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Trees, Humanity, and Legacies (Tree Symbolism in KNY)
First and foremost I would like to credit this post by @yoiiyoii for some of the points that I end up making here as I end up expanding on a couple that they already brought up. They also make some that I'm not going to focus on here for the sake of length so, yes, take a look at that post! But anyway, let's get into it. Spoilers for the manga ahead.
I. Wood As An Element
In Taoist thought wood (or "tree", more directly translated) is it's own element. All of these elements have their own associations with emotions, weather, parts of the body, etc. based on behavior rather than literal elemental traits.
(I'd also like to note that I'm not an expert on this subject and therefore my analysis is based on a very rudimentary understanding of the concept from what reading I have done so take it with a grain of salt.)
Some things I'd like to draw attention to with wood is it's associations with anger, wind, and the virtue benevolence. What exactly is meant by benevolence is a little more complicated, with the most common translations of ren (仁), the virtue in question, being "co-humanity" and "humaneness". It doesn't have a simple definition, but to quote Confucius himself:
"The man of perfect humaneness, wishing to be established himself, seeks to establish others; wishing to enlarge himself, he seeks to enlarge others. To be able to judge others by what is nearby in ourselves, that is what we might call humaneness." [Analects VI.28]
Outside of the Wuxing interpretation of wood and it's connection to humanity, yoiiyoii's post makes a good point about trees having roots and branches. Or, symbolically, a past and a future. The futures that trees represent are not necessarily the ones that we ourselves have, however. But that will bring us into another symbol that trees can become:
II. Bonsai
All trees are associated with longevity and resilience due to their long lifespans and adaptability, however bonsai emphasizes this symbolism in a unique way by directly involving a human artist in the process. As explained by Aarin Packard in the Pacific Bonsai Museum's World War Bonsai exhibit:
"...[I]nevitably, every tree gives way to the natural cycles of death, decomposition, and renewal. The art of bonsai so celebrates these cycles that even dead bonsai are exhibited; so great is the reverence for the accumulation of daily care by each devoted artist whose lives intertwine with the tree."
Rather than just being a symbol of the tree's long life, bonsai become a symbol of the artist's legacy. They are something made to be changed and touched by many lives, and become the result of multiple generations making their mark on one living thing. They're the entire opposite of demon's attempt to hold onto life by abandoning their identities and connections.
III. Upper Moon One
Much of Upper Moon One's screentime during his battle is centered around his struggle to hold onto living without significant purpose to back it, and the fact that he still struggles to entirely accept what he is losing in giving up his humanity.
In his flashbacks we see that UM1 cut his brother down as one would a tree in an attempt to cut the humanity out of himself and his life. This attack seems to be something he continues to favor as he kills the last person with a demon-eating ability, Genya, and Muichirou all in this same way.
As a side note connected to his choice to attack this way, Muichirou's own family is noted to be woodcutters.
This connection aside, when UM1 interacts with Muichirou he is incredibly focused on the fact that he has remaining descendants. However, he's cut himself off from this connection by his own decision to abandon his family to sever his ties with humanity and become a demon.
His attempt to convince Muichirou to become a demon may be a struggle to have a legacy and reckoning with the fact that this is a benefit of being human that he cannot have. The only way he can manage to conceptualize having it now is by bringing Muichirou down to his level. However, all of the past references to Muichirou's ancestry have always been around Yoriichi, despite him not being as directly related to him. His legacy is strong enough that even after all of this time and without any children of his own he is still the one whose memory survives.
As he is nearly decapitated after being rooted to the ground, UM1 has a flashback to his last confrontation with his brother. Here, he reflects on the fact that all of his purpose as a demon is tied to winning. He breaks through Genya's BDA after this through something like a tree of his own -- sprouting blades from his body.
Branches represent the future, as the second part of our analogy. So here it's a representation of UM1 trying desperately to preserve his own life, or future, that he can only have if he stays alive. Notably, his "tree" is also entirely offensive, aiming to cause as much damage as possible. Meanwhile, Genya's is more defensive, focusing on keeping UM1 in place so that he can't attack more than it is doing any significant damage to him. (More on Genya's BDA later, though).
IV. Yoriichi
Yoriichi's mindset stands in stark contrast to his brother's, embodying many of the ideas I mentioned earlier about humaneness, but also the act of entrusting your work to future generations.
Unlike his brother, he is focused on the act of uplifting others, and in doing so uplifted not only himself in life but his memory, as well. Breathing styles is quite literally a concept with branches of it's own, all sourced from Sun Breathing. By caring for others he has created something that has outlived him.
Part of Yoriichi's more direct tree symbolism is the fact that even in death, similar to a tree, he stayed standing. This could also be representative of the way that even though he had died, all that he worked for stayed alive.
This is a concept that UM1 still can't understand even up to his final moments where he says:
"After your death, lord Muzan and I made sure... to kill all swordsmen who knew sun breathing and it's forms. So why do your breathing techniques remain? Why could I not leave anything behind? Why could I not become someone? Why are we so different? Why in the world was I ever born?"
This entire dichotomy reminded me of a sign that is up in the Pacific Bonsai Museum's World War Bonsai exhibit:
"What kind of ancestor do you want to be?"
V. Genya
Genya has the most heavy-handed wood associations out of anyone in KNY. His eventual Blood Demon Art, his bonsai hobby, his crow (Hashibami) being named after hazel trees, etc. all being part of this. It's fitting, then, that out of all of the characters mentioned here he aligns with trees symbolism the most, as well.
