#i didn't rly expect this to blow up but eyo why not

[infernumequinomin]

SEE YOU GET IT YOU SEE IT

I do think Kabru is proud of his ability to manipulate people, though! Not in any sort of especially hubristic sort of Pride as the source of a fall type way, but in the way any person can be proud of a skill they have deeply and lovingly cultivated over the majority of their life. Kabru's being able to read and see humans and humanity for what it is, and twist that as a means of controlling his environment is absolutely a self defense mechanism, but I actually think Laois' love of monsters is too.

Laois' growing initial interest in monsters, the way he wished and hoped that monsters would show up and destroy the people in the village he was from, a sort of escapist fantasy of his, kind of shows in a lot of ways the way Laois uses his fixation as a defense mechanism to pull himself farther away from that which hurt him. He has GENUINE enthusiasm, absolutely, to say he didn't would be a disservice, but while Kabru learned people to know exactly how to push them away, Laois ran the other direction to do the same thing, I think. Monsters, how they work, the intricate balance of the ecosystem, isn't LESS complicated than people are, but it is something that provides him a measure of comfort in how simple and easy he finds it to his mind, it's self soothing. It's maladaptive daydreaming to deal with his sense of displacement within society.

Kabru learned to mask to keep himself safe, and Laois didn't. He struggled instead to find something somewhere that could fit him, that he could fit into as the person he was to begin with. And the whole series really does show that. Laois, by virtue of what he's learned and cared to know, becomes the most valuable person to the people Kabru is trying to keep close to ride along with, not because he tried to fit but because he tried to push that away. What he knows suddenly becomes more valuable, more leverage, and Laois pulls back both from Kabru and the other factions trying to take control of the situation harder than we ever see him pull away from others when his knowlege is just helping his friends. Laois is more than happy to help his friends with usi knowledge and skills! But he actively is avoiding the Canaries and the larger groups that also would have benefited from his skills. He doesn't really WANT to be useful to humanity. He wants his sister to not be dead! Because of course he does! She's the only human that has really tried to understand and love him! And also he loves her! That is his baby sister!

In a lot of ways, though, I do think it is disegenuine to Kabru's character to suggest he ONLY wants to push other humanoids away, but that is the function of a lot of his effort. I think with how passionately he talks about wanting to relieve the disparity between the longer and shorter lived races, he DOES want some measure of closeness and reciprocation between himself and other people, but largely we only see his social manuvering with ELVES. A race who he... Frankly is pretty open about not being terribly fond of because of how elves disenfranchised him. The few times we see him interact with his party, he approaches it a lot more delicately and less openly hostile, and I do think that shows rhat even if he CAN'T connect with people normally, he probably wants to.

I think that both of them want to understand each other, and people in general, but when it comes down to it, Laois missed the mark, and Kabru went for the win and ended up overshooting. Kabru put all his money on "Knowing people means I can help them" and then realized a lot of the same things that Laois did about the faults of humanity, and pulled back, but hey, lost cost fallacy, he's already this far, gotta keep pushing forward and it'll reveal itself. Somehow, the secret to saving humanity HAS to be within humanity.

Anyway, I just think they're neat!

Have we considered what it means that Laois is so good at killing monsters, the one thing he loves, and so bad at fighting humans, the thing he feels most distance from. And inverse Kabru is terrible at killing monsters, the one thing he wants to destroy, but so good at killing humans he would have killed Falin 6 different times when he tried to kill her if her anatomy had been more human, despite his love for and drive to protect humanity? Have we considered what it means to be able to kill that which you love but not that you hate? Has anyone fucking considered the imposter syndrome that has to come from only being good at killing that which you love most??? The fear of not being able to protect yourself from the thing you most think is a threat simply because you cannot find a way to understand it enough to take it's life?