InuYasha 558: Sesshomaru x Rin x Kaede

Okay, so if you've followed the books these past 12 years, you know that the final volume came out this week, and if you know me, you know I had all ready read it less than 3 hours after it hit the newstands. If you've read it you know that everyone lived happily ever after, except as usual Sesshomaru, who for the 7th time in this series has had yet another woman he loves, taken away from from him. Sara died, Kagura died, Rin died twice and he just keeps bringing her back, yo get the picture. Sesshy's life has been made complete hell in every volume, and this final volume was no exception. InuYasha married Kagome. Miroku marries Sango. Rin is taken away from Sesshomaru and sent to live with Kaede.

As the days go by and more and more people read the final chapter of InuYasha, and I go through blogs and forums reading people's responses to it (me only being interested in people's responses to the Sesshy x Rin part of course!), I am finding one thing a bit odd. Most people seem to be reading it as Sesshomaru left Rin behind, forcing her to live with Kaede.

I actually read the ending totally differently... weird... but I guess I'm weird so, yea, it figures, but anyways, the way InuYasha said that Kaede said Rin was to learn to live in a human village (note that he said, that Kaede said it, not Sesshomaru) I took that to mean that Keade took Rin away from Sesshomaru, not Sesshomaru left Rin with Keade... that is what it says after all, that "Kaede said it".... not "Sesshomaru said it".

It seems to me that if he had left her, he wouldn't be coming back with the gifts either; it's more logical that Kaede took her, thus now Sesshomaru is sticking around the village and bringing Rin gifts, biding his time, until she's old enough, to take her away from Kaede without Keade or anyone else being there to say she's too young.

Well, that's the way I saw the ending as being.

Did anyone else see it this way, or am I the only one who does not think Sesshomaru left Rin behind?

And another thing... why is this bugging me in the first place? They are fictional characters, it's not like these things really happened anyways, and yet, I'm all riled up over this! I just can't get this out of my head. Weird.

I need to examine this farther. I don't think Sesshomaru would do anything he didn't want to, it's not his nature, that's true, but than all the fuss that went into protecting Rin, over a period of what, 460 chapters?, something like that, would be pointless if he suddenly said to himself, "It's time to leave her somewhere."

It'd have been nice if Rumiko would have shown us what triggered the sudden, send Rin off bit, because it is so out of character for Sesshomaru to do that willingly. And it's out of character for him to not fit to keep Rin.

It seems easier to believe that it was Keade who took Rin away, rather than Sesshomaru who suddenly dumped Rin off on Kaede, and yet, his past actions tell us that if Keade did take Rin from him, he would have reacted but lashing her to pieces with his claws, and than walking over her bloody remains to carry Rin away from the village.

Logic tells us that if Sesshomaru suddenly decided to leave Rin with Kaede, that some event had to have happened to trigger such a dynamic change of character for him. The question is, what could have happened to cause him to do a full 360 degree turn like this?

On the other hand, we do know that Kaede has a soft spot for children, and has been seen on countless occasions to be caring for children from the village. We also know that until the death of Naraku, Kaede had no knowledge of the fact that Rin was living with Sesshomaru. Upon Naraku's death, Sesshomaru and Rin ended up in the village because Sesshomaru was chasing Naraku and Rin was following after Sesshomaru on Ah-Un.

We now that Sesshomaru hates humans, but we know also that of all humans he reviles priestesses the most, esp. Kikyo and her kin. We have heard these words come straight from his lips on more than one occasion. He refers to both Kikyo and Kaede as "that woman", with a deep tone of disgust and hatred that far outweighs the hatred in his voice when talking about half-breeds or regular humans. His hatred of human priestess is unfathomable. And yet, not only does he leave Rin in the care of a human, but also a priestess, and to make it one step worse Kikyo's sister! We have a major mega triple whammy on our hands here, one that glares off the page at us like a hand with 20 sore thumbs on it.

If he had left Rin with anyone else, there would not be so many questions, but the fact that he left her with the human, priestess who was the sister of Kikyo, just goes against everything Rumiko has ever told us about Sesshomaru!

It is completely impossible to believe, knowing what we know about Sesshomaru, that he would ever by himself, come up with the idea of leaving Rin in the care of Kaede.


It would be so much simpler if Rumiko had just added one more page, to tell us why the dessision was made to leave Rin with Kaede. I mean, we all know Sesshomaru would die to protect his beloved Rin. Likewise we all know Rinfights like hell against the idea of either leaving Sesshomaru or worse, living with humans (her worst dreaded fear of all!)

So taking all these facts into consideration, we come to the conclusion that something must have happened in the three year period, something drastic, to change either Sesshomaaru's or Rin's mind.

So whose mind was changed and why? Let's look at what we know and than draw some conclusions:

We see Rin (wearing Kagura's kimono no less!) happily helping Kaede. Giving that Rin now seems to enjoy living among humans, we can assume that she has somehow lost her fear of humans. We can also assume that she is no longer 100% dependent on Sesshomaru's protection, and no loner feels the need to run to him for help. In fact her reaction to his presence suggests a tone of indifference. She does not seem to care that he came to visit her, it seems to be just another thing that happens. She is neither pleased to see him, nor displeased. This is out of character for Rin, who normally is overflowing with bubbling joy at even the slightest glance from Sesshomaru. Rin's outlook towards Sesshomaru has changed, and rather dramaticly.

And why is Rin wearing Kagura's kimono? How did she get it? If it's not Kagura's kimono, than why is she wearing a duplicate of Kagura's kimono? Kagura being the woman Sesshomaru loved and probably would have taken as his mate had she not died, we must question the change in Rin's wardrobe and the motive behind it. We know that Sesshomaru gave Rin her golden Noh robes, and we know that he gave you yet another kimono in 558, so we can safely assume that he also gave her this duplicate one that is like the one Kagura wore as well.

Okay, so that's Rin now, lets look at what Sesshomaru is doing now.

We know how obsessed with Rin, Sesshomaru is, so to see them sepperated, is odd to say the least. Giving that Sesshomaru is still lurking around the village, in spite of his outspoken hatred for humans and his avoidance of setting a foot within a human village, we can assume that he not only still cares about Rin, and still desires to watch over her and protect her, in spite of the fact that she no longer lives with him, but that he is now forcing himself to put aside his hatred for humans, just to be near her. How odd and un-Youkai like of him! To make this whole series of events just a little bit wierder, we now see Sesshomaru flying in to not only visit Rin, but also to bring her gifts as well! Now that is the most, un-Sesshomaru thing to do of all!

Sesshomaru knew that Rin knew he cared for her, and while he knew this, he was not giving her gifts. It seems to indicate now, that Rin is questioning the fact that Sesshomaru cares for her, and he is now overdoing it, by bringing her gifts to prove to her that he does still care for her. If one was to look at the old Rin and Sesshomaru and compare them to the new ones, it would seem that their roles have reversed. Rin is now the cold emotionless one, no longer bringing gift after gift to her lord, while Sesshomaru is now the one bringing gifts to the girl ho no longer seems to care.

Why, is Sesshomaru, bringing her gifts? That part is so odd. Is her afraid that she will forget about him and brings her gifts to keep him on her mind? Is he afraid she will never return to him, and live the rest of her life with the humans, and so is bringing gifts to try to sway her to come back to him? Is she angry with him, and he brings gifts as a way to ask forgiveness? Any one of these things is out of character for Sesshomaru. He's showing emotion. It's like the episode of Star Trek, when Mr. Spock started laughing. It stunned everyone because Spock is devoid of emotion. Sesshomaru shows no emotion. Emotions are a thing humans do that make them weak and pathetic... he has said this in the past. Yet now here he is showing emotion, by giving gifts. What emotion is he showing? Love? Fear? Guilt? Does it matter? Either way it's still an emotion, something that Sesshomaru does not admit to having.

So while most fans are saying that Sesshomaru had a change of heart and left Rin, it seems to me, that the one who changed was not Sesshomaru, but Rin. It looks more like Rin left of her own accord, and while Sesshomaru did not want her to leave, he also does not want to hold her prisoner and so let her leave, but is now regretting that he did so.

Why would Rin leave him? What could Kaede have said that could have gotten Rin to leave? Did Rin leave because Kaede told her to? Or did Rin leave and seek refuge with Kaede? Is it possible that Sesshomaru some hoe scared or hurt Rin, to the extent that she no longer felt safe in his care?

What could have happened, I suppose would be affected by how you view their relationship: Master/servant-pet; father/daughter; or lolicon, being the three most commonly accepted theories.

The whole gift-giving thing, completely throws out the father-daughter theory, because, lets face it, how many dad's go out of their way to buy gifts for their kids for no reason at all? Fathers have a hard time remembering to buy gifts for Christmas and birthdays, and rely on the mother to buy the gifts for them... it's not logical that Sesshomaru would be buying gifts for Rin if he thought of her as his daughter, though it is logical to believe that Rin did look up to Sesshomaru as though he was a father. I think the father-daughter theory, would only hold true in Rin's mind and not Sesshomaru's.

The master-servant or master-pet theories are so similar that I'll call them one and the same. It is this theory that I personally felt held true for this couple, throughout the series. Rin clearly looked up to Sesshomaru as her master, and obied his every command without question. His fierce protection of her, is no different than the protection one gives to a beloved house-pet. He protects her, keeps her safe, kept her feed and healthy, and pretty much did nothing else. When a dog runs away or gets lost, you look for it, and when you find it you are so filled with joy that you shower it with gifts and treats. This seems to hold true for Sesshomaru's actions. He has lost his beloved pet to a new owner and is trying to convince her to return to him, through the bearing of gifts.

Than there is the lolicon relationship, which I have already read posts from fans who are pointing the dreaded lolicon finger at Sesshomaru. Actually, as much as I hate to admit it, this does seem to be the most logical and highly likely reason for this unexpected turn of events. Weird, I find myself agree on this point, because until now, I had never actually believed that the lolicon theory was even possible. It just seemed to unlikely and out of character for Sesshomaru. The Sesshomaru gone lolicon was a theory that I pointed at and laughed. However, after reading 558, I can see this being a distinctive possibility, and one that could have gone one of three ways:

One, Sesshomaru, did as most fans suggest, and sent Rin away against her will to live with Kaede. For this to be true in the lolicon theory, we would have to assume that Sesshomaru no longer trusted himself and sent Rin away to protect her from himself.

Second would be that, Rin left of her own accord after a lolicon confrontation between herself and Sesshomasru left her scared to live with him anymore.

Third would be that Kaede, accused Sesshomaru of being a lolicon and took Rin away from him. This one could go one of two ways:


One Sesshomaru is in fact lolicon and Kaede somehow found out and took Rin away.

Two, Sesshomaru is not lolicon, but Kaede just assumed that he was, and took Rin away.

Reading 558, I actually got the impression that the later was true. Kaede, saw Rin and Sesshomaru together for the first time, after Naraku's death, and was not aware Rin lived with Sesshomaru, before that point (chapter 552). InuYasha said that it was Kaede who said Rin should prepare to return to a human village. (558). So we know that Shortly after Kaede discovered that 7 year old Rin was living with 700+ year old Sesshomaru, she told them that Rin should live in a human village. The question is, how did Kaede convince Rin to come with her, and why did Sesshomaru let Rin go?

We do know that more than once Sesshomaru has told Rin, she could leave if she so desired, so we can assume that it was Rin who decided to leave Sesshomaru, otherwise, I can see no way he would have let her go. He would not have sent her away. He would not have allowed anyone to take her away. The only way he would let Rin go, is if, Rin, left of her own accord. But why would Rin leave?

Have I gotten anywhere with all of this? No. But at least I got it off my chest and now I'll let someone else unravel this mess and figure it out. I'd love to hear how other fans are taking this. Me? It's safe to say that I am very upset over this and not taking it very well at all, otherwise I would not have spent the last 3 and 1/2 hours sitting here typing up this rant about it.


What's your take on this? I'd love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!







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If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:

All about Lord Sesshomaru's garb & Making a Lord Sesshomaru Costume. Plus, Sesshomaru & Rin and making Rin's Costume; and this is for anyone who needs help Creating Character Profiles for their stories or for their SCA persona.