I don't think you can call Sesshoumaru worse than Naraku. He doesn't hate his family, only Inuyasha, who was produced from an affair that likely split his family. Even if it didn't and his mother left his father before he went to Izayoi, Inupapa gave Inuyasha his strongest sword, died for him, and then gave Sesshoumaru the sword that couldn't cut anything. That might be taken kind of badly, especially since Sesshoumaru is expected to take over his father's position and succeed him in power... Its not exactly encouraging to think that your father feels so little for you that he would blow you off like that. Its like saying your not worthy of my power. (this is before he realizes what the sword does for Inuyasha)

He is a warrior, which would explain his ease with killing other people, but at the same time he doesn't kill without reason. To my memory, the only time I've seen him fight someone other than Inuyasha or a bad guy was when he slaughtered some bandits to test his new arm. But they were bandits, you can pretty much assume they had it coming.

As for his stuck up and arrogant personality, well, he is a lord. It sorta comes with the package. If he were real you could equate him a daimyo. Arrogant, cold-hearted and cut-throat warriors.

Someone said he'd be pretty short, but you have to take into account the fact that he is a youkai (not simply an oni, but a higher level of demon) and he is superior to humans, so you can't use a human analogue. Also I am a fan of long white hair, and happen to have pretty long hair myself; three feet long at the shortest part and much longer in back. Its not that hard to take care of, it just gets in the way all the time. So, if he were real, I would go and pet his hair. And then get my hand chopped of for touching the daimyo Sesshoumaru (I can't believe he would be a real person in this time, political or financial power just aren't the same thing).

So what I'm saying is, considering his time period, he may be a sociopath, but so were a lot of other lords then, and at least he is an antisocial sociopath: no sending husbands or sons off to die for a piece of land... and now imma stop talking

i see your points and consider them great ones. many of you take into consideration the time period, so i will as well. back then marriages were arranged and because of this most, if not all, were unhappy marriages. I think that Sesshoumaru would be cruel and not the one at the top of my list of potenial husbands. unless u were either kagome or rin, he'd probably hate you. he'd protect you out of honor, but that's probably as far as it went.

u said so yourself he'd be a sociopath, that's not one of the characteristics i'd look for in a potential b/f....

Lady Shikibu wrote:
Someone said he'd be pretty short, but you have to take into account the fact that he is a youkai (not simply an oni, but a higher level of demon) and he is superior to humans, so you can't use a human analogue.

The reason I use human analogue is because he is next to humans often in the series, which is where I made my height comparisons. I also took into consideration that people were much shorter in the 1500's, in addition to the naturally shorter stature of Asians to begin with. He is taller than most people in the series (all except Naraku actually), however he is not freakishly tall compared to everyone else which is why I guesstimated his height as short compared to western standards for men.

Lady Shikibu wrote:
As for his stuck up and arrogant personality, well, he is a lord. It sorta comes with the package. If he were real you could equate him a daimyo. Arrogant, cold-hearted and cut-throat warriors.

Daimyo are arrogant, but they are only cold-hearted toward their enemies. To his subjects, a daimyo is expected to be wise, strong and fearless. Which suits Sesshomaru perfectly, that is, if he even wants to be one. It's a lot of pressure and with little privacy or time on his hands, I doubt Sesshomaru would want to be a daimyo. If he did, he would have chosen his father's domain over wandering around like a vagabond.

(I can't believe he would be a real person in this time, political or financial power just aren't the same thing).

Exactly.

Anybody else get the feeling that Sesshomaru would be the practical type? The reason he hasn't done anything to shorten his hair is probably because it's a sign of high status, or he happens to have a high opinion of his hair. Look at his mother and father. They both have their hair tied up at the least. Inuyasha's hair isn't as long as his brothers. I think there's something either Sesshomaru or RT isn't telling us.

[/quote]The reason he hasn't done anything to shorten his hair is probably because it's a sign of high status, or he happens to have a high opinion of his hair. Look at his mother and father. They both have their hair tied up at the least. Inuyasha's hair isn't as long as his brothers. I think there's something either Sesshomaru or RT isn't telling us.[/quote]

i think he keeps it long so Rin can put flowers in his hair lol

Haiden wrote:
...

