![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Half way through the Atobe/Yukimura story, there is now no question whatsoever; it's Yukimura who's manipulating Atobe.
And I find myself reflecting on my characterization of Yukimura. He is the one character I had to develop in a nearly complete vacuum of direct representations. What I wound up with is someone who is gentle with his own people but fierce--just barely within the bounds of acceptable socialization. A number of people seem to agree with me that Yukimura should not, cannot, be wishy-washy, merely sweet, always gentle, or, in fact, in any way yeilding. (In the vocabulary of pairing-fic, he is not uke.) But why? We see almost nothing of him, why do I so immediately and firmly latch onto an isolated moment or two that indicate posession of a spine and extrapolate it into such fierceness?
I have come to the conclusion that it's because of the overall patterns of the tenipuri story. Some of the boys are quite courteous, but none of them are sweet and none of them are yeilding. On top of that, the general pattern is that the captain is the strongest player. The exceptions (as Aishuu pointed out) are Rokkaku, where the choice of Aoi as captain instead of Saeki is either a fluke or a whim of their moderately senile coach, and Yamabuki, who are just plain weird, and neither of whose top players are in any way reliable. We have, thus far, no indication that either of those things obtain for Rikkai, and however much Sanada has been elevated as the strongest player on the junior high circut, he isn't the captain. Yukimura is. The parallels drawn between he and Tezuka (win this one for buchou, we'll both have our captain's back next time, etc.) also hint that Yukimura is/should be the strongest of Rikkai.
As to why I don't think he could be the strongest without being fierce and rather wild in his brilliance... well, that, I suppose, comes from the undertones of the show. Consider what Tezuka knows, and had to get through to Echizen; you don't stay with something so demanding unless you find joy in it. And, given the extent to which the boys are presented in the light of warriors, that joy has to be in an absolute, deadly concentration, a complete dedication to the edge of conflict. Yukimura could not hold his own among the best without that, and, unlike Tezuka, he doesn't supress all affect. On that basis, I assume that when he fights he shows his edge more clearly than Tezuka does.
What I find myself most fearing is that Konomi will chose to make Yukimura, not a light-weight, but unworldly; a brilliant player who has relied on Sanada to actually keep order in his team. It could be done without breaking the pattern, but that would be so unspeakably boring. It would evicerate his character of any interest besides the purely pretty. And, I much fear me, that is what the anipuri writers have chosen to do already in the alter-canon materials (games, rajipuri, etc.). Bleah. I say, bleah.
ETA 11/07: Well, Konomi didn’t do that, which is good. I was right, and Yukimura is canonically kick-ass. Now I’m afraid the ending will be something worse.
And I find myself reflecting on my characterization of Yukimura. He is the one character I had to develop in a nearly complete vacuum of direct representations. What I wound up with is someone who is gentle with his own people but fierce--just barely within the bounds of acceptable socialization. A number of people seem to agree with me that Yukimura should not, cannot, be wishy-washy, merely sweet, always gentle, or, in fact, in any way yeilding. (In the vocabulary of pairing-fic, he is not uke.) But why? We see almost nothing of him, why do I so immediately and firmly latch onto an isolated moment or two that indicate posession of a spine and extrapolate it into such fierceness?
I have come to the conclusion that it's because of the overall patterns of the tenipuri story. Some of the boys are quite courteous, but none of them are sweet and none of them are yeilding. On top of that, the general pattern is that the captain is the strongest player. The exceptions (as Aishuu pointed out) are Rokkaku, where the choice of Aoi as captain instead of Saeki is either a fluke or a whim of their moderately senile coach, and Yamabuki, who are just plain weird, and neither of whose top players are in any way reliable. We have, thus far, no indication that either of those things obtain for Rikkai, and however much Sanada has been elevated as the strongest player on the junior high circut, he isn't the captain. Yukimura is. The parallels drawn between he and Tezuka (win this one for buchou, we'll both have our captain's back next time, etc.) also hint that Yukimura is/should be the strongest of Rikkai.
As to why I don't think he could be the strongest without being fierce and rather wild in his brilliance... well, that, I suppose, comes from the undertones of the show. Consider what Tezuka knows, and had to get through to Echizen; you don't stay with something so demanding unless you find joy in it. And, given the extent to which the boys are presented in the light of warriors, that joy has to be in an absolute, deadly concentration, a complete dedication to the edge of conflict. Yukimura could not hold his own among the best without that, and, unlike Tezuka, he doesn't supress all affect. On that basis, I assume that when he fights he shows his edge more clearly than Tezuka does.
What I find myself most fearing is that Konomi will chose to make Yukimura, not a light-weight, but unworldly; a brilliant player who has relied on Sanada to actually keep order in his team. It could be done without breaking the pattern, but that would be so unspeakably boring. It would evicerate his character of any interest besides the purely pretty. And, I much fear me, that is what the anipuri writers have chosen to do already in the alter-canon materials (games, rajipuri, etc.). Bleah. I say, bleah.
ETA 11/07: Well, Konomi didn’t do that, which is good. I was right, and Yukimura is canonically kick-ass. Now I’m afraid the ending will be something worse.
