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magician tusspells be upon ye 🪄

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So in ch. 83 of Kagurabachi, Shiba mentions that each of the Enchanted Blades was made by Kunishige with a purpose in mind, in the context of their being tools to fight in the war.

I imagine the purposes Kunishige imbued them with were both in a practical sense and a metaphorical sense - here's what I think those purposes are for the blades we know:

1) Kuregumo - this was intended to be the vanguard. In a practical sense, whoever wielded this weapon was someone who would be the first into every fight, someone who met the enemy head on on the front lines. It has no subtlety to it - it is big, it is flashy, and it is very direct.

Metaphorically speaking, I think Kuregumo's purpose was to be tool of inspiration. Shiba sorta alludes to this idea when he tells Chihiro that he course-corrected the blade towards its "true intent." Let's review how Chihiro used it: when he used it to light up the darkness of Kyora's realm, the first sign to the prisoners of the Rakuzaichi that salvation had come. When he used it to break open that very auction's first line of defenses, to clear a way into its heart, and when he used it to help Hakuri defeat his brothers.

The Kuregumo's purpose was to clear a path, to light the way for those behind its wielder.

2) Kumeyuri - this one is trickier, but I think that the intended purpose of this blade was to control. Banquet is an ability that relies on creativity and imagination to get the most out of it, and Play explicitly synergizes well with someone with a deep sense of caring towards the world around them.

It is a tool to manipulate and alter the battlefield, to hide compatriots, disorient and divert the enemy, to reshape the field itself to what the wielder needed. It's not as directly powerful as the other blades (IMO), but it works well with someone who is clever, strategic, and subtle. It's a crowd-control and support tool, practically intended to serve as wide-area control and denial; metaphorically intended to literally reshape the world towards the bearers' advantage.

3) Tobimune - many have already speculated that this was the weapon of a healer, an opinion which I broadly agree with. But in terms of its exact purpose, I think it'd be more accurate to describe it as a tool for mercy and selflessness - it protects and heals its allies, ensures that the bearer is always watching and ready to intervene wherever needed.

It is the tool of someone who is looking to keep people alive, and to end threats to the lives of their comrades as quickly as possible. It's purpose, both practically and metaphorically, is to safeguard.

4) Magatsumi - to quote Lancer: "It is a tool designed to kill human beings very, very quickly." The Magatsumi/Shinuichi was designed with a more simple purpose in mind, I think: to end the war. The other blades halted the islanders' advance, they let the Japanese fight them on equal terms. But the Magatsumi? It's purpose was to turn the tides - ideally by killing many enemies as quickly and efficiently as possible.

We joke about the Enchanted Blades being nuke swords, but I think that comparison is most apt for the Magatsumi - it was made to shatter the enemy's resolve, show them that there was only annihilation at the end of their path. It was not meant to simply defeat foes or protect allies or accomplish subtle objectives. It was to make corpses and make them FAST.

Just my thoughts, of course - I'm definitely curious as to what the other blades could've been intended to do, and why their respective wielders were chosen to bear them.

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How Much More?

I just... man. Hakuri...

Despite the Rakuzaichi arc having finished a while ago now, we are still revisiting aspects of Hakuri's life with his family. But we the audience are the only ones privy to the information presented- none of the other characters are aware. And Hakuri doesn't seem inclined to share how bad he's had it. It's like a very slowly unfolding horror story that you thought was over but it just keeps going when you least expect it...

Let's look at the direct vs. indirect information about his abusive past provided since he was introduced:

Ch. 19

Hakuri lost his pet preying mantis (a metaphor for luck/courage) about five years ago

Hakuri also lost his entire family around the same time (indication of tragic backstory most likely)

Nonchalant about his bloody nose

Ch. 20

He was too weak and got in the way, so he was disowned (indicates a family that equates usefulness to worthiness)

Once again unflinching despite being in immense pain

Ch. 23

His hand trembles when he mentions that his older brothers are strong and scary

He says his family will kill him on sight (turns out to be a red herring)

He's very concerned with being useful in any way he can, even if it's just running errands

He looks frightened when he encounters his older brother

Ch. 24

Flashes back to being physically abused multiple times before attempting suicide (immediate response trigger, would rather die than go back)

Truly believes that the family wants him dead for "ruining merchandise"

Directly states that Soya expresses affection through punching and kicking him (doesn't deny the abuse as a valid expression of sincere love)

Soya is unfamiliar with Hakuri defying him

Hakuri tries to protect Hinao and gets punched down to the ground for his efforts (Soya will continue to abuse Hakuri if he's allowed to)

Soya is obsessed with getting Hakuri back and doesn't seem to consider Hakuri's refusals to do so something he's capable of making a rational, informed decision of himself

Ch. 25

Kyora summons Hakuri back and immediately puts a sword at his throat to use him as a hostage (clearly not important to his father)

Calls Hakuri a pathetic wretch, completely worthless, and a hindrance while stepping on him (emotional and physical abuse)

