ｓｅｔａ ｓｏｕｊｉｒｏｕ 「瀬田 宗次郎」 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
eversmiling) wrote2014-09-14 01:14 pm
eversmiling) wrote2014-09-14 01:14 pm
application
Applicant Info
◎ Name: Christy
◎ Journal:swagu
◎ Contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
swagu
Character Info
◎ Character's Name: Seta Soujirou
◎ Character's Canon: Rurouni Kenshin
◎ Character's Age: 17
◎ Canon Point: Around Chapter 120, when Soujirou is waiting for Kenshin to make it to his mini-boss battle!!
◎ Background/History: Here
◎ Is the character a hacker and/or do they have a sixth-sense? Not at all!
◎ Personality:
Seta Soujirou is just a young man, but he's one that's extremely difficult to read. He always has a smile on his face, no matter the circumstances, and it's to the point of being unsettling. He wears a smile when he's speaking to the people that are like a family to him, but he also smiles with just as much cheer when he's facing down a difficult opponent with the plans to kill them. It seems strange to think that a smile could be so unsettling, but it's as if the only thing Soujirou is capable of feeling is amusement.
This is because while Soujirou is difficult to read, he's not difficult to understand. His past is something he guards, never actually relaying it himself in the series, because his formative years were unhappy, to say the least. Soujirou was an illegitimate child taken in by the family reluctantly, and until the age of eight, was physically abused by them often, and considered to be worth little. This became the source of Soujirou's characteristic smile, since he learned that when he was beaten, he would be beaten more if he cried, but if he just kept smiling, the violence he endured wouldn't be as bad. This coping mechanism is something that never left Soujirou, and is an important part of his personality, because it represents his quiet acceptance of many things that happen to him. Other characters comment that Soujirou is emotionless, and in a sense, that's true. His everpresent smile is a near perfect mask for whatever he may be feeling, which makes it difficult, if not impossible to read a real emotion from him. I would personally say it's not that Soujirou lacks emotion, since we clearly see otherwise in his fight with Kenshin, but rather that he's so used to repressing them that he rarely shows anything real, and he's been doing so for so long that he's almost forgotten how to do so.
For example, what allowed Soujirou to leave his abusive family was witnessing Shishio Makoto killing two police officers when he was eight, and partially in fear and curiosity, tended to the man's severe burn wounds. His encounter with Shishio was the most important event of his life by far, because it started him down a road of fierce, unquestioning loyalty. While Soujirou feared Shishio at first, he eventually grew to like him, since Shishio was the first person in his life that had treated him like a person. Soujirou was a young boy and very impressionable, and yet, when he first heard Shishio's creed of social darwinism, it wasn't something he held to. It was a harsh philosophy, and one that he couldn't believe.
That is, until his family discovered he had been harboring Shishio.
When his family truly attempted to kill him, this is when the "good" boy he had been up to that point finally snapped, and in fear, he killed all of them. That isn't to say that he enjoyed it, however, since Soujirou remarks that when Shishio encounters him after the slaughter, he had been crying in the rain rather than simply smiling like Shishio thought. This is an important facet to Soujirou's character, because even though this was many years before the story, he still very clearly has strong feelings about the event and did regret killing his family, even if they were horribly abusive. These were feelings he had repressed until Kenshin challenges some of the viewpoints that kept these feelings in check for Soujirou, and are eventually what allows Kenshin to defeat him at all.
While Soujirou does seem to regret killing his family, at the very least, it's clear that he doesn't regret following Shishio, even after Kenshin deconstructs what kept Soujirou so loyal to him at all. Soujirou felt that he had been abandoned by the world when faced with his family trying to kill him, and instead vowed to protect himself. It was Shishio's creed—"If you're strong you live, if you're weak you die." Soujirou lives steadfastly by this, and even though he's a genial, even friendly person, when faced with an obstacle, he also shows no hesitation in removing it with a sword, and he does so without regret.
