverse), especially if he found out any of his crew (crows or otherwise) had been having problems with it. Like just, him whole-heartedly embracing femininity and making it everyone else's problem, he knows it doesn't change anything, it isn't a weakness or something to hide/be ashamed of --- in him or anyone else --- etc., and he will gladly make other people uncomfortable with that and put them in the position of having to either face that or do mental gymnastics to hold on to their preconceived ideas

Also also also! I dunno I just generally have feelings about like…. As Kaz starts to heal, he has to open up not just to his friends but also to himself? If that makes sense? Like he has to figure out who he is as a person, just himself --- no 'I live to exact revenge in Jordie's name', no masks/personas, no Dregs, no Inej and Jesper & Co., just. Him.

(Which isn't to say these aren't still critical aspects of/don't have a critical role in who he is, but. Ya know. There's more to it, he has to figure out who he is beyond that, etc. I'm definitely not explaining this well but hopefully my point is getting across?)

Anyway, sorry, bit of a tangent there. Point is, I think his healing journey comes with its fair share of self exploration/discovery, and I imagine gender presentation/exploring femininity, especially as a man, being an unexpected but important part of that.

But I think one of the biggest things for me here is that like… disability (trauma, chronic pain, mental illness) can be really alienating, not just from society/people around you but also from yourself and your own body? And how you dress and generally present can be incredibly important regardless of identity and neurotype and physical capabilities and all that, but then to bring in those other aspects --- the way it impacts how others view and treat you, how you generally feel, your own connection to your body and personhood, etc (how many times can I use "etc." in this post, lol) --- as well... Idk maybe this isn't a common experience but at least to me that all really intensifies the role/importance of outward presentation?

Plus, between his reputation and his limp/cane and the gloves, Kaz is probably already so accustomed to people taking the very nature of his existence as an invitation to… be invasive, I guess? (There's definitely a better way to explain what I mean but.) But anyway, even if a lot of the time people know better than to actually push him or voice their speculations and invasiveness to his face, it does happen and he knows it, so what's one more thing to give them? * Cue fun femboy times *

Idk if I… actually made any sense here and I was definitely very brief/vague but. Just some of my thoughts. If I was better at putting said thoughts into coherent words for people not living inside my brain, I'd be writing a whole essay on this, but alas….

Sorry I feel like this is probably a disappointing answer since none of it is actually inherently about Kaz being a femboy, but it's also not a specific headcanon I have about him, just something that can fit well with ideas/thoughts/headcanons/what have you that I had already, so I don't have much to offer there.

[lesbiansanemi]

The kny fandom never really irritated me THAT much about anything until their reaction to the stupid Hantengu clones

[esotericdescent]

I have some Headcanons for Kaz to share in reference to his trauma / haphephobia. A couple of them involve vague mentions of ~intimate situations.~

It's never really explicitly mentioned in the books, but I suspect blood is one of his triggers—although fresh blood isn't as much of an issue as I think it has a lot to do with scent rather than the physical sensation of it. It's the sickeningly sweet, rotting coppery scent and if he's stuck with it on him long enough, it can easily lead to a panic attack and/or a fainting spell. It's also very likely the reason why the only time he gets someone's blood all over him is either when it's a last resort or when he just .... loses his cool, which doesn't happen very often ( I mean, he doesn't particularly like killing people anyway, but yk ). In SOC when he rips that guys' eye out, they change POV after Kaz goes bellow deck to clean himself off and stuff and like ..... I think about that a lot. Might write a drabble abt it some time, who knows.

When/if Kaz gradually starts to work through his touch aversion issues in order to be able to physically touch someone casually or intimately, he strikes me as someone who is ... extremely intense once he's comfortable. Because of his aversion, he's also very touch starved, which becomes immediately obvious very quickly in that case.

I think, when it comes to kissing someone, that is likely one of the easier things to work through for him simply because of how stark the contrast is. Like, the heat of someone's mouth, the intimacy of being able to hear and feel someone's breathing, feel how very much alive they are. And for that reason, it becomes pretty immediately apparent how much he enjoys it once he gets there.

