🩸﹕𐔌・Ｓｕｎｎｙ〃・꒱

Something a bit different for me stylistically

This is mostly me expanding on a previous post where I talked about the possibility of Kenjaku being oddly lethargic due to the sheer amount of jujutsu nonsense potentially involved in keeping a vessel functional over long periods of time, which people seemed to like the concept of. Obviously this is not canon; canonically they probably just sleep like a normal person (though I bet Kenny hates the vulnerability of sleep).

But I am so deeply fond of the mental image that every so often they have to put the vessel into what is essentially maintenance mode, like shutting down unnecessary background processes on a computer, except the computer is the vessel body, and the processes are the biological ones that keep a body going and using energy.

Which means that every now and then some poor soul (Mahito, Takaba, Uraume, etc) walks into a room and finds Geto Suguru's corpse folded over a piece of furniture like a ragdoll. Deadweight, body systems (mostly) shut off.

It might genuinely be difficult to tell if they're asleep, dead, or fully conscious and choosing not to move because they think your reaction is funny. Given the choice, I absolutely believe Kenjaku would let someone stare at the vessel in horrified confusion for twenty minutes before opening one eye just to ask them in the most condescending tone what they're doing and jumpscare their ass (fnaf sound effect here).

One of my favorite completely unnecessary Kenjaku observations is that this brain thing is always sitting down, and if they're not sitting, he's leaning on something, and if she's not leaning on something, it's lounging.

The funniest part is that there's a bit of lore that comes to mind when I find myself thinking about this (far too often).

Kenjackoff's technique lets them transplant the brain into other bodies and continue living through them. the fanbook describes it as something that basically exceeds normal biological reasoning. They can access the host body's innate technique, retain information from the body, and the technique can apparently even run into issues with unusual cases like toji's heavenly restriction. We been knew. I'm establishing a baseline.

Obviously none of this means "kenjamin brainklin is canonically frail" because that's never stated, however, it does make me laugh to imagine that the world's oldest mad scientist is essentially keeping themself operational through layers upon layers of cursed technique nonsense, barrier nonsense, and increasingly questionable maintenance practices (look at the potential data we gather from the bs that bushcamp fraudwatch pulled).

Netanjaku. How much of you is actually functioning normally when your vessel is Frankenstein'd together? (Is this a pun?)

Maybe Kenjacoochie is constantly lounging because they're a thousand year old jujutsu abomination being held together by sticky tack, binding vows, and sheer overcommitment to the bit. And that shit might require a lot of RCT and constant upkeep. Maybe Kencocku is conserving energy (insert the theory that their OG body was ill and sickly here). We'll never know.

Eggman cares for Sage's feelings and safety, gives her presents like toys and shoes, calls her his "dear daughter" and "my girl", laughs at her jokes, always tells her how proud he is of her, is grateful for her protection, griefs her when she dies and doesn't give up until he can restore her.

even though their relationship's development is pretty much stuck on the Egg Memos and not shown in the actual cutscenes, it still manages to be beautifully written. how Eggman sees her as only a tool, starts liking her more than he wants to, thinks she's amazing and adorable, and starts to entertain the idea of seeing her as family - something he hesitates on, because it's not something that would ever cross his mind when he thinks about his machines and also something he never had. notice how the first time he calls her "daughter" is when she's far away, going to meet her death, and she doesn't even hear it. (he never really gets over this hesitation, too.)

however, despite all that, he still doesn't see Sage as a human with autonomy. as we see in IDW, she's offline most of the time when she's not executing a task. sure, he lets her out to play sometimes, he always hears what she has to say, and even... asks for her preferred pronouns? but she doesn't really have much freedom. no matter how much he treasures her, Eggman sees her as a "loyal and effective" program, and made her to be completely subservient to him. this isn't a much healthy relationship.

and you can't even say he sees this kind of relationship as good for his daughter. we can notice that in the Egg Memos where he talks about Tails and Amy.

he thinks that Tails is "wasting his potential lingering in Sonic's shadow", that his "worship" of him is holding him back. well, remind me, who else in this game lives "to serve" someone, giving herself entirely for someone else's goals and principles?

now for Amy:

he affirms that it must have been hard for Amy to find herself around someone with such a big ego as Sonic. Eggman is obviously projecting here.

first, his statement is completely incorrect. Sonic might be overly confident, but he doesn't use that to crush others; by any means he held Amy back from running after the best version of herself at any point of their relationship. (except if you consider him looking down on her when she wasn't able to prove she was capable of fighting, saying it's "too dangerous" for her to follow them on their adventures. but it's very reasonable to be worried about someone you always have to save from bad guys and has never really shown to be able to fight for herself. this isn't caused by him having a big ego, and he fully accepts and trusts her after seeing her growth.)

second, you know who has a big ego and does use it to put himself in a pedestral above everybody around him? Eggman, of course.

Eggman believes, even if only in a sub conscious level, that his relationship with Sage might be holding her back from finding her true self and unleashing all of her potential. but why does he seem not to care about that at all? because he sees Sage as someone who exists for him and for him only. the idea of her having as much independence and identity as someone like Tails or Amy sounds quite absurd to him, in a way he doesn't put into words but definitively believes. her being his daughter and perhaps the thing he loves most in the whole world doesn't make her cease to be his A.I., made to serve him and help him conquer the world. as i've heard the fandom say quite a few times, Eggman loves Sage so much because she's an extension of him; he loves her because she's his best creation, and when he praises her and tells her how he's proud of her, he's indirectly praising himself at the same time.

i love their relationship so much because it makes so much sense for Eggman's character. we can make a story where he's able to love someone that isn't him, but his narcissistic nature inhibits him from having a truly selfless, healthy relationship. everything must revolve around him. to change that about his character would kind of defeat its entire purpose, so i'm glad the writers didn't go that route. explore the villain's flaws instead of removing them, that's so much more interesting!

i also wanted to point out this one line:

there's so much pain in his voice when he says this, but notice how he barely hesitates. Sage must fullfil her function; this is why she was created and the reason for her existance. if Sage has to risk her safety and life because of it... well, let it be done.

for example, if we put Sonic and Tails in the same situation, Sonic's response would probably be "if you think that's the right thing to do". Sonic values Tails' freedom more than his safety, in the same way Eggman values Sage's function above her safety. both would be incredibly hurt if they lost them, but stopping them also goes against their principles.