Character Discussion - Blog Posts

I was listening to "No One Mourns The Wicked". I thought of something. Malleus would be a good fit for Elphaba character wise in a fandom fusion for obvious reasons. But someone else who fits the "No One Mourns The Wicked" song specifically is Kalim.

I genuinely believe that Kalim is an unreliable narrator and his family is rotten to the core. There are various instances in the main story, the events and vignettes where Kalim is shown to either flat out deny or overlook the more troubling aspects of his family. The references to poison attempts, frequent kidnappings, use of child labour, highly questionable treatment of their employees (like the Vipers), rampant animal abuse (since Kalim said during the Playful Land event that they keep animals like elephants, orcas and dolphins caged up or in small tanks on property, which is well documented to harm them both psychically and psychologically), his father bribing Crowley to allow his son to attend NRC and the strongly implied presence of a harem in the JP version are massive red flags that something far darker is at play behind Kalim’s idealized image of his family.

The fact that Kalim’s father is involved in politics makes him even more suspect. It's completely possible that he's manipulating the Sultan to make his family richer like Jafar in the movie. Or, worse yet, like Muskrat is right now.

Due to these factors, I think the average person from the country views the Asims like how people view evil American politicians. They see them as evil and the source of trouble and discord in their lives, being out of touch due to their wealth and power. I imagine that there could be a large subsect of people who would CELEBRATE if one of them died, including Kalim himself.

Deep down, I think that's something Kalim actually fears. That hardly anyone would care if one of those poison attempts did him in and would be glad that he died. It would explain why he's so generous. He's doing that because he's trying to win other's favour in order to prevent that from happening.

I was following up until the last sentence.

Kalim doesn't help people to curry favor. He helps people because he wants to be the kind of person he wishes everyone was. He's even said that he doesn't care if people are taking advantage of his kindness, it's the idea of making people happy that he values. So while the rest of this read is spot on, I do have to set the record straight here.

Corrupt family? Yep. Fear for his life? Debatable. Desire to help people and willingness to give everything to everyone on a whim? Geniune.

He's sheltered and privileged and naive so his goodness can come across in bad faith sometimes, but Kalim has no ulterior motives for being a good person and I will die on that hill.

Thank you for your take.

What would Whitley’s semblance be? There is the family glyphs which could lead to a training scene with Winter and/or Willow. The glyphs are valid, it’s just that it would also be cool for it to be something else you know?

There are the Elsa like powers I’ve described poorly in a past blog a long time ago, but what if it’s something a bit more miscellaneous?

Like being able to see, literally or figuratively, through smoke and mirrors. Imagine if he could perceive things clearly despite there being a sandstorm or heavy fog. It could even work against Semblances that work to undermine the perception of reality.

In the same vein, what if he could tell if people were telling the truth, but unlike Robin there was no way to demonstrate it to other people. Though that does seem kinda “weak” narratively in a way I can’t describe. The same way Ironwood’s Semblance is. Almost like a cop-out

Perhaps something similar though? A semblance where he can know how much something is worth to some, whether it be by itself or in comparison to something else would be neat. It would also be neat if he could appraise how much something is worth. I can just see him look at a patch of sand or dirt and say “There Dust/Gold/Platinum/Iron/Copper/whatever in them hills”

To be clear, I don’t want him to have the x-ray vision of Superman. I want him to know this kinda of intrinsically, and he has to prove it. I want to become trusted, for him to eventually be able to go, “it came to me a dream” and for people to go along with it.

Perhaps, “seeing” wouldn’t be the best description of this semblance, but rather a Gut Feeling(tm) premium for commercial enterprise. It would certainly fit somewhat thematically because he is a son of an oligarch/capitalist. (I say somewhat because it’s been ages since I’ve watched RWBY, and I’m not that confident in my assertions of character traits and such)