I. Adore. The Jungle Books!!!! (And Kaa.)
@devilsrecreation I finally did it! (/np you don’t gotta read all this LOL)(I feel like Camy ranting about Timon rn LMAO)
I have a beautifully bound edition with both books (including all of the Mowgli Stories!!) and have been obsessed with them and adaptations of them for about as long as I can remember. So here goes!!
One of the very first things we are taught are the master words “we be of one blood, ye and I” for three different people. The hunting people’s version, the bird verse, and the snake verse. This allows Mowgli to befriend any. Almost any, anyways, the Bandar-log have no tongue of their own, no law, and therefore no verse.
And so when Mowgli is kidnapped by them, Baloo’s first instinct is to turn to Kaa. Kaa is described as frightening, but not evil. Bagheera too is described as powerful and fear inducing, and even he is unsettled by Kaa. Both, in the books, are allies to Mowgli, and the closest friends he has. Frightful allies to a frightful man.
And here he is immediately “humanized” after his prowess is established.
Here we have Mowgli and Kaa’s first meeting. There is so much to unpack here.
First, it was Kaa that saved Mowgli’s life. Mowgli thanks him with the customs he has been taught- the customs of the hunting peoples which he is not. Kaa teases him for this, and so Mowgli alters his thanks in line. Kaa has always seen Mowgli as a man. Not a wolf, not one of the hunting peoples, but the man that he is and shall become, and accepts him anyways. Kaa accepts Mowgli as a brother. He refuses Mowgli as what he is not, but accepts him as what he is.
And then, at the bottom, he protects him. Kaa is terrible, a monster to be feared and respected. And he is about to do something terrifying. So he sends them away!! He wouldn't eat them even if they did stick around, but he wants them out of there anyways.
Mowgli going to see Kaa when he’s feeling depressed, and the two of them hanging out like that. A LIVING ARMCHAIR. Mowgli complimenting his old skin in the most earnest way possible. THE WAY KAA IS SO GENTLE WITH HIM. Physically, and in how he says things.
Here Mowgli is being Mowgli. Backhanded, almost unintentional insult and then a compliment, insult and then compliment. Kaa knows he doesn't mean anything by it, though.
Just. Just this entire passage. Honestly. Fuck.
I could probably put the entire first half of this chapter here and it would suffice itself.
They’re going on an adventure
“Kaa here is my brother.” That’s his brother. How TF did anyone make him a villain? Who at Disney suggested that. I'd like to have a word.
The white cobra threatens to kill Mowgli for no reason and Kaa is furious. Oh Kaa, we love you.
The two of them fight the white cobra and beat him.
IT’S THEM!!!! THE DHOLES!!!!!!!!! I mean they are absolutely abhorred here, but still I think it might be the only mention of dholes I've seen in any literature, ever. (Including adaptations of the books.)
A mention of a croc. For those of you who like crocs. (There are few characters Mowgli doesn't fight, don't worry.)
Mowgli trips over Kaa and then IMMEDIATELY turns to flattery. (Cuz Kaa deserves it.)
“I like you now that you’re not such a little bitch” -Kaa
“Who’s your favorite brother?! It's me, right?!” -also Kaa
Plus the sweetest paragraph I have ever read.
“Too fucking late I've already committed to killing myself” -Mowgli
“If I had my way you wouldn't be in this mess, but I respect your decision. I'd die for yo-” -Kaa
“WAIT NO SHUT UP ONLY I'M ALLOWED TO COMMIT SUICIDE TONIGHT” -Mowgli
Kipling doesn't let you forget that Kaa may as well be a forest spirit, tho. Scary. Honestly if Kaa said that to me I would just die. Like okay. Thank you Kaa. I would rather just be killed by the Dhole atp.
Bee afraid. (Get it? Cuz it's the bees in the cliffs? Hah.) But seriously this is terrifying. Kipling is a master of mood and tone, and this is his masterpiece.
So Kaa makes suggestions to Mowgli, coaxing into what gives him the best chance of survival. Then he goes and tells the Seeonee wolf pack to go fuck themselves. Jesus. Fucking. Christ.
Kaa is so worried about him. This makes me upset to read.
Thank you for quelling Mowgli’s bloodlust, Kaa.
When Mowgli is finally leaving the jungle, only the dearest of his family remains. Old, blind Baloo, the four of Mowgli’s littermates, Bagheera, and Kaa.
Kaa, moreso than any other, has seen Mowgli for what he is: a man. Kaa sees Mowgli for Mowgli. He loves him devoid of pack and skin.
Kaa comforts him. As everything Mowgli has known falls apart, Kaa gives him all he can. Love, acceptance, and forgiveness.
I had to include this entire last section. Because fuck. Fuck. I can't.
I’M NOT CRYING. YOU’RE CRYING. SHUT UP.
And of course, finally, Kaa’s outsong, warning Mowgli to be careful, deliberate, and courteous. It calls back to the first time they met, where Mowgli gave his apology “so prettily”.
And at the end, he comforts Mowgli on the awfulness of man that he had lamented to Kaa about earlier, in the start of The King’s Ankus. “Now, in the Man-Pack, at this hour, as I remember, they laid them down upon hard pieces of wood in the inside of a mud-tray, and, having carefully shut out all the clean winds, drew foul cloth over their heavy heads”. Kaa knows his future as he knows the past, and wishes Mowgli nothing but strength, safety, and happiness.
What Disney did to Kaa was downright sinful, and anyone who contributed to that movie without protesting his characterization should be ashamed.
Because of the power Disney holds over the essence of those stories it chooses to immortalize in animation, Kaa has forever been tainted in all adaptations by everyone. Thankfully, many have been shifting away from making Kaa a villain, as seen in the Netflix adaptation (my favorite out of all), but still none have been able to capture the character as created by Rudyard Kipling. Not many people have actually read The Jungle Books, and therefore not as many appreciate Kaa as a character as should.
Kaa is my favorite character of all time, and he deserves far more respect than he is granted.
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