What will she choose?? *last chappy spoiler*

[ravenhallowryn]

Ok, so Sessh left Rin with Kaede and the others she she can learn to reintegrate with other people if she chooses to live with humans or stay with him.

So, its obvious she still adores him and he still adores her in his own way since he even visits the human village to bring presents.
But Rin does seem fond of living with humans and friends at that.

So...what do you think Rin will choose in the end?

[rikana]

I think, ultimately, her choice will be to stay with Sesshomaru.

But then you have to factor Sesshomaru into the equation. I think there was one scene in the manga/anime (i can't remember which) where Jaken mentioned Sesshomaru's plans to create his own empire after the fight with Naraku is over. So, if that's his goal still, I would think he would end up choosing when it will be time for her to leave. Because, with the way he treats her, he's not going to put her in the middle of the empire-building war. Then again, he just might wait until she gets married (to Kohaku, hopefully). But there isn't any real way to tell since the subject of Sesshomaru's and Rin's "meetings" weren't really touched upon in detail in the last chapter. That's why I'm hoping Rumiko will do a OneShot manga as a follow up of Inu-Yasha to reveal everyone's true futures, not just touching on the beginning of their lives together like she did.

I do hope Rin and Sesshomaru stay together as long as possible though! I love that Father/Daughter relationship they have. It the cutest thing I've ever seen in a manga!!!

[ravenhallowryn]

I so agree. With...well, with everything XD

[concoidialfracture]

I think the most real possibility is Sesshoumaru waiting until Rin gets married so that she has someone else to protect her on her side before going off to fight various wars. In the meantime, I also think it's a fairly good possibility that she'll continue to travel with him until that happens.

Some people still think that Sesshoumaru and Rin will have a romantic tie later on. I'm not sure why I don't subscribe to that theory, but it just seems rather improbable to me. Not impossible, mind you, just improbable. I see Sesshoumaru and Rin's relationship as one of the more intriguing platonic ones in the series (excluding Sango and Kohaku's relationship) and the chances of them getting together in the end are slim. After all, Sesshoumaru is not his father, so he's not liable to become attracted to Rin, and I don't see Rin becoming interested in him that way either.

Speaking of which, though, isn't the kimono Rin is wearing in the last chapter similar to Kagura's? Or is that just me?

... No, never mind. I think it was just me....

[Sayuri]

I don't remember the manga ever mentioning Sesshoumaru creating his own empire. That was an anime filler episode, if I recall correctly.

Also, I doubt there will be a Sesshoumaru and Rin pairing. I somehow even doubt Rin and Kohaku, though I found myself hoping for it.

But I think, really, that she'll stay in the village.

[rikana]

Oct 13, 2008 9:28:59 GMT -5 concoidialfracture said:

I think the most real possibility is Sesshoumaru waiting until Rin gets married so that she has someone else to protect her on her side before going off to fight various wars. In the meantime, I also think it's a fairly good possibility that she'll continue to travel with him until that happens.

Some people still think that Sesshoumaru and Rin will have a romantic tie later on. I'm not sure why I don't subscribe to that theory, but it just seems rather improbable to me. Not impossible, mind you, just improbable. I see Sesshoumaru and Rin's relationship as one of the more intriguing platonic ones in the series (excluding Sango and Kohaku's relationship) and the chances of them getting together in the end are slim. After all, Sesshoumaru is not his father, so he's not liable to become attracted to Rin, and I don't see Rin becoming interested in him that way either.

Speaking of which, though, isn't the kimono Rin is wearing in the last chapter similar to Kagura's? Or is that just me?

... No, never mind. I think it was just me....

MY GOD! You're right!
...about the kimono, I mean.

[concoidialfracture]

Eh... I'm, not sure anymore. Although the stripes are the same, there's a little difference in the pattern.

In any case, yeah, the conquest thing is dubious, since it was only in the anime. My thoughts revolved more around random battles for someone insulting his fluffy thing or something....

As for Rin and Kohaku, I would also love that to happen. It seems to me that Kohaku is awesome, and Rin is awesome, and if they got together they would be the ultimate awesome!

Or something along those lines.

[Sayuri]

The thing is, once he surpassed his father, who else is there to fight? I imagine he's kinda bored now.

Insult the fluffy? He didn't even bat an eye at Kagura calling him a pretty man.

I dunno. I guess Rin and Kohaku seems legit because she never had interaction with any other boys in the manga. With him off slaying demons, it's hard to say what will happen.

[concoidialfracture]

I don't know, maybe he'd be happy with just going off and killing random things to get a reputation out there or something. I mean, look at the guy's name.

Sesshoumaru might become quite bored not having RIn around to look after all the time. I think, since he liked his daddy so much, he was having fun playing that role himself.

[alex]

waz up.

[milareppa]

Jun 20, 2008 11:04:37 GMT -5 ravenhallowryn said:

Ok, so Sessh left Rin with Kaede and the others she she can learn to reintegrate with other people if she chooses to live with humans or stay with him.

So, its obvious she still adores him and he still adores her in his own way since he even visits the human village to bring presents.
But Rin does seem fond of living with humans and friends at that.

So...what do you think Rin will choose in the end?

