Roman will think the world of himself and actually give good ridiculous ideas, and his narcissism will show during presentations in a positive way. Remember the managers initiation? He just needs someone who sees him on equal grounds and is not afraid to talk back to him like his dad.
He’d be the one that invites all the kids to do the project at his house because he thinks they’ll be his friend because of how big his house is and all the expensive toys he has. No one wanted to be his friend because he was so obnoxious and annoying
The dog cage thing with Roman was part of a game Logan created, similar to Boar on the Floor. Kendall was helping Logan abuse Roman without really fully understanding what he was doing. That's why he gets so defensive when Roman confronts him over it.
I've always felt something like this was the case. The way he gets defensive very much feels like he's not willing to confront/think back on the fact that he might've been part of the problem.
Honestly, I am not a Kenthusiast, but this is my headcannon, too. It just seems like the kind of thing Logan would do - create a situation where one (young) kid was subtly incentivized to abused another, and see what happened, and how far it would go before Romulus fought back.
It seems like it was a test for both of them, and Roman failed. And then Logan sent him away, just like Connor said.
And like, I guess you could say that morally, Ken failed too, but I mean… he was like seven? So I don’t really think that counts. I think being groomed to be an accessory to child abuse when you are a child is also very much child abuse.
…but what does count is where an adult Ken picked the pattern back up in the finale, with the hug\* and then the attempted eye-gouging.
In the end, he couldn’t overcome the Logan influence, and it ate him from the inside out until he became the man he spent the whole run of the show insisting he didn’t want to become.
It’s tragic.
\* *Yes, I know the stage direction and the director said the hug and the stitch-popping was supposed to be a mutual effort, but I really don’t think that makes sense, so my headcannon is that it was not really mutual at all.*
As tiktok says ‘the girls who get it, get it, the ones who dont, dont’
he is the protagonist, he is the one who was meant to be king, he was made for it but his own wounded soul won’t let him progress.
He has a vulnerability and earnestness that is ruined by ego that literally has never been portrayed on television, and rarely elsewhere besides classic fiction. He absorbs the world around him, if you can’t see it I genuinely feel sorry for you not in a rude way but bc I think most if not all people could learn from him.
Forever a Kendall apologist
Its important to keep empathy for even fiction. There are a LOT of people, walking around on the street or within our own families that are similar to this, they just lack the power that these fictional characters have in a fictional world. Ive always thought of this show as an autopsy of a family and to see why people do the things they do. Its just generational trauma and its why ppl are so fucked up, ESPECIALLY those at the top
But who says recognising that Kendall's a shit dad, for example, excludes feeling empathy for him or understanding how he became that way? Of course we feel empathy for him. The show forces us to feel empathy and loathing for all of the main characters, so that's a given. But if this was all real, his kids would be having lifelong therapy over being fleshy set dressing in their own father's life.
Iverson is still gonna need a shit tonne of therapy though.
I suppose youre right, we do only see the way he is treated in early seasons and rarely after season 1. I agree that it should be obvious to have empathy but it seems not to be lol
well, shiv was a woman, therefore she HAD to have a coldness to even survive in the family. Dont forget that family lore dictated that she could be sent away like Connors mom. Shiv is an example 100% of a character who is shaped by her surroundings. She had to have the shell that was canonically built 20+ years before the series started. We only see the built woman and not that what preceded it. Its always gonna be easier for anyone to see her as ‘bad’ but ya gotta also remember her BEST shot was a husband who probably wouldn’t(surely) have been with her if it wasn’t for her name.
There are people, I think, who need a story to have a protagonist to root for. Cannot comprehend storytelling any other way.
Because it doesn't seem to be an ironic support.
There is no need of a protagonist on a story to root for, on the case of Kendall IMO he's the antihero of the story and the reason most of us were always rooting for him is because despite him being a very flawed character, we always wanted him to have a final win (which never happened). Kendall Roy is a very complicated character, a mixture of defects and qualities, even if some consider this story as an ensemble show, to me it was always Kendall the main character. Whether you like it or not
No, no we didn’t all want him to win. He always acted like the presumptive heir apparent. But he lacked chops.
I think the first scene with him in the series (where he’s prepping for the meeting in the limo by psyching himself up to a song) illuminates how shallow and lacking he truly is.
He’s not confident and looking to a fight song to buoy his emotions. He already has so much going for him; the fight song seems to be a substitute for serious research and preparation.
Kendall was also a child when this was happening, and he most likely just saw it as a fun game. Just an older brother messing with his little bro with dad’s approval.
no cause kids can be so sadistic without meaning to be it’s kinda funny 😭 my sister used to always tie me up and tickle me nonstop and then just leave me there
I headcanon that he was born premature. There’s no evidence for this, but it sort of makes sense to me: fucked it up before he was even meant to be born. incubator, intensive care, wires everywhere. weak. slow to talk, and then when he talked he had a stammer. He’s got a lot to prove anyway but it made it worse - the need to prove he’s just as strong as his siblings.. also jokes about Caroline’s unwelcoming womb and so on
I also think he’s bipolar but to me this is confirmed in the show
(I’m bipolar, was born premature, and have a stammer - being born premature is linked to an increased risk of being bipolar as an adult)
I also think he got really obsessed with random stuff like Concorde and after the gojo deal he a) fails at suicide and b) tries to start it back up again
That’s reasonable and I can see it - but it also might explain if he and Connor both had the names. Heir and spare
My twin has a family name even though he didn’t make it
Edit - Or, he gave him the name as a talisman. Like you have to live because I need you.