However, these traits all form the sort of "behind the scenes" of why Soujirou is the way he is. What most people see is something far simpler than that on the surface, and that surface is rarely breached. Soujirou is a young man that's always smiling and cheerful, and it hardly seems fake. He has a genuine curiosity and friendliness, and the unsettling part of his personality more comes from just how ever-present these traits are. He won't hesitate to do what's necessary, but on his own, he doesn't have much interest in acting as the stereotypical 90s shonen antagonist. He's hardly genuine, but he's genial, and fairly easy to get along with. He seems to value the importance of a team, seeming to think of the Juppongatana as a sort of replacement family (even if he doesn't trust them all), and will even do pretty nice gestures like buying them cakes, even if there was a more cunning meaning to that gesture. He doesn't take things as seriously as he should for the most part and will joke around, even making off-color jokes at times. While Soujirou isn't exactly kind, his actions are certainly never malicious.
In addition, Soujirou does have a side to him that's holds close to some of the honor codes of the traditional samurai, even if such a thing was a little before his time. He values the fairness of a battle, shown when he gives Kenshin time to dress wounds that he had inflicted (as well as getting himself some new sandals he had broken), and when his ideologies are broken, he returns the wakizashi that Shishio had given him and quietly departs to undertake a ten year journey of self-discovery.
Overall, Soujirou is a somewhat unusual antagonist. While he is a strong and fierce foe for the protagonists to face, his greeting of nearly everything with a smile is disarming, and the reasons behind that smile are ultimately rather tragic. And yet, while many villains in this sort of archetype are unable to get past the truths they've held their entire life, Soujirou is different. He's able to not only grow from having his ideologies broken, but to accept everything that led him up to that point with grace and maturity, still feeling respectful and indebted to Shishio rather than angry. He's mannerisms can be unnerving, and yet, there is a part of that smile that is genuine, as if he truly is simply amused at the world around him.
◎ Powers/Abilities:
Soujirou is not only a master swordsman at such a young age, but he's also considered a prodigy beyond even that. Clearly he had a natural affinity from a young age, being able to pull of surprising feats of strength and swordsmanship at the age of eight (like beheading his adopted family, but no one's perfect), but under the tutelage of the hitokiri Shishio and other members of the Juppongatana, Soujirou was able to become an extremely skilled swordsman.
His style of swordsmanship relies on his incredible speed, called the shukuchi. This is a technique that requires incredible leg strength (he doesn't skip leg day), but it allows Soujirou to not only run and catch up to a horse drawn carriage when the horses were galloping at full speed, but in swordplay, allows him to move faster than even Kenshin, who is especially noted for his incredible speed. Soujirou doesn't often use the full capacity of the shukuchi, since there's no need, but instead refers to the reduced forms as "steps before" the true thing. Even with a few steps before the truest shukuchi, Soujirou is able to move so quickly that his movement is imperceptible, with only the damage caused by his very heavy footfalls being visible.
Though in terms of actual swordplay, even without relying on his speed, Soujirou is quite adept. He's a slight young man, which is why he uses his shukuchi, since he's at a natural disadvantage against larger, heavier foes, but is still able to hold his own without much trouble. His style of swordsmanship doesn't have a particular name, but he does have one named technique which he calls the Shuntensatsu—This is a Batoujutsu, an attack relying on quickly drawing a katana from its sheath and bringing down an opponent in a single strike, and Soujirou combines this technique with his shukuchi to create the Shuntensatsu.
◎ Weapons & Other Special Inventory:
◎ Element: Air
◎ Sense: Sight—As a swordsman and one that employs speed as a part of his technique, sight is the most important sense for Soujirou because of how it's required to track and respond to his opponents.
◎ Seven Character Traits: ( Loyal, Cheerful, Fair ) | ( Unyielding, Easily Led, Fake ) + Cunning
Samples
◎ First-Person Sample:
Here and Here — If more is needed, I'd be happy to write a new sample too!
◎ Third-Person Sample: Already in the game!
◎ Is your character retaining any previous game memories? Nope!
