#Kabru you would love Big Brother

[big-gay-bird]

As someone who also has interacting with people as a special interest in the same way that Kabru does, I think his character is so important for autistic representation.

1) just point blank we need more autistic BIPOC in popular media.

But 2) it took so long for me to realize I was autistic because there is just no representation of autistic people who not only like being social, they’re GOOD at being social, like charisma is a genuine skill they have and rely regularly on.

And 3) idk how phrase this exactly but Kabru had what a lot of people would code as “girl” autism. Meaning he’s representation of a kind of unique thing I’ve seen from others in the neurodivergent community who are gender non-conforming in large part because of the ways they are neurodivergent. This is true of me too, I have “boy” ADHD and my brother had “girl” ADHD and we were bullied for this gender nonconformity despite the fact that my brother is completely cishet.

So like, yeah, the story centering women and a wlw love story, Fallin being consistently shown as attractive for her neurodiversity not in spite of it, Laois thriving and being the hero in a way no one else can because of his autism not in spite of it, these are all really really important to focus on in the fandom! I agree as an autistic sapphic myself!

However I hope no one is brushing away Kabru fans because he’s unique and really important!

I <3 this blorbo big time and I hope you can appreciate him too!

[room-surprise]

i read your Mithrun fics (both the college AU and the post-canon one). I love them so much... They mean so much to me.

Anyway, what do you think about Mithrun's role in post-canon politics? Since Kabru would likely be the one who handle political side, and Mithrun is actually a powerful figure. He's also very smart (they just need to ask him the right question). I feel there're a lot of possibilities here.

Thank you, I'm so happy you enjoyed them!!! They mean a lot to me too, and I'm really excited to get back to writing fiction soon, since I'm getting close to the end of my little research project on the names.

I won't go into my thoughts on this too much, because I DO want to write about it in a big fic...

I think that while Mithrun's presence in the kingdom and his ties to his brother makes him amazing leverage against the elves (and anyone else, really, the Kerensil bank is BIG), his presence in Kabru's life causes some amount of distrust both from other members of the court, and from other nations.

Some people think Mithrun is some kind of bribe, and that his presence as Kabru's lover means the bank "owns" the kingdom.

(Mithrun thinks this is ridiculous and kind of insulting. If they were going to bribe Kabru, do people really think Mithrun is the best the Kerensils can afford to send? A busted up muscle-bound ugly middle-aged elf with the personality and charm of a cactus? Obviously they would send something much better if they were trying to buy his allegiance.)

Other people think Kabru is going to become biased towards the elves because clearly he's an elf sympathizer.

("Should we stage a fight in public every couple of months?" Mithrun asks.) But eventually Mithrun will start to think of the kingdom as his home too, and so he wants to contribute and help, in his own way. I have plans for Mithrun to have his own mission and something he wants to accomplish. But really it's all over when Laios realizes Mithrun is a walking encyclopedia of monster facts. No wonder Kabru likes him so much!!!

(That's not why Kabru likes him, Laios.)

[tofixtheshadows]

hi!! so there are a lot of improbabilities that make this hypothetical unlikely but: if kabru had met toshiro first & recruited him (toshiro being so passive + not with a clear goal would have helped there & kabru is ptsd-driven but very noble in his goals which can be explained) AND they got all the way down to the bottom (idk if i believe in them...but hypothetically!) would the winged lion find either of them to be a good target for next dungeon lord? one over the other? im thinking kabru has the intensity and complexity of desire necessary but i can't imagine what it would look like if he became lord of the dungeon. do you have any thoughts?

Good morning. This is a very fun thought experiment!

(side note: I got a second anon this morning with a very similar request? not sure if related. I'm gonna let this answer speak for both of them)

Toshiro sure would have had a different time of it if Kabru had gotten to him first, huh? On the one hand, Toshiro seems to like Kabru; I think it's sweet that Kabru seems to gravitate towards hanging out with him when he isn't with the rest of the main cast. So they probably would've been good in a party together.

On the other hand, Toshiro never would have met Falin and fallen in love with her. Even if she didn't reciprocate in the end, I don't think he regrets anything that happened. Even his difficult friendship with Laios was ultimately positive (for both of them!).

They definitely would not have made it to the deeper floors, I think Senshi is crucial to achieving that ... but this is a hypothetical.

I'm puzzling over the question of Toshiro, because he is a secondary character and there's only so much we know about his motivations. His big one in canon is to save Falin, even if it means all he can do is put her to rest. Without that, without her, what sort of desires does he have?

Toshiro originally came to the Island because of a demand from his father: for one of his three sons to find "something interesting" enough on their travels to bring back home that would convince their capricious bastard father to make them his heir over the others. So they're all off on their separate training journeys with their respective retainers with the added caveat that they can't return without something to impress their father. It's implied that after falling in love with Falin, Toshiro had wanted to bring back home a wife.

