An Analysis of Ken Kage
This is the author's analysis of the character development of Ken Kage. This will go into depth on Ken's decisions and mindset so you may better understand the character. I would not recommend reading this until you have finished Volume 1, as this will cover his whole character development from chapter 1 to chapter 124. This will have SPOILERS. You have been warned…
Let's start from the beginning, and I don't mean the beginning of the book. Ken doesn't have a good life when he's still Kyle in his original world. His parents are abusive, and he takes the blunt of it to protect the one person who does care for him; his sister.
This makes it so there is only one person that he truly cares for. He doesn't care about his parents, and he doesn't care about schoolmates.
Eventually his parents leave, and that allows Ken to open up a little more. He gains friends at his school, becomes popular, and all around more "warm".
He's still the closest to his sister however, which is why he doesn't care to work a lot for her. He wants to give her the chance that he never had, so he works to give her a good life.
At school he ends up getting a girlfriend, Kiera. She also ends up being the source of a lot of his troubles. He finally starts to really open up to someone other than his sister. He falls in love.
And ultimately, this is the source of his trauma. Because Kiera betrays him. She has a bunch of delinquents beat him up and he goes from the most popular kid in school to the punching bag.
It's now a repeat of before. Being abused and taking the blunt of it because of someone else. Originally it was for his sister and he did it willingly. Now it was for his ex and he didn't do it willingly.
This is what creates his trauma. When he would protect his sister, he placed himself into the "spotlight". He brought his parent's attention (and wrath) onto himself.
When Kiera betrays him, she tells him she did it because he was popular. Because he had, in other words, placed himself into the "spotlight". And after the betrayal, he's now in a different kind of "spotlight". The "spotlight" for bullies to abuse him.
This is the origin of his trauma, and why in the beginning of the story he hates and avoids this "spotlight" so much.
And this takes us out of Ken (Kyle's) past, a past full of abuse, betrayal, and trauma. It's no wonder that Ken has a strange view on the world in the beginning of MOB. He was broken down, before he built himself back up.
Another point to add is that Ken feels that he has betrayed his sister, having abandoned her like how his parents abandoned him, even if he didn't do it on purpose. This just adds to the mess his mindset is at the beginning of MOB.
His past makes himself into a "Tsundere" kind of character. A "Tsundere" is a tough character on the outside who becomes soft once you get to know them. Just like Ken. However, with his trauma it's harder to get through this shell.
A Tsundere is mostly well known for "I say the opposite of what I mean". While not every Tsundere is like this, many are. With this definition, you could call a Tsundere a kind of "contradiction".
A contradiction is, by google's definition; a combination of statements, ideas, or features of a situation that are opposed to one another. In simple terms; two things which go against each other.
For a Tsundere, this is the outside verses the inside. They say the opposite of what they mean. A "contradiction".
Ken is a "contradiction" in many ways. He's a Tsundere, an emotional kind of contradiction spawned by his traumatic past. He's also a contradiction in the sense of when he is transmigrated into Ken.
Someone who isn't Ken, but yet is. And when he find out near the end of Volume 1 that he is the fusion of Ken and Kyle, it confirms this. He's Ken, but at the same time he isn't.
He's a "contradiction". If you were to summarize Ken in one word, that is how you would. In both the emotional and physical sense, Ken is a "contradiction".
More on that later.
Ken has an intense fear/hate of the "spotlight" due to his traumatic past, and this causes him to be pretty stupid in the beginning.
His logic (trauma) betrays his emotions a lot. The prime example is with Eric. When they first meet, Ken knows that associating with Eric is trouble.
Eric is the protagonist of Heaven's Hell, the anime world he's been transmigrated into. Your stereotypical foreign student, very kind, couldn't hurt someone kind of character.
It's because of this that Ken knows this is a good person. Someone he could be a friend with. Someone he wants to be a friend with. He's been starved for friends of people his age for quite a while, having no friends after Kiera betrays him.
But his "logic" betrays him. His trauma from the past makes him want to avoid the "spotlight" and therefore Eric as well.
His emotions verses his logic. Another contradiction. Ken says that he will avoid the spotlight, yet purposely drags himself into it. Another contradiction.
When Ken bonds to an Arcana, it ends up being Loki. They both are similar, have underlying trauma, and are "contradictions".
