lightningcritter

[lightningcritter]

kit, jentry and the art of misunderstanding

this is basically just a really long post going over kit and jentry's interactions in eps 8 and 9 bc i've seen some people feel like their characterization took a sharp turn ("they made kit act like an incel", "they made jentry reject him just because he's a demon", etc), when i thought both their actions were perfectly understandable and a pretty natural evolution of their not-relationship. i think the key thing to remember when watching these scenes is that both characters have very different assumptions about the current status of their relationship, partly because they were never able to sit down and define it in the first place.

kit thinks he and jentry are functionally together, that any hesitation on jentry's part is the result of some fixable fault of his own, while jentry thinks they were never a thing to begin with, and especially not now after kit betrayed her trust.

so this is where the trouble really begins, tho i think even earlier in this conversation is when they started to be on different pages. up until this point, kit had been hoping she'd forgive him, and was taken aback when she said she wasn't looking for apologies. then she started reiterating her belief in his soul and relating to the feeling of being trapped with a life defined by someone else

jentry pov: even though i'm feeling deeply betrayed, kit doesn't deserve to be under anyone's thumb. we'll help each other out and then we'll part ways amicably. that'll make things right.

kit pov: hold up. 'make things right'? as in... make up? as in... a relationship is still on the table? :D

jentry pov: after the powers are gone there'll be nothing tying kit to me, and nothing tying either of us to mr cheng. he'll be free to move on and choose whatever new life he wants.

kit pov: she said 'you and me' like we're a pair! so she still wants to be with me after all :D we're reconnecting!!

so this is when kit starts getting possessive. there's definitely good old fashioned jealousy at play, but i also think kit was genuinely under the impression that he and jentry were reconnecting, and that jentry should have no reason to be interested in michael at this point.

back at school he's genuinely confused, because he has no idea jentry isn't into him anymore. he helped her get rid of the powers and made up with her, so now they should be back in business. he did the mum thing that's apparently a romantic gesture jentry likes, so shouldn't she be happy about it? look how thoughtful he's being!

jentry pov: ohhh shoot, he doesn't get that i don't wanna be with him anymore. i can't deal with any more stressful demon stuff......... how do i put this nicely...

kit pov: yep haha ^_^ no more powers, yay! it's like what you said back at my house! now that you don't have the powers nothing is getting in the way of our relationship anymore, like mr cheng and gugu's game. peace and love on planet earth <3

jentry pov: i need to let this dude down as GENTLY AS PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE. i want to word this in a way that SCREAMS "you're an okay dude, just not what I personally want out of a relationship right now" because I know he has issues with his sense of identity. so i will focus on how the relationship itself can't be normal. this will hopefully take the brunt of rejection off him as an individual and lay the blame at the feet of unfortunate circumstances

kit pov: ohhhh so she WANTS to be in a relationship with me but i'm not acting normal enough

jentry pov: ok thank god. he gets that i don't want us to be together AND he took it gracefully.

kit pov: so she's saying we can be together... once i start acting more normal? that's slightly upsetting. but totally doable :)

jentry pov: i will now pursue michael since i've cleared things up with kit ^_^ yaaayyy

kit pov: what the hell??? i'm trying to be normal for her???? like she ASKED me to?? but now she's flirting with michael out of nowhere???

jentry pov: THIS CREEPY ASS DUDE KEEPS STALKING ME AFTER I TOLD HIM IM NOT INTERESTED

kit pov: i am doing Normal Displays of Normal Human Affection like she literally asked me to >:( ok well not literally but she INSINUATED

from his pov, she's not even giving him a chance to "correct" his behavior before she runs off with someone else, toying with his emotions. he's trying to "out-normal" michael to win her back, but it's frustrating and terrifying bc if there's one thing he Can Not handle it's rejection

jentry pov: this guy obviously can't take a gentle let-down, so I need to be more blunt about this. he stalked me, lied to me, tried to kill me. how can he NOT see why i don't want to be around him anymore? what the heck is his problem?? how much meaner do i need to be about this before he finally leaves me alone???

kit pov: ok, so the mask is coming off now. she said i was more human than i thought, that a soul is made up of the decisions you make, who you choose to be. but i didn't choose to be centuries old, i didn't choose to drain qi, those are all intrinsic parts of my demonic existence. was all that talk a lie? do i not have a soul after all? am i not human enough for her? was she just trying to spare my feelings this whole time?

jentry pov: he's so creepy and possessive, i hate this, why can't he just take no for an answer!!? (<- objectively true btw)

kit pov: she's avoiding the question, so she means 'yes' and is too proud to say it. she doesn't like me because i'm a demon, and if i was a normal human, we'd be together right now

so of course he gets so upset he punches the lockers. it's not extreme or out of character, he thinks everything jentry told him about his humanity was a lie. that there IS something inherently wrong with him that nothing but the acquisition of a soul could fix. that he's back to square one, that mr cheng was right, that no one could possibly love him in his natural state. that he is, inherently, down to his core, a monster.

but at least this time, he doesn't have to kill jentry to get what she he wants (because it was never really about her. he never prioritized her happiness. everything he did to change 'for' her was always about desperately maintaining the sense of human connection he craved)

[lightningcritter]

Kit eating cake!