Since he's said to inherit the family after he returns home without her anyway, I've been assuming that the "thing" Toshiro ended up bringing to Toshitsugu Nakamoto was the story of the dungeon, the demon, and his friend Laios, king of a risen country and Devourer of All Things Horrible.

Anyway, the things we know about Toshiro's home life are kind of fucked. It's amazing he turned out to be so nice. He's always been a shy, sensitive person, and he was sickly as a child; Maizuru cared for him despite her spymaster duties and ended up filling a motherly role for him, even though Toshiro's mother is still alive. Historically, it wasn't uncommon for noble children to be raised more closely by their governesses/household retainers than their parents, so perhaps something similar was happening here (disclaimer that I don't know much about feudal Japan specifically).

We know that Maizuru loves Toshiro and dotes on him, but she's also very strict and frankly terrifying; she used the same Hag summon that she was monitoring Izutsumi with on Toshiro as a child just to keep him from wandering off. We also know that when he found out that Maizuru was having an affair with his father, it put a distance between them. Whether this is because he felt betrayed on his mother's behalf or because he dislikes his father that much, or something else, is unclear.

Toshiro was childhood friends with Hien, but as they got older, she had to take his place as one of his retainers, which seems to have severed that closeness. Canonically, he isn't close to his two younger brothers either. Toshitsugu literally bought Inutade and Izustumi (the latter as a drunken "gift" for Maizuru!). We see that Toshiro is uncomfortable with this, but doesn't know how to approach the issue. He lets Izutsumi go the second she's out of sight for five minutes, which implies to me that he really wanted the excuse to do so. Inutade is harder, because she loves being with the Nakamoto family and hero-worships Toshiro's father.

...all this to say, Toshiro has complicated relationships with his family and household. There's love there, but also a lot of coldness enforced by the upper-class need for propriety. Toshiro falls in line and acts as the proper stoic samurai, but he chafes at this; he envies Laios's gift for feeling and expressing things openly and readily. I think that's what the Winged Lion would prey on, given the chance.

I don't think he would be prime dungeon lord material, but if it came to that, I could see the Lion tempting Toshiro with a kinder vision of his life, one where he and his little brothers weren't pitted against one another, where his family was warmer, where there weren't barriers of class between him and his retainers, where he was allowed to be more himself.

Now ... Kabru.

Kabru is interesting because, since his ultimate goal is to seal the dungeon and eradicate monsters, I imagine that meeting a demon would be like a guy who's given a genie and wants to wish for no more genies. And if said genie is trying to take over the world via wishes, the genie is a bit screwed. I really think that Kabru is the character who would stump the demon(s) the most, despite his complex desires, because they are antithetical to the demon. Laios also had complex desires, but the Winged Lion lured him and set him up as the hero of a fake prophecy because a lot of Laios's desires revolved around monsters, so his wants aligned perfectly with the demon's methods. Oh you want monsters? That's great, they're the things I use to solve most of my problems anyway.

Even in the absence of prior knowledge of demons, I think Kabru's back would be up as soon as the Winged Lion tried speaking to him. Kabru's insight is almost preternatural, and he's well-versed in persuasive speaking thanks to his own silver tongue. He would mistrust the Lion immediately, especially considering its monster-like form.

Giving the demons bestial appearances is an artistic choice on Kui's part, so I don't think there's any indication that the Winged Lion & co can't look human, but the Lion might have been constrained both by Thistle's seals on it and the need to maintain the lie that it's just the innocent guardian deity of the Golden Country. If it could, I think it would try to look less monstrous, with Kabru.

Still, the point of the demons, I see, is that anyone can be tempted, anyone can be manipulated, because we are all full of buried desires that can be unearthed, and wanting things and having to defend them make you susceptible to manipulation.

Consider what Mithrun told Kabru: they keep the knowledge of demons secret because knowing the truth would not stop people from trying to have their wishes granted. After all, Mithrun was a Canary, but he fell for its temptation anyway. I've seen people characterize this as a sort of rock bottom decision, and maybe that's true, but I also pin it on his toxic inferiority/superiority complex. That's exactly the kind of thing that makes you think you're built different.

Would Marcille have stopped before unsealing the Winged Lion if Mithrun(/Kabru) had actually gotten to sit down with her for five minutes and explain why becoming dungeon lord would be a very bad idea? Maybe. Or maybe her desperation, and her own pride, would have made her decide that she knew better, that she'd be careful, that she'd go in with a plan and definitely get what she wanted with no dire consequences.

I think Kabru could be desperate enough to make a similar decision, even if his desires were antithetical to the demon. And the demons have an advantage over the aforementioned genie simile: their ability to eat desires.

If the Winged Lion were smart, it wouldn't let Kabru seal it away like Thistle. Given the opportunity, its best chance for dealing with Kabru would have been to immediately eat his desire to stop another Utaya.

I'm gonna plug this wonderful and tragic little one-shot someone wrote recently about the dungeon lord Kabru hypothetical: This place is not a place of honor.