Entry tags:

essay, ginshu is a homo (and so am i)

[OOC] Essay

BONTEN ON GINSHU: THE CLIFFS NOTES VERSION

WARNING: This essay contains spoilers up to and including Chapter 47, as well as numerous large images. It is also extremely scattered and may not make much sense at all.



HELPFUL NOTES:
• Until he gains his powers and becomes the Master of Heaven's Seat, Bonten is referred to as "Hiwa."
• I am writing this under the assumption that Bonten and Ginshu were/are lovers rather than just friends, but hopefully it should still make sense even without particular detail in mind.
• The first image and the one from the inugami scene were scanlated by Hana-mi. The rest are my own work.


PART ONE: Background



Quite simply, Ginshu was Hiwa's first friend. Since Hiwa was Byakuroku's adopted child and therefore next in line to be the ruler of the forest, but more or less powerless on his own, he was always in sort of an awkward position with the other ayakashi. Even though the smaller and weaker ayakashi addressed him respectfully, it was always with a mocking tone, and he later says that it's hard for him to go anywhere because they keep making fun of him. In fact, the only reason Hiwa encountered Ginshu in the first place was because he thought the other ayakashi would start respecting him if he killed the Princess! So Ginshu was really the first person Hiwa had met who was completely outside the ayakashi power struggle and also just willing to talk with him (Byakuroku met both those criteria, but Byakuroku was Hiwa's parental figure and therefore a completely different story). Even after their brief first meeting, it's obvious that Hiwa felt some sort of connection to Ginshu -- after all, the spider ayakashi felt using Hiwa as bait against Ginshu was logical.

During that incident, Ginshu had the opportunity to kill Hiwa or just let him die. He did neither, instead risking himself by sneaking Hiwa into the shrine and nursing him back to health. For all Hiwa sulked and snapped at him, I think he was genuinely surprised by Ginshu's actions. No one other than Byakuroku had ever bothered to take care of him or worry about his welfare before. So Ginshu just kept being a first in Hiwa's life, and therefore he was interesting. He was someone fun (if infuriating) to talk to, who could answer questions about humans, who knew all sorts of games to play, and made funny faces when teased. And as an added bonus, he'd proven that unlike the rest of the world, he cared about Hiwa. Basically, Hiwa starts fixating heavily on Ginshu at an early age.

With that in mind, it's really no wonder that Ginshu so quickly became a central figure in Hiwa's life as his closest (and only) friend. During the summer, when Hiwa was unable to see Ginshu due to problems with the other ayakashi, we see that he spent pretty much all his time up a tree mooning over Ginshu staring off into space in the vague direction of the shrine and sighing soulfully. He looks genuinely pained when Ginshu stops showing up to meet him.

Of note is the fact that a big part of their time together was focused on games. The way it would work is that one of them would choose a game, and the winner would get to ask the loser one question that the loser would have to answer honestly. The games and questions varied in nature (from stick games to go, from serious questions about how the human government worked to whether or not Hiwa would let Ginshu do his hair), but they were always competitive. These games basically set the stage for all of their interactions ever.

PART TWO: The Byakuroku Incident



Remember what I said about games? Yeah. In an unfortunate series of incidents that center on Shinshu getting lost in the forest, the ayakashi and the shrine go to war against each other. After having briefly reunited with each other and gone back to their usual teasing relationship, Hiwa and Ginshu are promptly forced into opposite sides of the battle. Though obviously anguished, especially because he thinks the slaughter on both sides is due to his friendship with Ginshu, he rationalizes the battle the only way he can, and, interestingly, the same way Ginshu does: it's another of their games. To Hiwa, it's not about fighting the shrine as a whole -- it's about something individual between him and Ginshu. I can't emphasize enough that Hiwa fixates on Ginshu.

Which is why it's so painful for him when the fight becomes a one-on-one battle between Ginshu and Byakuroku. The two most important people in his life fighting to the death. It would be bad enough if one of them killed the other, but the inevitable conclusion of both of them dying leads to Hiwa's heart very visibly breaking. Throughout the whole scene, he's completely immobile. It's like he can't decide which of the two to help. Even when Byakuroku talks directly to him, designating him his successor, all he can do is stand there and shake. The fact that Hiwa is this conflicted over the battle between Byakuroku and Ginshu shows just how important Ginshu has become to him -- he's on level with Byakuroku, who represents not only family but loyalty to his entire race.

PART THREE: Revival



So, it's Bonten who brings Ginshu back from the dead and places him in Byakuroku's body. Of course, this is where things get really complicated. Did Bonten only bring Ginshu back because it's what his new powers (given to him by Shinshu) wanted him to do? Did he do it so that Byakuroku would live on, if only in scattered memories in the back of Ginshu's head? Did he do it because he wasn't willing to let Ginshu die?

I think it's all of the above. Let's break it down.

1) When you get down to it, Bonten probably didn't have much of a choice about bringing Ginshu back. Shinshu wanted it, and what Shinshu wants, Shinshu gets. She manipulated the fabric of the universe to give him his powers just for that one purpose. Even Heaven was all for it, because the alternate option was letting Shinshu systematically (if unconsciously) destroy the entire world. So yeah. Obviously had to happen, even if Bonten wasn't aware of those factors at the time (which I don't think he was).

