Personality

[sheathed_blade]

 Himura Kenshin is a man of many facets. Extremely honourable and protective of those who can’t protect themselves – especially women and children – Kenshin is a contradiction – a ruthless murderer who will humiliate himself to make children laugh and a gentle soul who will kill his heart for the sake of his convictions.

One of the most feared, ruthless killers of the Bakumatsu, he learned early on to shut off his emotions when he fought, which, along with his skills and odd colouring, caused him to be labelled a ‘demon’. Despite this Kenshin is often gentle and kind when in the right circumstances, enjoying playing with the children at Otsu and feeling content to be simply an herbalist, not a swordsman. 

Kenshin’s driving force in life – the reason he joined the revolution in the first place - is his desire to protect. As early as seven years old he attempted to defend the three sisters in the caravan he was travelling in when they were attacked by bandits, despite the fact that he could barely even lift the sword he was attempting to protect them with. His failure, and their sacrifice, affected him deeply, resulting in the increase of what was already a strong protective instinct, and, whilst he is generally very laidback and slow to anger, seeing someone being oppressed or hurt is a sure fire way to infuriate him, and when he does get angry, his anger is cold, and generally channelled into beating the living daylights out of whatever poor soul managed to infuriate him.

An extremely notable portion of Kenshin’s personality is his determination – once he sets his mind to something (generally the protection of another person) he will drive himself to succeed no matter what, despite physical or emotional pain, as seen when he makes his way through the ‘Forest of Barriers’, where one by one his senses were stolen from him.

Some other notable traits of his are his gentleness and kindness. Because he is in a new, dangerous environment, and separated from all he knows and loves, Kenshin will most likely fall back into the habits of wartime, being subdued and closed off, however his core personality will shine through, especially in the right company – Kenshin is by nature a gentle man, one that prefers to smile rather then frown, and enjoys the many small happiness’s that he has discovered in Otsu. 

The traits above of kindness and gentleness are hardly the ones you would expect to find in an assassin, and in his first time of service as an assassin his gentle nature couldn't cope with the weight of his crimes and his mind was quickly shutting down into an empty mechanical state. If not for Tomoe, he most likely would have gone insane. However, he DID meet Tomoe, and realised killing is not the answer.