◎ Name: Christy
◎ Journal:
swagu◎ Contact:
Character Info
◎ Character's Name: Seta Soujirou
◎ Character's Canon: Rurouni Kenshin
◎ Character's Age: 17
◎ Canon Point: Around Chapter 120, when Soujirou is waiting for Kenshin to make it to his mini-boss battle!!
◎ Background/History: Here
◎ Is the character a hacker and/or do they have a sixth-sense? Not at all!
◎ Personality:
Seta Soujirou is just a young man, but he's one that's extremely difficult to read. He always has a smile on his face, no matter the circumstances, and it's to the point of being unsettling. He wears a smile when he's speaking to the people that are like a family to him, but he also smiles with just as much cheer when he's facing down a difficult opponent with the plans to kill them. It seems strange to think that a smile could be so unsettling, but it's as if the only thing Soujirou is capable of feeling is amusement.
This is because while Soujirou is difficult to read, he's not difficult to understand. His past is something he guards, never actually relaying it himself in the series, because his formative years were unhappy, to say the least. Soujirou was an illegitimate child taken in by the family reluctantly, and until the age of eight, was physically abused by them often, and considered to be worth little. This became the source of Soujirou's characteristic smile, since he learned that when he was beaten, he would be beaten more if he cried, but if he just kept smiling, the violence he endured wouldn't be as bad. This coping mechanism is something that never left Soujirou, and is an important part of his personality, because it represents his quiet acceptance of many things that happen to him. Other characters comment that Soujirou is emotionless, and in a sense, that's true. His everpresent smile is a near perfect mask for whatever he may be feeling, which makes it difficult, if not impossible to read a real emotion from him. I would personally say it's not that Soujirou lacks emotion, since we clearly see otherwise in his fight with Kenshin, but rather that he's so used to repressing them that he rarely shows anything real, and he's been doing so for so long that he's almost forgotten how to do so.
For example, what allowed Soujirou to leave his abusive family was witnessing Shishio Makoto killing two police officers when he was eight, and partially in fear and curiosity, tended to the man's severe burn wounds. His encounter with Shishio was the most important event of his life by far, because it started him down a road of fierce, unquestioning loyalty. While Soujirou feared Shishio at first, he eventually grew to like him, since Shishio was the first person in his life that had treated him like a person. Soujirou was a young boy and very impressionable, and yet, when he first heard Shishio's creed of social darwinism, it wasn't something he held to. It was a harsh philosophy, and one that he couldn't believe.
That is, until his family discovered he had been harboring Shishio.
When his family truly attempted to kill him, this is when the "good" boy he had been up to that point finally snapped, and in fear, he killed all of them. That isn't to say that he enjoyed it, however, since Soujirou remarks that when Shishio encounters him after the slaughter, he had been crying in the rain rather than simply smiling like Shishio thought. This is an important facet to Soujirou's character, because even though this was many years before the story, he still very clearly has strong feelings about the event and did regret killing his family, even if they were horribly abusive. These were feelings he had repressed until Kenshin challenges some of the viewpoints that kept these feelings in check for Soujirou, and are eventually what allows Kenshin to defeat him at all.
While Soujirou does seem to regret killing his family, at the very least, it's clear that he doesn't regret following Shishio, even after Kenshin deconstructs what kept Soujirou so loyal to him at all. Soujirou felt that he had been abandoned by the world when faced with his family trying to kill him, and instead vowed to protect himself. It was Shishio's creed—"If you're strong you live, if you're weak you die." Soujirou lives steadfastly by this, and even though he's a genial, even friendly person, when faced with an obstacle, he also shows no hesitation in removing it with a sword, and he does so without regret.
