#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

[shoplifting]

"this character can be a little evil. as a treat." and it's just them healthily displaying neurodivergence

[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!??!?!?

[kinsey3furry300]

Okay so hear me out...

Both the Touden siblings are autistic. That's not too controversial a take. Senshi is also autistic, also not too hot a take. Kabru is autistic and very good at masking in social situations, and Izutsumi may have some issues (difficulties with interpersonal relationships, distorted sence of self, intense emotional responses, eating disorders, risky behaviours) or she could just be a cat and a teenager. My interest here is Marcille... I think Marcille might have ADHD, and it's not just her fussy eating and persistent absent mindedness, it's that combined with her balance.

Tests on wii balance boards, of all things, showed that people with ADHD have consistently worse balance than a control group, and that children with ADHD have significantly more mild accidents due to poor coordination. You even see this in some adults with the "ADHD walk" where they instinctively sway or lean around objects in an exaggerated way as they have internalised a fear of hitting them as they walk... and tallman Chilchuck complains during the Changling arch that Marcille is still clumsy as a half-foot, to a degree that suprises Chilchuck. Add that to some difficulty making decisions despite being very academicly gifted and her occasional executive function failures, and I think ADHD isn't an unreasonable leap.

Interestingly Chilchuck's anxiety was cured when he became a tall man, suggesting that this is an inherent trait of half-foots and not a condition unique to him, so he might be neurotypical for a half-foot, and half foots might just be naturally more risk adverce and neurotic than the other races. He's litteraly the token neurotypical friend in the group, which might explain his long-suffering attitude towards the others.

Or I'm so desperate for good ADHD representation that I'm projecting.

Edit: Following education I have removed references to BPS as it's not my area of experience and Izutsumi does not match the diagnosis criteria.

[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 👍)

[helendamnationx]

God though OK OK please please please please stop saying Laois is more interested in eating monsters than saving his sister. That is not true. The point is that having a special interest is not incompatible with caring. Continuing to eat and rest and live is not incompatible with caring. Realising that Kabru is right about Falin's life not being more important than other people's lives is not incompatible with caring.

Also, Laois masks heavily, specifically in terms of expressing or allowing himself to feel negative emotions. He keeps smiling, and he keeps taking care of others.

Laois does not always express his emotions in a socially expected way, or feel exactly what a neurotypical in his place would probably feel. That is not the same thing as not caring. He cares so so much.

[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

[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.

[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.