Appears prepared to kill him

He's extremely upset and apologetic afterwards, fully blaming himself

Kyora states that Hakuri has finally been useful for the first time ever

Ch. 26

Hakuri's usual exuberance is gone and he's much more subdued

His father's words about his uselessness and worthlessness are echoing in his head while he continues to blame himself and apologise for being a burden

Chihiro is able to cheer him up by telling him he was useful after all by telling him what he needed to hear, and can keep being useful by providing information

Ch. 30

Tenri calls Hakuri a useless coward

Rejects Soya's joy at seeing him again; Soya once again believes Hakuri's refusals are due to other people manipulating him; implies Hakuri never had much agency, if any at all

Extremely negative self-talk when trying to figure out how to handle an unexpected situation

Ch. 32

Gets kicked around and demeaned by Soya and acknowledges that he is weak (this is nothing new for him, especially with it being framed as Soya trying to put him back in his place)

Hakuri is able to remain calm and think clearly while he's being hit and kicked

Still doesn't reject Soya's abuse as a form of love; only rejects the mischaracterisation of Chihiro

Being abused helped him become sturdy enough to survive Hiyuki's punch to the face

Ch. 33

Tenri considers Hakuri to be stupid

Also remarks that their family would be disgraced as a whole if word of Hakuri's lack of ability got out

Ch. 34

Kyora confronts Hakuri's sadness over his grandfather's death with blunt truth, showing a distinct lack of compassion

Hakuri was intended to possibly receive the storehouse power when Kyora died

Was manipulated into saying he loved his father (emotional abuse in the name of continuing tradition; Kyora even uses "ai" to drive home how farcical the bonds of love he claims they have are)

Admitted he wanted his father's praise and was only able to snap out of it because someone "set him on the right path"

Ch. 35

Admits that Soya uses tools like pliers on him to "bully" him instead

Also drops that Soya usually goes back to beating him up the "normal way" once the tools are lost

Blames the abuse he receives for himself being weak and useless, is desperate to be useful

Won't talk about the abuse when it's worse than usual, just clams up instead

Realises his own mindset and how he treated her directly led to her killing herself in front of him

Ch. 36

Tools come back, peeler even appears to possibly have dried blood on it

Hakuri's storehouse also has a log, metal pipes, pliers, sticks, a wrench, rope, and a chair in it Jesus fucking Christ

Kyora once again refers to Hakuri as a failure, Soya agrees

Hakuri acknowledges Soya's treatment of him as "love", albeit bitterly

And that's it for a long time. Hakuri still wants his father's love even at the very end, and he's still desperate to be useful (while also being surprised when people consider him as such); his abysmal self-esteem and twin core motivations to sacrifice himself to see things through are still major problems for him. He has a complicated situation to work through but there's some hope- especially now that he's back on his feet in the most recent chapters. Likely re-traumatised and with some diminished power, but managing to keep his agency intact. Uruha even came back!

Except...

Ch. 80

Hakuri was abused for ten years, not just the five after Kyora gave up on him

There are multiple ways to interpret Hakuri's knuckle covering that bolded "love"- maybe he's aware it isn't actual love now, maybe he's trying to avoid thinking about it. It's up to interpretation until we get a direct statement. But the point is that we are still learning that his life of tragedies and abuses is still somehow worse than we knew.

So now I'm wondering what the hell else there is to know. Will he have more issues to explore with his dead mom? Will we see more details about how often and in what ways Soya tortured him? Will we see him being neglected and forced to scrounge for food scraps and clothes like so many fans headcanon? I kind of don't want to find out!

This is all for a point though, I believe. We are getting details like this to remind us that Hakuri doesn't fucking talk about his own trauma.

He's not yet at the point where he even acknowledges that he had what most people could consider a very hard time of things. He can't acknowledge his own circumstances yet. So until that point, we will probably keep learning things at random until there's a tipping point of some kind. I hope it's a positive way like he's safe enough to talk about it all with someone to start healing. But it could also manifest as a "last bad memory that breaks him and it all comes spilling out" kind of way too.

No matter what happens, though, I think we have to brace ourselves for more random "what the fucking fuck Hakuri you poor guy" moments until he's ready to confront it all. Until he admits that he not only actually had a shit life, but that he didn't deserve any of it.

Suffering = character development not holding up in this scene. It's just pure suffering at this point. Why?

This is basically just a more condensed version of that essay I wrote back in October I guess. But I can't stop thinking about how there's still more to learn about how Hakuri suffered if this came up so long after his intro arc ended. Why are we still getting this kind of information when we don't need to feel bad for him any more? His main abusers are dead and he chose to follow Chihiro in order to help accomplish his own goals. Shouldn't we be progressing to part of his arc where he starts to heal?

But we aren't. We're seeing him be more self-destructive than ever while staying fixated on making sure he's as useful as possible. We're still learning details of how he was abused. It's not to endear him to us at this point- I don't think it's even possible for me to be any more attached to him. So there has to be some other meaning behind it.

