KAZ BREKKER VS.
THE DARKLING

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**SPOILER ALERT: Major spoilers for the Shadow and Bone TV series and minor spoilers for both the Shadow and Bone trilogy and the Six of Crows duology follow.

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The Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo is, without a doubt, my favourite book series of all time. I also love the other books in the Grishaverse, so when it was announced that there would be a TV series adaption called Shadow and Bone that merged the stories in the Shadow and Bone trilogy and the Six of Crows duology, I was thrilled. I began following news about the show on social media over a year before the show would air on April 23, 2021. 

This meant I was very well-informed on any news about the show and the cast and crew, but it also meant I was well-informed on the reactions and perspectives of many fans of the books. 

Weeks before the show released, there was a joke circulating — at least in my corner of Instagram — about who would win in a fight between Kaz Brekker and the Darkling, should they interact at any point in the show. This debate was likely inspired by a comment Eric Heisserer made in one interview about the exciting potential for a Batman v Superman-style showdown between the two. 

In every conversation and poll I saw on the topic, Kaz Brekker was the clear fan-favourite. 

Now, this was probably just a collective joke. Of course, a seventeen-year-old boy with a dubious haircut would beat one of the most powerful Grisha to have ever lived in a fight. Of course. 

Or maybe, like me, those people saw the truth. 

Shortly after I began seeing those polls (and shortly before I watched the TV series for the first time), I began brainstorming a list of “reasons why I am 100% serious when I say that Kaz Brekker would absolutely win in a faceoff with the Darkling”.

Now, everyone who has seen Shadow and Bone will know that I — and everyone else who predicted it — was right. But let me walk you through my initial thought process. 

The reason I was so intent on mapping out an argument is that I assumed that everyone would agree that, in an open field with no resources, the Darkling could kill Kaz Brekker. Just in terms of raw power, the Darkling obviously beats Kaz. However. I wanted to consider a situation where they would have access to other resources, because that what was most likely to happen. I mean, how often do you find yourself completely isolated in a random field?

Here was my original list of reasons Kaz would win: 

Reason #1 that Kaz Brekker would beat the Darkling in a showdown: Kaz has a more applicable set of skills. The Darkling is a military man. He relies on other people to carry out his orders. He has also lived as an infamously powerful, untouchable man for hundreds of years. Kaz, on the other hand, is a seventeen-year-old criminal prodigy rising in the ranks of a notorious gang. He had to grow up fast to survive in the streets of Ketterdam. He truly is the epitome of street smarts. He knows how to deceive people and play dirty. Kaz can quickly gain the advantage because that’s what he does; he always works to manipulate a situation to be in his favour. The Darkling would most likely assume that things already are in his favour. 

This leads to Reason #2: the Darkling would underestimate Kaz. Like I said, the Darkling has pretty much unparalleled power and is the commander of the Second Army. He's not used to being challenged. He also has very specific ideas about what power is and who has it. He wouldn't look twice at a street rat like Kaz. Another point to consider is that Kaz understands people like the Darkling — people who think they're untouchable and look down on everyone else around them. Therefore, Kaz would be able to use that knowledge to his advantage, while the Darkling would be going in relatively blind.

Reason #3: Kaz has allies in a way that the Darkling doesn't. Kaz has formed relationships and friendships with skilled people who work with him on a basis of mutual respect. Inej and Jesper both have invaluable skillsets and unshakable loyalty to Kaz because of the way he treats them and their own values. The Darkling doesn't have a system like this — he has the advantage of an entire personal guard and Grisha army, but those people work for the Darkling out of a sense of obligation and fear. They rely on clear instructions over intuition, and work best when the threat is obvious. Kaz and his team have the advantage of being able to improvise and be discrete, as well as their trust in each other.

Reason #4: Kaz can take a beating. Sure, the Darkling has lived a hundred lives and has carried some heavy burdens, but he's had it pretty easy for a while. He's in a position of absolute power and at the top of the food chain — he doesn't seem to have to work for anything anymore, and probably expects things to be relatively easy for himself. Kaz knows what it means to work for something. He grew up with his life constantly in danger; a frequent participant in fistfights and shootouts. He's used to being the underdog. Admittedly, Kaz couldn't survive something like the Cut, but he's used to fighting to survive. Like I said before, Kaz will also fight dirty. Despite being an army commander, the Darkling doesn't necessarily have this same experience.

