Thread by @YAIBASHINGEKI

This episode is the turning point in the story we manga readers have been anxiously awaiting the anime adaptation to get to and I’m glad it didn’t disappoint. Anyways I’ve got some thoughts and ramblings to make on this short thread (Very long thread 😂).

#鬼滅の刃 #DemonSlayer

This is by far the biggest “in the moment” subversion in the story so far. An event that’ll go on to change both the tone and stakes of an often grimm story that kny already is to an even more bleak and punishing story to the slayer characters: Nezuko conquering the sun.

This one event had an instant ripple.. No immediately set off a massive wave that kicks Demon slayer straight into a series of events that goes on nonstop until the story’s very conclusion. Basically it’s one massive & what I like to call the Nezuko Saga : the 3 final arcs.

It Immediately sets off an an all-out war from both the slayers & the ever cautious & cowardly muzan (Elaborating on this will be spoilers) for the first time in almost 400 years causing what will end up being the eventual final confrontation and essentially the final arc.

There’s barely 3 arcs left after this episode but how did we get here and why is the the domino from this one thing what heralded the beginning of the end for the kny series?

Well it’s something the series has been carefully leading up to ever since the moment nezuko turned into a demon and managed to suppress the urge to consume both her brother and Giyu, yeah, I know, it’s started that far back in the story.

This was the first indication to us that Nezuko was an unorthodox demon in the Kny sense : which she goes on to set more and more of a distinction for with every passing arc, every story development.

We’ve always known she’s the only demon without complete consciousness hence barely any autonomy to act on her own, reducing her to only doing reactive actions mostly during battles and incapable of stringing complex thoughts much less speak properly unlike every other demon.

Something we’ve been led to believe to be the result of a combination of:

-Her working to resist primal demon urges particularly the extreme pang for consuming human flesh
-A backlash from her severing the telepathic connection to muzan so soon after turning.

leaving her lacking proper post transformation psyche like the rest do as Muzan ensures to that (these are important details the anime cut out for some reason so see the attached manga panels). Very important feat Tamayo had emphasised as far back as early chapters

Here we see a flower: Spider lily among Tanjiro’s lifetime memories flashing before him in what should’ve been in episode 19 (UFO cut it out). This flower is the progenitor of how demon came to be: Muzan being the case 0. Also is the flower that can cure the affliction

It’s implied the proximity of this lily flower to their home plays a huge part in straining that connection and also setting off muzan’s senses in not immediately noticing there was a successful transformation among the bodies he massacred: Nezuko

So she successfully severed the neural connection between her and muzan in the same vain tamayo did almost 400 years back when she broke it off and escaped muzan after he was weakened by Yoriichi’s near death onslaught at the time.

Alright coming back to the topic at hand: Yes that is true but it isn’t still the full picture, in fact it’s a deliberate misdirection by Gotouge to take away the audiences attention from the obvious. Misdirections are something she uses often for both minor subversions:

Demon forms and Achilles heals: Daki & Gyu- both heads simultaneously
Enmu: the train mutated skeleton
Hantnegu: his miniature form etc

And major subversions:
Tanjiro: the 13 forms and tanjiro power ups being in our face ever since episode 19 but we still couldn’t piece

everything together until the reveal in the final arc. Here she uses the novel protagonist pov narration style where most monologues are status updates and the ever pessimistic assessment of fights by tanjiro which helps create and maintain tension particularly in the manga

to misdirect us from the obvious all throughout the story: him actively deciphering the Hinokami dance to translate the steps into fight moves/forms only limited by his physical prowess at that point and moments of ingenuity that by and large happen during battles.

By doing that she keeps the readers attention by the constant little twist she makes throughout almost every fight. These examples and Nezuko’s situation being one of many such narratives tools she employs. But enough rambling about that and let’s get back to the topic at hand.

When we use a birds eye view in retrospect about nezuko’s characterization so far it becomes glaringly obvious her whole character has always revolved around rejecting the aspect of being a monster:w

- her blood demon art the ultimate power that is defined by a demons personality, innate desire or past or all three sometimes is literally “purgi-aqaqQWng demon cells and nothing else”

Suddenly the docile aspect of her is shed in a new light:

The reason she conquered the primal demon urge of consuming flesh heck even going the extra mile of not even harming humans and yet still remaining unable to have full cognition unlike tamayo nor Yushiro who have both done that and not at the cost of their cognition resonance

reinforces the fact she’s been rejecting the monster aspect of her nonstop and wouldn’t stop at just that but eventually reconfiguring her physiology subconsciously until she conquered the sun: this story’s demons biggest biggest and most effective vanquisher.

Yet another testament of her innate repulsion on that aspect and desire to become more human. I’ll go the extra mile to say I believe she’d have eventually reverted into a human If left on her own for a couple more years but alas this didn’t happen,

the plot wouldn’t let it, muzan wouldn’t, tanjiro couldn’t and the slayers as a whole couldn’t afford to at that point. Basically what I’m saying is her whole predicament throughout the series has been the sacrifice of anything to make her less of a monster & more human.

essentially, the whole plot of kny has been an incubation period for doing just that for her the biggest yet being conquering the sun. Thread continues here:

Here’s the rest:

https://twitter.com/yaibashingeki/status/1670524636122038272

Purging demon cells* sorry for the spelling error

One last addition: The hinokami/Sun breathing association with Conquering the sun.
It’s @Onlyfact_s should’ve added to his thread but opted not to for spoilers sake but I’ll be attaching a picture containing just that so spoiler warning: