History Fridge / YuyuHakusho

* Younger Toguro is far from the only individual who's hated himself enough to think he deserves the lowest level of Hell. It's very possible that several cases like his have cropped up over the centuries, and what's worse, some of them likely didn't have as dire a rap sheet as he did.

[[AC:FridgeHorror]]

* A bit of FridgeHorror: The reason Kuwabara sees attacking women as an [[ThisIsUnforgivable unforgivable]] sin is might due to being [[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale abused for years on end]] by his older sister, Shizuru.

* Consider for a moment that much of the rigid views that led to Sensui's mental collapse may have been trauma in and of themselves. Since demons were attracted to his power from a young age he effective became a ChildSoldier fighting a war no one else in his life could help him with or even see. Think about what that must do to a child, was his view of the world dogmatic or was he holding tight to the simplistic justification of a little boy trying to rationalize the fact that he has to kill constantly just to stay alive. Could he not take that the world was "gray" or was it that the way he'd been reassuring himself that he wasn't an evil person for all of his life was shattered in the most brutal way imaginable. Given the jaded man we meet when we see the real Sensui this was as much about his own self-image as any big picture morality.

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* Yukina and Hiei are confirmed to be twins in the Three Kingdoms arc. It's stated that the Ice Maidens/Koorime reproduce asexually every hundred years. It's also stated in Kurama's internal narration that Hiei isn't old enough to remember the really bad stuff Mukuro's done in the past, and if Yukina had children, it's highly unlikely that they'd never be mentioned, given that family is important enough to both Hiei and Yukina that they each independently went on a quest to find the other. Therefore, Yukina is probably not yet of childbearing age. Hiei's voice is pretty deep, so they're probably both somewhere in the middle of youkai puberty.
** FridgeHorror: Hiei is probably the second-most-often-[[{{Shipping}} shipped]] character in the series after [[FandomBicycle Kurama]]. Hello, Fridge Paedophilia.

* In the last volume of the manga, we find out about Enma brainwashing low-class demons so that they would attack humans and he could justify his power over the human world as protecting it. In retrospect, Hiei stealing the Shadow Sword and kidnapping Keiko seems extremely out of character for him; his goal has always been to find his sister and his tear gem. And this is to say nothing of the cackling supervillain act he puts on. Flashbacks show him always being the same somewhat lowkey guy we've always seen. Is it possible that he was a victim of Enma? If so, kick in the fridge horror: Hiei might only be alive because Koenma thought Yusuke needed backup against the four beasts. And Koenma also immediately followed that mission up by sending Yusuke to rescue Yukina, because Yusuke owed Hiei. Hiei and Yukina both might only be alive and free because Koenma is so reasonable.

* The naming conventions used among the main cast is interesting when viewed through the lens of Western and Japanese naming conventions. In the West you normally only call someone by their last name if you're very dismissive of them as an individual, and you're saying they're so low class that only their family name has any value. In Japan, by contrast, referring to someone by their last name is seen as a sign of respect since you're acknowledging that their family name brings them a sense of honor and worth. Kuwabara constantly referring to Yusuke as Urameshi and Yusuke constantly referring to Kazuma as Kuwabara is amusingly fitting in the lens of both concepts. Kuwabara and Yusuke both respect each other as rivals, hence the last name usage, but neither of them are ever openly affectionate enough around one another -- even after becoming friends -- that they feel comfortable referring to one another by their first names. In the case of Hiei, his clan abandoned him when he was born so he has no clan name to be addressed by. And in the case of Kurama, even though he has a human name, everyone respects Kurama enough that they can refer to him with such a familiar term.

* The third Saint Beast has almost no presence in the plot; in fact, he could easily have been removed from the story arc with little effect. His only role is to kill the second Saint Beast (Who had apparently been killed by Kuwabara moments before; had he been actually dead, no one would have complained), and then be killed by Hiei in one of the shortest fights in the series. However, it all makes sense once you realize that Hiei was originally supposed to be a one-shot villain, but became so popular that the author wrote him back into the story. In order to do so, the author had to make last-minute changes to the plot so that Hiei would have something to do -- and since all of this was added in at the last minute, neither Hiei nor the Saint Beast he fights have much effect on the plot of that story arc.
** Makes sense. Although I assume Seiryu would still need to appear if Hiei hadn't been brought back as he and his fellows were based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Symbols_%28Chinese_constellation%29 these constellations.]]

