Kikyo Demotivational

Unpopular opinion on Kikyo from "Inu-Yasha" and the reception she gets from her more passionate fans. It's my opinion - you're free to disagree.

Now please keep i mind, I love Kikyo too and am not trying to bash her and say she's a terrible character who doesn't deserve fans - that'd be stupid. But let's be real here, folks - Kikyo is not perfect. She's not flawless, she's not a 100% pure and innocent little angel, and she's not blameless for the mistakes she makes and the not-so-good things she does that she ought to be held accountable for. A notable double standard among fans is that when Kagome gets jealous of the fact that Inu-Yasha still has feelings for Kikyo (who is Kagome's past life who's supposed to be DEAD and the whole point of Kagome even being there is that she fulfill what Kikyo COULDN'T in life, but then Kikyo got resurrected, waltzed back into Inu-Yasha's life when she wasn't meant to be there anymore, and became a big focus of Inu-Yasha's attention and affections again even when he'd seemed to be falling for Kagome, so yeah Kagome's point of view is understandable here), and seems to want to keep the two of them apart, Kagome gets demonized as a clingy, jealous Yandere and hated on for being so selfish, immature, and not really caring about Inu-Yasha's feelings or about Kikyo's happiness. But when Kikyo tries to MURDER Kagome out of jealousy over her and Inu-Yasha's relationship, no one calls her a yandere, even though this is a more extreme jealous reaction than anything out of Kagome, who never tried to kill Kikyo and in fact has SAVED Kikyo on occasions.  Yet Kikyo is still seen as pure and blameless, with all blame for her shortcomings getting shifted to Naraku for the shit he pulled that turned her so cold. Heck, the most rabid Kikyo fans even cheer her on in her attempts on Kagome's life! The actual HELL, people!?

Not to mention that there are, like with all the characters, problems with how Rumiko Takahashi wrote her and her part in the story. Many times were presented where it seemed Kikyo would be re-killed and finally be able to move on and rest in peace only for the status quo to be kept instead. The ramifications of Kikyo and her modern day reincarnation both existing in this time period at the same time weren't delved into enough, neither was the fact that Kikyo had put Inu-Yasha into a sleep coma when she was misled to think he'd betrayed her and was a threat to humankind yet she's still treated as a viable romantic partner for him. And how in the end she was treated like a saintly Purity Sue who was never tainted by hatred like other shrine priestesses, even though what we saw of her suggested otherwise.

Kikyo is awesome and may very well be a stronger, more compelling character than Kagome, but her fans need to have their limits and recognize when she is to be criticized for certain faults in her character. To not do so is to risk succumbing to rabid fandom.