I see a lot of art and what-ifs with Demon!Genya with his lil demon muzzle and for the most part they’re very cute, and I love them very much!
But, if we are going to turn one of the Shinaguzawa brothers into demons, why Genya and not Sanemi?
In reality it’s because the dynamic we’re used to in KNY is that of Tanjirou and Nezuko, a dynamic where the younger sibling becomes a demon while the older one has to step up. It’s natural to replicate that dynamic with Sanemi and Genya because we want to see Sanemi, a guy who hates demons more than anything, conquer that hate and care for his little brother like he doesn’t get the chance to in cannon.
Is this really the best and most interesting way to spin their dynamic though?
I’m a big believer in tragedies, and I honestly love Genya and Sanemi for exactly that reason. I also majorly relate to Genya as a younger sibling myself; I want a more Genya-centric narrative.
So, what if Sanemi never became a slayer, but was turned into a demon instead?
Well, Sanemi is not Nezuko, and if he were to become a demon, I don’t believe that he would be able to come out of it without blood on his hands. Not to say that Sanemi has weak willpower- he doesn’t- it’s just that in a thousand years, there’s only ever been one person who has resisted eating humans after their demonization.
Imagine Genya, a boy who looks up to his older brother more than anything in the whole world, forced into a reality where that same brother is now a man-eating demon who doesn’t remember him at all.
Imagine Sanemi, roaming the world like an ogre. He eats, he fights and he kills because he’s lost his memories and purpose to do anything else.
Imagine Genya, chasing after his brother like a madman, encountering death everywhere Sanemi has been. The lives his brother has broken, the families he’s destroyed, Genya can’t understand how his Sanemi, a man who once took such tender care of their family, could ever do something like this.
There are so many paths Genya could take. He could become a demon slayer, vowing to save his brother from the beast that he’s become and put Sanemi down for his own good. Genya could follow in Sanemi’s footsteps and become a demon himself, needing to understand Sanemi so badly that it overwrites his thinking mind.
A noble human becoming a monster; it’s a perversion we see so many times with the demons, and, in my opinion, one of the core tragedies of KNY.
But even if you don’t like Sanemi going full demon mode, even if you want to imagine a more Nezuko and Tanjirou like dynamic, isn’t it just… more interesting to imagine Genya finally being in the position to protect Sanemi? Would Genya be conflicted about eating demons? His brother is a demon after all…
This ended up being pretty rambling, but I hope I got at least a few people considering Demon Sanemi because I do think the concept has such good tragic potential…
Not an ask but just thinkin' bout Overprotective Demon Genya just yanking a tree from the ground and pummeling another demon with it if S/o is also a slayer.
I do believe Genya's protective instincts heighten way more when he's a demon. He knows you can handle yourself, but he still can't help but want to protect his S/O. He might even get a little carried away with beating the demon instead of actually slaying it.
