#idk thoughts

One lil whole meta level thing about soc fic and (quasi) 19th century stuff in general is the urban/pastoral divide. it’s something i dig into massively in my hell Fics in regard to fjerda and what Matthias’s life there was probably like as a rural “pauper” (his word! Not mine) if it was anywhere near some of the actual social history of working class/small holding 19th century scandinavian farmers e.g. not straight up cottage core. but it interests me that Kaz and Inej are so very frequently written as going to a golden-lit Lij or some wooden shoes and windmills version of his home town. and it’s like, I don’t think rural areas are straight up horror- I grew up in a small town and want to live in one for The greater portion of my life- but they certainly were and are violent in their own ways. we never find out what happens to Kaz’s mother, but she dies before the story begins. his father dies a boring, brutal death in a plowing accident that spreads his entrails across the fields. I think the mostly unseen location of the Kerch countryside - and rural areas in general, which are not bardugo’s strength- has a much more complicated role to play in fic about Kaz, but I don’t think it’s a straight up cottagecore gold lit paradise for either Kaz or Inej, and that’s why it kind of boggles me the prevalence it’s gained in fandom as the innocent land (where they can settle down, have bodice ripper sex, and raise babies) that goes so strongly against bardugo’s greatest strength for dry, well-chosen fantasy realism