The Kaz Brekker persona: from victim to anti-hero

Kaz Brekker, the ruthless teenage criminal leading the Crows in Leigh Bardugo’s successful Grishaverse, has one of the best character developments I’ve seen in a while.

When I first read Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, I was highly entertained and had loads of fun, but from the very beginning there was something about Mr. Brekker that just drew me in and that I hadn’t found in any other character from the Grishaverse: he didn’t feel like a classic villain, and I am not talking about the fact that he is not a villain in his story, I am talking about the fact that he is objectively a bad person, but he didn’t feel like one.

I saw his rotten nature, yet I wanted to root for him, and I know that many people feel like this towards villains, but I am usually not a sucker for “bad guys”, no matter who the story is about.

So when I found myself liking this character, it took me quite by surprise.

Maybe it had to do with the fact that we see and learn throughout the book about how he helped and took care of the Crows, starting with Inej, and realise that, deep down, he is not cruel and ruthless after all.

Nonetheless, it all clicked once I got to the point where we learn about his past.

The past is of incredible importance in any character’s story, we need it to understand their decisions and, many times, their personality. With Kaz, his past was essential to understand him completely.

Objectively speaking, who comes across Kaz Brekker for the first time not knowing anything about his past, may have the impression that he is kind of a greedy sociopath obsessed with money, and, in a certain way, he is. Leigh Bardugo makes sure to give this impression of him during the whole first book, and to make it clear that he really is this way.

But, in the end, we learn that, after all, Kaz was just a severely hurt child, who reacted to the things that happened to him by developing a very thick skin.

He lost his family, followed his brother, lost everything because of Pekka Rollins, and because of it, his brother died and Kaz was left alone with nothing.

The developing of Kaz’s personality could’ve gone down two different paths: he either could’ve become bitter but compassionate, trying to help people so that what happened to him would not happen to someone else, or choose to become a vengeful menace after hardening his heart to avoid pain again.

Obviously, he chose the second path, and for him it worked beautifully.

Nonethless, when it comes the point in the story when he risks to lose everything again, we see that hurt child emerges back.

His story is not that different from a villain’s origin story, and vengeful characters are really hard to write without making them seem whiny brats.

Lastly, what I absolutely loved about him, was that in the end he doesn’t go through a redeeming arc: he is the same as he always was, he just found a little bit of peace.

This makes a fantastically realistic character, a character that is beloved by many for these reasons. He is not a villain, but he is not a classic hero, which makes him incredibly human and highly relatable for his shortcomings.