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Celebrating 1,000 NCIS-franchise episodes

Kai: Spleen Stealing Bastard

slayer2

By slayer2
in The Vampire Diaries [V]

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kmariee

kmariee

(edited)

I think my favorite thing about Kai is unlike Klaus and Silas Kai isn't more powerful than all of the main characters, since his abilities are based off of the magic he absorbs nobody really knows how powerful he is at any given time. That's why he has to be so methodical, he always has to have the upper hand based off of intelligence and planning not strength. I also think he's the one character on the show who's completely unfazed by Damon, he will dish the snark right back at him and Damon clearly hates it.

Edited by kmariee
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slayer2

slayer2

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(edited)

That's what I love too. Damon just does not scare him, he's far too unhinged himself. It makes me wonder how many other victims of Damon could have avoided torture by laughing at him and basically telling him to go fuck himself.

Edited by slayer2
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Aeryn13

Aeryn13

 

I think my favorite thing about Kai is unlike Klaus and Silas Kai isn't more powerful than all of the main characters, since his abilities are based off of the magic he absorbs nobody really knows how powerful he is at any given time.

 

That`s the thing, though, that makes it really, really hard to suspend my disbelief on him. Everyone acts like he IS kinda super-duper-powered and all have to tremble in fear. His father hears one whiff of him maybe getting out and immediately goes to trying to murder his daughter to OMG-stop the evil Kai.

 

I get that he can absorb magic by touching someone or something magic. And he did slaughter a bunch of his siblings, presumably little kids. If I`m gracious, I`ll think he surprised Jo. Because otherwise, any witch can snap his neck or give him a witchy migraine or boil his blood from a distance without breaking a sweat. Noone HAS to let him come close enough to touch them and siphon their magic.

 

This is what made the scene where he first showed off his ability in the Salvatore kitchen and threatened Bonnie and Damon with killing them. Now granted, he surprised them there. But after that point, the little bit of magic he drained from Bonnie to show off seemed to be gone soon enough. So why in all the heavens was he still considered a threat then? Bonnie didn`t need to ever let him close enough to touch her. Damon could have easily kept him away, too. What would he have threatened them with then? To throw pork rinds at them?

 

If supernatural beings used their powers on him correctly, he`d be a threat to absolutely noone.

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immortalfrieza

immortalfrieza

If supernatural beings used their powers on him correctly, he`d be a threat to absolutely noone.

That would apply to pretty much all the so called "threats" on this show. If anybody used their powers intelligently I can't think of a single threat on this show that couldn't have been dealt with fairly easily. I especially hate their refusal to just neck snap people especially witches for no reason that lets the victim then get the better of them, like with Damon and the Father last episode, twice.

 

About Kai, unless there's something they are going to reveal soon, I don't see why the Coven sent him to his prison dimension when they could have just killed him. Sure, it's suitably ironic and a great punishment for him to be stuck in the day he killed his family forever, but wouldn't killing him have worked just as well? Especially with the Other Side in the equation. I also think Bonnie should have just did some spell "say something in Latin that really means be trapped here forever that for some reason they can't just say in english" and then just leave the next eclipse. Unless he has some magic nullifying aura (and it doesn't seem like he does)

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rue721

rue721

About Kai, unless there's something they are going to reveal soon, I don't see why the Coven sent him to his prison dimension when they could have just killed him.

 

I think they sent him to the prison dimension because they wanted him to be completely alone. If he'd gone to the Other Side, maybe he would have been able to contact other spirits there, or the person acting as Anchor, or someone who's able to see ghosts in the regular world? Maybe he would have been able to channel the Anchor? Maybe he would have been able to haunt Jo or other members of the family or coven, or even still channel them (considering that death seems like No Big for witches)? Also, if he can draw magic, I wonder if he can draw anything else from other people. In any case, this way, he was completely isolated.

 

Also, in his prison world, I don't think he would ever be able to "find peace," which some people apparently do from the Other Side. If the coven were feeling spiteful, which wouldn't be surprising imo, that might have been a perk of sending him to a prison dimension, too.

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Aeryn13

Aeryn13

 

That would apply to pretty much all the so called "threats" on this show. If anybody used their powers intelligently I can't think of a single threat on this show that couldn't have been dealt with fairly easily. I especially hate their refusal to just neck snap people especially witches for no reason that lets the victim then get the better of them, like with Damon and the Father last episode, twice.

 

I can more easily see why witches often get the upper hand. Unless the vampire manage to surprise them or they get swarmed in greater numbers, their "instant migraine" spell has proved immensely effective.

