Meme answers
Mar. 4th, 2006 07:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cicerThe first round of answers for that meme. I don't guarantee coherancy here. The really long answers (for Sanzo/Goku, Goku, Gojyo, and Gojyo/Hakkai) will be up in the next few days. :D
Kanzeon
Kanzeon absolutely rocks. Se is so awesome. I just love the way she subtly manipulates the Ikkou to do what se wants without them knowing it. Of course, they think se wants them to makes this great journey to the west FOR GREAT JUJSTICE, but no. Se totally doesn’t care about that. For hir, I think the journey is nothing more than a means to an end. It’s really just a convenient excuse for her to meddle in the lives of the Ikkou. Kanzeon is determined to keep the Ikkou together, get them to work through their issues, and be happy, dammit, even if it kills them. Again. Se’s a total fangirl (fanboy?) in a lot of ways, and I love that.
Schuldig/Nagi
Schuldig/Nagi is actually not a pairing I really ship, but I do read it from time to time. I prefer pairing Schuldig with Crawford, because I'm a sucker for their dyanamic and their power games. Schuldig and Nagi have their own interactions that are quite interesting, though. For one thing, Schuldig is probably the most laid-back member of Schwarz. He does what he does because it amuses him, and for no other reason. And it also amuses him to watch his teammates get their panties in a twist over anything. On the other hand, with Nagi it seems like everything is Serious Business. He's quite young emotionally, so he takes everything way to seriously. It's interesting to juxtapose him with Schuldig, who is also deeply immature, but in a way that he refuses to take pretty much anything seriously. They make quite a pair, and while I seriously doubt that they could manage any sort of long-term relationship, I can see them having a few trysts and making a mess out of things while Crawford and Farfarello laugh at them. Hee.
Farfarello
Farfarello. Ah, Farfarello. He's really hard to pin down, and it seems like everyone has a different view of him. Is he totally crazy or mostly stable and only pulls out the crazy for special occasions? Based on the anime it's hard to say. He's obviously not sane by any measure of the word, but how far does his insanity go? I peg him as being just sane enough to function properly most of the time, but unstable enough to lose it whenever anything pokes him with a sharp stick. Still, I don't really know. It's that uncertainty that makes his character particularly interesting. And of course his religious obsessions are something to puzzle over, too. He definitely falls into the appealing kind of crazy, even when he creeps me out. He's an interesting character, for sure.
Hakkai
Oh, Hakkai. Good lord. I love him, I really do, but the boy is pretty much crackers. He's really quite unstable at times, but it's not something you notice right off. I remember when I first started reading the manga, I initially thought, "Oh, what a nice guy!" It took me a few volumes until I finally went, "Oh. He's, uh. Kinda crazy." And by the time I was halfway through the series, I knew I'd never want to be within a country mile of him. I still adore him though.
This is possibly not something I should admit, but I relate to Hakkai almost eerily well. His thoughts and motives are always something I can understand, not matter how shocking or repugnant they might be. One of my favorite parts about him is that he's an incredibly good actor. He's very skilled at putting forth this façade and blending in. I'm sure he seems like a wholly unremarkable person until he starts killing people. That's something that's always interested me. He is a far better actor than any of the other Ikkou, I think. Every time he says something, I always question exactly what he means by that, and whether he’s sincere or not. And most of the time, it’s really hard to tell.
There is no question about Hakkai's loyalties, though. He is deeply devoted to the people he cares about, and he will do anything to protect them. No, really, anything. Mass-murder is totally par for the course. If you hurt someone he cares about, he will fuck your shit up. On a moral level, that's a little horrifying. Still, at the same time it's almost touching. When he loves, he throws himself into it whole-heartedly. He doesn't feel anything half-way, and that's very intriguing.
It’s really odd to think about what sort of life he lived before becoming a youkai. He was presumably a very normal human once, after all. He had nothing to do with youkai at all, and lived a relatively peaceful life until Kanan was taken. And that just makes what happened later all the more shocking. That capacity for violence must have always been present, after all. That makes looking back on Hakkai’s childhood a little disturbing, really.
Hakkai is dark. There’d no way around that. The Ikkou all damaged goods to some extent, but to me Hakkai represents the darkest possible side, the extreme. He is the pendulum when it has swung the farthest to the other side. I've always been on the opinion that Hakkai is the most evil of all of them. He's the one with the greatest capacity for darkness.
One of the most interesting things about Hakkai is that he is so flawed. He’s bitter and selfish and demanding, in his odd way. He’s very good at passive-aggression and manipulation to get what he wants (I suspect this is a good bit of Tenpou’s influence!), and he’s deeply selfish. He pretty much doesn’t care what happens to anyone else as long as the people he cares about are okay. To some extent that’s natural, but it’s still innately selfish.
He’s very much attached to his pain and his past, so much so that I think he’s made a conscious choice to cling to it. I think he could begin to let go a little more, but he doesn’t want to. On one had, I think he’s very reluctant to let go of his memories because he’s afraid of forgetting things that made him happy once. But on the other hand, I think he gets a sort of perverse pleasure out of forcing himself to relive his pain over and over. It’s a sort of masochistic, self-flagellating thing. I think it comforts him somehow, that he feels like his atoning for his sins by making himself unhappy.
Additionally, he seems to struggle with feeling that he doesn’t deserve anything, and then having to reconcile those feelings will his selfishness, and the fact that he still wants things. That’s always been very interesting to me, because it’s so human. Even when we feel guilty, very few people are actually willing to give themselves up entirely. It’s natural to cling to life, even when you don’t always want it.
