Had To Throw My Hat In The Ring.

In Kalim’s defence half the school is gnc and/or alt. Jamil’s new gyaru friend could’ve been anyone.

Hey Raven, do you think Kalim is stupid?

The short answer to this would be “no”, but because I like to overanalyze things, let me explain why. In this essay, I will--

I believe when people think of “stupidity”, they tend to think of it in a sense of general intelligence or book smarts, or they equate it to a number or a letter grade on a report card. In this case, one can easily point to Kalim’s poor academic performance and say, “he doesn’t do well in his classes, and he needs to study and try very hard, plus get help from Jamil, just to get a mediocre grade.” All of that is true. However, to call Kalim “stupid” just because he doesn’t perform well in a traditional classroom setting would be remiss.

The nature of schools hosting many students forces them to standardize lessons and teach them in the same way to large groups. The truth of the matter is, these same methods won’t work for every student. Some just work better one-on-one, and others need more specialized lessons for them to best learn. For example, some people are more visual learners, while others are more auditory, and some just prefer tactile or hands-on learning. Just because Kalim doesn’t fare well with traditional classroom lectures and studying/memorization doesn’t mean other methods wouldn’t work better for him. As was previously mentioned, he seems to do well when Jamil tutors him, so this may hint that Kalim may prefer to be taught in a more personalized setting. We see similar instances of Kalim performing well when instructed one-on-one in Master Chef and when Azul lends him his help in chapter 4. This doesn’t make Kalim “stupid”, it just means he has different preferences when it comes to being taught.

Remember that Kalim hails from a very affluent family. The Asims’ money and power have essentially shielded Kalim from most consequences and other unfortunate circumstances of life. Kalim won’t ever understand what it feels like to have financial struggles, or to go a day hungry. He’s so used to getting everything he wants, and that has made him not stupid, but naïve and ignorant of how the “real world” works. Ignorance is not the same as stupidity. (You can also say that Malleus is ignorant, since his country is very old-fashioned (to the point where he had never ridden a car until the Scalding Sands Fireworks event), but you wouldn’t call Malleus “stupid” for not knowing things that were beyond his circumstances.)

One last point I’d like to make is that while Kalim is not book smart, he is very emotionally intelligent, especially when it comes to dealing with others. For reference, emotional intelligence is defined as “the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one's emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically”.

Students in Scarabia love Kalim, and it’s for a good reason. He’s very good at understanding them and empathizing with them, even if he’s laid back as a leader. For example, Kalim was able to talk his dorm mates through bouts of homesickness, and he was always willing to support his dorm mates in their other times of need. Furthermore, it was Kalim who was able to placate his angry dorm mates when they were upset with Jamil post-Overblot. The students were willing to give Jamil a second chance, despite all of the terrible things he did, because Kalim convinced them. Who else would be capable of such a feat, if not him?

This carries over to chapter 5 as well. Kalim becomes aware of his own inadequacy (maybe even jealousy?) when Jamil is picked to be a lead performer for VDC instead of him, and Kalim pushes himself to work harder so he can catch up to Jamil. However, he never stops caring about other people. It’s Kalim and Rook that pep talked Deuce and helped him come to terms with his frustration regarding his lack of improvement. It is also Kalim who initially sensed that Vil was going to attempt something heinous to come out on top at VDC. He came running to the scene and knocked the poison out of Rook’s hand, because he knew that something was wrong just from observing Vil. 

We can see several instances of Kalim’s own kind of intelligence, emotional intelligence, especially as he engages with his peers. In conclusion, Kalim may not be the most crafty in a traditional sense, but he has his own insights to contribute, making him fit as the Dorm Leader of Scarabia--the dorm modeled after the deliberation of the Sorcerer of the Sands.

get 'em before they melt!

