That Didnt Happen, Of Course. Things Never Happened The Way I Imagined Them.

“That didn’t happen, of course. Things never happened the way I imagined them.”

— John Green, Paper Towns

tags post

the painter holds the universe in his mind and in his hands ⎛ meta analysis ⎠

i am here to live out loud! ⎛ insp ⎠

it's art!!! ⎛ out ⎠

ok but also kayneth being such a prodigy …. also is a super lonely existence to be, because like … people can’t relate to that. he probably flew right thru his studies and while he was known as the greatest mage of the association at the time of the fourth war, so many people were probably jealous of that talent,

and how many people must’ve just kissed ass to him to try to get good standing and whatnot,

what i’m saying is kayneth becomes so initially closed off to people because he’s absolutely been used, and beyond that he’s often socially isolated. he doesn’t know what to do in a lot of situations. it isn’t that he doesn’t care; he cares a LOT, this is definitely shown more in the light novels, even accel order gives us a little more insight to kayneth ( he’s a hopeless romantic who writes love letters! ), in the end he has so much passion and warmth, but he’s learned to be very guarded. not to mention his horrible situation with sola-ui, 

also imagine saying kayneth el-melloi is the greatest mage of the association, but the association also includes … the barthomeloi family, the animuspheres, the age of gods fraga family ⎛ and not to say there weren't also many talented mages in these families because there ARE! ⎠ , but here we go

Kayneth is a very wealthy and successful nobleman, a renowned magus from the Mage’s Association, the Lord of Kischur, the Department of Mineralogy at the Clock Tower, and a lecturer in Eulyphis, the Department of Spiritual Evocation. Kayneth demonstrated genius level talent during his time as a student. He was the youngest lecturer to grace the podium of the Department of Evocation in its history. He has an ancient magical lineage that goes back for over nine generations. He was born with immense talent and rarely, if ever, encountered any hurdles in life. Due to his great lineage, he had extensive connections. He was expected to form the greatest faction in the Clock Tower. He obtained the rank of Pride in his teens. Although the El-Melloi faction has many powerful branch families besides the Archibalds, Kayneth swept aside the competition and inherited the El-Melloi Magic Crest.

Kayneth is renowned for his prowess as a magus, known as the greatest prodigy of Rufleus Nuada-Re Eulyphis, a first-rate lecturer, and the most noted magus of the Association as of the Fourth Holy Grail War.

ok we also have

Magi can advance ranks through growth, accompanied by an official ceremony at the Clock Tower. The specifics vary, but the ritual is themed around death and rebirth for everyone reaching the rank of Pride. Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald is estimated to have possibly been able to reach the level of Grand.

lmao the other grand is touko aozaki with ex rank circuit quality so uh.

kayneth… really has a lot going on and while he’s genuinely just a genius at everything, he also must be supremely lonely and that makes me sad

lmao lets kick this blog off with a meta as usual. 

today we will talk about kayneth, the artist, how his artistry manifested in his magecraft, and why he should’ve stayed out of the war. 

so, in the character materials, it’s said that kayneth’s talents ( outside of his mastery of five areas of magecraft ) include drawing and sculpting. i’d also like to note that kayneth and kiritsugu are the same age when they participate in the war, ( they’re 28 ) kayneth just looks older because all of the stress of his life has absolutely aged him. anyway, the one thing kayneth was doing that kept him feeling like he wasn’t already 80 years old was art. 

this man has talent like da vinci as a painter and sculpts like michelangelo. kayneth’s art and sculpture sells for absurdly large sums of money, and he’d be able to sustain his lavish lifestyle on his art alone. being an artist is his main talent. “but percival, he mastered 5 areas of magecraft!” you may say, to which i answer: yes, but there are other aspects of magecraft, namely the workings of mage mentality that kayneth actually DIDN’T master. he didn’t grasp what counted when it came to surviving as a mage. 

kayneth comes from a noble bloodline and thus was raised to be chivalrous. and he actually is. he wants his opponents to fight him with honor, and that’s why he was guaranteed to fail in the fourth war. because that was just going to be a bunch of underhanded tricks. kayneth, unlike the other masters, set up an incredibly complex bounded field that displayed everything he was capable of. he wasn’t hiding his talent as a mage ( and yes, he’s a prodigy at performing as one ). he would’ve done well if he battled tokiomi, because tokiomi is also much like kayneth in traditional manner. mind you, kayneth also would’ve won that, because while tokiomi is from a long ass bloodline, kayneth is a literal prodigy who can and will use every skill he has. because he sees no reason NOT to. 

and speaking of that, his main mystic code, volumen hydragyrum, is really. 1 artistic 2 incredibly OP when used properly. kayneth’s affinity to air and water make him the perfect person to use the mystic code, which is made of mercury. it’s a very artistic code in itself, because kayneth is an artist. it comes out in basically anything he does. against any other mage but kiritsugu, kayenth’s artistry would’ve … given him a win in some way or another. he’s got skill above the majority of the cast ( 3000 mp to waver’s 5 mp for example / kiritsugu says the only person more dangerous than kayneth is kirei ). he has a knowledge basis that goes beyond most of the cast when it comes to magecraft, too. and he’s creative. really, the only way to take him down would be to use underhanded tricks. 

unfortunately for kayneth, using underhanded tricks is also a surefire way to win against him. looping back to the whole chivalry and honor thing, kayneth won’t tarnish his own honor like that, no matter who he’s faced with. this is how he gets absolutely screwed over by kiritsugu ( and i have a few choice words for the whole kayneth using the gun to kill risei, because that’s just. not his style ever lmao ). there’s no amount of skill that will keep you from getting fucked over by someone who cheats; the worst part perhaps of this is kayneth KNOWS that. he KNOWS kiritsugu will cheat and YET he also still fights because he knows running away will ALSO be a slight on his honor. 

really, all of this could be avoided if he just did art and didn’t care about mage society lmao thanks for coming to my tedtalk

Send me✏️ for my muse to draw your muse.

Kayneth had a vague memory of this one- of what must've been another life in a time that was not his own, but it was all the same. He remembered ... was it really Waver? His former student had grown taller, he looked tired. He said something about looking up to Kayneth, and he'd buried the guilt deep down. After all, mages weren't allowed that sort of sentiment, were they? Not in a war like that. ❝ Ritsuka, was it? ❞

❝ In another life, perhaps ... did we fight as allies a war? Or was that simply a dream? ❞ It's simply curiosity, although he's still distant. Kayneth had never really known how to reach out to others- he'd lived isolated and lonely, hadn't he? Because that was the saying- it's lonely at the top. Not that he'd ever admit it, and not that he really knew how lonely he was, because maybe that was normal. Maybe that was how it was supposed to be for mages.

He shouldn't have been a mage. He should've stayed an artist. Maybe he should've run away from home as a child. But for all the strife it had caused him, hadn't he met some amazing people by living life as a mage? By casting aside his heart, hadn't he been someone great, too?

⎛ He wouldn't let it show, but it was rather unsettling knowing that all he could do now was some rather simple illusion craft- simple to him, complex to others, but not nearly all that he'd been able to do. ⎠

❝ If so ... then ... thank you. ❞ He's never been one to ask for help, and while he'd played along, the entire thing had been so wildly unsettling- Not to mention, he had no memory of what had happened next. Waver somehow knew about letters left in his office, which could only mean that he had died- but it was better not to think of that sort of thing, right?

❲ @hopeled ❳