However, these traits all form the sort of "behind the scenes" of why Soujirou is the way he is. What most people see is something far simpler than that on the surface, and that surface is rarely breached. Soujirou is a young man that's always smiling and cheerful, and it hardly seems fake. He has a genuine curiosity and friendliness, and the unsettling part of his personality more comes from just how ever-present these traits are. He won't hesitate to do what's necessary, but on his own, he doesn't have much interest in acting as the stereotypical 90s shonen antagonist. He's hardly genuine, but he's genial, and fairly easy to get along with. He seems to value the importance of a team, seeming to think of the Juppongatana as a sort of replacement family (even if he doesn't trust them all), and will even do pretty nice gestures like buying them cakes, even if there was a more cunning meaning to that gesture. He doesn't take things as seriously as he should for the most part and will joke around, even making off-color jokes at times. While Soujirou isn't exactly kind, his actions are certainly never malicious.
In addition, Soujirou does have a side to him that's holds close to some of the honor codes of the traditional samurai, even if such a thing was a little before his time. He values the fairness of a battle, shown when he gives Kenshin time to dress wounds that he had inflicted (as well as getting himself some new sandals he had broken), and when his ideologies are broken, he returns the wakizashi that Shishio had given him and quietly departs to undertake a ten year journey of self-discovery.
Overall, Soujirou is a somewhat unusual antagonist. While he is a strong and fierce foe for the protagonists to face, his greeting of nearly everything with a smile is disarming, and the reasons behind that smile are ultimately rather tragic. And yet, while many villains in this sort of archetype are unable to get past the truths they've held their entire life, Soujirou is different. He's able to not only grow from having his ideologies broken, but to accept everything that led him up to that point with grace and maturity, still feeling respectful and indebted to Shishio rather than angry. He's mannerisms can be unnerving, and yet, there is a part of that smile that is genuine, as if he truly is simply amused at the world around him.
◎ Powers/Abilities:
Soujirou is not only a master swordsman at such a young age, but he's also considered a prodigy beyond even that. Clearly he had a natural affinity from a young age, being able to pull of surprising feats of strength and swordsmanship at the age of eight (like beheading his adopted family, but no one's perfect), but under the tutelage of the hitokiri Shishio and other members of the Juppongatana, Soujirou was able to become an extremely skilled swordsman.
His style of swordsmanship relies on his incredible speed, called the shukuchi. This is a technique that requires incredible leg strength (he doesn't skip leg day), but it allows Soujirou to not only run and catch up to a horse drawn carriage when the horses were galloping at full speed, but in swordplay, allows him to move faster than even Kenshin, who is especially noted for his incredible speed. Soujirou doesn't often use the full capacity of the shukuchi, since there's no need, but instead refers to the reduced forms as "steps before" the true thing. Even with a few steps before the truest shukuchi, Soujirou is able to move so quickly that his movement is imperceptible, with only the damage caused by his very heavy footfalls being visible.
Though in terms of actual swordplay, even without relying on his speed, Soujirou is quite adept. He's a slight young man, which is why he uses his shukuchi, since he's at a natural disadvantage against larger, heavier foes, but is still able to hold his own without much trouble. His style of swordsmanship doesn't have a particular name, but he does have one named technique which he calls the Shuntensatsu—This is a Batoujutsu, an attack relying on quickly drawing a katana from its sheath and bringing down an opponent in a single strike, and Soujirou combines this technique with his shukuchi to create the Shuntensatsu.
◎ Weapons & Other Special Inventory:
1. A katana, the Nagasone KotetsuCEREALIA-Specific
2. Another katana, the Kikuichimonji Norimune
3. His keepsake, a wakizashi given to him by Shishio when he was eight
4. A spare set of clothing
◎ Element: Air
◎ Sense: Sight—As a swordsman and one that employs speed as a part of his technique, sight is the most important sense for Soujirou because of how it's required to track and respond to his opponents.
◎ Seven Character Traits: ( Loyal, Cheerful, Fair ) | ( Unyielding, Easily Led, Fake ) + Cunning
Samples
◎ First-Person Sample:
Here and Here — If more is needed, I'd be happy to write a new sample too!
◎ Third-Person Sample: Already in the game!
◎ Is your character retaining any previous game memories? Nope!