[Head Canon Meme]
Just list ten facts that you have made up about your character(s).
Beware spoilers for DGM chapters 187-188.
1. Kanda is fundamentally non-religious. He doesn't believe in God, and he's definitely not Catholic, no matter what the Order believes or who they answer to. He's never spent too much time wondering over metaphysical or theological questions. To him it's all a very simple matter: he wasn't made by God, he was made by scientists, and they didn't do it out of benevolence. They did it because they wanted to use him to further their own goals. He's not melancholy or sentimental about that fact. It simply means that he doesn't deify anyone or anything, whether it be a "god" or someone just claiming godlike status.
2) Kanda isn't a hypocrite, but he also doesn't understand a lot of the basic contradictions of his life because he's just not the kind of person who bothers to think about questions that have difficult or open-ended answers. For example, he's an ascetic in a religious order without any religious motivation for his asceticism. In fact if he was pressed, Kanda couldn't offer a secular justification for it either. He's not aware of it himself, but ultimately that asceticism is a bit like his armor--his attempt to make sure that nothing in the world can be harsher on him than he already is on himself.
3) Kanda is not exactly a virgin per se...depending on how exactly one measures a young boy's loss of his virginity. Kanda spent quite a lot of time around Daisya Barry in his youth, and Daisya was a huge "corrupting" influence on him--Daisya had grown up in a poor urban center where he doubtless saw innumerable things that Kanda would never have dreamed of on his own. He heard about them all from Daisya though--all the kinds of acts that men did with women, that men did with other men, that women did together. And I imagine that Daisya convinced Kanda to try a few things out with him too, but I also figure that Kanda had limits, and one of the things that never entered into this childhood play was kissing.
4) This does not, however, mean that Kanda is "gay." (In fact the whole notion of sexual identity would be totally anachronistic for him.) He has absolutely no concept of gay or straight as identity categories and even were they to be explained to him, he simply wouldn't understand, because his understanding of himself as a subject is not arranged around the same axes as are our contemporary notions of (sexual) subjectivity. Kanda understands that there are some acts, including same sex erotic practices, which would be wildly frowned upon were they to become known to the Order or to the Church. He knows that he Church would expect him to confess those acts and to be ashamed for doing them. He just doesn't give a damn, and he's too used to keeping secrets from the world to worry about these particular kinds of secrets being exposed.
5) Kanda is not actually Japanese in the sense of being a person born in Japan to Japanese parents, though he certainly looks Japanese, must have some sort of Japanese "ancestry" (i.e. it must be in some of his genetic material), and in many ways he embodies quite a lot of traditional Japanese mannerisms and deportment. Those are a result of a) the influence of Old Man Zho who was, in many ways, the closest thing Kanda ever had to a real parent, and b) some rather elaborate youthful fantasies of his: In the absence of a literal childhood, I think that Kanda did at one point allow himself to imagine people and scenarios to fill in the gaps in his life. I think at one time he dreamed about being a normal little boy with the chance at a normal life, with the chance for choices and opportunities. He stopped allowing himself to imagine things like that when he had to destroy Alma, and the only residues left now are inscribed as those traces and traits that make him read to the world simply as "Japanese."
6) Kanda enjoys the company of plants more than he enjoys the company of people. Though he would be mortified if anyone ever found out, he enjoys cultivating bonsai trees and keeps a small secret garden of them at the Order. Also, the lotus flowers that he sees haunt him constantly, though he never speaks of them to anyone. Sometimes there are only one or two, but sometimes they are everywhere so that he can't walk without seeing them crushed under his feet. They are, in a way, the closest thing he has to a companion, as well as a reminder of the companion he was forced to kill.
