kficanon | part three

okay real kris meta

he is sf mysterious esp his past, but i guess i'll split this into things we can put together about his background and things we can put together about his personality. i never write meta so this is probably going to be disjointed/going to end up in bullet points

-canadian citizenship, lived for a significant amount of time in canada. born in china, immigrated at a young age--there was that one basketball coach account that said he only came back to china for a couple years in middle school or something before going back to canada. joined sme in his late teens/right after graduation?
-people dispute this bc they say his english is not good enough for a guy who lived in canada for so long but depending on the community he lived in (esp vancouver) it's entirely plausible he didn't need to speak english 24/7. the exact fluency of his english is actually mysterious too because half the time he has a REALLY canadian accent, the other half he slides into an asian accent. either way he doesn't seem to have problems reacting/thinking/switching to english. plus he was more comfortable with henry and amber than with the other chinese trainees
-it's very possible that his family is well off, because he went to point grey high school, and the majority of the students there are from the richest neighbourhoods in vancouver
-possibly his parents are divorced (the whole name issue), THOUGH at the same time, it's possible he just went from a canto name to a more mandarin name, PLUS names can be pretty fluid in chinese culture, like in some contexts switching your name or calling someone something they're not legally registered as is not out of the ordinary
-ummm what else... good at basketball.......

personality-wise
-he has a natural bitchface. he is one of those people who look like they're pissed off if their face is not moving. i think this makes people too quick to assume he's angry/pressed, though ofc sometimes he probably is being judgemental
-uhhhh people who say he's fed up with tao, stop projecting pls, just look at how much they hung out predebut (especially considering that one trainee fanaccount that says it's obvious if kris likes someone or not--if he likes you, he'll bully you, if not, he won't pay attention to you at all. it's just a fanaccount, but i think it fits in the context of his personality). i don't ship taoris, none of this is from a shipper's POV bc i'm trying to stick to 'canon' and i don't think any of them are secretly fucking irl. i think kris values tao as a little brother, and kris getting choked up on CLC really did reveal a lot (sometimes when i'm feeling dramatic i wonder if kris does have a bit of ~family issues~). at the same time, it's not an entirely one-sided worshipping relationship. i don't really understand why anons always talk about tao like he's licking the dirt off kris's shoes, because he very often dumps on kris for comedic affect and very often directly goes against him, in like a teasing friend way. he admires kris a lot and he probably thinks kris can do little wrong, but he still behaves like a normal friend with him as well. though it's still more older/younger brother since kris often responds with a disciplinary or rank-pulling joke
-kris genuinely seems to think of the rest of exo-m (minus xiumin) as babies sometimes. like he obviously treats lay and luhan on the level of equals most of the time, but whenever he speaks of them in the abstract i think he's influenced by his first impressions of them: he always talks about them using very childish terms, and literally commands exo-m like a teacher or parent would. he's always talking about how cute they were when he first met them, and he'll put out his hand as if to indicate they were only waist-high to him, which is actually pointed out in CLC and he's like, 'oh yeah no he was around the same height as he is now'. so this gives us insight to the way he views himself and the people around him, i think, for him to formulate that kind of first impression of lay/luhan/etc and hold to it, when he was only like a year older than lay/younger than luhan. i think kris probably has a lot of experience in the 'big brother'/leadership role (captain of the basketball team). sometimes i wonder if he has younger siblings or was often with younger cousins??
-he's a total bro lmao. his personality is slightly at odds with his like, ~cold perfect manga face~ so it's hard to process sometimes, but often he has very dudebro mannerisms/behaviours. he definitely pretends to be cool, but the impression i get is that some people seem to think that he actually takes himself 100% seriously which... is so wrong? like he's obviously in on the joke, he swaggers in the same cocky way your local frat bro will swagger (like the white bros on campus, totally nice guys who are friendly to everyone, who boast and then wink at you, inherently confident, etc)--he definitely does it because he's confident in himself, but it's also for humourous purposes. when he 'fails' he's never self-conscious about it like someone who is genuinely trying to be cool would be, he just lols about it. he's just as playful as the rest of the group, he often steps in for a funny one-liner and he can give back to lay/luhan as well as they give to him. he's the kind of guy who will do asshole things just because he knows they are assholish and therefore hilarious--he will be deliberately annoying. just remember that whole segment on extremely extraordinary where he would NOT GIVE UP pestering xiumin's kid. he probably has less limits than people think too, bc there was also that fanacct of their 100 days meet where he was bothering sehun and kept acting cute to creep him out (this was separate from when he had to do aegyo). he's not afraid to poke fun at himself.
-he's surprisingly down with the homo fanservice, he is always saying really suggestful things and then when the fangirls scream he always has this cocky satisfied grin alskdjf
-i do think that he is the kind of guy who can be legitimately 'cool'--he'll fool around and be obnoxious, but when necessary he'll step up to the plate (he's articulate and eloquent in interviews etc), and i think fundamentally he's a really reliable, responsible guy--has to be, from everything. almost all of exo has had their fangirly moments over him, and kpop idols or not these are dudes in their late teens, so i think it's for good reason.
-i think he's kind of a softy, see a lot of the above stuff + how he gives in easily to the others--this is probably at least half for the audience, but likely a little bit how he really is too. i think he's unexpectedly sentimental--that part where he says he used his bag for so long because he's just a nostalgic person. it's possible there was an actual story behind the bag (the MC asks him 'so it's not for any particular reason, blah blah right?' and he replies, 'you could say that'), but you can see he does recycle a lot of his accessories, etc. you can make up any number of things about this, but--oh i forgot to put this in the first section, but he apparently moved around a lot (therefore never got into the habit of using a cup to brush his teeth)--you can think about the chances of his upbringing and how maybe it wasn't the most steady, and nostalgia and an attachment to permanence makes sense. throw in some 'he likes inspirational/self-help books', too.
-i think he is a bit like a Typical Man in that he has problems with ~expressing emotions/is very good at controlling himself.
-TO HIS AWKWARD STAGE PERSONALITY: i have no idea why kris auditioned for SME. why? why?? he doesn't seem to particularly be into music or dance or anything musical, nor does he really have any affinity for them lol. idk! HE HAS IMPROVED HUGELY IN DANCING THOUGH. he definitely does get self-conscious when he GENUINELY has to try to be cool, i think, when it's no longer a joke that he initiates--aka when he does two moons... he does have kind of guarded body posture, and his movements are kind of.. small sometimes? if that makes sense he doesn't like fully extend his limbs, when he did his catwalk he only moved his elbows basically, like he's afraid to go all out. i think some of this probably has to do with the fact he wasn't like, the most attractive guy growing up, and now he is considered REALLY attractive, he doesn't exactly have the open carelessness of someone who was always good-looking (e.g. ...idk donghae or something, i don't know suju that well). so his vanity and meticulate facial regime etc come into play here. people like that tend to look very good and very polished because they pay attention to all the little details/care more, but it's not effortless, they're still slightly guarded and careful because they feel they have to 'maintain' that appearance. but i don't think he is EXTREMELY SELF-CONSCIOUS 24/7 bc like i said above (mostly in performances or photoshoots or airports lol, where he is under tight scrutiny), he can fool around like the best of them.
-FINALLY this is a bit of my own speculation, but i feel like duizhang seems to really value hard work and perseverance, if you look at the people he's very fond of: lay, chanyeol, tao, chen, to a lesser extent luhan and baekhyun, etc.

