#i don't tend to write out 'ai' honorifics in my fics but i DO write out 'khun' and 'phi'.

[kinnbig]

fighting for my life trying to navigate honorific use in kinnporsche bodyguard fics because so much of what is canon/word of god feels so weird djdjhdfj

the bodyguards are minor enough characters that for some of them you never specifically see what honorifics they use for one another on-screen. all of the (non-Chan) bodyguards we do see in canon use 'ai' for one another, so you'd expect that this would just be the case for all of them - BUT in their character story interview, Nodt says that he and Perth referred to each other as "ai'Ken" and "P'Big" while on set, and multiple BTS clips and interviews confirm that Perth/Ken does always seems to use 'Phi' for Big.

so... all of the bodyguards use 'ai' for one another, except for Ken, who is inexplicably polite to Big and Big alone.

afaik the only time we see a bodyguard need to use an honorific for Chan is in episode 6, where Arm refers to him as "P'Chan".

and sure! this makes sense. he's more polite to the senior bodyguard than he is to the others, but not as polite as he is to Kinn ("Khun Kinn") or Tankhun ("Khun-nu Tankhun"). but then in the behind the scenes video for this episode, Perth, while speaking as Ken, says "I'm here with P'Big, Arm, and Khun Chan". 'Phi' for Big, no honorific for Arm, 'Khun' for Chan.

so. aaaaa. what is the truth?! Perth. Perth bestie. you specifically are the problem here. EXPLAIN YOURSELF. please.

EITHER this is Perth (not Ken) overcorrecting and being more polite than he needs to be (which is not uncommon for people speaking second languages), and if Ken had spoken about Big or Chan in the show he'd have used 'ai' for Big and Arm and 'Phi' for Chan.

OR this is just. idk. canon. Ken is polite to Big exclusively, and then different bodyguards just are different levels of polite/formal towards Chan.

maybe this actually makes some sense? Chan canonically uses different honorifics for different bodyguards - some of them he refers to with 'ai' ("ai'Pete" in episode 6, when talking to Korn), and some of them he uses no honorifics for (just "Porsche" and "Big" in the first couple of episodes).

but also, it's weird. it feels wrong. using "P'Big" in a fic would feel jarring. but also I like it. it's cute. but what is the TRUTH.