okay, clearing eyes rant i've had in my notes app for months that i'm finally posting to tumblr
okay. snake of clearing eyes. me ga saeru hebi. this fucker. word vomiting here since i've had these thoughts for So Long and i need to put them all somewhere.
clearing is obviously the villain of the story. he is the sole cause of everything bad happening in kagepro. he also represents trauma itself to the mekakushi dan and azami. i believe he is more supposed to be perceived as not a solid character like azami for example, but rather a force.
jin intentionally doesn't really give him a defined personality, same goes with the other snakes. they act upon their namesakes and clearing is no exception. his name, "clearing eyes", is supposed to mean he has more awareness, more sentience, than others. makes sense as he serves as azami's intelligence. due to this, he believes he is "above" the other snakes despite not really being too different from the others. he acts upon his namesake like them. he still serves azami just like them. he doesn't really stand out, which may be why he tries to gain autonomy.
clearing represents everything wrong with the dan and azami, he was born from azami's trauma, he was born from a lack of love, therefore he cannot quite understand it and deems it as a useless human emotion. he doesn't feel love towards azami, it's more devotion. he was created to serve azami as with the other snakes. azami technically is a mother to him as she "gave birth" to him, but he does not view her as such. he only views her as his master. his reason for his actions throughout the story is for the sole purpose of fulfilling the wish that azami made that brought him into existence. he is devoted to this, he is devoted to azami regardless of who else he's serving (ex. kenjiro or marry) and he holds no love for anyone.
clearing really isn't supposed to be viewed as a character like azami or the dan. jin shows this with how he writes clearing, even clearing himself is aware of this. he knows his place in the narrative, he acts exactly how you'd imagine a monster to act. how he *thinks* a monster should act, like having a disregard for the lives and emotions of humans or causing tragedy wherever he goes. his true role is to basically make azami remember her roots, bring her back to her lonely and sorrowful existence as a monster because it's how *he* thinks a monster should live. applying all these human characteristics to a character that intentionally lacks these things is where things tend to go wrong. when you do this with clearing, it takes away from his character, in my opinion. it literally goes against his character.