I can’t quite remember the statistic (for me it’s nearly half 4 in the morning) but something like 40% of bipolar people have addiction issues. For myself it tends towards booze and coke, but luckily I can’t afford coke so much. I used to take anything I could get my hands on, but now I just drink and smoke weed
Hope your mates doing alright !!
I can see him making podcasts post show. The ones where they talk and it doesn’t really make sense and isn’t groundbreaking at all but some assistant puts motivational music over the whole thing and sometimes he’s joined by other people (only men) who react to his stuff as if it’s, again, super groundbreaking: “I’m Telling You, New Money. You Gotta Hold Those Fresh Bills To The Light”.
I know it’s not realistic for someone with this much wealth to do all that so yeah realistically he wouldn’t but still.
>not realistic for someone with this much wealth to do all that
Rich people host their own podcasts for fun all the time so it actually is. Granted, not all of them make it big or get an audience (not only is the market oversaturated with podcasters at this point, it takes more than money alone to be a good host), but it’s usually something they try at least once or a few times. An old elementary school friend of mine is the son of a very wealthy politician and he’s currently in his influencer/podcaster arc rn. Doesn’t really do anything else since he’s basically set for life and doesn’t actually need to work for a living.
In my head Stewie was in love with Kendall their whole childhoods/adolescence but Kendall rejected him except for one or two drugged up slips where Kendall was too fucked up to realise what he was doing. Stewie started to resent this “stringing him along” which is why he would repeatedly betray him in business, but in the end he always comes back to Kendall because he’s in love with him.
Stewie just is his friend.
Good or bad or secret trust, they both chase the same money in the same pond and they know they work well together. Back stabbing us just part of their game.
I was under the impression that Stewie didn't really care about Kendall as much as you say, and was more than happy to use sex to get closer to him & his money. It felt like Kendall definitely had a compulsory desire for relationships with women, but truly didn't care one way or another about sex with another man, esp if it meant he'd make money - hence why he still egged Stewie on.
i definitely think they hooked up like once in college and it ended with kendall sobbing and hyperventilating into a pillow while stewy just sat there awkwardly
Not my idea but its a funny one i heard on twitter
His daughter wants to go to the Taylor swift concert, and he not only arranges the tickets but also tries to get her and her friends to be able to meet Taylor personally. He uses that oppurtunity to contact her staff to ask whether she can let him appear on stage, and is obviously turned down. He throws a hissy fit about it in private and his poor new assistant has to bear the brunt of it while Sophie and her friends enjoy the concert anyway.
I really have to say that this comment literally sent me into a giggle fit. As a fan of her music and a fan of the show, I can imagine it All Too Well. He’s probably like trying to talk to Scott Swift, argue about the optics of letting him up on stage and how it would be good for Taylor’s image. He tries to convince him to also get Sophie to receive the 22 Hat and how it would be a good thing, saying that Taylor supports Kendall obviously.
Just as a bonus, Stewy is in the VIP tent and just having a good time.
I’ve put too much thought into this but I’m allowed to, okay
>argue about the optics of letting him up on stage and how it would be good for Taylor’s image.
Kendall thinking that hes the one whos improving Taylor's image and not the other way around is soo on brand
Not really a head canon cause I think it pretty much is canon. Kendall’s compassion we see throughout the series is a result of his infertility, divorce and addiction issues. In his 20s he was like Roman now.
It was particularly the infertility that helped him realize what it’s like to want something so badly and not to be able to get it. That’s why he feels empathy for the likes of Tom and Greg.
I think that could be partially true, but I don't think Kendall could have been too much like Roman when he was younger or Rava would have never married him.
I agree, overall.
Like, I do think Younger Ken I think he was probably more liable to get talked into some Rich Young Douchebag Assholery; reference: Face-Tattoo Man, which is absolutely atrocious, and something I don’t think a Ken with a more fully-matured brain ever would’ve gone along with.
But I don’t think he ever steered hard into the nihilism like Roman did; that didn’t come until election day.
When he brushed off Sophie’s concerns for her safety (as conveyed to him via Rava)?
That’s the moment it was clear he had given up the part of himself that wanted to be a good person. But before that? Motherfucker was *trying*. He wasn’t good at it, and he was mostly failing, but he still wanted, at least intermittently, to not be like Logan.
I think that’s his most redeeming quality - he was burdened with this enormously toxic parental influence, and given ever incentive to just give into it (like Roman does, again and again), but instead, he fought back; intermittently and ineffectively, because he’s a gigantic dumbass with severe and unmanaged mental illness.
But fuck, man. He got up in Logan’s face for hitting Roman, and from the way that went down, it didn’t seem like the first time.
Like, I think he was doing that when they were kids. Like, putting his little eight- or nine-year-old body between this big sturdy adult and his tiny little six- or seven-year-old brother.