Let's return to wood as an element and the things that it can represent. Of course, the wind association can be used to tie his character back to Sanemi again. It also, however, represents adaptability, such as how bamboo bends but does not break in the wind. Being someone who can't fight in the standard way, a lot of Genya's character revolves around adaptability. His approaches change, but his goals stay the same.
When related to the other elements, wood controls/overcomes earth by breaking it up and constricting it through it's roots. Earth is represented by the color yellow/gold, the stomach and the mouth. All of these can be directly related to Genya's demon-eating ability, with it relying on his bite strength and digestive system, as well as his eyes and hair turning yellow.
Genya's blood demon art is an accumulation of all of the symbolism that trees and bonsai have. It's a spur-of-the-moment adaptation to the circumstances he's under. It's fueled by anger and frustration, all directed at himself for not being good enough. But more than that, it is a manifestation of his want to help and support everyone else in this battle. It is his want for his brother and Himejima to survive. Because while he doesn't mention being afraid of dying he does mention being afraid of failing.
"The more I want to help, the more my body stiffens up... Making it difficult for me to move. I'm scared... that I'm of no use and can't protect my comrades."
His switch to offense is made knowing that he will be trading his potential to heal later in the battle. He stops prioritizing his own life and fully accepts that he will not live to see the end of demons, but that doesn't mean his brother can't.
In the same way that a bonsai tree can be the accumulation of an artists skills and daily efforts that they finally pass on to be cared for by others when they die, Genya's BDA is the culmination of all of his training and hard work, his dreams and hopes, that he is passing on to his brother. For an ability that's source is demonic, it's entirely rooted in his humanity.
To bring back the concept of humaneness with another quote:
"To love a thing is to want it to live..." [Analects XII.10]
It's fitting that UM1 died (in part) not only to the embodiment of humanity and someone who accepted their death in hopes of uplifting others. It also seems fitting that Genya, like Yoriichi, is a younger brother who has great reverence for his older brother, and that his BDA was a culmination of that love. This isn't the only time that a parallel is drawn between the two of them, either.
The tree symbolism ends up being a very interesting vehicle for the struggle of humanity vs. demonhood, and the things that make us human. There are a lot of other instances of this struggle within the UM1 battle alone, but this analysis post is already ridiculously long, so I'll leave those for another time.
Thinking about Vargas again for the first time in a while, which included sending @seepingfrommyskin a ton of paragraphs of me trying to analyze him/build out his story a little more.
I've been wanting to redraw this illustration of Amano's for AGES as Esper Tina. It's my favourite illustration of his. Finally had some time to draw in-between classes and here we are :)
I really enjoy drawing Lucrecia based on her original design, I’m such a big fan of the yellow + red and her big round earrings and her bangs… all of it, truly. This was a really really quick piece but I wanted to draw something that included more of her own stress and guilt. That and I think trying not to be a perfectionist about it added more to the mood, anyway.
You know, in 30 years I've never given a single thought to Janus's physical presence in Enhasa when you first meet him (yes this is unhinged Chronoposting) but now today I'm suddenly just...hey isn't that a little fucked up? Like, so he's by himself, just a kid and his cat. No bodyguards or whatever, no mention of like a tutor or etc he's there to visit, not a single servant or anyone keeping track of him. You could assume that it's simply abstracted for time and cartridge space, but Marle's storyline goes into a great amount of detail about her relationship with her royal father, where she's expected to be and who's responsible for her, and Queen Zeal wanting Schala glued to her side is a point in the Zeal plotline, so it's not like it wasn't on their minds. Now if he was just like wandering the palace, it'd be a little sad but perfectly normal, it's known he's reclusive + there's that implication that he's a little on the outs. Even if he were in Kajar, well it's not super responsible to send a probably single-digit kid off on a day trip to the next city over, but it's already clear he's relatively neglected and he's still a prince so whatever palace minders he has probably aren't going to directly tell him no.
But...Enhasa? An entire island's distance away from the mainland? Where the only way to get to it from the palace is to travel across the entire Zeal mainland, take a Skyway down to the frozen earth, and travel across what the game makes look like half a continent?
The Blackbird is made much of by people you talk to like wow, a flying machine, so amazing, so it doesn't seem like there was a bunch of convenient air transport just hanging around for Enlightened One usage either. And if there were easier magical transportation, then that would be available instead of the Skyways, right? "Yeah strangers, you plebs can use the Skyway if you want but our magic ferry is available for 200g" or something?
So... people keep such loose track of this kid, literally the prince, that he wanders down literally off the continent to traipse through the frozen wastes to visit one of the outlying cities. Seemingly unaccompanied, no guards or servants or minders. (Not necessarily alone, maybe there are caravans or something who knows, but on his own.) Apparently we're all chill with this because there are no lines referencing it and nobody in Enhasa seems surprised to see the literal prince or anything.
Like...damn? Every time I think "no self it's not that deep, Chrono Trigger condensed a lot of things for time/scope, Magus's childhood wasn't actually meant to be that shitty" something else smacks me in the face.
Considering this guy literally says “I survived the darkness” to describe his life I do think it’s meant to be that shitty.
In fact, another example of nobody caring about where he is or what he does: there is a NPC who will tell you about Janus running to the skyway to go save Schala in the ocean palace, but there is not a single word about anyone trying to stop him. They know something’s up. They know Janus is about to do something dangerous if they’re saying “to save Schala”. They just don’t do anything about it.
I think there’s something to be said for the symbolism in Zeal being a place where everything is “so perfect” they sleep all the time. The people in Zeal turn a blind eye to everything in favor of believing it’s just fine. This seems to include Schala’s mental state (there’s a line about how she’ll have everything so easy in life because of her ability to use magic so well, when clearly she’s struggling) but also Janus’ existence as a whole.
