Kellan is red/green
Lore forum
Posted on Feb. 20, 2024, 4:30 a.m. by legendofa
I believe that Kellan, the Fae-Blooded, Kellan, Daring Traveler, and Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy are all off the mark. Kellan, at his core, is strongly .
Obviously, he's not a brutish barbarian or wild elementalist or anything like so many common representations of . The Gruul Clans are dedicated to bringing down the social and physical structures of Ravnica, Innistrad werewolves spend half their time as wild animals, Atarka dragons are the biggest and most feral, and so on, and none of those match Kellan. But that's a narrow view of .
Kellan is driven almost entirely by his emotions and a desire to understand his place in the world . He's impulsive and capricious and puts his faith in fate to guide him . He doesn't seem to have any long-term plans, doing what seems right in the moment even regarding his quest to find his father. He wants to personally experience what the planes he visits have to offer and easily makes personal connections with the people he meets .
He's not . He doesn't have any special appreciation for societal strictures and regulations. He doesn't use light or healing magic, outside of the swords that were given to him. While he will protect and care for his friends, that comes from a place of emotion and personal bonding rather than an impersonal sense of duty. He isn't conformist and doesn't expect conformity from others.
He's not . He's not at all academic. He's intelligent and can be inquisitive, but he prefers a direct hands-on approach rather than research. If he starts studying something, it's generally because he finds it interesting in the moment. He has no connection to the elements of air or water. He doesn't seem to believe that people can control and define their own destiny, and he doesn't spend a lot of time making plans. He is not especially manipulative, and he doesn't rely on trickery or illusions.
He's not . He is not overly selfish or ambitious. He doesn't seem to be willing to make major sacrifices for personal gain, or get others to sacrifice on his behalf. He doesn't use magic related to death, disease, necromancy, or soul manipulation. He isn't driven by a desire for more power, and he isn't concerned with improving his status in life.
There seems to be two camps of color philosophy interpretation. The first is that it's representative of self-identity and expression. People have brought up the valid point that he's at an age where people often struggle or experiment with their personal identity and interests, and that this struggle and experimentation could be why his card color is inconsistent, as he travels the multiverse and expands his horizons. To me, though, color philosophy goes deeper than that. It represents personality and outlook on society and the world as a whole. Changing color philosophy is equivalent to changing personality, changing worldview, changing what makes you, you. I've used the examples of Ajani, Sarkhan Vol, and Tezzeret before. Each of them has a defining core color, and their supplementary colors change as their entire philosophy on life changes. For Kellan, as far as I can tell, the totality of his story portrayals supports an color identity, and the and are just snapshots, no more representative of him as a whole than Jace or Elspeth suddenly becoming when they get angry or when they want something for themselves.
So I see Kellan as inherently , but a side of that gets explored less than the savage stereotype.
At this point, can somebody please point out where I'm going wrong? I just don't see it. I'm trying to keep an open mind for other interpretations, but everything in the story seems to keep reinforcing Kellan as , and he keeps not being an card.
What about him is , , or any combination of those? He has all the potential in the world to show off a completely appropriate (in my eyes) side of that doesn't get any attention. If he ends up being Generic -Centric Good Guy No. Whatever, I'm going to... I dunno. Complain to the internet, probably.
DatShepTho says... #2
100% agree. Definitely more impulsive and free spirited by nature than his colour identities have depicted. Couldn't have summarised this better myself.
February 20, 2024 11:42 a.m.