Kougaiji thoughts
Jan. 23rd, 2006 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cicerI am fairly sure I am going to app Kougaiji for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
campfuckudie, so I'd like to ask all of you for your thoughts and opinions on him as a character, to help me get a better handle on him.
What do you think of him? What sort of person is he, in your opinion? What are some of his main characteristics? What do you think of his past, and how do you think it influences him? What do you think he thinks of other people, and what do you think his relationship is with his mother, Lirin, Yaone, Doku, Goku, etc...?
Tell me your thoughts on Kougaiji. :)
campfuckudie, so I'd like to ask all of you for your thoughts and opinions on him as a character, to help me get a better handle on him. What do you think of him? What sort of person is he, in your opinion? What are some of his main characteristics? What do you think of his past, and how do you think it influences him? What do you think he thinks of other people, and what do you think his relationship is with his mother, Lirin, Yaone, Doku, Goku, etc...?
Tell me your thoughts on Kougaiji. :)
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HAHAHA this is so long. Part 1.
Date: 2006-01-24 06:59 am (UTC)Well, would-be dork, when he's not in his OMG SANZOHUNTING IS SERIOUS BUSINESS mode (although he's honestly most dorky when he's LIKE that). Complete mama's boy and complete badass and does not see any conflict between the two: his obsession with reviving his mother borders on the incestuousness if not outright crossing the line. I have no idea how he feels about his father; his lack of concern about his father only heightens the weird incestuousness with his mother. But since people in "Saiyuki" can be incestuousness without necessarily being particularly fucked-up otherwise (hi Doku!), we can maybe write it off as a character quirk instead of a flaw.
Kougaiji is determined to get the sutra above all else. But he's never going to get it short of a miracle, even though he's a badass, because he's secretly a hero too, and heroes don't get to use power for evil. He's arrogant and prideful, but he's very good person, at least as secretly squishy as Gojyo. He's stiff with honor and pride, he respects his opponents if they prove they're worthy of it, and he won't involve innocents (demon or human) in his battles if he can help it. Kou/Doku/Yaone have got their reputations as lameass villains because (although Doku and Yaone would suck it up and be evil for Kou) Kou sucks at being villainous and lets his subordinates get away with being friendly too ("see you next time we try to kill each other! have a lovely week!"). He's very clear that he doesn't have any quarrel with the Sanzo-ikkou other than his desire to take the sutra from them, and he'd probably quite like to be buddies with them under other circumstances (he would completely hang out with Goku and be shonen badass dorks together and Sanzo would be like "fuck, Kougaiji, you want to hang out with the monkey? I thought you were the smart one"). He is possibly a better person that Sanzo. He is definitely a better person than Hakkai. He shares a secret inner dork with Goku that he does not get to share often because it is not dramatically noble and princely to be all "Hahaha let's beat the crap out of each other this is awesome!!!" all the time.
HAHAHA this is so long. Part 2.
Date: 2006-01-24 07:01 am (UTC)and is proud of her for not growing up to be a conniving whore. And I think he also oddly trusts the Sanzo-ikkou to not seriously harm Lirin (ha! they can try!) or watch her be harmed during Lirin's wacky little attacks on them. Kou sees this as his fight, and he does not want Lirin involved.I am not so-secretly a mad Kou/Yaone shipper but I don't think that it's going to happen until Yaone works up the confidence to speak her heart and Kou gets over his raging mommy issues and also his concern with Doing The Right Thing by Yaone as his subordinate. Yaone: "My lord Kougaiji, I love you and would do anything for you, but there's something we need to talk about."
Kougaiji: "Don't worry, Yaone, I promised that I'd never take advantage of you sexually."
Yaone: "THAT'S WHAT WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT DAMMIT. I AM SEX-STARVED OVER HERE."
Kou cares about and depends on Yaone a lot more than he realizes and more than just as a subordinate as he thinks; he's slowly coming to realize how big a part of his life she is and how she's a friend AND family member. He trusts her implicitly with his sister, which is the greatest statement about their relationship he can make without coming out and saying "I know that you would never betray our family".
Doku is Kou's lesser-status big brother. I have no idea if Kou knows that Gojyo is Doku's brother, but it doesn't really matter for their relationship. Kou depends on Doku more than anyone--both to follow him into hell if necessary, and to be Kou's rock and voice of reason when Kou isn't sure what to do. Even though he's a demon and therefore old (and Doku might actually be younger, I have no idea how much older than Gojyo he is), Kou still comes off as very young to me sometimes--certainly emotionally younger than the Sanzo-ikkou in his naivete that once he gets the sutra back he can fix his mom and Everything Will Be Okay Again, and in his connection with Goku of blood and dorktasticness. Doku gives Kou someone to rely on and look up to without seeming to, since otherwise he'd be a threat to Kou's pride and power. And Doku is practically the only person who can make jokes around Kou that Kou doesn't make "WTF brain does not compute" faces at.
