san·guine·ly

independent soujirou seta of rurouni kenshin 

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I don't know if any old friends are still around, but I saw Kamiki's Soujiro cameo and was hit with a wave of nostalgia so I had to hop back on his blog. I miss Sou a lot, he was a muse that was with me for a long time, and I can still muse him as easily now as I did then. Some muses just stick with you.

If anyone is still around to read this, I hope you're all taking care in these times!

[kamikiism]

Long overdue official announcement of Seta Soujiro’s appearance in Rurouni Kenshin Saishusho: The Final

© ruroken_movie

[getas-regina]

OMG SŌJIRŌ???!!!

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It’s been a long while since I’ve updated this blog! I thought I would be here to celebrate Soujirou’s appearance in the new manga. Instead, I feel conflicted. I haven’t read it, and I don’t know if I will. 

To be honest, I’ve been struggling over what to do with Sou. He’s still a muse near and dear to me, but it’s difficult to come back to the series. 

For those who aren’t aware, the author of Rurouni Kenshin, Nobuhiro Watsuki, was convicted of possessing of child pornography. 

It shocks me how Watsuki could do something so antithetical to the themes of the story he created, and it shocks me how he is permitted to continue publishing in spite of it. I’ve asked myself, should I continue to rp Soujirou? Is that supporting someone who I don’t support? What does it mean to rp a character? Can art be appreciated separate from the artist? ...Is there a right or wrong answer?

I want to say that taking on a muse is a creative exercise of mine, and that Watsuki’s crimes shouldn’t have any bearing on what I write here. On the other hand, I don’t feel comfortable promoting the series anymore. I feel conflicted about expressing love for Ruroken, and that extends to rp. 

Roleplay is also a social activity, and people are bound to have different opinions - which I respect. Some people have left the fandom, some people have stayed to make it their own space. I would understand if other rpers don’t want to interact with a Ruroken character, and I’m wary of putting my rp partners in an uncomfortable situation. I think if the fandom were bigger, and the scandal more widely known, this would have blown up with drama.

With all that said, I’ve decided to take a hiatus from rping Soujirou. I don’t know if it will be permanent or temporary. This post comes rather belatedly because I’ve been struggling to reach a decision. I’ve posted the headcanons that I’ve wanted to write, and I’ll leave it at that for now. 

I want to thank everyone who has interacted with Sou in the past, and also those that I haven’t interacted with but have liked my posts and read my headcanons. I have a lot of good memories. A special shoutout to muns @daedaluscried​​ (Luna, Cy) and @savants-nine-and-twelve / childrenofestheim​ (Nine, Twelve, and Rain). Although Soujirou is not good at expressing his feelings, he really is fond of your muses. That he found friendship makes me indescribably happy. 

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I’m watching GoT and thinking if wanderer Sou ever had an experience like Sandor Clegane where his new pacifist friends got killed over their non-violent ways it would screw him up internally and basically reaffirm that Shishio’s way of the world was right. Like the Hound, he’d probably fall back into fighting. It’s the only way he knows how to numb out his feelings of loss and in an ironic way there’s something familiar about violence which he takes for comfort.

[tenken]

There’s another point on my mind I couldn’t fit into the meta post, but that is Soujirou, make no mistake, is proud of his swordsmanship. He’s good at it and he knows it. He likes to hear Shishio praise him for it. Swordsmanship is tied into a lot of things he really, really wants (to be strong, to be useful, to belong), and is also tied to deep regret and trauma. So after his decision to walk away from Shishio, I think he’ll have to re-evaluate what swordsmanship means to him, whether he will give it up, and what his identity will be if he does.

When I say swordsmanship I mean it in the sense that Soujirou has known it, which is a sword for killing. I think it’s important to remember that Soujirou is not Kenshin and despite the parallels, a sword means different things to them. To Kenshin, the sakabato is his redemption and his means of protecting people. To Soujirou, a sword is what started him down his path and has become both his pride and shame. Kenshin’s no-kill vow bothers him precisely because it goes against everything he knows a sword is for.

It takes a unique someone like Kenshin, with his compassion, courage, and unshakable belief in the value of life to do what he does. Soujirou is …not that. He’s far more selfish - he’s had to be to survive. There might be people he comes to treasure, and he will act for them, but not for the entire world.

For this reason I don’t agree with the fanon interpretations of do-gooder Sou who carries a sword around protecting the weak. If you’ve followed my blog you’ll know I prefer an anti-hero take on post-canon Sou. If he were to carry a sword out in the open, it would invite trouble for someone who is trying to leave his old life behind. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if Soujirou kept a knife or some other blade tucked away somewhere. He’s practical and old habits die hard. 

