rue is reading

both of them have character traits which complete the other: kalim is optimistic and empathetic (good for bonding with others, helping them navigate their feelings, and providing hope for them), jamil is reality-grounded and level-headed (good for detecting potential problems and resolving current ones); kalim is overly trusting and incredibly unqualified (bad because it makes him easy to exploit and frustrating to deal with), jamil is paranoid and unempathetic (bad because it makes him come off as very unlikeable at times and results in him using others without much remorse).

kalim provides emotional comfort, jamil provides physical comfort. very cloth mother vs wire mother of them. except, of course, for a healthy dorm balance you need both the solace and the nutrition.

because they enhance each other, they also bring out the worst in each other.

much of jamil's identity is inseparably connected to his status as a servant and the resentment he feels about it. kalim's kindness and forgiveness enable jamil to keep on venting his frustrations cruelly (by asserting his own usefulness as a servant through prohibiting kalim from acquiring actual life skills, rejecting kalim's numerous attempts to resolve whatever it is he can sense is bothering jamil, and unjustly insulting him) rather then productively (by stating his boundaries, drawing the lines, and making direct demands instead of passive aggressive quips).

similarly, because kalim's identity is so tied to his upbringing and status as an heir, he does not recognize the disparity between the two of them and takes jamil's insults in stride, as benevolently as somebody like him should. jamil suffering in silence and stewing in fear prevents kalim from doing something to rectify the wrongs (by finally separating jamil the friend from jamil the helpful servant, which he views as the same) and sanitize the wound (instead of letting it fester).

Make no mistake, everyone's takes on Jamil were phenomenal and I really was quite invested, so when I saw the whole thing boiling down to "...which is why, you can never make me like Kalim." It, well, to be honest I couldn't think of a reason to disagree at first I just knew that it wasn't sitting right with me. Which is why I've been scouring through both Kalim and Jamil content to see if I was the uneducated minority here, but your explanation really hits right on the head.

Before I read through your post there was one thing I had always believed in which I am realizing many seem to have not realized so let me clarify: Enslavement is the purchasing of another. Their personal rights belong to someone else and they are treated as property. Servitude is payment of a person for their services and work done for another person. It is a very, very thin and conflicting line that even my ethics professor has had discussions about and yes, both ultimately boil down to lower class job. It is a very conflicting discussion even historically and it can even be used for arguments here. It's a really interesting rabbithole of a topic actually and it was very interesting to have multiple discussions on and okay I digress.

Anyway, I don't blame the fans for the misinterpretation because all this was to say, Jamil felt enslaved. He felt shackled and owned and that is enough of a reason for his views on Kalim to turn skewed and loathsome. It is a justified reason, ain't no one blaming him for thinking that.

But that doesn't mean it is actually Kalim's fault?

We are feeling like we gotta pick sides here when really there can be no winner.

Most Jamil supporters think Kalim has the upper hand and is actively ruining Jamil's life with his weaponized incompetence. No, Kalim maybe incompetent but it is in no way purposeful and is a direct result of his surroundings and also because of Jamil's little petty acts of revenge. Clock it y'all, Jamil actually loves it when people are like "damn Jamil has to do even THAT for Kalim." because this is one of his only forms of praise yes but it has also heavily contributed to Kalim's overall inability. It is also a habit he's slowly fixing because he's been making Kalim do little things now.

Most Kalim supporters on the other hand directly villainizes Jamil for ever even hating Kalim who's just a ball of sunshine and meant no harm. I feel like the mischaracterization of Kalim requires a post of its own but no my friends, Kalim 'meaning no harm' is quite literally the whole problem. Kalim is a character I actually respect because characters who have gone through so much but still chooses to be kind is a favorite trope of mine. But kindness fueled by ignorance is just plain stupidity and this was a defining trait for Kalim that everyone knew. Yeah he most certainly didn't mean to make things difficult for people but he was not alleviating their troubles either. But he has been making ample use of his observation skills lately and his maturity has been pointed out by multiple characters in the game as well.

