[ooc] Hakkai and fighting: a mostly-encompassing and entirely too long essay
Ever thought that that nice guy you met in the street was a little too nice? That there's got to be some sort of catch? Well, in Hakkai's case, that's probably because there is. There's a lot more to Mr. Smiles here than meets the eye.
This is only one in what is likely to be a series of essays on the general series and probably on Hakkai himself, because Saiyuki is way too easy to essay about. In this particular essay, I'll be talking about the nature of Hakkai's full youkai form and what to expect from him in regards to a fight.
Let's start from the beginning. In Saiyuki, there's this thing. Calamity, minus wave, whatever you want to call it-- it's this energy that affects youkai, causing them to temporarily go "berserk" before awakening their wild nature. Before, youkai could co-exist peacefully with humans; after the fact, humans only look like food. At any rate, this phenomenon is rather misunderstood by most of the public (and indeed, by everyone for most of the series), and everyone simply thinks of it as going berserk. I could go on about this for an entire other essay, but I won't-- the point is that either way it's a no-win situation for a youkai who wants (needs) to keep his human mind.
Hakkai is one of the only youkai who resisted the calamity almost entirely, and still has his human mind intact. Whether this is because he was not a youkai by birth, and thus not as susceptible, or just that he's too powerful, or both-- one can't be sure. He does remain susceptible to this calamity, though, and so he has to be careful. For this reason, he always limits how often he removes his power limiters and reveals his true youkai self.
Hakkai's powers
In Saiyuki, some youkai will wear power limiters-- little devices that look like jewelry, that conceal their appearance to make them look human and severely limit their youkai powers. Hakkai is one of those that does-- and most ordinary people never suspect a thing.
Now, down to business. With his power limiters on, Hakkai is still pretty damn good. He's notable for being the only one of the group who doesn't use a weapon. Generally he uses chi in combat, which has been used to:
The chi thing is pretty handy, and it's generally what he'll use in a fight. That's not all he's got up his sleeve, though. He's been known to be quite skilled in hand-to-hand combat in general-- this is a man who killed lord even knows how many people in his village before going off and killing a thousand youkai, that no one else would dare stand up to, while he was still human. That's not easy. It seems in addition to having an abnormal amount of godmod skills, he also has an abnormally high tolerance for blood and gore. But we won't get into that. So if he's close enough, if he can't use his chi for whatever reason, etc. etc. he'll totally do that too.
Most of what we see in Saiyuki is him fighting against low-level youkai and pwning them, so it's difficult to get a real sense of his power. One of his notable opponents is Yaone, one of not-so-big-bad Kougaiji's minions. Kougaiji is the one who commands a lot of these low-level youkai hordes, and they can be extremely loyal to him; needless to say, he and his subordinates are good. The Sanzo gang regularly fight these guys; whether or not either group actually goes all out is questionable, as they really act more like friends who happen to be on opposite sides.
Another notable opponent was the wacko who called himself "Kami-sama." The four boys together, each one of which can hold their own in a difficult battle, were utterly pwned by this guy. Granted, Kami-sama was the biggest godmod ever; you can't fight your opponent if you can't even touch him. The four of them together struggled against this guy, and while they did manage to beat him after a change in attitude-- the fact remains that Kami-sama was a total godmod and any one of them alone in their normal states could not have beat him. (It's worth noting that Hakkai never went youkai on this guy even when they were cornered and dying; there's something to be said about the nature of this fight because of that. But that's beside the point.)
Now, Hakkai in his youkai form is a completely different matter entirely. Hakkai without his power limiters is like normal Hakkai times ten.
-The intensity of his chi attacks is increased.
-He can travel at speeds faster than the human eye.
-Those pretty vines on his skin? Not just for decoration.
-Overall intensity is just sort of increased. If he removes his limiters on you, it means he is ruthless and will not hesitate to cut you down.
