(no subject)

[didnteventry]

HI SO I HAVE... A LOT OF COMMENTS WITH A LOT OF PEOPLE. SO.

QUESTIONS MEME!!

This is for everyone in Thusia (Byakuya, Tokiomi, Saberlancer, Eshara, & Kida), but if you have questions for Lancer in Zodion or Kiritsugu in Asgard they count too. HAVE AT.

Comments

[noeyeinteam]

Tell me things about Byakuya and Kiritsugu.

[didnteventry]

THINGS

God idk these guys. Byakuya came in thinking of Kiritsugu as this terrifying and mysterious contradiction. Kirei called him "someone who couldn't save anything", which implies he wanted to save things. But he's also the kind of person to torture someone who has little to do with the situation, so he didn't want to think he was really a heroic type, even if when he saw him he was clearly a man full of pain! He was also clearly the kind of guy who would save and take in a child. Sooo meeting him was scary, as he tried to figure out which Kiritsugu mental image was correct.

At first he concluded that the heroism and general niceness must be fake, but after the KotoShirou stuff really got going, he realized otherwise. Now he's still afraid of what Kerry can and will do if he has to, and he's still jumpy, but he believes that "Emiya Kiritsugu is a good person". He'd defend that if told otherwise. He knows "good" isn't easy and things aren't black and white, and he understands self-loathing, but he admires Kiritsugu's strength and conviction even so. Anddd he feels kind of safe around him. Like he knows that he could get lashed out at if he provokes it, but he's also pretty sure that Kiritsugu won't let anything really bad happen in front of him if he can't help it.

In short he actually finds Kiritsugu to be an admirable if intimidating person, and he likes him. He thinks he deserves happiness (way more than Byakuya himself does), anddd if he wasn't 100% tsun he'd want to be able to call him a friend. But he's never had a positive connection outside of his wife, so he's still way too guarded to relax and just be friendly, or to assume that anyone would want to be his friend in the first place.

REVERSE?

[no_hero]

... and thus Matou Byakuya somehow joins the Emiya Kiritsugu support club...

Kiritsugu admittedly didn't think much of Byakuya to start with. The whole incident with shooting Byakuya in the war happened only as a means to an end--it just turned out that that end was a dead one and so shooting Byakuya was for nothing. It's not something Kiritsugu's thought too hard about in his life except maybe when remembering past mistakes and misdeeds. He never really thought about what happened to the guy he shot up. He already had so many much worse and horrific things to occupy his mind...

And then he met the guy in Thusia and honestly wanted to at least make ammends for the misdeed--but Byakuya gave him the cold shoulder, told everyone Kiritsugu was a douchebag, and basically treated him like a mass murdering nutjob. Kiritsugu mostly just accepted this kind of behavior because... well. that's. kind of how people from the wars have been treating him. He has no illusions in Thusia, it's pretty much his judgement for what happened during his life on Earth to him. Once, when Kiritsugu and Saber were fighting, Kiritsugu stated that he's allowed any mistreatment, defaming, and slighting from those he had wronged in life. And that's pretty much what he's kept to. So he allowed Byakuya his, what Kiritsugu perceived as, anger and righteousness and just went about his business.

Except then the Shirou issue came up and Byakuya said THE WRONG THING and Kiritsugu lost his patience and temper. Basically, there's a line with the above conditions and that line comes to Kiritsugu's family. Shirou is a part of that family--even if he ends up a Kotomine. Byakuya crossed that line with the whole "It would have been better if you had left him in the fire" line. Thankfully, Iri came when she did and helped defuse the situation but that was pretty much what let Kiritsugu know a lot of things about that timeline--it also opened up the avenue for further interactions.

This is the point where Byakuya made the transition from Someone Kiritsugu Once Wronged to Someone Kiritsugu Can Work With. It's an important distinction, because despite what Byakuya might think about himself, knocking on Kiritsugu's door and talking to him directly about Shirou and their situation, the circumstances of their deaths and their motives and ideas on how to approach it... for someone who was REALLY VERY OBVIOUSLY CLEARLY TERRIFIED OF KIRITSUGU to do something like that took aaa loooooot of shored up courage and something of a spine and determination. It's primarily due to this that Kiritsugu feels like he ca rely on Byakuya for at least some part of the Shirou issue.

Admittedly, Kiritsugu sees them both as being weak--Kiritsugu's crippling emotions and his condition as a result of the curse that killed him and Byakuya's lack of self-worth and physical strength coupled with the abused parental-spouse thing he has going on not to mention recovering alcoholic... but out of the two Kiritsugu is the more capable one in a lot of ways, so in a way he feels responsible for Byakuya--especially when it comes to Shirou. Byakuya clearly could be a much better person than he is now, but he's distinctly broken by the circumstances of the Matous and the Kotomines, so it will be a long while yet before he gets anywhere. Still, though, Kiritsugu also acknowledges that Byakuya's more capable in the parenting department than he is. With this, Kiritsugu would feel a bit envious but instead just acknowledges the facts of his life and lets Byakuya handle KotoShirou since he's familiar with him and the Break Him Or Kill Him choice isn't one Kiritsugu wants to have to make again.

Beyond all of this, Kiritsugu is full of wry bemusement when it comes to Byakuya's change of heart regarding his view of Kiritsugu himself. He's not quite sure what's brought it on--mostly because Kiritsugu hasn't really done anything to show that's he's any different than usual? But then, Kiritsugu's always been very bad at seeing himself from other people's perspectives. As it is, he's currently Okay with Byakuya and pretty much will work with him. Maybe even will sic daughters with food on him. :|

SABER ON KIRITSUGU?