I Touch On This Topic Occasionally, But The Way Kai And Zane’s Relationship Is Written In Canon Is

I touch on this topic occasionally, but the way Kai and Zane’s relationship is written in canon is absolutely fascinating to me.

Under normal circumstances, they’re not shown to have a specific type of bond like other relationships in the cast (jay and Cole are best friends, kai and Lloyd are a big and little brother dynamic etc). They’re usually together out of circumstance and they’re not a typical group dynamic the writers like playing with.

But for some inexplicable reason, anytime, and I mean anytime there is an extremely intense scene with one of them, it’s implied they’re closer to each other than anyone else on the team? I mainly point to the fact that Kai specifically was the one to give Zane’s eulogy, which from a writing perspective, makes very little sense unless they’re trying to imply Zane and Kai were each other’s closest friend. Because if say, I were a writer on the show, I would immediately make wu give the eulogy because he’s old and was the mentor and stuff and is an important figure to everyone. But giving Kai the role gives a new context. Plus, everyone agreed he should do it. There’s an unspoken understanding that Kai knows what to say about Zane in this vulnerable moment, even though he’s not the best with words. Which just. Implies very very interesting things to me.

There’s also the fact that in season 4 ep 1, Kai very clearly and obviously stated that he felt like he should’ve died in Zane’s place. It is somewhat implied with everyone else, but Kai is the only one to explicitly say that he would’ve rather died than live without Zane. He became an implied alcoholic and competed endlessly in an underground fighting ring just to take his mind off of it. He easily had the most extreme reaction even though he was likely accustomed to loss. He even had the most extreme reaction when a glimmer of hope showed that Zane might be alive.

There’s also the fact that in season 10, when Cole falls off the bounty, Zane is the one who stops Kai from going back for him. He puts his hand on the Kais and instantly, Kai backs off. He just crumples. And it’s incredibly rare for Kai to show real vulnerability. And the fact that one single wordless gesture was enough to make him understand that there was no going back for him, just intrigues me to no end. It implies a fine tuned level of communication unheard of for most of the cast, but Kai and Zane have it down to a t.

And, in one of my most famous examples, the scene where Lloyd was trying to get Zane to remember everyone, he mentions Kai last. In the context of what he was saying “don’t you remember wu, or pixal, or… or Kai?” It implies that KAI, in some unspoken but universally understood way, is the most important person to Zane. Listen, if I were a normal writer for the show, I would either list everyone on the team, THEN end at wu and pixal, or just stop at wu and pixal since most of the time they’re treated as the closest to Zane. But the writers didn’t do that, so I’m left with the most insane analysis of my life that I could continue on and on about just because OF HOW OFTEN IT HAPPENS WITH NO REAL EXPLANATION. WHY ARE THEY LIKE THIS.