do you really think that kazuha’s story quest being about the whole “i’d rather see him recognise and atone for his mistakes that see him punished for them” was a coincidence? or how we were helping kazuha put together bits and pieces about his ancestry? or how scara spared kazuha's relative during the fall of the raiden gokaden upon noticing kaedehara yoshinori’s appearance and his connection to the niwa clan? niwa whom scara called: my family… my friend.
kazuha wouldn’t hate scaramouche because accepting the past and moving on is such an important part of his character. in his story quest he says: "but to make this arduous journey, you committed countless atrocities, and showed a blatant disregard for human life. even if you were to sever that divine light, is this truly the outcome your maker would have desired? […] this person (blade) has committed unforgivable atrocities but only because it lost its original master. no one was there to correct its errors when it was losing its way." tell me this could not easily be applied to scara. kazuha has demonstrated this incredible capacity for forgiveness countless time. (for example: his voice line about raiden; “do i simply resent the raiden shogun because of what happened in that duel? […] i’ve thought about this a good long time, and i believe the answer is no.” and later on he only talks about his “dissatisfaction” with her. he never uses the word hate.)
when kazuha found out what happened during the fall of the raiden gokaden he said: “knowing the truth behind what happened is enough for me, […] that being said, if the enemy from all those years ago is still lurking and plotting to stir up more trouble, then i definitely won’t turn a blind eye.” — while he put what happened in the past behind him, if kunikuzushi/scara were to pose a threat in the present kazuha would act because he believes that: “what’s most important for each person is not the past, but the present.”
look i completely understand that some people just don’t enjoy the ship and that is totally understandable but saying kazuha would hate scara is just not true to his character.
akitsu haneasobi and it’s possible connection to kazuscara
at first i thought it was just a story about a samurai and kamai and how humans and youkai can be friends. a story about a friendship of a mortal and an immortal — a friendship that is inevitably going to come to an end. “lord kamai’s appearance hasn’t changed, but his dear friend in front of him had grown old. the joys of friendship gradually gave way to the pain of regret. people meet, become friends, and then go their separate ways.“
however, miko says that is not the full story. “that samurai’s name was yanagibashi takuto, who also happens to be the founder of the souran isshin art.” so, this was also the story about how the souran isshin art came to be.
now, how does this connect to kazuscara? i think takuto can easily be compared to niwa in this case, a human who forms a bond with an immortal, who in this case would be scara. and their friendship meets a similar end: niwa dies while scara continues to live — “the joys of friendship gradually gave way to the pain of regret.” however, miko continues: “the bond formed by friendship will not be broken, but rather, carried on in a new form.” and we know that kamai later on came to befriend the third-generation heir of the souran isshin art. so what does this mean in scara’s case? he might have lost niwa, his friend and family, but their bond will carry on in a new form. and that form is kazuha.
so in conclusion, i believe this story might have been foreshadowing of their future meeting and friendship.
the way his eyes seem to soften when he looks at his vision. the way his hand rests under it with so much care as if applying any pressure could break it. he is so gentle with his vision — something that he can finally call his own for all of eternity. it is the heart he always yearned for but never had.
“later, the lovely puppet would finally obtain that "heart." it was, after all, his purpose for being, the very reason he existed. yet, it was not what the puppet truly desired, for it did not contain any blessings, but was instead a sacrifice brimming with selfishness, hypocrisy, cunning and curses,”
with the gnosis taken away from him so too did the remaining strings, trying him to the idea that he was nothing but a mere puppet created by the archon of eternity, finally disappear. the anemo vision means freedom — it is the blessing the electro gnosis never contained.
alatus nemeseos — a brief dive into xiao's character
he longs for a day to come when he will wear the mask and dance — not to conquer demons, but to the tune of that flute amid a sea of flowers.
to understand his character better i’d firstly like to briefly talk about the connection between his backstory and the archetypal stories the writers used to create him: "guardian yaksha" and "numinous official's redemption" both (of which) involve a malevolent spirit on a path towards goodness.
among the twelve heavenly generals (a well-known group of guardian yakshas in some buddhist denominations) one is associated with a bird deity, the golden-winged garuda. this fearsome bird deity, however, only ate evil dragons, until one day the poison he consumed while doing so became unbearable and he burnt to death, leaving only a crystal heart behind. the tattoo on xiao’s arm is that of an illuminated beast, related to his true form, the form of a vermilion bird. alatus nemeseos, or the golden winged great peng, xiao’s constellation is a reference to the bird deity. and from xiao’s character story we know that his story is very similar to that of said deity. “xiao relentlessly slaughtered the endless, impure manifestations of their vengeful souls, but in doing so, he caused them to fracture. eventually, these fragments of their hatred were able to taint xiao’s own soul.” and still xiao dons his mask to take on the role of a protector, slaughtering all evil, day after day despite it brining him great anguish. this endless war he wages has not only placed a karmic burden on him but also caused him to resign himself “to the fact that fighting is all he is good at.”
