I Bet They're Fighting Over Kagome's Attention.

I bet they're fighting over Kagome's attention.

@born-for-eachother @katerinu @keichanz @kaze-ranna @lavendertwilight89 @fawn-eyed-girl @kalcia @neutronstarchild @stillunderyourbed

very quick doodle for Yashahime’s latest episode! Moroha sleeping on Inuyasha’s lap…fam finally reunited 😭💕

His face just screams how proud and happy he is of her.

And Moroha is just as happy that he recognizes how strong she is. Her face just says it all. This is probably the first time someone has ever praised her like that. She's happy her father is proud of her.

@keichanz @katerinu @born-for-eachother @stillunderyourbed @lavendertwilight89 @kalcia @fawn-eyed-girl @neutronstarchild @clearwillow @ruddcatha @inukag @chit-a-to @serial-doubters-club @creative-hanyou-girl @kaze-ranna

the heavy irony of people always dragging Inuyasha for going to find Kikyo is that ultimately she died again after Inuyasha rushed to Kagome’s side even knowing Naraku was coming for Kikyo. Showing once and for all he may say one thing but he always ends up beside Kagome, even going against his vow, and people forget that

obviously the repetitive nature of the show and the anime-only scenes didn’t help Inu. Apparently there were couple of points in the manga where the ending could’ve been, like the end of the shichinintai arc, but publishers wanted more $$$ so 🤷

I think the heavy irony about the whole Inuyasha, Kagome and Kikyo extravaganza is that most people seem to be very sympathetic towards Kagome and Kikyo’s situation and not as much towards Inuyasha’s.

And I’m all for this (relatively) new trend of supporting female characters. It’s wonderful that we’re sympathizing with their pain more and more instead of letting internalized misogyny cloud our judgement. It’s refreshing to stan, analyze or even criticize them based on their actions and narrative weight rather than on the fact that they’re women.

However, in order to do so, there’s no need to ignore, belittle or straight up invalidate the feelings and traumas that male characters might be carrying. It’s possible — and I’d even dare to say preferable — to acknowledge emotional damage and how it impacts the characters’ choices regardless of gender. 

Personally, I feel like people are afraid to do it, since it could cost them some “woke” points. After all, the “all men are shitty” mentality has apparently started to apply to fiction as well. And I, for one, think it’s a disservice take, as generalizing takes tend to be.

People always dragging Inuyasha for going to see Kikyo is a fine example of that. He knows it breaks Kagome’s heart when he goes and he knows it makes her mad when he sneaks out without telling her, but he still does it and people rightly feel for Kagome while unfairly treat Inuyasha as this selfish, inconsiderate cheater who intentionally hurt her by leading her on even though he was still in love with his ex.

Anyone who follows my rants must already know by now that I don’t actually buy Inuyasha and Kikyo’s love story, as in I see what they had as infatuation rather than love, so I’m not going to dwell on that. What I will say is that Inuyasha was just as victim of Naraku’s deception as Kikyo.

His survivor's guilt was massive. It’s not healthy to think you’re not allowed to be happy because something terrible happened with someone you cared about with no fault of your own. Inuyasha feels responsible for what happened to Kikyo and took upon himself the duty to protect her and help her achieve peace even if it meant not only dying, but dying and going to hell with her.

If I’m not mistaken, Kaede pointed out to Inuyasha, at least in the manga, that the Kikyo who came back is not exactly the one they once knew and asked Inuyasha if that’s what he truly wants. And maybe it’s a cultural or historical thing, but other than that, I don’t recall anyone, not even Kagome, telling him that it wasn’t his fault and that he doesn’t owe his life to Kikyo at all.

In fact, the one person who should have been reassuring him from day one that none of it was his fault is Kikyo herself, but she did the exact opposite. She claimed his life and let him believe he owed it to her because she died for him even though this isn’t true and she eventually learned Inuyasha was innocent. This puts everything that happened on his shoulders even though Kikyo’s actions also played a part on it. The only occasion she came close to set him free of his guilt was in her final moments, when she stated that "you came for me, that’s enough.”

The thing, though, is that before his first encounter with Naraku and his second encounter with Kikyo, when she actually claimed his life, Inuyasha didn’t feel this way at all. Earlier on, he rightfully refused to die for a crime he didn’t commit.

He was eager for Kikyo’s soul to return to Kagome because he knew it was the right thing to do for Kagome and for Kikyo as well. And he knew exactly what the consequences of that would be.

Kikyo falls off the cliff despite Inuyasha’s efforts to save her. He assumes she’s dead and is visibly troubled by it. His reaction after that? To go check on Kagome. And as much as he is saddened by the situation, he is also resigned to her fate because she was already dead. She wasn’t supposed to be brought back and deserves to rest.

Not to mention that by the end of this same chapter, he was all smitten with Kagome.

Which leads me to my next point, that is: when Kikyo was resurrected, Inuyasha was already in love with Kagome. Slowly but surely, she helped him to heal and move on. Kagome’s situation is heartbreaking, because she had to watch the man she loves fighting unfinished issues with his ex, but Inuyasha’s situation is also heartbreaking because he is struggling between what his mind tells him is the right thing to do and what his heart wants.

He begrudgingly decides to let Kagome go because he knows is not fair to ask her to stay by his side when his life is promised to Kikyo, but the whole time is pretty obvious he doesn’t want to. Aside from Kaede, he’s the only one Kikyo has and he thinks it’s because of him that she’s in this situation to begin with. How could he act any different?

Hurting Kagome hurts him too. He’s not doing it to lead her on or to get away with dating both girls. He does it because he doesn’t think he has a choice. His heart belongs to Kagome but his life was promised to Kikyo.