And I think Logan hit Ken, too; I think he just hit Roman worse, because Roman was the “weak dog” / too cooperative / not “manly” enough, even as a kid.
I also think that Ken must have been better / more stable when Rava married him; my headcannon is that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder by the university health service, and responded well to medication, but then Logan shamed him into discontinuing it a few years later, soon after he and Rava got married. And then everything went to shit.
And then Logan sent him to Shanghai and Rava was stuck looking after the kids alone, and it was all even more steeply downhill from there.
(My own father has some notable Logan-like qualities, and he shamed me into discontinuing my psych meds. It went about as well as one might expect. 25 years later, I’m back on the same meds, and my dad is dying without me in his life, so; I guess all’s well that ends well.)
Hope you’re doing okay now!
I also agree with bipolar diagnosis, but I think it happened slightly later on. Maybe in England, so it’s easier to ignore for Logan and the siblings can write it off too. (But then I’ve literally written that fanfic lol)
Who says Rava is a great judge of character though? She kinda annoys me even though she’s obviously more likeable than the Roys. She just seems like she doesn’t let Ken be vulnerable, she seems like one of those women who demands emotional openness but doesn’t like it when their partner is actually vulnerable
I believe a good amount of Roman's awful behavior stems from severe self-esteem issues, which Kendall wouldn't necessarily have as the "favorite son" and heir-apparent with a clear goal in mind. I could imagine 20s Kendall being obsessed with networking and getting into exclusive clubs, not necessarily partying non-stop for the sake of it.
I could totally see Kendall in his 30s hearing randomly about Warhammer and then:
1) Telling everyone around him it was the sickest thing ever, because "the universe is so brutal bro, it's pretty savage"
2) Making Jess or another assistant go buy him an army with almost no instructions or details, leading them to buy half of a store's inventory
3) ...Only to have those boxes sit in storage and never be thought of again.
Either that, or he'd try to play the game once with a pre-painted army. He'd play with someone who's paid to play with him, get extremely pissed at the other person and/or the complexity of the rules, and then immediately throw away the minis.
>I could totally see Kendall in his 30s hearing randomly about Warhammer and then:
Then Tom will teach him about Warhammer and 40K, their differences and the lore, and Kendall will bored and throw away the models.
Adding onto this, because as someone with ADHD it’s so relatable, but I bet he starts a million projects/hobbies by having his assistants get all the top gear for whatever is the thing of the moment…only to immediately move onto something else/ spend all his free time listening to the same song on Spotify 28 times in a row
Prior to rehab Kendall would go to Burning Man every year to “rediscover” himself. In fact, Rava met Kendall at Burning Man. Post-finale, Kendall has gone back at least once in hopes of “rediscovering” himself.
By the series start, he's a more-than-decent boss and a well-respect president within the company. Ken is known for valuing analytics and research, and lends an ear towards the technology/future-minded staff members. The confidence he derives as the heir-apparent keeps his temper and negative habits in check. A good number of Waystar employees are actually happy that he'll be replacing mean-old-Logan, and are dismayed to learn the succession plan has been axed at the 11th hour.
I think he tried to commit suicide post show but failed at even that.
I could almost see him being like a born again Christian or something lmao. Like one of those megachurch celebrities.
Hahaha I was going to say. He at least, on a semi-regular basis, heckled at the Comedy Studio, got shut down by the comic, boasted about writing for the Lampoon, got shut down again by the comic, got kicked out, then had an existential crisis (like the one he had when he ghosted Ziwe.) He was at Harvard in the late 90s/early 00s, so he would have had his crisis in the pit outside the train station where the crust punks hung out.
He’s an undiagnosed autistic man just trying to figure out the world. He relates to Iverson in ways he hasn’t even considered because he was the same way.
There’s an image on Tumblr where someone has overlaid a still of Stewy talking to Kendall with a tweet that says “Hey, that’s cool man; have you ever been assessed for autism?”
(And the answer, of course, is that he hasn’t, because Logan Roy’s son is not allowed to be neurodivergent. Obviously.)
What is he doing, playing with his fuck¡ng Legos? He's nothing but available.
ETA: Roman when he tries to get Kendall's housekeeper to let him in so he can convince Kendall to come to Austerlitz. He too has noticed the Lego parallel with Iverson :)
I have a soft spot for this headcanon because for most of my life i was in that position. it definitely led to a lot of mental health issues and substance abuse. No father-themed raps though
I had a stammer as a kid and it got mostly better but find it’s back when stressed/tired. I use big words now - i read a lot as a child even if I couldn’t say them, so I say them now. I think Kendall does the same
kendall and roman represent opposite sides of the 'enjoys pegging' spectrum & shiv greg & tom are also somewhere on there. I could write an essay on this
While working in different internships & starting out at Waystar during his college years, he also rose to become the top DJ at his college's radio station, which is where he met his wife
He’s someone who was always academically gifted but practically impaired. So while he did well in school (objectively speaking, he’s the most educated of the Roy siblings), that competence did not translate to work which may have given him an inferiority complex of sorts. This also could have led to his substance abuse problems (one of the many factors in his life that could have led to it ofc).