Just how powerful does he get in this form? Well. We've only been shown him fighting with it once, but that fight was part of one of the most beautiful, epic fights in manga ever. Hakkai in this form is capable of holding his own against Goku as the Seiten Taisei (with both of them getting greatly injured in the process). And anyone who reads the series will tell you that the Seiten Taisei is the most incredible godmodding little shit in the entire series. That's saying something.
Hakkai as a youkai
"With great power comes great responsibility"-- this certainly applies in this case. Hakkai is a lot more susceptible to the aforementioned calamity with his power limiters off, and when he's fighting, even more so-- the bloodlust can, and will, get to his head. I have no doubt in my mind that, had Gojyo not stopped him, Hakkai would have murdered Goku (and almost attacked Gojyo as well).
Another thing of note is that Hakkai has difficulty controlling his own power even without the calamity looming over his head. He's warned people that he'll kill them by accident if they get too close-- this makes sense when the calamity is occurring, as he doesn't know when he might go berserk. But even without the calamity occurring, he still warns his opponents that it'll be difficult not to kill them. This suggests that one of the reasons that Hakkai avoids releasing his youkai form is that he cannot keep his own power in check. This is likely one of the reasons why he wears the limiters. (There are a number of other reasons why, but addressing this would be getting off-topic, as they don't really have any relevance to this particular point.)
So the question now remains, when will Hakkai use his youkai form and when won't he? In Somarium, the calamity is out of the question, obviously; this gives him a bit more freedom to move. I still doubt that he'd release his true form all that often, though; he simply doesn't seem like he would want to rely on it. This is one of the most important reasons for his limited use, I think. Another one of the reasons for this in the past was likely because he just didn't like that side of himself. In the flashback from several years back he states that he might still hate youkai; this was probably his motivation for hiding that part of himself back then. I think his attitude has changed a bit since then; he's gotten more used to it by now, and likely accepted it. This could have certainly been his motivation at some point, though.
There are several scenes worth noting when trying to figure out when Hakkai will and won't use this form. First off, the flashback from a few years back.
1) Hakkai was alone up against a gang, a mixed group of both youkai and humans; exact number unknown.
2) Said gang had a gun, and Gojyo as their hostage-- they wouldn't hesitate to kill him if they had to.
3) Hakkai goes youkai on all of their asses.
The above situation is quite explainable: first of all, the calamity hasn't occurred yet, so he has a bit more freedom. Hakkai in this case, first of all, is a bit pissed off in general, and thus more likely to go into youkai form.
The way I interpret this is that Hakkai at this point in time still hasn't quite found his place. He's still clinging to what happened in the past, in hopes that he can change. In hopes that he can start over and live peacefully. This is when Sanzo lectures at him. I could go on for paragraphs about this one little scene here, but it's not incredibly relevant to the overall point, so I'll summarize: Sanzo made it clear to Hakkai that he didn't have to try so hard, and Hakkai was able to accept the way things were. By releasing his youkai form in this scene he's partly just a bit pissed, yes, but more importantly he's proving a point.
The second time (chronologically) that he releases his youkai form, he and Goku are alone up against a 20-foot monster that's completely immune to normal attacks. The third time is when they have to fight the Seiten Taisei without Sanzo around to unleash a sutra on him. These are both self-explanatory. Next.
A notable fight where he could have used his youkai powers but didn't is when the four of them were fighting "Kami-sama." In theory, Hakkai could have just gone youkai on Kami-sama and killed his ass in half the time it took all of them normally. There are several reasons why it wasn't even an option, though. One: had he taken off his limiters in the middle of the fight, he would have had trouble anyways because all of them were already injured. (Doesn't apply to the beginning of the fight, obviously.) Two: he didn't want to waste the effort on someone like him who was not worth it. Three: in this case, the fight wasn't about just winning or losing; it was about pride, and proving a point to the opponent. The fight was about all of them, not just his defeat. Basically, although he was difficult to defeat, Kami-sama wasn't worth it, and going youkai on him would have defeated the point.
