#honorary butterfly girl inosuke

[acacia-may]

Penny for your thoughts on, say, Shinobu? Please? 💖🦋

Ooh! Thank you so much for asking about my favorite butterfly girl, friend! 🦋 I think this is the first time I've been asked for my opinions about anything Demon Slayer related. I've gotten a few asks for headcanons, but none for my opinions (so far) I don't think, so thank you for that! 🥰

I'm putting everything under the cut so I can talk about some spoilers since I know you've read the manga & you mentioned the light novels before too. I'll try to be vague though. 😅

Thanks again for the ask and for playing my Penny for Your Thoughts ask game! 💖

(Warnings: Demon Slayer Spoilers)

Shinobu is one of my favorite characters in Demon Slayer without a doubt, and I know I won't be able to go into everything I loved about her here but I'll try my best to touch on a few things. I really liked her from the beginning. I was just really entertained by that bantering, teasing friendship she had with Tomioka. It was just so delightful, and honestly one of my favorite things in the series overall! I think I always got the impression that something deeper was going on with her as a character so I didn't find that hollow niceness of hers off-putting like my sister and friends did. That scene where Tanjiro asks her if she's angry, and she finally lets that mask slip a little bit so Tanjiro (and the reader/watcher) can catch a glimpse into what's really going on with her was really such a great moment.

Shinobu has suffered a lot and while I don't agree with a lot her choices in how she chose to handle her pain, I think the idea of her burying it in her quest to keep her family together after Kanae died then throwing it into this revenge plot was really compelling and understandable (even if it wasn't the most healthy). There's this juxtaposition in her where she is an incredibly strong and strong-willed person, but, on some level, she is just barely keeping it together while pretending like everything is fine. The story did not shy away from that, and it was heartbreaking to see her desperately trying not to crack under the weight of these incredibly heavy burdens.

Yet what I think is so compelling about her and a lot of the characters in Demon Slayer actually is that they end up using that pain as motivation for bringing about something good. Not that that makes the suffering they endured okay or worth it, but there is this dedication that Shinobu and a lot of the other demon slayers have that basically says, "This horrible thing happened to me, and now I am going to do everything that I can to make sure no one else has to suffer the way I did." And there is a lot to be said about that. I think a lot about the light novel "One Winged Butterfly" and how Kanae and Shinobu both really went out of their way to become demon slayers after losing their parents. and how resourceful and determined they had to be to make that happen. This is especially true for Shinobu given that she's too petite to behead a demon, but she instead of giving up, she develops her own breathing style that plays to her strengths in pharmacology. Who does that? It's pretty amazing!

And yes, for Shinobu a part of becoming a demon slayer was that she wanted revenge, but I think also you see in her work at the Butterfly Mansion as a healer and also in how she and Kanae adopted Aoi, Kiyo, Naho, and Sumi as their sisters after they lost their parents to demons, that Shinobu also finds a lot of purpose in helping other people. Rather than despairing in the face of these serious hardships, she chooses to take care of others. (Now if we could only get her to take care of herself...but that's its own problem).

The last thing I want to mention is that I think at Shinobu's core is really her relationships with her sisters, the other butterfly girls. It's so clear that her family is really the most important thing in the world to her, and she really tries the best that she can to be strong for them even when she herself is deeply hurting. Also, I love her familial-like bond with Inosuke. It was so unexpected (and so heartbreaking in the end), but it was such a wonderful addition to the series. (Inosuke is an honorary butterfly girl in my opinion lol)💖

For a Shinobu song, there are several that come to mind (I actually have a whole playlist on Spotify just for her), so I've gone back and forth a bit trying to decide which to pick before ultimately deciding on "Moonlight" by Grace VanDerWaal. The girl described in this song is just so much like Shinobu, and I imagine that the people closest to her definitely felt the same kind of sadness that unpins this song as they watched her fake smiles while her pain and quest for revenge slowly destroyed her.

She always has a smile From morning to the night The perfect poster child That was once in my life

A doll made out of glass All her friends think that she's great But I can see through it all And she's about to break

Grace VanderWaal - Moonlight (Audio) - YouTube

I'm also including "Any Other Way" by We The Kings because I find it particularly fitting for Shinobu's arc in the final battle. A bit eerily fitting actually...

Feel the poison now Slipping through my skin I'm not giving up But I'm giving in

To my darker side To my every sin So I can fight again

You could give me hell You could give me death Right before I bend I will have revenge

We The Kings - Any Other Way (Audio) - YouTube

[whirling-fangs]

There's only one brand of person who can boss Inosuke around and it's butterfly girls

[powerup-the-revolution]

I can't believe Ufotable finally acknowledged Inosuke as a honorary butterfly girl ;w;

[teamfreewill56-blog]

I’m now so afraid to listen to the audio of Kyojuro & Senjuro visiting Ruka’s grave. I don’t think I’ll be able to keep it together. And reading about how poor sweet Senjuro is alone all the time makes me wish he moved into the Butterfly Mansion and became an honorary Butterfly nurse. The little girl trio would adore him!

Anon I can never keep it together when I watch the movie, and I didn't keep it together when I listened to the audio either lol. It's okay to cry about it. But I also posted a transcription of it, maybe that will be easier for you? Either way I hope you find some way to experience it because its very sweet. But if you can't or don't want to, thats okay too.

Here’s a link to the transcript:

https://teamfreewill56-blog.tumblr.com/post/675113915819163648/mugen-train-cd-anniversary-of-rukas-death

I hate how alone he is all the time too, it's heartbreaking. I've seen some Tumblrs mention him moving into the Butterfly Estate, it would definitely be a good way to polish his talents and help him feel like he is supporting the Corp, something he really wanted to do. Although I feel like he would still want to stay home for Shinjuro's sake, especially after Kyojuro's passing.

Though the Butterfly girls would adore him I agree, I've seen people say they'd have a crush on him and like, maybe? But they would probably just adore him the same way that they do Tanjiro, Inosuke and Zenitsu. Aoi would probably really like him too. I could easily see him being like directly under Aoi and learning from her/following her instruction for a bit. Senjuro is smart, I bet he would be able to pick up the more complicated tasks and things that Aoi does and have to deal with pretty easily.