Exploring The Line Between 'Synpath' and 'Kintype':
by TigrisPublished: 13/03/2023
Last Updated: 11/08/2023
The term synpath emerged in or around 2015 to describe a connection on many levels with a certain entity, this was similar, on many levels, to the term otherhearted or animal-hearted, a word to describe a profound integral connection to a certain species. A synpath can be a fictional character, however, while otherhearted is often limited to nonhuman species. A synpath is not a kintype because you do not identify as a synpath. For some, myself included, this distinction can be tricky to navigate.
I have a number of characters and creatures whom I consider a definite hearttype or synpath. For me, these represent archetypes, characters, or species that I resonate with deeply on some level for a multitude of reasons. They make up a part of me, I was them, and/or I feel I was meant to be them or would be them if given the choice, but their influence on my current self is much more background-based than the constant of my kintypes. I am not them anymore, at least not in the way my kintypes are me. I live my whole life as my kintypes, experiencing everything through the lens of one or both, while my hearttypes are more like the memory of a familiar friend, or an embodiment of a past version of myself that I no longer am but still feel a pull towards. If I were to answer if I identified as these and saw them as me in the same way as a kintype, I would say no: my experiences as these feel vastly different to my kintypes even if I can't properly articulate that exact difference. These are important to me, sometimes more so than my kintypes. I may feel connected to them due to a similarity with a kintype, the influence of a longstanding special interest, a trope I feel linked with, events or troubles in their life I experienced myself, or for no clear reason at all. I may experience shifts or noemata for these, but they are usually rare and fleeting.
Now, onto what this essay is meant to be about: In February 2022 (approximately), I wrote a list of characters from media I'd never properly explored who I would likely see myself in or could be a possible kintype or synpath. Characters that matched tropes I resonated with, looked or behaved similar to my unidentified cameo shifts, had backstories similar to noemata I had, et cetera. On that list was Raiden from the Metal Gear videogame series, the Raiden from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance specifically, since that was my initial introduction to him due to the game's recent resurgence in popularity. I bought and completed the game a short time later, and I felt as if I was right to have him on that list. I wasn't sure what he was to me, but it was definitely something. I didn't feel the same as I felt upon discovering my fictotype, and I didn't feel the same as discovering a hearttype either. I felt a completeness and a sense of self, but there was still doubt clouding my mind.
After I had played the game and considered him more deeply, I experienced a pretty much constant phantom shift for a long time, and it still crops up semi-frequently. This shift was of his mechanical jaw, body, and clawed hands and feet. It was an odd sensation, as I'd only ever experienced these phantom feelings for organic bodies: fur and flesh and scales, rather than hard steel, or whatever material the cyborg body was made from. I had vague recollections of events outside of or additional to that one game, and once I played or read up on the others in the series, a lot of these turned out to be canonical events. Or at least, things that believably lined up with those events. I saw myself as him in my mind, for a time I considered going by his name, I talked about him in my mind in first person, I had dreams where I was him or in places and situations familiar to him. I had strong feelings, both positive and negative, towards characters I probably wouldn't have paid much mind to otherwise. I began to make connections between his life, personality, and goals and my own, and there are a lot of coincidences that make me think it was meant to be, in a way.
For a while I considered him as a possible kintype, though never really came to a decision on that, for a couple of reasons I'll try and explore below. However, it's been a pretty decent amount of time now and the kintype-esque feelings are still here.
The thing that trips me up is even though they are there and more frequent than those for other synpaths, my feelings are nowhere near as strong as they are for my theriotype and my fictotype. I have shifts, noemata, dreams, self-perception, a rare emotional investment in relevant things, sure, but they aren't clear. They are more spontaneous and all over the place, and hard to decipher. This could be something to do with the character himself, I would have struggled to recall things about my past back then, and when I did it was frankly an awful experience, so maybe it manifests as a lack of clear memories right now. It could be what shifts feel like: I don't actually experience distinct shifts for my kintypes, but maybe Raiden is a kintype I experience shifts for, explaining the difference in feeling and the on-and-off nature of feeling like I am him.