That's why I'm beating on the “Hakuri has to face his abuse for what it really was” drum. I can't see any other reason from a narrative sense. Hakuri's arc started with the slow drip of information being shown to us and barely any being told to other characters in-universe. Chihiro and Shiba probably don't know about the torture, or how long it went on for, or Ice Lady. He doesn't talk about it. He only thinks about it when intrusive memories come up or he needs to explain something. That literal metaphor of the the torture tools he keeps in his storehouse, a space only he can access and knows about what's inside.

Most importantly, Hakuri himself hasn't directly acknowledged that he was being abused in the first place.

He's only ever called it love and expressed understandably complicated feelings for his dad in particular. The only hint we have that he might be reconsidering his treatment as "love" is that ambiguous panel of him partially covering the word in chapter 80. This, to me, says that Hakuri's character arc won't really be on an upswing until he acknowledges his past for what it was. And until that point we are going to keep getting reminded that he's not willing to do so via these random details cropping up.

I'm extremely invested in where he goes and how it's handled and... please, don't pull another Hiruhiko. I sincerely hope Hakuri's situation is dealt with the care and respect it deserves as the story goes on. And if I'm wrong and giving the author too much credit and he's actually fine now that Uruha's alive after all? I'll close up shop and never write another post for Kagurabachi again out of shame I guess.

Anyway I don't know how to end things so, uh. Give yourself a sincere compliment and be proud of how far you've come. You're worth all the effort it takes to live.

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immediately saw them

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📢📢butch gina lestrade

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so they are just forever doomed

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happy father’s day and one year anniversary to this chapter!

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map of dreams qiao qiao 🥹 shes sooo pretty

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they are like a warm hug

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i also really like chihiro this chapter. fake ass idgafer i saw you with light in your eyes

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Remember that Chihiro meme with the gay flag and the question mark?

Well I made a whole ass set of these that anyone can use. Happy Pride y'all.

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picture this with me: begrudging coworkers goulstrade attending a fancy event in their capcom café outfits, forced to work together, completely outside both of their usual comfort zones,

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just remembered i can like...take the theories in my head & put them Out. so here are some of my kagurabachi thoughts

about hakuri transporting the shinuchi:

the shinuchi will resist registration, or

the swordmaster will also be transported with the shinuchi, or

something even worse will happen that i don't want to think about

speaking of the swordmaster.

it's chihiro's mother. I KNOW i know he/him is being used in the english translations but listen it was also assumed hiyuki was a boy initially so hear me out. it's just my fave. but alternatively

maybe a relative of yura, or

all of the above...??? OR

rokuhira's younger sibling. possibly older but i think younger

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This time I’ll be the one protecting you!!!!!

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OMG OMG OMG Sevenseas first licensed Baihe...!! AAAAA

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Jolts up wait. Link Click mother thesis is that mother loves you so much but cannot meaningfully protect you from anything.

Its so omnipresent in the narrative. Cheng Xiaoshi and Shao Yuanyuan, Chen Xiao and his mother, Emma and her mother, Doudou and his mother, the twins and Liu Lan. Mom loves you. Mom is ill tempered or faceless or too passive but she loves you. But she can't really protect you at all. Shao Yuanyuan, we don't know much about her, but we know she loves Cheng Xiaoshi and yet in her quest to save her husband her son is dying and we don't even know if she knows. She loves her son but she left him too and he grew up with only Qiao Ling and a belief that never came true that his parents would come back for him. Chen Xiao's mother loved him to a point she sacrificed her life for him but she couldn't protect him from losing everyone else he cared about, from every regret in his life. Doudou's mother loved him to a point she broke after he was kidnapped and yet was unable to keep him safe right in front of her. Emma's mother is the one constantly reaching out to her and worrying about her despite her father's dismissal and yet she couldn't protect her daughter from the predatory workplace she wound up in and couldn't save her from dying. And Liu Lan? Hugest example of this. Every step she takes to save the twins from Li Fan is the wrong one, everything she tries fails until she bleeds out in their arms and it saves nothing, Tianchen continues his father's violence and anger and Tianxi is never given agency in anything until her dead. Mom loves you so much. Mom can never protect you.

And Dad? Who is Dad but the perpetrator. But the one she fails to protect you from. But the one who doesn't love until its too late. But the one who leaves you first, but the one who might have cared and loved you too but didn't understand what you needed. Mom is trying and Mom can never protect you. Is Dad even trying at all?

It's just. The way gender is so central to Link Click - the eternal link between masculinity and agency, femineity and the lack of it - it's insane. It's all insane. I'm going insane. Mom loves you and can never protect you but god didn't she try and was it enough?

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No, no, listen. The kissing was a metaphor. They're not actually —they're not actually gay. It's symbolism. The car thing? No that was real. She literally turned into a car.