Various Things Essay
This is the essay of VARIOUS SUBJECTS all connected by the single thought I WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT
Partnering and Celty
So after writing an essay on how it wouldn't be easy for Kida to resonate with most people, he resonated with Celty pretty easily and found a partner quickly. WHY IS THAT?
Well, for one, Kida was motivated to find a partner. Mikado is in town and he's heard some ALARMING THINGS so finding a strong partner, despite how ridiculous he acts, was his top priority. That accomplished, his top priority is now learning to use that partner to kick the shit out of things.
For two, Celty is probably the person in town, other than Izaya, most aware of Kida's true personality. She doesn't know the 'showy' part of him that well, but he also didn't put on much of a facade when first meeting her. The MAIN thing standing between Kida and resonating with most people isn't "They don't understand every corner of his soul!" but more "They aren't aware that this half of him even exists". Celty is aware, thus mostly negating that problem.
Third, Celty and Kida actually do have similar ways of thinking. They're both pretty good people and willing to do what is necessary to protect what they care about. Morals and 'rightness' are kind of secondary to protecting what they love. They were also looking for similar things: someone they can rely on without actually being very emotionally dependent on. I can't say why Kida meets that requirement for Celty, but for Kida, Celty is inhuman, immortal, and considered one of the strongest people in Ikebukuro. She's also calm, rational, and generally intelligent, and doesn't piss him off. (Kida WAS considering getting a weapon with a personality that he straight up doesn't like, just so he wouldn't be that upset if they got hurt). But basically Celty has enough power girl things going for her that it overrides Kida's "aaaaaaargh must not let girls get hurt1!!!" issues.
Anyway, right now they are only achieving the most basic of resonance. They'll be able to do cooler shit as they learn more about each other and work better together.
But Kida's already very happy with the partner he's chosen and will be both protective of her and concerned with her opinion of him. However, he will be as honest as he can let himself be, because he's read enough shounen magazines to know partnerships work better on honesty.
Fourth Walling and Why This Shit Is Scary
Okay so.
Where to start.
First the subject of what canon's Kida recognizes. This is mostly determined by my inner sense of what SHOULD be recognized. There isn't really an exact detail what people he knows as characters as what he doesn't. This is because while it is both canon for Durarara!! to have hella anime references, and it is canon that Kida grew up on manga and anime and it has had a strong influence on who he is as a person, it is not HIS ROLE to identify everyone and make all of those references. While he does this to an 'aware' degree in canon, it's the otaku, predominantly Yumusaki and Karisawa, who do that shit. And if we ever DO get those characters, I don't want Kida to have taken their place, as it were.
So so far he recognizes Sailor Moon, Pokemon, and Evangelion, and Sherlock Holmes by name (but he hasn't read any of the novels). He'd also recognize Dragon Ball, Ranma 1/2, Doraemon, and other older canons that I am familiar with and know are hugely popular. He will recognize the more recognizable members of Baccano and Darker than Black, because propaganda for those are all over his canon. But he won't recognize stuff like Naruto or FMA, because while those are SUPER POPULAR in Japan right now, and Kida is from 2010, it just wouldn't be his place as a character to be able to identify half of the people in Soul Campaign and relate to them as anime characters instead of people.
Secondly, why Kida is not beside himself with joy to be meeting anime characters.
At first it was pretty awesome! Well, minus how annoying it was that he couldn't fanboy with anyone. Kida inherently is very good at keeping secrets, so it's not really in his nature to go around all HEY GAIS I MET USAGI-CHAN. The only people he feels close enough to mention that to are Mikado and Minato, and one has no idea what he's talking about.
Anyway, AFTER the whole "I am teleported to another dimension that has anime characters" thing set in, he realized that basically his entire concept of reality has been sort of. Shattered and realigned. And not for FAKE. Not "haha this would be so cool I would love it". For real, everything he believes in, that he didn't even think was that important to believe in, is now in question.