So yeah, all this to say, you can be sitting around nitpicking every single flaw these two have (and God, they have so many), but it's not going to give you the high ground or prove your point.

however, despite the suggestions the game brings up, it doesn't commit to handling the sensitive topic. instead, it portrays the viper-asim relationship as... well. servants and masters. not slaves and masters. vipers are compensated in social and monetary currency for the job that they do, they have vacations away from asims, and they enjoy a comfortable enough life that jamil never has to consider stressing about prices. they are still servants from a dynasty of servants, but it's less that they have to fear the wrath of the master and more that they feel the need to suck up to the master to ensure that the benefits aren't cut off. although both are bad (and obviously detrimental to the mental health of the children born into this power imbalance), the former is worse.

another element to consider is the context of where the facts come from. i frequently see people quoting jamil's speech... from when he was trying to rile up his housemates to go against kalim. no questioning, taking his words at face value. aside from jamil being impacted as a narrator by his projection of the problem onto kalim, in that particular scene, he is also actively malicious. you can't take everything he says in that scene at face value. you have to read between the lines, you have to compare the statements with the more objective information resources. a lot of people don't do that, resulting in them internalizing beliefs about jamil-kalim dynamic which aren't really true (e.g. huge part of the fandom believes that jamil was trained from young age to serve kalim; that's not what we are shown. jamil is chided for sneaking into the kitchen to cook for kalim, suggesting that there was no such expectation in the first place and that jamil's actions there were motivated by what his parents told him to do (=please kalim) rather than what asim family genuinely expects of jamil).

then there is the emotionality. i find that many people think that to care about the character you have to find their actions justified. always. which i don't agree with and which is something twst's narrative actively challenges all the time.

riddle is the victim of his mother's abuse, but that doesn't mean that his mother was an evil witch who wished illness upon him. quite the opposite, actually. she loves him. she wants him to grow up as the strongest, healthiest possible version of himself. it doesn't make riddle less of a victim and it doesn't erase the abuse he has suffered, however, for many, love and abuse cannot coexist, which is why mrs. rosehearts is viewed as acting out of malice rather than misguided love, despite the story suggesting otherwise. riddle has to be a victim only, never a perpetrator, for some people to support him, and mrs. rosehearts is a perfect candidate for blaming everything on, including riddle's own actions (which the game is shown to be criticizing him for).

other personified causes for overblot get similar treatment. among them, neige stands out to me the most, since i've seen plenty of theories about him (especially when the book was still in progress). is neige secretly evil? does he hide something behind his cheery face? did he orchestrate the loss of vil's team??? ...no. he is just some guy. kind, nice. inoffensive. saves puppies, pets babies, sings to birdies. vil projects his issues onto neige, because neige is the person the industry has pitted him against, not because neige is genuinely at fault for anything. it's why killing neige wouldn't fix anything either: he is not the problem. but, because we are rooting for vil and because we want vil to be happy, it's tempting to do a shortcut. to eliminate neige or paint neige as the villain, therefore absolving vil of any personal responsibility for his actions.

both riddle and vil are valid in their feelings and both of them are wrong in their actions. riddle shouldn't have gone on to spread his mother's gospel (even though it was his way of processing his trauma), vil shouldn't have tried to murder his rival (even though, yes, it was tempting and he was having a horrible mental breakdown).

the point is that, despite doing something wrong, they are still worthy of empathy and capable of growth. it's not an either/or situation. it's both true that they shouldn't have done all that and that they were very likely to do all that because of the circumstances they were in. you can care about them without justifying their actions. you can view them as victims without simplifying them to perfect, flawless, passive victims.

when you criticize jamil's actions, it's seen as criticizing jamil's character and underplaying the damage he has suffered. because of that either/or mentality.

although to an outsider unfamiliar with floyd's speech it might seem that he is concealing something, to those who know him it's always very obvious what he means. he isn't hiding anything when he says "squeeze" instead "hurt". he is simply using a familiar threat. he isn't misleading or playing with meaning when he bestows his nicknames either: his speech reads as confusing to us, but to him it's directly representative of how he perceives reality. in a way it's more honest than calling people by name (especially doing so as politely as jade does). it conveys truthful feelings.