DISCUSSION: the gilded wolves vs six of crows

(from my tweet)

This meme and this post all started because some people think it’s okay to hate on The Gilded Wolves because it’s a “discount Six of Crows,” or something along those lines. I’ll admit that I personally have not read any of these bad takes; rather, I’ve just seen talk on Twitter of certain reviews on Goodreads. I know that if I do go looking for it, I’ll probably throw something, so let’s just save me the pain of reading these bad takes firsthand!

I’ll get this out of the way first: yes, Six of Crows is good; yes, I am a SoC stan; yes, SoC is ownvoices for disabled rep. I’m not here to hate onSoC; I’m here to clarify why you shouldn’t hate on The Gilded Wolves in favor of SoC. I talked a little about this in my review of TGW, but apparently people can’t keep their mouths shut, so let’s do a deeper analysis!!

Again, I haven’t read any of these bad takes, so these are parallels that I personally noticed on the surface, but upon further analysis, realize that they don’t really have much substantial evidence to them. I’ll break it down into three parts:

1. Séverin vs Kaz
2. Laila vs Inej
3. heist plots

and then talk about what makes TGW inherently different. Spoilers for SoC ahead, but less so for TGW.

SÉVERIN VS KAZ

As I’m sure you know, Kaz is cheated out of his future and of his life with his brother by Pekka Rollins. For this, he begins his journey of revenge that is the underlying plot of SoC.

Similarly, Séverin is cheated out of his inheritance and of his rightful role as the head of House Vanth. He makes it his life’s mission to get back what is due to him.

Vengeance is an incredibly common plot line, so yes, while these two characters have this backstory in common, it doesn’t mean that they’re the same character.

For one thing, Kaz allows revenge to take over his entire life, and to do so, he has to become ruthless, a monster (something people strangely glorify him for, but that’s a conversation for a different post). Conversely, Séverin uses vengeance as his fuel; he plots and schemes like Kaz does, but in much less of a ruthless way.

“When you are who they expect you to be, they never look too closely. If you’re furious, let it be fuel.”

Of course, what is obviously different between them is that Séverin’s backstory is very much influenced by his biracial background, particularly because he is half-Algerian. Algeria was a colony of France, so of course the French look down on him for that. That quote above is about being overlooked for your ethnicity and your outward appearance and being angry about that. This racial aspect is certainly something that sets them apart, but I’ll talk more about this later in the post.

LAILA VS INEJ

Let’s preface this by saying that Laila and Inej are the same character is so overtly racist. Oh, we can’t have two South Asian leads? Sure, Jan. Just say you don’t support actual diverse books that are actually written by authors of color and leave.

I suppose people are drawing parallels between the fact that they both left their home countries and now wear elaborate costumes as a job. There’s an obvious flaw in this: consent and the lack thereof.

Laila is a cabaret dancer, something she chooses to do. She is paid and treated well.

Inej was kidnapped and forced into sex slavery. She is held hostage and forced into prostitution; she’s treated horribly and exoticized for her ethnicity and skin color. This is, by no means, an attempt to diminish what Inej has been through; rather, I’m saying that Leigh Bardugo writes a different commentary, one that deals more with this heavy topic at its core rather than the racial aspect.

Lastly, if we’re even considering the fact that their love interests are also counterparts (see: above), I don’t even know what to say to you. That’s just demeaning and shouldn’t even be a factor, since all of these characters are their own person and have their own characterizations; they don’t just exist to be in the background.

HEIST PLOTS

People have apparently complained that TGW doesn’t have as much of a heist as they expected? And I’m not entirely sure what they expected? Again, I touched on this in my review, but let me reiterate.

The entirety of SoC’s plot has to do with heists. Yes, there’s underlying plot lines, but heists are how they accomplish what they want. Obtaining the reward money from the ice court heist? Then Kaz can take down Pekka, Inej can pay off her debts to the Dregs and leave, and Jesper can pay off his gambling debts. Just pulling off the heist would mean that Matthias gets his pardon, Nina gets to see Matthias get pardoned, and Wylan gets to prove that he’s better than what his father thinks he is.
Of course, the heist in Crooked Kingdom is to get Inej back; in doing so, Kaz finally gets his revenge.