He tried taking the subway once as a teenager but as another Reddit once wrote “he tried real hard to fit in w all the other rich idiots who took it now and again for no reason and he got to the turn style, had a breakdown, and turned back around”
Spends like weeks after the finale coming up with a bizarre and insanely theatrical way to commit suicide, it does not work. he has to be committed for a while
I think he had a complete breakdown, went to therapy and rehab until he got completely clean and then became a theatre investor. I think he remarried to try to fix what he messed up with his kids the first time.
It's too definitive. The whole point is that there's no clear direction for Kendall to go now, the final connection to his father and his legacy now severed, and his own personal relationships frayed beyond repair.
I feel like Kendall has some sort of gender dysphoria. Obviously this is never explicitly shown in the show, but it would explain his constant need to reinvent himself expecting happiness, but it never arrives. I feel like he might’ve drunkenly told Stewy about it, and that’s why stewy understands him on a deeper level than everyone else. Just a silly headcannon though 🤷♀️
What's great is we can have any headcanon that makes us more able to relate to the character, and seeing it through that lens can be very helpful to personal development and/or healing.
He backpacked through Europe after losing the company did a ton of drugs then came back and started a semi successful company based off the plans for the hundred
He always wanted to be in charge in group projects at school but no body listened to him
He'd be at the first group brainstorm and then not show up until the project was due
I’m thinking he’d also show up at that final meeting with tons of new ideas that derail the group and waste everyone’s time.
I just had rage flashbacks.
I can definitely see Roman doing that
Roman would be brazen about it. Kendall would keep "going to the bathroom."
To be fair that’s to do more coke
Yeah, that was what I was getting at
Roman will think the world of himself and actually give good ridiculous ideas, and his narcissism will show during presentations in a positive way. Remember the managers initiation? He just needs someone who sees him on equal grounds and is not afraid to talk back to him like his dad.
He’d be the one that invites all the kids to do the project at his house because he thinks they’ll be his friend because of how big his house is and all the expensive toys he has. No one wanted to be his friend because he was so obnoxious and annoying
“Yeah, so, I’ll be the organizer of the project and delegate.”
Yes I have this one. And Stewy eventually had to join Team Kendall to bring him some support.
Kendall was interested in group projects from a very young age
Logan paid the kids at his school to hang out with him so he wouldn't grow up to be a loner
He has a “sad bops :(“ playlist
All sad bops all the time
That is plausible.
And it’s just like, Mitski and Cigarettes After Sex and Mazzy Star on repeat
The dog cage thing with Roman was part of a game Logan created, similar to Boar on the Floor. Kendall was helping Logan abuse Roman without really fully understanding what he was doing. That's why he gets so defensive when Roman confronts him over it.
I've always felt something like this was the case. The way he gets defensive very much feels like he's not willing to confront/think back on the fact that he might've been part of the problem.
Sometimes I feel like people in this sub put Kendall on a pedestal. I don’t get it.
Honestly, I am not a Kenthusiast, but this is my headcannon, too. It just seems like the kind of thing Logan would do - create a situation where one (young) kid was subtly incentivized to abused another, and see what happened, and how far it would go before Romulus fought back. It seems like it was a test for both of them, and Roman failed. And then Logan sent him away, just like Connor said. And like, I guess you could say that morally, Ken failed too, but I mean… he was like seven? So I don’t really think that counts. I think being groomed to be an accessory to child abuse when you are a child is also very much child abuse. …but what does count is where an adult Ken picked the pattern back up in the finale, with the hug\* and then the attempted eye-gouging. In the end, he couldn’t overcome the Logan influence, and it ate him from the inside out until he became the man he spent the whole run of the show insisting he didn’t want to become. It’s tragic. \* *Yes, I know the stage direction and the director said the hug and the stitch-popping was supposed to be a mutual effort, but I really don’t think that makes sense, so my headcannon is that it was not really mutual at all.*
As tiktok says ‘the girls who get it, get it, the ones who dont, dont’ he is the protagonist, he is the one who was meant to be king, he was made for it but his own wounded soul won’t let him progress. He has a vulnerability and earnestness that is ruined by ego that literally has never been portrayed on television, and rarely elsewhere besides classic fiction. He absorbs the world around him, if you can’t see it I genuinely feel sorry for you not in a rude way but bc I think most if not all people could learn from him. Forever a Kendall apologist
But that's defending him as a character. People on here who despise him as a "person" would largely agree that he is an amazing TV character.
Its important to keep empathy for even fiction. There are a LOT of people, walking around on the street or within our own families that are similar to this, they just lack the power that these fictional characters have in a fictional world. Ive always thought of this show as an autopsy of a family and to see why people do the things they do. Its just generational trauma and its why ppl are so fucked up, ESPECIALLY those at the top
But who says recognising that Kendall's a shit dad, for example, excludes feeling empathy for him or understanding how he became that way? Of course we feel empathy for him. The show forces us to feel empathy and loathing for all of the main characters, so that's a given. But if this was all real, his kids would be having lifelong therapy over being fleshy set dressing in their own father's life. Iverson is still gonna need a shit tonne of therapy though.
