You guys really need to stop and consider the ways you're talking about Kabru I am dead fucking serious. Like I know that flattening characters is just what fandom does to a certain extent, but Kabru's actual personality is getting lost to the fandom hivemind insisting that he's aggressive/cruel/sociopathic/hateful, and these are particularly concerning takes to see leveled at the only brown character in the main cast day after day. "My poor sweet golden child Laios needs to be protected from this scary brown man" is not a good look! Like, it's very telling that the bulk of the hate and bad faith readings are reserved for Toshiro and Kabru. Everyone else's flaws get to be discussed and validated and forgiven (or erased), meanwhile people are straight making up things to be mad about with Toshiro and Kabru but patting themselves on the back for being smart.
The worst part is how undeserved it all is. I'm trying to lay off anime-onlys because we're still kind of in the red herring stage of getting to know Kabru, but I would still like to gently suggest that even if you think Kabru is up to something, you don't gave to get in the tags of every fan creator's post and bring up how you hate him or You Can Tell he's totally evil. Sometimes I think Kabru's blue eyes give people license to say things about his appearance that they know would sound completely racist otherwise, but referring to his blue eyes acts as a get-out-of-racism free card. The jokes about the dog with brown contacts are getting old, by the way.
For people who have read the manga, it's disappointing. Kabru is one of the most complex and important characters in the story, and if you base your interpretation of him and all your fandom interactions on shallow first impressions you are completely missing out.
I know part of this is because Dungeon Meshi is a comedy, but the story also wants to be taken seriously. For example, it's admittedly really funny when Chilchuck calls Laios "sick in the head", but that doesn't change the fact that the way Chilchuck casually belittles Laios caused him to hide the fact that he was "hallucinating" from his friends for weeks. Those feelings matter.
Like, this
is funny.
But this?
Is not. This is just a very clear example of a brown boy with PTSD. As someone else with PTSD, just looking at this fucking sucks, man.
The only reason why Kabru thinks about killing Laios is because he is in the middle of a flashback. He's struggling through a panic attack. If he truly wanted to kill Laios because he's violent or because he finds Laios inherently annoying, he wouldn't otherwise talk with Laios normally. Notice how he doesn't act this way at any other point in the story- it's just because he's triggered by monsters. Even when he's thinking about his plans to "deal with" Laios later, he's reluctant to actually kill him and only considers it to prevent another tragedy. Despite his deadly skills, Kabru relies far more on "soft" power- insight, persuasion, diplomacy. He's a rare example of a character who absolutely is, or at least can be, manipulative, but seems to use his abilities for good. He's not a pathological liar, he isn't looking down on everyone behind a smile. He's someone who is extremely emotionally intelligent, and he's willing to put aside all his own basic wants and needs to stop the cycle of dungeons devouring humans.
I'm going to cut a potential thesis on his character short and just give some examples of things that fandom should consider about his personality more:
Racism in fandom isn't just about whitewashing in fan art, or using racial slurs. The insidiousness of bad faith readings, reductions to racist tropes, lack of fan content for characters of color, and dismissal of a character's complexity are far more common. You can believe yourself to be completely neutral or even positive about a character and still churn out low-grade bile about them into fandom's collective unconscious. Fandom reflects real life.
And I have been around fandom long enough to see how these behaviors (mostly from my fellow white fans) affect fans of color, how it makes a fandom feel hostile and unwelcome to them. It's fun to make jokes and memes, I'm absolutely not saying that everything needs to be a deeply nuanced take, but we need to be careful that it doesn't veer into toxicity. Please think about how our contributions to fandom come across, and what sort of vibes they cultivate in this communal space.
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so i'm just thinking abt the reputation pete must have post-canon among main family bodyguards.
like as we know from pete himself, word travels fast amongst main family bodyguards and there must be a few who survived the ep 14, confrontation. obviously people would've known pete at least in passing, he's tankhun's head bodyguard that must mean something. and suddenly he's missing for a few days, rumour has it he went to the minor family's house (with the fit tankhun threw (rightfully so) surely people would've heard abt it right? right) and everyone knows what happens to bodyguards who are sent to the minor family's house. except pete returns and word spreads fast about that too. pete returned, covered in blood and injured but alive. then the family showdown happens, a lot of people die but surely a few main family bodyguards would survive. and they would hear abt it. pete left. he resigned. and they let him. which i'm sure not many bodyguards can say for themselves. rumour has it he went after vegas. and then shot a bodyguard of the main family dead for him. and that he's with vegas now.
vegas who has A Reputation, everyone knows that. so pete not only made it out of the minor family's house alive, he also managed to resign and then went to be with vegas.
and maybe they'd even see him sometime, pete coming to visit porsche or tankhun and he looks fine like he's doing well.
and like. they must be terrified of him. and like even when they get new bodyguards word would spread just as quickly. u don't fuck with pete bc pete has seen the worst of the worst of this world and not only come out alive the other end, he also willingly walked back right into it.
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there's a point to me saying that i am not a good person. that i am damaged and unlikeable and insane and toxic. that i did absolutely terrible shit to a lot of people.
and every time people deny it, i wonder why, because it's true.
but also every time people deny it, it hurts like hell.
i want someone to finally see me. i want someone to stop trying to make me feel better about it by denying it. because that's the absolute truth. and you denying it makes me feel like shit.
i want someone to finally see me for me and love me even if i am broken or evil or whatever.
because i am so done with people in denial. because the person who keeps telling me all these things, that i am smart, that i am sane, that i am kind, that i am beautiful, that i am strong, that i am good, no, more than good, actually "perfect"... that person fucking makes me vomit in my mouth. how can he claim to know me and love me "despite everything" if he won't even accept who i actually am? if he doesn't know a thing about me?
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I was going to put appropriate images with each block of this post but tumblr is the most useless site I've ever used in my life so I had to just give up as it caused so many error messages
I am realising my visual references are a mix of totally disastrous or three years out of date, but this is the Cheyen family situation for those who are kinda mildly-maybe-sorta interested!
Cheyen's full legal name is Cheyen Cheyen, he has six kids.
Eldest is also called Cheyen Cheyen, you can call her Cheyen♀ for simplicity! She's furious that she lives in such a long shadow.
Second eldest is Marie Cheyen!
Third is Experiment 473.B, Threebie for short, who is legally recognised as Cheyen's offspring despite being a gelatinous green blob in a jar. Don't think too hard on this. Threebie is said to be a genius to rival the eldest.
Next is Cheyen Cheyen AGAIN, but this one is his son, so he can safely be called Cheyen♂. He says he hates his father most but he's actually wrong, his older sisters have been hating for 10 years longer than him
His youngest girl, Chaya, she's 8 years old, and an EXACT clone of Cheyen; for this reason, she is obviously his favourite child. She asks for a radioactive pony every birthday and Cheyen gives it to her
Youngest is an evil four year old called Ernest who is, we can argue, the most evil because he likes maths. Nightmare Before Christmas looking little man who's hobby other than maths is biting people, but to be fair he is VERY enthusiastic about that
Importantly, they almost all hate him or find it extremely embarrassing to be related to him so avoid him at all costs. This relationship may somewhat explain why Orta reminds him of his daughters (all want him dead).
Tumblr is so broken I couldn't intersperse the images but I've tried to make a small block down here LMAO.
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