The various traumas of fictional characters 😃🔪 (part one: Keefe Sencen)

Uh hey 🙃

So today, I was listening to one of Au/Ra’s album (X Games)—as one does—and Panic Room comes on.

My mind immediately flashes to Keefe.

The poor, lovesick, heartbroken dude that deserves the entire world.

Also the dude that has a gun cocked with jokes and sarcasm so as not to relive his not-so-great childhood.

…freaking Cassius. I’d stab him if I could.

Literally Ro 😂

<ahem> I thought since I’m running out of post ideas, I’d talk about this. And sound like Keefe on fathomlethes. Or, at least look like it.

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Well, since we started off talking about Keefe Sencen himself, let’s continue that.

Now, if you’ve read Keeper of the Lost Cities, you’d know that Keefe exists (in the Keeper world) to fulfill his psychotic mom’s (aka. Lady Gisela) legacy.

And his dad (Lord Cassius) was obsessed with the idea of a mini him to be perfect in every way.

So, of course, came the toxic-ness of that type of childhood. And the extra cargo of much-needed therapy and mental illnesses.

But, oh. My. God.

Yet. And yet, this… this literal child (oh, you thought I’d say something nice? Nah) is only concerned about others. He’d probably take a bullet and eternal torture if it meant Sophie getting out alive.

“And please, forget all about me,”

Keefe’s letter, Unlocked

Which means: that the joking, sarcastic, flirty Keefe that gives exactly ✨feero zucks*✨ isn’t exactly the true Keefe that we al know and love.

(*it’s a Sal & Gabi thing. You wouldn’t understand)

Keefe’s got his trauma! Don’t worry! It includes: abuse, an inferiority complex, a hero complex, anxiety, depression, PTSD, and much, MUCH more!

“What can I say? I like to keep people on their toes.”

Keefe, Legacy

There’s a “mask” that’s hiding that mess in his head that he pretty much only takes off in front of his parents and the love of his life Sophie.

“You keep trying to fix everything, Sophie. You even fixed Exillium. But you can’t fix me.”

Keefe, Neverseen (I think)

But, OH, Keefe is certain that he’s broken, and that he’s broke for good! That’s it! Just throw him away and replace him with Fitz!

Keefe, honey, you’ve made such an impact on Sophie’s life, on Fitz’s life, and on the entire fandom’s life that if you were to, say, leave, you’d break all of our hearts into a million pieces!

*traumatic flashbacks of reading Unlocked*

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Now, with this near-shattered mind, Keefe’s got one outstanding problem: an absolutely huge hero complex.

If you don’t know what that is, it means he feels like he needs to play the role of hero in any fraught situation. And I mean any.

Like, y’know, talking to Sophie about her sorta-boyfriend troubles and giving advice on how to handle that.

Instead of, y’know, taking a chance with Sophie.

All in all, in some cases, that makes him a fantastic friend that you can trust.

In other cases, he messes things up. Big time.

He’s probably desperate for love, too.

“You were terrified, because she gave you just enough love to show you how wonderful it could be if she truly cared for you—and then casually withheld the rest, leaving you to wonder where you went wrong, and trying to figure out how to fix it, and being constantly afraid that you’d lose what little you had.”

Lord Cassius, Legacy

Cause if you’re rejected your entire life, and you stumble across someone that obviously cares for you, you’d probably be head-over-heels in love.

And this poor dude has it bad for Sophie.

Like, honestly, how.

bᵤₜ ₛₒₚₕᵢₑ cₕₒₒₛₑₛ fᵢₜz ₑᵥₑₙ ₜₕₒᵤgₕ ₖₑₑfₑ ₜᵣₑₐₜₛ ₕₑᵣ ₛₒ ₘᵤcₕ bₑₜₜₑᵣ

Of course, Keefe’s been dropping not-so-subtle hints to Sophie with his bodyguard’s, Ro, help.

But dear lord, our little oblivious Foster doesn’t know a crush even if it literally crushed her. Even with two extremely out-there people basically professing their/the other person’s uNdYiNg LoVe, she’s just •confused Bakugo• and doesn’t know or accept what’s actually going on. It’s impressive, actually. The pure, innocent mind of this smol child. I’d still slap her across the face though. 

¿¿ɯıɥ ʇǝǝɯ oʇ slnos ʇuǝʇsıxǝ-uou ɹıǝɥʇ llǝs ʇnoqɐ ʇsnɾ p’ʇɐɥʇ ɯopuɐɟ ǝɹıʇuǝ ǝɥʇ ʇnoqɐ ʇɐɥʍ (⁎⁍̴̀﹃ ⁍̴́⁎)♡

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The thing that’s most surprising (to me) about Keefe is the fact that he’s still functioning.

~think about it~

He’s been through so freaking much.

1. Being betrayed by his parents, people you typically hold closest to your heart
2. “Betraying” his own friends because he was convinced it was the right thing to do
3. Seeing an entire building collapse on Sophie—twice! (More or less)
4. Thinking he’s killed innocent people
5. Running away twice to protect his friends
6. Not speaking because of the fact that his voice hurt people
7. Being experimented on—and “transformed” by—his own mother
8. Thinking two of his friends died
9. Being stuck in a coma for a year week
10. Being rejected—it hurts more than you would think 🥲
11. Getting attacked so. Many. Times. That I’ve lost count
12. Being able to sense what abilities people have BEFORE they manifest—that must be a huge burden
13. Did I mention the abuse from his parents?

