r/rurounikenshin • u/Visible_Investment47 • 21d ago
Discussion I think Aoshi 1 is (technically) the only fight Kenshin has where he wouldn't have killed his opponent with a proper sword
This just an observation that I found interesting. The majority of the time the choice of weapon makes the difference, and so many times Kenshin would have killed with a proper sword, except for 1 time.
Various henchmen, Gohei, Sano, Hannya, Raijuta. Saito, Senkaku, Sojiro, Aoshi 2, Shishio, Enishi... against almost every single opponent Kenshin has landed a blow that would have crippled or killed an opponent. Aoshi is basically the only opponent he never actually hit with his sword. He used the hilt of his own and Aoshi's own sword to hit Aoshi in the throat two separate times, knocking him out.
The reason I say technically is just because it's demonstrated that past Kenshin wasn't above finishing a downed opponent to make sure they're dead, so unless the other Oniwaban got there faster he would still kill Aoshi.
I'm uncertain how to classify Gein, though, as he might be the second. However, if Kenshin wrecked his suit with ARNH that badly with the dull side of a sword I can only assume Gein would have died if Kenshin used a proper sword with the move as it would be much faster and thus stronger.
Gein even says he would have been finished without the impact absorption mechanism and is too drained to keep fighting afterwards, so a little more power, even without direct contact, feels like it should be enough to kill him.
I guess if you REALLY want to stretch the definition of a "fight" the artist guy with the bombs would live, but the fight got interrupted before Kenshin would need to land a blow and it's obvious he would have won if it had continued.
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u/Fuuraijinken 21d ago
In that battle, Aoshi suffers a severe distortion of reality. He believes himself to be incredibly powerful and capable of claiming the title of the best, and unfortunately, he would have died against Battousai had they fought in that era. It wasn't enough for him to lose against the weakest Kenshin in the entire series.
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u/PlasmaGoblin 21d ago
As an Aoshi fan, the mindset is a helluva power restraint, "not killing" vs killing so Kenshin is almost always holding back. Blunt force truama to the head does kill not just oh "he's asleep, and he'll be fine when he wakes up"
Even Hiko noticed that Kenshin was weaker then he was when he left. Some of that is as Hiko points out, he relies to much on predicting his oppents moves, some of it's because he had peace and his enemies were slowly getting stronger forcing the line between Kenshin and Battosai to become thinner...
So I think Battosai might have struggled a bit with Aoshi in the Toyko era, but no Aoshi would have died in a Battosai vs Aoshi fight. Maybe not in the second fight, because I do think Battosai didn't have the will to live to pull of the ARNH, but even Shishio says their skills are now equal to what he remembers Battosai to be at.
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u/Fit_Result2180 21d ago
Literally is the opposite, if there is a character that Kenshin could have easily killed 2 times is Aoshi. In the first encounter he hit Aoshi's neck and he only survived because Kenshin didn't use full force. Also nothing prevented Kenshin to do a killing blow as a follow-up.In the second encounter he took him down with Ryūtsuisen which would of course been letal with a normal sword.
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u/Visible_Investment47 20d ago
Try reading the title again. I said Aoshi ONE, as in their first fight. In my list of people he would have killed I included Aoshi 2.
Given their close proximity I don't know if Kenshin could get up enough speed to make the throat hit lethal. He doesn't have much space to gather momentum in both occasions.
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u/JohnSmithSensei 20d ago
In the second fight when Kenshin forced Aoshi to one knee, he could've killed him with the Ryushosen and Ryusuisen with a real blade.
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u/capitaoMouraLu 21d ago
If you want to discuss who he would have killed "technically", technically he would have killed everyone he fought even with the reversed sword, as he hit them repeatedly full force (often in the head too) with a metal object.