#kankri.prtsc

[nekropsii]

Love when Meenah walks in on people (Read: Kankri and Cronus) being complete unabashed ableist fuckheads to Mituna and immediately is like

[nekropsii]

They're all so fucking funny.

[nekropsii]

These are the same image.

[nekropsii]

I haven't gotten to the mituna part yet, but I've heard that he has a disability. That's true?

Emphatically, yes. He has Brain Damage. The TBI was caused by an extreme overexertion of his Psionic abilities. It's canonical. It's called what it is in text.

He also has a Speech Impediment or two, which is also referred to by name. That's generally why he talks like that.

Funny how all of these screenshots are people being complete dicks to him, but that's just how it is with the Beforans... All you gotta do is remember that their treatment of him is absolutely unjustified and a way of punching down, which is honestly not that hard to do at all. You know, if you have any heart to you at all, lmfao.

[nekropsii]

Enough of the one-note characterizations of Kankri as this extremely overly verbose talking machine with zero self awareness and no personality outside of his politics. Boring. Inaccurate. Overplayed. Actually read his dialogue and you’ll get more material.

Are we going to talk about the fact that he’s bad at slang even after like eight trillion years? He’s really fucking socially awkward. He also knows what he’s doing, he is self aware. He also says acronyms in their full forms out loud. He wants to be a rebel and he doesn’t know how. Kankri is extremely out of touch and he knows it. He just doesn’t know how to get in touch.

Anyway, here’s some fun dialogue.

This bitch is funny.

[nekropsii]

sorry to harp on this!! i know kankri was based a lot on tumblr sjws in the early 2010s, and a lot of people identified as aroace at that time, so i can see how it would be relevant. but… he’s celibate? not aroace? i always thought it was more about him being linked to religion (the Irons necklace and such) or as a chirst figure of sorts himself? idk idr too much about kankri but if you wouldn’t mind shedding some light on how his canon character is offensive to aroace people i’d appreciate it ^^

(Including this anon as well as to not leave them out. Thank you both for your interest!!)

I wouldn’t say you’re harping, just asking a genuinely valid question. Questions are always welcome.

I’d like to first clarify that my point was not that Kankri’s character is offensive to AroAce people- it was that his Celibacy was set up in a way that’s meant to have overlap with/be analogous to his textual AroAcehood. Which, yes, is actually a thing:

I’m not denying that his character is offensive to AroAce people. It, in fact, very much so is, speaking as an AroAce person, but the focal point of my argument was that his Celibacy was set up to also be a shot at AroAces. Technically the same argument, but tackled from slightly different angles. One is addressing the real-world effects of the writing, the other is addressing authorial intent. As always, I am pedantic.

The reason this is a- as much as I loathe to use this word- problematic analogy within this specific context is because Kankri’s Celibacy is clearly defined as a choice that he made that he is bad at mentally and emotionally committing to. It adds a whole new layer of upset to his extremely creepy, almost stalker-ish behavior towards Latula. Hussie seems to view AroAces as nothing more than sexually repressed closet creeps that are actually secretly AmatoAllo.

It’s practically physically impossible to argue against the notion that Kankri’s Religiosity is deeply and purposefully intertwined with his status as a Tumblr Parody. The setup is actually pretty clever- if you lean too hard in either direction, it’s a failed reading. Yes, his religious theming is backed by the fact that he is a Pre-Scratch iteration of The Sufferer, but when you take a step back… Not only is it a very literal approach to the fact that Online Political Discourse in that era specifically was known for being “preachy,” but it’s also a pretty clever nod to the idea of a Savior Complex.

His Discoursing is tied to the image of a Sermon, his need to police people to maximize comfortability is tied to a Savior Complex, which is tied to the fact that he is The Signless, his Celibacy is tied to his AroAcehood. Simple equation. If all of his Religious Language and Imagery is also simultaneously tied to him being a Tumblr Parody, then his state of being Celibate- a Religious Practice- and his state of being on the AroAce spectrum- at the time seen as a confusing, Tumblr-specific label- are… You know, more likely than not also connected. It makes significantly more sense if it is- I find no plausible reasoning why that would not have been Hussie’s intention if that’s exactly what they did with so many other details in Kankri’s character.