Ancient Clan - yyh, without kurama,and hiei

Kiki

April 15th, 2005, 05:08 PM

There's a pretty good chance Yusuke would have died early on without Kurama and Hiei or any replacement characters like them. They both make Yusuke (as well as Kuwabara) stronger as well as help him of their own merits.

Kurama: (first of all, without him there'd be a much lower girl fan base, you can't deny it) When we first meet Kurama, he's sad and he only wants to save his mother with the Forlorn Hope. Kurama helps Yusuke realize the full potential of his empathy and pathos. Not only does Yusuke trust such a horrible demon, but he pities him and is willing to sacrifice himself to save a "monster." ("Sometimes I fear I am one of those mother eating monsters..." Oh Kurama's soooo wonderful!) Since part of Yusuke's strength is his humanity and, for lack of a better word, concern for people, he's a stronger detective. This concern drives him to save others, simply because they are alive and deserve a chance. Every great leader needs to connect to his people, especially if he wishes to save them. Kurama was integral in Yusuke's growth in this aspect. That's why he rocks. He also saves Yusuke from Hiei's attack and blah blah blah...
He's also a necessary character. He's the strategist; the calm one who keeps a level head and can overcome obstacles without fury. Yusuke is powerful because he gets intense impulses and throws himself into danger to save others. This makes him unpredictable, which is an asset. However, it also makes him likely to "waste" energy on anger and rash moves. He will hit and destroy his target, however, he takes more tries because his passions blind him. Kurama is able to keep his cool which not only helps him defeat enemies, but helps his teammates not get too worked up over things. He's like the Quatre of team Urameshi... le sigh... Oh Quatre... Anyway... moving on.

Hiei: He indirectly fosters growth in Yusuke's character. Only because he grows so much, can any benefit really be brought about. In the beginning of the series, we have a human hating demon who just wants to be the best (if I recall correctly.) Later on when the barrier begins to be broken, he at first says he doesn't care if the demon world opens up because he would like to go home again, while he claims it's the "tourists" he doesn't like, we know it's really because he has grown quite fond of humans: most of whom are weak and pitiful compared to him. And he does pity them, which is why he chooses to help. His amazing character growth allows Yusuke the same freedom to grow as well. Before he was just some punk kid who didn't really care about anything, but through exposure to Hiei and Kurama and everyone else, he transforms into a better person. Yah, I know the connection with that one is much looser... Oh wait, Hiei is an instrument for Yusuke's trust and compassion for everything. When they were about to be crushed by the gate of betrayal, Yusuke chose Hiei to hit the switch, even though he was the one who seemed the least likely to save his teammates. Remember Kuwabara's complaints about not being able to trust him? Yusuke ignored him, the person he knew and understood best, the one who saved his body from the fire with Keiko, the only other human, and put all his faith into a beady three-eyed demon who swore to kill him when he got the chance. Hence, another growth on the part of Yusuke.

So what do we have? We see that Yusuke would not have been able to grow as a fighter, spirit detective and a person without the two demons on his team. Were he to fight without their help, direct and indirect, he would not have lasted as long as he did against any enemy.

Hiei helped Kuwabara grow by making him tear down his former prejudices and trust someone who deemed anything but that trust. Kurama helped him grow by believing in him, which really is significant. If Kuwabara didn't have faith in himself to fight, he wouldn't have been able to create the dimension sword, or do any of the cool tricks he learned, like the big spirit beast sword donut attack. Since he had Kurama and Hiei to influence him, he also became more empathetic, and was able to trust Seaman (they really should have given him a better name) even after Seaman tried to kill him and his buddies.

So basically, if they kept all other aspects of the show the same (all the enemies with the same strengths etc) Kuwabara and Yusuke would have died before they really went anywere without Kurama and Hiei. Not because they suck or anything, but because the strength of team Urameshi lies in the team and the teamwork. Together they create a whole and are a powerful force to contend with. :)