I'm right and everyone else is wrong!!! >:O

[asael]

This is meta! About Mukuro and Hibari. I wrote it. Aggy found the pictures and laughed at me while I wrote it. Thank you Aggy. Please click the cut. There are pictures!



Once upon a time, I told Aggy (nonartisan) I would write Mukuro & Hibari meta. So here it is. This is just my opinion, of course, but I'm supporting it with canon evidence. It's not exactly that I think that everyone writes them wrong, but everyone seems to take it as a given that Mukuro is the one chasing after Hibari, and that Mukuro is the one who's interested in him, while Hibari couldn't care less (except to be annoyed, maybe.)

Canon pretty much says the opposite when it comes to these two. From the beginning, Mukuro does show that Hibari at least registers on his radar – he knows Hibari is the strongest in Namimori, and he goes out of his way to take him out when it comes to that. Obviously he did his research in order to find out how strong Hibari is and what his weaknesses are, but even then, Hibari was never his final goal – just a step on the road.

Mukuro is impressed by Hibari, though, because Hibari is stronger and more stubborn than expected – attacking Mukuro even after his body is too injured to continue.



Mukuro is surprised!


We can see that he IS interested in Hibari, since he shows up before the Mist Ring battle just to comment on Hibari's growth.



Look, Hibari's checking out Mukuro's ass!


So I'm not saying that Mukuro is completely uninterested.

What I am saying is that Hibari is much MORE interested. He's got Mukuro on his mind basically from the moment he gets beaten, and that doesn't disappear throughout the course of the manga. Fighting Mukuro again (and beating him into a bloody pulp) is one of Hibari's prime motivations that we see.

For example, after Gokudera's ring battle, Reborn is able to stop Hibari from attacking the Varia only by telling him that if he doesn't, he'll get to fight Mukuro again.



You can't win, Hibari! His head is too big, it will crush you.


We rarely do get to see any signs of Hibari's motivation for the things he does (and I really don't think he needs it, most of the time), but when we do – it's usually Mukuro.

Later, in the TYL arc, Hibari fights Genkishi.



Hmm, I wonder who he could be talking about.


He says that he is the best choice to fight Mist users, because he hates them so much (and he's spent so much time training to be able to beat them). Obviously there's no one he could mean except Mukuro. So ten years later, Hibari is still chasing after Mukuro, which is definitely not something he'd do if he just considered Mukuro an annoying pest.



Kusakabe's fishing! Maybe he ships 6918.


He also states clearly that he's not interested in Chrome if Mukuro's not inside her.

Mukuro still holds some interest in Hibari, as well, since it's stated that he was observing Hibari when inhabiting the owl, but it doesn't quite seem equal.



Hibari was acting on intuition that the owl was Mukuro... that's cute.


We get as little of Mukuro's true motivations as we do of Hibari's, but Mukuro's don't seem to involve Hibari in any way, or if they do, he never mentions them. He's interested, but not as creepy-stalkery-obsessed as he's often written. If anyone's the stalker here, it's probably Hibari.

Mukuro does keep an eye on Hibari over the years and over the course of the manga (visiting him before the Mist ring fight, Muku-owl observing him, Mukuro sending the files to Hibari's server instead of the Vongola's), but HIBARI is the one who's obsessed with chasing after him. He recognizes Mukuro's strength through Chrome ('if you die, we'll all be in trouble'), and has made a point of training to be able to fight Mist users (otherwise he wouldn't have done so well against Genkishi - Genkishi is startled that Hibari can see through his illusions), and he talks about Mukuro like ALL THE TIME (he even asked about Mukuro in the drama CD). In fact, it seems like besides the obvious things (dominating Namimori, biting herbivores to death), Mukuro is one of the few things that will motivate Hibari, whereas Hibari doesn't seem to hold that much interest for Mukuro. He's more interested in Tsuna (but this meta is not about Tsuna).

This seemed obvious to me just from reading the manga, but fandom seems to have such a different view of their relationship that I occasionally wonder if we're reading the same manga. Thus, the meta. Anyone is free to disagree, but now the world knows why I think it's strange that people always write Mukuro chasing after Hibari, rather than the other way around – since to me, that seems a lot more canon.

And I know that the world cares very much about my interpretation of the text of a silly shounen manga.

THE END >:O



I mean, look at him. Why would HE need to run after anyone?

Comments

[ketchupblood.livejournal.com]

Wait, do people really think that? Because when I talked to my friend about the pairing, I kind of thought it was obvious that it was the other way. =|

[porvoras.livejournal.com]

YOU ARE MY HERO.
*shot*

I agree with you on the whole 1869/6918 thing. It should totally be 1869 D:

and I must say,
Look, Hibari's checking out Mukuro's ass!
Makes me lawl.

[yue-blanche.livejournal.com]

its just some question why hibari is so often paired up with gokudera and tsuna even if he has not really such a strong interest in them as he has on dino and mukuro.( well in dinos case its not interest its just he found someone who is equal in fighting level) and some fans seems to love it that mukuro wants tsunas body. but his intentions isn´t something romantic as all the guys are saying.

I completely agree with your talk about them. but I have to say that mukuro cares about a few people. his kyokou peoples: ken and chikusa. and chrome. and of course about hibari but his reasons for that isn´t so clear as it is on hibaris for wanting mukuro bite to death.

[monochrome-hime.livejournal.com]

OMG HELL YEAH.
THANK YOU FOR DOING THIS |DDD~ <3
I FREAKING LOVEE YOU. 83 <3<3

[iluxia.livejournal.com]

Totally agree. Hahah, innit ironic that the stereotype stalker character (Mukuro) is the stalkee in their case? Just reflects how twisted their relationship is / can be.

