9 Generation Occult Legacy Challenge by Asphodel Moon! Graphics by me. I tweaked a few of the rules' text to make it fit, so check out the link for the full rules/details.
In honor of Day 5 of @rumicworldweek, Favorite Secondary Character:
Kagura, The Wind Witch
Why Kagura is my favorite secondary character:
Sheâs a complex, morally grey female character
Her âredemptionâ arc
Her death scene
When I first encountered Kagura, I viewed her as little more than a minion of Narakuâs. Yea, I was maybe 12 and didnât understand the whole âincarnationâ thing. She was born of Naraku, but not exactly Naraku. She was her own entity, but, at the same time, she was an appendage. Since Naraku is in possession of her heart, he is, by extension, in possession of her very life and freedom.
Kagura and Naraku. Inuyasha Chapter 371: Kaguraâs Heart
Throughout the series, Kagura is trying to liberate herself from him. She wants her heart, her freedom; to be her own mistress - to have no master. To come and go and do as she pleases. In a word, she wants her independence. As a woman, that desire resonates with me. This conflict is the premise for her story arc and character development.
Donât get me wrong when I say âredemption arcâ here - Kagura never magically transforms into a heroine doing good deeds purely for the sake of doing good deeds. She doesnât help others unless it benefits her. And that makes her complex and interesting. In fact, sheâs a morally grey character at best.
She commits atrocities on Narakuâs orders. She murders members of the wolf demon clan, and she goes after the Inugang countless times. She never shows or voices any regret for these acts, either (save for one time and Iâll get to that). Sheâs cold, sheâs shrewd, sheâs calculating; she relentlessly keeps striving towards her ambition.
Sheâs very Machiavellian in her approach: the ends justify the means. For Kagura, the end goal is her freedom, and sheâs willing to do whatever is necessary to achieve that. If that means biding her time and obeying Narakuâs orders to kill others, betraying Naraku and offering to give away jewel shards, leaking information to Narakuâs enemies about his vulnerabilities (i.e., the existence of his heart, the crystals to detect the location of his heart), sheâll do it. Sheâll play both sides of the fence bc sheâs on Team Kagura, honey.
Kagura and Sesshomaru
In Chapter 203, Kagura appeals to Sesshomaru for help in defeating Naraku, going so far as to offer him jewel shards. âRelease me from him.â Kagura says. This is the closest she gets to begging in the entire series. She knows she canât take on Naraku alone. Clearly, she holds Sesshomaru in high esteem to make this request of him.
For a character so devoted to obtaining strength and power, itâs interesting how little Sesshomaru cares about the jewel shards. He flatly turns her down which spurs this banger of a reaction from Kagura:
Inuyasha Episode 67: The Howling Wind of Betrayal
Arguably, this is the moment when Sesshomaru fell in love with Kagura. Heâs a mixture of stunned and maybe a tad aroused here đ€Ł. And if you care to make a case against this claim, I get it. However, it canât be denied that he held some kind of affection for her. Just consider Kaguraâs death scene *already sniffling*.
The Turning Point
Chapter 368, aptly titled âKaguraâs Decision,â is a major turning point for her. Sheâs been instructed by Moryomaru to seize Kohakuâs shard, the shard which sustains Kohakuâs life. She agrees to this plan because otherwise, Moryomaru will absorb her into his body. If itâs her or Kohaku, itâs going to be Kohaku.
Except - that doesnât happen. Once she approaches Kohaku, we get a thought bubble from Kagura: âIâm sorry, Kohaku.â Which.. maybe the first and only time she expresses remorse for a bad deed?? To save her, Kohaku offers to be taken to Moryomaru and he gives this little speech:
Inuyasha Chapter 368: Kaguraâs Decision
I think Kohakuâs speech and willingness to sacrifice himself for Kagura truly touches her. The specific sentence, âunless Iâm willing to die to achieve itâ I think resonated. Up until then, she wasnât willing to go that far to reach her goal. Otherwise, what would be the point?
Plus, as she states in the bottom panel, âIâll only be switching masters.â Itâs at this juncture that she decides sheâs ready to die to obtain her freedom. Thereâs no other way out for her. She decides to betray Moryomaru and spare Kohaku, sending him away on one of her Magic Feather Rides - which, honestly, jealous - while she battled it out with Hakudoshi.
In this way, she redeems herself. Not for the ill acts sheâs done, but for staying her hand and sparing a life - and keeping the shard out of Narakuâs hands for a little while longer.
Kaguraâs Death
So Narakuâs bastard self at last relinquishes Kaguraâs heart, but itâs only to hurt her as deeply as possible. Heâs aware of her betrayal and this is his conniving way of sticking it to her one final time. Moments after returning her heart, he mortally wounds her with his miasma. She flees, ending up alone in a field and THIS PANEL IS SO FUCKING HEARTBREAKING.
Inuyasha Chapter 374: The Wind
Look at how full of despair she is. UGH RUMIKO WHY. Did it have to be this way ?!
Inuyasha The Final Act: Episode 2, Kaguraâs Wind
Itâs poetic and heartbreaking and beautiful and awful. Itâs only in death that Kagura finally tastes freedom. She even asks herself, âwhere should I go? I can go anywhere. Iâm FREE.â Which, she knows this is the end. And sheâs about to face it alone until a certain someone shows up claiming to have followed the scent of miasma.
Kagura is overjoyed at his presence but is a tad forlorn when she thinks heâs âdisappointedâ that it was her and not Naraku. Then Sesshomaru drops an iconic line:
Iâve written about this before, but it bears repeating here.
âI knew it was you.â
I mean. The succinctness. The simplicity. The depth of emotion conveyed. The matter-of-fact delivery. The show of warmth from an otherwise cold being. The confirmation of his affection for her. The comforting joy it brought her in her final moments.
And Kagura smiles in response. A true, genuine, child-like even, smile. That Iâd put a pic of here but I ran into the limit on images tHaNkS, tUMbLr. She succumbs to her wounds, disintegrating along with the miasma and becoming one with the wind. She blows away, free.
(Side note: look, I love to bash Sunrise with the best of them, but Iâll give credit where credit is due. Kaguraâs Death Scene, IMHO, is one of the most beautifully animated scenes of the series. Well done, Sunrise? *slaps self*)
By now, the Inugang have shown up and Inuyasha asks Sesshomaru if she suffered. Sesshomaru says this WHICH *ugly crying now*
Inuyasha Chapter 374: The Wind
I do wonder if Kagura was a casualty of RT wrestling with how to save Kohaku in the narrative. If she hadnât have died, maybe the sequel would be following SessKaguâs kids which?? So cool??
Anyways, my thoughts on my girl Kagura! RIP girly đ YOUâRE THE FREE WIND!
Hi yes that scene where Brett almost tells Reagan he needs her to stay but then it zooms in on her missing finger, her deadlines, her piles of pills, and he realizes that this place is tearing her inside out? GOOD SHIT THATâS SOME GOOD SHIT
blakekathryn
germansingergirl
jacobvanloon
discoholicmusic
annaxmalina
romaincrisis
baratheonpilled