** This troper thought the same, that Byakko's survival level went to ridiculous extremes and his actual death is so sudden and unexpected that one expects him to rise back up again like he did before, that and it's a total AssPull to suddenly show Hiei has honor at the expense of Kuwabara's character, further cementing his status as the ButtMonkey who never wins any fights.
** Never wins? Byakko was already dying and needed a bit of Seiryuu's energy to survive. I'd say Kuwabara had won handily.
*** And there's, you know, him beating Risho and elder Toguro and Sea Man, plus some demon mooks at Tarukane's compound and on the boat to the tournament.
* Why would a tournament that encourages "winner via killing" and also only allows ONE substitute per team no matter what make it MANDATORY that there be five people on each team in the FINALS or face instant DQ?
** To make it exceptionally rare that anyone actually wins said tournament, thereby avoiding having to actually give out the promised "Anything you ask for with no exceptions" prizes the winner is supposed to receive. Big promise gets people to enter, technicalities keep anyone from winning, no prize is handed out, sorry, better luck next time. Classic scam.
** Actually (at least in the anime dub), the team only had to have all 5 members if they hadn't already used a sub. A team that had lost members and subbed someone in could still compete, but a team who had not yet made a substitution needed five people.
*** Who said that and when did they say it? Because this troper doesn't remember ever hearing that being said despite multiple repeat viewings. Also, it makes no sense when you consider that in a competition as brutal and cutthroat as the Dark Tournament, multiple teammate deaths are likely the norm, making finding more team members to take their place even more difficult.
*** Juri says it when she checks the rulebook. The exact line is "Since it is the final and neither team has used their substitution..."
** On this subject, who else was on Toguro and Genkai's team and where are they now?
*** I always assumed that Genkai was actually the fifth member of Team Toguro, and that the other three were just kept on for fifty years.
*** The tournament rules make it clear that the winning team only needs to win three out of five matches. Three members of the team are alive when the anime takes place: Genkai, Younger Toguro, and Elder Toguro. The other two members likely died in the final round.
*** But if the above speculation is true and they did survive, then one wonders what their wish was.
*** Possibly they, like Genkai, wished not to be bothered again. Karasu and Bui were not among them; they were defeated and enslaved by Toguro after he became a demon.

* Interesting this isn't mentioned yet, but when Rando was killed off, it is very likely all ninety-nine of the techniques he stole are now lost. Sure, it may be a good thing some of them won't be learned again, but it's a bit tragic to think how many unique moves vanished in one kill and how meaningless the slain trainers' lives were.
** Rando wasn't killed, he was just knocked out while shrunk and immediately tied up in his own web and shipped to the Reikai.
** [[spoiler:Unless he was one of the demon's Enma's faction brainwashed in the ongoing effort to justify Spirit World's "protection" of humanity. Most of those demons were excuted after capture.]] Though, given Koenma's heavy involvement its just as likely that the later action was skipped in this instance as it would have drawn too much attention.

** FridgeHorror: Hiei is probably the second-most-often-[[{{Shipping}} shipped]] character in the series after [[FandomBicycle Kurama]]. Hello, Fridge Paedophilia. I [[{{Squick}} did not want]] to meet you here today.
*** From what I remember Koorime reproduce once every century. So the twins are probably past youkai puberty (or at their "teen" years to fit the human age frame) but not at that time of the century for reproducing.
*** ^You mean "''im''probably". Please read OccamsRazor. For them to be well into their "teen"-equivalents would require Yukina's ovulation cycle to start ''significantly'' after puberty, developmentally speaking, which doesn't make sense. The ''big'' landmark of cis-female puberty ''is'' the ovulation cycle starting. With Ice Maidens, their ovulation cycle is a century long. Even if the whole species's ovulation cycles are synchronised, which is not actually indicated in the series, then logically Yukina and Hiei would have been born at around the same time as a whole bunch of other ice maidens, and thus would be hitting puberty at the same time as all the other ice maidens of that generation, and it only makes sense that said puberty would be timed to the species's ovulation cycle because ''that is what puberty is for''. If you ''really'' want to plausibly put them in their teen-equivalents, it makes ''way'' more sense to have Yukina be using some sort of youkai birth control because she doesn't feel ready to be a mother yet.
*** Then again, Yukina and Hiei are only half Koorime, thus it is entirely possible that automatic reproduction was simply not one of the genetic traits passed down to Yukina, so she and Hiei could be adults. Or maybe, like real life animal hybrids, neither is capable of reproduction due to broken chromosomes. Though there is also the possibility that due to the inherent child creating nature of Koorime BOTH Hiei and Yukina could have that trait and still be children, because demons are weird.
*** Remember the scene where Sensui fell apart at the sight of female {{Youkai}} being used as [[SexSlave Sex Slaves]]? That same fate was going to befall to Yukina. And a Koorime's jewel shines brightest when her child is born. If the Black Book Club had learned of this....let's be glad that Team Urameshi rescued her in time.
*** So, Yukina is prepubescent. Tarukane states something alone the lines of, "we tried everything" to get her to cry, but they eventually ran out of things that worked. Bringing in the Toguro brothers was his last resort because he couldn't think of anything else... Yukina was raped. Yukina was raped a lot. Being unable to bear children at such a young age is probably the only thing that saved her from having children back then. And that's a good thing, because can you imagine what would have happened to her children?
*** But Yukina freezes the room every time someone comes to see her. That’d be very uncomfortable to try and attempt rape and it’s known in a Yuki-Onna myth, which Koorime are known as in the Human World, that they can and will freeze you to death especially if they manage to get close enough to touch you. Plus, she is seen to have traumatic memories about being burned and people she cared about being killed, but not that. It’s possible that’s WHY Tarukane hired the Toguro brothers, who were stated to be very expensive, was because he kept losing his men to Yukina as she kept freezing them... or rather their ‘family jewels’, as she can’t kill them.
** All of the above falls under the assumption that Koorime reproduction and maturation are tightly interlocked. They're asexual reproducers, a group that often has at least some level of choice on when they get pregnant. Its possible even likely that the 100 year cycle is a custom to control the population growth on their isolationist floating island. Yukina being outside from that and prior to that presumably raised by her mother's friend who bitterly hated her culture for what it had happened, she's just as likely chosen not to.

