#kystophe

christophe being the only other person who gets kyle:

kyle and christophe have a lot in common. they are both outsiders though for different reasons (kyle is excluded for being jewish, christophe is a foreigner but also rejects “the system” on his own accord).

kyle has always been different because of his beliefs (religious or political) and ostracized for it. In later seasons we've seen him become more exhausted, almost like he is slowly being broken down. Most recently in “world privacy tour” Kyle is afraid he's being left out by his friends, so he tries to change his "brand" to ensure this wont happen.

what i'm trying to emphasize here is that Kyle internalizes his otherness. He doesnt realize he shouldn't be ostracized for it and instead tries to hide what makes him different (it's a jersey thing) or change it (world privacy tour). He doesn't change the system, he changes himself to fit in it.

so I feel like at first Christophe would think Kyle is spineless because he unknowingly endorses the system that oppresses him. However, he’d quickly come to realize that kyle is anything but that.

the reality is that kyle is only obedient as long as he is ignorant. take, for example, the end of obesity special where kyle was unaware of the flaws of the american healthcare system and genuinely believed that all it took to navigate it was willpower. but after finding out the truth, he quickly takes to action and even violence.

Christophe and kyle react angrily to injustice but believe in very different solutions to it. While Christophe is almost nihilistic and believes that the system is broken and corrupted (and therefore has to be overthrown), kyle is more hopeful (lawful even). kyle would opt for reformation rather than revolution (which is the perfect catalyst between him and christophe, heck this could even lead them to face each other in opposing factions)

despite this I think christophe would still try to push Kyle towards rebellion (I mean he’d do that with just about anybody who’d listen lol) christophe might get kyle to realize he doesn't have to change himself to fit in but I don't think kyle would ever become radicalized like christophe

in short, i think the hurt/comfort (or rather comfort and then hurt) would come from the fact that christophe is possibly the only person who could understand and believe in kyle’s ideals but he would never get kyle to fully convert to rebellion (this could even parallel gregory who ig tried to get wendy to pick him over stan, thinking she was like-minded and liberal only for wendy to turn on him at the end lol)

2. kyle inevitably having to choose between the m4 and christophe

i think this would be like a kip drordy situation where the other boys dont want to hang out with christophe and, in turn, wind up avoiding kyle because christophe just won't leave his side.

i hc that, despite his cool facade, christophe is very socially awkward. not "shy" awkward but "says weird shit" type of awkward. He'd definitely put the other kids off. i'd actually go as far as to say he is homeschooled (which is why we never see him again after bigger longer and uncut safe for that one time in "two guys in a hot tub" and totally not because mattrey forgot about him) and so kyle, ever incapable of ignoring others misery, would try to get christophe to open up and socialize more even though christophe doesn't really care to make any more friends than kyle (yk typical extrovert/introvert trope)

Christophe also seems lonely tbh. Other than Gregory I don't think he has any friends, and even gregory only really talks to him for missions. Christophe seems to be grounded often too so he cant even hang out with gregory that much. As a result, i think kyle would probably be christophe's only real friend for a while.

eventually, christophe would become a little "clingy" towards kyle (tho he'll never admit it and it would be really hard to notice because christophe would act like he is putting up with kyle lol) and this could create tension between the m4 or even at a larger scale between kyle and the rest of his class.

kyle would definitely take his time to make a decision which i think would hurt christophe but ultimately kyle wouldn't drop him. he’d maybe force christophe to talk to the other boys so he isn't at kyles side ALL the time

some kids I think Christophe could hit it off with: TWEEK (both government skeptics, they would totally enable each other's paranoia), craig, jimmy, wendy and stan (with some initial tension tho).

3. kyle patching up christophe

so far i think i've mostly done angst and not so much hurt/comfort so im gonna go for the most literal example of the trope.

kyle has actually patched up a few kids before (like blanket) so i dont see why christophe would be the exception. with christophe's whole "mercenary" thing i think it's just bound to happen lol.

i also had this au where kyle is a nurse working the night shift and christophe keeps getting brought into the e.r. for very suspicious wounds that he refuses to elaborate on how he got. so yeah lots of kyle having to literally nurse christophe back to health and snarky comments here and there (dont get your hopes up this au will never see the light of day, but i thought i'd share it here anyways)