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crumpeteer raised the idea of selling
dangermousieon
Wolf's Rain the other day, and I figured a good way is to introduce her to Darcia. (Because Darcia is the
Wolf's Rain candidate for angsty, tragic love. If you want the antisocial loner devoted to protecting the innocent and fragile girl, you hae Kiba and Cheza, if ou want the lifelong loves who can't get it together until it's almost too late, you have Cher and Hubb, and if you want blooming slightly snarky but pretty much healthy and well balanced, you have Hige and Blue. For a series that's NOT about romantic pairings,
Wolf's Rain does it's best to cater to all your OTP needs.)
Darcia is the villain of the series, true, but he is, at first, ruled by his love(think Hakkai in
Saiyuki after Kanon died, only he stays in the psychotic wrathful stage) Darcia is a noble, and his love, Hamona, falls into a coma because of a sickness that plagues the nobles, even at the cost of his own humanity, and when we meet him(even though we're not let in on it immediately) all that's left of him is his love for Hamona and his need to cure her. Initially, his quest is to use Cheza to find a cure for the illness and cure Hamona(and the other nobles, but that's more a beneficial side effect than a goal) Eventually, though, things go from really really bad for him to horrendously terrible on all levels(stupid Jagara...all your fault. So he chose your sister over you, get over it) Before everything went bad for him, Darcia was a nice, kind, peaceful guy who wanted nothing more than to be with Hamona, but that was taken from him. Early in the series, even before we know his full story, we see traces of the old Darcia, mostly in his interactions with Cher, and we can see that the Darcia we know isn't necessarily the "real" Darcia, but rather, the Darcia the life has made.
Honestly, even though I don't view the character as redeemable for his actions(because, even though his true villainy was brought about by Jagara's killing and poison, he started down that path himself) part of me has never really been able to shake the idea of him as a tragic hero who lost his way. Actually, one of the appeals of the series it's that, for the most part, the character's aren't cut and dried. Really, the only ones you can honestly say are just nice people are Toboe and Hubb(well, Cheza too, but it's more by default with her, and she tends to be blind to everything that's not Kiba anyway) Even Jagara isn't flatout evil(ok, she is, but a lot of her motices come from her twisted love for both Darcia and Hamona)
Another reason I chose Darcia is because Wolf's Rain is one of the most beautifully animated things ever in my opinion, and I think the two scenes in the (very large) picspam below showcase that nicely. The vids do, too.
Note: the second half of the picspam avoids nudity only by taking the Lady Godiva approach. Tasteful and you don't really see anything, but...