Overall, I think Hakkai is the most human character, oddly enough. He may be the dark, frankly evil sometimes, but he represents the darkness and evil of all humans, something we can all relate to. I’ve always found that interesting about him.
Kanzeon
Kanzeon absolutely rocks. Se is so awesome. I just love the way she subtly manipulates the Ikkou to do what se wants without them knowing it. Of course, they think se wants them to makes this great journey to the west FOR GREAT JUJSTICE, but no. Se totally doesn’t care about that. For hir, I think the journey is nothing more than a means to an end. It’s really just a convenient excuse for her to meddle in the lives of the Ikkou. Kanzeon is determined to keep the Ikkou together, get them to work through their issues, and be happy, dammit, even if it kills them. Again. Se’s a total fangirl (fanboy?) in a lot of ways, and I love that.
Schuldig/Nagi
Schuldig/Nagi is actually not a pairing I really ship, but I do read it from time to time. I prefer pairing Schuldig with Crawford, because I'm a sucker for their dyanamic and their power games. Schuldig and Nagi have their own interactions that are quite interesting, though. For one thing, Schuldig is probably the most laid-back member of Schwarz. He does what he does because it amuses him, and for no other reason. And it also amuses him to watch his teammates get their panties in a twist over anything. On the other hand, with Nagi it seems like everything is Serious Business. He's quite young emotionally, so he takes everything way to seriously. It's interesting to juxtapose him with Schuldig, who is also deeply immature, but in a way that he refuses to take pretty much anything seriously. They make quite a pair, and while I seriously doubt that they could manage any sort of long-term relationship, I can see them having a few trysts and making a mess out of things while Crawford and Farfarello laugh at them. Hee.
Farfarello
Farfarello. Ah, Farfarello. He's really hard to pin down, and it seems like everyone has a different view of him. Is he totally crazy or mostly stable and only pulls out the crazy for special occasions? Based on the anime it's hard to say. He's obviously not sane by any measure of the word, but how far does his insanity go? I peg him as being just sane enough to function properly most of the time, but unstable enough to lose it whenever anything pokes him with a sharp stick. Still, I don't really know. It's that uncertainty that makes his character particularly interesting. And of course his religious obsessions are something to puzzle over, too. He definitely falls into the appealing kind of crazy, even when he creeps me out. He's an interesting character, for sure.
Hakkai
Oh, Hakkai. Good lord. I love him, I really do, but the boy is pretty much crackers. He's really quite unstable at times, but it's not something you notice right off. I remember when I first started reading the manga, I initially thought, "Oh, what a nice guy!" It took me a few volumes until I finally went, "Oh. He's, uh. Kinda crazy." And by the time I was halfway through the series, I knew I'd never want to be within a country mile of him. I still adore him though.
This is possibly not something I should admit, but I relate to Hakkai almost eerily well. His thoughts and motives are always something I can understand, not matter how shocking or repugnant they might be. One of my favorite parts about him is that he's an incredibly good actor. He's very skilled at putting forth this façade and blending in. I'm sure he seems like a wholly unremarkable person until he starts killing people. That's something that's always interested me. He is a far better actor than any of the other Ikkou, I think. Every time he says something, I always question exactly what he means by that, and whether he’s sincere or not. And most of the time, it’s really hard to tell.
There is no question about Hakkai's loyalties, though. He is deeply devoted to the people he cares about, and he will do anything to protect them. No, really, anything. Mass-murder is totally par for the course. If you hurt someone he cares about, he will fuck your shit up. On a moral level, that's a little horrifying. Still, at the same time it's almost touching. When he loves, he throws himself into it whole-heartedly. He doesn't feel anything half-way, and that's very intriguing.
It’s really odd to think about what sort of life he lived before becoming a youkai. He was presumably a very normal human once, after all. He had nothing to do with youkai at all, and lived a relatively peaceful life until Kanan was taken. And that just makes what happened later all the more shocking. That capacity for violence must have always been present, after all. That makes looking back on Hakkai’s childhood a little disturbing, really.
Hakkai is dark. There’d no way around that. The Ikkou all damaged goods to some extent, but to me Hakkai represents the darkest possible side, the extreme. He is the pendulum when it has swung the farthest to the other side. I've always been on the opinion that Hakkai is the most evil of all of them. He's the one with the greatest capacity for darkness.
One of the most interesting things about Hakkai is that he is so flawed. He’s bitter and selfish and demanding, in his odd way. He’s very good at passive-aggression and manipulation to get what he wants (I suspect this is a good bit of Tenpou’s influence!), and he’s deeply selfish. He pretty much doesn’t care what happens to anyone else as long as the people he cares about are okay. To some extent that’s natural, but it’s still innately selfish.
He’s very much attached to his pain and his past, so much so that I think he’s made a conscious choice to cling to it. I think he could begin to let go a little more, but he doesn’t want to. On one had, I think he’s very reluctant to let go of his memories because he’s afraid of forgetting things that made him happy once. But on the other hand, I think he gets a sort of perverse pleasure out of forcing himself to relive his pain over and over. It’s a sort of masochistic, self-flagellating thing. I think it comforts him somehow, that he feels like his atoning for his sins by making himself unhappy.
Additionally, he seems to struggle with feeling that he doesn’t deserve anything, and then having to reconcile those feelings will his selfishness, and the fact that he still wants things. That’s always been very interesting to me, because it’s so human. Even when we feel guilty, very few people are actually willing to give themselves up entirely. It’s natural to cling to life, even when you don’t always want it.
Overall, I think Hakkai is the most human character, oddly enough. He may be the dark, frankly evil sometimes, but he represents the darkness and evil of all humans, something we can all relate to. I’ve always found that interesting about him.