Obviously I don't have the benefit of the raws (I don't speak Japanese) so I can't attempt to directly interpret the original words of the author. However, based on translations alone, I didn't interpret her choice as being between humans and Sesshoumaru.

By bringing her into a human village, she's being taught and trained to live as a human. The decision has already been made. She is a human. She will live as one. It's her fate to *be* human. The choice is what kind of human will she be.That is the choice Kaede expects her to make - what role in human society will she take? A farmer? A healer? A miko? Something else? She doesn't have a family to inherit their position, role and expectations in life. All she has are some good (if not odd) friends looking out for her interests. Because of this unusual situation, she actually has more options in life than the average human could ever dream of. So, to me "for whatever she chooses" means exactly that: she has no role in human society to inherit and so is in a position to forge her own.

It doesn't mean choosing between humans and Sesshoumaru because there was actually never any choice in this matter anyway - simply a distracting illusion of such because the facts are undeniable: Rin is human. A youkai (Kouga) destroyed her connection to humans and it was solely another youkai's selfish attachment (Sesshoumaru) that kept that connection broken.

In the Hell arc, we saw Sesshoumaru realise and acknowledge that a human village was the best place for Rin, and that his selfishness in keeping her with him was not in her best interests. The very first chance after the Hell arc that he had to leave her at a decent human village, he took - which was after gaining Bakusaiga, when they returned to Kaede's village to regroup. He left her there, and she never left (ignoring the kidnapping, obviously).

There's been a constant theme in the manga that once the red thread of fate has been tangled, it can never be undone. That means that just because Rin's fate may be to live as the human she is, it doesn't mean she will not forever be linked to Sesshoumaru. Shippou is in exactly the same position if you notice. He is a kitsune who has had his connection with youkai society broken. Only during the Kitsune exam was his connection to his own kind reestablished. In the last chapter, just as we see Rin being encouraged to gravitate back towards humans, we see Shippou is being encouraged to gravitate back to Kitsune. It doesn't mean their connection with the groups that took them in will ever be broken, it simply means that their true natures (as human and kitsune) can never, should never, be broken.

I dismiss the conquest theory. Only an anime filler and the third film (effectively another filler) harped on about that idea. The manga never supported such an idea. Indeed, given the chance to claim power, Sesshoumaru turned his nose up at it (the Shikon no Tama, which he has absolutely no interest in possessing). Nor does he attempt to establish allies, lands or armies. He does absolutely nothing that would be related to empire-building, not even the preliminary stages. The sole power he was interested in was Tessaiga, and as Shishinki showed, that seemed to be much more about his place in the clan and his relationship with his father than about being power-hungry.

[Inu-papa]

Jan 20, 2009 15:15:14 GMT -5 milareppa said:

Obviously I don't have the benefit of the raws (I don't speak Japanese) so I can't attempt to directly interpret the original words of the author. However, based on translations alone, I didn't interpret her choice as being between humans and Sesshoumaru.

Actually, I think it is. I think the implication is that he didn't want to force her to stay with him without first allowing her to experience the other possibilities open to her. So that if she did end up staying with him, it wouldn't be out of ignorance of her other options.

The line in Japanese was "hitozato ni modosu kunren rashii zo. Docchi demo eraberu you ni." This is basically like "It seems like training to return her to a human village. So that she's able to choose either way."

Although, Japanese has an annoying habit of not having a subject of their sentences, so there's multiple ways to interpret this. Sesshoumaru is the implied subject of the first sentence because the verb is "modosu", which is "causing something to return" or "putting something back". It would actually be interesting if it was Sesshoumaru who was also the subject of the second sentence, in that it was training for HIM to decide which way he liked better, and if he was really comfortable without her.

[milareppa]

Ah, that's interesting, thanks.

When I first read that chapter, I have to admit that I did actually think that. Despite the fact I think Sesshoumaru made his decision (about Rin living in a human village) after the Hell arc, that's not me saying it would be easy for him to give her up. We know he's got an obsessive, possessive personality, so it did feel like it was as much about weaning Rin off Sesshoumaru as weaning Sesshoumaru off Rin, so I agree with you on that score. Later on, as I thought about the chapter more, I started wondering if it was really as simple as a choice between Sesshoumaru and humans, or a choice of what kind of human she wants to be - she can't simply decide to live amongst humans, she has to find a role in human society to perform, in order to fit in. That may be part of what the retraining is - finding that role she's suited for.

However, I do feel that Rin's ultimate fate is to walk a human path, especially since Kagome did say in the chapter everyone's now heading in the right direction in life (or that's my interpretation, anyway). So, that seems to me that it's Rin's destiny to be a human amongst humans. It certainly feels like that while everyone's taking the diplomatic long-view about encouraging her to assimilate amongst humans, it's ultimately with the hope that she'll realise amongst humans is where she should be. In that sense, I believe the choice has already been made - it's just a matter of waiting for Rin to realise it. The way she was invested in the birth of Sango's son (or more accurately, Miroku's absence from the birth) makes me feel like she is assimilating into human life, and she does have a place there.

She also struck me as being quite bossy (but then she's shown signs of that before) - a formidable woman in adulthood, I suspect.

[ladyjanegrey]

Hey, any girl who goes around dumping water on the head of a snarling youkai is formidable, adult or not! LOL!

[milareppa]

Very true.