Kenji and his dad's past

[Ame Yuki Kaze]

Disregarding Seisouhen (which most of us here do), would it be more probable that Kenshin would prefer to keep his past secret from Kenji (and any subsequent children), wait till they were a certain age to tell them, or just tell them from the beginning so they wouldn't be shocked later on?

If Kenshin did keep his past from Kenji and Kenji found out one day, would he more likely be shocked and angry finding out that Dad was a killer or more accepting of it?

Sessha wa rurouni, de gozaro yo.

 

[samuraichikX]

he's probably purposely keeping it from kenji so he doesnt try and think that his father's some mass murderer and try to learn his secrets if kenji thinks that's sooo cool and like most boys, probably will

depending on which storyline kenji learns that he was battousai from depends on how he'll react if it's from the seihousen storyline (which is a piece of crap) kenji will most likely hate him even more for

1. not telling him in the first place
2. hiding something from him
3. he already hates him and it'll just add up

if it's something like from the manga which is the truer story then he'll probably be mostly accepting of it, and hopefully be more like yahiko

hope i answered accurately heh O.o  

[Ame Yuki Kaze]

Oh yeah... he probably would think it was kinda cool. I keep forgetting how bloodthirsty boys that age tend to be. He'd probably be like, "My dad was Battousai? Cool!" I can certainly see Kenshin putting the kaibash on that quickly. Maybe that could cause some friction between father and son. Hmmmm....


Seisuckhen can kiss my a**.

Sessha wa rurouni, de gozaro yo.

 

[Akira_Hoshino]

Hmm, tough question! (At first I thought you were asking about Kenshin's dad... I was like, o.O we know stuff about him?!?!) I think Kenshin would probably keep that information for Kenji for a good long time, unless something happened and he had to reveal it. His reasoning would be that he'd want Kenji to be mature and sure of his beliefs before he's presented with the way his father once lived opposite of his own beliefs. (Though, it's my opinion that Kenshin never deviated from his core beliefs, he just found two drastically different ways of pursuing them.)

But, Watsuki did right a short sequel story to Ruroken about Kenji and Yahiko's son Shinya, I believe. They fought over Kenshin's sakabatou, which Kenshin had passed on to Yahiko and then onto Shinya. Kenji had sort of taken a dark road in his life and acted hitokiri-ish, except without his father's pure motives. That made me sad to see Kenshin's son act so differently from his father, but it did imply that Kenji already knew and had known for some time about his father's past. (Albeit, he was rather grown-up by this time anyway.)

I also seem to remember that part of Seisouhen, the part about Kenji going off and studing with Hiko, is also canon, which would imply he knew at least part of Kenshin's history by age 13. But on that I'm really not sure - I could be remembering entirely wrongly. It's been a long time since I read any of those subsequent shorts.  

[Ame Yuki Kaze]

According to Watsuki's profile, Kenji is a genius swordsman. He's able to learn the HMR moves just by hearing about them in stories told by Yahiko and Sano. He doesn't really need to learn it from Hiko. What I wonder is what twists him, or was he perhaps a bad seed from birth?

Sessha wa rurouni, de gozaro yo.

 

[SilentNinjaFox]

hmmm... Kenji would most likely find out but I doubt any sane parent would tell their children about something like that before they are at least a teenager.

It's kinda sad how, according to what Watsuki said in the last manga, Kenji becomes "more cynical than Saitou and more conceited than Shishio." It's hard to see the son of Kenshin and Kaoru being like that...  

[Ame Yuki Kaze]

Same here. I was rather saddened when I read Kenji's future. I'd love to know what happens to turn him so out of line. Either he's born with a head full of bad wiring (think Damien in The Omen) or something happens as he grows up. The Meiji Era public schools were little more than militaristic indoctrination camps which taught children that the "patriotic" thing to do was join the army and spread "civilization and enlightenment" to the continent (China and Korea). To my mind, it's not a far stretch that this (combined with stories from Sano about horrific China is) leads Kenji to join the Japanese Army in 1894 and go to China. That could certainly twist and corrupt him.

Sessha wa rurouni, de gozaro yo.

 

[SilentNinjaFox]

Yami no Hitokiri

Same here. I was rather saddened when I read Kenji's future. I'd love to know what happens to turn him so out of line. Either he's born with a head full of bad wiring (think Damien in The Omen) or something happens as he grows up. The Meiji Era public schools were little more than militaristic indoctrination camps which taught children that the "patriotic" thing to do was join the army and spread "civilization and enlightenment" to the continent (China and Korea). To my mind, it's not a far stretch that this (combined with stories from Sano about horrific China is) leads Kenji to join the Japanese Army in 1894 and go to China. That could certainly twist and corrupt him.

Sessha wa rurouni, de gozaro yo.

where did you hear about him going into the army?  

[Ame Yuki Kaze]

I didn't hear about it. It's something I'm considering writing.

My main thing is, how does Kenji go from being a normal little boy into this twisted, sadistic psychopath that Watsuki describes? Is he that way from day one, or does something happen to turn him astray?  

[The Atheistic Messiah]

He might of heard all of his dads story's and tried to mimic some of the characters in them, like wasuki-san said, he never saw a hiten mitsurugi-ryu move but he mastered the swordstyle just from hearing about it.  

[SilentNinjaFox]

Yami no Hitokiri

I didn't hear about it. It's something I'm considering writing.

My main thing is, how does Kenji go from being a normal little boy into this twisted, sadistic psychopath that Watsuki describes? Is he that way from day one, or does something happen to turn him astray?

Sounds cool! I wanna read it! ^.^
That's a good question. How does the son of Kenshin and Kaoru become more conceited than Shishio and more cynical than Saitou? I don't think he would have gotten like that until after Kenshin's death mainly because Kenshin wouldn't allow him to become like that.  

[Ame Yuki Kaze]

Well, Kenshin would certainly try his best to keep Kenji from becoming like that, but in the end would understand that he can only serve as a guide. Ultimately, Kenji's life is his own to live as he sees fit.