And Mukuro is Mukuro -- of course he'd prioritize Tsuna over Hibari. I disagree that Mukuro doesn't hold "much of an interest" to Hibari; Tsuna and Hibari are equal interests, Hibari probably more so because of his potential and non-herbivoreness (because it's quite obvious that Mukuro doesn't like herbivores, only, he knows how to use and and manipulate them into non-herbivority) -- but Tsuna benefits him more than Hibari does, so he puts Tsuna first. He's wickedly himself that way. True Slytherin to the core. Tsuna, after all, gives him the entirety of the Vongola should he ever manage to possess him. Hibari gives him nothing.

Well, okay, not nothing, but. The Vongola's huge-ass. Kind of hard to match that. Sorry, Hibari, darling. Don't worry; we still love you anyway.

[penombrelilas.livejournal.com]

This seemed obvious to me just from reading the manga
Same here. That's why it surpises me to read that "fandom" is supposed to share the opposite view on their relationship. If that's the case, then I'm glad you decided to cast some light upon it ;D

[whispering-eden.livejournal.com]

Lol! Mukuro doesn't need to go after Hibari when he's already the one with the most control in their relationship. It's much more his style to sit back and bait Hibari. Probably more fun too. ^^

I actually love this about these two, because while they're generally equal and in a league of their own the fundamental difference is that Hibari, badass as he is, is still "only human" whereas Mukuro is significantly less so.

Therefore I think it's inevitable that Hibari, fueled by human emotions like blood-lust and anger, should come to have such a strong & competitive intrest in Mukuro. Meanwhile it's Mukuro's nature to be disconnected from the world so his interest in Hibari is also less direct. He does not stalk Hibari, he watches over him!

I personally find it pretty charming that Mukuro just takes the blame & rivalry placed upon him by Hibari with no complaints. Even though we know it was never his idea to be rivals in the first place, instead he lets Hibari get on with his vengeance gig surely knowing full well that without him Hibari would never have become so strong so quickly. Thus, he likes to check up on Hibari to see how he is getting on. <3

[riya-chan.livejournal.com]

I definitely agree with you. Mukuro definitely holds a stronger interest in Tsuna. You get a sense of that when Tsuna sympathizes with Mukuro when "experiencing" Mukuro's current imprisonment. Mukuro seems touched by Tsuna's actions prior to passing out. Mukuro also shows interest in Hibari, but you don't ever really get one of those moments from Mukuro in regards to Hibari. On the other hand, it's so true that Hibari is consistently thinking of Mukuro. It only becomes more of an obsession with the TYL time frame as he's much more open about his interests in Mukuro. Yet it's definitely somehow much more common to come across 6918 in which Mukuro stalks an irritated Hibari and non-con occurs. It's so difficult to come across 1869 at all, much less really worthwhile reads. I suspect it's due partially to Mukuro's stalkerish tendencies in regards to Hibari and Mukuro's power surpassing Hibari's that cause the general fandom to label Hibari as the sought after uke in the relationship. If Mukuro weren't the stronger of the two, I somewhat doubt we'd see so much 1869 as power seems to be a main determinant of being a seme across the vast majority of fandoms.

[whispering-eden.livejournal.com]

"Now that I think about it, theoretically if he's the strongest of the guardians TYL, that's assuming he's stronger now than Mukuro as well... right? I don't know."

When they say strongest I think they mean physically strongest and the most destructive. While Hibari is bound to be the best all-out brawler it would be very difficult to weigh up the strengths and weaknesses of all the Guradians because their fighting styles and personalities are all as different as the elements they represent. I mean say you sent Hibari on an infiltration mission, he'd probably beat up anyone he came across. Send Hayato on the same mission and it would be different, he'd have a fixed strategy & stick to it. Send Takeshi and it would be different again because he doesn't like hurting people so he'd complete the mission with as few casualties as possible, and so it goes on.

It's not just that Hibari is capable of great destruction but he's also willing whereas the other guardians aren't really like that at all. I guess you have to ask yourself what makes a person strong, being able to go beserk? Being a great strategist? Being able to manipulate others? Being the most versatile? There's no telling what would happen if all the TYL Guradians decided to have a battle royal, maybe the winner would be whoever successfully pitted all the others against each other and then did a Reborn and stole the prize at the end, lol!

It may just be me, but I got the impression that Hibari's title as the strongest was born from the Millefiore's fear of him as much as anything else, and as there's been no canon closure on the Muku-Hibi rivalry who can say whether physical strength is enough to beat Mukuro or not? He has got five other fighting styles to use if Hibari beats him in Shura after all...

[fantasygirl49.livejournal.com]

this is a pretty interesting take, you made me smile the whole way through reading this...i am a hibari fan and i love to pair hibari with another strong character, that's why i don't like 1827 as much since i like hibari as uke, that's right i like to see my fave char. get molested ^__^

in my opinion hibari has a strong urge to fight mukuro because he was humuliated by mukuro once, and hibari has a lot of pride, so he would like to take revenge on mukuro, it does sound like hate to me but hate can turn to love right ^o^...mukuro interest in tsuna is like you say not physical but more in the interest of politic, while mukuro wasn't interest in hibari at all until his fight with him when he realizes his strong will and decide to keep a tap on him...i do believe their interests in each other are about equal, but i can't think of hibari pursuing mukuro either because it's just against his nature.

in the future i kind of figure hibari learn how to fight well against illusionist because he also has mist wave energy as well, and also he wouldn't let himself lose a second time to mukuro, but it's surprising that mukuro still keep tap on hibari. XD