7) Kanda has issues with white-haired people. It's because of Alma and the very last images of his mutilated body that have always stuck in Kanda's mind. Anything that reminds him of Alma, in fact, is deeply bittersweet for him. He doesn't feel that he can let himself get to close to anyone, but especially young men with white hair. Even after all these years he still feels the almost paranoiac need to safeguard against too many reminders of Alma. (Since debunked by later canon)
8) Tiedoll was actually onto something when he called Kanda "shy"--one of Kanda's deepest fears is being laughed at or made fun of, but that's not because he's simply insecure. He assumes that people are predisposed not to like him, and a lot of his nastiness and standoffishness is really about him trying to beat them to the punch. After all, if he keeps everyone from getting close to him then he'll never have to face the possibility that he might actually risk caring for someone and then being rejected and hurt by it.
9) Kanda really is as ruthless as he appears to be, but not without reason. In case it's not already completely obvious, he is an incredibly damaged person, but he's also stubborn and strong. At nine years old he had to effectively kill his only friend and peer (that's not head canon, that's actual canon). He accepted that as the defining moment of his life--having had to emotionally and conceptually process that act, he also very much assimilated it as a cornerstone of his being and his identity. He is a person who can destroy the one most dear to him and remain whole when he has done it. If he didn't make sense of himself that way, if he didn't live like that every day, then he would never be able to live with what he had to do when he was nine.
10) Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that, Kanda has no sympathy for (or interest in coddling) children. He has no vision for a better world in which others don't have to suffer through the same kinds of things that he did. He doesn't believe the children are the future, or anything like that. Kanda's world is a cruel, hard, heartless place. If someone can walk then they can fight, and if they don't fight well enough then it's not his problem if they die. After all, the only reason he lived and Alma died was that Kanda was better than him.
Bonus because I can't count to 10 apparently) Kanda will NOT let himself starve just because there's no soba around. He does prefer to eat it for all meals, but he's a pragmatist, not a spoiled brat or an idiot. In Soul Campaign (and other verses where he's been pulled from his home world) he's resigned himself to the idea that if he wants soba he's going to have to cook it himself--the basic idea of it isn't difficult after all. That doesn't mean he's good at cooking, which he knows--he misses Jerry's cooking a lot.
Son of Bonus) Kanda finds humor in wet cats. Particularly when they look expressly DISPLEASED and are being thrown at people's heads.
Reposted from here for ease of reference.
Beware spoilers for DGM chapters 187-188.
1. Kanda is fundamentally non-religious. He doesn't believe in God, and he's definitely not Catholic, no matter what the Order believes or who they answer to. He's never spent too much time wondering over metaphysical or theological questions. To him it's all a very simple matter: he wasn't made by God, he was made by scientists, and they didn't do it out of benevolence. They did it because they wanted to use him to further their own goals. He's not melancholy or sentimental about that fact. It simply means that he doesn't deify anyone or anything, whether it be a "god" or someone just claiming godlike status.
2) Kanda isn't a hypocrite, but he also doesn't understand a lot of the basic contradictions of his life because he's just not the kind of person who bothers to think about questions that have difficult or open-ended answers. For example, he's an ascetic in a religious order without any religious motivation for his asceticism. In fact if he was pressed, Kanda couldn't offer a secular justification for it either. He's not aware of it himself, but ultimately that asceticism is a bit like his armor--his attempt to make sure that nothing in the world can be harsher on him than he already is on himself.
3) Kanda is not exactly a virgin per se...depending on how exactly one measures a young boy's loss of his virginity. Kanda spent quite a lot of time around Daisya Barry in his youth, and Daisya was a huge "corrupting" influence on him--Daisya had grown up in a poor urban center where he doubtless saw innumerable things that Kanda would never have dreamed of on his own. He heard about them all from Daisya though--all the kinds of acts that men did with women, that men did with other men, that women did together. And I imagine that Daisya convinced Kanda to try a few things out with him too, but I also figure that Kanda had limits, and one of the things that never entered into this childhood play was kissing.
4) This does not, however, mean that Kanda is "gay." (In fact the whole notion of sexual identity would be totally anachronistic for him.) He has absolutely no concept of gay or straight as identity categories and even were they to be explained to him, he simply wouldn't understand, because his understanding of himself as a subject is not arranged around the same axes as are our contemporary notions of (sexual) subjectivity. Kanda understands that there are some acts, including same sex erotic practices, which would be wildly frowned upon were they to become known to the Order or to the Church. He knows that he Church would expect him to confess those acts and to be ashamed for doing them. He just doesn't give a damn, and he's too used to keeping secrets from the world to worry about these particular kinds of secrets being exposed.
