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reminder to the kanej fandom that ‘trauma bonding’ refers to an unhealthy and dangerous attachment that can form between a victim and their abuser. sort of like stockholm syndrome. trauma bonds exist in situations involving an imbalance of power and control, where the abuser alternates between periods of kindness and abuse. the victims will feel dependent on the abuser and have a skewered perception of love/kindness.
so for people who refer to kaz and inej’s relationship as ‘trauma bonding’, what I think you mean to say is that both of them have experienced individual traumas, and that creates a connection of understanding and empathy between them that may not exist as strongly with others, where they can offer each other emotional support, validation, and understanding, and help each other to begin to heal. which is…not trauma bonding lol. wrong term.
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I know we’re all kinda done talking about that person who claimed Inej had no personality outside of Kaz but I wanted to speak to some stuff real quick.
Personally I think that post exemplifies a trend I see in regards to how some people see a strong female character having any sort of positive connection to men or relying on them in any capacity automatically marks them as only existing in that male character’s story in their minds. Despite the fact Inej had numerous badass moments moments on her own (choking out heelen, climbing the incinerator, punching that man in her earlier chapters, breaking Van Eck’s nose, defeating Dunasya, I could go on) the fact that Kaz helped her or that she had audacity to care about him, automatically marks her as only existed for Kaz to these people. And I think that part that really exemplifies this mindset was one of their tags being ‘Nina should’ve been a lesbian’ (as a lesbian: no.) it really shows that they see even just attraction to men as inherently degrading to female characters and would rather see representation (bisexual) erased that have deal with the fact a strong female character can have positive relationships with men. Basically, the point I’m trying to make is, for some people, the only valid kind of strong female character is one who’s sole personality trait is hating men.
this is obviously not a groundbreaking observation but I saw most people trying to prove the point that Inej’s does have personality (which, really, I see no point in agruing with these people) so rather than beat a dead horse I figured I point out something I noticed instead.
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I can't fathom why people are into Kanej...she has no agency! Shes a lethal assassin who wants to take down the sex trafficking rings that she was a victim of (incredible premise! Love that for her!) and then Kaz just...does it for her? Wants to pay off her contract! Kaz does it for her. Wants to buy a ship and man a crew! Kaz does it for her. Wants to find her parents! Kaz does it for her. In a round about way, now she's indentured to him. She's supposed to be this badass character but all she did in this book was stab people at Kaz' behest. She has NO Personality or character arc beyond him!!
I think this is a deeply misogynistic and discrediting take on inej. there’s a difference between having criticisms about a romantic relationship in a book and completely misreading a well written female character for cheap talking points on why you don’t like said romantic relationship. to look past inej’s character and everything important about her to say she has no personality outside of kaz, and to ignore her massive and significant character arcs to say she’s “supposed to be this badass” is not the revolutionary take you think it is. it’s giving “in my reading era on booktok” and anti intellectualism. not all the girls and women in every piece of fiction have the same arc and personality, there is not a certain way to write a female character that makes them “badass”
if inej’s character had been male, you wouldn’t be using those phrases that are rooted in sexism, and to ignore all of inej’s achievements and accomplishments to say all she does in the book is stab people at kaz’s behest is deeply disrespectful to her.
inej’s personality is raw, and unfiltered. she is so courageous, true herself and her beliefs, greatly empathetic to others despite her own situation, and deeply unafraid. she’s short tempered and sarcastic, (which is typical of someone her age,) and skeptical of most people. she has a lot of the funniest lines because she roasts the majority of the others thought the book, especially matthias and wylan when she first meets them. she’s unwavering, stubborn and persistent. despite the horrific things she’s endured as a child, she is still strong enough to look past that and find good and search for good everywhere. she makes the most out of being in a bad situation. she never abandons her faith and never forgets her family and her values, even when her values are tested and she has to do things that she wouldn’t have if she had other options. she’s inspirational because she always finds the light when she’s in the dark, she’s still an amazing person whereas if I had been through everything she had, I would not give af. she’s taken a trauma reaction after what happened to her (disappearing while being raped) and turned it into a deadly weapon, to be completely unseen. she’s a talented performer and acrobat and she uses those skills that came from her family and her family’s business (a place of community and love and passed-down talent) and adapted that and used it to survive.
to ignore inej’s complex personality, many arcs and achievements, skills and important part on the crew to narrow her down to her best friend helping her regain her freedom and begin her mission leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. kaz and inej save each other, look out for each other, and help each other up. they can’t count the times they’ve saved each others lives. just inej’s voice can calm kaz and help him to fight off a panic attack. he knows her and he knows what she needs, which included freedom and leverage and power. to turn that into a one sided thing of inej being some helpless damsel is very sad and pitiable.
the book is largely about fighting back against the system that is out to get you and wants you dead. all the crows help each other at different times.
and as for personal arcs, which there are a lot for a heist book with 6 main leads; inej went from being unable to walk past the building where she was sex trafficked in case she ran into her former pimp, to ruthlessly choking her as well as stealing precious jewellery from her. she met a trained assassin she thought was better and stronger then her in every way, and outsmarted her because she doesn’t need to be royalty or deemed someone special when she knows the city’s rooftops better then anyone and was able to face her shadow. she scaled a burning incinerator to save her friends, and when she was being burnt half to death and thought she couldn’t make it, she recovered and pushed on anyway. she got her money, helped to pull off the most insane heist & auction ever, and then took all her experience with slavers and sex traffickers and her skill of spying/finding information to dedicate herself to hunting down slavers. what part of this was irrelevant and not enough character development to you?
Reblogged sleepless-crows
happy ides of march shoutout to the senators who stabbed caesar right in the dick. numerous times