Reason #5: Kaz has the element of surprise, and would have relevant intelligence. He never walks into a situation that he can't see a way out of. He would know details about the location and the people present, and would probably be familiar with what routines and failsafes would be in place. All of this would be true if he, Inej, and Jesper were infiltrating the Little Palace or even the Grand Palace. This puts Kaz in a position of power over the Darkling, who would have no way of predicting this kind of infiltration, and would have no information about Kaz.

As I mentioned, I came up with this list of reasons prior to seeing the show. Based on Eric Heisserer’s comments, I was fairly certain that, at some point in the show, we would see Kaz and the Darkling — or in this case, General Kirigan — interact with each other.

In the show, we see this interaction when Kaz, Inej, and Jesper are fleeing from Kirigan and a few Grish soldiers in the wake of an unsuccessful attempt to kidnap Alina Starkov. Kirigan approaches Kaz in an empty street, demanding to know where Alina is. Kaz replies that he doesn’t know, but that she had made it clear she no longer wanted to be anyone’s captive. Kirigan tells Kaz that he should have stayed in Ketterdam and attempts to use the Cut on him, but Kaz escapes using a flash bomb. 

So… success! Kaz came out on top, just like we predicted. Let’s break this down.

Reason #1: Kaz has a more applicable set of skills. True! Despite the fact that Kaz, Inej, and Jesper were trying to escape in this situation, I still believe that they’re more in their comfort zone than the Grisha soldiers are. Sure, maybe the Grisha have the advantage in combat, but the Crows are familiar with how these scraps play out. They know it’s better to split up, know it’s easier to take a Grisha in one-to-one combat, and know how to disappear in the streets, even in an unfamiliar town. Even prior to Kaz and Kirigan facing off, the Crows have already manipulated the situation to be in their favour. And although Kirigan effectively utilized the Grisha soldiers and his own power, he’s still probably in a position he’s not used to being in. 

Reason #2: the Darkling would underestimate Kaz. Okay, maybe Kirigan wasn’t going in completely blind. He knew that Kaz, Inej, and Jesper had been in the Little Palace and were involved in Alina’s disappearance. But, I still think Kirigan underestimated Kaz. His final line to Kaz, “You should have stayed in Ketterdam, Mr. Brekker”, says to me that he fully believed he was about to kill Kaz, that he truly believed there was no way Kaz could escape. And as I said previously, Kaz understands people like Kirigan, and clearly predicted his behaviour. That’s how he managed to beat Kirigan, even in a situation most people would assume is impossible to survive. He did the same thing on the skiff in the finale. 

Reason #3: Kaz has allies in a way that the Darkling doesn't. Maybe not as relevant, since Kirigan brought soldiers who were either highly devoted (like Zoya) or had their own personal reasons for going after the Crows (like Polina). However, as I mentioned under Reason #1, Kaz, Inej, and Jesper were still better equipped for the situation. They were able to support each other in the moments leading up to the point where they split up. 

Reason #4: Kaz can take a beating. Yes, I will never shut up about this. Kaz knows how to fight dirty! If he can’t win in one-on-one combat against Kirigan, he’s going to do what he always does: distract them by talking, then rely on some unexpected tool or method to gain the upper hand. Kirigan goes in believing that he is easily going to win. 

Reason #5: Kaz has the element of surprise, and would have relevant intelligence. This one didn’t turn out to be super accurate. In fact, Kirigan is the one with relevant intelligence. But, since the Crows knew Kirigan would come after them, there was no element of surprise, and they even managed to surprise the Grisha soldiers by planting a bomb in their carriage and used that to give themselves a little bit of a temporary advantage. 

So maybe this showdown was unnecessary fan service, or maybe it’s unbelievable that Kaz Brekker managed to escape the Cut unscathed, but frankly, I don’t think so. Moments like this made the show exciting for me. I was able to see the story and the characters presented in a new way, a way that clearly diverged from book canon but still stayed true to the heart of the story and the characters. In Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom, we see Kaz successfully navigate situations like this and worse. Maybe it’s unbelievable that a character with a disability could escape from that situation, but we’ve seen Kaz cope even without the use of his cane time and time again. Maybe it’s unbelievable that a kid from the Barrel could one-up the general of Ravka’s Second Army, but we’ve seen Kaz go up against entire governments — more than once!

At the end of the day, I wasn’t surprised by the outcome of the Kaz Brekker vs. The Darkling showdown. I wasn’t joking when I predicted it originally! I loved this moment in the show and it validated everything I was thinking initially.