since i first heard of wasian vox my world has been flipped upon its axis. i am wasian myself and the absolute DELICIOUSNESS this headcanon conjures up in my mind drives me crazy. what a genius take. you’re totally right. it makes him worse in every possible way.
i am so curious to hear any other headcanons you have on the subject (e.g: his relationship with his mother as his poc parent, if he carries any aspects of his culture despite his internalised racism, the story of his parents’ marriage and how vox himself feels on the matter, etc.) i am so absurdly normal about this headcanon. it adds such a mean layer to his character and also to his dynamic with al. my god
AHHH I’m so glad whenever other people see the vision!! I really think being Wasian fits his character—it doesn’t contradict anything we’ve seen of him so far; he deadass acts like the middle-aged Asians in my and my friends’ families (INCLUDING SOME UNETHICAL BEHAVIOURS)—and HH could use more Asian rep since, hm. The “quirked up Japanese girl” stereotype Niffty falls into was never really flattering. (I’m Filipino and my best friend and co-conspirator, @dallacuna-b, is Korean, ftr!)
Some headcanons I have include:
His affinity for skinship comes from his mom! Many Asian cultures are very touchy and Korea is no exception. As opposed to Alastor, who only becomes so invasive when he’s trying to manipulate someone, Vox just seems to touch other people mindlessly (and in the flashback, as a show of fondness).
I love to think there’s a layer of angst where physical touch is something that takes a part of him back to better, simpler times—it’s grounding and comforting and he rarely allows himself to have it now because he has so many scars.
He does know some phrases in Korean since it was his mom’s first language and she wouldn’t be entirely fluent in English, but he was encouraged to only speak English if possible, so as to assimilate better. I don’t think he was ever fluent in Korean when he was alive, and I think he thinks that was all for the best.
Back in the 1910s, the US didn’t import a lot of Asian staples! Korea didn’t have a lot of things they used to either, because the Japanese Occupation robbed them of things like white rice! So his mom would’ve had to do her best with what she had when she moved to the states, creating another layer of separation between Vincent and his culture.
(You just know there’s a heartbreaking moment in his past when he asked her to stop making the food she grew up with for his school lunches because the other kids kept being cruel about it.)
I do think he still likes and eats Korean food to this day, but… Westerners still ridicule all Asian food to this day, saying it’s gross or smelly or unsanitary, etc. Some people don’t even like KBBQ because they hate how you have to cook the meat yourself and it gets the scent of barbecue all over your clothes and hair—something I could see the other Vees complaining about. So I figure it’s possible Vox is kind of embarrassed about eating KR food and only does so in hidden in his Evil Capitalism Lair.
My most evil HC: Vincent’s father is affiliated with the US Military. He was abroad in Korea for political reasons and that’s how he met Vincent’s mother. If you know anything about the effects of the US Military on Asia (or, like. on American citizens themselves) then you know how bad this sucks and how much it could plausibly explain how neurotic and repressed Vox is today 😭
Vox would 10000% do a 180 and go ALL-IN on reclaiming his heritage once the K-Wave makes it down to Hell. Self-hating Asian WHO??? He’s so proud of his Korean Heritage look how much he can market how trendy it is!!!
Sidenote: The way the Vees’ empire operates is very similar to Korea’s entertainment and marketing industries. I’d argue they’re even more similar to KR than the US / Hollywood! See this quote from the Harvard Business Review:
Finally, K-brands realized early on the importance of becoming content powerhouses if they wanted to reach a global audience. The idea is simple: The marketplace must be viewed as a screen.
Back when Vox was still alive, he could easily pass off his mixed features as traits from an Irish or Icelandic or Slavic heritage—fully white people like Barry Keoghan, Björk, or Ezra Miller share a lot of features with East Asians. Low-fidelity, black-and-white TV would play in his favour, as it would blur a lot of his “imperfections” and turn him more palatable to the public eye.
He’d also probably look “whiter” in B&W, similar to how mixed race actors like Ricky Kim or Keanu Reeves do.
If you know anything about US-Asian history, you know things were crazy for Asians and Asian-Americans in the 1900s to the 1950s 💀 On top of the Japanese Colonial Empire in Asia, we had WW2, the Korean War, Vietnam, the Philippine-American war, etc etc etc. The States straight up banned Asian immigrants in the Oriental Exclusion Act of 1924, and then started shoving people they thought might maybe be Japanese into internment camps in the 40s.
Of course he’d want to be Vincent White Man. If anyone found out he wasn’t, his livelihood would be at stake.
He’d also just—hate stereotypes about Asian men, which makes a lot of sense given what we’ve seen of him in canon with his complex about being Mr. Big Dick, cuz… Surprise, surprise! Lots of the stereotypes are about how Asian men are emasculated and pathetic!!! They’re weak, small-dicked, effeminate bottoms compared to “normal” white men!!! They’re also untrustworthy, conniving, and hold no loyalty to western ways (which honestly Vox is but like, he wouldn’t want to be perceived as such).
There are loads of stereotypes also about Asians being ugly, socially-inept doormats with no physical prowess who can’t possibly understand the Advanced Western World. Vox is someone who goes full throttle into subverting those expectations, to the point where most people look at him like “WHO hurt you? WHY are you like this?” so a reading of him as an Asian man is just like [shakes my screen] it makes so much sense to me!!!
I can go on and on and on about how much he truly resonates with me as an Asian in the west myself but I will cut myself off here since I’ve already yapped a lot AHA/// Thank you so much again for the ask!!!
