Do you hate or do you love? I love Radiohead, New Order/Joy Division and their derivatives. Also Pixies, Motown music, Classic and many more styles. I love Peter Hook but doesn't mean I don't like the rest or "the others" as he refers lol. I have lots of fandoms and ships, can't put them all in here. But right now: obsessed with #Dramione
the heavy irony of people always dragging Inuyasha for going to find Kikyo is that ultimately she died again after Inuyasha rushed to Kagome’s side even knowing Naraku was coming for Kikyo. Showing once and for all he may say one thing but he always ends up beside Kagome, even going against his vow, and people forget that
obviously the repetitive nature of the show and the anime-only scenes didn’t help Inu. Apparently there were couple of points in the manga where the ending could’ve been, like the end of the shichinintai arc, but publishers wanted more $$$ so 🤷
I think the heavy irony about the whole Inuyasha, Kagome and Kikyo extravaganza is that most people seem to be very sympathetic towards Kagome and Kikyo’s situation and not as much towards Inuyasha’s.
And I’m all for this (relatively) new trend of supporting female characters. It’s wonderful that we’re sympathizing with their pain more and more instead of letting internalized misogyny cloud our judgement. It’s refreshing to stan, analyze or even criticize them based on their actions and narrative weight rather than on the fact that they’re women.
However, in order to do so, there’s no need to ignore, belittle or straight up invalidate the feelings and traumas that male characters might be carrying. It’s possible — and I’d even dare to say preferable — to acknowledge emotional damage and how it impacts the characters’ choices regardless of gender.
Personally, I feel like people are afraid to do it, since it could cost them some “woke” points. After all, the “all men are shitty” mentality has apparently started to apply to fiction as well. And I, for one, think it’s a disservice take, as generalizing takes tend to be.
People always dragging Inuyasha for going to see Kikyo is a fine example of that. He knows it breaks Kagome’s heart when he goes and he knows it makes her mad when he sneaks out without telling her, but he still does it and people rightly feel for Kagome while unfairly treat Inuyasha as this selfish, inconsiderate cheater who intentionally hurt her by leading her on even though he was still in love with his ex.
Anyone who follows my rants must already know by now that I don’t actually buy Inuyasha and Kikyo’s love story, as in I see what they had as infatuation rather than love, so I’m not going to dwell on that. What I will say is that Inuyasha was just as victim of Naraku’s deception as Kikyo.
His survivor's guilt was massive. It’s not healthy to think you’re not allowed to be happy because something terrible happened with someone you cared about with no fault of your own. Inuyasha feels responsible for what happened to Kikyo and took upon himself the duty to protect her and help her achieve peace even if it meant not only dying, but dying and going to hell with her.
If I’m not mistaken, Kaede pointed out to Inuyasha, at least in the manga, that the Kikyo who came back is not exactly the one they once knew and asked Inuyasha if that’s what he truly wants. And maybe it’s a cultural or historical thing, but other than that, I don’t recall anyone, not even Kagome, telling him that it wasn’t his fault and that he doesn’t owe his life to Kikyo at all.
In fact, the one person who should have been reassuring him from day one that none of it was his fault is Kikyo herself, but she did the exact opposite. She claimed his life and let him believe he owed it to her because she died for him even though this isn’t true and she eventually learned Inuyasha was innocent. This puts everything that happened on his shoulders even though Kikyo’s actions also played a part on it. The only occasion she came close to set him free of his guilt was in her final moments, when she stated that "you came for me, that’s enough.”
The thing, though, is that before his first encounter with Naraku and his second encounter with Kikyo, when she actually claimed his life, Inuyasha didn’t feel this way at all. Earlier on, he rightfully refused to die for a crime he didn’t commit.
He was eager for Kikyo’s soul to return to Kagome because he knew it was the right thing to do for Kagome and for Kikyo as well. And he knew exactly what the consequences of that would be.
Kikyo falls off the cliff despite Inuyasha’s efforts to save her. He assumes she’s dead and is visibly troubled by it. His reaction after that? To go check on Kagome. And as much as he is saddened by the situation, he is also resigned to her fate because she was already dead. She wasn’t supposed to be brought back and deserves to rest.
Not to mention that by the end of this same chapter, he was all smitten with Kagome.
Which leads me to my next point, that is: when Kikyo was resurrected, Inuyasha was already in love with Kagome. Slowly but surely, she helped him to heal and move on. Kagome’s situation is heartbreaking, because she had to watch the man she loves fighting unfinished issues with his ex, but Inuyasha’s situation is also heartbreaking because he is struggling between what his mind tells him is the right thing to do and what his heart wants.
He begrudgingly decides to let Kagome go because he knows is not fair to ask her to stay by his side when his life is promised to Kikyo, but the whole time is pretty obvious he doesn’t want to. Aside from Kaede, he’s the only one Kikyo has and he thinks it’s because of him that she’s in this situation to begin with. How could he act any different?
Hurting Kagome hurts him too. He’s not doing it to lead her on or to get away with dating both girls. He does it because he doesn’t think he has a choice. His heart belongs to Kagome but his life was promised to Kikyo.
In the end of the day, he chose duty over love, which makes sense for his character, who has a tremendous sense of honor. And he was ready to tell Kagome his decision and own it, even if it meant letting go of the first person he ever trusted after his mother, the person who made him feel lighter, who calmed his heart, who cried for him. Because he wouldn’t be able to give her what she needed and didn’t want to see her suffer over it.
Kagome was the one who decided to stay even when it would have been perfectly understandable for her to walk away. She did it knowing exactly what she was signing up for. Inuyasha never asked her to. And this is a parallel to when he sent her back to her time to protect her: he was selflessly thinking about what was best for her no matter how miserable he would be with the outcome. And Kagome just chooses to go back to his side anyway.
It’s way too easy for us, in the comfort of our omniscient point of view and privileged knowledge of social skills, to dictate what this traumatized teenager who spent his whole life suffering with prejudice and having trouble with trust and intimacy issues, had to do. But it was clear to me that he was doing the best he could with the cards he had been dealt.
He couldn’t simply not go to see Kikyo and at the same time he didn’t want to hurt Kagome or make her mad by going, so he often didn’t tell her or lied about it. He was wrong to do so, but in his mind it was justified because he and Kikyo didn’t do anything besides talking every time they met, with the exception of the two kisses that Kagome herself watched. One that Kikyo layed on him to drag him to hell and one that was their final goodbye.
But like you said: people tend to ignore all of that. They tend to forget Inuyasha was free to go with Kikyo and stay with her if he so desired, but he would rather come back to Kagome every single time and put the life he swore to Kikyo in danger to protect Kagome’s time and time again. And the brilliance of it is that Inuyasha keeps trying to have it all and it always blows up on his face. When he goes to one girl, leaving the other alone, there are actual consequences like Kikyo dying or Kagome almost getting her heart corrupted by the infant.