i cannot believe i just wrote all of that orz orz orz i don't know if this is everything i have stored in my head but i'm just going to. go away. forever.

this is really great and i think you have a fantastic read on his personality, especially the bit about him being a total dudebro. like his friends are amber and henry, what you're seeing is their fake bravado because they're basically just the sme frat.

and thank you for saying that about tao because ffs he's not fed up with tao's wibbly shit and tao isn't like a crying leech or something.

/___\ i'm glad you enjoyed it, the more i look at it the more embarrassed i get haha ;o; this is why i never comment on meme orz

anon, don't go away, never go away, you are awesome. this is really insightful and i'm so happy you did this because i don't think i've seen too many people comment on his mannerisms and how he seems to be deliberately being a greaseball at time. this was really nicely done. good job!

also, i think another thing to note is that kris has supposedly been with sme since 2007 and rarely returned home, so spending so much time in korea probably affected his accent a bit.

thank you ;~; and yeah that's a really good point! especially since he was probably super immersed in polishing every language BUT english at that point

oh i forgot to put this in the first section, but he apparently moved around a lot (therefore never got into the habit of using a cup to brush his teeth)

this is what threw me for the biggest loop/intrigues me the most about his childhood. where was he moving around a lot? between china and canada? if he had a 'white' upbringing then i could understand this, but he seems pretty chinese through and through, and i am just so curious where he was moving around.

the exact fluency of his english is actually mysterious too because half the time he has a REALLY canadian accent
link to when he has a canadian accent? i can only ever here his canto accent that makes it sound like he didn't move to canada until after he was 10, at least, more like not until his teens.

da, but in that one sm youth audition video with tts, shinee, and exo k, i heard a lot of people say kris pronounced toronto like a true canadian, so maybe that's something?

he definitely does the slur thing (that's more pronounced in toronto than in the rest of canada i've found) but it really still sounds like he moved here in his teens/after he finished most of his language growth...or something. sketchy linguistics lessons from friends have been sketchy. like, there's no doubt there's a canadian accent there but there's too much of the chinese accent to say he's been here since early childhood?

