Sorry but Kabru is so fascinating to me as a character, in a pure mechanical sense, because of what Ryoko Kui does with him. Everything about him is a red herring. He's deliberately introduced as some kind of rival for Laios, a party leader who is hopeless against monsters but absolutely brilliant with people both in and out of combat, and who has good reason to oppose him.
By the end of chapter 31, you might even think Kabru's going to end up as some sort of anti-villain, an antagonist with the best of intentions who nevertheless tries to foil our hero's plans. He wants to defeat the Mad Mage himself, he suspects Laios of being too irresponsible to be trusted with control of the dungeon, and his crew even thinks that Laios's party stole from them (and they're kind of right!). All signs point towards an inevitable showdown.
And then ... none of that happens.
Confrontation over the stolen treasure? Kabru is literally too smart to fall for the classic miscommunication trope and correctly decides it's not worth making a big deal of.
Kabru's deadly PVP skills? Aside from trying to take down Falin, he never fights another human again.
Wanting to be the one who defeats the dungeon? Turns out he was only doing that because he didn't think any other adventurer would have people's best interests at heart, and he's more than willing to play a support role in the whole affair.
Thinking Laios is up to no good? He really did just want to get to know the guy more. He has his misgivings, but ultimately ends up trusting Laios with his life.
Is Kabru going to get some sort of comeuppance for hating monsters and not appreciating their ecosystem? Well no, he has good reasons for hating monsters. He ends up wanting to learn about them through Laios's eyes, but he's never forced into any "Wow, guess I was wrong about them!" revelation.
Hell, even his implied ladykiller ways, which might lead you to think he'll end up being the stock "chivalrous lech" type of character, don't really manifest. He has a lot of opportunities to act flirtatiously around women, but doesn't. He's just a guy whose natural charisma makes him into human catnip.
And that's all hysterical to me, to pull it off. It's a fascinating way to tell a story. To introduce a character explicitly as a rival, potentially even a villain, and instead make them a deuteragonist. It's like a magician making a coin disappear, then slowing down their trick to show you the misdirection. "Did you see what I did there?" they ask with a wink. "The coin was in my other hand the entire time."
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“Would you like to see a card trick?”
I looked over to where the voice came from, confused on how something so softly spoken was heard so clearly in the loud casino.
He was tall, dressed in the uniform of the other workers at each table, holding a deck of cards.
I put down my glass.
“Sure. I need a little magic in my life.” I said, jokingly.
“Well…”
He leant towards me, hand on the table behind me and I felt myself shiver at the sudden closeness. His fingers expertly glided as he shuffled the cards in front of me with one hand.
“Most people think card tricks are magic, but it’s pretty simple really.” His fingers twisted as he pulled cards out of the deck and placed them back in. It was impressive, really, that he was doing it all one-handed.
I wonder what else those fingers could do.
I shook that thought from my head.
“You see,” my eyes met his, “all you have to do is keep your eyes on the cards.”
He offered for me to pick one. I pulled it out of the deck. He made a big scene of covering his eyes so he couldn’t see what card I’d picked.
Jack of Hearts.
I slid it back into his deck, and he uncovered his eyes and began shuffling again.
“See if you can figure out how the trick works.” He said smugly.
“I thought magicians weren’t supposed to reveal their secrets.” I chuckled, watching the cards move up and down.
Front to back.
“You don’t really believe in magic. Do you?” He asked, watching me as I watched his hand.
His skilled fingers still working the cards, fanning them out occasionally before drawing them right back in to a neat deck.
“I’d like to believe in magic. But I’ve been told I’m too logical for that.”
“Ah, well. I could tell that just by looking at you. You’re here in Vegas, but your mind is a million miles away!”
I laughed, guilty as charged.
“Clear your mind. That always helps me think.” He offered.
In and out the cards fanned.
“See, the trick is that I’ve kept your eye on the cards.”
Up and down as he shuffled them.
“Most magicians want to divert your attention. They don’t want you focusing on something that could reveal how it’s is done.”
Back to front and front to back.
“So, someone as logical as yourself should realise that if I’m telling you to focus on the cards…”
Fingers curling around the cards as they shuffled round and round.
“…I’m hiding the real trick from you elsewhere.”
The words sank in, but I couldn’t look away. The pattern on the back of the cards almost seemed to dance as he shuffled them.
“But you don’t care about that anymore, do you?” I could hear the smirk in his voice.
For a second I realised my shoulders were slumping. My neck craning forward to look closer at the cards.
“You don’t care that I’ve been sending you round and round. In fact, I think you’re finding it rather enjoyable, aren’t you?”
My eyes felt heavy. A pleasant fog was settling over my mind. It felt like I was sinking into the floor.
“You’re happy to just a it. And to listen. And to watch.”
I caught glimpses of the cards. 9… 8… 7… twisting, turning, constantly flitting from one finger to another.
“So what was the real magic? Come on… I’m sure if you focus you’ll figure it out. Just focus on my voice.”
His face was so close to mine, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away to look at him.
Finally, his dizzying hands stopped. My eyes slowly moved up to meet his. He tenderly pulled out a card from the deck. The Jack of Hearts.
“Is this your card?”
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one of the things i genuinely didn't like about trucy was that she was always 100% a magician, even after all that trauma, and like. the more i think about her the more i am Not Sure it makes sense. like yes phoenix supports her obviously and yes she's got the rights to the gramarye stuff and whatnot but. i just can't see it! what has magic ever been for her except a source of Trauma!
however. you know what i do think makes sense for trucy and i would like your input on?
prosecutor trucy. she learned a lil too much from miles and franziska and now the autopsy report has its own disappearing act.
what do you think? :O
huh that's interesting! I suppose that makes sense, it's never really been something I've had an issue with! I think I've always seen it as like yeah it's something that's caused her so much grief in her life but she's still so passionate about it that it doesn't let that stand in the way of her enjoying the thing she loves
I think if it really was upsetting her and burdening her constantly with the trauma she's faced, she would have dropped the magician thing a few years into her living with Phoenix. At first I think she would have kept it up to assure Phoenix that she was fine, but slowly taper off as she grew up and blame it on 'oh yeah that was just a phase, now I'm going to immerse myself in (x)' to distance herself from the magic
I think there's a lot of narratives out there of kids who don't want to follow their family's legacy (AA being one of them with the Feys, which is great and I really love the hot mess that family is, but that's another essay of thoughts) so it kinda makes me happy to see this kid who has this legacy family and even though it's kinda fucked her over more than anything she still manages to find happiness and joy in it instead of feeling like it's always a negative reminder of everything she's lost
and the fact that Phoenix encourages her (even though he's had a peek at how fucked up this family is) to keep doing what she loves and stay connected with her biological family legacy is really cool! I also don't think there's many narratives about adopted kids where their adopted family is like 'hell yeah let me support you to keep your biological family's legacy alive' I think--especially when bio family has left you with trauma--there's always an emphasis on 'you don't have to stick with that name that family that legacy and you're just part of this family now and that's what matters' so there's a cool balance there!
idk I just think she's a fun parallel to Maya who is very burdened by the tragic legacy of her family and keeps up happy appearances to reassure those around her and then Trucy who ALSO does that but but is...empowered by her family's legacy even tho it was traumatic?
and not to say that the way Trucy handles it is Correct™ and the way Maya does is Incorrect™ but the dichotomy is wonderful and I love these girls very much
there's also something to be said about Pearl and her part in the Fey family legacy and all the trauma she's endured and I think it'd be interesting for her to have both Maya and Trucy to look to on how they each handle that burden
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