When push comes to shove, though, Kagome is his priority. And that’s because being by her side is what he truly wants and he risks his life for her not because he feels like he has to, but because he wants to.
There’s just not winning for Inuyasha in the position he’s in. The more he does to appease both girls the more he feels like he’s failing them. And that he’s flawed and makes mistakes is actually what gives him depth and dimension as a character. It’s possible to acknowledge where he went wrong without misunderstanding why he did it. In fact, I don’t think I’d be as drawn to him or to his relationship with Kagome if he had handled everything perfectly, because that would just be plain boring.
You’re also right about the repetitive nature of the show. It truly frustrated the audience. The love triangle was dragged on for far too long, to the point of losing its narrative weight. We already knew Inuyasha was going to end up with Kagome and we already knew that, plot wise, his encounters with Kikyo would lead to nothing but developing his and Kagome’s relationship through drama. It was never about Inuyasha and Kikyo because nothing ever changed between them. Their relationship, when not stagnated, kept running in circles.
And yes, the anime didn’t help his case at all, cutting out very important moments between him and Kagome and adding interactions that never happened in the manga, such as unnecessary, tasteless Inukag scenes or more romantic occasions between him and Kikyo. I understand why people would be mad about it. I myself get mad about it from time to time.
But if there’s a hill I’m gonna die on is this: although the manga is indisputably superior, you can still interpret the love triangle the exact same way you would if you took only the manga into consideration. It’s a classic issue of “show, don’t tell.” Sunrise deleted an important Inukag scene here, added a non canon Inukik scene there, but it wasn’t enough to change the established dynamics between these characters because, for the most part, they had to follow the original story.
For instance: they cut out the conversation when Inuyasha told Kagome there’s no replacement for her, but I already knew he never saw her as a replacement because his actions showed me as much. They added scenes where Inuyasha says Kagome isn't pretty but it’s blatantly obvious he was attracted to her the entire time. The way their relationship was built is so great that you can see right through Sunrise’s attempts to diminish it and hype up Inuyasha and Kikyo in favor of spicing up the love triangle, if you’re paying enough attention.
And I know that from experience. I watched the anime without reading the manga and interpreted Inuyasha and Kagome’s relationship as most of the people who read it did. And if it looks like I’m bragging, please be assured that is actually the opposite: what I mean is that it doesn’t take being a genius to “read between the lines” because I’m far from it. But it is necessary to watch the anime with the bare minimum of critical thinking.
Not that there’s anything wrong with a casual, lazy watching of Inuyasha. No one is under the obligation to watch everything with critical lens. Sometimes you just want a fun entertainment to pass the time and Inuyasha is actually easy to digest and perfect for that. But I do cringe when people watch the anime casually and then go to Tik Tok to deliver the worst takes I’ve ever seen. What can I say, though? Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and I’m perfectly aware my interpretation is not universal and doesn’t invalidate different ones.
Now, I wouldn’t know about the publishers wanting the story to go on despite the many points in the manga where the ending could’ve been, but I don’t doubt it. Money always speaks louder than art, after all.
Seems like a good time for a reminder that Sunrise downplayed the intimacy between InuYasha and Kagome in both significant and subtle ways. The more obvious, significant ways include things like omitting entire scenes of their relationship development.
But Sunrise downplayed it in some pretty subtle ways, too. Other excellent blogs have pointed this out before (I just can't find the posts 😭), but it became obvious to me during my recent reread of the manga: there are a lot of small, background moments of intimacy between InuYasha and Kagome that the anime either alters or ignores. And while changing those individual scenes doesn't seem like a big deal on the surface, it all adds up. There's a cumulative effect of downplaying those individual moments—it leaves the general impression that InuYasha and Kagome's relationship isn't as strong or close as it actually is. Things like body language and non-verbal cues do communicate information to an audience, which is why altering them does affect overall perceptions of the story/characters.
Here are some examples of downplayed InuKag intimacy, just off the top of my head:
⬆ Note that in the manga, InuYasha and Kagome are touching in this scene; in the anime, Sunrise literally put space between them.
⬆ Again, notice the difference in physical closeness. In the manga, InuYasha is the one actively checking on Kagome, and his concern/protectiveness is clearly communicated through his body language (crouched low over Kagome's leg, one finger gently pulling her sock aside, etc.). In the anime, he becomes an observer (watching Sango check on Kagome), which makes him seem more removed from the scene.
⬆ This one is more subtle, but I think the difference is still noticeable. In the manga version of this scene, InuYasha meets Kagome in her bedroom (a very personal space), and he's standing close and directly facing her when he says he wanted to see her. In the anime, they have this encounter in a shared living space of the Higurashi home (less personal), there's more physical distance between them, and he's not facing her when he says he wanted to see her. Again, all this stuff is subtle, but it adds up: these details communicate things to an audience.
And there are more scenes just like these peppered throughout the series. Sometimes when I squint I can understand why Sunrise might have changed something (like in that third example, I can kind of understand them changing the setting from Kagome's bedroom to a shared living space, cuz "family friendly" or whatever), but it's frustrating to see how they did this repeatedly and often for no clear reason other than trying to make InuYasha look like a tough guy.
Okay I'm sorry, but I just remembered another scene that Sunrise royally ruined, and I had to vent.
From chapter 179 of the manga, and the corresponding anime episode (season 2, ep. 22), here's a roughly scene-by-scene comparison and just... look at the hot pile of nothing Sunrise gives us instead of the cute scene we could've had.
⬆ In the manga: InuYasha is so concerned about Kagome's safety that he literally doesn't put her down until Kagome flat out tells him to. In the anime: they are attacked by a demon horde/Kagura and InuYasha doesn't so much as glance at Kagome before he runs off to attack. (*SIGH*)
⬆ In the manga: it's not enough for InuYasha to just put Kagome down anywhere. He wants to make sure she's as protected as she can be, so he whisks her off to their makeshift shelter (and just looooooook at how closely he's holding her!). In the anime: InuYasha's off doing his own thing and Kagome is who-knows-where, so it's Sango who approaches the shelter out of concern for her brother.
⬆ In the manga: InuYasha makes his concern for Kagome's safety extremely evident. In the anime: InuYasha is still off doing his own thing, and Sango and Kagome decide to search for the missing Kohaku on their own.
The changes Sunrise made to this scene are especially irritating because their changes don't add anything to the narrative at all. Like, if they were going to downplay the InuKag elements of this scene in favor of highlighting Sango and Kohaku, then at least they could've given us a solid scene of Sango, oh, I don't know, bonding with her brother? Having his back in this battle? Just, anything? But no. They didn't do that. There was nothing of substance added here. Sunrise just took away a perfectly sweet InuKag moment and they gave us bubkis in return.
Why Kagome does not tell Inuyasha that Kikyou tried to kill her and why it matters
So I wasn’t going to make another scene analysis so quickly but then I made this post, which led me to reread this part in the manga, and I now feel like this scene is super important, both for Kagome’s character and on a symbolic level.
