Everyone has their own interpretation of what they read, and people like or dislike what they will, but I wanted to give Kyon a little love because for me, still waters run deep. I think he has a personality, even if he is not a kick ass in your face fighter. For those who dislike him, that's cool, but here are reasons I think he's interesting.
First, he is the one who pursued Lucaon--no one else had the guts to push it. Even after Lucaon pushed Kyon and the other servants told Kyon to stay away, Kyon took it upon himself to take the pictures instead of throwing them out, and he tried to approach Lucaon. This is actually very assertive. Just look at his face: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w-iY4WKGyH4/WD4yihUkZYI/AAAAAAAxwHo/eFwGgXbwoS0/w1600/1.jpg. Yes, Kyon has inner struggles about approaching Lucaon again and again after being rejected--but he does it anyway, and it does not come off as creepy or aggressive. That takes some spirit and some finesse.
Second, Kyon approaches Sihan even though Kyon is constantly getting in trouble by trying to get closer to Lucaon. A truly spineless person would give up and just do as he is told (or quit) but Kyon is going to others o find out what's up with his former hero and heart throb. The thing is, Kyon remembers Lucaon was different, and Kyon will not just back off and take the easy road. And while Kyon is at Sihan's, he is actively observing everything and even making jokes in his head: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kt84RpIQZNE/WD4xwuDKWKI/AAAAAAAxwDQ/q3k3Qsq213w/w1600/1.jpg
Third, Kyon is resilient and an optimist. Even after he gets in trouble (again) for going to Sihan's and he has a moment where he knows Lucaon saw how he felt, he gets caught snooping and his thought is about how good Lucaon smells. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yM8wYoVQICU/WD4xj0bSRwI/AAAAAAAxwCE/pI1nkHNQZwE/w1600/1.jpg Yes, Kyon is emotional--gasping and flinching--but Lucaon can be scary and the fact the Kyon keeps going despite all those emotions says a lot about him.
Fourth, Kyon continues to pursue what he wants, no matter what others think he should do. Some criticizing him for not fighting back during the rape, or for not leaving or getting angry. But (1) this is fiction but (2) everyone reacts differently in such situations, and Kyon's choices were what Kyon wanted. Notice how Kyon locks the door behind him the next time he sees Lucaon? http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BOXSynPpCk8/WD4xSxO-TMI/AAAAAAAxwAo/M3ZGh88wyNg/w1600/1.jpg ? And he sets limits about tearing his clothes. Just because he's submissive doesn't mean he has no personality. He's actually quite brave given the circumstance.
Fifth, Kyon effectively took control of running the mansion in less than a year. Sure, all the other servants quit, but Kyon is still doing a great job. Ryan can't find a speck of dust and I think Ryan sees something in Kyon. And when "free spirit" (*cough watch that bastard*) Logan tries to sneak up on Kyon, Kyon smacks Logan in the face with a duster. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--L4gpaj0ahs/WD4wFxglzGI/AAAAAAAxv6M/7dW9_g_5JeE/w1600/1.jpg . Okay, maybe it's not everyone's humor but you have to give him credit for not being a mouse.
There is more, but this is already long. I just want to say that Kyon has a personality. It may be a quiet, less talking and more thinking and doing type personality, one that chooses a submissive role (at least submissive to Lucaon), but it is a personality. His emotional struggles and his loyalty makes him more complex and less two-dimensional. Some people may not like his personality, and that's their right. But Kyon has a personality.
awesome opinions (๑•ㅂ•)و✧
Also when there is an attack in Lucaon's company Kyon has guts to call Karis and move to help Lucaon. I mean Kyon is not even a hunter and that many zeros and corpses would be scary like hell. Kyon throwing up shows how he is not used to deal with that kind of situation but see he is strong enough to make logical decisions and keep going. Thb he is VERY brave.
Kyon's my Baby Sweetie Pie.. ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶
Yeah, people who say Kyon has no personality have obviously not read enough shoujo manga, otherwise they would know what a real no-personality character is like...
I know that Sarah's personality is a little too abrasive for some, but I love the way she tells off Angelo. She's like my personal in-story avatar threatening to kill Angelo if he starts pulling his usual crap.
Though some people think Lucaon's mom called Ryan her brother, I think it was the dad, at least one time. There is a bubble next to someone's memory of Ryan saying, "How could my brother..." then we see the mom say, "That's what's so cruel," and the Dad answers, "He's so cruel." Following the back and forth flow, it was the dad speaking in the first bubble. The father does seem farther gone when one of the parents is thinking about calling, and the pictures follow the mom more--it could be the mom there. Either there was enough of the dad inside the zero to think "I have to stop it," or t he mom was saying it as she tried to make herself kill him. Most probably the mom at that point.
