Kris is unironically the most relatable video game protagonist in any game I’ve ever played. For context I was in high school (15yo) when the game released and I feel like I can understand myself a bit better though fiction and stuff.
I used to identify as non-binary as a young teen, before realizing I was a trans man. I was the quiet kid at school. Hell, I have dark brown hair and had a very similar shaggy hairstyle, and yes, I DID grow out my bangs so I could dramatically cover my eyes.
I still strongly remember the shitty weird parts of being a teen. Bullying, social dynamics, figuring out your identity. The text when you check the flyers in the ‘librarby‘ and it say something like [“Where teenz can be kidz!” … you breathed a sigh of relief.]
I also include the extreme behaviors. Kris going to slash the tire of their mother’s car. Lying to the people that they seem to care about. I did a lot of stuff like that too. Not car tire slashing but I did once sneak out at 1pm to go meet someone. And by that I mean I took the car keys and drove like 40 miles away to meet a dude who actually sucked but I was too young to realize.
Don‘t get me started on the divorce trauma. The whole theory that Lanino and Elnina breaking up being a parallel of the divorce and Mr. Tenna trying to smooth it over. [It’s normal for couples to fight, right Kris?] Reminds me when I would blast music in my headphones as loud as I could , but the walls were thin and I could hear my parents screaming and cussing at each other. Loud screaming threats of divorce that my cheap headphones couldn’t drown out.
I honestly don’t want to touch the idea of ‘art club’ meaning art in a medical therapy sense because I don’t want to think about my time in the mental hospital.
I truly hope that Kris doesn’t suffer too much. At of the end of the day, they’re a traumatized teen scrambling around an incredibly complex web of issues.