~Extremely Arrogant
~Has no concern for those around him
~Takes life for granted
~Hates his Family
~Thinks he is above others
~Is belittling
~Abusive
~Hides his emotions
~Cold hearted

...

Sounds like my BF! Apart from abusive, and just a smidge cold hearted, that is. All I have to do is have him grow out his hair and send him to gym, and I'll have my personal Sesshoumaru, hahaha.

What I love about Sess is that he is pretty much asexual from what we see in canon. That whole scene with Kagura being topless makes me laugh so much [reminds me of that line in Pride and Prejudice. Something about Jane being "tolerable enough, I suppose" and "She smiles too much" while Bingely thinks she is the most handsome girl he ever saw. Darcy rules :side: ].

Also, he is a youkai. He is not human. It is not normal for youkai to be nice. It is weird for them to care about humans and other non-clan/ally/family youkai. We are shown many examples of this. Lots of the youkai shown care about their family or tribe, but couldn't care less about anyone else. Many are like animals with human intelligence.

Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru's father was an exception apparently, though Sess calls him "great and terrible", so I'm guessing he wasn't all cuddly and nice or anything. There are only 3 hanyou in the series, not counting the special island in that movie. At the time even the humans didn't marry for love, everything was arranged with power, wealth and blood ties in mind.

Also, Sesshoumaru's true form is a gigantic spirit dog thingy. The form we see him in all the time is an illusion. If I was a gigantic dog that could fly etc, I think I would look down on humans too (what with the being able to step and crush multiple humans at the same time thing).

I heard somewhere it was normal at the time period for [human] lords to wander around and do their own thing until they wanted to return and act as lord, while their advisors etc took care of the land. But we can't just take humans into account, Sess is Inuyokai, and a daiyoukai at that. There could be a combination of human customs, youkai customs, and Inu customs/instincts that affect him, and we don't know for sure anything. Thats the beauty of it. As fanfic writers, we get to fill the blanks as many times and in as many ways as we want.

IMO Sess hates Inuyasha because their father died for him, and left him tessaiga. He doesn't want to blame his father for dying [and robbing Sess of his chance to grow up and surpass him one day], that would dishonor his father, so he blames the only thing he can. There is also the whole hanyou thing too, though that may just be another excuse to hate him. There may be more reasons, but I don't think there are any more indicated by canon. So, Sess hates Inuyasha, so what should he do? He is a demon, of course he is going to hurt him. He possibly want Inuyasha to provide him some sort good fight, as a substitute for his father whom he will never be able to prove himself against now.

Sess is superior in every single way to humans [and most demons], so obviously he will appear arrogant. He is quite expressive at times, just look at the manga, but seems to have a indifferent 'mask' on when in battle. Why should a youkai care about life? Death is a natural part of life and there are constant battles happening all the time. Also, in this time period battle tactics have just changed. Honor is no longer anywhere near as important to humans, sneak tactics etc are now being used. Possibly another reason to hate humans.

Darrakk, here is a kind of strange story. I'm in my late forties. My mother was born in the 1920s, and during the Great Depression spent a lot of time on her grandfather's farm. She would tell the story of her grandmother and grandfather as some sort of great romance, but once you think it all out, it tells you a lot about how the nobility worked as recently as, say, a century-a-half ago. My great-grandmother was a small woman with long, long hair. From time to time, when my great-grandfather had to go back to Germany, he would pick her up and set her on a stool, so he could cut off her hair so she wouldn't step on it when it was down. He would take the hair back to his family jeweler, and have it plated with gold (people were kind of wacked back in this era, they wore jewelry made out of hair for sentimental reasons). The reason he had to go back to Germany once or twice a year? He had to go back and take care of the business of his "real" family, his wife and children, etc. on his family estate. Turns out my great-grandmother was a servant he had an extreme fondness for. I am guessing they must have had what we call a common-law marriage. Obviously, the man was a bigamist. But because he wasn't the plumber or the bricklayer, he got away with it. He just had more fun living in the U.S. and playing farmer with his servant girl than living with his real family over there. Sounds kind of like InuPapa, doesn't it? But in the day, maybe not all that uncommon?