NOTE: This analysis is not meant to look at Kikyou’s actions. I know that it is slightly controversial in the fandom whether or not she intended to kill Kagome, but this is not what I’m looking at. I will act as if she did try to kill her, though, because I’m mostly going to focus on Kagome’s feelings, and Kagome does feel like Kikyou tried to kill her. Maybe I will talk about it at some point though.
The scene starts out pretty simply. Kikyou takes the jewel and her soul collectors drop Kagome above the hole created by Naraku.
The reason why I’m bringing this up is because of Kagome’s reaction to this. She’s terrified. She was already faced with people trying to kill her, but this time she’s completely alone. She already tried calling for Inuyasha for help, but Inuyasha did not come (he’s in the illusionary death). It is likely that this time she’s thinking ”This is it”. Friendly reminder, she’s fifteen. Fifteen is not a normal time to think your life’s going to end. So she is probably really shocked, emotionally speaking.
She manages to grip the roots and to maintain herself on the edge of the chasm. Then, Kikyou tells her that Kagome ‘is her’ and that it’s better if there’s only one in this world. Again, not particularly looking at Kikyou’s actions, but if Kagome had any doubt that Kikyou was trying to kill her, that would probably confirm it. That is for her emotional distress, because I remember people saying that Kagome was overdoing it in this scene.
It probably comes off as a shock because of who Kikyou is and what happened right before that, too. Kagome tried to protect Kikyou in the Kodoku, and defended Kikyou’s actions in front of Naraku (although to be honest, both are probably more for Inuyasha’s sake than for Kikyou’s, but to an extent I interpret this as her trusting Inuyasha’s ‘love’ for Kikyou and deciding she’s worth saving/defending).
Also, Inuyasha’s bond with Kikyou is probably hard to understand for her at that point, both because it’s ‘early’ in the manga and because I’m pretty sure last time Kikyou and Inuyasha interacted, Kikyou tried to take him to hell with her. For Kagome, seeing him risking his life to save her right after that must be confusing at best.
At worst, she thinks Inuyasha’s in love with Kikyou and she’s torturing herself with the fact that Inuyasha doesn’t notice her when she’s been by his side all along and only pays attention to the woman who tried to kill her.
Man, we’re lucky that Kagome’s less dramatic than me when I was her age.
Arrives Inuyasha, he helps Kagome out of the chasm, asks her what happens. Kagome starts to explain, and I’ll admit that’s subjective, but if you look at her face, I’d say she’s terrified. Inuyasha seems to understand what she’s about to say, but Kikyou starts her own explanation. I’m not getting into whether or not it’s believable here, but one thing’s sure, Kagome doesn’t believe it.
When Kikyou leaves, Inuyasha asks her where she’s going, possibly worried, which, once again, must not feel very good to Kagome. Just to be clear, I’m not saying Kagome’s right. Actually, in this chapter, I’m pretty sure that she misinterprets Inuyasha a lot. I’m just trying to look at her emotions and how they influence her choices.
When he asks her what really happened, the first thing she talks about is how the Jewel was taken. That’s interesting because it didn’t look like that’s what she was going to say before Kikyou gave her explanation. My guess would be that she while she doesn’t believe what Kikyou had said, she’s, even just a little, questioning herself.
Another possibility is that she’s afraid that Inuyasha will be angry at her, which is super surprising coming from Kagome. You’d expect her to yell and say that it wasn’t her fault and she nearly got killed. But this brings us to the main topic here and what is, to me, Kagome’s biggest flaw: her insecurity, particularly with all Kikyou-related things. Maybe I’ll get more into Kagome’s flaws at some point, but I basically think her flaws are her temper (and that one’s suuuper interesting I really want to get into it), her jealousy (not so interesting because it mostly comes from her insecurity), and finally, obviously, her insecurity.
Because remember what Kikyou told her? ”You’re me”. Kagome hates that. She hates the comparison, she hates being mistaken for Kikyou, she reminds us more than once that she is her own person. So that could have triggered her insecurities. Then there’s the whole Inuyasha situation, in which right now she probably feels like she can’t compete with Kikyou at all (she tried to kill Inuyasha and he’s still protecting her). And that all adds to how she’s just in shock in general. Even Inuyasha seems shocked to see her talking about the Jewel, actually.
An important point that I want to bring up is that I don’t think that Inuyasha is in the wrong here. He genuinely is worried about her, he does not care for the Jewel (the group later pokes fun at him by saying that it’s because the thief’s Kikyou but I believe he does not want to burden Kagome with guilt), he wants to know the truth.
Again, Kagome’s insecurities come into play. Given what Kikyou just said, and probably given their relationships with Inuyasha, she doesn’t want to tell the truth, because she doesn’t think Inuyasha would believe her. So she changes the subject, and Inuyasha who is super simple-minded when it comes to that stuff completely falls for it (I’m making fun of him but I don’t think he’s at fault).
But even when he does, it should change Kagome’s mind, as he tells her that he came back because of her, and that she needs to have more confidence in him. Their conversation is then interrupted by the rest of the group, but we never get evidence that Kagome told anyone about what happened to her, which means that that wasn’t enough to help her get over her insecurity.
This is confirmed by her reaction when they mention it again in the following chapter.
So why is it such a big deal?
Well. Remember what, literally, killed Kikyou? What destroyed her relationship with Inuyasha? What had Inuyasha sealed to a tree for 50 years? Naraku’s an acceptable answer (give yourself the point if you found it), but more importantly, it’s their lack (or absence) of trust for each other.
And what’s Kagome doing here? She’s not trusting Inuyasha. At least not when Kikyou is involved. It’s very interesting that Inuyasha urges her to trust him (not the word he uses, but close enough in my opinion), consciously or unconsciously trying not to repeat the same mistake.
Don’t get me wrong, trust is one of the pillar of the Inukag’s relationship. Kagome would (has, does, will) trust Inuyasha with her life. There’s just that tiny crack in the pillar. It won’t cause the relationship to collapse, but it will hurt them both.
Kagome’s insecurities are a very big deal throughout the manga, and this may very well be where they appear and have her make a bad decision. (at least it’s bad in my opinion. You need to talk about traumatic events, like your boyfriend’s ex trying to kill you) Her insecurities cloud her judgement, like when she sends Inuyasha after Kikyou (I’m not saying he wouldn’t have gone anyway, but she still insisted for him to go), which resulted in her encounter with the baby, and her insecurities are, at least in part, responsible for Kikyou’s death. Hadn’t she had them, Naraku wouldn’t have been able to use them to taint her, and she would have been able to cure Kikyou immediately. (I don’t believe that she should directly be hold responsible for Kikyou’s death, not my point at all. Just: her insecurity is a big flaw and has consequences on the story)
So in my opinion, while I still strongly regret that this was never addressed again in the manga despite being quite a traumatic event for Kagome, this scene is very important to the story and very telling of Kagome’s character.
