First of all, no, I am not crazy. I am not an emo, and I do not go after bad boys. Along with Suboshi, my other favorite character in all of the fandoms I have been involved with, is Gohan from Dragonball Z. If you know who this character is, you'll know that he is the walking dictionary definition of a good boy. So that just proves that I don't have a psycho fetish. (Although, I realize that I have a habit of rooting for the underdogs -- or in this case, the losers). I just feel that the overrated and the popular don't need me to support their growing fandom; so instead, I'll just focus my energy on those who need to get more attention. Hehe, I know it's weird, but that's just how I am with fandoms. Even with books, or bands, or singers. Hence, no Twilight (or Jonas Brothers) for me; not now, not ever. Again, this doesn't mean that I am a basher, or a hater. It just means that I don't go with the flow, and I don't tend to move with the trend.
I am not making this post speaking on behalf of Suboshi fans. No, I'm just going to express my own opinion as one unique fan of the Seiryuu Celestial warrior. Again, just to make clear of it, this is my opinion. Not anyone else's, and I will try my best not to offend anyone. If I do, I don't mean it; I'm probably just caught up in the moment.
Anyway, Suboshi of the Seiryuu Seven, is telepathic, not telepathetic. He is also psychokinetic, and not psychotic. The only reason he is accused of being mentally unstable is because he committed things, and acted in a way that is unacceptable to society today. However, bear in mind that the Universe of The Four Gods is not set in today's environment. Just have that in mind, because for the citizens of Kutoh, I think that is a very important factor that affected their behaviour.
Before I go on to explain how I had come to like Suboshi, I will first elaborate on his flaws, and what I actually don't like about him. I'll do this first, because I know that people will turn away or stop reading this (if anyone is even reading) once I start 'redeeming' him, or 'defending' him. This is not a defence for Suboshi; there are already essays out there for that purpose (although I'm sure that most of them are now unaccessible). This is simply the reason why I like him, why he is my favorite.
I like Suboshi not because he killed Tamahome's family. I'll be blunt about that, because being a Suboshi fan, most people think that I turn a blind eye to that. Either that reason, or they think that I think it's okay that four innocent children and a sick old man was murdered. No! Absolutely not! That is the very reason, and probably the most prominent reason why people hate Suboshi. Of course, who can like a murderer? A murderer who kills for nothing. As a fan, I don't like that fact that it happened. I simply don't. I wish he hadn't done something so stupid, so bestial, and so heartless.
After reading many responses from Fushigi Yuugi fans about why they don't like Suboshi, here are the few other frequent reasons I have observed: he is rough; he is stupid and he jumps to conclusions; he is unforgiving and holds a grudge; and he is simply 'annoying'. I understand that he is 'rough', and that he has a bad mouth. Though I simply don't count that as a valid reason why people should resent him so. Tasuki is rough, and he has loads of fans. So that simply doesn't hold as the driving force behind all the animosity. What I also don't count as a reason is that he is annoying. 'Annoying' is a subjective characteristic. I can find Mitsukake annoying because he doesn't talk. I can find the Nyan-Nyans annoying because they're talkative. I can find Taitskun annoying becuase she's ugly. I can find many things annoying, that other people find endearing, or adorable. It depends all on the person. To me, no, I don't see Suboshi as annoying. That's just not how I view him.
So one of the the other reasons is that he is stupid. What is stupid? Dictionary.com defines it as lacking ordinary quickness and keenness of mind; dull. I have to re-watch the series again just to see where Suboshi had shown an obvious sign of stupidity, that other characters had not. If people blame Suboshi of being 'stupid' because he fell for Nakago's principles, and that he had allowed the blond to manipulate him into killing an innocent family, then the rest of the Seiryuu Celestial Warriors must be blamed as well. Yui, in fact, should come as the stupidest of all. The warriors are simply afraid of Nakago because he is powerful; however, Yui holds more power than Nakago being the priestess. At any time, she could have chosen to end the manipulation, had she been smart enough to admit she was being toyed. But no, I don't think she saw it until the very end. Next comes Soi and Tomo, because they hang onto fruitless hope of love (hehe, maybe I'll just consider this as lack of keenness of the heart). Amiboshi would not be any smarter than Suboshi in that case. The citizens of Kutoh are all therefore stupid because they follow blindly behind a ruthless leader. It is difficult for someone as inferior as Suboshi to make up his own mind when there are people whom he knows are better than him, telling him things that he doesn't have first hand information about. How was he supposed to contradict Nakago that Konan was not planning a war against Kutoh? They don't have internet. They rely on spies and idle words. How does he know that it is not true, when it was Konan that killed Basara, including his ever strong leader, Tessoh? Sure, it had been Nakago's plan all along to have both opposing teams destroy each other, but how does he know that? No, he doesn't. To me, I don't think Suboshi had a choice whether he wanted to be ignorant or not. He was made and kept that way. He didn't have an opportunity to become otherwise. The times when he tried to comprehend matters on his own, non-fans accuse him of 'jumping to conlusions'. *sigh -__-*
Okay, so this is the time when the environment of Kutoh becomes important. When people say that Suboshi is unforgiving, and that he holds grudges, I just want them to realize what kind of life he has had. When he grew up being bullied, laboured to exhaustion, threatened and abandoned, how do you expect him to show mercy when he had never witnessed it himself? Growing up in a place where war, brutality, and violence is all he sees, how is he supposed to know that it is wrong to do that? Then the 'stupid' part comes in, right? People say that it should be just common sense that taking someone's life is wrong, and that Suboshi has warped morals. Well, I disagree. To me, I don't even think that he keeps grudges as strongly as Yui does. In Ryuusei-Den, Suboshi has been betrayed and deceived by many people, one including his brother. One thing I noticed about Suboshi is that once someone has shown him kindness, he will forever be loyal to said person. It did not only happen with his priestess. Tessoh and Chama Lee has lied to him too, and what does Suboshi do? Sure, leave Basara because he was upset at first; then, he went back just to help them in the battle.
There are people who say that Suboshi does not show remorse, and I feel very annoyed when people say this. Firstly, do we get to see him 24/7? No! He is not like Miaka; he does not have the spotlight on him all the time. Who are we to decide what we think he feels, or does not feel? I can't say if he has shown any regret or guilt behind his murder, but who am I to say that he did not? Fans say that his eventual suicide was a sign that he was guilty. This could be true, but on the other hand, it was Tamahome's family who had helped in the suicide (hehe, that sounds so odd.) Anti-fans consider this as revenge, and that Suboshi was only getting what he deserves; a taste of his own medicine.
Anyway, I realize that I haven't answered my own question yet. Why do I really like Suboshi? (I can't believe I ranted on so long about something that was not even my point ^^ ;) I like him because he is earnest, devoted, loyal, honest, and dedicated. Yeah, yeah, they're all just synonyms, but I like to pro-long his good sides, hehe. It's pretty much the same way how some other fans would say that Tamahome is good-looking, handsome, cute, stunning, well-built, hot, and sexy. Hehe. I think out of all the characters in the fandom, Suboshi has made one of the saddeset sacrifice. I know that most people see his giving up of Amiboshi as selfish, but I disagree wholeheartedly. I think it's actually very selfless. These twins don't have a normal relationship; anyone can tell that Amiboshi is basically Suboshi's life! For someone who can barely live without the other, Suboshi makes a sacrifice so that his twin will finally live in peace, and never be bothered again by either the Seiryuu or the Suzaku warriors. He did it to save his brother's life! I don't think he did it solely for the reason that he is in love with Yui. Sure, that was part of it; he wanted so badly to protect her and guard her with his life. But don't you think he could do that too without feeding his brother the forgetfulness leaves? Of course he could; however, he also erased his memories so that Amiboshi could live a normal life.
Another reason why I like Suboshi so much is because of his tragic end. I think that he was one of the very few who died in vain, for no reason, and with no one to lament his death. I know, it's angsty; hehe, it's cgood for my health. Yui could barely care about him, and with his brother as an amnesiac, there was nobody there for him. And his death was quite... odd too. I mean, he died because he was having a pointless fight with Tamahome. He said that he wanted to kill them because they had hurt Yui, but she had not ordered for them to be murdered. I don't know... I just think that his dying scene was not very effective, and it left a void where... well, where he should have been.
I'm not writing this to turn anti-fans into fans; no, not at all. For the most part, I just want to elaborate on my reasons for liking him as a character. I just want my own say; I dislike it when bashers just hate on him and don't give a reason. Well, I'm giving my reasons now.
So, I lost half of this rant when I accidentally clicked on the backspace button. *Sigh*... I will just be editing it later to add more on it. I also plan to add pictures of my favorite character. ^__^ For now, at least try to get this part. Hehe... maybe I am crazy; crazy enough to write something as long as this.
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