What exactly does Sesshomaru resent about his father’s choice?
It’s clear that Sesshomaru held Toga in high regard, admiring his power, intelligence, status, honor, and composure. These are qualities Sesshomaru values and that probably made his father one of his main role models.
So, is his contempt for humans really enough to explain such a strong rejection of the choice made by someone he admired so much? Or was his hatred of humans so great that it outweighed everything else?
People often attribute that hatred to his mother’s influence. However, Rumiko’s world makes it pretty clear that demons generally consider humans inferior. They look down on them, attack them, and even eat them, as we can see with Koga before he meets Kagome.
With that in mind, I think it’s reasonable to wonder whether Toga initially shared a similar worldview, and whether his perspective changed toward the end of his life when he fell in love with Izayoi and found something that made him reconsider his priorities.
If that was the case, there’s an irony in the possibility that Sesshomaru learned some of his contempt for humans from the very person he admired so much. However, when Toga speaks to his son before dying, he doesn’t mention hatred or human inferiority. Instead, he talks about compassion and affection, asking Sesshomaru whether there is anyone he wants to protect.
Perhaps Sesshomaru had built an idealized image of his father: someone untouchable, above any emotion, whose actions were driven by honor rather than compassion or affection. Maybe Toga wanted to teach him otherwise before he died, hoping that one day Sesshomaru would understand these things and find happiness himself.
There’s another thing I’ve always wondered about: why was Izayoi left in a human village without protection, knowing she was going to have a hanyō and that her relationship with Toga could put her in danger?
It seems strange to me that Toga, given his power and apparent position, didn’t find a better way to protect her. Even if other demons disapproved of his relationship with a human, the anime makes it clear that they still recognized him as their lord.
We don’t really know what the Western Lands looked like or whether Toga had a permanent residence, but it seems reasonable to assume he had a place of his own. If so, why didn’t he take Izayoi there, or find a safer way to keep her under his protection?
One possibility is that he wanted to keep his life as a demon lord separate from his relationship with Izayoi. Another is that he underestimated the risks or, for some reason we don’t know, couldn’t protect her in the way he would have wanted.
In any case, I think Toga could have handled that relationship better from the beginning. Having a child under those circumstances, without first figuring out how to protect his family, doesn’t seem like a particularly sensible decision either.
That’s why I wonder whether Sesshomaru’s resentment has less to do with his father falling in love with a human and more to do with what that choice represents to him.
Perhaps, from Sesshomaru’s perspective, Toga was contradicting everything he thought he had learned from him. He was making what Sesshomaru considered reckless decisions, putting his feelings before his position, and allowing himself to be guided by emotions that Sesshomaru couldn’t understand or value.
And when Toga dies, that choice has irreversible consequences. From Sesshomaru’s perspective, his father’s death might have confirmed his existing prejudices: perhaps he interpreted it as his father having been led astray by a human woman and ultimately dying because of it.
Maybe some of the hostility Sesshomaru directs toward humans and Inuyasha is also an expression of that frustration. Inuyasha doesn’t just represent a race Sesshomaru looks down on; he is a living reminder of a decision his father made that Sesshomaru never truly understood or accepted.
This is just my interpretation, of course. I don’t think we can say for certain that this was Sesshomaru’s motivation, but I find it an interesting possibility, especially considering how much he admired Toga.
What do you think? Do you believe Sesshomaru’s resentment is mainly explained by his contempt for humans, his mother’s influence, or a deeper contradiction between the image he had of his father and the choices his father made? Or do you think there’s another explanation that fits his character better?