But the weird thing is, Ryan clearly called himself "a friend of the family" and neither parent seemed as close to as powerful as Ryan. If Ryan is a blood relative, why wouldn't he say that instead of the friend of the great grandfather thing?
maybe he called him "Hyung" in the raws, and it translates as older brother or a respectable way to call an older brother type person
Thanks.
<joke> So does this mean that women can't stand having a perfect partner who does everything for them because women need to feel needed, but men are perfectly comfortable being the ones that are always cared for and fussed over as long as they feel they are the only one getting such attention? </joke>
Just kidding. Please don't think I'm making serious generalizations about men being spoiled. (⌒▽⌒)
There should simply be a balance. Both partners want to be spoiled, and both want to spoil the other. So why not have a bit of both ? It's not something hard to achieve, They just have to know how to depend on each other and show each other their weak side instead of both being big heads who like to play the mature role. (fyi, I've never been in a relationship so.. just saying lol)
Ideally, sure. :) but often people take on roles. There is some switching of roles now and then too (in most cases). But as someone else said, honestly, if someone were to take care of and pamper me and not need me to pamper him (or her) back, I would still try to do for him (or her), but it wouldn't bother me at all (so I broke my own generalization about women). Maybe it's not really about feeling needed so much as feeling validated--like the other person notices what you are doing for him (or her).
I get your point :D And I agree on the validation thing, we all get satisfaction not only rom helping others and seeing them happy but also from the agnowlegdment and gratitude we get in return. And when it's someone you love, you definitely want to prove to them that you're a part of their life they can't go without. I wouldn't mind being taken care of all the time too but I think that if you're only pampered you'll probably feel insecure at some point, and start thinking : 'they're always doing everything, won't they get tired of me'.. things like that ? It doesn't mean it's true though. This is what I've learned from manga. (=・ω・=)
In addition to Lucaon's mom getting Shian's eye color wrong (or human?), Lucaon's dad called Ryan his "brother" (not grand uncle or something older) and they both called Ryan cruel. I still think Ryan is more the magic mentor type, but maybe those who think Ryan is suspicious were on to something. I don't know. But the parents' conversation has a different view of Ryan than we've seen before.
They thought it was cruel of Ryan to transfom Shian when he was a child because he could have died... And that is true... But they don't know about Shian's past nor about his dream of becoming strong..
Yes, but they seemed to feel he was cruel in general (or at least more than once), not just as a one off.
I think the transforming sihan event shows that Ryan is "I do this, just because I want to"--type of character and thats the most scary thing about him. I mean what if he wants something that harms somebody like Kyon..? I hope he is not a bad guy. Im not sure who will cope with him he is like the strongest among all.
Maybe. I want to believe Ryan saw something in Shian, and I ship Ryan with Cristoph. I want to believe he puts on a carefree always laughing face while he plans for the greater good, but I don't know for sure what's going on. I don't know if you watch Doctor Who, butIi think Ryan is either a bit like The Doctor or The Master--but I hope The Doctor. Both are sort of crazy long-lived characters who sometimes forget about human frailties and emotions, but the Doctor still has compassion and likes people. I'm hoping Ryan just seems cruel because he is so long lived and he plays everything as if it's all in fun.
I don't see Ryan as being cruel so much as indifferent about a lot of things. I'm not sure why mom made a mistake with the eye color, unless she, being an aristocrat, was apathetic to Sihan, like when dad refers to him as a 'imitation'. When mom refers to Ryan turning Sihan as cruel, again I think it's that indifference to the outcome (only a small percentage survive and Ryan did it without concern) I think it was a combination of truth and a turn of phrase when she said that. Looks like Ryan is mom's brother. I agree, Ryan is definitely the mentor. I believe he's a good guy; of course I could be wrong ;)
Someone posted above that "deep blue eyes" is a Korean idiom that doesn't translate well. That explains a lot. I wonder if Ryan is literally anyone's brother or if they are using "brother" as a friend of the family. Ryan said he knew their great grand parents, so it made me think he was older. Often both Korean and Japanese stories seem to translate "brother" in cases I think Americans would use "uncle"--someone close to the family but who is not actually a blood relative. Otherwise Ryan was giving Kyon a false impression for some reason. I guess we'll see. :)
What term did Lucaon's mother use to address him. And, remember, only SHE refers to him as her brother. No one else refers to him as brother/uncle. She looks exactly like him and it's possible that she's FAR older than Lucaon's father, y'know. After all, he changes yet she doesn't?