 

However with Kai, I just can`t get why a witch would be afraid of him. Not if they knew he can siphon their magic and needs to do it by touch. It would be ridiculously easy to always keep him at arm`s length with a spell at which point he`d be as helpless as a kitten. And why would the Coven HAVE to accept a psychotic creep as a leader? He wouldn`t get magical powers from Jo even with merging so he`d be stuck with his own "powers". Any old magical being could still easily kill him. Heck, any vampire, werewolf or human could do it. And yet his father acts like they are about to free Lucifer himself.

 

At least the other Big Bad threats legitimately HAD greater powers than the main characters. I find Kai interesting as a character and his kind of "magic" interesting as well but the whole sending-him-to-the-prison-world in the first place as well as the reaction now would only make sense if he was a Super-Witch who could incinerate them all with a thought.

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kmariee

kmariee

 

However with Kai, I just can`t get why a witch would be afraid of him. Not if they knew he can siphon their magic and needs to do it by touch. It would be ridiculously easy to always keep him at arm`s length with a spell at which point he`d be as helpless as a kitten. And why would the Coven HAVE to accept a psychotic creep as a leader? He wouldn`t get magical powers from Jo even with merging so he`d be stuck with his own "powers". Any old magical being could still easily kill him. Heck, any vampire, werewolf or human could do it. And yet his father acts like they are about to free Lucifer himself.

Well I think if he did merge with Jo he would get her powers. That seem seems to be what Papa Kai thought because he was convinced if they merged Kai would come out the victor, only issue is we have no idea why he felt that way. Also when Kai took Bonnie's magic he was clearly only siphoning some of it and then it seemed to wear off pretty quickly. But what happens when Kai siphons ALL of a witch's power? Now he has Jo's knife which has all of her magic in it so it'll be interesting to see how long that lasts. Plus can Kai hold multiple witches' powers? Besides Papa Kai and now the MFG do any other witches know what Kai looks like, or that he can steal their magic with a touch. It appears when Kai is stealing Bonnie's magic she's in physical pain so it appears she's unable to fight him off. I'm also wondering if it's not just witches magic that Kai can steal but ANY magic? Say if he touches a vampire or werewolf he absorbs some of their powers, like their supernatural strength.

 

I'm assuming the Gemini Coven is just an archiac monarchy type and the Parker family appears to be the chosen leaders. Maybe they just don't have a choice? The leader has to come from that family, which is why the Parkers decided to keep having children under the hopes they would have another set of twins. What I don't get is why was Papa Kai so willing to kill Jo if Kai escaped but not just kill Kai, or let Damon kill Kai?

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Aeryn13

Aeryn13

 

Well I think if he did merge with Jo he would get her powers. That seem seems to be what Papa Kai thought because he was convinced if they merged Kai would come out the victor, only issue is we have no idea why he felt that way.

 

Me neither. Because I thought Jo`s entire magic was in that knife, therefore if a witch merged with her, they would get absolutely nothing from it, only keep their own power. Which, in Kai`s case, is also no power of his own. Zero plus zero or zero times zero still equals zero. Maybe Papa Gemini is very, very bad at math? 

 

"Merging" with the knife on the other hand should have given Kai the whatjamagic he would have gotten from merging with real life Josette back in the day. I guess this is another thing the show didn`t think through again. It`s like the "rules" for the compulsion not being lifted upon Alaric`s "death" or the crossing the border not working and all that nonsense.

 

 

I'm also wondering if it's not just witches magic that Kai can steal but ANY magic? Say if he touches a vampire or werewolf he absorbs some of their powers, like their supernatural strength.

 

Easy solution would be to imprison him in New Mystic Falls. Lets see him try and steal magic there.

 

 

The leader has to come from that family, which is why the Parkers decided to keep having children under the hopes they would have another set of twins.

A wonder that coven didn`t go extinct if they have a) such stupidly rigid rules and b) a complete inability to adapt. What if someone wiped out the entire family and thus killed any chance for a new leader to arise? Maybe Kai was so different because he was born with a brain. 

 

 

What I don't get is why was Papa Kai so willing to kill Jo if Kai escaped but not just kill Kai, or let Damon kill Kai?

 

That scene made no sense whatsoever. He went to killing his daughter in five seconds flat. When not only was Kai not out but he had tried nothing, absolutely nothing else. Damon offered to just kill Kai on the spot. They could put a protective detail on Jo and the twins to flush him out for example. Nope, why bother?

 

Back in Season 3, I sniggered a bit at their twentieth "kill Klaus"-plan but at least to put in some effort and explored some avenues. If they thought like Papa Kai, the entire Mystic Falls gang, upon learning Klaus was after Elena, would have committed pre-emptive suicide. Elena so she wouldn`t be used and all the others so they wouldn`t be used against her. 