So which is it? Is it a random mesh of fictional people and real people? Die BREW 'create' fictional characters to fight the war? Or is everyone here really from an alternate dimension? Is he one of the fictional people or the real people? Are the people whose lives he's read about all his lives shit that is actually going down somewhere, in which case that TOTALLY SUCKS FOR THEM? We like fantasy because it is NOT reality, and as flighty as Kida acts, he is more than grounded enough that he quickly realized all the potentially horrible truths he's never had to question before. What if he's not 'real'? What if he is but his friends here aren't? Minato has blue hair THAT IS WEIRD. HE IS PROBABLY AN ANIME CHARACTER. If Minato was 'created' by BREW what happens when they are done here? If he wasn't but is a fictional character, is his life defined by what people in Kida's reality (or another?) write for him? Which came first, the manga or the alternate dimension? Etc etc.
There's a lot of possibilities and absolutely no answers.
And he's a rational kid. Mostly he is Not Thinking About This, but these are the reasons he isn't SUPER jazzed up about meeting anime characters for real. On one level he thinks it is totally awesome. On several other levels it is kinda of terrifying, and it's balancing out to keep him acting fairly normal.
Also, as a short note on the countries: Kida thinks of them as gijinka. He is just not equipped to SERIOUSLY ACTUALLY BELIEVE that they are REAL personifications of the country instead of fictional representations of them, particularly when Japan is known for putting a moe face on EVERYTHING, just to make it cuter and more human. He doesn't know Hetalia, but he knows of the OS-tan's and various other cute personifications of places/things/etc so Kida automatically tossed them in that group. He refers to the countries as "(Engrish name)-tan" in reference to that. It's just his way of mentally separating THIS IS NOT AMERICA. IT IS AMERIKA-TAN. THEY ARE DIFFERENT THINGS. He doesn't actually mean the -tan the way the suffix is meant, and figures the majority of SC has no idea what that is anyway.
Meta Knowledge
Kida is not particularly brilliant or particularly strong or agile. He better in all of these areas than Joe Average, but in a place like SC he sort of is sort of toward the bottom of the heap, ability wise.
BUT, he has something going for him that a lot of people here don't, and that is a childhood full of manga, anime, movies, and playing pretend, an active imagination, a naive lust for adventure, and a reality in which he's been around the block more than once.
Basically. Kida's read manga, spent plenty of time wondering what it would be like to be in such a situation, and now that he finds himself in one he is SET, able to fairly easily replace his existing idea of How Things Are with the fictional rules of How Things Are as they apply to manga. He would use this technique a bit more warily, except that he's literally MET anime characters, so it seems like his plan has quite a good basis in this reality.
FOR EXAMPLE. Kuroro Lucifer's name is Kuroro Fucking Lucifer. This leaves Kida with several possibilities: A) Kuroro is a villain but acts nice, B) Kuroro is an anti-hero, so dangerous but not necessarily to him, and C) Kuroro is actually a decent guy who got a terrible name for contrast and lulz.
Right now he is leaning toward B from what he's seen.
It's not very difficult for him to do. Though not crazy like the otaku in Durarara!!, Kida regularly makes references to these types of things. He's always known he's the two-faced womanizer character. He refers to Mikado as the 'pure boy' type. He knows Izaya is the type of villain who breaks you down with words over violence, and that he is not any less dangerous for it. So it's easy for him to make these kinds of connections in SC, and instead of doing it as a joke, actually maintaining some of that thought process to aid him.
THIS, incidentally, is why Kida can make educated guesses a to who is a meister and who is a weapon. He is by no means perfect, and in many cases doesn't know them well enough to get an idea (for example, he has no clue with Squalo). But when he asked Allen about if there was a 'type' that is a meister, Allen pointed out that different personality types can be either. Kida didn't go on to explain that Kida defines it mostly by whether one is the type to use or be used. Kida assumed very correctly that he was a meister, because he's someone that wields people. Maybe not very well, but far moreso than the other way around. He even wields himself for the sake of others, but outside of Orihara Izaya, people don't use him.
Similarly he would bet his bottom dollar that Izaya is a Meister, and that Saki is a Weapon. He called Mukuro as being a meister correctly, and wasn't surprised by the Kuroro/Kurapika combination. Basically, he knows it isn't perfect but he also knows he's right more than he's wrong. And it makes sense, because if he was writing this manga, that's how it would go.
This meta-awareness is also why Kida is generally more cautious in SC than he would normally be. He's aware that when you have guys with names like Kuroro Lucifer wandering about, you may have a few nut jobs ready to go crazy on you. Izaya burnt him bad in the past, and Kida's always been wary since. His concern over this kind of shit is multiplied in SC, were clearly quite a few of the people are 'special' in some way or another, and a few those 'other' cases may mean psychotic.