One of the ways he keeps himself grounded during these situations is being able to feel someone's pulse, which he can do by either feeling for it by resting his hand on their throat / pressing his thumb against their pulse point there, or doing the same on their wrist(s).

However, something important to note; it will absolutely take a lot of tries, trial and error, for Kaz to be able to work through these things. He is probably going to have several panic attacks along the way and it's gonna be a rough start; it's especially going to be complicated and very, very meaningful for him to allow someone to be anywhere near him when that happens too, so it'll require a ton of thorough plotting. I don't mind skipping ahead, as long as we thoroughly discuss and establish the difficulty in Getting There.

I will also say that, as someone on the asexual spectrum myself, I am 5000% very, very flexible about what intimacy would mean for him. Smut does not have to happen for Kaz to be intimate with someone; literally him letting someone hold his hand is a very huge indication of intimacy for him okay. There's a part of him that deeply, deeply struggles with shame regarding his trauma and limitations because of it, so. Someone eventually knowing What Happened and insisting on giving him the space and patience that he needs and/or being like "you don't actually have to Ever btw" despite his stubborn attitude sigh lmao is 👌👌

Kaz's struggles with touch will never fully be gone, no matter how much he works through it. There will still be days where he can't handle physical contact and there will be days where he's handling things just fine but the slightest thing twists the wrong way and he has a panic attack or can't touch anyone for hours or the rest of the day, ect. It's always going to be there in the back of his mind, being considered with everything he does. And, even with working through it to be able to touch Certain People or Someone In Particular, he still won't be able to deal with it casually, with people he doesn't know well or trust. It's especially Bad if it's not anticipated from someone he doesn't know well or trust.

[purpleyin]

Since I rewatched S1 for the third time (having finally also read the books) the Kaz line that's been nagging at me is his 1x08 "It’s dangerous to go looking for the dead. What you see may haunt you for the rest of your days". Because, I thought, who has Kaz ever gone looking for?

I think on my 1st and 2nd watch I assumed that it was just part of a backstory yet to come and didn't think much on it. After watching S2 and then reading the books, I started wondering how it ties into what is known of his backstory in both, since there's, as far as we know, no one Kaz would go looking for - no other significant attachments made by him before the Crows + with Jordie long gone and taken by the sea.

Best I can tell is that this line is just Kaz trying to offer fair warning to Zoya about the realities of seeing the death of your family. Because Kaz woke up to the dead, he never had a choice about what haunted him.

[cheribou]

tags 2.

[metakazkz]

Abyss is back…sort of

As the title just said. I've been slowly getting back into drawing Abyss. But I wanted to clear things up before you jump to conclusions.

First of all, I know you all missed Abyss a lot, as he was my most popular character from Undertale sans Au.

I never wanted to disconnect my Abysstale comic.

Because I just wanted to draw something else for a change and I just wanted to take a break and recharge it until I return back to it.

But now I feel the time to return back to drawing Abyss.

However, when I said sort of. It means I'm not going to continue the comic. So, I'm going to make Abyss his own character.

Yes, he'll still be a skeleton but he won't be a sans anymore.

He will be his own person.

Abyss will be a dimensional traveler. This means he can travel to any dimension. He can change shape to blend in with the world.

For example. He can visit the FNAF Au be a human or be a fairy??? if he visit the FNAF dca fairy AU.

His mission is simple. Investigate the dimension if there is an anomaly and protect the dimensions from the dangerous threat a matter of life or death.

here is Abyss DT design lookalike.

(I didn't make any big changes since people are more familiar with its design.)

Here is the different size of Abyss!sans and Abyss DT

DT Abyss is taller and older than Abyss!sans. Abyss!sans is 15 years old and Abyss DT is 20 years old.

DT Abyss still uses the Bone Attack but only to craft weapons or tools. He no longer has the Gaster Blasters. But, he still has the CELL power capability but under a new name and more advanced power.

( Well technically, CELL is my creation so it's not only exclusive to undertale Au. )

Abyss!sans and DT Abyss still share the same personality and that's not gonna change.

The past of DT Abyss will be very different and will remain mysterious.

