UnknownFate25's [EXTRAS]

[MOB] An Analysis Of Ken Kage

This is the author's analysis of the character development of Ken Kage. This will go into depth on Ken's decisions and mindset so you may better understand the character. I would not recommend reading this until you have finished Volume 1, as this will cover his whole character development from chapter 1 to chapter 124. This will have SPOILERS. You have been warned...

Let's start from the beginning, and I don't mean the beginning of the book. Ken doesn't have a good life when he's still Kyle in his original world. His parents are abusive, and he takes the blunt of it to protect the one person who does care for him; his sister.

This makes it so there is only one person that he truly cares for. He doesn't care about his parents, and he doesn't care about schoolmates.

Eventually his parents leave, and that allows Ken to open up a little more. He gains friends at his school, becomes popular, and all around more "warm".

He's still the closest to his sister however, which is why he doesn't care to work a lot for her. He wants to give her the chance that he never had, so he works to give her a good life.

At school he ends up getting a girlfriend, Kiera. She also ends up being the source of a lot of his troubles. He finally starts to really open up to someone other than his sister. He falls in love.

And ultimately, this is the source of his trauma. Because Kiera betrays him. She has a bunch of delinquents beat him up and he goes from the most popular kid in school to the punching bag.

It's now a repeat of before. Being abused and taking the blunt of it because of someone else. Originally it was for his sister and he did it willingly. Now it was for his ex and he didn't do it willingly.

This is what creates his trauma. When he would protect his sister, he placed himself into the "spotlight". He brought his parent's attention (and wrath) onto himself.

When Kiera betrays him, she tells him she did it because he was popular. Because he had, in other words, placed himself into the "spotlight". And after the betrayal, he's now in a different kind of "spotlight". The "spotlight" for bullies to abuse him.

This is the origin of his trauma, and why in the beginning of the story he hates and avoids this "spotlight" so much.

And this takes us out of Ken (Kyle's) past, a past full of abuse, betrayal, and trauma. It's no wonder that Ken has a strange view on the world in the beginning of MOB. He was broken down, before he built himself back up.

Another point to add is that Ken feels that he has betrayed his sister, having abandoned her like how his parents abandoned him, even if he didn't do it on purpose. This just adds to the mess his mindset is at the beginning of MOB.

His past makes himself into a "Tsundere" kind of character. A "Tsundere" is a tough character on the outside who becomes soft once you get to know them. Just like Ken. However, with his trauma it's harder to get through this shell.

A Tsundere is mostly well known for "I say the opposite of what I mean". While not every Tsundere is like this, many are. With this definition, you could call a Tsundere a kind of "contradiction".

A contradiction is, by google's definition; a combination of statements, ideas, or features of a situation that are opposed to one another. In simple terms; two things which go against each other.

For a Tsundere, this is the outside verses the inside. They say the opposite of what they mean. A "contradiction".

Ken is a "contradiction" in many ways. He's a Tsundere, an emotional kind of contradiction spawned by his traumatic past. He's also a contradiction in the sense of when he is transmigrated into Ken.