Kaixin Chaoren: Shikong Yingjiu

Oooof, so there's a good reason why this story was rated PG.

Yeah, it's the infamous patricide scene alright.

Ok, so this movie wasn't terrible and it was a lot better than the last one. The main issue is runtime and the potential themes that could be brought into the story.

This movie seems to try and replicate Encanto and ATSV at the same time, and since ATSV has two parts which are both ~2 h long, the themes it tried to tackle and the runtime where a recipe for disaster. There's also the fact that ATSV is a sequel where you revisit well-established characters, while Multiverse ... Rescue is a stand-alone multiverse story.

The story is meant to be a character study on Kalo and his trauma. One day en evil Kalo shows up to kill Main Kalo and succeeds, and Careful S goes to other dimensions to save his closest companion. From then on, most of the story takes place in the Ancient dimension with Ancient!Kalo. Careful meets Ancient!Kalo who is much younger than his main universe counterpart and training hard to become the Guardian of Adeli, per his father's wishes (Aka where Encanto comes in). They hang out, Ancient!Kalo finds his first friend, and then Careful...leaves to jump dimensions and save Main!Kalo.

And then he comes back to the Ancient dimension to fight Evil!Kalo and revive all the other Kalos. Ancient!Kalo is there but they don't talk, he has a mental breakdown, gets a corruption arc and then bam! Patricide scene. In the end, the capsule with Kalo souls break, the Kalos go back to their home dimensions, Evil!Kalo dies from his wounds and Ancient!Kalo wanders the multiverse as a vigilante,

Theoretically, this could have been a great movie, because we have an interesting premise of a Kalo murdering his other versions to revive his planet and Careful having the goal of saving all the Kalos. Unfortunately, it's just too fast, and nothing is addressed in-depth. Which is a shame because Kalo is a solid character with a lot to potentially talk about. In particular, each of the three themes the movie covered could be interwoven to discuss possibility, trauma, and resilience. Each Kalo is similar, yet their actions are driven by reasonably different circumstances.

Friendship: A large element in Main!Kalo's resilience is the friendship between him and the main superheroes, especially Careful S. Perhaps Evil!Kalo never made friends after his Planet's destruction, and so he's so nationalistic that he is willing to kill innocent versions of himself to get it back. Ofc, he's not violent by any means and still refuses to harm the weak, aka civilians. But having no attachments, he probably cannot imagine the pain he is causing by murdering other Kalos. If willing, I'd like to have seen a scene of him lamenting that Main!Kalo abandoned his mission and Careful S saying it was his fault. As for Ancient!Kalo, he doesn't have friends other than his father because of his weakness and when he does become friends with Careful, Careful leaves him after 4 days. I feel like this could easily be linked to his insecurity, and when Careful comes back he tries to tell Kalo he left him behind due to the danger of multiverse travel, which only increases his self-doubt and ends up in his eventual breakdown. I'd like if he still becomes a traveller in th end and slowly but surely musters up the courage to befriend people.

Homeland: A lot of canon!Kalo's plot revolves around the trauma of his homeland's destruction. However, Main!Kalo has learned healthy coping mechanisms with this trauma because of his close ties with his friends and support system. Evil!Kalo probably never became close to anyone other than his fellow citizens and he is the Kalo who values his duties the most. As for Ancient!Kalo, it seems like his home and customs are a burden more than anything. The destruction of Adeli himself is the least of his worries which adds a nice bit of contrast to the other two versions. It's also noted that Adeli represents different experiences for the Kalos based on their ability. Ancient!Kalo who was born with a disability ofc experiences his highly militaristic culture differently than Main! or Evil!Kalo who were born able-bodied.

Family: Ok now we get to the most controversial theme of the movie. Whether people like or hate Karl's inclusion, the father son storyline for Ancient!Kalo and Karl flopped due to the lack of screen time and the suddenness of Ancient!Karl's death. Now, purely the inclusion of Karl for me was not a problem (I might be biased because Karl is my favorite character). Even though Kalo's mom Bess has gotten more of a spotlight in the latest seasons, it can't be argued that Karl's bond with Kalo is integral to his character-Kalo was raised by his dad and Karl's death is closely interlinked with Adeli's destruction. The main problem I have with Karl is that he only has a narrative presence for one of the Kalo's, and even then, his total screen time is about 5 minutes (again, lengthening the movie would solve this). To better incorporate him, I think Kalo could probably reminisce about him in the first minutes of the movie (and his planet, which would add exposition for first time viewers of the series). Evil!Kalo could probably idolize him as a martyr figure which fuels his crusade, and when he lands in the Ancient dimension, there could be a confrontation between him and Careful or Ancient!Karl, who question if this is really what his Karl would have wanted. Across all dimensions it seems that Karl's death coincides with Kalo's loss of innocence, but his teachings and his love for his son are carried forever within Kalo and used to motivate him, whether for evil or good goals. Perhaps in the end, he becomes mortally wounded and evil!Kalo tells Ancient!Kalo to suck it up and grow up, as they all have to do, but Main!Kalo and Careful find a way to save him. Ancient!Karl survives, Ancient!Kalo decides to start traveling and grow into his own man, but at the end of his journey he still has someone at home waiting for him. Maybe to be Kalo doesn't necessarily mean to suffer. As for the rest of the family....I'm actually stumped to where Bess and Bella are in the rest of the dimensions, but maybe they appear in some end credits scenes, where Ancient!Bess runs into her son and smiles at the person he has become.


Overall, there is so much potential to smooth out the story. I heard the box office earnings were pretty measly and season 21 may be the last Happy Heroes season. Which, makes me really sad because this show has been around since I was a kid. I hope S21 will at least be good, and if it's the last, at least the creators could put more heart into it.