However, TGW is less of a heist and more of a treasure hunt, which I’m pretty sure that that’s how Roshani Chokshi first marketed it as. There is a heist, yes, but it’s like 15% of the plot, and even then, less of a heist than in SoC.

Yeah, the clues are simple, but this is a historical fantasy, not a high one like SoC. This provides boundaries around what the reader will realistically believe (even with suspense of disbelief) and what they’ll just find plain ridiculous. Anything can happen in a high fantasy, but in one that happens in our world, in a certain time period no less, means that the clues have to match the era. Chokshi clearly did her research of this time period, and it definitely shows. The fact that she could create clues in the narrow boundaries of historical facts is a feat in and of itself.

WHAT MAKES TGW INHERENTLY DIFFERENT: COLONIALISM AND ITS AFTER-EFFECTS

Yet again, I touched on this in my review:

This is what really sets this book apart: Chokshi explores the effects of colonization on the overtaken countries by featuring characters who are by-products of these efforts and setting the novel in a country that did much of the colonizing. Her characters’ ethnicities are a large part of themselves and their characterizations, but there’s also more to them than skin color or other physical attributes.

In other words, colonialism and its after-effects is heavily prevalent throughout this novel; for this to be a theme makes TGW inherently different from SoC! Dealing with racial issues and tensions is something SoC briefly touches on with Jesper (barely) and Inej (more, but still not as much as TGW). I’ve already said this on Twitter, and in this analysis of the grishaverse, but I’m slowly becoming more and more uncomfortable with the ethnicity alignments in these books. The fact that TGW features racial issues at its forefront as well as at its core makes it incredibly different from SoC.

Chokshi wrote a whole author’s note about the impact of colonialism on the world and in this novel and yet! People just cannot think!

Hypnos and Séverin are half-French, half-Haitian and -Algerian, respectively. Both are heirs of their Houses, and when Séverin is rejected as the next leader, he believes it’s because the powers-that-be wouldn’t allow two mixed-race bastards as heirs. This is a valid reason; if you’re a person of color and/or experienced racism in your lifetime, you know.

You know what it feels like to be a token, a trophy that says, look, we’re diverse.

You know what it is like to be told or to feel that you only got into something / got a job / etc. because you “fill a quota.”

So, of course Séverin wants revenge. Of course he wants to fight this system that has denied him of his birthright because of his heritage, that is no fault of his own.

Other characters are also marginalized for their ethnicities: Zofia is Jewish, for which she’s ridiculed in school, eventually leading to her lashing out and being expelled; Enrique is half-Filipino, half-Spanish, for which he’s looked down upon by other Filipinos, seen when he wants to be taken seriously for his articles in the anti-colonialism newspaper.

For most of the characters to be from countries that are known to have been colonies of some European country at some point is so obvious and for people to just completely ignore this is very . . . revealing. Again, Chokshi wrote an author’s note about this! She herself is half-Indian, half-Filipina, two countries that, again, are known to have experienced the consequences of colonialism!

From Chokshi’s author’s note:

     As a Filipina and Indian woman, colonialism runs in my veins. I couldn’t reconcile the horrors of that era with the glamour of it, which, up until then, was what stood out in my imagination of the 19th century: courtesans and the Moulin Rouge, glittering parties and champagne.
     I wanted to understand how an era called La Belle Époque, literally The Beautiful Era, could possess that name with that stain. I wanted to explore beauty and horror through the eyes of the people on the sidelines . . . While I took many liberties with time and truth, it never felt right to untangle the beauty from the horror of the 19th century.

Laila is Indian (Tamil), which was colonized by the British. Enrique is half-Filipino, which the Spanish “conquered,” so the fact that he is also half-Spanish makes him lesser in the eyes of both the Spanish and the Filipinos. Again, Séverin and Hypnos are half-Algerian and half-Haitian, respectively, and both countries were colonized by the French.

And!! This book is set in FRANCE of all places, aka the country that was the leading colonizer at this time!! I believe that Chokshi said she wanted to set the book here, and when she decided to, she knew she needed to have the colonialism front and center. And it is! People are just overlooking it to draw the parallels to SoC, when there’s such a glaringly obvious difference between the two!

