The Fujibayashi Twins: A collection of thoughts
I finally had the time and willpower to rewrite this as my last version was eaten by tumblr. This is a discussion of both Sakuya and Genya, but primarily focuses on their relationship with each other and misconceptions I frequently see about them. I’ve played both of their Light Ends, Sakuya: His Side, and I believe all the event stories released so far in english, which is what I’ll be referencing here, so obviously this will contain spoilers for those things. Without further ado, let’s get to it!
“Sakuya is a horrible brother and Genya deserves better!”
A commonly stated phrase, implying that Sakuya is horribly cruel to Genya for no reason, and Genya is so kind and soft to Sakuya despite the latter’s treatment. A closer look at the progression of each brother will quickly tear this simple argument in two, starting with their childhood.
When Sakuya was a child, there were only three things shown to be important to him:
And as we know, one of those things was quickly and violently ripped away from him: MC when the Mitsuba fled Iga. But it’s so much more than just “He lost his crush”. MC was stated to be Genya and Sakuya’s first friend outside of each other. (TW: Gore) When the Mitsuba fled, anyone who was caught had their head displayed in the center of the village to discourage any potential deserters, and Genya says at one point that Sakuya used to go out every morning to see if MC was there.
Obviously this led to early trauma for Sakuya, but let’s talk about Genya for a minute.
Genya was a child prodigy, a hard worker, and an excellent brother when he was young. However, everything changed when he was forced to go through some of Iga’s horribly cruel ninja training which led to him being forced to dispose of his Mother’s body after she died in a mission. This, combined with seeing his sweet and sensitive younger twin being tortured by the tasks they were doing created a hatred of ninja life in Genya. Sakuya, of course, never told Genya he was struggling, but it wasn’t hard to tell considering he would wake Genya with his tossing, turning, and unconscious cries from his nightmares. Genya decides he won’t throw away his life for a village that sees him as a tool.
This is when Sakuya loses another vital part of his life. Genya.
Genya brushes everything off as “I just don’t care, I’d rather take the easy way out in life.”
What people either don’t know or forget is: Sakuya begged Genya to tell him what was wrong, to explain what had caused this shift. Genya refused and brushed it off.
Genya felt bad but felt that the next step in protecting Sakuya was to not tell him about the reasoning for his sudden change. Genya was all too aware of the depth of Sakuya’s emotions and knew that it would devastate him if he were to learn of the pain and atrocities that Genya experienced.
Sakuya, at this point only had one important thing left to him. Being a good ninja.
And so he threw himself into it, both because there was pressure from Iga for him to be the next chief instead of Genya, and because it was something to distract him from the painful betrayals he’d experienced. Being a ninja didn’t require anyone but himself.
Sakuya’s first real mission as a ninja was to spend a long time getting in a certain lord’s good graces and then assassinate him. Sakuya, being far more emotional than he cares to be, genuinely became this man’s friend and was forced to watch the look of betrayal on his face as he killed him.
And so Sakuya learned that even that final important thing had the ability to cause pain. It was never about who was involved, it was about his own capacity for emotions. However, at this point he had two options
1. Lose his final important thing and lose himself in despair
2. Kill his emotions to fulfill his duty as a ninja
When put like that, the answer seems obvious, no?
Genya could see his brother killing his past self, but the longer it went on, the more Genya knew he couldn’t throw away the only thing Sakuya had left.
Having established the childhood and traumas:
“Sakuya is a horrible brother and Genya deserves better!”
Sakuya cannot, and has no reason to, forgive someone who betrayed his trust and tore him to shreds emotionally. He loved his brother dearly and tried to save their bond, but Genya chose to sever ties. Genya’s argument is understandable of course, but looking from Sakuya’s perspective, his disdain and hatred is understandable too. Not everybody would handle it the same, but I think most people would agree that no one would handle it well.
I don’t excuse any of Sakuya’s actions, such as trying to murder both MC and Genya.
HOWEVER. The nature of SLBP is that they live in a warring era and nearly all the characters have committed an atrocity at some point or another. It’s completely biased double-standards to act as though Sakuya is the only one to do wrong in the game.
This isn’t meant to offend or “call someone out”, I just feel that so often the Fujibayashi twins relationship is oversimplified. It’s not a black and white issue. Neither brother is to blame, and in a perfect world they’d have a loving bond like when they were kids and work together. Circumstances and Iga simply came between them.
WHEW. I apologize for the length of this essay post, but I hope if you made it this far, you enjoyed it!
