#chen kitay

We know that the Dragon is a manifestation of the ocean, and it ultimately wants to swallow the most beautiful and most powerful things of this world. It takes warships, it takes treasure, it takes people as a part of its collection. And what RF Kuang really highlights is that it desires people who are “beautiful,” hence why it wants the Yins.

Now think about Nezha, and how he treats the people around him. In his youth, he collects friends who are among Sinegards most rich and powerful families; the beautiful daughter of the Finance Minister and the wickedly smart son of the Defence Minister. Then, he abruptly ditches his friendship with Kitay when he sees him as ‘tarnished’ by a new friendship with some girl from a village in the Rooster Province.

His relationships continue to follow this pattern of collecting the rare and discarding the used and abused. In Khurdalain, after Rin is revealed to be a rare Speerly, he’s suddenly kind to her after years of racist and classist bullying. Conversely, after Venka survives really horrifying sexual abuse he (whether consciously or subconsciously) sees her as tarnished and rejects her bid to join the Republican naval forces. That’s not a matter of her being in recovery, as Rin had also just recovered from opiate addiction and he himself escaped a POW camp; he just no longer sees Venka as a beautiful, powerful and rare commodity at his side.

His tendencies worsen when the Republicans turn on the Cike and its allies. He sees Rin as an object that needs to be controlled, and is entirely willing to turn her over to Hesperian scientists so he can claim total military power over Nikan. During the civil war against Rin’s forces, he quite literally cages Kitay, all while believing they can still be friends and that Kitay will be a valuable addition to his war cabinet.

Now, how much of this is the Dragon and how much is it just Nezha being a privileged rich kid who’s never been told ‘no’ in his life? It’s both. Just like how the Phoenix latches on to people who have a deep seated need for vengeance, the Dragon latches on to people who have an easy time seeing the world as full of little objects they can easily collect and dispose of.

He is incredibly intelligent and often hyperfocuses on whatever problem he is working on even if is not a logical priority (after being retrieved from the people who were taking him hostage he is highly irritated at not being able to finish putting their city’s tax system in order). He has sensory issues with clothes and possibly food (though this could something else). He is known for over explaining his thought process when it is not required as an excuse to talk about things at length. He tugs at his hair when he’s stressed and often rips it out while distracted. There’s more actually. That’s just off the top of my head. He’s very autistic but the book is set in the fantasy equivalent of early 20th century China so it’s not explicit.

Are they LGBTQ+: