sooksouli:

Oh. My shit.

fyeahcontroversialcharacters:

Here’s my defense of Kikyo from “Inuyasha.” She’s the reason why I started this blog since I figured that other fans of hated characters might feel tired of defending their favorite characters like I did. Needless to say, I don’t venture much into the Inuyasha fandom anymore.

• “She should’ve stayed dead.”  *sarcasm* Yes, because Kikyo chose to be resurrected by some crazy witch so she could be used as a human metal detector to find some jewel shards. *sarcasm* And once she was resurrected, it wasn’t like she was gonna kill herself. If you were given a second chance at life like she did, especially if you felt that you didn’t accomplish everything you needed to, would you just throw it away. Also, she’s not the only person to be brought back to life. The Band of Seven and Rin were brought back to life (Rin was brought back twice) and no one holds that against them.

• “She gets in the way of Inuyasha/Kagome.” This fellow tumblr user sums it up perfectly: http://inuyasha.tumblr.com/post/24236907196/dont-you-think-kikyos-such-a-cockblock-throughout-the

  Inuyasha was the one who kept going to see Kikyo and insisted multiple times that Kikyo travel with his group. On the other hand, Kikyo maintained her space and rarely invaded Inuyasha’s space. If anything, Inuyasha is the one to blame for all the Inuyasha/Kikyo/Kagome love triangle drama. He was the one who kept stringing them along. It wasn’t until Kikyo finally died that he made his final choice. Even though I’m not a huge Kagome fan, I think that she and Kikyo deserved someone better than a man who couldn’t make up his mind.

• “She tried to kill Kagome.”If I remember correctly, Kikyo scraped the side of Kagome’s face with an arrow. I’m sure that if Kikyo, an incredibly powerful priestess, truly wanted to kill her, she would’ve done it. Also, Sesshomaru (a fan favorite) also tried to kill Kagome. I don’t hear you guys talking about that all that much.

• “She wanted to change Inuyasha into a human. Therefore, she didn’t love him for who he was.”And Inuyasha was willing to make that change. It takes two to tango! Besides, if I remember correctly, she didn’t force him to change. It was simply an offer of “Hey, you’re sad because you’re a half-demon. I’m sad because I have to spend my life watching over this jewel. I know a way that we can both be happy AND still be together!” It wasn’t “If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get rid of those ears.”

• “She doesn’t belong there.”Neither does Kagome. But you guys don’t have a problem with that. 

• “She tried to drag Inuyasha to hell.”It’s kinda like the previously mentioned situation where Kikyo offered to use the jewel on Inuyasha. She wanted them to be happy together. And guess what? Yet again, Inuyasha accepts Kikyo’s offer of going to hell with her. It takes two to tango!

• “She’s ungrateful/mean towards Kagome.” Yes, that’s a character flaw on her part. But it’s understandable. Kikyo wanted to be a normal girl with friends and a boyfriend. I’m sure you wouldn’t be too pleased if the person who was basically replacing you had everything you wanted - friends and a boyfriend (your ex-boyfriend to be exact) all while keeping your powers.

• “She holds a grudge against Inuyasha.”A grudge which lasted for about 4 volumes (compared to the length of the manga, that’s nothing!). It’s reasonable, though. She finally met someone who understood what it felt like to be an outsider (her due to her priestess/jewel guardian duties, Inuyasha due to him being a half-demon). Not only did that person understand her, he loved her too. Something that she never had. It’d be weird if she wasn’t pissed off after all that was taken from her. Besides, once she found out the true story about how Naraku tricked them, she moved on.  

• “She’s a bitch.”If you went through even half the stuff she went through, you wouldn’t be the nicest person either.

Yes, Kikyo is a flawed character. Every “Inuyasha” character is flawed. But she’s a complex individual who pulls her weight. Also, a lot of these reasons involve Inuyasha willingly agreeing to or even initiating the events that cause fans to hate her (using the jewel to turn him into a human, having private meetings). It takes two to tango!

I also wonder if the fans would hate Kikyo nearly as much if she didn’t have a romantic history with Inuyasha and was more like Kagura, an anti-hero who’s done worse things than Kikyo and is still a fan-favorite (mostly due to the Kagura/Sesshomaru ship). Spoiler alert: the answer is probably no.