#raptoryaps

She's perfect in every way, I don't make the rules.

I honestly did not find Kash to be very intimidating compared to how manipulative and cunning Daniel was. (maybe I'm biased because Daniel's covert narcissism and manipulation tactics remind me HEAVILY of one of my family members that traumatized me, but I'm not unpacking that right now, this ain't about them lmaooo). An opinion that will get me sent to directly to hell same day shipping, but I honestly enjoyed Kash and his cartoonish villainy and loser ragebaiting because he felt very plausibly real. Frankly, I think he wouldn't be tough shit at all if someone just took his iPad and locked him outside the compound, he'd just be an angry child throwing a hissy fit until the raptors got him. Please don't beat me up y'all, me liking him is not that serious lol, he is just a loud, angry iPad kid to me and I enjoy how pathetic he is and how he pretends that he isn't. I enjoy a loser asshole character who sucks and is someone I feel I could easily ragebait and get on their nerves if I could lmaoooo. Don't get me wrong, Kash was absolutely a violent and horrible person and I'm not AT ALL an apologist for the shit he did, I don't think anybody is, and I don't doubt he could throw a mean punch if it came down to it, but it was immediately clear to me he had no intentions of ever getting his hands dirty directly and only ever used his tech to do his dirty work. I feel like as much he threatened Darius, he never directly planned to lay hands on him (yeah yeah also because it's technically a kids show and they wouldn't allow it, but I digress, it still makes sense for his character tbh) and it was always entirely indirect actions and threats, for example, claiming he'd feed Darius to a dinosaur or sending the BRADs and raptors after Mae to make it look like an accident. All indirect actions to avoid direct accountability and if he ever did anything more intense than crashing out at his desk he'd always have the BRADs do it for him.

I feel like as scared as Darius was to be in that situation, he actually picked up on this about him and knew he could tease Kash here and there and get under his skin just enough to hold his own without risking a left hook and seemed more annoyed with Kash than completely afraid of him. I feel like he knew Kash didn't have the guts to actually hurt him directly himself without one of the BRADs to do it for him and would instead take his anger out on his inanimate objects he threw around the room like the immature child he is. Darius kept it just casual enough to piss him off and remain kind of chummy and not push him too far to make him actually take measures to have him killed. Darius handled him extremely well especially given he was 12-13 and had no experience dealing with anyone like him before as far as we know. He kept calm, didn't give Kash the fear reaction he wanted from his intimidation tactics and knew just the right buttons to push to keep the upper hand, feed his ego and keep him civil, or as civil as Kash could manage to be. I don't doubt Darius has some lasting trauma from the whole ordeal, but he handled it with incredible skill given the circumstances.

Kash to me was all bark and no bite. I have had similar people in my life who would tear apart and destroy inanimate objects if it pissed them off and yell or get in my face and make a big scene but would never lay hands on me at any point in the years and years I knew them and it's literally like watching an adult child throw a temper tantrum and becomes far less intimidating over time because you know they’re literally just a weenie and don't have the guts to actually hit you because they don't want to face the consequences of doing so. They're destructive, but only to their own detriment. They don't like being held accountable. They think flipping out like a psychopath will be enough intimidation to get what they want because oftentimes in the past it has worked on others and they will try to find other indirect ways to cause damage or have someone else do it for them entirely to avoid any direct accountability coming back to them. By remaining calm in that situation, they lose the power they thought they had over you by acting crazy and Darius did a genuinely good job keeping his cool for the most part and it worked very well to his advantage. If Kash didn't have the BRADs, I don't think he'd have ever had the guts to try and kill anybody, like actually, because he'd be too afraid of getting caught or looking bad. It's all about the ego.

Judging by how surprised he looked to see Mae's torn up coat, I don't think he'd ever actually killed/tried to kill anyone before then and was shocked and satisfied that it worked and could be easily played off as a tragic accident to avoid getting in trouble with Daniel for being impulsive and I think it put him on even more of a power trip going forward and gave him a false sense of security with how he treated Darius and when he eventually attempted to kill Daniel twice because he got away with it once and thought himself untouchable. Though he was quickly disappointed when the false egotistical narrative he created in his mind came back to bite him because he wasn't the smartest person in the room like he thought he was. Before then, Mae even said herself that he was a “harmless blowhard” so I don't think he'd ever actually done anything that serious up until that point and kind of got off on it when he thought it worked and it made him feel powerful.