New musings on Kalin: he seems to need a purpose to be happy. In the Enforcers era, he was determined and extroverted and very happy defeating all the Duel Gangs in the Satellite. But once they were all beaten, suddenly Kalin didn’t have a purpose any more. He had to look for a new one and things started going downhill from there. He targeted innocent kids, inventing the idea that they were potentially dangerous, and later went for the big one, Sector Security. That all unraveled into complete chaos.
As a Dark Signer, Kalin had a purpose again, but it was dark and twisted, a product of his misunderstanding about Yusei as well as the darkness corrupting him. He reveals later that what he had really wanted was just to see the others again and fight one more duel with them. Instead, the darkness twisted him into the insane creature he became.
When he finally came back to himself, he was not only wracked with grief and guilt, he once again had no purpose. He decided he had to atone for his wrongdoings and went to Crash Town to try to do this. His purpose became his own self-destruction.
Kalin, however, at his core is a protective person. He needs things to protect. It’s when he feels he doesn’t have this that he seems to start tipping off the deep end and becoming dangerous and destructive. Once Yusei and the kids reach this side of him again and he realizes he actually can do something, he perks right up. He becomes the fighter he once was and has the strength to topple Lawton’s control over the town.
When Crash Town is free, Kalin decides to stay on. Why wouldn’t he? He has what he was searching for all these years. The town will need help rebuilding and being protected and the kids need looking after. Kalin will have years of protecting ahead of him.
It’s semi-popular in the fandom to have Kalin move to the City, sometimes with the kids, sometimes not. I totally get wanting him to be with Yusei and the others again, but given Kalin’s need to protect and have a purpose, I’m honestly not sure he would like living in the City. He would be happy to be with his other loved ones, but I think he would feel directionless and lost and might even start spiraling downward again. Maybe he would instead find a way to pool his protective nature into a new career in the City. Maybe Crow would encourage him to join Sector Security. (Would he, though?) I definitely think the only way he could be truly happy in the City would be if he found more purpose in protecting.
The problem with the concept is that he already has something to protect in the town. He expresses a very strong desire to stay there at the end of the arc, and the one time we see him afterwards, he’s still there and seems happy. It’s hard for me to think that he would leave it unless for some reason he felt he had nothing left there, nothing to protect and no reason to stay. And honestly, that is a depressing thought. Kalin is finally happy at the end of the Crash Town arc. I feel the best thing for him is to stay on and live his best life as the town’s sheriff/mayor/etc., looking after the kids and enjoying what he has.
