Kureno Sohma Did NOTHING wrong
This is a VERY bold hot take I'm aware... A lot of fans will point and say "Ummm actually his passiveness and inaction were wrong."
But I think that's just people scratching the surface. And not analyzing the WHY.
We need to look at Kureno's situation from the Lens of Takaya, primarily on how she wrote Akito's ending.
For Akito her 'Redemption/Atonement" is her staying behind at the estate and protecting everyone else's freedom....
Personally I have my own gripes with that message because
A. It doesn't make any real sense considering the family has never at any real point been hounding on the Zodiacs asses like that unless the Head of the family was the one allowing it.... At no Point have we ever seen A single member of the family go up in arms and shove their fists down the zodiacs throats and telling them what to do.
B. What is the family gonna do? Do a drive-by and gang up on the zodiac and drag them back? It's LIKELY considering how Takaya wrote the implications....
But what does this have to do with Kureno? A lot more than you think.
When Kureno's curse broke a lot of people say that he should have left....
The issue is that even IF he had walked away based on Akitos reaction at the end of the series the chances of Kureno being "Free" was LESS likely to happen.
Say Kureno does walk away.... won't matter because the Zodiac BELONGS to the Sohma Family... Kureno "Leaving" was flat out impossible considering the fact that from Takaya's own writing.... You can try to leave but the family will pressure you and pressure you and continue to pressure you until you cave.
In Kureno's case the pressure would have been TOO MUCH for him and he would have walked back due to family pressure.
"But when Haru and Rin and Momiji left, Akito didn't order the family to drag them back!"
Fair point.... but that my friends is called Bad Writing.
Why DIDN'T Akito use her authority then and there when at the end of the series it's outright stated she's fighting by herself to protect the zodiacs freedom?
The answer is bad writing and Akito needed SOME form of atonement that isn't her getting her ass beat or Thrown in jail.
So either A. it's a massive plot hole or inconsistency or B. Takaya fucked up and had to write something to make it make sense.
Therefore we're using the argument of the family itself never allowing true freedom as an defense.
My second point is that Kureno was Guilt tripped into staying. Add into the fact his curse broke less than 5 minutes ago AND the head of family is crying and begging him not to leave... AND he's being put on the spot... AND he's been indoctrinated to DO whatever The God says....
Is it really that surprising he stayed?
My third point is that Kureno HAD NO CHOICE. Like realistically zero choices, zero chances, zero agency, zero anything.
Kureno is broken... he's so broken that he doesn't even have the ILLUSION of choices... he's literally held at knife point by Akito and she tells him "I own you, you're not allowed to leave, I own your heart, your body, and your soul, you're not allowed to talk back to me, you're only allowed to do what I say, when I say it, how I say it, yours only allowed to say the things I like, if I want you to do something do it... failure to comply and I'll make you suffer."
So.... hearing that... Do you STILL think Kureno had a choice on whether or not to just leave? Only reason he "Left" the first time was to talk to Tohru and get her to give up on him...
And Kureno left ONCE and what happened? He got slapped in the face for it.
Which only reinforces the "Rules"... And Kureno got off easy...
And in the end for the crimes of having no choices, no agency, no anything of his own, and under complete duress and coercion, AND having the family itself as a reminder of them just bringing him back.... Even after everything....
Kureno gets stabbed for it...
For doing EXACTLY what was told of him to do! Everything Kureno did was the culmination of all 3 points and he STILL got hurt regardless! Meaning no matter what he did he was Still going to suffer anyways...
Hence why I say that Kureno Sohma did absolutely nothing wrong in the context of the story and how Takaya wrote it.
Kureno is so tragically broken with no way out to the point that in the end anything he did it didn't do was destined for failure...
Only reason he left for good was because Akito didn't stop him from leaving that time... and now because of Akito's own crimes Kureno suffered for it (Head canon: After a few extra months of physical therapy he ditched the cane, but the psychological damage done to him remdins7)
So yes Kureno did nothing Wrong. Debate me on this and prove me wrong, because from my POV this is EXACTLY the way Takaya wrote it and like I said either the whole family being a threat to the Zodiacs freedom is a Retcon or inconsistency or Takaya tacked it on at the last hour