I imagine Soujirou will find wanderer life to be not quite satisfying, but he won’t know exactly why, and it will be because working for Shishio gave him a sense of purpose that he no longer has. So that makes me wonder, will he yearn for the comfort of what he knows? That kick of adrenaline when he’s fighting the good fight, and the praise and recognition that came with doing what he did best? Or will he be horrified by the person he once was when he’s had some perspective and distance? 

I do think he’ll make an attempt to leave fighting behind and avoid killing, but I don’t know if he will renounce swordsmanship forever. I think there’s a chance he’ll find his way into it again, and that worries me, because another recurring theme in the series is…can a warrior find peace? Many of Kenshin’s opponents are mentally stuck in the bloodshed of the bakumatsu period, as samurai who only know how to fight and unable to move forward in a world that is rapidly modernizing and has rejected the old ways. As Saito says, “once a manslayer, always a manslayer until the day you die.” Though I think most of us hope for a kinder ending for Soujirou. 

[tenken]

Over the years I’ve seen Soujirou called emotionless or a psychopath, but never a child soldier. I think the enduring perception of Soujirou as lacking emotion or somehow inhuman is perpetuated by what we hear of Soujirou from Shishio. He is incapable of feeling. He is violence incarnate. The thing is, I don’t think we are meant to take Shishio literally. Shishio brags that he’s raised the perfect killer because that is the Soujirou who is useful to him.  

It’s clear that there’s something abnormal about Soujirou from his first appearance assassinating Okubo with a smile. His cheerfulness is out of place and his comfort with violence disquieting. Yet as Soujirou’s story unfolds, it’s also clear that he suffered abuse and repressed his emotions to cope. I’ve always written Soujirou from the place of a child soldier, and I want to talk more about that.

If there is one sign that dismisses the psychopath interpretations of Soujirou, it’s that as a child he displayed compassion and empathy. In fact, it’s probably due to his gentle nature that he had to break his emotions to be comfortable doing what he does. His initiation to violence, the act of killing his abusive family, was committed under duress and encouraged by a man who armed him with a weapon and the wrong ideas.  Shishio told 8 year-old Soujirou that might makes right, and took him in and trained him to be his assassin. Souijrou’s story is not dissimilar to that of child soldiers who are misled or coerced into committing acts of violence and find themselves with no other path. 

What made Soujirou especially susceptible is that he was already alone and accustomed to physical and emotional abuse. Violence has always been a part of his life, and traveling with Shishio only exposed him to the worst of it while depriving him of a caring environment and any normalcy. I’m sure there were times growing up where Soujirou felt uncomfortable following an order, but the desire to be useful to Shishio and the fear of disapproval overwrote how he felt. The longer he spent working for Shishio, the more desensitized he became. What separates a soldier from a psychopath is that he won’t go out of his way to hurt people who have nothing to do with the cause, and certainly not out of impulse or pleasure. 

Soujirou smiling while taking lives doesn’t indicate cheerfulness or amusement. Rather, it’s the opposite. As a child, he learned that if he got angry or cried, he would be beaten harder. If he put on a smile, his family would find it strange, get tired of beating him and leave him alone. Smiling became his way of enduring pain. It became a switch to disengage his emotions. A smile is then perhaps the least useful indicator of how he is feeling on the inside. 

Humans employ defense mechanisms in traumatic circumstances. When Shishio meets him, Soujirou is a child who can quietly accept everything that happens to him without complaint. He tries to deny and minimalize his own pain. Where it’s not enough, he’s rewritten the narrative in his head. The act of killing his family was so traumatic that he falsely recalled the event as something he was fine with. It’s only when he was shown another path to the life he’s lived that the feelings of guilt he buried came back. When he remembered the truth -- “in the rain I smiled, but I was actually crying” -- it opened the floodgate to the emotional devastation he had repressed. 

The reason why Soujirou clung to Shishio’s mantra of “the strong live, the weak die”, kill or be killed, is because this framing absolves himself of blame, and to free himself of blame is to free himself of pain. It means there’s no good or bad, just winners and losers. If the alternative is to be hurt, he would rather hurt others. That isn’t how the world is, but it’s easy to believe when the world he’s lived in was so cruel. Soujirou’s grown up with a confusing set of rules. A kid wants the world to make sense, and Shishio was the first to provide him clarity. Unfortunately Shishio did more harm than good by telling him the reason why his family abused him was because he was weak. While it’s a devastating thing to tell a child, to Soujirou it meant there was a way out. Strength promised safety. Becoming strong meant that he would never have to feel powerless, never be hurt again. He took Shishio’s path and suppressed his misgivings.