Lucacon refers to himself as a "friend" of the family and uses the family name. Although the thoughts are present when we see the mother, I think it's actually the father's thoughts. It's possible that the father married into a stronger family and kept the mother's last name but I still think it was the father talking about his brother, and the father who wanted Ryan to come stop the change and who made the phone call (the mother was not near a phone). It seemed to me that we saw different things while reading the dad's thoughts.
I saw the thread about the 'blue eyes' thing after I posted and was "well there goes my theory" lol :D
LOL--me too, but it was good to know.
I like the story, but it should have rape and maybe a bullying tag so people who don't like those tropes can avoid it. This is an example of rape as ravishment, which involved seeing it as a type of erotic seduction instead of how it would be in real life. It allows a fantasy where one person can know what the other person really likes or wants even when the other doesn't know, and we may believe that the seme can use sex so well, it overwhelms the uke and makes him experience sexual feelings he comes to enjoy. In real life, that's BS, but this is a fantasy. It's rape and we should say so because people should be able to find what they like and avoid what they don't like, but the way this is used here as a story element is erotic and not realistic, and real life doesn't apply to this story.
"the seme can use sex so well, it overwhelms the uke and makes him experience sexual feelings he comes to enjoy." --> isn't that called mind-break?
oh...and I agree with you!
: ) A mind break is when they lose all intelligence and end up living only for sex. It's more a hentai thing (I think). What I mean is just temporary--like a lesser version.
I was thinking the same thing during the whole story. You can't deny that he was raped by his friend.
I find hope in that ending and here is why: the people who like tragedy can leave it as is, or image that it ends in death down the road, and those of us who like happy endings can imagine that after Daddy dearest kicks the bucket and Tatsumi is out of uni and can support himself and his mom, Senzaki can come after him for revenge and end up in twisted love again instead of death.
I've seen some interesting theories and speculations--any of which may be true--but I think in this story it may be okay to take some characters as sort of archetypes without waiting for a plot twist to smack us with their deceit. I think Ryan plays a role similar to a fairy godmother, good witch, or Gandalph (Dumbledore for the younger people). Ryan could ultimately be evil, but it would be like Yoda smacking Luke upside the head and taking over as a Dark Side Emperor.
Although this is a creative and unique story (which I love), I think it has certain themes and story elements that will probably hold true. I think this because I read a lot of fairy tales as a kid, and while that doesn't mean all stories have to follow a certain pattern, I think some things usually do. I think this particular story has some similar themes to The Snow Queen (where a MC saves her childhood crush after a shard of goblin mirror entered his heart and made him a huge jerk) or maybe The Wizard of Oz (where everyone wants the wizard to give them something that they actually had all along).
Ryan seems to me to be a lot like the wise women who help Gerda in The Snow Queen (The Finnish woman and the Lappish woman) or Glenda the Good in The Wizard of Oz. These types of characters are powerful, but they do not solve all the problems for the MC or anyone. They give the good guys aid, put them on the right road, set them up to meet friends, push them in the right direction, and then wait for the MC to do what needs done (or figure things out). They may be planning something or manipulating the characters, but they are doing it so the characters can ultimately win (though winning is often about doing whatever it is the wise and magical mentor wanted to happen). It's a sort of benign manipulation like those annoying teachers who won't just tell you the answer because they think you learn more when you figure it out for yourself.
Of course, this means Sihan and Karis are the friends the MC meets along the way. That makes them like the royal couple Gerda met while searching for Kay or the scarecrow and tin man that Dorothy found on her path (sort of not exactly--Sihan kind of acts like he cares more about fooling around than work and Karis sometimes acts like a hard ass). Maybe they are more like Ron and Hermione (for those who don't read the older stories). Anyway, companions often have weaknesses that may temporarily make them do wacky things, but they ultimately support the MC. I put them in the "trust but watch them in case they get a goofy idea" category.
At this point, I am not sure whether Logan is like the Robber Girl, who will start out trying to keep Gerda for her own but then become a true friend and take the path of redemption, or like a flying monkey. Right now, I find him very suspicious and I think of him as a flying monkey--but I could be wrong.
This chapter fed my Ryan and Christoph pairing as well as ending with a little Lucaon and Kyon. I'm a happy shipper today.