This plot point still bothers me, so here’s my attempt at fixing it
Kinn: You’re asking me to send you to die?
Pete: I must go because I trust Porsche.
Kinn: If something goes wrong, the Main Family can’t come after you. Not without starting a war with the Minor Family. If you get caught, you’ll be on your own. Do you understand that?
Pete: If I’m not back by morning... forget about me.
*later, the scene after everything with Tawan and Vegas goes down, Kinn is smoking on the balcony when Porsche approaches him but make it happen during sunrise*
Porsche: What’s with you?
Kinn, staring into the distance with a look of resignation: Just... forgetting something.
ALL THEY HAD TO DO was make it clear that the Main family wouldn’t be able to get involved if Pete got caught (because mafia politics or whatever) and that when Pete doesn’t return, he is assumed to be dead.
It would have reinforced Kinn’s characterization of actually caring about the people who work for him, saved Kinn from looking like a total moron who just forgot his own undercover agent, and given Pete some autonomy in his own fate. Pete would get permission to act on his own so that the main family could maintain plausible deniability should he fail.
AND it still would’ve been a tongue-and-cheek reference to what happens in the novel with a heartbreaking twist! Kinn wouldn’t forget about Pete, he would assume Pete was dead and —as Pete asked him to— keep moving forward without him.
Posted about this on the other site but thinking about the similarities between JGY and Pete because I always seem to gravitate towards characters with hidden layers lol
Just…
The loyalty they both have to family - even when it comes at the expense of their own feelings and wellbeing.
The need to be polite and courteous as a means of protection and survival. The masks they both wear to move through the world more easily, even when wearing them is painful.
Nobody around them seems to really know them or understand them. Partly because of the way they shield themselves and partly because nobody thinks there’s anything *more* to them. JGY is nothing but a whore’s son. Pete is just the goofy, weird bodyguard.
They both start out trying to do the ~right~ thing before realizing they’ll never be valued and appreciated the way they deserve - despite how hard they work - so, fuck it, might as well do what you can/want to have some semblance of peace in your fucked up world lol. (Pete’s whole time kidnapped with nobody worrying about him save for Tankhun will forever make me go insane. Same as NMJ’s refusal to put JGY on equal footing with himself and literally trying to *kill him* for daring to elevate his station).
The desire to be *seen*, to be treated as someone who isn’t disposable or forgettable. They find that in different ways (JGY becomes Chief Cultivator, Pete parts ways with the main family) but both pose risks. Like can they really be happy when they’re on such unstable ground? Won’t there always be people who don’t approve of their decisions?
JGY’s story ends so we know the answers but I’m really rooting for Pete as KP continues in season two.
(This was mostly rambling but I love them both. My two smiley, fucked up boys.)
