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On the original topic, I think Yusuke never really cared if someone was a demon or a human. To me he had a perspective of 'if you're doing something wrong I'll kick your @$$.'

So, demons eating humans because the demons have to eat what they are genetically designed to eat is okay because they have a right to try to survive too. Like a human prone to anemia having to eat a hamburger and a vegetarian saying it's wrong for that person to eat meat. The former detective didn't really get that because she's a metaphorical hamburger.

The guilt Yusuke felt over potentially killing Doctor in my mind is because even though everything Doctor had done is bad, Yusuke knows that Sensui is just using innocent humans (like Seaman, Game Master, and Sniper) to buy time so that he can destroy humanity.

Furthermore, Roto was bad but Bakken was worse. Roto may have taken a hostage but Bakken was going to kill an unconscious, severely injured person. At the very least Kurama had a fighting chance against Roto.

Kurama being a target for pain/injury is a result of him being the only emotionally stable character in the entire series that the viewer can relate to. Most of the series is about not judging by appearances (or by what someone is.) Kurama is a demon, yet he loves his mother enough to go through the Dark Tournament to ensure her safety. Yusuke is part demon but he doesn't get emotional very often. Hiei isn't an option either because he doesn't talk that much. Kuwabara is human, so that's a no go. So, Kurama is the only option. The audience gains sympathy for a demon who's also a generally good guy (being a reformed criminal also helps because everyone makes mistakes.) biggrin

stare I was basing my statements on cannon evidence, not fannon. Kurama isn't crazy, doesn't go crazy, doesn't become clinically depressed, or have any mental disorders. He's emotionally stable.

Having a conscience doesn't make someone a "ravaging storm of self-loathing." Getting very angry at people who threaten his family is reasonable. Kurama feeling guilt because his past puts his family in danger sometimes doesn't make him unstable. It doesn't mean he hates himself.

Anyone who goes through a change (people do change occasionally) especially a reformation as extreme as Kurama's, going from being an ancient demon thief with little to no conscience to a human youth who loves his mother, will worry that they will return to who they were before. Kurama never lost his identity.

He decided he didn't like who he was so he changed. That doesn't require Kurama to loathe himself because he isn't that person who did all of those horrible things anymore.

Thank you borderline_mary. I was waiting for you and your well-thought theories to explain this.

I do have to say that any form of art is interpreted by the eye of the beholder, but gee whiz. : ) It makes sense, though. How can you live a happy, full life if your trapped in this idea of either you don't belong anywhere or are a disgrace to who you were and everything you used to be.

I know this was directed toward borderline_mary, but I thought I'd address it. So you don't believe that someone can fake a smile? Kurama says it himself in the Three Kings Saga during his fight with Shigure, when Shigure was curious of his story and even offered an operation to help him and Kurama replied something along the lines of, "I don't need a butcher to feel better, I just need a higher degree of discipline." Also, if what you're saying, that someone can't have emotional control without stability, what about during all his fights or when he is provoked? The simple flash of his eyes shows that he is angry or anxious inside, but suppresses these feelings and refuses the show them so that he can not only intimidate his enemy by giving an illusion of calm and surety, but also so he can eventually feel so in the battle field.



Perhaps we need to state our definitions of emotionally stable. Question: Are you using Kurama's statement in the Dark Tourney of "Suicide is not the answer" as evidence towards your statement?



Kurama said himself that it was not a possession and that he could detatch from the human body at will. I personally am unclear of how exactly the Youko Kurama to Shuuichi Minamino thing worked, though I tend to switch back and forth between my own theory of a merge, in which a Shuuichi's soul was in the human fetus and when Youko Kurama's soul entered the fetus, the two merged, thus creating a new soul with both demon and human characteristics to it, or borderline_mary's theory that, and correct me if I'm wrong please, Youko Kurama entered the body of the fetus (which had no soul,) and Youko Kurama himself was forced to be reborn and brought up in the human world once more as a helpless infant. Either way, this would bring about constant problems of loss of identity or feelings of inadequacy because of his attachment to his mother especially. You will see that Kurama has softened over time and has become more of a cruel human than continued his old practices. I mean, could you honestly see Kurama STILL blinding a Yomi if the situation was brought to his feet once more (and he had no former experience with this type of thing.) Maybe it's just me, but I'd see him just ending the partnership, leaving, and moving on with his life.



The change in mindset was in NO FORM INTENTIONAL. Really? I'm sorry, but I start to wonder if you've had ANY sort of human interaction. Sometimes you just can't help feelings and going off of EITHER mine or borderline_mary's theories, these feelings are accounted for. (Mine: Shuuichi's soul already recognizing Shiori as it's mother and being naturally very gentle. Borderline's (like I said, hun, correct me if I'm wrong): the infant's dependence on Shiori and her love and caring unprecedented in the demon world forced him to have feelings for her. Was he happy about it? No of course not. But he accepted them.) I'm sure that Shiori's injury was a major event that forced him to stay and not return to Demon World, and somewhat traumatized him. However, he did not CHOOSE to have these weak and human feelings, they just happened.

I do think there's a conflict of basic definition going on here, specifically having to do with the respective definitions in play of "emotional stability" and "emotional control".

I use "emotional stability" to mean "an internal emotional balance", which excludes things like severe depression and psychosis -- that doesn't mean it's "cookie-cutter" or all hugs-and-puppies. It just means it's not skewed towards one end or the other of the curve. I use "emotional control" to mean "the ability to appear stable, to keep one's actual feelings from being readily apparent through one's actions, and to function normally in most circumstances", and my own experience tells me that it can and does exist without actual emotional stability. I've always had a high degree of emotional control; I have not always had any degree of emotional stability. Ergo, you can't help the way you feel, but if you're sufficiently in control of yourself, you can help the way you act, and you can help what you show to other people.

None of the above proves or attempts to prove that Kurama is emotional unstable. What it does, is dispute that he must be emotional stable simply because he shows no outward signs of emotional instability.

As for the issue of choice: Yes, Youko Kurama chose to merge with the fetus, but that's not what I'm talking about. First, he chose to merge with the fetus because it was imperative for his own survival -- essentially, there was a gun to his head, and he was forced to choose something. Even if he could have removed himself from it whenever he wanted, he wouldn't have survived the experience. There's a reason that people who are under threat of death are not always legally or morally responsible for what they're forced to do. Second, he might have chosen to affect the merger, if you use the word "choice" loosely given the point I just detailed, but the actual effects on him were neither under his control nor necessarily desired -- he didn't have a real choice in accepting them any more than he did in performing the merger in the first place. Third, Kurama's not likely to have known what the eventual effects would be. It's not like he had a manual on hand that informed him, "Merging with a human fetus most commonly has the following eventual side effects: love, conscience, pretty hair, a really trusting mom, and a permanent cadre of fangirls."

As for the development of his conscience, just because it had a catalyst that he could pinpoint also doesn't mean it was deliberate. He may have deliberately chosen to give in to it, but that still doesn't mean he deliberately set it in motion himself, which is what you seem to be implying.

(havi, that explanation of my Youko Kurama to Shuuichi Minamino theory isn't quite correct; I essentially tend to go with your theory that the souls merged and became one, although I tend to dispute that a human soul has any distinct moral characteristics that a demon soul does not, but my "had to be brought up as a helpless infant" thing still applies. As a soul with at least partially adult consciousness but limited physical ability [and probably a good deal of disorientation layered on], having no choice but to stay in the body of an infant until it grew up, he was basically forced to submit to a prolonged state of helplessness and submission in order to survive. His only other choice, if he could have done it, would have been to remove himself from the merger -- which would have killed him.)