(For a more detailed look on that arc since I mostly focused on Kagome here, I strongly advise reading this post. I don’t always agree with the author of the blog, but there are a lot of analysis and they’re always very interesting in my opinion.)
Q: Were you ever bothered by the fact that Inuyasha and Kagome didn’t kiss in the manga? I know I enjoyed it in the anime and was glad they put it in.
A: This tends to be a subject, where my opinion often comes off as controversial, because I know many really wanted a kiss to happen, both in the anime and manga, either because they actually wanted to see it happen, or were bothered because Kikyo managed to get two kisses out of Inuyasha. I however, don’t care for it, to me, it was a really the small corner piece that was left on an almost complete puzzle. Sure the piece should go there to complete the puzzle, but it isn’t essential to see what the puzzle looks like.
I know some say, that Rumiko Takahashi didn’t have them kiss in the manga because of their ages, which does hold a lot of water consider the gap at the end of the series that ensured Kagome was over the age of 18. However, Rumiko Takahashi throughout the series, never put a whole lot of stock into kissing. We’ll look at the most notable kisses.
Kikyo kisses Inuyasha - No emotional impact was placed into this scene, specifically because Kikyo was taking the moment to both show off with Kagome watching, but the entire point of the kiss was to make Inuyasha more easy to manipulate. Some say that this was Inuyasha’s first kiss, I’d be willing to agree with that, but there is no emotional impact behind it, it has it’s purpose and that’s to manipulate Inuyasha, but emotionally, it’s pretty much meaningless.
Inuyasha kisses Kikyo - This one is emotionally charged, but it’s not romantically approached, it’s a kiss goodbye to someone close to you.
None of these kisses have an overwhelming romantic presence, there is always another factor involved in them, that prevents them from pushing deep into romantic territory. For that reason, and based on the above, I never felt that Takahashi put a whole lot of stock into kissing, but she didn’t need to do so, she created a relationship built around physical contact and emotional connection.
While gestures like holding hands, or wrapping an arm around a females waist, might seem like small gestures of love, that isn’t the case in Japan, where physical contact does have set standards of what defines a relationship. Actions like Inuyasha wrapping an arm around Kagome’s waist, hugging, leaning against one another (specifically Kagome leaning over a despaired Inuyasha after the bandit slaughter, or holding hands are gesture reserved for couples, not friends. Friends keep all their gestures above the shoulders, and when those gesture go below they have a certain reason for them to do so.
I’ve mentioned this before I believe but a key way to see how different the gestures are, watch how he carries both Kagome and Kikyo. Kagome is behind him, his arms are cradled around her thighs, or in some cases, he’ll interlock his fingers behind her, providing her a seat as he’ll carry her. Both would be seen as intimate gestures, that while not specifically ‘making’ them a couple, it shows that their is intimacy between the two of them. He carries Kikyo cradled in his arms, like one would carry a child, while this gesture is often connected carrying a bride through a threshold, it’s more often associated with carrying a child in a protective position.
However, some of the smaller gestures I don’t think get picked up on quite a bit, because they’re often kept subtle, which fits perfectly into Kagome and Inuyasha. Look at them a lot in the manga, their almost always beside one another, and can be seen in physical contact with one another. Often it’s overlooked because the biggest scenes get more prominent focus, but there is a lot more to their relationship than those scenes. Takahashi liked the subtle approach, and those subtle approaches would be more likely to be picked up by most Japanese readers, specifically because the culture often deals in sublty and hints.
So, no, I wasn’t bothered by it in the manga, in fact, I respected Takahashi for not taking that kind of approach, she’d left enough hints, there were tons of scenes that backed up the idea of them getting together, it was pretty much a sure-fire thing that there was big relationship material there. A kiss wasn’t really needed, and if it was needed, it would just be for fanservice, and that’s what it is in the anime, a quick, and rather brief kiss, that doesn’t mean nearly as much.
If I can leave this response with juta few last remarks; One kiss isn’t that big of a deal, there is a ton of potential kissing for the two of them beginning at the end of the series, focus on that, rather than a few kisses, that we see throughout the series, that aren’t that big of a deal. One or two kisses does not a relationship make, it takes so much more than that, and Rumiko Takahashi provided all of that for Kagome and Inuyasha, in abundance.
Q: I noticed that you mentioned “The Tragic Love Song of Destiny” when you were talking about fillers that were inconsistent and tried to connect to canon, though I never really noticed anything, I know you said you were going to focus on fillers later, but could you give a brief runthrough of what those things were?
A: Speaking of controversial, this one might be even more controversial, but there is a lot to talk about…
The brief answer would be, well there is no short answer, there is just too much to go over, sorry about this, hope you don’t mind a bit of reading.
The Beads of Subjugation: The origin of the beads was never actually explained in canon. All we know is that Kaede had them, and used them to stop Inuyasha after he was awoken. This episode tries to connect back to that, by showing that it was actually Kikyo who had made them, a few problems come up with this.
The reason the beads were originally placed onto Inuyasha was because he presented a danger to both himself and others, Kikyo’s reason for using the beads at this moment are never stated. Because the Inuyasha that we see isn’t presented as dangerous, hasn’t caused a single problem, and even worse, she comes up with the idea to use the beads, after Inuyasha was shown saving Kaede’s life. So much for gratitude, huh? “Underhanded” and “anymore wrong”, where is that Inuyasha?
It gets worse though. The anime seemed to like to use the word ‘beloved’ quite a bit, they tossed around the word, despite it never actually being said or mentioned canonically, but that’s not the key point here, the key point is how the word would be used in this context. ‘Beloved’ according to this episode, and the connection it tries to make, would have been the word that was going to be used to set off the command? That comes off as really cold, and this is supposed to be Kikyo saying this. This really changes around the perception of Sunrise’s use of the word.
Characterization: It’s too good to be true. Kikyo is presented as being a lot more open about everything than she originally was, while Inuyasha doesn’t look very distrusting during the situation. This is odd, since Kikyo has canonically stated that this was otherwise, Inuyasha always had a look of distrust about him, that fit into the image that was portrayed throughout the series, he wasn’t one to hand out information about himself or even things he had to just anyone, but here is Inuyasha, giving away make-up to Kikyo, something that belongs to his mother to Kikyo, who happily except it, and reacts like a giddy teenager at the prospect of it all? Where’s the canon Inuyasha that’s supposed to do all this “wrong” whose untrustworthy, who doesn’t trust others?
But when it comes to the characterization we have to remember, that a lot of canon sequences had to be altered around, with filler instances being included that do make it into the episode. The notable one that makes a few appearances in the series, during canon monologues is the scene at the dock. In this episode, that scene is extended a bit and does include the kiss, which goes against the canon kiss when Kikyo first tries to kill Inuyasha and her comment about them never kissing or hugging before this.
It’s confirmed that both Kikyo and Inuyasha died with hate in their heart for one another, but we get an additional monologue from Inuyasha before he slips into his deep sleep, how much he loves Kikyo. That of course brings up, why he acts like a complete jerk to Kagome when he first meets her.
This next one I like, but not in the context they try to present it. Kaede comments on the calm look on Inuyasha’s face when he’s sealed, she implies that the look is because he is in love with Kikyo. However, canon disputes this on multiple occasions when the very same calm look shows on his face when he’s asleep. In every instance, the calm look on Inuyasha’s face is the “real” Inuyasha. That brings up an important question, Kaede doesn’t know the real and calm Inuyasha, so then what was the Inuyasha that we see through this episode? Calm, collected, open, outspoken about his feelings, wants, desires? If that isn’t the “real” Inuyasha, then who has Kaede been talking about this entire time? She doesn’t know the real Inuyasha, which essentially makes everything that she said during this completely unreliable.
Time: The subject of time is always debated, how long was he around Kikyo? Nobody knows for certain, but one thing that is usually brought up is, why he didn’t open up around her and trust her the same that he did with Kagome. We factor in that Kagome got him to trust her fairly quickly, even despite previous circumstances making him less likely to trust someone than before. If we go by this episode, they had to be together for months, because we actually see the seasons shift, that in turn make the question even more notable, in a matter of months, she found herself incapable of bring out that side of Inuyasha? Of course, that only applies to canon, in this, she manages to do that and more. The anime actually did this previously in Episode #20, where they showed a season transition of summer, winter and fall.
The Betrayal: These were changed around, given completely new dialogue, paired with old dialogue. Kikyo getting attacked from behind is explained by her being distracted by the make-up. Inuyasha is only shot at once by an arrow before he runs away towards the village, yet in every other instance we see a few arrows in the treat, and Kikyo is always positioned at on a hilltop, not directly in front of him.
Notable Goof:
- Mistress Centipede: “I heard some half-demon spawn was after the Sacred Jewel. It’s you, isn’t it?” - What saddens me the most about this, is this line comes right from the very first episode, the line was specifically stated to let Kagome (and all of us) know that Inuyasha was a half-demon. Yet, this special claims that Inuyasha was not only the reason that she was killed, but the reason her bones ended up inside of the well. You’d think these two would remember one another, and that Mistress Centipede would have more than “heard” about Inuyasha. I know this is filler, but this is supposed to be a special, and this information is right in the very first episode of the series.
The biggest issue with this episode, despite it being filler, is the attempts by Sunrise to try so hard to re-write history, and to create this perfect love-story, a fantastical relationship that was ruined by the evil Naraku, between two people who had a really strong connection with one another, got along great, and were pretty much in paradise with one another, despite everything in the series proving the contratry. The attempts to connect to canon are definitely there, and if we include scenes previously seen in the series that were placed into canon content and expanded here, they were trying really hard to get everything to work, but not for the benefit of the story or characters.
This episode honestly really disappointed me with Sunrise, because they took out elements that they didn’t like, and added in a ton of things of how they wanted to portray everything, it feels like that had an agenda in mind, but when it came to trying to be canon, they just shrugged and tried to hammer everything in, even while trying to stick with canon just a little bit.
Funny enough, I get a lot of questions about this episode, and usually, I give a short and straight to the point kind of response, because it’s often thought to be canon, and really changes the Kikyo/Inuyasha dynamic for some people, based on information that doesn’t fit in with a lot of what is already shown and known.
My advice with this episode has always been, appreciate it for what it is, just don’t take it seriously, it’s purposely fantasized and doesn’t really represent the relationship between Kikyo/Inuyasha.
Hey :) What do you think about the episode 48 (chapters 172~176)? Inuyasha really chose Kikyo over Kagome? What impact did it have on the InuKag relationship? (sorry for my bad english!)
I think context is everything.
These chapters open with Inuyasha saving Kikyo from Naraku’s giant soul collector. Upon her request, he takes her weakened body to the sacred tree, where she explains how Onigumo had once lusted after her and that was motivating much of Naraku’s actions.
This shocks and disgusts Inuyasha. Overrun with these sudden emotions, he tries to help by doing the first thing that comes to his racing mind: vowing his protection…partly because he believes that he’s the only one with the ability to do so.
With a mindset like that, what can you expect? In love or not, Inuyasha cares for Kikyo’s well-being. He wants her to be safe, and he feels that he’s the only one who can provide that safety for her. So of course he’s going to feel obligated to try.
Just before the above panel, he makes the following remark:
His motivations for protecting Kikyo from Naraku?
It’s not because he’s in love with her.
It’s not because he wants to get back together with her.
It’s because he just wants her to be safe. He doesn’t want her to worry about fighting anymore.
He messed up when she was alive, and because of that, she died. He’s not about to let himself mess up again and see Kikyo killed again by the same villain.
And so, with that, he decides he’ll have to “choose” to focus his energy on Kikyo…again, not to be together with her, but to protect her from Naraku.
Soon after, he discusses the situation with Kaede, who expresses her doubts over his choice. The following exchange takes place:
Nearly 100 chapters ago (in a scene that was, sadly, cut from the anime), it was established that Inuyasha’s main reasons for being “unable to forget about Kikyo” was because he felt her death was “half his fault” and thus that he owed her his life in return. This scene affirms that.
Look at his face. He’s not remotely happy or relieved that his supposed “fate” will lead him to “be with” Kikyo in death. In fact, not once since the very beginning of our examined sequence has he smiled or been happy.
Yes, he states a few times in these chapters that he’s “choosing” Kikyo. But it’s pretty clear that he’s not doing so out of personal preference–he’s doing so because he feels it’s his duty, and despite his gruff exterior, Inuyasha is an honorable man, and an honest one.
Because he’s now choosing to focus his energy on Kikyo, he feels that he has to let go of his bond with Kagome. He’s not happy about this. He’s finding it difficult to tell her and procrastinates doing so as long as possible. When Shippo pesters him about going to see Kagome, Inuyasha thinks, with a very depressed, forlorn expression, “but that means telling her we’re breaking up…”
He doesn’t want to.
When Miroku and Sango are finally fed up with his angsty “indecisiveness” and nag him about getting it over with, this happens:
He really doesn’t want to.
In the next few panels, he goes on to explain, half in words, half in thoughts, that because he wants to protect Kikyo, he’s afraid that it would be selfish to ask Kagome to come back and put up with that.
He’s really trying to do the right thing, even at a personal loss. Alas, there’s a lot on his mind and it’s hard to sift out exactly what’s really the right thing and what’s not.
Finally, he takes a deep breath and heads towards the well, intending to go back to talk to Kagome…only to find Kagome sitting there, waiting for him.
Kagome begins to explain to him all the thinking she’s been doing about him and her and Kikyo, and then we get this very telling bit of dialogue:
Kagome…before I met you, I couldn’t trust anyone. But you cried for my sake. You were always by my side, for me. I enjoy it when you’re here. I feel at ease. But…I mustn’t laugh and enjoy things. Kikyo…Kikyo died following me. I have to…risk my life for Kikyo in return.
