#king of scars duology

[barrel-crow-n]

Bastard Kings and Suli Queens

[stromuprisahat]

Liliyana, one hand pressed to her bleeding head, cried, “You cannot sell her off now! She’s Grisha. It’s against the law. She is the property of the king and will go to school to train.”

King of Scars- Chapter 25

I completely forgot it's clearly stated in books, that yes, indeed, GRISHA ARE SERFS.

So no, it's not just the Darkling whining to Alina to look more sympathetic. Once you're discovered, you don't belong to yourself, your life doesn't belong to you, you have no future outside of what the Crown deems appropriate.

Now how exactly does that work with Nikolai's reforms? Servitude isn't abolished yet, but Grisha draft is. Does that mean there are lists of Grisha outside of military service and Grisha get "appointed" elsewhere?! Are Grisha no longer serfs? Are they (on paper) free citizens now?

If so, the last two should earn them plenty more hatred from both "oridnary" otkazat'sya serfs, who weren't freed yet AND a lot of free otkazat'sya, whose jobs, land and living space will those Grisha now "take". Hell, look into history- any time a new group enters job market, there's a wave of resentment and fear that they'll steal work from locals.

If Nikolai truly freed Grisha before the rest of Ravkan serfs, his actions are counter-productive and likely to work against wide-spread acceptance.

[wylans-flute]

giggling at this quote from ninas pov in kos:

"She wished she has Inej's gift for spywork or Kaz's gift for scheming, but she only seemed to have Jesper's gift for bad decisions."

[lilisouless]

nikolai: zoya, i ve been thinking about something. I just realized that everytime we have events you always make sure Nina and Alina never get to meet each other

zoya: you´d be correct

nikolai: but why? are you afraid they like each other better than you

zoya: please as if, no its about Nina´s friends being on the same room as mal and alina

nikolai: why?

zoya: what do you mean by why? don't you know them? can't you see what would happen?

Zoya´s imagination:

Mal and Alina skipping: we are dumb, we are dumb

Kaz (with horns and a tail) : hello , gullible kids! i am Mr Badhair!

nikolai: kids? zoya, mal and alina are older than brekker

zoya: sigh, alright

Kaz now with a fake mustage: hello, gullible kids! i am Mr Badhair and i invite you to do something very dangerous, illegal and that probably will cause zoya a headache!

Mal and Alina: we don't know what illegal means so , yay, we are in!

nina: No! we shall be loyal to the magnificent zoya,the most important person in my life!

inej: free hugs!

nina: free hugs! i´ll go with you! zoya is a bitch that doesn't hug and i hate her! I will go with Badhair, Inej, and....those other boys whos name i never bother to remember

The crows and malina skipping towards a building on fire: trouble! trouble! trouble!

Nikolai: Zoya...those were like five issues at once...but anyway, thats a very narrow minded way of seeing people, its a really shallow concept!

Zoya: Oh, and how do you think their meeting would go?

Nikolai´s imagination:

Mal and Alina skipping: Nikolai,Nikolai,Nikolai...

Kaz: hello not-nikolais! do you want to talk about how awesome Nikolai is?

Mal and Alina: Nikola-yes!

Everyone skipping towards a giant Nikolai statue: Nikolai! Nikolai! Nikolai...

[constellama]

Leyendecker inspired zoyalai :D !!! IM SO NORMAL ABOUT THEM !!! THEY NEED TO BE IN S3 ISTG

[the-girl-in-the-box]

The Darkling in Rule of Wolves when his cult want to spend the night in the Fold so they can commune with their Starless Saint and he’s Right There Actually

[theriseandfallofshittyurls]

zoya looked like she wanted to send the thief to a soggy death in one of the canals, but nikolai had to laugh. “mr brekker. I should have known.”

“yes.” kaz said. “you should have.”

tag list under cut

@thewafflemaker @spritesaavy @raelovesbooks @whereismyhairbrush @duolingo-is-a-bitch-2 @babe-get-some-help @thewindandthewolves @simplecurses @get-me-therapy-asap @duncan-taylors-version13 @lily-chen-supremacy @nayastory @peachtreewitch @ketterdam-snack-bar @stxr-thxif @popularghost

[multi-fandom-bi]

I love that Nikolai & Kaz friendship is canon now and that Kaz is slowly corupting an actual king

[maidenofcrows]

I can’t stop thinking about this

[barrel-crow-n]

Kaz renaming Pekka's club to "The Silver Six" after his crows was probably the closest he will ever get to saying that he loves them, really.

[stromuprisahat]

Is there any instance in the duology where we actually see Zoya act and make decisions like a military general and someone fit to be a queen? Like just one example of her behaving like that? Because all I remember is “She is not dead. I forbid it.” & I just laugh lmao

Hey nonny, isn't that a good question?

I'm not entirely sure I want to poke that particular nest of hornets- I don't interact with many people, who read and enjoyed that duology. I've also encountred barely anyone rational from its stans. But hey- what the hell, I wasn't depressed from another reader's naiveté in a year, so...

Can anyone rememer Zoya actually doing a hard strategic decision in KoS duology?

Anything the narrative didn't solve for her/reward her for. Situation she had to treat as an adult with responsibility, not YA (no longer)teen MC.

[darklinaforever]

What do you think about a "dragon queen" other than Rhaenyra? About Zoya? I was indifferent to her in the trilogy, but I can't stand her in Nikolaj's duology… Alina had to lose her power because she had too much of it, and more than one amplifier is forbidden, Sasha was evil and greedy… And Zoya? "Hey, you know what? Here's a new, more powerful amplifier. From now on, you're an avatar and you can control all Grisha powers… And you know what else? From now on, you're still a dragon! And a queen! What a badass!" I really hoped that the Darkling had been revived to put an end to this and not to die in a tree…

The King of Scars duology is absolutely slammed into the ground. The worst books I've read in my life honestly.

The only "Dragon Queen" that exist are Rhaenyra and Daenerys for me. Zoya is a sinister joke.

MB tried to make up for the disaster of Alina's unsatisfactory story by offering Zoya everything on a platter. It was ridiculous to read.

And personally I hope LB doesn't write anything more about the grishaverse.

Also that she will stop exploiting the Darkling's character, especially if it means continuing to treat him haphazardly and blaming all of Ravka's problems on him.

[lilisouless]

I really really hope people don't see aroace Tolya and think we are doing only it in order to keep him away from Kanej , let them know this headcanon (very well founded) has been here for years

btw: headcanons aside , i am not into the idea of Tolya being Kanej´s third wheel because this means that now there will be two shu boys that lose their crush over a crow ship everyone knows is endgame

[waldensblog]

Alina: Mal is so handsome, he is everyone's type. Mal fits in everywhere, everyone he meets adores him. Mal is the centre of the universe and nobody would ever notice me when he is around. Nikolai: Alina didn't want to marry me because she saw the darkness in me that the Darkling left... who is Mal again? Zoya: Alina came out of the carriage, her beautiful white hair trailing down her back... oh yeah and then that man accompanied her too. The Darkling: Alina and I could have had everything, we could have ruled together. Unfortunately, she opted for a life with the tracker. I can't be bothered to remember his name. Inej: Hey that girl with the white hair... she looks a lot like the Sun Saint. If there is a man next to her I do not see him. Wait, WAIT! Don't make me leave I must speak with her!