#Kabru is Not neurotypical

[juiceastronaut]

This has Definitely been said before, but Kabru is what happens when you try to understand why you dont fit in with other people, and as such you latched onto Social Tips (this bitch *still* looks at people's shoes to see if they like them) and as such, developed a lifelong Special Interest in psychology and sociology while you still somehow struggle to authentically connect with people.

[laikabu]

[ambrosiagourmet]

I really really appreciate seeing people explicitly talk about Kabru’s PTSD & survivor’s guilt and name them as such it’s really nice… not that people necessarily need to use specific terms to discuss his character well but it’s genuinely nice to see it recognized that he isn’t just a Funny Hater Guy or an Overbearing Asshole & also that his fucking canonical trauma is absolutely foundational to his motives and character

[bi-hop]

actually so funny how Kabru is visibly sweating and nervous/confused by Winged Lion!Laios.

Kabru voice: he's smiling at me too much... he seems too neurotypical... who is this man

[imsosleepyofyourbull]

I firmly believe that Kabru is autistic but masks so hard that he’s convinced himself and (almost) everyone around him that he’s neurotypical.

That man’s special interest is people and how they work, but he just thinks it’s him Being So Good At Socializing — like he doesn’t spend 95% of his time people watching and adjusting his personality in response to the traits he witnesses and obsessing over the intricacies of human interaction while mapping an ever growing relationship chart in his head. For fun. He even admits it in the manga!

Like, look at him!!!

It’s such a shame that — because he’s the narrative foil to Laios and his interest is generally considered more “socially acceptable” in both their world and our own — more people don’t realize this about him. He’s constantly misinterpreted as a horribly manipulative person who only acts the way he does to use the people around him, when that’s explicitly shown to not be the case at all. Kabru is naturally empathetic and is almost always thinking about other people, regardless of whether or not they’re right there with him or a thousand miles away.

I mean, his most defining motivation is his desire to do everything he can to avoid another tragedy like the one at Utaya. Someone who doesn’t care wouldn’t have a goal like that, and they most certainly wouldn’t go about it the way he does. He’s constantly working to help people who can help everyone else and tries so hard to make sure that anyone who seems like a threat is actually someone he needs to worry about before doing anything about it. His supposed aversion to Laios is only because of the ridiculous trolley problem he’s set up in his own head.

Outside of that, he (rather justifiably) hates monsters but is desperate to understand Laios’ love for them and his apparently most selfish goal in getting close to the guy was literally just to become friends with him.

When he’s interacting with the canaries and they imply that they’re going to take him and all of his friends to the West, his first thought is of Rin and how much she’d hate to be stuck in the place that gave her so many bad memories.

He helps Kuro learn Common when Mickbell is asleep and firmly looks forward to the day that the half-foot and Kuro can communicate properly so that their relationship can get properly started without any miscommunication.

And he understands Mithrun with only a handful of weeks AT BEST interacting with him, getting enraged when the elf seems to give up and immediately trying to help him find a new motivation for life.

I’m excited just thinking about the day that Kabru starts unmasking more and more around his friends — both new and old — because if being with my current friend group has taught me anything, it’s that hanging out with anyone so unabashedly themselves is bound to make you more comfortable with yourself too. It’s part of the reason why I like Labru so much! There’s something nice about imagining them hanging out in the throne room or laying in the grass outside and talking for hours on end about their special interests. They might not strictly understand what the other finds so fascinating about monsters or people, but they can grasp that shared feeling of love.

They probably influence each other in really good ways too, with Kabru helping Laios figure out what people are thinking even when it doesn’t make sense or Laios helping Kabru understand that not everyone and everything needs to be analyzed a thousand times over. They both get to learn that there are people like them and people who will love them without them ever having to change a thing about themselves. They deserve to know that they’re fine the way they are.

[skydaemon]

kabru as a psych student who KNOWS about ethics guidelines and KNOWS he's not qualified to make diagnostic statements and therefore spends every moment with laios grinding his teeth to dust because HOW DOES THIS MAN THINK HE'S NEUROTYPICAL!??!?!?

[asexualaromanticautistic]

Kabru is autistic and his special interest is being "normal". the neurotypical speech and behavior patterns interests him greatly.