Remember how I mentioned earlier that Inuyasha hasn’t smiled once since the beginning of the sequence?
He is not choosing Kikyo because he “loves” her. He is not choosing her because he wants to. He is choosing her because he thinks that’s what he owes her. He is choosing her because even though Kagome makes him happy, this predicament with Kikyo makes him feel like HE SHOULDN’T BE HAPPY.
Let me say that again:
He feels like he’s not allowed to be happy because of what he owes Kikyo.
And that is freakin’ tragic and sad.
But regardless, Kagome responds, and ultimately tells Inuyasha that she “wants to be together with him” anyways. At first Inuyasha is unsure of how to reply, but Kagome continues:
May I be with you?
Inuyasha is surprised. Before, he’d thought it selfish to ask Kagome to stay with him after making that promise to Kikyo. But here she was, wanting to do so regardless. He echoes:
You’ll…be here for me?
And Kagome confirms that.
Kagome grasps his hand (and he returns the gesture) and they walk off together. Meanwhile, we peer into Kagome’s thoughts:
I want Inuyasha to live, as long as there are happy times. I want us to smile often. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do anything, but I’ll always be by your side.
Look at that. For the first time since the beginning of our examined chapters, Inuyasha is smiling.
So…yes. He technically “chose Kikyo” in these chapters. But that choice was not motivated by love or romance, it was motivated by disgust towards Naraku and a desire to do the right thing and pay his “debt” to Kikyo, even at personal loss.
Because as far as “love” goes, Kagome makes him happy. Kikyo makes him feel like he shouldn’t be happy.
Given the personal choice free from “duties” or “debts”, which one of those scenarios do you really think he’d prefer?
Hello, in your opinion who is Inuyasha love more, Kagome or Kikyo? I keep reading many post that Kikyo is the first women Inu love and trust. But I don’t believe about the trust, because Inu himself saying that Kagome was the first person he trust. Also I find the love he has between Kagome and Kikyo are different. Many fans said Kikyo is his true love... but I don’t think that would be the case because it seems very clear that He and Kagome have more deeper bond compare to Kikyo. Thank you
Hello! I think by looking at my url you will guess what my answer is ^^ I usually avoid talking about inukag vs inukik because I think we as a fandom have already covered the topic enough, and I already answered this question back in 2014, but my opinions have slightly changed after getting back into the series in 2020 so I will give you my updated answer to this question.
I’ll point out that everything I say is based on the manga only! I have a lot of problems with the writing in the anime so I only consider the canon material (the manga & profiles book) for character/relationship analysis.
Let’s start off by talking about Inuyasha and Kikyo’s relationship. You are right that Inuyasha's love for Kagome and his love for Kikyo are very different. Nothing makes it more obvious than comparing the moments where he fell in love with them:
Kikyo's sad, lonely face makes him feel like he “did something wrong”, while Kagome's warm smile makes him feel “relieved”. They bring up completely different emotions in him: Kikyo represents sadness, while Kagome represents happiness. But I also think that Kikyo also represents death, while Kagome represents life. Keep this in mind because it will be important later on in this post.
My understanding of Inuyasha and Kikyo's relationship before the betrayal was that they saw something similar in each other, the fact that both weren't allowing themselves to be human, and both wanted to find a way to find fix that problem. Kikyo felt like she couldn't allow herself to be with someone as long as she was the guardian of the shikon jewel, so she had to get rid of it first. Kikyo is also an experienced priestess, who most likely knows how half-demons are treated in human society. Which is why she suggested to change Inuyasha and make him human, because in that scenario she would be "normal", but he would also be.
I first need to point out first that Kikyo is wrong, because as we learn later on in the series “the jewel never grants your real wish". If Naraku hadn't intervened, it either would have backfired horribly for Inuyasha, or at best he would have been human but the jewel wouldn't have been purified, so Kikyo would still be the jewel's guardian and she wouldn't be a free woman. There wasn’t really any way for Kikyo to know that, but she also had no evidence that the jewel would actually turn Inuyasha human. Yet she presents it as something she’s very confident will happen, and Inuyasha doesn’t know any better, and no one ever cared about him since his mother, so he accepts.
The anime greatly changed their relationship pre-betrayal, in a way that makes absolutely no sense to me. In the manga, Inuyasha and Kikyo only have a few conversations before deciding to use the jewel. They never kiss, Inuyasha never gives her his mother’s rouge, they always stand at a distance from each other. It’s pretty clear that they rushed into making a life-altering decision in order to be together, without getting to know each other well first. Inuyasha never told Kikyo about his human nights, and Kikyo never asked how he really felt about becoming human.
The fact that they only knew each other on a surface level explains the lack of trust between them. Because yes, Inuyasha didn’t trust Kikyo. This is something he says explicitly several times:
We know that's true, because if Inuyasha had trusted Kikyo he could have tried to stop her, and most likely would have been able to tell by scent that it wasn't really her. When Kagome tried to shoot at him when she was possessed by Tsubaki, he decided to jump in and try to stop her despite the risks for himself:
But because Inuyasha didn't trust Kikyo, he didn't investigate and really thought she wanted him dead. This is something that Kikyo knows too:
This is important, because I strongly believe that Kagome and Inuyasha are meant to be together because Inuyasha and Kikyo's relationship failed.
The theme of "fate" is important in the Inuyasha series, and it is most obvious in the Inuyasha/Kagome/Kikyo situation. When Kikyo died, her soul was full of regrets, anger and sadness over what happened with Inuyasha, she wished she could have been a normal woman, someone who would have been able to heal his heart. The shikon jewel used those feelings to force her to reincarnate, in order to bring itself back into the world. My theory is that it is also at that moment that Fate decided that Kikyo's reincarnation was going to have the chance to live the life that Kikyo wanted, so it to tied Inuyasha and Kagome with the red string of fate.
You see the red string of fate is an East Asian belief originating from Chinese mythology, which says that the two people connected by the red thread are destined lovers, regardless of place, time, or circumstances. This magical cord may stretch or tangle, but never break. As tvtropes puts it: “More than Love at First Sight, more than simply two Soulmates destined to be together, the Red String of Fate is some perceptible clue that identifies your destined One True Love.”
As you can see above, the imagery of the red thread is used in the anime in one of the endings of The Final Act, but it is also heavily hinted in the manga, with both Kagome and Inuyasha knowing that their destinies are linked.
The bone eater’s well is the physical manifestation of their connection, it allows the two of them, and only the two of them, to travel through time so they can meet. Kagome doesn't need the shikon jewel shards to activate the well, she only needs to wish to see Inuyasha again.
Inuyasha seems to realize all of this when he’s in the meido, by saying that he was born for Kagome, but what does he mean by that exactly? Didn’t I say his life became connected to Kagome when Kikyo died, not when he was born? Well, the way I personally interpret his statement, is that Inuyasha was essentially REBORN the moment Kagome freed him from the seal he was put under. Not only did he first wake up from the seal when Kagome was in danger, but Kagome's words when she frees him are also very important:
Remember how I said Kagome represents life and Kikyo represents death? This is what I mean. At the sacred tree, Kagome chose to live and to let Inuyasha live, while Kikyo chose to die and (eventually) wanted Inuyasha to die with her.
