byakuya togami is someone who suffered through a competition that didn't recognize family ties or status, and so in the events of thh he believes he exists as a being outside of the game - not that he thinks he's not a participant, but he's more like someone who is above all the others. someone who's seen this scenario before and knows how it goes, and can know the characters well enough to predict all the plot twists. his actions of chapter 2 are exactly for the reason he said; to make things more interesting, to purposely throw a wrench into the investigation and raise the stakes for everyone, himself included, because he is someone who exists outside the spheres of existence for all these people. he never doubted that he wouldn't have been able to save himself at the end of it, because the characters - as bumbling as they were - would have figured it out. he can manipulate the corpse because it is a doll to him, because chihiro was never a 'real' person in his eyes. and neither was anyone else.
(even kyoko and makoto were characters, albeit annoying, observant ones. the ones that looked out of the pages and back at the reader, that you can't help but see parts of yourself in, flaws and all, until they look back at you and point out all the flaws you never noticed in yourself. they're always surprising him, being unpredictable, and it makes this game feel less like a contrived theater play and more like a real competition).
what chapter 4 does is it destroys those conceptions. aoi literally slaps him into reality, because she should have been just another character beneath him, outside of his realm of existence, someone who never should have been able to even dream of interacting with him in such away. he can really get hurt here. he doesn't get shaken up by it, but it irks him. he thinks he knows everything about everyone involved, because for his life up until that point, he's had to learn and know, had to roughly understand the thoughts and drives of the common masses so they can be manipulated and the beliefs and motives of people like him so he could outdo his siblings.
but then during the trial, he gets surprised, he gets proven wrong, and he doesn't understand, and it needs to be explained to him by someone he previously considered lesser. because despite everything that he's done and accomplished, he has never tried to understand the meaning of human connection and just how far people might be willing to go for the sake of those bonds - and without that understanding, he is no better than any of the others around him.
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Thistle Law
The most extreme, violent interpretation of the Warrior Code, initially founded by Thistleclaw near the end of the Campaign Era, with its first implementation defining the beginning of the Slash-and-Burn Period.
One of three distinct Clan ideologies, next to Fire Alone and Traditionalism.
A guide to its origin, the parable associated with it, its principles, and most importantly, my authorial intentions with it in the Bonefall Rewrite. Seen a couple of questions about it, so I think this’ll help clarify.
Origin
Extreme interpretations of the Code go back as far as the founding of the clans themselves, but the roots of Thistle Law trace back to the Exile of SkyClan. Justifying the loss of an entire clan included cracking down on medicine cats and quashing a rebellion, and the ‘clan pride tide‘ added FOUR new laws to the Warrior Code.
The following wars and conflicts in the Chivalric Period further contributed to xenophobic sentiment in the Clans, with each one vying for supremacy over the others, branching out to attack non-Clan cats when there were brief stints of ‘peace’. Thistleclaw merely gave these ideas a name while educating his apprentice, using thistles as a metaphor.
Tigerclaw then went on to tell the story to his clanmates, to his own apprentices, and at gatherings to his future allies who told it to their own clanmates. Though the details of the story changed at times, the takeaway is constant;
Other cats must die, so yours can stay strong.
The Parable of the Thistle
The story goes that Thistleclaw brought Tigerpaw out to a massive, thorny bull thistle. He pointed out that the other plants were dying around it, but the flowers stood tall and proud. Thistleclaw explained the thistle was killing the plants around it to have more room to grow, and then cruelly commanded that Tigerpaw try to destroy it.
By the time it was done, Tigerpaw was covered in scratches and the sun was setting. All the way home, he tried to shake the thistlefluff out of his fur and forget the painful experience. The seasons turned, and one year later when Tigerclaw was a young warrior, Thistleclaw led him down a path lined with young, thorny leaves.
There, in a sea of green spikes, the thistle was standing as tall and as proud as the day Tigerpaw shredded it.
In killing every other plant in the area, the thistle had given itself room to come back stronger. The fluff that clung to Tigerpaw’s fur became new growth. Around them was an entire clearing of thistles, ready to burst into a wall of flowers and seeds.
Thistleclaw asked if Tigerclaw would dare to try again, and remembering how his last battle with the weed ended with scratches as deep as claw marks, admitted that he would rather be a thistle than fight one.
(Little did Ivypaw know, the beautiful field in which she meets Hawkfrost was completely strangled by flowering thistles.)
Principles
Depending on the exact time period and the cat it takes root in, Thistle Law can look different. For examples, Brokenstar’s goal was to drive every Clan out of the forest except ShadowClan, where Tigerstar’s aim was to annex every clan into TigerClan and enforce a standard of purity.
Incarnations of Thistle Law tend to share these principles,
The Code Hardens
The calling card of Thistle Law is a stricter, more violent interpretation of the Warrior Code. The harsher laws are emphasized, such as the Law of Loyalty and the Right of the Challenge, while softer ones are downplayed or dropped entirely, like the Law of Honor and the Queen’s Rights.
Extreme Xenophobia
Against outsiders, against cats of other clans, against half-clan cats. Thistle Law sets itself apart from Traditionalism for becoming willing to enforce some sort of purity.
Hierarchy Becomes Rigid
The social power of medicine cats, deputies, and elders is suppressed. The leader is raised as the ultimate authority, even if that leader isn’t the Clan’s -star.
There Is No ‘Pointless’ Death
The Clans are a battle culture, but a good battle is still fought for a reason. When tides turn to Thistle Law, fighting is the goal AND the means. To live is to battle, to kill is to win, and a warrior’s purpose is to die at war.
Each incarnation likely contains each point in varied amounts and tosses other ideas into the mix, but the name of the game remains the same-- and it springs from the taproot of Thistle Law.
Intentions
Thistle Law is what fascism looks like in Clan culture. I approach this using Umberto Eco’s 1995 essay Ur-Fascism as my primary reference. Ur-fascism is a ‘fuzzy‘ concept that looks very different depending on the exact society it springs from, mixing and matching several symptoms in varying degrees of severity.
So, in adapting this, I had to simplify a very complicated topic. I wanted to keep the antifascist theory recognizable, while still following canon events and creating an engaging rewrite.
So for simplicity sake, even if a clan might have technically called their own version of Thistle Law something else, I use this name to address it.
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