[tacopok]

People who think Kabru is a neurotypical mean girl just don’t get it like I do actually. Some people clearly have not masked so hard that analyzing people became your own special interests because you did it so often, figuring out what others wanted to hear

[mossymenagerieart]

I’m working on a script for a shitpost Labru comic based off a tumblr post and oh my god. Kabru your meth blue neurotypical gaze is too much for Laios. For the love of god please blink, sir.

Edit: based on peer review of Kabru and comments from people on this, I have come to the conclusion that I was wrong and Kabru is actually a little freak and you guys are right!! He’s out here playing five dimensional emotional and social chess out here and he wants to crawl into Laios’s mind and study him sooo bad it makes him look silly but he can’t do that so he’s just being a freak about it instead. He is a freak perhaps even more than Laios it’s just that he’s a freak in a completely different way and I love that for him.

sorry abt calling him neurotypical guys I rescind that ok (coming from a neurodivergent person: sorry chat 👍)

[average-transdalorian]

Okily dokily the hyperfixation has me in the trenches so!

Dungeon Meshi Main Character HCs!

From an anime-only who has stumbled upon so many manga spoilers that she has given up on avoiding most of the Big Important Ones

Laios: autism. We all know this. It’s subtext more than an hc. His biggest special interest is monsters, which we also already knew. Aromantic, but open to relationships anyways. Definitely has some sort of gender fuckery going on but there are monsters to be eaten so he doesn’t have time to worry about that (probably agender but he/him works as well as anything so no need to discuss it)

Marcille: autistic transbian. Decided to take a hard turn into dungeons/illegal magic as a way to maybe avoid gifted kid burnout. Doesn’t realize she’s been dating Falin for [however long they adventured together] yet but she’ll get there eventually. Strictly she/her, due to personal experiences with transphobia. Will explore other pronouns more eventually

Chilchuck: either neurotypical, or was raised by parents who knew exactly the type of thing to do when The Symptoms got to be overly detrimental a la the one mom who would have one(? Or more?) of her kids chop wood as a grounding exercise. Cis, but bi in the “parent says ‘everybody feels this way, it’s normal’ way.” Wayyyyy more invested in keeping Laios and Falin safe than he admits to himself. He/him

Senshi: surprise! Autism. “What’s gender, a type of seasoning?” Aroace, but would absolutely be down for a Mandalorian-type marriage (for reference, the only vows in a Mando’ad marriage are “we are one when together, we are one when apart, we share all, we will raise warriors”). He/him by dint of not realizing anything else was an option

Falin: even more autism! She/they, lesbian, has had a crush on Marcille since. Idk, sometime in their schooling together? Knows that they’re dating, knows that Marcille *doesn’t* know that they’re dating, is too afraid of rejection to clarify at this point. The dragon thing definitely fucked with her gender some

Kabru: There Is Something Wrong With Him and I’m kinda into it. Maybe has autism? Has never experienced a crush before Laios and really doesn’t know what to do about that. Hyper-competent warrior. Less competent monster fighter

Isutzumi: Isutzumi

[eldritch-m0th]

dunmeshi fans are wild, why do you like kabru (not mean just confused cause i see alot of love for him) man has main character syndrome to the max, not an uncommon occurrence in anime but usually overlooked because they are in fact the main character, kabru gets no such leeway to me, hes just annoying and weirdly moral and incredibly neurotypical, he thinks hes a genre aware protagonist but 1- he’s got the wrong genre and 2- hes not the protagonist

[alddente]

I don’t know what the general consensus is, but I don’t think Kabru is neurotypical. I think he’s an autistic person who’s learned social cues and how to react and respond to them, and thinks about every social interaction very clinically, and when he meets Laois, an autistic man who does NOT understand social cues, he loses his shit trying to understand him because he’s so used to reading between the lines while Laois is being pretty much completely honest and straightforward most of the time.

[distracteddaintydemon]

Dungeon Meshi chapter 41:

I haven't seen a cast so neurospicy since I watched Lower Decks.

Laios is obviously radiantly glaringly 200% autistic.

