#I'm a S4 girl at heart but yes let' appreciate the Homra trio too

[ridiasfangirlings]

i feel like it gets glazed over in a lot of the fandom etc but the main 3 of homra are genuinely so well written imo

rewatching r:b makes me think abt how mikoto is geniunely emotionally smart the way he read yamata and his view on fushimi, then again with totsuka i just the way hes written and how you can see the different sides of him

idk i just thought it needed appreciation

To be honest when I first watched K I didn’t like Mikoto very much, I thought he was hard to read and just didn’t have a lot of interest in him. The side materials really helped though, I agree that he’s actually written very well as a character. I like that he’s such a contrast to Munakata, where Munakata saw being King as answering a question for Mikoto it was like equal parts blessing and curse — it both allowed him to protect the people he cares about and gave him a group of people who he wants to protect, but at the same time this power always puts them in danger and Mikoto has to dull himself to keep from losing control. He’s very focused on living freely and doing as he pleases, but it’s not like he’s unaware of the consequences either. One of the things I really like about the King and the Traitor short story (besides, like, all of it) is how when Fushimi berates him for being selfish Mikoto is just like ‘yup,’ like he kinda wanted someone to say that to him and he actually appreciated Fushimi being honest. And in general Mikoto caring about people — especially Fushimi — while looking like he doesn’t is great, in both the aforementioned short story and in LSW when he shows up after Hisui is defeated, I think it’s very clear to literally everyone but Fushimi that Mikoto cares about his well being. Mikoto puts on an image like this violent barbarian but he’s clearly very perceptive in his own way and does understand his people.

Totsuka I think tends to get flattened down by fandom some and it’s a shame because I love the duality of Totsuka. Like on the one hand he’s a tragic cinnamon roll who dies to start the story rolling, but he’s also someone with his own selfishness and flaws and he’s keenly aware of both how other people see him and his own feelings. He’s internalized the idea of himself as someone who ‘doesn’t hold onto anything’ and thinks that seeing Mikoto be King is the only thing he truly wants, and seems to treat it flippantly when Anna says he’ll die if he stays near Mikoto — but when he’s actually dying he regrets, and he’s upset, because he did truly want to stay with everyone. He can switch between being friends with everyone in Homra on equal footing and ‘seeming like he’s watching over them,’ he clearly tries to get Fushimi and Yata to understand each other and make up but he’s also very aware when he’s pushing Fushimi’s buttons and keeps doing it anyway. He can be friends with everyone but also cruel when he wants to be, and he thinks of himself as selfish because he wants Mikoto to be King more than Mikoto himself wants it. My favorite part of Totsuka is that he could have been this perfect innocent angel martyr but he’s actually a much more complex and interesting character than that. 

And of course poor Kusanagi, with his dead friends. Honestly if there’s one complaint I have with the writing for the Homra trio it’s probably in Kusanagi, because he’s great but I don’t think the series follows through with him enough. I’ve complained before about Circle Vision giving the dreams to the wrong people, Homra’s dream should have 100% been Kusanagi’s and taken time to explore his grief, because I feel like the show at large glosses over it. Like that whole movie was everyone else being like ‘yeah so this is a dream’ and basically everyone except Sukuna and Kusanagi accept that. Kusanagi would normally be one to immediately notice it though, it’s just he clearly doesn’t want to because he wants his friends back. I love that Mikoto and Totsuka stay behind with him a bit and drink with him but I really wanted more of that, justice for Kusanagi. I like everything that they do with him before that, especially in Side Red where we get the first hints of it with Kusanagi and Shiotsu talking about ‘when your King crumbles what will you do.’ I think Kusanagi in particular has the hardest role in the trio, because Mikoto’s accepted he’ll likely die eventually due to being a King and I think Totsuka’s always assumed he’d die first, while Kusanagi is the one who really has to accept that he’s going to be the one to survive.