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Love
Love is ambiguous. It can be fickle; it can be steady. It could be a gentle, quiet love like a grandmother’s or blue and bruised like the knuckles of a boxer. Inej often battled with love because of the idea that she was not entirely an innocent person. It is a question many of us ask ourselves. Am I a good person? Do I deserve love? And while we search for the answers, it becomes crucial to face our fears and truths to know what it is we truly want and need when it comes to love. This considers all types of love, not just romantic. So, while Inej had to wrestle with her idea of love, that did not stop her from seeking it out for herself and trying to show it to others.
Love: Text
Inej’s love for her friends is similar to that of “Epicurus [who] held that a wise man would feel the torture of a friend no less than his own, and would die for a friend rather than betray him,” (Konstan). She found a family of other ragtag characters also dealing with their own internal battles, similar to the friends and familial relationships we create today.
Love: Image
Even though they are not morally pure either, that does not stop them from seeking out love. Grizzard and company researched the liking of morally ambiguous characters and found that “[p]erhaps liking and morality coincide, but the relationship is nonlinear” (103). Though future research ought to consider a gradient of morality to better acknowledge the range of behaviors and personalities we see in the world. (103) So even while Kaz Brekker may not be a religious man, even as they butt heads over decisions, she’s willing to put the effort in to see this possibility for romantic love through. In Crooked Kingdom, Inej even acknowledged that “[s]he would fight for him, but she could not heal him. She would not waste her life trying” (527). So, while she may be an idealist, she still remains practical about how she shows love and who she shows it to (Sophia, para. 3).
In the same way, we ought to consider the type of love we truly deserve and wish to fill ourselves with. Despite whatever is holding us back, if we allow ourselves to be vulnerable enough to feel these emotions, we will feel them on a far greater level than before. Epicureanism holds the classic phrase, “Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we may die.” The focus is to embrace and seek happiness in the time we have left on this earth. By embracing ourselves wholly as individuals deserving of love, we are more apt to provide it to others and create a kinder world.
Love: Text
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