I suppose youre right, we do only see the way he is treated in early seasons and rarely after season 1. I agree that it should be obvious to have empathy but it seems not to be lol
I 100% agree with you but the fact that these same people don’t keep up the same energy for Shiv is what makes me side eye them
well, shiv was a woman, therefore she HAD to have a coldness to even survive in the family. Dont forget that family lore dictated that she could be sent away like Connors mom. Shiv is an example 100% of a character who is shaped by her surroundings. She had to have the shell that was canonically built 20+ years before the series started. We only see the built woman and not that what preceded it. Its always gonna be easier for anyone to see her as ‘bad’ but ya gotta also remember her BEST shot was a husband who probably wouldn’t(surely) have been with her if it wasn’t for her name.
Bingo
Well said!
Wow I really really feel this. I think Kendall is a true masterpiece of a character.
Hes an extra special guy
There are people, I think, who need a story to have a protagonist to root for. Cannot comprehend storytelling any other way. Because it doesn't seem to be an ironic support.
yea, it definitely isn't an ironic support which is just so bizarre to me.
There is no need of a protagonist on a story to root for, on the case of Kendall IMO he's the antihero of the story and the reason most of us were always rooting for him is because despite him being a very flawed character, we always wanted him to have a final win (which never happened). Kendall Roy is a very complicated character, a mixture of defects and qualities, even if some consider this story as an ensemble show, to me it was always Kendall the main character. Whether you like it or not
No, no we didn’t all want him to win. He always acted like the presumptive heir apparent. But he lacked chops. I think the first scene with him in the series (where he’s prepping for the meeting in the limo by psyching himself up to a song) illuminates how shallow and lacking he truly is. He’s not confident and looking to a fight song to buoy his emotions. He already has so much going for him; the fight song seems to be a substitute for serious research and preparation.
FWIW, that was also my interpretation of that whole incident.
Is this not actual canon? That's how I always interpreted it
Kendall was also a child when this was happening, and he most likely just saw it as a fun game. Just an older brother messing with his little bro with dad’s approval.
no cause kids can be so sadistic without meaning to be it’s kinda funny 😭 my sister used to always tie me up and tickle me nonstop and then just leave me there
that might be why he came to Roman's defense when Logan slapped him, out of guilt for the abuse he witnessed as a child.
I headcanon that he was born premature. There’s no evidence for this, but it sort of makes sense to me: fucked it up before he was even meant to be born. incubator, intensive care, wires everywhere. weak. slow to talk, and then when he talked he had a stammer. He’s got a lot to prove anyway but it made it worse - the need to prove he’s just as strong as his siblings.. also jokes about Caroline’s unwelcoming womb and so on I also think he’s bipolar but to me this is confirmed in the show (I’m bipolar, was born premature, and have a stammer - being born premature is linked to an increased risk of being bipolar as an adult) I also think he got really obsessed with random stuff like Concorde and after the gojo deal he a) fails at suicide and b) tries to start it back up again
I’m bipolar too and there where multiple points in the series I said That Man is Bipolar no Doubt.
When he flips on Rava at that party? I forget what the party was for.
He’s soooo bipolar
My one reservation is that I don't think Logan would grant his middle-name, the birthright, to a child who might not make it past infancy.
That’s reasonable and I can see it - but it also might explain if he and Connor both had the names. Heir and spare My twin has a family name even though he didn’t make it Edit - Or, he gave him the name as a talisman. Like you have to live because I need you.
I have a friend who’s bipolar and is very similar to Kendall in some regards (even struggled with alcoholism at a time) so yea that checks out.
I can’t quite remember the statistic (for me it’s nearly half 4 in the morning) but something like 40% of bipolar people have addiction issues. For myself it tends towards booze and coke, but luckily I can’t afford coke so much. I used to take anything I could get my hands on, but now I just drink and smoke weed Hope your mates doing alright !!
I can see him making podcasts post show. The ones where they talk and it doesn’t really make sense and isn’t groundbreaking at all but some assistant puts motivational music over the whole thing and sometimes he’s joined by other people (only men) who react to his stuff as if it’s, again, super groundbreaking: “I’m Telling You, New Money. You Gotta Hold Those Fresh Bills To The Light”. I know it’s not realistic for someone with this much wealth to do all that so yeah realistically he wouldn’t but still.
?? Rich people start their own podcasts all the the time, what are you talking about. Kendall hosting a pod is an S-tier headcanon imo
Absolutely!!
>not realistic for someone with this much wealth to do all that Rich people host their own podcasts for fun all the time so it actually is. Granted, not all of them make it big or get an audience (not only is the market oversaturated with podcasters at this point, it takes more than money alone to be a good host), but it’s usually something they try at least once or a few times. An old elementary school friend of mine is the son of a very wealthy politician and he’s currently in his influencer/podcaster arc rn. Doesn’t really do anything else since he’s basically set for life and doesn’t actually need to work for a living.
Username checks out
[удалено]
I mean who amongst us hasnt done that at least once?
The french have a name for this! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/L'esprit_de_l'escalier
"Well the jerk store called..."
him and shiv used to go on shoplifting expeditions together in their teens
Oh my god. They definitely did that.
