I mean...the descriptions we've gotten of his behavior pre-murder spree don't really make him look like that great of a person either. Telling classmates in detail about how he's going to brutally murder them and his entire family, harassing and doxxing other video game players so badly that they ended up leaving the game, fighting with his mom to the point that she was afraid of him, losing friendships due to his incessant praise of Hitler and statements about "imagine if we were killing people in real life instead of just a video game?"
I think if anything Kam is more of the Dylan Klebold in this situation because he seemed fairly normal to everyone. Either that or he was REALLY good at hiding his true self. But I do agree that neither of them would probably have killed without the other. I agree with the theory a couple of you guys said, that Bryer had the murderous impulses but not the confidence to carry them out, and Kam had the confidence but his "dark side" was more buried, and they basically fed off each other and convinced each other to go through with it. A big reason why I think this is the case is that neither of them actually had a known history of violence leading up to the murders...threats and other questionable behavior, yes in Bryer's case, but not any known action relating to it. Up until this point he was just your everyday troubled teenage edgelord, and most of those end up growing out of it and don't actually harm anyone. JMO.
That's a really good summary, IMO.
The apparent lack of real world planning is part of both their generational position and their time spent gaming. I include some basic outdoor skills in several classes, and the gamers get so excited about actually trying to make something simple (like a fish hook...or a simple trap...or a simple net). Their ability to do this is almost always outstripped by classmates who have any kind of real world experience. Some women in the class always do better on all three of these things, because they have experience with sewing and other small handcrafts. The net knotting exercise is probably the simplest, but boy, are the results really bad (and the gamers often get super frustrated and embarrassed). Naturally, some of the gamers are okay, but even such things as choosing proper container size for mixing some lab ingredients may elude them.
Now, Bryer and Kam supposedly had some time in the woods, but I'm guessing they didn't actually have to tie off a boat, or work with oars, or make a fire that doesn't smoke much, or figure out which things are truly essential to survival
I believe that Bryer shot and killed Lucas and Chynna (but am mystified as to where he got his gun). Kam was then part of an ongoing manhunt. The two of them planned to rob people on their way up north, and I believe it was tacit that some killing might happen too. That means they were essentially suicidal or at least willing to die.
The burned camper/truck just screams "we're doing this for excitement!" to me. Everything in their life was boring. They had no intention of finding another boring job, they wanted maximum excitement out of their adventure. Each time the adrenalin wore off, they were in a worse position, survival-wise.
Turning themselves in would seem like losing. Inventing new personae and solving real life day to day problems was exciting, at first. If they are still alive, it still is. The amount of food, alone, that they'd have had to pack or find or steal from some cabin...well, I just seriously doubt they were able to put that much in their backpacks, if they even had it in the first place.
If it's possible that some people living in northern Manitoba have not heard of them, then it is possible they are getting help, as this forum has convinced me that Canadians are super helpful in general. I'm guessing Kam can be quite charming and that's probably part of his online persona as well, whereas Bryer is the more villainous type, online.
It's sad that young people live in a world where scripted lifestyles occupy so much of their time. I should mention that I've also done the above-mentioned crafts with 4th-8th graders, and the 4th and 5th graders do really well, they're still at an age where their fingers learn new things easily. Something happens, though, between that age and college age...for one thing, the college students have a hard time listening to instructions.