(the flavors are 99% vibes + first thought only thought, don't take them too seriously)

"Controversial" person

about the kalim post -> the amount of people that call kalim a stupid idiot is 😭 he misinterprets people’s actions, words, and facial expressions sometimes and really thinks differently when it comes to his logic, but that’s prolly where his obliviousness ends. he knows Jamil was hurting even before Jamil’s overblot and reveal (magic carpet ride with Yuu where he says he wants Jamil to worry less and loosen up a little), Kalim’s ceremony robes where he says he’s surprised he got chosen as dorm leader and suggests Jamil would be better for the job… I remember it got so bad that people thought he was oblivious to getting poisoned or kidnapped that the EN translations turned his vagueness about it (from not wanting to worry anyone) into something he talks a lot more directly about. The obvious things he might not get, but the smaller things - Vil’s change in expression that reminded him of Jamil before he overblotted, Alab Nariya where he successfully figured at the end what Jamil was thinking as he fired the fireworks (but Jamil brushes off his worries) - are things he notices unpredictably. That’s a part of his character charm! A lot of people have this image of Kalim based on the workload Jamil has from him. Valid, but Kalim worried a lot about Jamil while Jamil was dissuading his worries (not very well, but Kalim doesn’t get sarcasm ww) - now he’s being more stubborn on still doing the work with Jamil even when Jamil says he can handle it himself. Jamil is more open on accepting that help too!! Kalim needs more love TT

Completely agree, Anon!

Kalim is naive and it's understandable that people can find him annoying (especially if you're a fan of Jamil), but he has a lot more depth than a lot of fans are willing to give him credit for. He has the best intentions in whatever he does and his good will makes him easy to take advantage of. As I see it lot of his incompetence stems from him not being allowed to actually do things of his own accord (a lot of which is perpetuated by Jamil's insistance that Kalim can't do anything correctly, therefore he shouldn't do anything that could be remotely dangerous [which is his job so can't blame him for that]). Without being given a chance to fail, Kalim can't see where his shortcomings are and can't improve on them, but that changes after chapter 4 when Jamil stops being quite as overly protective (when they actually compete for the top spot in the SDC performance for example!). Kalim is a very considerate person, but he also tends to take other peoples' words and intentions at face value. He's easy to take advantage of and I can see people being frustrated with that, but his character depth doesn't stop there and he's one of the few characters in this game that actively reflects on past actions and tries to do better.

No one is obligated to like Kalim, but this blog stans the sunshine boy!

(And honestly, I think there are just some people who can't stand that he's nice enough to offer help to anyone who asks for it AND has the money/resources to do it extravagantly. Which in a roundabout way would bring us back to the post this stems from.)

crumb comics dump

The more you try to make me feel bad for Jamil the worse I will treat him. If you demonize Kalim for him? Forget it buddy I’m going to start a campaign against Jamil and start spreading misinformation

Birb

I’m sorry GC, it was rigged from the start :( I swear you’ll prevail on the next one! And from what I heard from past contests this is like the third time she’s been second. How she hasn’t won one yet is beyond me

I am pretty positive no one had truly seen that Rachel Zegler interview because the hate the poor girl got for it was so insane for no reason, mostly from adult men who did not give a shit about Snow White before the movie was announced.

She never said they wanted to cut the guy‘s story, she simply said that people will assume the movie is just a romance because they cast a guy in it and that Snow‘s story is not just a love story with him. Like she is not stupid, she knows there is a love song in the movie and that Jonathan has his own arc. She was pushing back at the notion that Snow simply has to be saved by a guy cause he is in the movie. Could she have worded it better? Yeah, but it was also 2022 and people are still talking about it as if the girl has not proven time and time again what a great time she had with him, how big of a fan of Snow White she was before she was casted. Her and Jonathan are friends. They were not allowed to talk about how Andrew‘s character is or anything and she found a way to avoid saying too much. I bet she wished she had said it differently but also what difference does it make? What matters is the final product and no one can really judge it without watching it first.

Mind you all this hate from people that were gonna hate on the movie anyway. I cant with fandoms sometimes.