So what does all this say about Hakkai's motivations to use and not use his youkai form? It's quite simpler than it appears to be, really. He'll use it when he knows he can't defeat the opponent normally; depending on the situation, though, this will vary quite a bit. Really, it's subjective on a case-by-case basis whether he'll use it or not. Most of the time he's not going to put forth the effort to try and hold back his enormous power when he's fighting you, unless he knows he needs it. Or unless he's trying to prove a point.
Hakkai on fighting
So the one question that's left is, when will and won't he fight? This... is kind of a difficult question to address.
In terms of everyday fighting, he seems as though he's grown quite ambivalent to it. Like it's just another everyday thing. It amazes me when I go back and read the manga how they can be so casual about killing youkai attackers but refuse to harm human attackers. It makes sense, though, if you think about it; after all, it's kill or be killed, and for a long time it seems as though the assassins after them are unintelligent "berserker" youkai. And they are the enemy, after all. In a way, they've all kind of adopted Sanzo's way of thinking (which is difficult to explain without giving it its own essay). Basically, Hakkai and the others have decided that it's okay to live this way. They're strong enough that they can live this way. The "even a worm" arc proves that they don't have a disregard for youkai lives-- far from it. Rather, they kill their youkai attackers because they're the enemy. It's simple as that. They're okay with this.
Hakkai won't start a fight without reason; however, if he's attacked, he won't hesitate in fighting back. This will vary depending on who you are-- the zombielike human townspeople he tries not to injure, because he knows they're not in their right minds; however, if you are the enemy and you know full well what you are doing and are attacking with intent to kill, he won't hold back on you. This at first seems like just a question of human vs. youkai, but this isn't really the case. We just don't see much of anything except "humans good, youkai bad" for a great deal of the series. He will fight humans that are "bad"/"evil"/"wrong," and likely hesitate against youkai that are "good." (This being said, Kougaiji and his gang are an entirely different story. They don't count.) Basically, the more he dislikes you/your cause, the more likely he is to fight back.
I said before that he won't start a fight without reason; this is quite true. However, if he does have a reason... well. If he dislikes you enough it's likely that he'll be provoked into getting a bit violent (see: grabbing the front of Hazel's shirt angrily when he gets out of line). It's difficult to say exactly when he will and won't fight. I don't think Hakkai sees himself as a defender of justice, per se, but he will interfere if things get out of hand (see: stepping up and stopping Gat when Hazel tells him that it's okay to kill the women hostages because he can revive them anyway). He doesn't specifically start any fights here, but Hazel and his ideals bother him enough that he won't just stay silent.
The Kami-sama arc is another good example of this-- I know, I've talked about this one a lot already, but it says a lot. After their initial contact with the man and his obviously screwed up ideas, Sanzo says that they're not going to go avenge the little boys that he used, and are moving on like normal. Goku protests and Gojyo runs off to do his own thing, but Hakkai goes along with Sanzo's decision. Personally, I think that Hakkai would have easily gone along with either decision: Kami-sama bothered him enough that he would go and fight him if the others wanted to, but didn't hit personally enough that he would go out of his way to do something if the final decision is to move on while they have a more important journey on their hands. He goes along with Sanzo's word not to do anything because Sanzo is the leader of the team, and they do have more important things to get to. (Obviously, this doesn't work. Gojyo's fault.)
So basically, he's definitely going to fight back when attacked-- and with varying degrees of intensity depending on how much he likes or dislikes you. But he's not likely to start a fight unless you really bother him or piss him off. He has been known to do this, though, so when you do, uh, watch out.
SO THERE YOU HAVE IT. That's all I have to say on the subject for the moment. There are at least three things in here that I didn't address fully because they would need an entire essay of their own, so... if there's something in there that needs clarification, please point that out to me, because it likely makes sense only in my head. XD
And by the way? This essay, when put in Times New Roman, 12-point font, double-spaced, indented paragraph format, is almost 9 pages. I wrote a nine-page essay on one of the more minor parts of my character's psyche. OTL
This is only one in what is likely to be a series of essays on the general series and probably on Hakkai himself, because Saiyuki is way too easy to essay about. In this particular essay, I'll be talking about the nature of Hakkai's full youkai form and what to expect from him in regards to a fight.
