Type: Romantic
Book | Show: Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows, Crooked Kingdom, and Netflix’s Shadow and Bone
Featured Characters: Jesper Fahey and Wylan Van Eck
The Six of Crows duology might not be a romance, but it features six of the best relationships I’ve ever read—the comforting kind you want to turn to when everything else is questionable. Leigh Bardugo takes on some of the best tropes as she brings the love stories to life, and with Jesper Fahey and Wylan Van Eck (Wesper), the love story is incomparable.
Because I adore fan videos and did the Lord’s work in compiling some of the best ones, I wrote briefly about the relationship for Fangirlish.com, stating: “Jesper Fahey and Wylan Van Eck (Hendricks in the series) make up the sweetest kind of ‘it was you all along‘ relationship. In both Leigh Bardugo’s duology and Netflix’s Shadow and Bone, there’s an instant pull between them that effortlessly draws the audience to see why they’re perfect for each other. In the show, it thankfully happens quicker, allowing viewers the chance to see them as a couple before everything crumbles. There’s a one-night stand off-screen, and then everything we get afterward shows us that what they see in each other are all the things missing in their lives.”
Shadow and Bone Season 2 understandably changes a few details from the book, but Jesper and Wylan’s story is still written to last. It’s wholesome, soft, sexy, and a partnership between equals. It’s a relationship between two people who see each other as they truly are and love one another through the good, bad, and ugly. Both in the show and the books, their relationship centers around unwavering support.
Jesper Fahey and Wylan Van Eck Define True Acceptance
One of the details I especially appreciate in the show is that their relationship ultimately becomes a second chance romance. By giving them an off-screen one-night stand, then reuniting them and having the ties form all over again, we see concrete proof that they’re meant to continue orbiting around each other. In every lifetime, they’re going to find each other and, with a bit of time, grow to fall in love.
A chemist and a sharpshooter. Sunshine and sunshine. Friends to lovers. Truly, Wylan and Jesper’s love story features some of the best tropes, and it’s an added, exceptional bonus that we get the brilliant chemistry between Kit Young and Jack Wolfe. Despite the fact that we get less time with them on the show, the actors pack so much depth in every interaction that we can understand, clear as day, why these characters will last long after the show ends.
While they’re more established when we first meet them in the books, the show gives us the opportunity to see some of their origins in their first beat of prolonged eye contact, the first “uh oh, I’m falling in love” moment, the first misunderstanding, the first reunion. In those firsts, we get a definite sense of what it means to love each other through everything. No matter what comes their way, we know that they’re going to take each other as they are. They aren’t here to change or mold one another into what they want the other to be, but Jesper and Wylan are here because they care and need everything the other can offer.
The Crows are each understandably a little selfish. Their innate human need to fit in and find a place to belong forces them to do things they might not want, but it also gives them ample chances to feel valued. They want to find their people and grow with them. Jesper doesn’t care that Wylan can’t read, but Jesper certainly cares that Wylan is ashamed of that. Both in the books and the show, he makes it clear to Wylan that he wants and values him as he is. Jesper needs Wylan to love himself as Jesper loves him.
Their love story, like all others within the Crows, is about equals—two people, completely different from one another, finding common ground and a place to call home in each other’s arms. It’s wholesome in how endearing their relationship is because, unlike the other Crows, there’s very little they disagree on. See, sunshine and sunshine, because even when they do disagree, there’s still a plethora of warmth in how they do it.
They’re Taylor Swift’s “King of My Heart” and “You Are in Love.” Two peas in a pod. Opposites in many ways but similar when it counts. Again, we don’t get much time with the show version of them, but what we see proves they’re partners who’ll always go out of their way for each other. Partners who’ll shout about each other from the rooftops. Partners, who get to actually be partners because everyone else in their group is too busy dealing with their slow burn and stepping stones. (And for once, the queer ship is the one that gets to thrive consistently!)
This is where the show does a brilliant job with the material we have time with because it allows them both to fully dive into a relationship while they grow individually. They don’t need to tiptoe around their feelings because where physical and emotional barriers hinder other couples, Jesper Fahey and Wylan Van Eck simply want to be together. At the same time, there’s something to be said about how they both know loss differently than the other characters. They have mothers whose talents and gifts were shunned. It affects them significantly and allows them to fight even harder for what they want.
Being older in the show than in the books, they also know what it’s like for the other to get away. And while it takes a hot second for Jesper to put two and two together again with the memory of being atop him (plus stroopwafels), after that, neither wants to let the other go. There’s no use in playing games when they can continue giving each other the things that matter and make them feel alive. Through explosives and miscommunications, they keep one another strong and even more entwined in understanding how important time is and why taking the chances they want is necessary.
“Music. Numbers. Equations. They’re not like words. They…they don’t get mixed up.”
And neither does their relationship. It survives. It clicks, and everything makes even more sense when they’re together, happy, and in love. Sunshine and sunshine sometimes allow the clouds to come in while they take each other’s hands regardless. Jesper Fahey and Wylan Van Eck make sense together. Their love for one another doesn’t get mixed up. No matter how they search for an answer, they’ll keep coming back to the fact that they’re each other’s best decision.