Legacy is one of the major themes of KinnPorsche, and the show is brimming with examples. Physical legacies like the rings and the house, and so many psychological ones. Legacies of hate and love, of regret and trauma, of abuse, of honesty and deceit.
We never get to meet papa T(though we get a pretty clear picture of what he was like), so that leaves Korn as the primary arbiter of legacy in the show. In one way or another, he directs almost all of it. And hey, it’s an outsider that wears a tattoo that says ‘there’s no legacy as rich as honesty’ because that sure as hell isn’t a Theerapanyakul motto. There are two specific legacies that I want to mention though.
“Tragically, your worst enemies will always come from your own household.”
I’ve gushed before over the three sets of brothers and how they’ve defied the legacy of sibling hatred and harm that came before them when it would have been easy to do the opposite. I will always stan sibling love and I adore all three sets of relationships. But the rewatch made me actually delve more into that legacy.
The first time I watched, I just assumed that Korn and Gun had always been in competition, always hated each other, and that was the legacy that got passed on to their sons, but I don’t think that’s true at all. I think at one time, Gun looked up to and admired his big brother. I think it was them and Nampheung against papa T... or at least Gun thought it was. Until the events at the Kittisiwasds house.
When everything goes down, Gun isn’t angry, he’s in disbelief, he’s devastated by Korn’s actions, something that I don’t think would be true with the relationship we see between them now. Now, he knows his brother is a cold-hearted bastard. Tellingly, when he finds out Nampheung is alive, he is shocked back to the Gun he was then, not the cold, angry man he is most of the series.
Korn crafted a new legacy that day, one of broken siblings, competition, distrust, and hatred between the main family and the minor one. And I think he did it deliberately to cover his ass. Who would ever believe a word that came out of the Gun we see against benevolent dictator Korn? Everything Gun said would look like jealousy. As long as Korn kept poking at Gun and the minor family with a stick, he never had to worry about any of them developing a relationship with his sons.
He never had to worry about Gun stumbling onto any information he shouldn’t about Nampheung, Porsche, and Chay. He never had to worry about any of his secrets coming out. Even Kinn didn’t really understand why his uncle hated his family... he thought it was a matter of money and power envy. And Korn wasn’t wrong. It barely took anything for Porsche and Vegas to stumble onto part of the truth, just a little communication.
The kind of communication that Korn spent years sowing distrust to prevent. (Porsche is sorry, not sorry to keep fucking up your shit, Korn.)
That means if you were to encounter the pressures these king snakes exert, your heart would fail to pump blood—that's how strong this is,"
Korn is a king snake. He holds on tight to everything he loves, and everything he hates with the same fervor, constricting until they can’t breathe, until their hearts can’t beat. His sons have learned this lesson well, flailing in his coils their whole lives. Khun is trapped in the house, with lots of toys and some playmates to keep him occupied. Kinn is trapped under the weight of family love and responsibility, and Kim is trapped on a barely visible leash, No matter how much freedom it seems he has, it’s still an illusion. It’s no surprise that they do their best to reject that legacy from Korn. They actively strive to be different from their father in the way that they handle relationships.
Khun
Kinn,
And Kim all let go.
We know it’s not easy. They all try to be stoic about it, Khun playing it off like he's not hurt, not missing his baby brother and leaving first, Kinn and his stiff upper lip, waiting until Porsche is gone before kicking at the handcuffs, the symbol of them tied together and Kim who tries to stifle all emotion, holding it in until he can’t any longer. We see the heartbreak and regret but they still let go. They will wish and want and ask, but they won’t be their father, won’t tie someone in ways they can’t escape, won’t hold them with lies and manipulation, won’t smother the thing they love until there’s barely any life left.
There’s a line that Korn uses from the utterly fantastic, amazing fic Wings of a Butterfly https://archiveofourown.org/works/39799374
.... “you can’t sharpen a blade with silk” and I think about it often okay, because the great irony of Korn’s legacy is that in some ways, Kinn modeled himself after the man Korn pretends to be, not the man he actually is. Yes, he’s more impulsive and irreverent — gifts from his mother as he’s told us, but the kindness, the gentleness, the guy that cares about his people, like Pete said, that’s all from the mask Korn wears.
Korn spent a lot of years moving pieces on the chessboard, only for everybody else to wind up playing another game entirely. His sons won’t be like him, and his nephews won’t be like the man helped create (Porsche, Porchay, and Pete are sorry, not sorry to fuck up your shit, Korn). He may get to write history, but he won’t get to write the future.
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