Senshi is autistic with a quite good neurotypical talk skills, who reorganized his life around his special interest. This way, he interact mostly with people who have some interest or at least tolerance towards dungeon cooking and he can bond with them over his special interest, which minimizes his need for masking.

Marcille gives off autistic young lady from a middle/high class family, who got etiquette/masking drilled in her starting when she was a toddler, and she has no idea other people aren't usually acquiring social skills this way. No one has any idea she's autistic. Everyone chalks any awkwardness to her gifted child / scholar status, including herself, because most people have zero idea anyone could train a toddler in Being Normal And Proper the way special force soldiers are trained in combat, and she has no idea other people weren't trained this way. I am not SURE sure, maybe she truly is neurotypical sheltered young lady, but I place no money on this bet.

Kabru is autistic as heck, it's just that his special interest is people interactions. Kabru wants to get the all-times record score in People and Society, something that is both normal to want and possible to achieve. And, who knows, maybe he will.

[demispark]

Dunmeshi Ep. 17. I have feelings. I don't have the patience to be funny or upbeat.

Spoilers ahead.

Too much.

This episode was too. much.

Shuro, his attendants, Kabru, his party, Chimera Falin. It's all too much. I can't deal with it all in one episode. I'm so fucking angry. I don't remember the last time I felt so angry and hateful.

Everything is too complex, it's great writing but I hate them. I hate all of them so much.

There is nothing good about Shuro. He is weak, cowardly, selfish, always acting so high-and-mighty.

So neurotypical. I hate him even more for forcing me to call that a bad thing instead of a neutral trait.

I hate their attitude. I hate it. They're not even entirely wrong but that doesn't matter when I hate it so much.

I'm struggling to even put it into words why I'm so angry. It's biased, definitely. It's naive, and clearly refusing to acknowledge the way this world works and any wrongs the Touden party may be guilty of.

I'm glad Shuro & Co. seem to be leaving, and they're never coming back. Stay gone. Die, preferably.

I wish Kabru and his band of merry bastards would piss off too. I'm so sick of him. Even when he's right he's so fucking wrong.

I had other things I wanted to say about this episode but they were washed away when my vision went red.

Black magic might be wrong, I can accept that. What I can never accept is everyone's behavior shifting because of it. Shuro's so immediately willing to sell out Marcille and his oh-so-precious Falin even though he only stands to lose by not letting Marcille use ordinary revival spells on his party and ensuring the death of the woman he supposedly loves.

Laios beat the shit out of him and Shuro admitted he was envious of Laios, and I couldn't even enjoy that resolution.

I should stop now. I could keep going but I'll just be repeating myself out of blind fury and spite. I'm gonna go cool off now.

Edit:

I didn't quite finish the episode. I have a few clearer thoughts about the ending.

I need a warm home-cooked meal from Laios, with his warm friendly smile as he passes me his latest monster cuisine.

I wanna brain Kabru with a fucking rock.

Laios is a better man than I. I'd have destroyed that fucking bell in front of Shuro.

[britcision]

Pretty sure it was Senshi or Marcille who Activated my special interest genes cuz we started watching the anime after partner read the manga

And then they sent me the link and I devoured the manga

But ho boy Mithrun existed for about 10 pages and then completely rewrote my dna like a minute into his second appearance

I am WEAK and have ADHD and you cannot give me a canon character that says “eh bet I can kill people with teleport” and expect me not to fawn over them

You can’t

It’s illegal

And unrealistic

Anyway people try to claim Laios as autistic rep and excuse the fuck out of you Kabru is also autistic as hell he just put all his points into masking

The neurotypicals have informed me that randomly massaging your friends is apparently not a normal activity so I am calling it massaging random strangers who might murder you and call you a dumbass for doing it also isn’t

The reason Laios and Kabru have such a wild relationship is two wildly different flavours of autism battling it out

[enderlordisadumbusername]

ok i saw a post that was talking about how it's lowkey racist that people never saw kabru or shurro as autistic and at the time i was like "idk i think they're just neurotypical" but upon watching the anime it's so clear that kabru is autistic about people watching and shit. still don't know about shuro like i think it just makes more sense plot wise for him to be neurotypical. maybe that'll change when i see him more, who knows.