One year can make a big difference.

I just think a Kit-iversary party would be a good time and also that Kit should get everything he wants forever.

They eventually got him into the hat.

[lightningcritter]

one thing i find very chewy about kit is that we have to reconcile all of these things we learn about him throughout the series.

-deeply insecure

-wants to be human (why is never explained but i prefer to see it as a parallel to jentry's fixation on normality. everyone else is normal, normal means you aren't a threat like that, normal means having friends, normal means being out of danger, normal means your comfort zone)

-technically a serial killer (does it for the qi)

-doesn't have to eat qi from humans? kit sucks it out of a bunch of rats and describes it as eating. is it just unsustainable long-term? why doesn't he just....not kill people and eat animals, like humans do? does he not care? hello? hello?

-deeply regrets killing people for qi, but nonetheless kept killing people for qi. technically this could just be bad writing but i prefer to interpret it as some kind of weird cycle kit doesn't manage to break out of until jentry. he meets a new person and grows increasingly attached and obsessed until he takes the shot and reveals himself to be a demon and then he gets rejected and then kills them, either out of anger, self-defense, or for the simple fact that he needs to eat. then he wallows in self-pity and hatred for however long until he gets hungry again and finds a new person! infinite misery!

[lightningcritter]

JENTRY CHAU VS. THE UNDERWORLD 1x03 "Girl with a Pearl" 1x07 "Into the Zhong"

[lightningcritter]

UNITED IN GRIEF: JENTRY CHAU VS THE UNDERWORLD

Hi! for the past 2 years I had the privilege of working on a show called Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld, as an animatic editor and assistant picture editor (and in a couple instances, as a voice actor!!). I am absolutely in love with this crew and this project. All of season 1 (13 episodes) is available to stream now on Netflix. please check it out and let Netflix if you think they should produce a season 2!!

also--hi!! I know it's been years since I've posted anything like this--over the last several years I've transitioned into working in the animation industry on projects like Jentry, as well as pursuing voice acting, so my social media stuff fell by the wayside. I know it's not what you followed me for, but I hope some of you still enjoy seeing this!! if you want to keep up with what I'm up to, I'm @ mkatwood on all social media! links: https://linktr.ee/mkatwood

[lightningcritter]

guys they talked it out and they're still friends and everything is fine 😁😁

[lightningcritter]

kit passed as human for the first time in 1895

^ this poster from 1895 shows up in the background of kit's encounter with the young chinese boy

which would make him at least 129 yrs old, not several centuries like jentry assumed after reading the painted skin entry from gugu's bestiary, which itself presents pretty outdated info anyways. at the time she takes it in at face value because she's not in a good headspace

i think it's safe to assume that based on his personality and how immature he is that kit is very young for his species and pretty much a teenager mentally, or at least "coded" that way. the show purposefully made parallels between kit and michael's home lives (parents/guardians included) for this very reason

on top of that, as a demon i don't think he has a structure of development for mental age like humans do. he is an ageless being who cant be himself because hes supposed to be able to become anyone. all he can do is mimic an adult but he will never know what it truly means to be one unless he gets to live a full life, make mistakes and learn from them, gather life experiences, grow up -- something he never really got to do. he's been survival mode since day one

[lightningcritter]

idk what to caption this bye

i like the melting flesh tendrils

process under the cut because it's actually kind of coherent and i like it

pencil sketch on math homework that got me a detention in english class (incoherent)

straight up tracing into ibis paint because im lazy

flat colors + radiation sickness lighting

getting my ass kicked at coloring

hastily half-assing a background

[lightningcritter]

young gugu & zhongkui circa 1982

[lightningcritter]

continuation of my revived!xiao lan au but with her at 16 now. i think she'd gravitate towards the goth scene

also some extra doodles referencing atom eve because her expressions reminded me of xiao lan a lot

[lightningcritter]

People who criticize Jentry for rejecting Kit would die in a glue trap then blame everyone smart enough to not step on it for their fate

[lightningcritter]

Do demons cry?

(P.s. sorry for the poor photo quality, you have to be in a super bright room in order to get any good quality on my phone 😭😭)

✨✨✨✨✨

[lightningcritter]

been in phase lately where i refuse to draw characters in outfits they actually wear in canon.

more jentry as i try to find a way to consistently draw her.

[lightningcritter]

jentry chau vs the underworld has an insane case of show don't tell in its storytelling and i loooove analyzing it like its my job

so we're never really explicitly told mr cheng's exact age other than gugu alluding to a vague amount of centuries in episode 2

but the snake lady he goes to for help in the flashback, bai suzhen, is a famous folktale from the tang dynasty which is a VERY long time ago, 7th-10th century iirc. that's INSANE

he's been trying to revive xiao lan for 1000+ years. when he said there is no other way, he was serious. he would know

[lightningcritter]

They’re busy!

[lightningcritter]

[lightningcritter]

kit // almost human

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