#general kenossium

[daughterofheartshaven]

Okay I've heard a lot of people say that General Kenossium and Rasmus sound the same and I do get it, but I've always been able to tell them apart.

When they're calling in over a radio though? Nope. They sound the exact same.

[daughterofheartshaven]

Okay I think I said somewhere back at The Passenger that I was glad they had Kenossium have some blood on his hands since I didn't want him to be the "good guy" time lord. But then later on, The First Days of Phiadon actually sold me on him being genuinely heroic, and I figured that would be where his character would go.

So I was deeply and pleasantly surprised when Collaborators appeared to have the best of both worlds. Kenossium keeps his character development from Phiadon, but simultaneously loses the trust of Leela. Honestly I love this as a direction to go.

[daughterofheartshaven]

Kenossium: There will be consequences for your actions. Leela: Are there not always?

This feels very central to Leela's character. To me.

[daughterofheartshaven]

Kenossium: Do not give them an excuse to punish you. Leela: They do not need excuses! Time Lords do what they want without care for anyone else. I am tired of it.

I love how bluntly this is put, and like how clear this highlights Kenossium's blind spots. Like yes, he wants to protect Leela, but he also believes that her working along the rules will protect her.

And it won't. The rules aren't designed for that. But he can't see that.

[daughterofheartshaven]

Kenossium: Did you have to say that? Veklin: What? Kenossium: That her people are famously aggressive?  Veklin: It was meant as a compliment.  Kenossium: Leela hasn't been the wild savage of whatever childhood stories you may have heard for a very long time - that is, if she ever was to begin with.

Like this is a good character beat for Veklin, and it's a nice reminder that she is so much younger than Leela is (According to some Faction Paradox numbers and a pinch of headcanon, she was born 125 years before the War, while Leela came to Gallifrey 393 years before the War). But it's also a nice statement against a some of the more racistly written aspects of Leela's character. Like this isn't going in that direction as hard as Freeme did, but they're still keeping to a commitment to do with Leela in a way they haven't in the past, and I appreciate that.

[daughterofheartshaven]

General Kenossium thinking he can claim that he and Leela are on the same side... there's something to that. Because in the loosest sense he's right, but to claim Leela's alliance like that strips her of a fuckton of agency, and I don't even think he's meaning to do that.

[daughterofheartshaven]

Cresta being from Kenossium's House was an interesting touch, although I wish we had more done with it.

[daughterofheartshaven]

Having Ollistra and General Kenossium (yes I know they only call him the General but his name is Kenossium, this was established in a comic) on audio like this are both a little weird - Ollistra because they're using her pre-War actress (since the actress playing the War Ollistra incarnation had died), and Kenossium just because I'm not used to hearing that voice on audio. I'll certainly get used to it but it's... a voice that feels pretty generic. It's a generic guy voice? And I don't usually think that.