Now you're probably telling yourself, "this doesn't really answer the question of who Inuyasha loves more", well we're finally getting to that! Looking at the events of the series, we can see several moments where Inuyasha had to make a choice between dying with Kikyo, or living with Kagome.
It first happens in episode 23 / chapter 77 when Kikyo tries to drag Inuyasha to hell. Inuyasha is entranced, and believes the only way he can bring peace to Kikyo's soul is by dying with her. Yet when he hears Kagome's voice, he wakes up, and chooses to live.
Next it happens when he's put under the illusionary death by Naraku in episode 33 / chapter 122, and is tempted by a vision of Kikyo. He remembers Kagome, how he isn't alone anymore thanks to her, how he regained his lost soul/heart when he met her, and he once again chooses to live.
When Inuyasha wants to choose Kikyo over Kagome in episode 47-48 / chapter 171-176 he makes it clear that he knows he has no future with Kikyo other than going to hell with her.
What I find interesting about this chapter is that Inuyasha doesn’t seem to want to travel with Kikyo, or “date” her. After this he goes back to his friends with the intent of continuing his journey with them. It’s very weird to me because when you love someone, don’t you want to spend time with them? Especially if their time together alive is limited, you would think Inuyasha would want to leave his friends and go with her instead? They only meet up once in a while to discuss Kikyo’s health or Naraku and then they go their separate ways. Meanwhile Inuyasha will be completely bored, impatient and unhappy when Kagome isn’t with him.
Which brings me back to what Inuyasha tells Kagome in this arc. Inuyasha directly admits to Kagome at that moment that she is the first person he ever trusted. He feels happy and light when he's with her, but he doesn't think he's allowed to.
This scene screams survivor’s guilt. There’s no denying that he cares about Kikyo but if she hadn’t “died to follow him” and if Naraku wasn’t actively trying to kill her again, I don’t think he would have thought of choosing her over Kagome. In the end, Kagome wants to stay by his side, she wants him to live, she explicitly asks him if they can be together and he lets her stay by his side. He couldn’t bring himself to actually chose Kikyo over Kagome, otherwise he would have broken up with Kagome right then.
Inuyasha is ultimately tested to chose between Kagome and Kikyo during the Kao arc in TFA episode 10 / chapter 472-474, after Kikyo's final death. Inuyasha is once again entrapped by a vision of Kikyo, and has the option to die with her... but he wakes up when he hears Kagome's voice.
You see Kao is a yokai who can see people’s pain and sadness. Kikyo’s death causes Inuyasha a lot of pain, but Kagome on the other hand, doesn’t bring any sadness in his heart. Which is why this demon thought Kikyo was the woman Inuyasha loved the most, because he couldn’t see Kagome in the darkness of his heart, and then was shocked when Inuyasha was able to get out of his spell. The arc ends with Inuyasha smiling at Kagome, knowing that his love for her is enough to make him go on living.
A lot of people feel like Inuyasha only chose Kagome by default at the end because Kikyo is dead, but what they fail to realize is that if Inuyasha's love for Kikyo was stronger than his love for Kagome, he would have chosen to die with her a long time ago. He had many opportunities to truly choose Kikyo over Kagome by following her in death, but every . single . time the thought of Kagome or her voice was enough to bring him back.
Kikyo was the first woman Inuyasha loved, he went through something really traumatic with her, something he won’t ever forget, but your first love isn’t necessarily your true love. With Kagome, Inuyasha reached his full potential. Inuyasha wholeheartedly knows that Kagome is the most important person in his life and he wouldn’t be who he is today without her.
We know this is true, because we’ve seen it. Kagome cried for Inuyasha’s sake, something he thought no one would ever do. Kagome asked him about his past and his feelings about his life as a hanyo, and he opened up to her about his struggles. Kagome encouraged him to become friends with Shippo, Miroku and Sango, who became like family to him. Kagome stood by his side against humans who won’t accept him, and Inuyasha realized that with Kagome he doesn’t need to change and get rid of his yokai side, because being by her side is his “ibasho” (居場所): the place where he belongs, the place where he can be himself.
But Kagome also helps him realize that he doesn’t need to reject his humanity in order to be strong. When Kagome met him, she couldn’t even understand why he wanted to become a full yokai, she was impressed by his strength already. Thanks to Kagome, and the fact that Inuyasha didn’t become human, Inuyasha was able to master Tessaiga, his only heirloom from his father (other than the fire rat robe). Inuyasha learned to become strong in order to protect the people he cares about. Kagome was the person who believed in him the most and stayed by his side through everything.
Kagome and Inuyasha’s relationship isn’t perfect, because no relationship is. What makes their bond so strong though, is that they always find a way to work through their issues. They fought, learned to let go, and made up. Their relationship was trialed and tested over and over again and they always made it through, and growth became a staple of their relationship.
Inuyasha doesn’t idealize Kagome, he will call her out on her bullshit when she does something that hurts him. He knows all of her flaws, and that doesn’t stop him from loving her. Kagome also doesn’t tolerate Inuyasha’s bad behaviors, and challenged him on them, which is what allowed him to grow. Their relationship isn’t based on “what ifs” or a promise of an ideal life, they simply enjoy being together as they are. Inuyasha and Kikyo simply didn’t have that kind of development, and their relationship always felt stagnant and unbalanced to me, with Inuyasha giving far more into the relationship and not getting much in return from Kikyo.
Some people argue that his relationship with Kikyo is “more mature” simply because Inuyasha is more serious with her. Being serious isn’t necessarily a good thing, not when he explicitly said that Kikyo’s existence reminds him that he’s not allowed to be happy and he should die. You know what maturity is to me? Being able to apologize, being able to recognize Kagome’s feelings and being able to comfort and reassure her when she needs it. Inuyasha does all of that, which shows that he’s perfectly capable of being mature with Kagome.
Being grumpy, loud, goofy, is Inuyasha’s normal behavior. He doesn’t feel like he needs to change and be on his best behavior around Kagome, because he knows she understands him. Which is probably why he says he feels “lighter” when he’s with her, there’s less pressure to be someone he’s not. And honestly? the grumpy + sunshine couple dynamic is something I adore.
Those are all reasons why I love Inuyasha and Kagome’s relationship, and why I think their bond is deeper than what Inuyasha had with Kikyo. Inuyasha realizes that too, and I think Kagome is simply irreplaceable in his heart.
tl;dr: Inuyasha had the opportunity to choose Kikyo over Kagome several times during the events of the series by choosing to die with her, but he never did. He knows himself that without Kagome he wouldn’t be who he is at the end of their journey and he wouldn’t have the life that he has. Their bond transcend time & space, because they were born for each other.