Partnering and Celty
So after writing an essay on how it wouldn't be easy for Kida to resonate with most people, he resonated with Celty pretty easily and found a partner quickly. WHY IS THAT?
Well, for one, Kida was motivated to find a partner. Mikado is in town and he's heard some ALARMING THINGS so finding a strong partner, despite how ridiculous he acts, was his top priority. That accomplished, his top priority is now learning to use that partner to kick the shit out of things.
For two, Celty is probably the person in town, other than Izaya, most aware of Kida's true personality. She doesn't know the 'showy' part of him that well, but he also didn't put on much of a facade when first meeting her. The MAIN thing standing between Kida and resonating with most people isn't "They don't understand every corner of his soul!" but more "They aren't aware that this half of him even exists". Celty is aware, thus mostly negating that problem.
Third, Celty and Kida actually do have similar ways of thinking. They're both pretty good people and willing to do what is necessary to protect what they care about. Morals and 'rightness' are kind of secondary to protecting what they love. They were also looking for similar things: someone they can rely on without actually being very emotionally dependent on. I can't say why Kida meets that requirement for Celty, but for Kida, Celty is inhuman, immortal, and considered one of the strongest people in Ikebukuro. She's also calm, rational, and generally intelligent, and doesn't piss him off. (Kida WAS considering getting a weapon with a personality that he straight up doesn't like, just so he wouldn't be that upset if they got hurt). But basically Celty has enough power girl things going for her that it overrides Kida's "aaaaaaargh must not let girls get hurt1!!!" issues.
Anyway, right now they are only achieving the most basic of resonance. They'll be able to do cooler shit as they learn more about each other and work better together.
But Kida's already very happy with the partner he's chosen and will be both protective of her and concerned with her opinion of him. However, he will be as honest as he can let himself be, because he's read enough shounen magazines to know partnerships work better on honesty.
Fourth Walling and Why This Shit Is Scary
Okay so.
Where to start.
First the subject of what canon's Kida recognizes. This is mostly determined by my inner sense of what SHOULD be recognized. There isn't really an exact detail what people he knows as characters as what he doesn't. This is because while it is both canon for Durarara!! to have hella anime references, and it is canon that Kida grew up on manga and anime and it has had a strong influence on who he is as a person, it is not HIS ROLE to identify everyone and make all of those references. While he does this to an 'aware' degree in canon, it's the otaku, predominantly Yumusaki and Karisawa, who do that shit. And if we ever DO get those characters, I don't want Kida to have taken their place, as it were.
So so far he recognizes Sailor Moon, Pokemon, and Evangelion, and Sherlock Holmes by name (but he hasn't read any of the novels). He'd also recognize Dragon Ball, Ranma 1/2, Doraemon, and other older canons that I am familiar with and know are hugely popular. He will recognize the more recognizable members of Baccano and Darker than Black, because propaganda for those are all over his canon. But he won't recognize stuff like Naruto or FMA, because while those are SUPER POPULAR in Japan right now, and Kida is from 2010, it just wouldn't be his place as a character to be able to identify half of the people in Soul Campaign and relate to them as anime characters instead of people.
Secondly, why Kida is not beside himself with joy to be meeting anime characters.
At first it was pretty awesome! Well, minus how annoying it was that he couldn't fanboy with anyone. Kida inherently is very good at keeping secrets, so it's not really in his nature to go around all HEY GAIS I MET USAGI-CHAN. The only people he feels close enough to mention that to are Mikado and Minato, and one has no idea what he's talking about.
Anyway, AFTER the whole "I am teleported to another dimension that has anime characters" thing set in, he realized that basically his entire concept of reality has been sort of. Shattered and realigned. And not for FAKE. Not "haha this would be so cool I would love it". For real, everything he believes in, that he didn't even think was that important to believe in, is now in question.
So which is it? Is it a random mesh of fictional people and real people? Die BREW 'create' fictional characters to fight the war? Or is everyone here really from an alternate dimension? Is he one of the fictional people or the real people? Are the people whose lives he's read about all his lives shit that is actually going down somewhere, in which case that TOTALLY SUCKS FOR THEM? We like fantasy because it is NOT reality, and as flighty as Kida acts, he is more than grounded enough that he quickly realized all the potentially horrible truths he's never had to question before. What if he's not 'real'? What if he is but his friends here aren't? Minato has blue hair THAT IS WEIRD. HE IS PROBABLY AN ANIME CHARACTER. If Minato was 'created' by BREW what happens when they are done here? If he wasn't but is a fictional character, is his life defined by what people in Kida's reality (or another?) write for him? Which came first, the manga or the alternate dimension? Etc etc.
