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.
no subject
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.