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GraceAnne

GraceAnne

 

think my favorite thing about Kai is unlike Klaus and Silas Kai isn't more powerful than all of the main characters, since his abilities are based off of the magic he absorbs nobody really knows how powerful he is at any given time. That's why he has to be so methodical, he always has to have the upper hand based off of intelligence and planning not strength. I also think he's the one character on the show who's completely unfazed by Damon, he will dish the snark right back at him and Damon clearly hates it.

Agreed.

I always found it odd The Originals were immortal but the Scooby Gang seemed to always be able to get the drop on them.

I mean a 1000 years is a long time y'all.... I would think they'd have seen some of these schemes coming!

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PinkRibbons

PinkRibbons

So I'd love to hear opinions on this: so far Kai seems to have been received extremely well by the viewing audience. That is to say, the majority seems to enjoy his character. BUT, we all know that with this show, characters that have quick popularity tend to end up overstaying their welcome. So how long do you think the show can and should feasibly keep Kai before offing him?

 

My greatest fear for the character is if they try to give him more dimension. My enjoyment of Kai is deeply grounded in the fact that he's just plain evil and that he's giggling, joyfully so. The only way I can see him staying is if he becomes an even bigger bad (I'm putting my money on him to win the twin-battle) and yet somehow decides he doesn't really feel like messing around with the main cast anymore. Like, he's so psychotic I could see him putting down roots in Mystic Falls, pretending the people there are his "friends" and meanwhile committing heinous acts that don't involve them. Because that would make an interesting forced introspection for these people -- they pretty much only watch out for their own. So if Kai is hanging out nearby, doing terrible things to the people in the next town over that we've never met, would the characters still try to take him out of commission? Or would they consider it too big a risk to go after him with no immediate threat against them and just go, "Ah, fuck it, Kai's just being Kai"?

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immortalfrieza

immortalfrieza

It would be nice to have a lasting completely irredeemable villain who the "power of love" had no effect, but with Kai I think that he needs to be toned down. The writers keep on trying to have Kai top himself in evil bastardry in every episode he's in, so if he's going to last they really need to learn to pace themselves. There's only so evil you can make a character before it gets ridiculous that the main cast doesn't take him out the first chance they got, and I think Kai has gone past that point.

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Carrie Ann

Carrie Ann

I find him super enjoyable, but I want him done at the end of this season because there's no way to maintain this without getting tedious or humanizing him. I don't want that from Kai. Hopefully some other CW show will see Chris Wood's appeal and cast him accordingly.

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wednesbury

wednesbury

(edited)

My greatest fear for the character is if they try to give him more dimension. My enjoyment of Kai is deeply grounded in the fact that he's just plain evil and that he's giggling, joyfully so. 

 

Giving a character more dimension isn't a bad thing.  The more well rounded a character is the better.  The fact that Elena and Damon have become so one note over the last few seasons is part of the reason they've become so boring and predictable.

 

I don't want Kai becoming just one of the gang either though, and I also delight in his evil smack talking ways.  But I don't think it has to be one or the other.  I'd like to think that there is a way to keep him menacing and hilarious and not turn him into Enzo (aka lame, useless, underwhelming).

 

I'd love to see him team up with Bonnie and together become the BIG BAD's of next season.

Edited by wednesbury
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LeafontheWind

LeafontheWind

This would probably go in the UO thread if there was one, but I honestly think Kai is the best thing to happen to happen to this show in a long, long time. I'm sort of embarrassed by how much I enjoy him.

I love Kai too! I am hopeful we will see him again soon now that the witchpires promise to be the big bad at least the next few episodes. I am really hoping they will break him out of the prison world to help in the fight against Lily's creepy family.

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Luciano

Luciano

(edited)

I love Kai. Like someone mentioned before, he's just delightfully evil. Even when he had an attack of conscience, he wasn't wallowing in miserable guilt but approaching sort of like a scientist - he was curious and trying different things in order to make it better.

The other thing I love about Kai is that his plans don't deal with Elena or Stefan or their doppelgangers or Damon - the only person he has zeroed in on in the main group is Bonnie, which is great for me since she's been my favorite for the past few seasons. There's no 'We need Elena's blood'/'I have to bug Stefan for reasons'/'Doppelganger spell fixes everything!' The rest of the group could die for all he cares and that tickles me. It's the same reason I liked Kol.

Edited by Luciano
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LadyArcadia

LadyArcadia

Super late to the party. I'm just finally catching up on seasons I missed.  I wrapped up this storyline and it dawned on me that I've seen Kai somewhere before.  Sure enough... he was the lead in "Containment"  the short lived mini-series that aired last year.  I have no idea how I recognized him because even though it was only a couple of years apart, he looks completely different!  He was so thin and young here and in Containment... whew boy!  He grew up and bulked up!  Wow.  It doesn't even look like the same person!

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