There's a lot of possibilities and absolutely no answers.
And he's a rational kid. Mostly he is Not Thinking About This, but these are the reasons he isn't SUPER jazzed up about meeting anime characters for real. On one level he thinks it is totally awesome. On several other levels it is kinda of terrifying, and it's balancing out to keep him acting fairly normal.
Also, as a short note on the countries: Kida thinks of them as gijinka. He is just not equipped to SERIOUSLY ACTUALLY BELIEVE that they are REAL personifications of the country instead of fictional representations of them, particularly when Japan is known for putting a moe face on EVERYTHING, just to make it cuter and more human. He doesn't know Hetalia, but he knows of the OS-tan's and various other cute personifications of places/things/etc so Kida automatically tossed them in that group. He refers to the countries as "(Engrish name)-tan" in reference to that. It's just his way of mentally separating THIS IS NOT AMERICA. IT IS AMERIKA-TAN. THEY ARE DIFFERENT THINGS. He doesn't actually mean the -tan the way the suffix is meant, and figures the majority of SC has no idea what that is anyway.
Meta Knowledge
Kida is not particularly brilliant or particularly strong or agile. He better in all of these areas than Joe Average, but in a place like SC he sort of is sort of toward the bottom of the heap, ability wise.
BUT, he has something going for him that a lot of people here don't, and that is a childhood full of manga, anime, movies, and playing pretend, an active imagination, a naive lust for adventure, and a reality in which he's been around the block more than once.
Basically. Kida's read manga, spent plenty of time wondering what it would be like to be in such a situation, and now that he finds himself in one he is SET, able to fairly easily replace his existing idea of How Things Are with the fictional rules of How Things Are as they apply to manga. He would use this technique a bit more warily, except that he's literally MET anime characters, so it seems like his plan has quite a good basis in this reality.
FOR EXAMPLE. Kuroro Lucifer's name is Kuroro Fucking Lucifer. This leaves Kida with several possibilities: A) Kuroro is a villain but acts nice, B) Kuroro is an anti-hero, so dangerous but not necessarily to him, and C) Kuroro is actually a decent guy who got a terrible name for contrast and lulz.
Right now he is leaning toward B from what he's seen.
It's not very difficult for him to do. Though not crazy like the otaku in Durarara!!, Kida regularly makes references to these types of things. He's always known he's the two-faced womanizer character. He refers to Mikado as the 'pure boy' type. He knows Izaya is the type of villain who breaks you down with words over violence, and that he is not any less dangerous for it. So it's easy for him to make these kinds of connections in SC, and instead of doing it as a joke, actually maintaining some of that thought process to aid him.
THIS, incidentally, is why Kida can make educated guesses a to who is a meister and who is a weapon. He is by no means perfect, and in many cases doesn't know them well enough to get an idea (for example, he has no clue with Squalo). But when he asked Allen about if there was a 'type' that is a meister, Allen pointed out that different personality types can be either. Kida didn't go on to explain that Kida defines it mostly by whether one is the type to use or be used. Kida assumed very correctly that he was a meister, because he's someone that wields people. Maybe not very well, but far moreso than the other way around. He even wields himself for the sake of others, but outside of Orihara Izaya, people don't use him.
Similarly he would bet his bottom dollar that Izaya is a Meister, and that Saki is a Weapon. He called Mukuro as being a meister correctly, and wasn't surprised by the Kuroro/Kurapika combination. Basically, he knows it isn't perfect but he also knows he's right more than he's wrong. And it makes sense, because if he was writing this manga, that's how it would go.
This meta-awareness is also why Kida is generally more cautious in SC than he would normally be. He's aware that when you have guys with names like Kuroro Lucifer wandering about, you may have a few nut jobs ready to go crazy on you. Izaya burnt him bad in the past, and Kida's always been wary since. His concern over this kind of shit is multiplied in SC, were clearly quite a few of the people are 'special' in some way or another, and a few those 'other' cases may mean psychotic.