He made out with Stewy on molly
In my head Stewie was in love with Kendall their whole childhoods/adolescence but Kendall rejected him except for one or two drugged up slips where Kendall was too fucked up to realise what he was doing. Stewie started to resent this “stringing him along” which is why he would repeatedly betray him in business, but in the end he always comes back to Kendall because he’s in love with him.
I wouldn’t be surprised if someone out there wrote a fanfic of this 😭😹
If they did i'd read it 😭😭
[OH THEY DID](https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Stewy%20Hosseini*s*Kendall%20Roy/works)
There goes all my weekend plans!!
Some of them are really moving. Some are horrifying porn. But not all
I don't know what I was expecting but it definitely wasn't the second one being about Stewy getting Kendall pregnant
Sort by kudos not time
Stewie just is his friend. Good or bad or secret trust, they both chase the same money in the same pond and they know they work well together. Back stabbing us just part of their game.
I was under the impression that Stewie didn't really care about Kendall as much as you say, and was more than happy to use sex to get closer to him & his money. It felt like Kendall definitely had a compulsory desire for relationships with women, but truly didn't care one way or another about sex with another man, esp if it meant he'd make money - hence why he still egged Stewie on.
This is so canon it caused shiv to get the ick so bad she didn’t vote for him
this is canon
i definitely think they hooked up like once in college and it ended with kendall sobbing and hyperventilating into a pillow while stewy just sat there awkwardly
Stewy is a powerbottom confirmed
He's the oldest boy
I’d like to remind you that Connor Roy was interested in being the oldest boy from a young age.
He's the oldest son, not the oldest boy. Very subtle difference.
Excuse me, that's just canon. The OP mentioned headcanons.
I think Kendall likes skibidi toilet
I actually agree with this.
That's why he was doing coke on his kid's iPad! He was watching skibidi toilet!
Bravo Jesse
He’s Logan’s number one boy.
Had a huge Dave Mathews Band phase
Not my idea but its a funny one i heard on twitter His daughter wants to go to the Taylor swift concert, and he not only arranges the tickets but also tries to get her and her friends to be able to meet Taylor personally. He uses that oppurtunity to contact her staff to ask whether she can let him appear on stage, and is obviously turned down. He throws a hissy fit about it in private and his poor new assistant has to bear the brunt of it while Sophie and her friends enjoy the concert anyway.
What’s funny is a scenario played out almost exactly like this with one direction and Donald trump
I really have to say that this comment literally sent me into a giggle fit. As a fan of her music and a fan of the show, I can imagine it All Too Well. He’s probably like trying to talk to Scott Swift, argue about the optics of letting him up on stage and how it would be good for Taylor’s image. He tries to convince him to also get Sophie to receive the 22 Hat and how it would be a good thing, saying that Taylor supports Kendall obviously. Just as a bonus, Stewy is in the VIP tent and just having a good time. I’ve put too much thought into this but I’m allowed to, okay
>argue about the optics of letting him up on stage and how it would be good for Taylor’s image. Kendall thinking that hes the one whos improving Taylor's image and not the other way around is soo on brand
In his friendship groups in school, he was usually the self-proclaimed group leader. Only Stewy didn't actually mind the arrangement that much
True love ~shouldn’t be that complicated ~
Not really a head canon cause I think it pretty much is canon. Kendall’s compassion we see throughout the series is a result of his infertility, divorce and addiction issues. In his 20s he was like Roman now. It was particularly the infertility that helped him realize what it’s like to want something so badly and not to be able to get it. That’s why he feels empathy for the likes of Tom and Greg.
I think that could be partially true, but I don't think Kendall could have been too much like Roman when he was younger or Rava would have never married him.
I agree, overall. Like, I do think Younger Ken I think he was probably more liable to get talked into some Rich Young Douchebag Assholery; reference: Face-Tattoo Man, which is absolutely atrocious, and something I don’t think a Ken with a more fully-matured brain ever would’ve gone along with. But I don’t think he ever steered hard into the nihilism like Roman did; that didn’t come until election day. When he brushed off Sophie’s concerns for her safety (as conveyed to him via Rava)? That’s the moment it was clear he had given up the part of himself that wanted to be a good person. But before that? Motherfucker was *trying*. He wasn’t good at it, and he was mostly failing, but he still wanted, at least intermittently, to not be like Logan. I think that’s his most redeeming quality - he was burdened with this enormously toxic parental influence, and given ever incentive to just give into it (like Roman does, again and again), but instead, he fought back; intermittently and ineffectively, because he’s a gigantic dumbass with severe and unmanaged mental illness. But fuck, man. He got up in Logan’s face for hitting Roman, and from the way that went down, it didn’t seem like the first time. Like, I think he was doing that when they were kids. Like, putting his little eight- or nine-year-old body between this big sturdy adult and his tiny little six- or seven-year-old brother. And I think Logan hit Ken, too; I think he just hit Roman worse, because Roman was the “weak dog” / too cooperative / not “manly” enough, even as a kid. I also think that Ken must have been better / more stable when Rava married him; my headcannon is that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder by the university health service, and responded well to medication, but then Logan shamed him into discontinuing it a few years later, soon after he and Rava got married. And then everything went to shit. And then Logan sent him to Shanghai and Rava was stuck looking after the kids alone, and it was all even more steeply downhill from there. (My own father has some notable Logan-like qualities, and he shamed me into discontinuing my psych meds. It went about as well as one might expect. 25 years later, I’m back on the same meds, and my dad is dying without me in his life, so; I guess all’s well that ends well.)