‹ the demon-hunting yaksha ›
“in the fables of another land, the name xiao is that of a spirit who encountered great suffering and hardship. he endured much suffering, as you have. use this name from now on.” (xiao character story ii) after the archon war ended the geo archon called upon the yakshas to fight against the remnants of the defeated gods. but gods are immortal. and despite knowing they were fighting a battle that could never be won the yakshas continued to do so. xiao has been protecting liyue for over a millennia, tainting his soul and watching as karmic debt slowly but surely ate away at the souls of the other yakshas, until all of them succumbed to madness and only he remained. and he knew that one day his karmic debt would catch up to him too. and once it did he would meet fate similar to that of the golden-winged deity.
‹ the fall of the last yaksha ›
“there was once when most of xiao’s strength was spent fighting from dusk till down, with him emerging victorious by a mere hair. the reeds in the fields had been sliced to ribbons in the fierce fighting. plucking his spear from where it had been planted in the ground, xiao began to trek home. well, once says “home” — yet, where did xiao have to return to? he was merely leaving the battlefield. long exhausted, xiao felt the divine hatred that tainted his body take effect. limitless hate flooded his senses, and he fell to the ground in agony. but it was also at that moment that the pain vanished without warning. this was not by xiao’s own strength, for he had been rescued by the sound of a flute. the clear, lovely sound of the flute came over the mountains and rivers, carried on the wind to where he lay. and clear it continued to ring till the first light of dawn brought with it the startled flight of distant birds. it protected xiao, massaging his wild senses, and giving him a moment’s peace. who was playing this music? xiao was curious but did not pursue the matter. for he already had something approaching an answer. the last person who could help him was one of the seven themselves. so this person, too, must be—.” (xiao, characters story v)
xiao, like the golden-winged bird, was about to succumb to his karmic debt. after a millennia of slaying evil spirits it had finally caught up to him, flooding his senses and bringing him down to the ground in great agony. but unlike the bird deity, he had someone to save him. if it weren’t for the lovely sound soothing his senses, that venti let the wind carry to where xiao lay throughout the whole night, xiao would have ended up just like the bird deity. but unlike the fallen yaksha, he managed to survive and keep his crystal heart hidden. and only those who manage to get close to him get to see glimpses of his gentleness.
‹ the yaksha with the crystal heart ›
“according to xiao’s profile, his deepest, most hidden element is gentleness. when all identities and labels are cast aside, xiao has a gentle side, shown in his curiosity towards phenomena in the human world, but he is very reticent to show this side of himself to others.” deep down xiao is a caged bird burdened with a gentle soul and is full of curiosity. he is curious about humans but he doesn’t wish to cause them any harm and so he stays away. after living for so long in the distance, the world has become nothing but a warm light that he is too scared to reach out to (like in his idle animation: "xiao stretches out his hand to try to make contact with it, but because of his karma-ravaged constitution, he succeeds only in causing the spirit to fly away. he knew this would be the inevitable conclusion, but feels dejected all the same."). “this lonely state of existence is the source of his melancholy. it has cause time to stand still, leading to him still having a very young mentality even to this day.” where xiao seems cold and distant he is actually inexperienced, which leaves him unsure of how to act. he doesn’t know what his place among humans is. this results in him coming off as silent and cold-hearted, while in fact underneath all that is a crystal heart, that dreams of nothing but dancing in a sea of flowers to the sound of venti’s flute.
‹ “heroes… i like that word” ›
"it's rare for a yaksha to find repose for their soul." during the 2.7 archon quest xiao is finally learning he isn’t only a demon-hunting yaksha. that he isn’t only a burdened to others. he is learning that there are people who care about him and who want to be a part of his life no matter how hard he tries to push them away for their own good. yes, he did sacrifice himself to save everyone (thank you zhongli for saving our beloved little yaksha) but only because it was the most optimistic solution he could think of. but when the traveler, into whom xiao places a great amount of trust, expreses their concern and confronts him about it, xiao says: i accept your advice. from this day on, heroes will always look out for each other. this is such an important moment for his character because he is finally setting himself free. he is no longer that caged bird.
i just wanted to hop on here and push my “xiao actually has the most gentle soul in all of genshin” agenda. *most of the information here can be found either in game (xiao’s character stories) or in the developer insight #4. also i wanted to add that there isn’t really much about the “numinous official’s redemption” in the official document but (from what i could find) it’s basically a story about a heavenly general who was given the opportunity to correct his wrong doings by the emperor. which you could connect to zhongli freeing xiao from the god that enslaved him, thus giving him the opportunity to redeem himself.
a short in which kazuha asks scara if he would love him as a worm. no, is the obvious answer to that pointless question. so why does scara feel bad after saying that?
