my interpretation of nikkari aoe
this is mostly for my sake because nikkari is incredibly difficult for me to write. and well, i have my insecurities so if you have any criticisms please head on over and send me an ask perhaps? i would really appreciate it because nikkari is so... different from writing araragi that it makes me feel a bit emo because i want them both to be extremely different in how i approach them in how they think and especially how they are written
because to me, they are so different that i would love it if i could write them to the point where the muns felt like distinguishable people.
what is there to analyze about a pervert, you may ask? just a lot of things.
first of all, i am extremely unfamiliar with touken ranbu fandom’s interpretation of him besides making him completely a pervert in every sense of the word which, i won’t even disagree with, but for me since i write more cognitively i like to be able to reason out why he does the things he does/say what he does. this is naturally a source of my downfall as a writer because a good one can write those sort of subtleties without spelling them out but well, i never said i was a god one.
second of all, i love nikkari and he’s my favorite character and despite what i say this does not translate well into rp but i want to try because, well, he’s my fave
let’s get started, shall we?
nikkari aoe has one of the more fragile backstories where he takes that reputation of his and lets it run without trying to revise it or fix it or anything. in fact, he goes along with it quite well and he is pretty much doesn’t deny any of it. of course, he has his own ponderings, such as if it were possible for him to be a holy sword despite killing a mother and child even if they were ghosts, to being a bit sad about how no one really wants to be by his side.
this of course, stems from the fact that he speaks flirtatiously, trying to get a reaction out of someone, anyone. somehow this act for him has grown so typical that he can’t not speak like that anymore and it is hard for him to be honest about his feelings without tossing a joke or a jab at someone in a romantic sense. nikkari wants to be loved and seen for himself, not as the unfortunate casualty for cutting down some grinning woman. not for being a flirt, but somehow he’s done this enough that he can’t be anything but. he’s become one with his facade.
but i also think that he’s relatively unaware of other people and has an incredibly difficult time understanding them. if, perchance, he played himself like kasen, being or even simply posing as someone more “humanlike” and pleasing the common people he would be more likable. his problem is solvable but he is unaware and also has no desire to change. this is who he is.
this is why i describe him like a ghost or more fittingly, a poltergeist, because he is as mischievous as one and he’s as fleeting as one. i want to be able to write him with a very light, prancing sort of image because of his flirtatiousness that does indeed come off as rather plain and meaningless. it comes off as that because it means nothing to him. it comes off as that because he doesn’t even know how he comes off to others, all he knows is that he wants to make people feel anything other than fear and discomfort in that sense.
that is to say, nikkari has a lot of problems but he doesn’t get the help for them because he’s a pretty inaccessible and dishonest guy because he has a hard time being honest.
as for the way i write him, i personally feel like i have a more difficult time writing him well rather than interpreting him well. in my head, he is written in a very flowery fashion with extremely contrasting imagery with a sense of bitterness in it if the person he speaks to elicits that. the way he thinks is much, much different than the way he speaks and i really hope that the way i write him comes off as such enough! he’s a relatively complex character imo.
if anything, it’s more writing him more aloof and less emotional than i do but that’s a bit hard for me so i hope i grow into the role a bit better!
hopefully this doesn’t come off as going a little Too far on thinking about a sword boy because it’s more like a complete slaving over his lines over and over again trying to glean some meaning from them, thanks for reading this if you did!