On this the 1st day of February, 2021, Tom Felton gifted us all with this gorgeous photo of himself:
The collective Draco Malfoy fandom ooohed and ahhed over it because frankly, our guy cleans up well, and he looks damn good in a dress shirt.
Naturally, yours truly could not resist kicking the ‘Draco’ up a notch in this image and turning it into a Dramione manip. Behold, Draco and Hermione, in a hotel room together.
I’m honestly pretty in love with how this turned out, and I’m hoping and praying we get more images from what looks to be a truly fantastic photoshoot Tom did.
📷: @josephsinclair - Tom Felton @t22felton for @bifa_film
Tom will be hosting the 23rd British Independent Film Awards on Feb 18th!
Absolutely brilliant afternoon photographing Tom, a gentleman and fellow canine enthusiast!
Styling @stylegazer1
Grooming @nadiaaltinbas
Shot on @hasselblad
#TomFelton #JosephSinclair #Bifa2020 #hasselblad #mediumformat
https://www.instagram.com/p/CKwBwk6A4hx/?igshid=ygnqtzjms90n
Malfoy laughed. “Are you trying to tell me that this” – he gestured towards Harry and Hermione – “this is some kind of rescue? Frankly, Potter, I’m touched.”
Chapter 1, Love In A Time Of The Zombie Apocalypse by Rizzle
I find it hilarious when antis are just like "draco laughed about hermione being sexually assaulted"--he wasn't even laughing, he warned her that if she hung around she'd probably receive the same treatment as those muggles. but james potter actually did the SAME thing to snape, and somehow it's all okay when he does it? because he "changed"? jkr didn't make D change, which is why the fandom gives him that arc. romione fans are just obsessive hypocrites set to tear anyone w a diff opinion down
You’re referring the scene after the quidditch world cup when the Death Eaters are dangling muggles in the sky. That scene where the trio runs into Draco in the woods is so interesting to me because Draco warns them no less than 3 times in the span of something like two pages to protect Hermione - keep her head down, keep her out of sight, don’t let anyone see her - but he does it in a very Slytherin way. He says it in such a subtle way that if anyone overhears it (or uses legilimency/asks for a pensieve memory), he can play off his remarks as taunting the trio. Yet the crux of his message is a warning - keep Hermione safe.
Unfortunately, Harry and Ron take it more as taunting and as threats and miss an opportunity to possibly forge a tentative truce with Draco. And Draco, having gone out of his way to warn them three times in the span of a few minutes, gets cursed at by Ron (who Harry describes as using language Mrs. Weasley would not approve of) and gets into an argument with the trio. If I’m Draco in that scenario, trying to warn them to keep Hermione out of sight, and they attack me over it, I’m going to be less likely to offer any kind of assistance later on because they’ve shown me they don’t understand the very cautious way I have to try to warn them or share information. Imagine how different the rest of the series could have been if they’d taken that interaction less defensively? Would Draco have been willing to approach them again? Would he have had a less combative relationship with the trio at school? A lot could have changed based on how everyone acted and reacted in that scene.
FWIW, I don’t know that I consider dangling someone upside down to be sexual assault, but it’s certainly wrong, regardless of who does it. James Potter is very much the Draco Malfoy of his generation. He’s the wealthy, popular athlete from a prominent family who bullies others and gets away with it because he has someone protecting him from consequences. James’s bullying is actually worse to me than Draco’s because James nearly got Severus killed by luring him to the Shrieking Shack when Remus was transformed during a full moon and because he did do things like dangle Snape upside down and expose his underwear to a crowd of students. Draco made Potter Stinks buttons during the Tri-Wizard tournament and made up a song to taunt Ron on the quidditch pitch. Definitely not the same thing, IMHO.
This doesn't really have anything to do direct with Draco or Hermione, but something I'm sick of seeing in Dramione fics is Ron being abusive and awful to Hermione and that's why they break up. Or they break up but he's absolutely awful to her afterwards or he cheated or her etc. THIS IS RONALD WEASLEY WE'RE TALKING ABOUT HE WOULD ABSOLUTELY NEVER DO THAT HE LOVES HERMIONE EVEN IF THEY BREAK UP HE'S SURE AS HELL NOT GONNA MAKE HER LIFE MISERABLE.
Speaking as someone who married and then divorced a “Ron”, I have to respectfully disagree. Do I think he’s a rapist or a murdered or someone who would beat Hermione? No, I don’t (unless he’s under an imperious or something).
BUT we know from canon that he has a bad temper and an enormous insecurity complex. We know that when he perceives his best friend as succeeding without him (triwizard tournament) or when he perceives his friend as doing something he dislikes (reporting Harry’s mysterious new broom), he responds by cutting them off and refusing to have anything to do with them until he gets over it. We know that when the going got tough, Ron went home to his mother and left Hermione and Harry to fend for themselves. We know that he considered Hermione someone who should just be there for him when he needed a date (yule ball), and if you consider Cursed Child as canon, then you know that he only ever saw her as a potential partner because Viktor Krum - someone Ron idolized - liked her first.
We also know from canon that Ron’s greatest desire (admittedly at 11) was fame and recognition, which makes sense when you consider how he was lost in the shuffle of children, the last superfluous boy before his mother finally got a girl.
Now think hard about THAT character being in a long-term relationship with Hermione Jean Granger, brightest witch of her age, who is incredibly ambitious and has high political aspirations. In canon he drops out of the Aurors and goes to work in the joke shop with George, essentially stepping into Fred’s role. Again, if you consider Cursed Child as canon, he was so drunk at his wedding that he barely remembers it, and he’s basically Mr. Dad while Hermione becomes Minister for Magic.
What do you think Hermione’s rise to power did to Ron’s fragile ego? To his insecurities? How do you think he reacted when he realized that adulthood was more of being the sidekick and not the main attraction, only this time to Hermione instead of Harry? Some men could rise to the occasion and be genuinely supportive and caring, but sadly, a lot of them can’t handle being seen as being in a ‘lesser’ position to a woman. It’s not remotely unrealistic to think that Ron could have cheated on Hermione if another woman boosted his ego and built up his self-esteem and made him feel important. It’s not remotely unrealistic either to think that there were probably a lot of fights between Ron and Hermione about her career and balancing work and family.
Frankly, I don’t think Ron and Hermione are well-suited, and I think it’s realistic that they could figure that out in any number of ways, some of which could lead to a lot of hurt on both sides and Ron lashing out (again, he’s got a temper) in his anger and making the situation worse. And if that happens after Ron and Hermione have a child or children, well... let’s just say that I’m living that exact scenario, and it’s not pretty.
If you stay strictly with the first canon books, of course you gonna think they're toxic. That's why Dramione fics are a huge thing. Because they allow you to explore different possibilities of their interaction and possibilities for changing. Even in canon, Draco was already changing in the last books. He married a woman his parents didnt approved and raised his son to be tolerant. And also complemented Hemione at some point, so IMO: Yes, Dramione is possible and makes total sense.