SEE I HAVE NO IDEA, i mean he directly says the moving around thing so we have to assume it's true, but the problem with kris is none of his fucking history matches up lmao. he is SO mysterious i can't even pick which name to use for him in canonfic, it's so absurd

i find in most of the videos where he speaks english, it's like an on and off thing that'll come for a couple words, or a line/half a line, than disappear for the next two lines, etc. most noticeably probably the SM global auditions vid and.. the most recent vid i watched of him... it MIGHT be the most recent thailand two moons perf (...), i can't verify bc i can't watch video right now, sorry ;;

PRETTY MUCH. have the time i just end up using 'kris' because WHO KNOWS MAYBE HE DOES GO BY IT and in trainee/insider accounts they say that everyone uses each other's 'real names' but no one ever specifies what they call kris @_@ it's so confusing. he is mysterious. maybe he just said that to throw us off—maybe he is secretly a ninja and his awkward dancing is just all a cover up

orz i just went to watch/listen and idk i still feel like he might have moved around a lot when he was a kid, but it wasn't in canada because his accent just doesn't match up. i mean, if his korean is so flawless, then he should have got rid of his chinese accent while he was in an english speaking country??? confusing person.

i personally think the current members PROBABLY use kris...? if not duizhang. just because while they've slipped up for everyone they've never slipped up for kris/always said his name v immediately... but lay's known him 4 years.. GOD I WANT TO KNOW WHAT THEY CALL HIM MORE THAN ANYTHING T_T but amber and henry probably call him kevin then at least..... ugh

i have no idea tbh ;_; can only go by what he tells us i guess.... ;___; i'm not sure how flawless his korean is (tho i'm sure he's v good), and i guess the anon^ had a point in that he was super immersed/focused on korean and mandarin while training... BUT THEN AGAIN AMBER/HENRY..... once again nothing makes sense, etc

god damn this is a lot but ia lol

mostly with the tao issue, i feel like some ppl want kris to dislike tao for some reason and are definitely projecting. also ia on the whole "acting cool" thing. idk i always seen it as him playing it up and not taking it seriously but he gets hate for that

lol ik ;_; and i just noticed my billions of spelling/grammar errors too OOPS

yeah i don't really understand why people have it in for tao, if maybe the dissonance between his ~serial killer oppa~ face and his sensitivity is TOO JARRING FOR THEM TO HANDLE (i think a lot of cfen are like this =_=), like it's gross to see a severe face be sappy or something?? idk man but i have all the tao feels (all the exo feels rly..) and it makes me prickly. and ia, every time i see someone talk about how genuinely embarrassed they are by kris 'being cool and then failing', i'm just like.... you're the only one cringing bc kris sure as hell isn't

omg anon this is a lot and they haven't even debuted that long ago.

This is really insightful because I just stare at pictures and I haven't been catching up on their shows to have an opinion on the members.

Thank you

i watch and read almost everything sob, it's really embarrassing. i'm just really really anal about characterization in all my fandoms, in kpop i have three rules: 1) no headcanon that can't be backed up by a direct canon moment (and not an ambiguous moment, though those are allowed for speculation), 2) every time i see something new or someone brings up a characteristic i haven't considered before i 'cross reference' with everything i already think about the person and try to think of canon moments to back it up, 3) i avoid dramatic speculation like personal disorders or dark pasts because you just can't know with that shit and it skews the perspective immediately. i feel like i sound like a crazy person but i have a really clear separation of the idol irl and the fictional mirror idol i'm trying to construct in order to fic or whatever, in no way do i think i'm ACTUALLY gaining insight on the REAL kris ;;

i live in terror/hope of exo finally having a tv show, because WE NEED A TV SHOW but i'm also scared that i have everything wrong lmao ;_;

I need a tv show of exo, ot12 feels and just to see which members get along with which.
And because I want to see K's personality as well.

Also, I really should start watching M's variety but idk which ones have good subs since I'm wary of the legitimacy with fast subbers :\

yessss i need so much intergroup interaction

boonyi and wisheestar are actually v good, i never find anything wrong with their subs (ofc there will be nuances that don't translate). galaexo is the most professional/best but also v slow.

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ngl this made me like kris a hundred times more

ty for the meta anon

omg this makes me so happy ;____;

i'm the anon who asked about this on the last page I can't read this all rn but omg ilu anon have my heart ;~;

np <3!

thank you anon! this pretty much just confirmed what i thought about him so i'm happy someone else shares this view /o/ may or may not have niggling suspicions about who you are n___n

LOL oh no /___\ this is why i don't comment, i have no ability to mask my typing style at all

me too but it's okay anon! i like you you're qt :')

i-i kind of want to know who you think i am... can you give a vague hint that i will vaguely deny or not deny /__\