#kel angst

[h4amarch]

Two-Year Pendulum.

[ravencanspell]

fuck it. Suntan angst because Kel is genuinely incapable of asking for emotional support because he doesn’t want to be seen as anything but a shoulder to lean on. Suntan angst because Sunny can’t express himself well even though he’s trying so hard. Suntan angst because Kel knows his parents slightly neglected him in favor of Hero but doesn’t know how to feel about it and this isn’t used to his feelings being valued, which makes it difficult for him to accept Sunny’s affection. Suntan angst because Sunny lies awake at night wondering why Kel loves him anyway and distances sometimes because of it.

[msarts649]

😋

[carideekawaii]

2 Am doodle of Kel angst because I’m cringe lol

[winters-sketches]

fellow kel enjoyers will already know this, but related to the last post i wanted to talk about just how fascinating Kel is within the game and his canon cause like..

compared to everyone else? we hardly get to know anything about how everything impacted him.

We know plenty about Hero; Hero talks about how it impacted him, we get to see him grieving for Mari at her piano, we’re explicitly told that he’s not ready to see her grave, heck, KEL talks more about Hero’s emotions than his own in the scene that is about his own experience. We see pictures of Mari and Hero together, their pinwheels together, their headspace counterparts, etc. We know just how much Mari meant to him, and we know how it impacted him, too.

Similarly with Basil and Aubrey, we get to know a lot about how they felt simply because of how they act or what they’ve explicitly said. Both of them are fairly obvious with how they feel, whether it be through dialogue, actions, etc. Aubrey’s close relationship with Mari is very clear (hair dyeing plans come to mind with that one), and to an extent, so is Basil’s (Mari stealing his camera, flower crowns, etc.) (and obviously Basil is highly involved in. y’know. everything)

And Sunny’s the main character who we literally see the dreams and subconscious thoughts of, so. y’know. yeah.

Compare that all to Kel? We have scraps.

We don’t really get to see much about how he felt after everything, not from outside that happy exterior he always has. The most we get are that he’s lonely (as told by Sunny’s mom), he distracted himself by involving himself in sports, and he didn’t know how to help anyone. Of course he misses Mari a lot, but that’s about the extent of what he tells us. The most significant thing he mentions is his one-sided argument with Hero, and even then he talks more about how it affected Hero than himself.

In addition to this, we hardly know anything about his relationship with Mari. We’re never told how he feels about her, we don’t know anything about how they interacted with each other, and their Headspace versions don’t interact all that much as far as I can tell (do lmk if there’s anything of note that has happened, i’m not as familiar with the headspace portions of the game). They don’t share a single direct interaction in the photo album, either. As far as we know, maybe Kel just wasn’t as close with Mari as the others were. It’s left to the player to speculate to what extent that’s true.

As the main story presents it, Kel just seems to be the most stable person in the friend group: the one who moved on, the one who was happy-go-lucky enough to move forwards despite everything. He’s the instigator of the good ending, and the only reason why Sunny even left his house.

He’s simple. He’s funny. He’s happy, for the most part. That’s what Omocat seems to present to us, at least.

Until you look deeper into the subtle intricacies of the game, and beyond the game, and find that there’s so much more hiding within the tiny details.

Take the Comeback skill, for example. Most effective when Kel is sad, it makes him happy instead. Why is that? It seems to suggest that Kel is able to effectively bury his sad emotions with his happiness… which also implies that in real life, Kel may be doing the same.

Or the bits of Kel burying his emotions in official art that Omocat has made, including both concept art and post-game art:

(both drawn by omocat)

Like, the fact that this behavior is never addressed, and only barely implied in-game?? It feels like there’s so much more to say about Kel, so many more feelings left unaddressed, and yet Kel is always just the way he is in the story. He has more depth, it’s clearly there, Omocat has shown that it’s there, and yet we never get the chance to see that.

Everything we do know about Kel’s feelings come from vague mentions in game or very subtle details that, if you weren’t already expecting a deeper meaning, you would brush off as something positive.

And maybe that’s the point. Because if he’s so good at hiding his feelings, you’d never notice. You’re not supposed to know if he’s upset. Because he’s not. He’s the happy one, remember? The happy friend of the group, the happy one who can stop being sad, the happy one on the emotions chart.Every explicit detail associates him with happiness, which makes it all the more jarring when things imply that he’s not, when the neutral ending hits and real Kel expresses sorrow for the only scene he does so in the entire game.

There’s just so much mystery and depth locked behind the cheerful exterior of Kel’s character, and the lack of content means it’s so much more fun to speculate about what’s going on behind the scenes.

-grabby hands- give us Kel lore, Omocat. tell us what’s going on with best boi.

[breakintomyhead]

kel n hero angst art

yall they are complex characters too

[theamityelf]

"Chin Up" from Charlotte's Web is such a Kel (Omori) song.

Chin up, chin up Everybody loves a happy face Wear it, share it It'll brighten up the darkest place

Twinkle, sparkle Let a little sunshine in! You'll be on the right side Looking at the bright side Up with your chinny-chin-chin

(Kel trying to keep his mood light around the house after the tragedy, and trying to get through to Hero.)

Chin up, chin up Put a little laughter in your eyes Brave it, save it Even though you're feeling otherwise

Rise up, wise up Make a little smile begin! You'll be happy-hearted Once you get it started Up with your chinny-chin-chin

(He plays basketball. He makes friends who don't know him at all.)

(He stays positive, because it's all he knows how to do.)

[omori-rosebudau]

Cw: Implied suicide.

This is a reupload from my account, @toaster-cake !!