And not to be confused by these two Abysses.

No, they are not the same people.

They might be skeletons, but not of the same species.

Dimensional traveler Abyss(me) Metakazkz

Artwork by (me) Metakazkz Meta-Kaz DeviantArt

[a-heart-of-kyber]

Someone should do a meta analysis on the propaganda of the persona of Dirtyhands and how it colors the unreliable narration of the other characters' perception of Kaz and his actions, on top of the fandom's tendency to believe the same as well.

Things like the phrase "Kaz Brekker didn't need a reason." Despite the obvious of him having a reason for Everything.

[aleksanderscult]

My unpopular opinion for today? The Darkling was terrible at manipulating people

And that mostly comes from the author's incompetence on the matter.

Back in 2016-2017 on Tumblr she was asked which SoC character finds difficult to write and she replied "Kaz. Because he's clever and cunning".

So for her, writing manipulative characters is difficult and actually explains the reason why the Darkling's "efforts" seemed comedic in S&B.

I still remember how posts from 2020-2021 expressed bafflement about where did the Darkling actually manipulated Alina in S&B.

His first, full conversation with her? He lied to her three times and tried to figure her out. What her views are, what does she know about him, has her judgement been clouded by other people's opinions of him, how she feels about her supposed destiny. Apparently she failed in each one of them and the Darkling decided to withhold information since he didn't find her trustworthy. It was too early and she was too immature.

I've written about this scene here but I MUST put this reblog here as well because it's ✨gold✨

So for anyone who believes he should tell her the truth from the very beginning uhh....have you ever been to a job with a hierarchy?

(You can also read a very good meta about their first conversation here from @theweeklydiscourse)

His additional conversations with her? They lasted only ten minutes (maximum) and he mostly tried to soothe her fears and assure her that since she'll have the Stag she won't have to worry about the strength of her power. So, me, the reader, am I supposed to think "That walk that he took with her and lasted for five minutes was so suspicious"?. Ahh...ok.

That first kiss? Boy wasn't it awkward.

It was like I watched two high school kids being kissed for the first time💀

I'm sorry but if that was manipulating then he didn't succeed at making the reader say "Now that seems shady" but wonder "What the fuck was that?". The same thing Alina wondered apparently.

If he wanted to manipulate Alina, why didn't he stay longer with her? Why didn't he spend more time with her? The guy was missing for days from the Little Palace doing his duties and even Alina said that she didn't see him much. So where was the manipulation?

To the first, awkward kiss where he lost control for the first time?

To their Winter fete make out where he almost lost his pants?

(Homeboy couldn't even control his own feelings apparently)

Leigh describes him as "manipulative" but we have no context.

So basically it's like "Source? Trust me bro".

We only have a couple of characters accuse him of manipulation but no scenes to base the argument.

His attempts, in comparison to other truly manipulating characters in fiction (like Varys, Tom Riddle, Petyr Baelish, Tyrion Lannister, the Joker), seem honestly pathetic.

When the author doesn't know how to write such things then her "manipulative" characters and their attempts seem cartoonish, cringe and childish. There's no real danger to make the reader feel like there's something wrong. His scenes with her in the Little Palace only included attempts from his part to calm down her worries and their kisses only made the reader say "Oh he fell for her!" (Which is kind of funny because this is exactly what happened).

The only instance where he was manipulative and good at it was at the orphanage scene where he lied about the Grisha children and his plans with them in order to draw Alina out.

Besides that? Nada.

And it's actually strange to me when people call him "so manipulating" and it makes me think "Have you truly not read other manipulative characters from other authors to compare?"

Because, personally, I have and the Darkling seems like an idiot in comparison.

And this is not me trying to water down the Darkling but say how Leigh Bardugo is so incompetent in writing manipulative characters and try to present him as a "master" of it.

Because he was not.