5) Kanda is not actually Japanese in the sense of being a person born in Japan to Japanese parents, though he certainly looks Japanese, must have some sort of Japanese "ancestry" (i.e. it must be in some of his genetic material), and in many ways he embodies quite a lot of traditional Japanese mannerisms and deportment. Those are a result of a) the influence of Old Man Zho who was, in many ways, the closest thing Kanda ever had to a real parent, and b) some rather elaborate youthful fantasies of his: In the absence of a literal childhood, I think that Kanda did at one point allow himself to imagine people and scenarios to fill in the gaps in his life. I think at one time he dreamed about being a normal little boy with the chance at a normal life, with the chance for choices and opportunities. He stopped allowing himself to imagine things like that when he had to destroy Alma, and the only residues left now are inscribed as those traces and traits that make him read to the world simply as "Japanese."
6) Kanda enjoys the company of plants more than he enjoys the company of people. Though he would be mortified if anyone ever found out, he enjoys cultivating bonsai trees and keeps a small secret garden of them at the Order. Also, the lotus flowers that he sees haunt him constantly, though he never speaks of them to anyone. Sometimes there are only one or two, but sometimes they are everywhere so that he can't walk without seeing them crushed under his feet. They are, in a way, the closest thing he has to a companion, as well as a reminder of the companion he was forced to kill.
7) Kanda has issues with white-haired people. It's because of Alma and the very last images of his mutilated body that have always stuck in Kanda's mind. Anything that reminds him of Alma, in fact, is deeply bittersweet for him. He doesn't feel that he can let himself get to close to anyone, but especially young men with white hair. Even after all these years he still feels the almost paranoiac need to safeguard against too many reminders of Alma. (Since debunked by later canon)
8) Tiedoll was actually onto something when he called Kanda "shy"--one of Kanda's deepest fears is being laughed at or made fun of, but that's not because he's simply insecure. He assumes that people are predisposed not to like him, and a lot of his nastiness and standoffishness is really about him trying to beat them to the punch. After all, if he keeps everyone from getting close to him then he'll never have to face the possibility that he might actually risk caring for someone and then being rejected and hurt by it.
9) Kanda really is as ruthless as he appears to be, but not without reason. In case it's not already completely obvious, he is an incredibly damaged person, but he's also stubborn and strong. At nine years old he had to effectively kill his only friend and peer (that's not head canon, that's actual canon). He accepted that as the defining moment of his life--having had to emotionally and conceptually process that act, he also very much assimilated it as a cornerstone of his being and his identity. He is a person who can destroy the one most dear to him and remain whole when he has done it. If he didn't make sense of himself that way, if he didn't live like that every day, then he would never be able to live with what he had to do when he was nine.
10) Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that, Kanda has no sympathy for (or interest in coddling) children. He has no vision for a better world in which others don't have to suffer through the same kinds of things that he did. He doesn't believe the children are the future, or anything like that. Kanda's world is a cruel, hard, heartless place. If someone can walk then they can fight, and if they don't fight well enough then it's not his problem if they die. After all, the only reason he lived and Alma died was that Kanda was better than him.
Bonus because I can't count to 10 apparently) Kanda will NOT let himself starve just because there's no soba around. He does prefer to eat it for all meals, but he's a pragmatist, not a spoiled brat or an idiot. In Soul Campaign (and other verses where he's been pulled from his home world) he's resigned himself to the idea that if he wants soba he's going to have to cook it himself--the basic idea of it isn't difficult after all. That doesn't mean he's good at cooking, which he knows--he misses Jerry's cooking a lot.
Son of Bonus) Kanda finds humor in wet cats. Particularly when they look expressly DISPLEASED and are being thrown at people's heads.
Reposted from here for ease of reference.