2) But beyond that, did he have to save Ginshu by putting him in Byakuroku's body? Maybe. Then again, maybe he could have put Ginshu in one of the priestesses instead (I'm sure there was one or two relatively uninjured enough that with a new soul, the body could have survived). To a certain extent, though, I think that Byakuroku and Ginshu have always been vaguely associated with each other in Bonten's mind -- they're the two people who have loved him. That could definitely contribute to choosing Byakuroku as Ginshu's body. I also think that Bonten was hoping that somehow he could save Byakuroku, too. Obviously he didn't have much time to think his plan through, but he probably wanted to find a way to preserve what little of Byakuroku remained. Thus, his body.

3) And yeah, he wanted Ginshu to live. There was no way Bonten was willing to let the two most important people in his life die in one fell swoop. The best he could do for Byakuroku was preserve his body and some of his memories. But for Ginshu, he could do more. He could preserve Ginshu's whole soul. So he did. Quite simply, he wasn't going to let Ginshu die if he had anything to say about it. Even though he knew at that point that he and Ginshu were technically on opposite sides at that point, being the leaders of the shrine and the forest respectively, he couldn't let that happen.

PART FOUR: Guilt and Companionship



And then Ginshu dropped the bombshell on him. By preserving Byakuroku and Ginshu, he managed to consign Ginshu to a daily hell of pain, death, and rebirth. Good times! Despite the fact that Bonten obviously feels tremendously guilty about this -- just look at that picture -- he never apologizes. He doesn't even come close to it. In fact, when Toki later asks him to remove the curse, Bonten snaps at him that he won't even consider it. There are two reasons for this:

1) It would cause Ginshu's death, which would result in Shinshu flipping out and the world changing again. As Bonten tells Toki at one point, he likes the world. He doesn't want it destroyed or warped, which would be the inevitable result of the curse breaking. Pretty simple!

2) It could cause Ginshu's death. Period. And Bonten will not accept that. That fixation still hasn't gone away. Right after Ginshu was brought back to life, he started to see Heaven's Net. Bonten has just started to see it as well. I think that right then, it was incredibly important to Bonten to have someone familiar around to anchor himself to, who he could also talk about all the new things going on with. Obviously, Ginshu fits that description perfectly. It's around this time that I think Bonten really starts to realize how important Ginshu is not just as a friend (since that stage of their relationship is less... well, able to exist at this point) but as his parallel. Ginshu is the only one who understands what Bonten has been/is going through.

And so, even though Bonten doesn't like the fact that Ginshu's continued existence causes him suffering, he's selfishly glad that Ginshu is still around. If he wasn't, Bonten would have no one who understood him and no one to talk to. It doesn't matter that the humans and the ayakashi are at war. In fact, it's Bonten who gives Ginshu the ability to interpret Heaven's Net, which is an advantage that generally you wouldn't want your enemy to have. But it feeds into Bonten's need to have someone else who understands, and that person is always, always Ginshu. If it wasn't Ginshu he cared about, but instead the bit of Byakuroku in Ginshu, he wouldn't get so angry whenever Ginshu started acting like Byakuroku.

PART FIVE: The Biggest Game



Even though Bonten can read Heaven's Net, he doesn't particularly care about changing it at first. He knows that the world will eventually be foresaken by Heaven, but, well. It's inevitable, so why fight it? It's Ginshu who comes up with the idea of fighting against that fate. As Ginshu starts talking about fighting against Heaven, Bonten simply stares at him and looks nervous. But when Ginshu proposes that they turn changing fate into a game...

Bonten says yes.

Why? Because (at this point at least) he can't say no to Ginshu. He never does. He argues with him. He calls him names. He competes against him. But he never outright says no to anything that Ginshu proposes. Basically, he's so afraid of losing Ginshu, the last thing he has left, that he says yes to something that he knows could possibly result in the end of the world. Ginshu is self-destructing in front of him, his pain unhinging him, and I think Bonten sees the game as a way to save both the world and Ginshu. He's never liked the plan Heaven has for the world, but there wasn't really any reason to fight against it before. But competing against Ginshu gives him that reason.

Ginshu winning would mean that the world would pretty much go boom. It would also cement Ginshu's suicidal tendencies and craziness. So despite the fact that it's a "game," it's a deadly serious one. Bonten does not intend to lose. To a certain extent, the things he says about Ginshu are part of the game in that they're his way of sparring with Ginshu and showing that he wants to win. But they're not just empty words, either. He is not happy that Ginshu's plan involves killing more ayakashi, for example. But that doesn't mean he's okay with bitching about Ginshu, either. He still cares about him. And that's why he's bothering to court Toki's power and attempt to circumvent Ginshu's plans. Because he cares.

PART SIX: In Conclusion



Ginshu has pretty much been the driving force behind every major event in Bonten's life. The fight with the humans, receiving his power, deciding to seek the Unwritten page. It's all because of Ginshu. It's no wonder that he's still fixated on him, really. I mean, what more can I say?

WOW THAT WAS LONG. QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? LAUGHTER AT BONTEN'S INCREDIBLE FAIL?