** This is not entirely true: despite being bullied by his sister, the two shares a strong connection. It's possible that Kuwabara is just a hot-blooded gentleman (plus that he wanted to get a girlfriend).
* In the Anime Koto speculates that Kurama generated the tree out of thin air like that because he had planted seeds there thousands of years ago. Who is to say that Kurama didn't suggest Yomi host the tournament in that exact spot for that very reason. It'd suit Kurama's CrazyPrepared personality.
** That explanation is dub-only. In the Japanese version, he revived the tree by grafting a piece of the cherry tree that was in his front yard during his human childhood, which makes the whole thing ''full'' of symbolism by revitalizing something ancient and dead with something that is considered [[MonoNoAware all the more beautiful for how fleeting it is, underlining the value of the brief-to-demons time Kurama will be able to live as a human without changing his identity]]. It was probably changed in English because keeping it in would require dropping other, more important lines to explain both MonoNoAware ''and'' the Japanese cultural significance of cherry blossoms.

** Though how old is the Kekkai Barrier anyway? It's relevant to the question if it existed when the Lady Doctor was still alive. If it's not elaborated in canon we'll have to give the above explanation a maybe.
** I believe that Raizen was just weaker back then. It seems like the big three demons arose in power almost simultaneously to create the uneasy peace. A lot of the time line doesn't make sense. The kekkai barrier must have been set up during feudal times, but the demons of Demon World were still able to have access to enough humans to eat despite most of them being too strong to pass through. And then Kurama was attacked and fled to the human world fifteen years prior to the show to possess a baby and heal. When he left, Yomi seemed to be weaker than Kurama; and then he became one of the three strongest demons in the world.

*** So, Yukina is prepubescent. Tarukane states something alone the lines of, "we tried everything" to get her to cry, but they eventually ran out of things that worked. Bringing in the Taguro brothers was his last resort because he couldn't think of anything else... Yukina was raped. Yukina was raped a lot. Being unable to bear children at such a young age is probably the only thing that saved her from having children back then. And that's a good thing, because can you imagine what would have happened to her children?

** All of the above falls under the assumption that Koorime reproduction and maturation are tightly interlocked. Their asexual reproducers, a group that often has at least some level of choice on when they get pregnant. Its possible even likely that the 100 year cycle is a custom to control the population growth on their isolationist floating island. Yukina being outside from that and prior to that presumably raised by her mother's friend who bitterly hated her culture for what it had happened, she's just as likely chosen not to.

*** ^This troper thought about that, but Yukina freezes the room every time someone comes to see her. That’d be very uncomfortable to try and attempt rape and it’s known in an Yuki-Onna myth, which Koorime are known as in the Human World, that they can and will freeze you to death especially if they manage to get close enough to touch you. Plus, we see her have traumatic memories about being burned and people she cared about being killed, but not that. This troper figured that’s WHY Tarukane hired the Toguro brothers, who were stated to be very expensive, was because he kept losing his men to Yukina as she kept freezing them... or rather their ‘family jewels’, as she can’t kill them.

*** ^This troper thought about that, but Yukina freezes the room every time someone comes to see her. That’d be very uncomfortable to try and attempt rape and it’s known in an Yuki-Onna myth, which Koorime are known as in the Human World, that they can and will freeze you to death especially if they manage to get close enough to touch you. Plus, we see her have traumatic memories about being burned and people she cared about being killed, but not that. This troper figured that’s WHY Tarukane hired the Toguro brothers, who were stated to be very expensive, was because he kept losing his men to Yukina as she kept freezing them to death.

* A bit of FridgeHorror: Most likely the reason Kuwabara sees attacking women as an [[ThisIsUnforgivable unforgivable]] sin is most likely due to being [[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale abused for years on end]] by his [[BitchInSheepsClothing bitchy]] older sister, Shizuru.