Loki is the infamous God of Trickery, yet he's pretty calm. His personality, like Ken's, is a "contradiction".
And thus that is why Loki and Ken end up being bonded together. They both have that similar "contradicting" personality.
Ken's character stays like this for a little while, until the events of Chapters 33 and 34, where he confronts his past.
However, he only confronts his trauma of the "spotlight". He doesn't confront his trauma of being betrayed. This makes it so while he does progress, and his mentions of "spotlight" start to cease, he still is wary of the yanderes. Because the person who betrayed him the most was a crazy girl. And yanderes are crazy girls.
Now, Kiera is different than the yanderes. The yanderes of Heaven's Hell actually love their target, unlike Kiera. But the trauma is still there, so Ken is still wary of the yanderes.
This is basically his mindset until we reach the events of the Tournament Arc. After all this time, Ken is falling in love with Irene. But he's scared, the one time he fell in love before he was betrayed. And while he knows Irene isn't like Kiera, that trauma is still there.
When he's put into a nightmare and relives his most traumatic moment, he's finally able to combat that trauma of his past, Kiera. And while it's not actually her, his development is shown when he straight-up punched her across the face.
It's not until Irene sacrifices herself that it really slaps him in the face. She's the opposite of Kiera. Kiera purposely turned his life miserable, while Irene "lost" her life to save his.
They're both crazy, psychotic girls, but there is a big difference between them. And actions speak louder than words; this is when Ken realizes that Irene really does love him, unlike how Kiera was faking it (which was easy due to the fact that he worked almost all the time).
Irene could have done countless different things in that moment, and there were plenty that didn't involve sacrificing herself. So why did she? Because the only thing in her mind was protecting Ken, and she did that. Even if it wasn't the best way to do so.
And Ken realizes this. This is how his trauma is completely broken down. He gets over it with the nightmare, before falling in love with Irene and having the moment where he does finally realize that this won't be a repeat of the past.
But now he's lost that one person he truly loves (other than his sister, who he has already sort of "lost". And I'm not counting Erica and the others due to the fact that he likes them, but doesn't love them yet).
This makes Ken go through an intense emotion of ANGEE. Irene has rubbed off of him and he decided to go a little yandere. The person who originally wanted to avoid the yanderes becoming yandere. Another contradiction. And as such, this makes him unlock his "bloodline" ability of the red lightning.
The red lightning is fueled by emotion, as revealed by one of the Great Sages. This is why it's now when he unlocks it, when Ken is in such a fragile and emotional state.
Once again, Ken has been completely broken down. And he builds himself up again, but now starting development to a yandere side, due to all of his trauma throughout his life and influence from being literally surrounded by yanderes.
And once Irene is back, he finally accepts her. Because he's gotten over his past trauma, and has finally moved on.
It's not surprising that the next person that he falls in love with and accepts is Erica, the person he's known from the beginning of the story and his best friend.
Another important thing to mention is Ken's motivations. I've already mentioned his motives which stem from his trauma, but now let's also talk about his motives from his sister.
As I stated earlier, he feels like he's abandoned his sister when he is transmigrated into Heaven's Hell, the one person whom he loves (at this moment). This develops his main motivation and goal.
To see his sister again. So that he can continue protecting her. This morphs into a desire to defeat the Demon King, the main way he could die and therefore not see his sister again.
He doesn't know the ending of Heaven's Hell, and knows that something controversial happens. That means that it could easily be that the main heroes lost.
So that desire morphs into a desire to be strong, which is what makes Ken such the training maniac he is.
Combine his extreme training with an extreme teacher, and a boost in speed due to his own Arcana and Eric's, that makes him become extremely strong over the course of a year.
This is why at the end of Volume 1, his main goal is to become stronger so that no matter what else possibly happens, he can defeat the obstacles in his path to reunite with his sister.
Now of course, wanting to also introduce her to Irene and the others.
Ken still has a little character development to go. But most of Volume 2's character development will focus on the girls. I hope that you liked Ken's development, and hopefully this extra chapter helped clear some things up about it.
This is the character development of Ken Kage. It's complex, a little messy, but ultimately I am proud of it. It was the most complex character development I have ever done and I think I did a good job.