A baker’s dozen! Wow, no wonder!

👏character👏flaws👏are👏freaking👏everything👏

<but Shannon may have gone a bit overboard here>

The impressive thing in Keefe’s written character is the balance between the traumatized little boy who just wants a hug, and the teen who couldn’t care less about you.

It’s immaculate!

Honestly, I’m surprised he hasn’t joined his mom in the dark side. At least you get to stab people there.

He could attack his dad and that would just be a causality of a larger war.

Buuut…

Lady Gisela failed to take one thing into consideration.

The fact that Keefe literally fell in love with her aRcH eNeMy!

👁👄👁

Imagine. Imagine!

I just— when that first occurred to me I died 😂😂😂

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Something that makes me consistently cry is the fact that Keefe wasn’t even given a family crest—something he’d waited years for!

And there was a tracker in it.

Sophie was given a crest in the second book, so she waited less than a year to get it.

Keefe waited years to be accepted into his own family, and then—ha!—he’s still not really accepted.

Plus, there’s the fact that he considered his mom to be the nicer one.

Then—wait!—she’s actually the evil one! Whoops!

I need to take lying lessons from Gisela.

So he’s stuck with the abusive dad, and the psycho mom.

What a wonderful family. So loving.

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In all honesty, Keefe is probably at least half insane. He isn’t really mentally stable.

He would be good friends with Todoroki though!

Pretty-rokiiiiiii

And the animators really included pretty Bakugo?? I mean, not that I’m complaining—

But all the guilt’s probably gotten through. No matter how much Sophie tells him, “it’s not your fault!!1!!!11!”

Cause sometimes it is! Did you not consider that?

For example, BLOWING UP THE FOXFIRE PYRAMID. THAT WAS HIS FAULT AND YOU CANNOT CHANGE MY MIND.

*breath in, breath out*

He’d be the most likely candidate to snap and go on a murdering spree. Killing all of the Neverseen. 😃🔪

He’d also be the most likely to not cry if one of his parents died. For obvious reasons.

But imagine villain Keefe.

Like, I know the whole “Villain AU” is pretty popular in the BNHA fandom. Especially villain Deku.

(not mine) Where would he learn how to kill anyways?? Isn’t he training to be a hero???

Why not the Keeper fandom??

l o o k a t h i m h e a p r e t t y b o i

[I just like the idea of Keefe in a tux 😎]

Back to more important matters, like would Keefe turn yandere?

Answer: if it wasn’t for the guilt thing, absolutely.

I can see the headlines… “String of Murders Leads to First Yandere in the Lost Cities,”

Imagine the terror. The panic. The power he would hold!

The masses would run away from him… the absolute catastrophe!

The Councillors could probably never smooth that over, because they neglected a child! That went insane!

And that would be just the opening for the Neverseen!

But then they all drop dead, starting with Lady Gisela.

Oh my god, he would turn Toga and probably slice up Sophie too—

ANYWAY WE GOT A BIT OFF TRACK 😅😅😅

So what were we talking about? Keefe’s mental instability?

Ah, yes!

Of course, him snapping will probably result in at least one or two injuries or deaths. Not a pretty sight.

I wouldn’t be surprised if that did actually cause a public panic.

Also—Keefe reminds me a lot of Dionysus.

Not the “Percy Jackson” version; the one who’s exiled and basically always trying to get drunk.

I mean the crazy, madness-including Dionysus.

Just the “pretending to be fine,” and the “forced to be changed.”

Please watch the video ;-;

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*contemplating whether or not to talk about Keefe’s canon violent side*

((Hopefully this is the last abrupt change of subject))

Well, Keefe can use weapons. Which is ~interesting~

For example, in Exile, he shot a gun melder and threw, like, five throwing stats at the Neverseen.

In Neverseen, he flipping pinned Gethen to a wall and was choking him.

What. The actual. Fu—

No, for real. I promise you that happened.

Keefe slammed Gethen into the wall and pinned him by his neck. “What were you planning to do to her?”

Neverseen, chapter 23

<I’m getting enemies-to-lovers vibes and I don’t know how to feel about it>

Am I the only one who forgot about this???

And am I the only one who is having trouble deciding if that’s really hot or really scary????????

*coughs really aggressively for a subject change*

I’m just legitimately concerned that Keefe could choke and shoot people just fine in the earlier books… then it gets forgotten?

Like… he shot someone. And didn’t feel guilt.

He’s also the only one who really hasn’t shown any guilt. Think about it!

When all the major events that connected to Keefe happened, he was really only confused and angry, and there was no guilt.

Shannon Messenger, what the living Hades.

For the love of everything good and holy, make some sense. Before I kill your cats—

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So… what’s going to happen to him in the human cities?

Will he learn to be more ruthless? Will he lose his rough edges?

Will I finally stop thinking of him as a really suicidal traumatized dude, and more as the sarcastic guy Shannon thinks he is?

Will I shut up about how much I love Keefe???

I don’t know, and neither do you! Ha!

Well, let me know what character you want chaotically psychoanalyzed by a twelve-year-old! 😎

(I wanna do either Percy Jackson or Himiko Toga)

☮️peace out☮️