Easy. He explicitly puts himself on the spectrum here, no Alloromantic/Allosexual (especially at the time) would be apologizing for perpetuating Amatonormativity, and the "celibacy" thing was a common Aphobic joke at the time. The Alpha Troll segment also came out during a point in Tumblr's history where AroAce people were massive targets, and we were made into total jokes by Allos who refused to understand us or take us seriously. Kankri's existence is an example of this.

He's an Aphobic Caricature, with all of his ties to Aro/Aceness being made into a joke. Considering this, I think it's only fair to make him actually, fully AroAce, especially given the fact if this was a parody of literally any other marginalized group - especially one within the LGBT community - people would be accepting him as being wholly a part of that group, and taking his orientation seriously. I am 100% of the belief that any argument to the contrary is just blatant Aphobia.

Homophobic caricatures are common. They are, within fandoms, accepted as fully gay, and their gayness is taken seriously. Transphobic caricatures are common. They are, within fandoms, accepted as fully trans, and their transness is taken seriously. So on and so forth. The fact that Aros/Aces are seemingly excluded from this ruling of reclamation is entirely unfair, and reflective of the fact that fandoms are loudly, objectively hostile to the existence of Aros/Aces. Fandom's main interaction with Aro/Ace existence is total erasure - the most common response to the idea of a character being Aro is "Aros can date just like normal people, too!", and Aces get "Asexuals can have sex just like normal people, too!".

Kankri being AroAce is explicit. His existence as someone on that spectrum is canon and textual. He identifies that way, and his writing is very obviously intended to make a mockery of - for lack of a better term - total AroAces. Ergo: Kankri is AroAce, and denial of this is Aphobic.

Personally, it deeply bothers me because Kankri has a really weird, creepy obsession with Latula, which Latula is openly very uncomfortable about- which is noteworthy, because Latula tries to hide her emotions about everything. Objectively, he does not love her. He has projected an image of a different person onto her which he has become stalkerishly over-attached to. Textually, Kankri is Latula's stalker, and he's really blatant about it. It's pretty hard to watch. This obsession also manifests in him having a really, really deep resentment for Mituna. Kankri hates Mituna's fucking guts. He really, really, really hates that man.

Even aside from the AroAce thing, and the fact that this fundamentally is not love, Polyamory literally isn't an option because Kankri seems to view Latula as a thing to be kept by one person only. It's like that one line about Karkat "wanting Terezi in every Quadrant like a desperate fool", but with the Horror switch flicked on, and severely unrequited.

like I'm genuinely curious where you find it canon?

My basis is that Kankri identifies himself as AroAspec. I have said this many times. I’m not pulling this out of thin air or saying that Celibacy is the same as being AroAce - though in this case I’d argue those things are clearly being attached to one another by means of false conflation, in the same way Hussie was attaching Horuss’s traits of “Otherkin” and “Being a System” - I am repeating the fact that Kankri explicitly identifies himself as AroAspec. He is using specifically AroAspec language to do so.

… And making the argument that since Hussie was being quite mean about it by making his identity not make sense and also stereotyping it quite badly, and also conflating it with Total Sexual and Romantic Celibacy (which are choices), it is best to just take Kankri as fully AroAce, since that was clearly what Hussie was going for. It’s like taking Horuss as a normal System. Horuss and Kankri’s minority identities have literally the exact same problem in writing.

Very interesting how people react to this train of thought, by the way. It’s not a controversial statement to me, I’ve always operated under this mode of thinking, and I do not particularly get why people freak out about it… Especially when people will generally agree with this line of thinking when it’s literally any other identity. If a character is a meanspirited representation of Trans People, then people will generally accept them as a regular, straight up Trans Character. Same goes for if they’re Gay, Lesbian, Bi, Non-White, Disabled…

What’s the difference? Inability to romantically ship them? Easy solution - Just acknowledge that friendship is not only a valid form of relationship but also can be more meaningful than romance for five fucking minutes. Jeez, lol.

she patronizes him constantly (which is VERY loaded considering they lived on fucking beforus) and ignores his boundaries (calling him patronizing nicknames he doesnt like, wiping his face while he tried to push her off) and he constantly makes insensitive bitchy bigoted comments that go against all of her values and make her angry

and theres not the same dynamic dolorosa and signless had where she raised him like theyre the same age so why do they even talk to eachother?? what is their relationship?? like were they childhood friends or something?? itd make sense if they were both a little different as kids and therefore got along better but then why do they still talk to eachother when they really dont now ITS SO WEIRD

It's... Complicated. They go way back, as far as I can tell.

