One of the first major ideas I had for a full-fledged Saiyuki piece was ‘Touched by Gold’ since gold is already thematically important for Sanzo and Goku, and I thought it would be fun to expand that to the whole team. In Hakkai’s case, it’s Hands of Gold as Kanan loved his hands, and these same hands are the ones caring for and potentially holding his friends’ lives in them as Team Healer. However, that the gold drips is a callback to a time where they were coated with blood instead, because I love the killer-healer juxtaposition he embodies.
Between Gojyo’s empathy/inability to leave a crying woman be (enough tears have been shed in his vicinity) and his big brother instinct for children because I imagine he inwardly desires to be the person he needed as a child and the fact that he took the fall for Banri despite knowing full well Banri was going to run again bc he still wanted to protect that bastard, I honestly think he’s the most compassionate member of the team, thus Heart of Gold.