Let's start from the beginning. In Saiyuki, there's this thing. Calamity, minus wave, whatever you want to call it-- it's this energy that affects youkai, causing them to temporarily go "berserk" before awakening their wild nature. Before, youkai could co-exist peacefully with humans; after the fact, humans only look like food. At any rate, this phenomenon is rather misunderstood by most of the public (and indeed, by everyone for most of the series), and everyone simply thinks of it as going berserk. I could go on about this for an entire other essay, but I won't-- the point is that either way it's a no-win situation for a youkai who wants (needs) to keep his human mind.
Hakkai is one of the only youkai who resisted the calamity almost entirely, and still has his human mind intact. Whether this is because he was not a youkai by birth, and thus not as susceptible, or just that he's too powerful, or both-- one can't be sure. He does remain susceptible to this calamity, though, and so he has to be careful. For this reason, he always limits how often he removes his power limiters and reveals his true youkai self.
Hakkai's powers
In Saiyuki, some youkai will wear power limiters-- little devices that look like jewelry, that conceal their appearance to make them look human and severely limit their youkai powers. Hakkai is one of those that does-- and most ordinary people never suspect a thing.
Now, down to business. With his power limiters on, Hakkai is still pretty damn good. He's notable for being the only one of the group who doesn't use a weapon. Generally he uses chi in combat, which has been used to:
- create blasts of energy that injure/kill a person, depending on the severity of the attack and the strength of the opponent
- create barriers
- heal injuries (though this drains his own energy, so he can't do it if he's too injured, and he'll get sick if he pushes himself)
The chi thing is pretty handy, and it's generally what he'll use in a fight. That's not all he's got up his sleeve, though. He's been known to be quite skilled in hand-to-hand combat in general-- this is a man who killed lord even knows how many people in his village before going off and killing a thousand youkai, that no one else would dare stand up to, while he was still human. That's not easy. It seems in addition to having an abnormal amount of godmod skills, he also has an abnormally high tolerance for blood and gore. But we won't get into that. So if he's close enough, if he can't use his chi for whatever reason, etc. etc. he'll totally do that too.
Most of what we see in Saiyuki is him fighting against low-level youkai and pwning them, so it's difficult to get a real sense of his power. One of his notable opponents is Yaone, one of not-so-big-bad Kougaiji's minions. Kougaiji is the one who commands a lot of these low-level youkai hordes, and they can be extremely loyal to him; needless to say, he and his subordinates are good. The Sanzo gang regularly fight these guys; whether or not either group actually goes all out is questionable, as they really act more like friends who happen to be on opposite sides.
Another notable opponent was the wacko who called himself "Kami-sama." The four boys together, each one of which can hold their own in a difficult battle, were utterly pwned by this guy. Granted, Kami-sama was the biggest godmod ever; you can't fight your opponent if you can't even touch him. The four of them together struggled against this guy, and while they did manage to beat him after a change in attitude-- the fact remains that Kami-sama was a total godmod and any one of them alone in their normal states could not have beat him. (It's worth noting that Hakkai never went youkai on this guy even when they were cornered and dying; there's something to be said about the nature of this fight because of that. But that's beside the point.)
Now, Hakkai in his youkai form is a completely different matter entirely. Hakkai without his power limiters is like normal Hakkai times ten.
-The intensity of his chi attacks is increased.
-He can travel at speeds faster than the human eye.
-Those pretty vines on his skin? Not just for decoration.
-Overall intensity is just sort of increased. If he removes his limiters on you, it means he is ruthless and will not hesitate to cut you down.