(P.S. the fact that Leigh once said "I don't want my bad guys to carry a label saying "I'm evil" because I think the real bad guys are much more tactful in their attempts" is actually laughable considering how she gave her bad guy a label when she called him "the Darkling", gave him black clothes and a fearful reputation from the very first chapter. That man really didn't stand a chance from the beginning lmao)

[e-the-village-cryptid]

Andor charcter names & Spanish!

so while watching Andor, Saw Gerrera's name popped out to me as obviously being based on the Spanish word guerrera (warrior), but once I noticed that a whole lot of other names presented themselves so I am compiling a list:

Brasso — abrazo (hug) — this man is so friend-shaped

Saw Gerrera — guerrera/o (warrior) — he sure fuckin is

Taramyn Barcona — barracón (barracks) — he was a former Stormtrooper

Dedra Meero— miro (I look/I watch) (pronounced the same as meero) — her meticulous observation is her key character trait

maybe this is a reach but Kassa Andor— casa, andar (home, walk/go/travel), he's someone always running from or trying to return to his home

Clem Andor— clemencia (clemency/mercy) — he was always shown trying to keep the peace and yet was shown no mercy himself

Perrin — perra (bitch.)

also some that are probably just me making something out of nothing but are way too close to spanish words not to include:

Cinta Kaz — cinta is just straight-up a spanish word, meaning tape/ribbon but can also be used to mean film in the movie sense. maybe trying to say she is the tape/ribbon tying this rebellion together? or if it's the film definition, invoking a meta sort of tragic inevitability? (I am reading too much into this and I am wrong here let's be clear)

Vel — vela means candle— as in she is this small but burning flame of rebellion; velo means veil— as in her sight of some parts of this thing are clouded. (once again I am reading too much into this and I am wrong here please ignore me)

also not spanish but. luthen. luthien. an instrument crafter. the way he gradually builds tools to play the music of the rebellion. the NAMESSSS the names

please add on if you have more!

[sir-yeehaw-paws]

When the kids come back, I'll talk it out with them. If that's still possible.

*Whether or not this conversation took place we don't know but what I DO know is I LOVE how Kaz is written as a character. As deeply flawed, warped and messed up as he is.

Oh look another Kaz meta from Nate be shocked and awed *cough*.

Which honestly, is why I like his character so much. Kaz had to be built up in reverse, and the story and writing around him is SO good. Because he is such a deeply, horribly flawed person with insane ideology and a tattered moral code. As grey as the rest of them.

This tape is one of those bits where Kaz says a whole lot, and gets so close to a point, but doesn't quite hit it. It comes around to a theme of justification: "Yeah. That's it alright. I wanted to use those kids, to test that theory." But to the kids or to himself. I'd argue it might be both. Because Kaz is aware of his own flaws, and the kind of person he is. He is utterly ruthless and unashamed of that fact. Kaz will bring down nations, people-anything it takes, to get what he wants.

And in a way, he absolutely does. We know that from the canon events of other games. But he's not ignorant of himself, even if he searches for excuses. "I hate kids. That's exactly what I heard from the people who raised me."

Kaz never fully comes around to admitting that he's been angry and full of spite his entire life, but it's evident with how he talks. He's roundabout with it-as he is almost everything he says. But it's obvious what he's getting at. The things he says. He tries, desperately, to find a reason for his actions. But those reasons never 100% come to the point where he admits he might be part of the issue here.

This a completely valid point. But then of course, as nature is wont to do; he grew up. Everyone comes to the point in life where their opinions, thoughts, feelings etc are disregarded. Then suddenly BAM you're an adult, and people listen to you. And you don't know why.

But in conjunction with that, eventually we all reach a point in life where it doesn't matter how rough or terrible childhood was, we have to move on. We have to accept that it happened, we can't make it better, and there's only so long we can lean on 'rough past' as a reason. Eventually you have to move on-otherwise you get nowhere.

But Kaz never fully moves on. He comes close. He has moments within MGSV itself, but what happens after MGSV? He joins Foxhound in the mid 90's, trains up Snake-and has him kill Big Boss. That is the exact opposite of moving on. Even if he ends up understanding Venom at certain points. Even if he manages to admit at times, 'revenge solves nothing' him admitting it doesn't change how his life pans out.

He stays angry.

He stays hurt.

