That Sword Can't Cut Through This Mess

I'm not certain where this post is going exactly. I'd been thinking about all the different themes Nocenti seems to be working into Katana, and I wanted to go over them, hopefully sort the thoughts into something useful.

There's a lot of deception, usually with a healthy dose of sexism involved. Tatsu regularly pretending to be something she isn't, taking advantage of men's tendencies to underestimate a woman with blonde hair, a lot of jewelry and a pretty dress (not realizing all those things are designed to be weapons). Junko pretends to be some worthless, annoying lush, and maybe it isn't totally a deception, because he does like his sake, and he can be annoying, but he's more than that under the surface. What, I'm not entirely sure. A swordsmith, perhaps.

Katana's supposed to be trying to infiltrate the Sword Clans to clean them out, but absolutely no one seems to be buying it. Maybe because she's been fooling herself. She was operating from a stance that Maseo was murdered by them, and she should remove those elements, avenging Maseo in the process. But she's somewhat responsible for Maseo's death, more than the Swords, so what's the point? There's rot in the Outsiders, no doubt of that, but Maseo was as much a symptom of it as Sickle, Coil, or the others. He was killing innocent people for money, and using his wife as an accomplice. He drew a sword first when Sickle called him on it, he's hardly a victim.

Maseo's probably been duping himself as well. He told Katana he wants her to be happy, to find someone else, then he's bothered when that turns out to be Sickle. Even though he died believing she liked his brother more than him, it somehow surprises him she might turn to Sickle, and him to her. He handled the Soultaker, was trapped inside it, but seemed shocked when the swordsmith told him the sword might end up killing Tatsu.

But that's the bit about obsession. Katana's seems all too willing to change who she is to accomplish her goals. She was willing to play the obedient for Maseo, because he might have liked her, but not as she was. So she became what he expected. Now she's willing to use a sword that steals souls, and pretend to ally with people she despises, to take revenge on people for something they didn't do. To remove corruption, she deceives, she pretends, and innocent people around her suffer. The elderly swordsmith dies, Nori and Yoko's businesses are destroyed, Shun loses a foot, and gets scarred by Coil (for kicks, far as I can tell). So far Tatsu's not done a great job protecting innocents. And she seems to have driven away her husband's spirit, making him lost to her, possibly forever.

I feel like part of her problem is the expectations. She tried to be the dutiful wife for Maseo, in part because that's what was expected of her. I think that's why she chose him. He was the safer boy, the sensible one you marry, and that's why she chose him over Sickle, even if she may have loved Sickle more. And now she's struggling with how to honor his memory. She thought she should be avenging him, destroying the group that destroyed him, but Maseo says he wanted her to find happiness instead. That may have been because he knew the truth of his death that she'd suppressed, but either way, she's caught. Does she move forward with what she thinks is right, or abandon that in favor of someone else's hopes for her? Of course, Maseo's expectations may not be based on an accurate understanding of her personality. He seems to think the woman she was when they were married is the true her, but the tomboy she was as a child might be more true.

I may revisit this sometime. I didn't cover everything yet.