Just how powerful does he get in this form? Well. We've only been shown him fighting with it once, but that fight was part of one of the most beautiful, epic fights in manga ever. Hakkai in this form is capable of holding his own against Goku as the Seiten Taisei (with both of them getting greatly injured in the process). And anyone who reads the series will tell you that the Seiten Taisei is the most incredible godmodding little shit in the entire series. That's saying something.
Hakkai as a youkai
"With great power comes great responsibility"-- this certainly applies in this case. Hakkai is a lot more susceptible to the aforementioned calamity with his power limiters off, and when he's fighting, even more so-- the bloodlust can, and will, get to his head. I have no doubt in my mind that, had Gojyo not stopped him, Hakkai would have murdered Goku (and almost attacked Gojyo as well).
Another thing of note is that Hakkai has difficulty controlling his own power even without the calamity looming over his head. He's warned people that he'll kill them by accident if they get too close-- this makes sense when the calamity is occurring, as he doesn't know when he might go berserk. But even without the calamity occurring, he still warns his opponents that it'll be difficult not to kill them. This suggests that one of the reasons that Hakkai avoids releasing his youkai form is that he cannot keep his own power in check. This is likely one of the reasons why he wears the limiters. (There are a number of other reasons why, but addressing this would be getting off-topic, as they don't really have any relevance to this particular point.)
So the question now remains, when will Hakkai use his youkai form and when won't he? In Somarium, the calamity is out of the question, obviously; this gives him a bit more freedom to move. I still doubt that he'd release his true form all that often, though; he simply doesn't seem like he would want to rely on it. This is one of the most important reasons for his limited use, I think. Another one of the reasons for this in the past was likely because he just didn't like that side of himself. In the flashback from several years back he states that he might still hate youkai; this was probably his motivation for hiding that part of himself back then. I think his attitude has changed a bit since then; he's gotten more used to it by now, and likely accepted it. This could have certainly been his motivation at some point, though.
There are several scenes worth noting when trying to figure out when Hakkai will and won't use this form. First off, the flashback from a few years back.
1) Hakkai was alone up against a gang, a mixed group of both youkai and humans; exact number unknown.
2) Said gang had a gun, and Gojyo as their hostage-- they wouldn't hesitate to kill him if they had to.
3) Hakkai goes youkai on all of their asses.
The above situation is quite explainable: first of all, the calamity hasn't occurred yet, so he has a bit more freedom. Hakkai in this case, first of all, is a bit pissed off in general, and thus more likely to go into youkai form.
The way I interpret this is that Hakkai at this point in time still hasn't quite found his place. He's still clinging to what happened in the past, in hopes that he can change. In hopes that he can start over and live peacefully. This is when Sanzo lectures at him. I could go on for paragraphs about this one little scene here, but it's not incredibly relevant to the overall point, so I'll summarize: Sanzo made it clear to Hakkai that he didn't have to try so hard, and Hakkai was able to accept the way things were. By releasing his youkai form in this scene he's partly just a bit pissed, yes, but more importantly he's proving a point.
The second time (chronologically) that he releases his youkai form, he and Goku are alone up against a 20-foot monster that's completely immune to normal attacks. The third time is when they have to fight the Seiten Taisei without Sanzo around to unleash a sutra on him. These are both self-explanatory. Next.
A notable fight where he could have used his youkai powers but didn't is when the four of them were fighting "Kami-sama." In theory, Hakkai could have just gone youkai on Kami-sama and killed his ass in half the time it took all of them normally. There are several reasons why it wasn't even an option, though. One: had he taken off his limiters in the middle of the fight, he would have had trouble anyways because all of them were already injured. (Doesn't apply to the beginning of the fight, obviously.) Two: he didn't want to waste the effort on someone like him who was not worth it. Three: in this case, the fight wasn't about just winning or losing; it was about pride, and proving a point to the opponent. The fight was about all of them, not just his defeat. Basically, although he was difficult to defeat, Kami-sama wasn't worth it, and going youkai on him would have defeated the point.
