Kenshin=Love
Mar. 12th, 2006 06:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieI realized that the most wonderful thing about Kaoru is her total, complete acceptance of everything. What do I mean? She takes Kenshin in and she couldn't care less he was the Battousai. Her one criteria is "you seem like a nice guy. I like you." True, she falls for him rather quickly and he did save her life, but she does the same with Sano and Yahiko and Pirate Girl etc etc etc. She is completely unhestitating in opening her home and her heart to people. And it's not as if she choses to overlook Kenshin's past because of his current niceness or her feelings. She genuinely finds anything outside of his present irrelevant to her evaluation of him. Basically, t must be wonderful for Kenshin not to be liked despite of what he was or because of it, but be liked because of who he is. All that matters is the kind of person he is now, his present. The rest is irrelevant. And this is why Kaoru is so cool.
I love how it's a running theme that the Kenshingumi (heeee) are constantly broke and rather constantly hungry. After all, that whole long three parter with the pirates where they brought down two separate criminal enterprises and had fights and fires and narrow escapes and burning boats, what did they get at the end? A big, big lobster. It so makes sense. Because while Kaoru is a good martial artist and Sano and Kenshin are amazing ones, there is not much market for it. I mean, Kenshin can cut a marble column in two with his sword which is great, but people generally prefer their marble columns in one piece. Short of hiring out as a bodyguard or an assassin (neither of which he'd do), there isn't much he can do to earn a living. So Kaoru goes out and teaches lessons and he cooks, cleans and does laundry (I rather like the matter of fact approach to this reversal of traditional gender roles).
And I also love that the show deals, in a nice background way that Kenshin's way of not killing his opponents does mean that a number of them are going to keep coming after him, or hire others to do so. Of course, it ties in with his freaky and utter acceptance of his incoming death (repeatedly). I think part of it is because he thinks he should have died a long time ago so any extra time is a blessing, but another part is because he knows he can die at any time so, parodoxically, he has to accept his death in order to be able to live at all, and not cower in fear and terror every day.
Also, Kenshin talking about his past to Kaoru=love. I love that he opened up to her. And Sano fighting Saito, even with that wound? Love. And Megumi taking care of him? Love also. But the most love is Kenshin's flashback to his past and fighting the Shinsengumi, and seeing Souji and an almost Souji-Kenshin match. That was kinda surreal after Peacemaker and I loved every bit of it. It is like a crazy-cool cross-over. And seeing Kenshin in his former, completely effective, utterly deadly killer mode was amazing: lightning quick strikes, no pause among he corpses, blood on his face. You can see what he is when he doesn't hold back. And you can see why he desperately tries to atone.
So basically, Kenshin=love.
I love how it's a running theme that the Kenshingumi (heeee) are constantly broke and rather constantly hungry. After all, that whole long three parter with the pirates where they brought down two separate criminal enterprises and had fights and fires and narrow escapes and burning boats, what did they get at the end? A big, big lobster. It so makes sense. Because while Kaoru is a good martial artist and Sano and Kenshin are amazing ones, there is not much market for it. I mean, Kenshin can cut a marble column in two with his sword which is great, but people generally prefer their marble columns in one piece. Short of hiring out as a bodyguard or an assassin (neither of which he'd do), there isn't much he can do to earn a living. So Kaoru goes out and teaches lessons and he cooks, cleans and does laundry (I rather like the matter of fact approach to this reversal of traditional gender roles).
And I also love that the show deals, in a nice background way that Kenshin's way of not killing his opponents does mean that a number of them are going to keep coming after him, or hire others to do so. Of course, it ties in with his freaky and utter acceptance of his incoming death (repeatedly). I think part of it is because he thinks he should have died a long time ago so any extra time is a blessing, but another part is because he knows he can die at any time so, parodoxically, he has to accept his death in order to be able to live at all, and not cower in fear and terror every day.
Also, Kenshin talking about his past to Kaoru=love. I love that he opened up to her. And Sano fighting Saito, even with that wound? Love. And Megumi taking care of him? Love also. But the most love is Kenshin's flashback to his past and fighting the Shinsengumi, and seeing Souji and an almost Souji-Kenshin match. That was kinda surreal after Peacemaker and I loved every bit of it. It is like a crazy-cool cross-over. And seeing Kenshin in his former, completely effective, utterly deadly killer mode was amazing: lightning quick strikes, no pause among he corpses, blood on his face. You can see what he is when he doesn't hold back. And you can see why he desperately tries to atone.
So basically, Kenshin=love.
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no subject
Date: 2006-03-13 03:39 am (UTC)Kenshin really was a monster, so it's not really any petty thing he won't forgive himself for. It's not some minor "he accidentally killed a kid in the line of fire and will never forgive himself" or something like that, Kenshin was a willful murderer, war or no.
I think part of it is because he thinks he should have died a long time ago so any extra time is a blessing
And part of it too may just be something ingrained from Hiko and the Hitsu Marugen style of fighting. Mastery of the style was only accomplished when the student killed the master. Hiko killed his own master and was simply waiting for Kenshin to get good enough to kill him. Hiko himself always had a se la vie attitude about everything and I think that may be something Kenshin picked up to a degree after he got older.
And the women in RK really are the bread winners. As I said before, try as they might, the men really don't have a place in the world.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-13 04:17 pm (UTC)I like that RK doesn't shy away from showing this. And it wasn't an aberration, either. That persona is definitely a part of Kenshin and always will be. Except now he can keep it under control.
And the women in RK really are the bread winners. As I said before, try as they might, the men really don't have a place in the world.
I think it has something to do with the fact that the men come from such more messed up backgrounds than the women...