Shinobu Kocho: poison & medicine

The best thing abt Shinobu is that she's THAT bitch. WAIT no don't leave im gonna explain why. I feel like there's alot of pressure for characters to be stripped of all flaws. Most of their flaws are either being clumsy or maybe too kind

Characters are more likely written to be likeable rather to be complex and flawed. This is why Shinobu is my favourite character. She has flaws, she holds onto the ugliest parts of herself, her anger, her desire for revenge & refuses to improve as a person.

This thread is abt why she's a tragic yet beautifully written character.

1. Healing and poisoning
Shinobu's character is written abt this dual meaning: medicine is something that heals & hurts. Most people think of medicine that souly helps and heals people, but too much can destroys the body.

Shinobu is a character that is on the line between being a healer, how everyone expects her to act, and a poisoner which is what Shinobu believes she is. She is capable of being both. She can heal others, but she can also destroy them with poison.

However her arc shows that she chooses to poison because she doesn't consider herself as someone capable of healing. Demons still have human feelings. They became demons for a very human reason. Tanjirou is someone who understands this. He gets that demons still have feelings

He doesn't want to kill but he understands that that's what he has to do due to his circumstances. Shinobu is introduced right after Tanjirou acknowledges that demons have feelings & desires. Shinobu is shown to be a merciless killer without the empathy that Tanjirou has for

- demons. Shinobu enjoys repaying cruelty with cruelty. She likes being stronger then demons who underestimate her. Tanjirou & Shinobu's ways of dealing with demons are very different. Shinobu doesn't see demons as humans but as things that need to be punished for what-

-they've done. She's not a bad person for believing demons need to be killed so they don't kill anymore people, but torturing them is a very bad way of going abt that. Shinobu's view of the world is black & white were she's the judge. That's how most demon slayers are shown to

-Us but its especially drawn to Shinobu & her case. She even resented & mistrusted Tamayo while she worked with her even if she respected her by the end of their research. Tanjirou won't belittle a demon, Shinobu other other hand mocks, teases & belittles them because she's

Incapable of being sincere. Tanjirou sees himself as someone who fights to protect someone while Shinobu lives to repay the damage that's been done on the world. She serves a dual role in the series. Being the hostess of the Butterfly mansion, a place that heals & keeps people

- safe. But she's also a merciless killer that enjoys killing & torturing demons. She is medicine and poison. Shinobu's anger is a very important part of her character. The hatred she has for demons is so strong that she's almost in a constant state of anger.

Yet instead of dealing with it, she'd much rather put up a smiley & polite facade. Because after her sister died Shinobu felt that everything good abt herself died with her. If Tanjirou fights out of love for other people then Shinobu fights out of hatred. She feels like she

- can't be good like her sister. To her, her hatred & anger is the only real part of herself so she clings onto it.

2. Douma & the end of Shinobu
Shinobu is parelled to Douma bcs her smiley attitude & everything good abt her is completely fake. She could be medicine but she chooses to be poison. Shinobu could've chose the path of forgiveness & to live happily but she didn't want to.

She dies poisoning douma, angry & resentful. She chooses to die because she believes she's unable to live in world without her loved ones. She chooses not to forgive. To stay angry. Shinobu's not just the happy & kind persona she puts on, she's a character driven off emotions.

In conclusion I love Shinobu so much. She's so beautiful inside and out. I miss her so much omg.

A good few points i saw from a couple other threads abt her. She's such a complex character that I'm pretty sure i couldn't fit them all in so if there's something u noticed abt her character feel free to reply with it!!

Another thing abt her is yes, she loves Kanao alot but she felt like she needed to act out on her anger so revenge was the best option to her.