So what does all this say about Hakkai's motivations to use and not use his youkai form? It's quite simpler than it appears to be, really. He'll use it when he knows he can't defeat the opponent normally; depending on the situation, though, this will vary quite a bit. Really, it's subjective on a case-by-case basis whether he'll use it or not. Most of the time he's not going to put forth the effort to try and hold back his enormous power when he's fighting you, unless he knows he needs it. Or unless he's trying to prove a point.
Hakkai on fighting
So the one question that's left is, when will and won't he fight? This... is kind of a difficult question to address.
In terms of everyday fighting, he seems as though he's grown quite ambivalent to it. Like it's just another everyday thing. It amazes me when I go back and read the manga how they can be so casual about killing youkai attackers but refuse to harm human attackers. It makes sense, though, if you think about it; after all, it's kill or be killed, and for a long time it seems as though the assassins after them are unintelligent "berserker" youkai. And they are the enemy, after all. In a way, they've all kind of adopted Sanzo's way of thinking (which is difficult to explain without giving it its own essay). Basically, Hakkai and the others have decided that it's okay to live this way. They're strong enough that they can live this way. The "even a worm" arc proves that they don't have a disregard for youkai lives-- far from it. Rather, they kill their youkai attackers because they're the enemy. It's simple as that. They're okay with this.
Hakkai won't start a fight without reason; however, if he's attacked, he won't hesitate in fighting back. This will vary depending on who you are-- the zombielike human townspeople he tries not to injure, because he knows they're not in their right minds; however, if you are the enemy and you know full well what you are doing and are attacking with intent to kill, he won't hold back on you. This at first seems like just a question of human vs. youkai, but this isn't really the case. We just don't see much of anything except "humans good, youkai bad" for a great deal of the series. He will fight humans that are "bad"/"evil"/"wrong," and likely hesitate against youkai that are "good." (This being said, Kougaiji and his gang are an entirely different story. They don't count.) Basically, the more he dislikes you/your cause, the more likely he is to fight back.
I said before that he won't start a fight without reason; this is quite true. However, if he does have a reason... well. If he dislikes you enough it's likely that he'll be provoked into getting a bit violent (see: grabbing the front of Hazel's shirt angrily when he gets out of line). It's difficult to say exactly when he will and won't fight. I don't think Hakkai sees himself as a defender of justice, per se, but he will interfere if things get out of hand (see: stepping up and stopping Gat when Hazel tells him that it's okay to kill the women hostages because he can revive them anyway). He doesn't specifically start any fights here, but Hazel and his ideals bother him enough that he won't just stay silent.
The Kami-sama arc is another good example of this-- I know, I've talked about this one a lot already, but it says a lot. After their initial contact with the man and his obviously screwed up ideas, Sanzo says that they're not going to go avenge the little boys that he used, and are moving on like normal. Goku protests and Gojyo runs off to do his own thing, but Hakkai goes along with Sanzo's decision. Personally, I think that Hakkai would have easily gone along with either decision: Kami-sama bothered him enough that he would go and fight him if the others wanted to, but didn't hit personally enough that he would go out of his way to do something if the final decision is to move on while they have a more important journey on their hands. He goes along with Sanzo's word not to do anything because Sanzo is the leader of the team, and they do have more important things to get to. (Obviously, this doesn't work. Gojyo's fault.)
So basically, he's definitely going to fight back when attacked-- and with varying degrees of intensity depending on how much he likes or dislikes you. But he's not likely to start a fight unless you really bother him or piss him off. He has been known to do this, though, so when you do, uh, watch out.
SO THERE YOU HAVE IT. That's all I have to say on the subject for the moment. There are at least three things in here that I didn't address fully because they would need an entire essay of their own, so... if there's something in there that needs clarification, please point that out to me, because it likely makes sense only in my head. XD
And by the way? This essay, when put in Times New Roman, 12-point font, double-spaced, indented paragraph format, is almost 9 pages. I wrote a nine-page essay on one of the more minor parts of my character's psyche. OTL