In the end of the day, he chose duty over love, which makes sense for his character, who has a tremendous sense of honor. And he was ready to tell Kagome his decision and own it, even if it meant letting go of the first person he ever trusted after his mother, the person who made him feel lighter, who calmed his heart, who cried for him. Because he wouldn’t be able to give her what she needed and didn’t want to see her suffer over it.

Kagome was the one who decided to stay even when it would have been perfectly understandable for her to walk away. She did it knowing exactly what she was signing up for. Inuyasha never asked her to. And this is a parallel to when he sent her back to her time to protect her: he was selflessly thinking about what was best for her no matter how miserable he would be with the outcome. And Kagome just chooses to go back to his side anyway.

It’s way too easy for us, in the comfort of our omniscient point of view and privileged knowledge of social skills, to dictate what this traumatized teenager who spent his whole life suffering with prejudice and having trouble with trust and intimacy issues, had to do. But it was clear to me that he was doing the best he could with the cards he had been dealt. 

He couldn’t simply not go to see Kikyo and at the same time he didn’t want to hurt Kagome or make her mad by going, so he often didn’t tell her or lied about it. He was wrong to do so, but in his mind it was justified because he and Kikyo didn’t do anything besides talking every time they met, with the exception of the two kisses that Kagome herself watched. One that Kikyo layed on him to drag him to hell and one that was their final goodbye.

But like you said: people tend to ignore all of that. They tend to forget Inuyasha was free to go with Kikyo and stay with her if he so desired, but he would rather come back to Kagome every single time and put the life he swore to Kikyo in danger to protect Kagome’s time and time again. And the brilliance of it is that Inuyasha keeps trying to have it all and it always blows up on his face. When he goes to one girl, leaving the other alone, there are actual consequences like Kikyo dying or Kagome almost getting her heart corrupted by the infant.

When push comes to shove, though, Kagome is his priority. And that’s because being by her side is what he truly wants and he risks his life for her not because he feels like he has to, but because he wants to.

There’s just not winning for Inuyasha in the position he’s in. The more he does to appease both girls the more he feels like he’s failing them. And that he’s flawed and makes mistakes is actually what gives him depth and dimension as a character. It’s possible to acknowledge where he went wrong without misunderstanding why he did it. In fact, I don’t think I’d be as drawn to him or to his relationship with Kagome if he had handled everything perfectly, because that would just be plain boring.

You’re also right about the repetitive nature of the show. It truly frustrated the audience. The love triangle was dragged on for far too long, to the point of losing its narrative weight. We already knew Inuyasha was going to end up with Kagome and we already knew that, plot wise, his encounters with Kikyo would lead to nothing but developing his and Kagome’s relationship through drama. It was never about Inuyasha and Kikyo because nothing ever changed between them. Their relationship, when not stagnated, kept running in circles.

And yes, the anime didn’t help his case at all, cutting out very important moments between him and Kagome and adding interactions that never happened in the manga, such as unnecessary, tasteless Inukag scenes or more romantic occasions between him and Kikyo. I understand why people would be mad about it. I myself get mad about it from time to time.

But if there’s a hill I’m gonna die on is this: although the manga is indisputably superior, you can still interpret the love triangle the exact same way you would if you took only the manga into consideration. It’s a classic issue of “show, don’t tell.” Sunrise deleted an important Inukag scene here, added a non canon Inukik scene there, but it wasn’t enough to change the established dynamics between these characters because, for the most part, they had to follow the original story.

For instance: they cut out the conversation when Inuyasha told Kagome there’s no replacement for her, but I already knew he never saw her as a replacement because his actions showed me as much. They added scenes where Inuyasha says Kagome isn't pretty but it’s blatantly obvious he was attracted to her the entire time. The way their relationship was built is so great that you can see right through Sunrise’s attempts to diminish it and hype up Inuyasha and Kikyo in favor of spicing up the love triangle, if you’re paying enough attention.

And I know that from experience. I watched the anime without reading the manga and interpreted Inuyasha and Kagome’s relationship as most of the people who read it did. And if it looks like I’m bragging, please be assured that is actually the opposite: what I mean is that it doesn’t take being a genius to “read between the lines” because I’m far from it. But it is necessary to watch the anime with the bare minimum of critical thinking. 

Not that there’s anything wrong with a casual, lazy watching of Inuyasha. No one is under the obligation to watch everything with critical lens. Sometimes you just want a fun entertainment to pass the time and Inuyasha is actually easy to digest and perfect for that. But I do cringe when people watch the anime casually and then go to Tik Tok to deliver the worst takes I’ve ever seen. What can I say, though? Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and I’m perfectly aware my interpretation is not universal and doesn’t invalidate different ones.

Now, I wouldn’t know about the publishers wanting the story to go on despite the many points in the manga where the ending could’ve been, but I don’t doubt it. Money always speaks louder than art, after all.

Inupapa and Best Babygirl Moroha being the best Father/daughter duo

@keichanz @born-for-eachother @katerinu @inukag @stillunderyourbed @kaze-ranna @lavendertwilight89 @creative-hanyou-girl @chit-a-to @kalcia @fawn-eyed-girl @neutronstarchild @ruddcatha @clearwillow

Chapter 8 is now live! Please  check the tags before you get too far in the story, I will say that  right now.

Summary:  Every culture has it’s own lore about those that walk the earth with  different faces. Some call them witches, some call them shifters, but at  the heart of each tale there is a common link: it is a monster.   When the night goes dark and still, how can you be certain that there is only one of you?  

Rated: E

AO3 | FFN

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