Again, from Chokshi’s author’s note:

When we revise the horror and sanitize the grotesque, we risk erasing the paths that led us here.

TL;DR

When I recommend TGW, I comp it to SoC so more people will be intrigued. SoC has clout, and whenever I comp to it, people immediately jump on it. However, I don’t understand why people go into TGW, expecting the exact same book. I said you’d liked it if you like SoC, not that it is SoC! Why would you even want the exact same book, with the exact same story? That would just be boring and repetitive.

Yes, there are parallels between some of the characters and plot points of SoC and TGW. I see them; I drew conclusions as well. But upon further thought, one can see that these are just that: mere parallels. These characters are different, and these stories are different.

I’m not saying you have to like TGW. I’m just saying that you shouldn’t dislike it in favor of SoC, or because you were expecting the same story. There are so many YA books that have heists, or found family, or beautiful prose, and for people to hate on the one that features protagonists of color (some #ownvoices) and that is written by an author of color is certainly revealing of the people who conflate these two books. Maybe if people didn’t only hype up white-authored books . . . But really, I beg of you, read more diversely, and by that, I mean, read books by marginalized authors. (I am aware that SoC is #ownvoices for chronic pain, and I am not criticizing this in any way, but people need to stop acting like SoC is the best “diverse” fantasy out there when books by authors of color exist.)

In the people (who are critical of TGW in favor of SoC)’s eyes, SoC made the mold for YA fantasy, which again is . . . incorrect, but if we’re using this metaphor, TGW broke the mold. Chokshi took a basic YA fantasy plot and spun it into gold, with underlying commentary against colonizers and about the after-effects of colonialism, a historical fantasy with luxurious imagery and decadent worldbuilding. SoC and TGW are, at their cores, so fundamentally different, and it is hard to see people conflating the two.

Maybe you haven’t read TGW yet because you heard it wasn’t as good as SoC (again, incorrect), but you’re here reading this post. If you are, I recommend you read TGW, not just because I’m biased, but because you could learn something from it. The effects of colonialism are still felt worldwide today; do as Chokshi says, and don’t “revise the horror and sanitize the grotesque.”

I’ll end with another quote from Chokshi’s author’s note:

     History is a myth shaped by the tongues of conquerors. What appears good may eventually sour and curdle in our collective minds. What appears bad may later bloom and brighten. I wanted to write this trilogy not to instruct or to condemn, but to question . . . Question what is gold and what glitters.

EDIT (7/26/20)

Yes, it’s been a year and I’m still worked up about this book. I actually just went and read negative reviews of TGW that compare it to SoC because I hate myself apparently, so I wanted to add an addendum now that I’ve read more of the “critiques.”

First off, I will say that some of the reviews are fair; I won’t fault people for disliking the book simply because they just didn’t vibe with it. I’m not immune to that! I just cannot stand the SoC comparisons.

Truthfully, a lot of my assumptions were correct, and again, I made those on my own opinions. I won’t say that there aren’t parallels, but again, you can draw parallels between SoC and other books too? So why call the book by an author of color, with almost entirely characters of color / marginalized characters in the main cast, the rip-off? I’m bored of it.

Anyways, I’m writing this at midnight and I am so tired. I also don’t want to start pulling details from people’s reviews because I don’t want to seem like I’m calling them out specifically, so I won’t write up the many thoughts I have now.

I will say that I saw someone say that the structure of TGW was the exact same as SoC, and. ARE WE NOT ALLOWED TO HAVE FLASHBACKS AS A PLOT DEVICE NOW? Seriously, is that just exclusive to SoC? Oh my god, the sheer audacity of it. No other book can have flashbacks to provide characterization; characters cannot have backstory apparently, only SoC can show character development in flashbacks.

Yeah, so I’m really only worked up again because I mistakenly went looking for reviews for Nocturna, and literally the top 30-40 are almost entirely negative reviews comparing it to A Darker Shade of Magic, which is a similar situation to here. I haven’t read Nocturna yet, but I beg of you, when will you stop calling books by authors of color “rip-offs” of other books by white authors? When will it end?

Do you have any points to add? What common complaints are you tired of reading? Comment below!

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