Let's start here:

I don't care if you're a wasp you owe him 22 years of alimony

Two important takeaways here:

1) Kabru's hatred of monsters is caused not just by the Utaya catastrophe, but also from the fact that even before that, his unusual eye color was connected to monsters in local lore, and this led to ostracisation and, we can imagine, violence or at least the threat of violence towards him and his mother, serious enough that she escaped to Utaya, aka the place where the dungeon would kill her.

Kabru crucially does not place the fault for this on his father's family, but on himself for being born with 'monstrous eyes'. This is a normal way of reacting to ostracization in children, interiorising instead of projecting the trauma. It's much easier to imagine a world in which there's actually something wrong with you than one in which others might make you suffer for no reason. Monsters are also much more likely to be offered as an explanation by the adults than the actual more realistic explanations (infidelity or rape), which would not be considered appropriate.

This means that indirectly, child Kabru feels that his own 'monstrosity' is responsible for his mother moving to Utaya to protect him and ultimately dying.

2) in the Dungeon Meshi world there are specifically legends about *demon* succubi and incubi (real world lore says succubi prey on men and incubi on women and I assume that's what Laios is referring to with the distinction, but besides that lets assume theyre one and the same), distinct from the *actual monsters* succubi. The demons and monsters have a similar MO of using a person's desires to capture them, but while monster succubi suck a person's vital force, the demons supposedly use the men for their seed and the women for their womb to reproduce (again, completing dungeon meshi lore with bits of real world lore here). Laios, our local monster expert, thinks those demons are just legend. He tells us there are monsters that do use people as incubators for their eggs but I highly doubt that's Kabru's case, uncanny resemblance to a wasp notwithstanding (Laios...)

From here we go to:

Kabru's incredible rizz

This is where the tumblr search function spat in my face and ran away with the rest of my references while giggling. Oh well.

It's noted over and over in canon and extra material that Kabru is charming. More than that: Kabru *will do anything to get someone to like him*.

Worth noting that Daya and Holm *like* Kabru. This is not them disparaging an acquaintance, this is them levelling a criticism at a good friend, a criticism that seems to have been levelled at him before even ("it's no surprise...").

So, important takeaway: Kabru isn't just charming in general, he VERY SPECIFICALLY makes an effort to be charming. He needs people to like him, to trust him, and in order to obtain this, he's willing to lie and pretend.

Like with the Canaries: he needs them to trust him so they will keep him privy to their plans. So he plays up the poor innocent baby orphan angle:

And with Laios? The what (pretending to like monsters) we know, but why?

Kabru thinks Laios is the only one who can conquer the dungeon without the elves or the dwarves intervening and taking control. He is however very worried about his motivation. He wants to know why Laios is going so deep into the dungeon - beyond wanting to save his sister. What motivates him? Can he be trusted?

In the Toshiro chapters we find out that he has been trying to get in contact with him for weeks, possibly months, but this is the first time he has had a real possibility to meet him, and in order to make sure to leave a positive memory and possibly be an influence in the future, he pretends to be aligned with Laios' as much as possible, including hiding his hatred of monsters. I have written tons on this that has now been lost to tumblr like tears in the rain, but: I do not joke when I say that I think Kabru is flirting with Laios before and after the harpy egg incident. Let's be clear: Kabru's intentions are not romantic at this point. But he has noticed how lovestruck Laios was with Toshiro before their confrontation, and he's thinking, well, if I can get him to develop a similar crush on me, I can probably get him to listen to me more easily. Like I can mince words and put things in scary quotes but that's straight up what's happening. Kabru is trying to establish a close bond that wasn't there before: it might not be necessarily sexual, but it's definitely a type of seduction.

It kinda works.

The Winged Lion's introduction is very subtle. At the start he looks like a random decor choice. Then in the Golden Country chapter we are told about his role as protector deity and that whoever unseals him will defeat the Dungeon Lord and become the next king. Laios has been apparently singled out for this.

Then nothing for a bit... then the succubus chapter. Yeah. Remember succubi? The monster/demon from Kabru's backstory?

The ones we meet are definitely the monster version.

We are told again: the demon succubi are legend. Tho Laios is right, it IS quite mysterious.

And then Laios drops the bomb:

His succubus fantasy started normal enough (for Laios), with a very silly and goofy fantasy of a monster Marcella turning everyone into a monster. But THEN, Laios finds himself conversing with a God, and as noted by various posts I would link to if I could, that's when the real seduction scene starts. Scylla Marcille was just for fun. The WL is the pro.

And, well, let me cut the chase here: we discover soon enough that the charming WL is, in fact, a demon. Who seduces mortals by granting their wishes, much like the succubus demon of legend... altho he doesn't use them as incubators for its children, but rather feeds on their desires and uses their minds to fuel the dungeon, that then acts as a honeypot to attract more humans.

But here's what's interesting to me:

The WL, much like Kabru, has been observing Laios for the chance to introduce himself.

The WL, much like Kabru, has singled out Laios as possible conqueror of the dungeon, and much like Kabru, is worried about his motivations.

In a story in which characters are often poised to be foils and mirrors of each other, i dont think that's a coincidence.

That seems like an asspull dude

IT SO ISNT

1) Kabru's backstory about being possibly the child of a succubus is an extra. The main meat of his story remains the same even if we cut it. We could just say his mom was, say, the widow of a dungeoneer.

Why introduce it at all, if not to introduce a parallelism with the WL?

2) game recognises game.

The WL recognises Kabru might be an obstacle in his plan to groom Laios into the perfect dungeon lord to execute his plan, and enacts a mini-sabotage:

We know at this point the WL is controlling Kensuke. Like three pages later hes speaking thru it. Why else would Kensuke show up at this time, if not to make sure Kabru can't lie his way thru his one and therefore drive a wedge between him and Laios?

Later on, this dialogue happens:

Again I wish I could link to the post that first made me realise that the WL's last line is meant for Kabru as much as Laios. In fact, giving that he's still answering Kabru's comment, it might be meant MORE for him. It sure irks Kabru the wrong way.

"I know what [the WL] is going to say..." Probably because it's similar to what KABRU would say. Again, game recognises game.

So, is Kabru like... an evil demon?

Nah. In fact, i think Kabru as a foil to the Winged Lion entirely exist to say: the desire to connect and understand other humans is great. Kabru is someone who Laios can connect with and feel understood by in the same way the WL made him feel, without the manipulation.

The WL consumes wishes. Kabru wants to understand why people do what they do. It's very similar. But. Consuming is necessarily a one-way action. There's a predator and a prey, a perpetrator and a victim. Understanding can, and should, be reciprocal.

We cannot know if Laios would have made all of the same choices had he not met Kabru. It's possible, Kabru definitely had an influence - we see his little face when Laios thinks back on imposing his wishes on everyone, for starters.

Crucially, however, what got Laios' ear in the end wasn't Kabru's experienced seduction. It was this: