Essay on... trying to pin down Kanon's personality. WARNING FOR SPOILERS.
I play Kanon as a person who is ultimately a Good Guy. In canon, he willingly takes on the role of a villain to have Ringo and Ikki sort out their feelings via A-T battle. It... works. Well! And then he mostly appears ambiguous, on no one's side. We don't know how much he knows about Sora and Nike and the rest. I can't say for sure exactly whose side he's on, but I believe has the best intentions at heart for everyone. He doesn't mind being hated, he doesn't mind being misunderstood-- Kanon is a very self-aware character. He sees the big picture, and pushes for the best for everyone.
I think Kanon is potentially self destructive. Don't get me wrong, he has a high sense of self-preservation, but I very much doubt he believes himself to be the most important, and is probably willing to sacrifice himself if that is needed. Ringo's road, the Sonia Road, actually causes pain to the rider in order to use the full power of the it. One of the reasons why I believe Kanon takes an interest and likes Ringo so much is exactly because of that. The... self-sacrificial part. He admires, appreciates and supports Ringo because she's ultimately a good girl, but will also be horribly misunderstood because of her title. She would be forced to do things against her will because of who she is, and would possibly be hated for doing what she has to do. So. He wants to support her and make her happy, even when the rest of the world is judging her.
And if being with Ikki makes her happy-- I... doubt Kanon is going to really really stop her from being with him if there were no other issues involved. BUT there are other issues at hand.
Kanon encourages Kururu to get closer to Ikki-- yet, if Kururu becomes closer to Ikki, Ringo would definitely be hurt, right? So why did he bother with making Ikki and Ringo sort out their feelings if they were going to like each other again, when they could be broken up if carried on misunderstanding each other? This would have spared Ringo of getting hurt again, and he could have probably made it easier for himself to claim Ringo as his.
I think one of the reasons why he did that thing with Ikki and Ringo was because the feelings had built up far too much and HAD to be dealt with. It... just wasn't healthy for Ringo, and Kanon wants her to be happy, and was willing to let her sort out her feelings with Ikki even though it would mean that things would get hard for him, relationship-wise. Alternately, it also makes me suspect that he might have known something about Sora/Nike, and knew that it wouldn't do well for Ikki and Ringo to be against each other. But. We have no way of finding out right now!
Right, digressing. Back to the topic! Kanon encourages Kururu, even though doing that might hurt Ringo. I think... Kanon ships Ikki/Kururu and himself/Ringo. He mentions to Kururu that Ikki's a "rival-in-love", which means that Kanon himself certainly is not out of the race yet. Kururu is Ikki's tuner, meaning that they HAVE to be close, and Ikki likes Kururu, while Kururu also likes Ikki! Kanon knows clearly what Ringo feels for Ikki, but he still wants to push for being with Ringo. I mentioned earlier that I think "if being with Ikki makes her happy, I... doubt Kanon is going to really really stop her from being with him". I still hold that as true. But yet in their special cases as stormriders with such titles, he doesn't think that Ikki/Ringo will end well. So! He encourages Kururu! And probably hopes that one day Ringo would actually realize that Ikki/Kururu CANNOT BE HELPED and yes it would probably hurt her a lot but he'd be there for her, and I think he has faith that she will be strong. ;o; That's the THORN QUEEN GUYS. She knows pain orz.
This also kind of leads to his relationship with Tool Toul Too. Kanon's all "lol it's natural for you to take sides, Kururu, because you're Ikki's tuner". Kanon, to me, doesn't really have a thing for rules. He sticks by them to a certain extent, yes, but he doesn't believe they should always be followed. I believe what he really wants for people he cares about is happiness.
... I think I had a bunch of things to say to link the last two sentences better, but I forgot. ... ONE DAY I WOULD PERHAPS ESSAY ON IT AGAIN. orz.
Sooo back to how I play Kanon-- he's friendly and cheerful, because he honestly has nothing against other people. He's not planning to do anything bad to anyone, even though he WOULD be a manipulative bastard if the situation called for it. He likes people! He likes listening to other people talk, because from there he can judge others, but he won't gossip. He especially likes people who do things in the dark for other people. He likes people with good intentions, even when they make mistakes. (This also explains why he canonly said he really did like Ikki, because Ikki, for all his rudeness and being a rival-in-love, is ultimately also a guy with good intentions.)
... I think I'm losing my concentration for essaying SO, HAVE AN ABRUPT END.
Tell me if you read through that and disagreed with anything! I wanna hear your thoughts on anything, so that I can play Kanon better. :D