You cannot avoid being human: Blue Eye Samurai

Blue eye Samurai’s protagonist Mizu is called many things throughout its first season- a monster, an impurity, a demon, an Onryō. She is a creature filled with shame looking to fulfill simply one goal - vengeance - this is informed to us in the opening minute of the show. She wants to seek revenge from the 4 white men who came to Japan near the time of her birth, one of whom is responsible for Mizu's creation and her mother’s death. Her hate for them and for herself for being impure is the driving force for her journey.  

I have no interest in money or power. I have no interest in being happy; only satisfied.

She makes questionable choices in this journey - leaving a woman and her child to freeze to death when she could have helped them, letting Akemi be taken captive by her father’s guards and be forcefully married off to an abusive husband, killing countless men in order to reach Abijah Fowler, and ultimately setting a whole city on fire as a sacrifice to her revenge quest. 

It is her vengeance that fuels her, that gives her almost superhuman strength to keep on fighting, to never stop.

That is what makes her an Onryo the world sees her as; it is how she sees herself.

The world sees me, and sees a hateful monster... an Onryo. My own mother saw it, too, and could not love me. Maybe they're right.

But despite what the outside world and she tells herself, she is not less than human. Her hatred has formed through betrayal of love. Though Mizu fundamentally views herself as shameful and unworthy of love, there was a time when she was willing to be wrong, when she gave up her revenge for the perfect life, allowing herself to be vulnerable. Her mother (who we later find out is not her actual mother) gets her married to Mikio, and for a while, Mizu tries being the wife she thinks he wants, playing the role to perfection over what seems like years - underplaying her skills with a knife, serving him food, helping him out with chores, only hoping that she finally be accepted, even if it's a part she plays. It is only when Mikio asks her to show her true self and then rejects her after losing in an increasingly vicious fight, calling her a monster, that she realises she would never be accepted for who she is. On top of it, the ultimate rejection comes when she learns the two people she trusted the most have betrayed her. Her only crime was the circumstance of her birth, and she was cast out and punished for it. Mizu takes her final Onryō form that everyone has already decided she is and vows to not let anyone stand in her way to kill the 3 white men left in Japan.

Her fundamental trait is that in order to achieve her goal, she has to give up every other feeling - be it love, or friendship- anything she perceives as a weakness. Her two biggest connections to her humanity are the Swordfather and Ringo. One accepts her whole heartedly and gives her shelter in a time of crisis, and the other accepts her as broken just like he is, and supports her like an apprentice would, even if she thinks she doesn't deserve both of their love.

Mizu tries to shrugs off her humanity but it cannot escape it completely. Perhaps the biggest example of this is when she choses to save Taigen instead of killing Abijah Fowler in his tower when she had a chance. She fought innumerable obstacles, had life threatening wounds and was hit by a bullet on the 8 levels to his chambers only to give it all up when she sees Taigen is in real danger. The Taigen who had bullied her as a child, who was arrogant, selfish and out to kill Mizu in a duel. In that time, she asks for the help she needs form Ringo instead of her typical ‘I can do it all alone’ myself attitude. In the end, even when she goes to kill Abijah Fowler during his attack on the Shogun, she tries to get Akemi and everyone in the castle to safety. 

As much as she tries, desire, friendship, acceptance, forgiveness are all traits she embodies and has to learn to accept. The Mizu we meet in episode 1 is not the Mizu we leave in the last episode, and the show never tries to portray her as perfect or even likeable. Her obsession is her downfall - every character she meets tells her this is a path which will lead to no good, but this is the path she has chosen to walk on, for better or worse. 

Her obsession with revenge is what fuels her success as a Samurai, making her a killing machine on a death mission. But it also impedes her growth as a person and the success of her mission because she cannot succeed alone. Throughout season 1, she struggles with recognising both those realities. With each kill, she gets closer to revenge, but it is not just her life which is at risk but her humanity itself.

The show is a tale of revenge, but it is also an interesting exploration into what makes revenge worth it, what sacrifices you are willing to make, what part of your humanity do you have to kill to achieve your goal. This is nothing new- we have often seen in movies or shows a lead character suffering greatly and deciding to kill the villain, and we cheer for them. They are the ‘good’ guys and the villain is ‘bad’. Clear lines, clear goals, clear end result. But Blue eye Samurai does not tell us that Mizu is a hero. She is not ideal. Instead, she is suffering and continues to do so until she potentially destroys herself. I think it would be really interesting to see her psyche evolve and to answer the question- when you are so defined by revenge, who are you when it is extracted? Can you ever go back? Is your external hatred coming from a deep-seated internal hatred - how can you ever heal when the wound is that deep? Is revenge justice?

These are interesting questions, questions that I am sure we will see explored as the series goes on. I think it won’t be a surprise to anyone when I say that Mizu’s story is not a happy one and is unlikely to end in a ‘sailing in the sunset, happy ever after’. This is a tale of tragedy, of hatred - both of the world and self, of injustice, of bravery by necessity, of hope amidst the darkness, and of wounds that continue to perpetrate long after they were inflicted, and the humanity we are tied to or freed by, even the Onryōs amongst us.