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A thread on Gyomei Himejima's character arc and how it ties into one of the most important themes in the story. (A longggg thread um also contains manga spoilers ofc.)
Gyomei, also the oldest in the last generation of pillars, he fights using the breath of stone, if people had to describe him, he's sturdy, tall and muscular, has an intimidating vibe to him, can make all the other pillars quiet with just joining his two hands together,
in short, he is in fact said to be the strongest of the pillars, blessed with height, blessed with strength, he is the embodiment of physical strength in itself. His character design is filled with religious visuals, from his prayer beads to his scar shaped like that of a thorny
crown, adding along with it is also the stone imagery, his stone breathing, his mark shaped like broken cracks in a stone, he himself, is also a very broken man in terms of mind. And being a blind one at that too.
Gyomei is a strong person, a person who has strength, he is also a person with strong beliefs, like that of a sturdy stone, he is willing to die, he takes it as a matter of pride, being able to live and die as a human for him like most other pillars, is a blessing to him.
Gyomei however is a person who was unable to protect his loved ones, despite being blessed with strength, his blindness can be interpreted as a very important part of his character, even though it barely hinders him when fighting, you could say that, it is because of his
blindness, that he also becomes a rather interesting unreliable narrator, as he gets to share his backstory solely from his pov. He was unable to truly percieve what was happening in the bigger picture, understandably so, he happened to conclude that Sayo, one of the kids
that was taken care by him, said that "he was a monster, he killed them. He killed everyone." When in actuality, Sayo described the demon and not him.
And he ended up being charged for murder, he never once thought that maybe, just maybe, Sayo was not referring to him but the demon instead, he also concluded that the kids that day tried to run away and did not listen to him, when again they were just trying to protect him
and ask for outside help, he could only see what happened to him and didn't try to look from another perspective, because he is a blind man.
Which also brings another topic to the table, the Kokushibo fight. Here Kokushibo fights against 3 pillars Sanemi, Muichiro and himself...and also a slayer Genya. It was established multiple times throughout the fight that Kokushibo was mainly taking him and Sanemi seriously,
why not? Muichiro lost a limb prior to them joining the battle, Genya in the meantime also lost his lower half and was rendered immobile until he regerated later. Genya too, wasn't as strong as the other ones as well, yet even though Kokushibo dying was a result of a group effort
Genya and Muichiro were the ones that ended up dying, and letting Sanemi and Gyomei to survive the battle. Yet again, Gyomei was unable to protect the children, unlike him Genya was able to fulfil his purpose of protecting his elder brother despite being the weakest.
One of KnY's themes discusses the infinite potential of the weak, in the end the weakest ones in the Kokushibo fight, aka Muichiro and Genya were the ones that died fighting, Genya despite being the weak one knew his true purpose, he knew that he had to protect Sanemi and others,
Gyomei however kept on fighting cause that is what was expected of him, he didn't particularly have anyone to protect, he ended up surviving the UM1 battle, his strength while useful, ended up being worthless when it mattered, children years younger died again in front of him.
He was also a thematic foil against his opponent Kokushibo, Kokushibo has 6 eyes, he has none, yet interestingly the either of them can't seem to see what's truly important, and they end up suffering because of it. The both of them are the strongest, demon and human, yet Koku
loses, that too in a fight where the weakest ones were the key players in the fight. For Gyomei, his story was that of a complete tragedy, he was only able to truly see what the kids wanted to do that night moments before his death, for him, he was able to retain sight and
clarity, and once he realized it, he wanted to apologize as well, for blaming them, for not being able to protect them. If only tomorrow had come...maybe things would have ended up differently, he wouldn't have had to go through a self-destrutive path.
He was only able to find salvation after his death, because all those whom he truly cared about died already, and he was more than happy to rejoin them high up. Gyomei was blind, but he was able to see everything just before he died. He was able go with his children together.