The way I see it, they do not have a "Mother and Son" relationship- I find that most who assert this often place far too much maturity onto Porrim, who is literally 19 years old. It's more like an Adoptive/Found Sibling relationship between someone with a severe case of Eldest Daughter Syndrome and the social conditioning of a higher-end Midblood on Beforus, and someone with a chronic case of Only Child and the social conditioning of a Mutant Lime on Beforus. The relationship makes more sense to me when you view it this way. It's just... A fraught sibling relationship, formed under societal pressures we can't even fathom. Porrim Maryam, trained by society to cull those beneath her, trying hard not to, and for the most succeeding outside of someone very close to her, and Kankri Vantas, culled and isolated his whole life, becoming a total suck-up to the deeply misogynistic, ableist, hemoloyal culling system as both a method of self defense and as a wielding of the only weapon he really knows. It was used against him all the time, and it works, doesn't it? If sucking up to Able-Bodied Male Highbloods and ridiculing everyone beneath that golden standard is the best way to ensure safety, then he's gonna do it. He's essentially a lifelong voter for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party.

Ultimately, I think what keeps Porrim by his side is that... I think she believes in him. It's like watching yourself lose your sibling to the Alt-Right Pipeline. I think she thinks he doesn't actually believe most of what he's saying, and that this is all deeply reflexive. She's smart enough to recognize the real systemic issues at play here, and that he's essentially caught in chains between 5 different machines that all want him dead. And she's right. When you actually read the shit Kankri's saying, it becomes almost immediately apparent that he's spouting bullshit, and that he absolutely knows this. I think what keeps Kankri by her side is that he knows she cares about him. There isn't any denying it. She might infringe on boundaries, or be generally annoying to him, and keeps doing that frustrating little thing called seeing through his and everyone else's bullshit and calling them out on it- not just including but especially his- but she cares. I think he knows that at the end of all things what he'd have left is her. Is this to say that if you got Kankri to grow a spine and genuinely believe in things that aren't spoonfeedings of the latest Conservative Highblood Talking Point/Psy-Op, he'd be a good person? Hell no. No way. He has a raging savior complex and is way too eager to throw other people under the bus and insult/ridicule them to their faces. He's an asshole. Just completely slimy.

1, where was it mentioned that cronus is a rapist? and 2, is kankri actually aroace? i know hes celibate but i always thought he had a crush on latula

i swear ive read the openbounds i just dont remember these parts HNGJDBGF

Hey, thanks a lot! Glad you like it!!

1.) It is not stated directly, but I feel as if saying otherwise is kind of stupid considering his behavior. It's just an obvious read. 1a.) Cronus assaulted Mituna on screen and in public, and a subtle detail about Mituna is that phrases he says a lot do not have typos in them. Him begging for Cronus to stop touching him was done with complete clarity. 1b.) He started grinding on his 13 year old relative in the middle of a crowd while pressuring him to go out with him, and wouldn't stop until he caved. 1c.) When Karkat turned down his advances, Cronus followed him home and tried to break into his house to keep at it. 1d.) In Mituna's Cassandra parallel, he is playing the role of both Apollo and Ajax the Lesser. The Rape of Cassandra is a key moment in Cassandra's myth, with Ajax the Lesser being the perpetrator. Rape isn't something that is directly featured in Homestuck itself - I reckon Hussie was just too uncomfortable with it to write it in - but I think Hussie's intention to have you read Cronus as a rapist without saying it out loud in the exact words of "Cronus is a rapist" is... Pretty clear, honestly.

2.) Kankri point blank says he's a part of the community, yes. While it was framed in a meanspirited way, it's best to just take it genuinely and go with him being AroAce. It's not good representation by any means, but it's still a facet of his character. 2a.) Him being a part of the AroAce community was actually made a separate detail from his celibacy, though the two are definitely features that are linked, kind of like Horuss's status of being both a Therian and a System. 2b.) I wouldn't call his feelings about Latula "a crush". He is creepily obsessed with her and framed as basically being her stalker. This is a different thing from having a crush, as much as fandoms will try to tell you otherwise, lol.

I have a lot of thoughts about Kankri Vantas. Many essays worth of thoughts and then some. Here's a highlight reel of sorts:

Deep Dive into Kankri's Culling.

More on Kankri's Culling.

Notes on Kankri's AroAcehood.

Kankri's Relationship with Religion.

Are we going to talk about the fact that he’s bad at slang even after like eight trillion years? He’s really fucking socially awkward. He also knows what he’s doing, he is self aware. He also says acronyms in their full forms out loud. He wants to be a rebel and he doesn’t know how. Kankri is extremely out of touch and he knows it. He just doesn’t know how to get in touch.

Anyway, here’s some fun dialogue.