The Crows' Music Taste Headcanons

the crows' music taste headcanons

so this is the least thought out thing possibly ever...

kaz

alt-rock, avant-rock, and post-punk

radiohead, my chemical romance, the smiths

inej

musical theatre,

west side story, hamilton, the phantom of the opera

jesper

blues, jazz, electro, swing

frank sinatra, caravan palace, jamiroquai

nina

pop. what else is there to say

taylor swift, olivia rodrigo, sabrina carpenter, abba

wylan

classical and classical-inspired songs

laufey, mendelssohn, sibelius, brahms

matthias

hymns (and pop - nina has been rubbing off on him)

traditional hymns, abba, taylor swift

Kaz Brekker Character Analysis

As a member of an AuDHD OSDD system, it was only a matter of time before I wrote a paper on my own personal headcanons. A research paper. I wrote this at the same time as my Junior Research Paper last year, and it actually ended up being longer than my JRP. Anyhow, here it is: my in-depth character analysis of Kaz Brekker and my personal headcanons for him, as supported with “evidence” from the Six of Crows novel.

Google Docs

Kaz Brekker Character Analysis (SoC)

I know nobody is allowed to control what another person thinks, yet whenever I hear someone say that they don't like Kaz Brekker, my heart actually stings.

I get in the beginning he was a bit of an ass, but he changed. And by the time we got near the end of CK he was going through it. When the Crows were at that point when they failed the plan and everything went wrong and now they're in this hotel suite injured and broken with the entire world hunting them down, Kaz gave up everything. He sold all the assets he's been collecting and building since he was nine in exchange for Inej's full freedom without giving it so much as a second thought. He then used his previous family name and old home as tools for the plan. He used to be the guy who told even his crew vague details of the plan but now? He told them all of it. He gave them all time to rest and recharge before the auction while he dragged himself all the way to the slat with a leg radiating pain to recruit more people for the job. At his lowest state with limited resources, he still gave up every one of them to ensure his Crows would make it out alive this time. He was out their fighting beside them and putting his own body on the frontlines, ready to die if it means they get to live. He even distant himself from Inej and Jesper and the others, making them angry enough that if he were to die, they wouldn't grieve him too long. Going by personal experience, Kaz knows what grief does to a person, he knows it could destroy a person. And it destroyed him but he doesn't want it to destroy his family. So he makes them mad enough to prevent just that.

It was when I read CK that I understood what being a true leader is like. It isn't just about guiding your crew and directing them, but it's also about valuing their lives over your own. At this point, Kaz proved to the readers how brave and selfless he truly is. He proves to us how much he loves his crew and how far he's willing to go for them.

And yet... There are still people who don't like him and it makes my heart shatter 😭😭😭

weave a lover's tapestry: an anthology of stand-alone Kanej fics and ficlets

Latest fic—chapter 7

ask the saints for me

Kaz is stabbed by Oomen on the way to the Ferolind instead of Inej.

Inspired by this post by @butterflypython

Excerpt: 

“Damn you, Kaz,” Inej muttered, voice thick with emotion she tried to shut out. Why had he come looking for her? He should have known she was more than capable of fending for herself. Instead, when Oomen had snuck around the side of one of the shipping containers and lunged at her with his knife, Kaz had jumped in front of her, cane connecting hard with Oomen’s face—but not before the crude blade embedded itself in Kaz’s side. 

From the ground, Oomen had laughed, Got your man, Wraith. Inej had planted a foot firmly on his hand that still clutched the knife, feeling his bones crack underneath her shoe. He got you too, she seethed. 

Read on AO3

The Nembutal wasn't Henry's first attempt to poison Charles

Pretty late in the novel, Charles shares that Henry gave him a bottle of Nembutal capsules; Richard immediately recognizes this as a poisoning attempt and is horrified. (If you google "nembutal alcohol", like I did when confirming my understanding for this post, every result that comes up is a suicide hotline: that's how well-documented this interaction is.)

This isn't Henry's first attempt to poison Charles, though, although it's the first one recognized by the characters. Charles's "infection" that lands him in the hospital is. This one is a lot better planned-out and executed, and as a result is a lot less obvious to everybody. At this point Charles's mental health is in such a bad state that it's easy to believe that he could land himself in the hospital through poor self-care alone. I'll call out below a number of points that are pretty damning to Henry, though, from a narrative standpoint.

The hospital can't diagnose Charles's illness, and it resists treatment.

The doctors couldn’t figure out quite what was wrong with Charles. They’d tried two antibiotics over the course of the week, but the infection—whatever it was—didn’t respond. The third try was more successful.

If you've ever heard anything about poisoning cases, this will sound familiar. Even today, "It is difficult to determine whether a patient has been poisoned and, if so, what toxins caused the poisoning."

Henry discourages Richard from bringing Charles to the hospital.

After Richard picks up Charles, he tries to call Francis, who isn't home. Afterwards he calls Henry and is surprised when Francis answers the phone. Francis is clearly uncomfortable.

“Francis? What are you doing over there?” I said. “Oh, hello, Richard,” said Francis. He said it in a stagy way, as if for Henry’s benefit. “I guess you can’t really talk now.” “No.”

When Richard explains the situation, before Francis can give any sort of response, Henry takes the phone.

“Did you give him some aspirins?” “A few minutes ago.” “Well, then, why don’t you wait and see. I’m sure he’s fine.” This is exactly what I wanted to hear. “You’re right,” I said. “He probably caught cold sleeping out of doors. I’m sure he’ll be better in the morning.”

I'm obviously not suggesting that it's criminal for somebody to say the answer to a fever is "give him an aspirin, wait and see". I am suggesting, though, that narratively it's suspicious that Henry has apparently coerced Francis (the one person we know would be certain to say "go to the hospital") to come to his place, where he is clearly uncomfortable for reasons that are never explained to us, and takes the phone before Francis can make that recommendation.

Henry had opportunity to acquire poison.

“I mean,” he said, pushing his glasses up on the bridge of his nose, “that strictly in terms of virulence there are any number of excellent poisons, most of them far superior to this. The woods will be soon full of foxglove and monkshood. I could get all the arsenic I needed from flypaper. And even herbs that aren’t common here—good God, the Borgias would have wept to see the health-food store I found in Brattleboro last week. Hellebore, mandrake, pure oil of wormwood.… I suppose people will buy anything if they think it’s natural. The wormwood they were selling as organic insect repellent, as if that made it safer than the stuff at the supermarket. One bottle could have killed an army.”

Henry had access to poison Charles.

Just days before Charles ends up in the hospital, Henry has been in his apartment moving Camilla out. The novel actually goes out of its way to remind us of this, and call out that Henry has had his hands not only on Camilla's things but on Charles's that were left behind, by telling us that when Richard goes to the twins' apartment, "The place was ominously neat." (We've been previously told that both of the the twins are quite messy.)

Henry had motive to poison Charles.

Just a reminder: Charles and Francis were 100% not involved in the farmer's death, and serve as each other's alibis. I've written about this elsewhere, but I think it's clear that Camilla implicated herself intentionally to protect Henry (believing that Charles would never go to the police to report Camilla, when he very much would have reported Henry.)

We know that the twins' estrangement begins during the visit to the Corcorans' for the funeral. Francis speculates that Charles learned about Camilla's relationship with Henry during this time, and Richard is reminded that Cloke told him about a conversation between Camilla and Henry that he overheard on the phone, while Camilla thought he was asleep. Richard never gets more details of this phone call from Cloke, but Charles (who spent this entire visit hanging out with Cloke) certainly did.

I feel certain that whatever it was that Cloke overheard and shared with Charles was badly incriminating, and exposed that Camilla had been disingenuous about her involvement in the farmer's death. Imagine how shocking and awful that would have been for Charles to learn: instead of having participated in the murder of his friend to protect his sister, he actually did it to protect a man he actively hates.

I mean, this isn't jealousy. This is a more deep-rooted anger about a very serious betrayal.

“Have you talked to my sister?” he said to Francis. He said it in a very cold way, as if he were saying Have you talked to my lawyer? “Yes,” Francis said. “She’s all right?” “Seems to be.” “What does she have to say for herself?” “I don’t know what you mean.” “I hope you told her I said go to hell.”

(And I mean, if you do think that Charles is just jealous about their relationship here... this actually becomes quite funny. He was expecting Camilla to have spilled her guts to Francis about having left her incestuous relationship for another lover? Absurd.)

Anyway, this is all to say: at this point Charles is furious and no longer has as much reason to shield Henry for the farmer's killing. He's now a liability who could go to the police at any time.

This conversation between Richard and Henry while Charles is in the hospital.

As he said this, he trailed away. “There,” he said at last. “Does that look all right? Or do I need to open it up more in the middle?” “Henry,” I said. “Listen to me.” “I don’t want to take off too much,” he said vaguely. “I should have done this a month ago. The canes bleed if they’re pruned this late, but better late than never, as they say.”

plot twist: kaz brekker took his name from a box of chinese biscuits