it was late in the afternoon but the raindrops were still racing down the windows, which meant their previous plans were clearly ruined. so kazuha proposed they should just spend the rest of the night inside and watch a movie. agreeing on what to do, however, was the easy part. picking a movie they would actually watch? that was a whole different story as neither of them could find anything eye-catching that they haven’t seen yet. and it didn’t help that they were both quite picky with their movies. to be completely honest though, scara could not care less about what movie they would watch as long as they were watching it together. but, of course, he would never admit that. and so he made it his purpose to make the movie picking quest as hard as possible — basically torturing kazuha by having a comment as to why every movie kazuha suggested was not worthy of their time. until eventually, it got boring and they simply decided on a title they both enjoyed enough that watching it one more time wouldn’t bother them.
it was halfway through the movie that kazuha, who’s head was resting in scara’s lap while his fingers mindlessly ran through the white hair making it an even bigger mess than it already was, turned his head and asked “would you love me if i were a worm?”
scara, who was actually enjoying the movie despite watching it for what felt like a millionth time, averted his gaze from the screen to look at the boy in his lap. “no,” he said without hesitation and turned back to look at the screen in front of them. not too long after that he could feel kazuha shift his head toward the tv as well.
“i would,” kazuha said softly and very much out of nowhere a few minutes later, not even turning to look at scara this time. and scara could not help but wonder what the hell was wrong with him? scara loved kazuha. well, as much as he was capable of loving anyone. but no way in hell would he be with him if he were a freaking worm. first of all that was disgusting. second of all, how would he even take care of him? what do worms eat? do they sleep? is there a thing they enjoy? walks? how would he even take him on a walk? he was so bad at taking care of anything he was sure his worm kazuha would get eaten by a freaking bird the second they stepped outside. so in conclusion: no, he would not love kazuha if he were a stupid worm. but why did that make him feel guilty?
the rest of their night went as any other. kazuha made dinner, which was absolutely delicious by the way and only reminded scara of how bad he was at cooking in comparison. they cleaned the dishes together, even though they managed to make an even bigger mess in the process. after that they somehow ended up back on the couch too busy with each other to notice the rain was no longer alone as lightning danced to accompany it. when their lips finally parted and tiredness started to settle in, kazuha got up from the couch, stole one more quick kiss from scara and went to take a shower before heading to bed. not too long after that scara got up, turned off the lights and a shadow of a smile rested on his lips as he made his way to their bedroom. once he was alone with his thoughts, however, his mind wandered back to that pointless question and the smile faded off his lips. would you love me if i were a worm? would he? did scara really have so much love in him? he couldn’t understand how he was capable of loving kazuha in the first place so he sure as hell couldn’t understand why he wanted to believe that he would be able to love him if he were a worm. and why was this even bugging him so much? the whole thing was just so stupid.
when kazuha finally came from the bathroom and got under the bedsheets, head resting on scara’s chest, his warm presence soothed scara and he didn’t know why but his lips parted and “yes, i would love you if you were a stupid worm” escaped. he almost spat the words out as if saying them slowly would have given them more weight. his gaze fell on kazuha, who’s soft eyes shined even when he couldn't see anything else in the dark. “but if you die in your worm form, that’s on you,” he said and turned his head toward the window where the lightning still danced to the rhythm of the distant thunder.
not even a second later a sweet laugh escaped kazuha’s lips and his hand turned scara's head so he would face him. “you’re cute,” kazuha said, eyes looking deep into his own. there was a bright smile on his lips and scara could swear that he has never seen anyone who could smile as well as kazuha did when he was looking at him.
“yeah whatever,” and before scara could say anything else the boy with the white hair pressed their lips together.
i feel like scara would actually be in love with kazuha for a long time without even realising it. he'd notice how his cheeks would burn whenever kazuha's fingers softly tucked a strand of dark hair behind his ear when it fell into his eyes. or the way his heart would skip a beat whenever they were a little too close to each other. but he wouldn't put two and two together for a long time. scara wouldn't realise he's been in love with kazuha all along until the very moment kazuha gets hurt and scara doesn't know what to do with himself because he should have been able to protect him. and now the boy he's been traveling with for months was sitting on their bed in the corner of the room they were currently staying in, attending to his wounds. and scara could not help himself but stare at the boy with the red streak in his hair. and kazuha must have felt scara's gaze digging daggers into his bare skin because he looked up at him with the brightest smile on his lips. scara didn't know why but he stood up, went to where kazuha was sitting on the bed a kissed him. and honestly, he was so stupid for doing so but gosh it felt right. when their lips parted and he didn’t know what to do nor say kazuha was the one to press their lips together this time. and he just didn’t understand why this perfect boy would want to kiss him back. scara wasn't the type of person people would fall in love with. he wasn’t made for being loved nor for being able to love. so why did it feel so natural to him when it came to kazuha?
i will never get over how kazuha and scara’s narratives are mirrored. raiden’s actions set both of them into motion, the only difference is that while kazuha was able to move on scara remains unmoving — dwelling on the past. that is until now because the one thing he was meant to hold is no longer in his possession.