To complicate things, being an assassin for Shishio included many positive experiences. Soujirou adores Shishio and is grateful to him. Shishio didn’t coerce him or threaten him. He didn’t need to, Soujirou was an obedient child who was starved of affection and easy to manipulate. Not all child soliders are coerced. Some willingly volunteer, misled by promises and a sense of purpose. Shishio indoctrinated Soujirou and elevated him to his right-hand man. Their relationship has been described as that of a cult leader and cult follower, and it’s quite apt. Souijrou believed in Shishio, sought comfort in his words and ignored his own confusion and pain. His own family treated him so terribly that Shishio looked like a saint in comparison. While committing crimes for Shishio brought Soujirou a lot of regret, it also brought him praise and belonging, the closest he’s ever known to love. Is it a wonder that Soujirou turned out so confused?

Soujirou is human, and so he will have feelings. He is good at denying them because hiding them was the safer thing to do, and then became what he had to do to keep himself from falling apart. Through it all, he is never self-aware of how traumatized he is. Shishio’s description of him is ironic in retrospect. The Soujirou that exists in Shishio’s mind is one that would have followed him to hell without question, not the Soujirou who broke down in confusion. If Soujirou truly was without remorse, even Kenshin couldn’t have reached him. That he couldn’t become the perfect soldier speaks everything to his humanity.

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backblade replied to your post: Every time I write about Shishio’s unhealthy hold...

Shishio: i have never done anything wrong hoji, Yumi, Kamatari and Soujirou: i know this and i love you

Right?! I shake my head how does this asshole have so many people who stan him

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Every time I write about Shishio’s unhealthy hold over Soujirou, he is like no, you’re wrong. Mr. Shishio is cool and saved my life. 

I feel the last misconception for him to overcome is to recognize that Shishio exploited him, but that won't happen until he gets some healthy role models in his life and has a better frame of reference.

[tenken]

“This whole war,” she said, “why was everybody so mad at everybody else?” I shook my head. “They weren’t mad, exactly. Some people wanted one thing, other people wanted another thing.” “What did you want?” “Nothing,” I said. “To stay alive.”

(via tenken)

[quotemadness]

We lie best when we lie to ourselves.

Stephen King (via quotemadness)

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I’m cautiously pessimistic in thinking that the new manga won’t really stir up any activity in the rp comm, but if there /is/ anyone around who wants to thread drop me a note and we can take it to my multimuse? Sou’s been here for many years and will remain one of my easiest muses even if he’s been on the backburner recently.

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New RK bingo board (except I’m too lazy to make the board). This is assuming Soujirou will get a legitimate arc and not have a cameo appearance for 10 seconds.

Uses the shukuchi for no other reason than he can

Contribute something something to the subplot w/o actually joining the core cast

Speaks with Anji

Speaks with Saito

Eats sweets

Gets pissed

Fights the person who pissed him off, which will be the first and only time he fights

It’s not his first time in Hokkaido

Protects somebody

Karma houdini

References Shishio and mischaracterizes him

Recognizes Ashitaro’s mugenjin

Wanders off again

If he doesn’t, it’s because he gets a love interest / “kamiya dojo” end

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I’m so happy the new arc doesn’t have the premise of “salty bakumatsu survivor from the past starts to wreck shit and Kenshin has to go Set Things Right” because that man really deserves a peaceful retirement and deserves all of it and more.

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I also like that they’re adopting kids left and right?? and saving them from a future of petty crime and unrealized potential bless the Himura family

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I’m so happy the new arc doesn’t have the premise of “salty bakumatsu survivor from the past starts to wreck shit and Kenshin has to go Set Things Right” because that man really deserves a peaceful retirement and deserves all of it and more.

[heckyeahruroken-blog]

Good news! A new Rurouni Kenshin live action movie is rumored to be in the planning stage, according to a report from the Daily Sports.

Bad news! Takei Emi, who got married with EXILE’s Takahiro on September 1 and is expecting a child next spring, is now also rumored to be in a breach of contract as her marriage and pregnancy would affect her role in the movie and her many other engagements. Emi’s agency is reported to be negotiating penalties for the breach. Source: Daily Sports Via: ANN  Thanks so much to @fuku-shuu and @missuprealeaaa for the heads-up! ^^x

[eleore]

RuroKen Hokkaido Arc 1 Spoilers

Warning: As usual, please note that my level of Japanese is basic at most, and this is just a rough translation - in this case, of the few pages available in the official Jump SQ site as a preview. As such, note that while the content is accurate, my translation might not be so. Feel free to share the link, but please DO NOT REPOST, and don’t forget to support the official releases!!

In which an old story continues… what year is it. 

Keep reading

[eleore]

Well… the whole chapter is officially out, so I updated the spoilers with a complete summary.