#episode35

the episode that starts it all for this man <333 now Im personally more familiar with the anime of Inuyasha but I do know a good amount of differences from the manga, so ill occasionally touch on them, but yeah just keep in mind I like to talk about what I know XD. 

now this episode people find a lot of beautiful elements, like Rin and Sesshomaru both finding eachother when they are injured and broken to an extent, and the whole fateful encounter. BUT I wanted to talk about a particular moment, that being Rin's smile, and my interpretation of what the scene is trying to get across in terms of Sesshomaru's growth. 

I'll keep it short, but Sesshomaru is introduced to us as someone who looks down on weakness in general, with his biggest grievance being humans (we are nothing but insects to him at this point). This is his ideology at the beginning of his arc... so how do you go about changing that? You challenge that ideology with his foil character --> Rin. In the stereotypical sense, Rin is technically the weakest being according to Sesshomaru's ideology (human child).

With all the above in mind, lets talk about the scene: 

Rin continuously tries to feed and nurture a reluctant Sesshomaru back to health, and in doing so, gets beaten and punished by the villagers for stealing fish.

With bruises and scars covering her face, she brings more food to Sesshomaru who again denies her efforts.

Rin sighs in defeat, until Sesshomaru spontaneously asks about her bruises

In complete awe Rin looks up at him and smiles 

Sesshomaru is taken aback by this, and I don't know about others, but I for one, genuinely believe him when he says he was asking out of curiosity nothing more.

To Sesshomaru humans are weak, BUT in this moment, Rin isn't showing weakness, even though she is bruised and beaten, she smiles through her pain, because Sesshomaru asking about her well-being made her happy.

Sesshomaru having an ideology centered on physical strength, made him blind to what humans really have: Emotional Strength, and Rin is the embodiment of this paradox, showing kindness and smiling in the face of adversity. 

And I believe it is this contradictory image of a radiant smile on a bruised and beaten face, that ultimately gave Sesshomaru pause... and triggers his journey to finding the value in weakness and humanity.

We even see this growth in the form of Sango during the final act. 

Sango, upon learning she almost killed Rin in a futile effort to save Miroku, accepts her fate by Sesshomaru's hand but pleads with him to let her save Miroku first before doing so. 

Sesshomaru says ... nothing XD BUT when a path opens for them, he tells her "hurry, you want to find the monk don't you?" 

Sesshomaru acknowledges Sango's emotional strength and resilience to face danger for the sake of someone she loves.