“You Sir, are entirely too dangerous” - Obi, a little salt to balance the sweet
In my headcanon, Obi is a noble of a distant kingdom, but out of jealousy/fear, his own brother/cousin tried to murder him at a young age, forcing him to flee. When I’m feeling especially fanciful, he’s an elf-prince, or some other faerie lord, to explain the age behind his eyes.
Whatever his true origins, it’s clear that staying on the move, learning whatever fighting tricks and skills people would teach him, and never growing attached to others were what kept him alive. He’s always looking for ulterior motives, hidden weapons, and the exit, in an attempt to stay ahead of whatever dangers lurk within or without. So now that he’s found Zen & Shirayuki (and fellow true-companions Kiki & Mitsuhide :) is it any wonder that he fights so ferociously to protect the life they represent?
Now personally, I do read romantic feelings in his interactions with Shirayuki, and oh boy do I see a sexual angle to his teasing of Zen, but I love that it doesn’t have the same tragic love-triangle feeling as say, Fruits Basket, or later parts of Ouran (or pretty much all of Fushigi Yuugi). Their relationships really do epitomize the notion of a one-true-trio IMO, which is unusual for me, since I generally significantly prefer one side of a love-polygon over the others. Here, I totally dig Shirayuki/Zen, Shirayuki/Obi, and Obi/Zen equally as any combo of partners, friends, and lovers.
I don’t know if that’s due to the well-written respect and concern for each others’ feelings that comes across, or due to my own sense of wishful-bisexuality for Obi (and Zen), but in any case it’s very refreshing, and an intriguing solution to the classic Arthur-Guinevere-Lancelot scenario.
[Scans from the good folks at AkagamiNS]