Why is there not more Kougaiji/Yaone/Dokugakuji fic? Why? BUILT-IN THREESOME OF HOTNESS, PEOPLE.
Anyway, summary: DORK. Badass. Loves his family (genetic and adopted) more than anything. Immortal demon who takes life way too seriously in the way of the very young. Would make serious ill-fated attempts to assault the barrier and get genderswitched while Hakkai tried desperately not to laugh at him because that would be unforgivably rude. (Would turn into Genie from "Rune Soldier" when genderswitched. WTF.)
Re: HAHAHA this is so long. Part 2.
Date: 2006-01-24 05:18 pm (UTC)Re: HAHAHA this is so long. Part 2.
Date: 2006-01-24 10:34 pm (UTC)Re: HAHAHA this is so long. Part 2.
Date: 2006-01-24 10:54 pm (UTC)Re: HAHAHA this is so long. Part 2.
Date: 2006-01-25 02:18 am (UTC)Re: HAHAHA this is so long. Part 2.
Date: 2006-01-25 02:17 am (UTC)But these posts were brilliant and even if you don't app Kou, you should totally app someone else. :) Also, I actually printed your comments out to look over while I made up my app. You nailed Kou's characters. Thanks so much for the comments!
Re: HAHAHA this is so long. Part 2.
Date: 2006-01-25 02:40 am (UTC)Re: HAHAHA this is so long. Part 2.
Date: 2006-01-25 02:45 am (UTC)Ooh, that would be great if you could look the app over! Could you do it tonight/tomorrow? I'll probabaly also hop on the CFUD IRC and see if I can con someone else into looking at it, too. XD The more the merrier! It's really lame right now, I warn you.
Re: HAHAHA this is so long. Part 2.
Date: 2006-01-25 06:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 07:40 am (UTC)I mean. Kougaiji is loyal. Once he's devoted to a cause, even if he hates every part of it, he stays loyal to it. Sort of like, once he's made up his mind, he sticks to it. He's noble, he's prideful, and he functions sort of by video game shounen logic -- HE IS HERE TO FIGHT YOU! MAN TO MAN! *DRAMATIC MUSIC, POSES, HAIR IN WIND*.
At the same time, he is a giant bucket of SUPER MUSHBALL LOVE. He's very much a shounen protagonist, rather than antagonist; I'm not sure he even counts as an anti-hero, if not for his goals. He functions by the 'nakama' logic with his friends and family.
And his morals are top form. He is just -- so moralistic. He's horrified when he hears the minus wave was on PURPOSE. He doesn't kill subordinates -- it's why he's so angry when Gyokumen Koushu does, or when brainwashed!him did, Yaone was horrified.
In a way, I also think he sort of ... mm. You know. XD IS the rest of the Ikkou in some fundamental way. I mean:
Uses a mantra for his magic. Feels like he couldn't protect his parental figure. Is looking for the sutras. Is hard-edged, but weak to his subordinates. Sanzo.
Has Dokugakuji. Has red hair. Has a mother who doesn't love him, as well as a mother who he's desperately trying to win back with an edge of mamakon to it. Saved his subordinates without asking anything of them. (The anime adds that he didn't know most of their pasts, because he never asked, since he decided it didn't matter.) Gojyo.
Constantly trying to free his loved one. Saved a woman both from Hyakugan Maou and from suicide. Hakkai (a successful Hakkai, in fact. D:) Bit of UST with a 'family member' as well (Dokugakuji, who already has an incestuous background to start with, heh.)
There to fight. Learns to fight for the sake of himself. Goku.
... and now I'm just rambling. XD
no subject
Date: 2006-01-25 02:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 02:39 pm (UTC)He's got command presence, and he inspires loyalty above and beyond the normal cultural ideal of obeying and respecting your leader.
He's probably built up his mother in his mind so high that if he ever does obtain her release and has to deal with the real woman afterwards, it's going to be hard for both of them.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 05:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-25 02:27 am (UTC)Very good point. I think that's very true. He seems to trust both of them completely to let him know when they think he's doing something stupid or in over his head.
And I agree about his mom. That's generally that way those things worked out, so it would be interesting to see what will happen there.