We don't know what kind of mindset he has upon his death in 2005, but his flaws are never rectified. His entire life is a tragic, uphill stream of doing it, failing, doing it again, failing. And dying alone in an Alaskan cabin. Because MGS is a cyclical form of storytelling, and the cycles always continue.

Ironically, Kaz does in his own way create a legacy. His own legacy of bloodshed and terror. The war economy, for-profit PMC's. A dictatorship where the leadership is cross-border, hell beyond borders.

Which, given how he talks and behaves in life, is what he wanted. And it doesn't matter one bit in the end. It gives him, personally, nothing. Unless some unmarked Alaskan grave counts as 'something'. You tell me.

Until they're broken-by force, by Snake, Otacon and Sunny.

*As a quick aside, I ADORE how RAD acts Kaz out.

[theamityelf]

Since I'm never going to take the time to actually write an SDR2 musical, I'm just going to post all my Danganronpa 2 musical brainstorms that I dumped on some acquaintances on Discord. Just as documentation.

First of all (and this is genuinely just copy-pasted in the order I said it.), Akane would have an upbeat song like Violet's in the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical. And maybe Nekomaru would keep trying to interrupt with a more basic melody, but then she keeps interrupting him back. Gundham’s song would be similar to H-llfire from Hunchback.

Akane's stuff could have shades of Dead Girl Walking (Reprise) from Heathers, if that makes sense. Just a vibe thing.

Plot-wise, I think the Twilight Syndrome Murder case can be dropped to just the envelope of photos, but I'd like to include the Funhouse if possible. (I specified this because I know the stageplay dropped the Funhouse, and precedent makes me stubborn.)

Chapter One:

First scene is just Hajime being confused and meeting people. Maybe we meet everyone through song, where everyone gets a verse to say their talent and their general deal.

Then we have Usami overpowered by Monokuma and Monokuma establishing the killing game. I'm thinking no song for that.

Impostor gets a song where he becomes the leader and encourages everyone.

First murder happens. A song for the trial, where Teruteru gets kind of Patter Song vibes to convey how no one could understand him at the end of that trial in the game. He's constantly interrupted by Nagito and the others.

After the trial, Nagito gets a short song about his bizarre ideology. It's going to get a few reprises later. That's why it's short. (Also, Nagito's song gets cut short by Kaz and Nekomaru abducting him.)

Chapter Two:

Instead of initially not knowing where Nagito is, the group is told the next morning that Kaz and Neko tied him up in the old building, and instead of having Mahiru bring him breakfast just once, it's a thing she does every day. She also still helps Hiyoko with her kimono

There's a song about exploring the new island, basically goes over all of what's there, in accordance with who Hajime spoke to in those places in the game (so, Fuyuhiko gets a verse in the diner, Sonia in the library, etc.) Fuyuhiko is the only character who doesn't sing (yet); he hasn't sung at all, this whole time. Not in a meta way, where he's acknowledging that everyone else is singing; he just doesn't do it.

Akane's song happens here, because it's where she first starts training with Nekomaru. Fast-paced duet where he keeps trying to slow her down.

Monokuma's motive is simplified from a video game to just an envelope of photos.

Mahiru asks Hajime to feed Nagito for her one day because she has another thing to do. He does, and Nagito sings part of a reprise for his song from earlier, but Hajime walks out on it.

Kazuichi brings Hajime in on his plan to crash the girls' beach trip, they find the body. When they find the mask, Sonia gets a song that is superficially her explaining Sparkling Justice and really her getting to be open about her interest in serial killers; there's a lot of creepy lyrical dissonance and I'm picturing it to be like (extremely deep cut incoming) the song "Silver and Gold" from the musical 1619: When Destinies Collide, as far as the general sound and the casually grim lyrics.

Investigation happens, Nagito pops in (and depending on the tone of the musical, his first line when he shows up can be something like, "Hey guys, good news! I've been in everybody's cabin tracing the shape of their shoes!"). The trial happens. They sing through presenting the evidence, except Fuyuhiko still only talks. The reveals happen the same as in the game, and Fuyuhiko's first sung word is just a long cry of Peko's name. From Chapter 3 on, he's a singing character.

Okay, that's as far as I got. Might add more later.