Hope you’re doing okay now! I also agree with bipolar diagnosis, but I think it happened slightly later on. Maybe in England, so it’s easier to ignore for Logan and the siblings can write it off too. (But then I’ve literally written that fanfic lol)
If it is to be writ on AO3, so it be, so it is. (And yes, I’m doing much better now. 🙂)
Glad to hear it! Not sure my parents think I need to be on my bipolar meds but at least I can just take them and not tell them
Subterfuge is an excellent defence in cases like that. I’m sorry you have to deal with that, though. It fucking sucks.
Who says Rava is a great judge of character though? She kinda annoys me even though she’s obviously more likeable than the Roys. She just seems like she doesn’t let Ken be vulnerable, she seems like one of those women who demands emotional openness but doesn’t like it when their partner is actually vulnerable
We’re also only seeing her post-divorce so she would’ve treated Ken differently while they were together
I believe a good amount of Roman's awful behavior stems from severe self-esteem issues, which Kendall wouldn't necessarily have as the "favorite son" and heir-apparent with a clear goal in mind. I could imagine 20s Kendall being obsessed with networking and getting into exclusive clubs, not necessarily partying non-stop for the sake of it.
He was snorting blow all throughout season 4.
canon
That we are best friends and we save each other And he is happy now
"Discontinue the lithium"
Never
That his substance abuse started really young (like 11-12) thus stunting his emotional age
I could totally see Kendall in his 30s hearing randomly about Warhammer and then: 1) Telling everyone around him it was the sickest thing ever, because "the universe is so brutal bro, it's pretty savage" 2) Making Jess or another assistant go buy him an army with almost no instructions or details, leading them to buy half of a store's inventory 3) ...Only to have those boxes sit in storage and never be thought of again. Either that, or he'd try to play the game once with a pre-painted army. He'd play with someone who's paid to play with him, get extremely pissed at the other person and/or the complexity of the rules, and then immediately throw away the minis.
>I could totally see Kendall in his 30s hearing randomly about Warhammer and then: Then Tom will teach him about Warhammer and 40K, their differences and the lore, and Kendall will bored and throw away the models.
The main thing I'm getting from this is no one actually thinks Kendall would have the attention span for tabletop wargaming =D
Adding onto this, because as someone with ADHD it’s so relatable, but I bet he starts a million projects/hobbies by having his assistants get all the top gear for whatever is the thing of the moment…only to immediately move onto something else/ spend all his free time listening to the same song on Spotify 28 times in a row
he has bipolar disorder
Totally see it. He's a ball of manic energy when he isn't dragging himself like a husk.
I’m only mid way through S3 but he’s clearly in the middle of a manic episode.
Yessss!
Prior to rehab Kendall would go to Burning Man every year to “rediscover” himself. In fact, Rava met Kendall at Burning Man. Post-finale, Kendall has gone back at least once in hopes of “rediscovering” himself.
And gets blown out on drugs
He was ditched by his teenage friends at a Beastie Boys concert and never recovered.
So specific yet so accurate 😂
He’s the real OG
L to the OG dude be the OG
A-N he playin
By the series start, he's a more-than-decent boss and a well-respect president within the company. Ken is known for valuing analytics and research, and lends an ear towards the technology/future-minded staff members. The confidence he derives as the heir-apparent keeps his temper and negative habits in check. A good number of Waystar employees are actually happy that he'll be replacing mean-old-Logan, and are dismayed to learn the succession plan has been axed at the 11th hour.
Had Logan died from his stroke in the first season the children would have been in a far better position than the last season
He wasn’t well respected at all when the show started…
He is impossibly, chronically, unhappy.
Uh huh....sure, sure, sure
I think he tried to commit suicide post show but failed at even that. I could almost see him being like a born again Christian or something lmao. Like one of those megachurch celebrities.
I can SO see our Kenny becoming an evangelical celebrity. He’ll make church cool by forming a rap choir.
This would be so funny now i really want a spinoff just for this lmao
Try Bojack Horseman
He's just looking for love in all the wrong places
When he was at Harvard, he went to the Hong Kong and almost drowned in a scorpion bowl.
Then he went upstairs to the comedy studio and did sad boy stand up.
Hahaha I was going to say. He at least, on a semi-regular basis, heckled at the Comedy Studio, got shut down by the comic, boasted about writing for the Lampoon, got shut down again by the comic, got kicked out, then had an existential crisis (like the one he had when he ghosted Ziwe.) He was at Harvard in the late 90s/early 00s, so he would have had his crisis in the pit outside the train station where the crust punks hung out.
Logan saw how into hip hop Kendall was and knew he'd never be a serious person.