Another thing is that he is pretty similar to my fictotype, not too much so in personality but definitely in a lot of other ways. They both, well, later on for Raiden, look similar and have quite a few shared tropes. I've seen more than a few people compare Vergil and this more recent version of Raiden; Raiden may as well be a better version of Vergil, one that subconsciously I wish would replace Vergil as a kintype. The game I feel most connected to for Raiden is a hack-and-slash game; Devil May Cry is a hack-and-slash series. The gameplay is similar, as PlatinumGames developed MGR:R, that company was founded by the director of the original Devil May Cry. This makes me wonder if these similarities point to me being mistaken, that I'm simply recognising shared traits and similar experiences, similar mechanics and feel of the games, and having cameo shifts spark from that.
Something else is the lingering effect of the alterhuman community's (past) outlook on those with multiple kintypes. I feel happy and fulfilled and not a target with simply one theriotype and one fictotype. Losing that frightens me a little. I know that most would not care if I had two fictotypes, but deep down I feel as if I would lose credibility with this. If I have too many kintypes, I begin to feel stretched thin, like I'm not truly all of them and I need to trim back and assign non-kintype labels to any that feel lesser. I fear even if I accepted Raiden as a kintype, he would be the first to go if I ever got cold feet about openly having three kintypes. Maybe if I worked on these feelings, it would be easier to navigate a second fictotype.
Right now, I call him a synpath for simplicity's sake, but truthfully he's always been in between synpath and kintype. I feel as if he is more than a synpath, but he is below my established kintypes in strength. If you asked if I identify as him, I would give a hesitant "yes". I like to be seen as Raiden, more so than Vergil, but this may be because I'm not as ashamed of Raiden as I am Vergil. I've been leaning much more towards the kintype label lately, especially after considering the "partially identify as" in the definition of otherkin, but time will tell I suppose.
Perhaps it isn't so bad to exist in these grey areas, I don't have a requirement to decide on a firm label after all. It would be acceptable to stay here, in this vague state, to call myself him and essentially identify as him while not outright calling him a third kintype. My experiences exist and they are my own, no matter what I use to describe them. If he is simply a trope I resonate with because of my fictotype, that shouldn't take away from the experiences in isolation.
Addendum (11/08/2023):
I considered completely scrapping this essay, or doing a full rewrite, but tacking this on the end may be a better idea to preserve the questioning process. I've begun looking into the possibility of Raiden being a paratype: partly due to Poppy's essay on defining the term, and due to the Othercon panel on Archetropy. It is a little difficult to surmise, but I would say that I am Raiden because I'm Vergil: if I were not Vergil, I wouldn't have given Raiden a second look. The two are not similar on a surface level, but to me, with my extra knowledge of Vergil in particular, I see many connections between the two that would have appealed to me. I could list off examples all day, so what I'll say is I believe Raiden would be what I as Vergil could have been if I went a different way. I would rather embody Raiden into my identity than I would Vergil, but obviously I can't just drop someone as integral to my self as Vergil is. I see Raiden as akin to a kintype, yet more of an extension of me as Vergil than a kintype completely seperated from Vergil, if that makes any sense. As explained in the main essay, I have many of the 'kin experiences' for Raiden: noemata, shifts, a sense of self, but in a way that doesn't spark me as him being a standalone fictotype. I think this was something I was struggling to put words to in the essay, because I was trying to box this guy into Kintype or Synpath, when the actual answer was something different. I am Raiden, similar to the way one would experience a kintype, but with different underlying causes where I would be hesitant to officially label him a kintype. So, a paratype, perhaps.
This line of thought did make me wonder about things I had previously labelled heartypes. I call myself dragonhearted due to being a sort-of dragon as Vergil: dragons are fully connected to my experiences as Vergil and my connections to mythical reptiles due to him. I see the Pokemon Raikou as a synpath due to its tiger-like form and its lightning associations that link it to Raiden and Vergil. I would probably not change my way of describing these two, but paratype in conjunction to these labels may convey a meaning that I found hearttype didn't quite cover.