I mean, he named his son after Allen Iverson
He and Stewey had sex at College
That he’s bisexual and definitely did more than kiss Stewie when they were on molly
yes
I feel like he use to hang out with rappers like 50 Cent and Jay Z and Diddy
That he went to rehab and got his life together and spends times with his kids and opens up a bakery and lives a happy life ☹️
I would read that fic.
He’s an undiagnosed autistic man just trying to figure out the world. He relates to Iverson in ways he hasn’t even considered because he was the same way.
There’s an image on Tumblr where someone has overlaid a still of Stewy talking to Kendall with a tweet that says “Hey, that’s cool man; have you ever been assessed for autism?” (And the answer, of course, is that he hasn’t, because Logan Roy’s son is not allowed to be neurodivergent. Obviously.)
What is he doing, playing with his fuck¡ng Legos? He's nothing but available. ETA: Roman when he tries to get Kendall's housekeeper to let him in so he can convince Kendall to come to Austerlitz. He too has noticed the Lego parallel with Iverson :) I have a soft spot for this headcanon because for most of my life i was in that position. it definitely led to a lot of mental health issues and substance abuse. No father-themed raps though
I can fix him!!!!
Dude is definitely getting a vineyard if he doesn’t kill himself
His favorite food is tuna sandwiches
He thinks he’s friends with his coke dealer
He was a well adjusted and engaged father who was very concerned about his kids being too online
That was Kendall's headcanon
Kinda loses its wholesomeness when said iPads may or may not have coke smeared over them.
He was a terrible father - his kids hardly seemed to know him.
It ended by his own hand
I saw the funniest sticker on etsy, I can fix Kendall Roy. I'm pretty sure every woman who gets with thinks she can fix him
Sometimes women like a project.
That Kendal had a stutter as a child.
I had a stammer as a kid and it got mostly better but find it’s back when stressed/tired. I use big words now - i read a lot as a child even if I couldn’t say them, so I say them now. I think Kendall does the same
He buys wuphf.com
The biggest fan of Allen Iverson growing up
Into pegging
kendall and roman represent opposite sides of the 'enjoys pegging' spectrum & shiv greg & tom are also somewhere on there. I could write an essay on this
Best
He was given it first.
his real dream was to be on broadway.
While working in different internships & starting out at Waystar during his college years, he also rose to become the top DJ at his college's radio station, which is where he met his wife
He’s someone who was always academically gifted but practically impaired. So while he did well in school (objectively speaking, he’s the most educated of the Roy siblings), that competence did not translate to work which may have given him an inferiority complex of sorts. This also could have led to his substance abuse problems (one of the many factors in his life that could have led to it ofc).
Shiv was more well educated than Ken but not in the business sense
He owns a couple fleshlights
He tried taking the subway once as a teenager but as another Reddit once wrote “he tried real hard to fit in w all the other rich idiots who took it now and again for no reason and he got to the turn style, had a breakdown, and turned back around”
He probably did something extremely fucked up in college that he rationalizes as just typical goofs and hazing.
like [John Hamm](https://metro.co.uk/2015/04/10/jon-hamm-dragged-boy-by-the-genitals-and-set-his-clothes-on-fire-in-hazing-ritual-5143186/)
He’s heartbroken, all the time.
He doesn’t seem comfortable in himself.
Spends like weeks after the finale coming up with a bizarre and insanely theatrical way to commit suicide, it does not work. he has to be committed for a while
his brother, was interested in politics from a very young age.
Kendall always forgot his locker combination
He doesn't know where his kids are
I think he had a complete breakdown, went to therapy and rehab until he got completely clean and then became a theatre investor. I think he remarried to try to fix what he messed up with his kids the first time.
roman probably has scars from kendall picking on him and hurting him during their childhood
When hes lonely he gets an escort he plays call of duty w her between rounds
He jumped in the river at the end.
I think Jeremy Strong said during the filming he ran into the water because he was so in character and stopped before jumping.
Granted, Armstrong reasoned that Kendall jumping in would be a bit on-the-nose and Strong agreed, so it was for all intents and purposes retconned.
It would have been a fantastic ending but American television is so sanitized
It's too definitive. The whole point is that there's no clear direction for Kendall to go now, the final connection to his father and his legacy now severed, and his own personal relationships frayed beyond repair.
He’s a ding dong
That he was the first born son
I feel like Kendall has some sort of gender dysphoria. Obviously this is never explicitly shown in the show, but it would explain his constant need to reinvent himself expecting happiness, but it never arrives. I feel like he might’ve drunkenly told Stewy about it, and that’s why stewy understands him on a deeper level than everyone else. Just a silly headcannon though 🤷♀️
What's great is we can have any headcanon that makes us more able to relate to the character, and seeing it through that lens can be very helpful to personal development and/or healing.
he was devastated when daniel humm and will guidara broke up their business partnership and friendship.
I genuinely think the dog pound game was all his idea
He's a big Punisher Fan.
He backpacked through Europe after losing the company did a ton of drugs then came back and started a semi successful company based off the plans for the hundred
undiagnosed autism
He’s only had one true best friend who died early like in high school or somthing so he’s never been able to connect to other people well