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“
Persistent. You're all seriously persistent. And it bores me. It sickens me from the bottom of my heart. Whenever you open your mouth, you only remember that one dumb notion about avenging your parents, kids, or siblings. You've all survived. That should be enough for you. So your family got slaughtered. What's the problem here? Think of yourself as lucky, and go back to the way you lived life before. Look at it this way. Being killed by me is the same as encountering a great calamity. You don't need to think so hard about it. Rains, winds, volcano eruptions, earthquakes. Nobody tries to swear revenge on a natural disaster, no matter how many lives it takes. You can't bring dead humans back to life. Why not just stop fussing over the issue all the time, and live quietly to earn your daily wages. Most humans live that life. Why can't you all do that? There's only one reason. The Demon Hunters are an assembly of deviants. And I'm tired of dealing with deviants. I'm the one who really wants to put an end to all this.
„
~ Muzan rationalizing his crimes to Tanjiro and Giyu in his most infamous speech.
He was originally a human, who suffered from a terminal illness, during an experimental treatment, Muzan became the first ever demon. He was then the progenitor of most demons, as he created almost every demon in existence and either programs or tasks them to devour humans, which makes their crimes fall into his shoulders as well. This causes many humans to die due to the countless demon creatures, creating a sort of war between demons and the demon hunters. He's also the leader of the Twelve Kizuki, a group of twelve powerful demons.
He is the arch-nemesis of Kagaya Ubuyashiki, the Hashira, Lady Tamayo, and Yoriichi Tsugikuni. He is also the arch-nemesis of the Kamado siblings Tanjiro and Nezuko, as he was responsible for killing the rest of their family and turning Nezuko into a demon with his blood against her will. This led Tanjiro to become a demon slayer in hopes of curing his sister and killing Muzan to avenge his family's demise, thus starting off the series.
While most demons become helplessly violent once they transform (for example, Nezuko attempted to kill her own brother when she transformed, though she regained enough humanity to reconsider this course of action), Muzan remains in full control after becoming a demon, though he does develop a craving for human flesh.
Although he has a tragic past, due to his heart having stopped while he was in his mother's womb, having almost been burned after his family thought he was stillborn and having grown up all his life with a serious illness that made him weak and helpless with no hope of reaching 20, and wanting a cure out of desperation, his Freudian Excuse does not hold up for several reasons:
Even when he was cured of his illness by his doctor, he decided to find a cure for his weakness in order to achieve immortality in order to become a "supreme being". It is noteworthy to remember that he expressed no gratitude or remorse for killing his doctor, even though he saved his life.
Most of the victims have nothing to do with his tragedy, often killing them only out of pettiness or cruelty.
He has no pity or compassion for people who suffer from terminal illness just like he did, having manipulated Tamayo and Rui and corrupting them by transforming them into demons and mocking Kagaya Ubuyashiki's weak state.
In summary, his actions are not affected by his past but more due to his cruelty, his ego, and his general lack of humanity.
He is indirectly responsible for some humans burning up in the sun, as transforming a human into a demon makes sunlight lethal to them, with the eventual exception of Nezuko. And he is responsible for the deaths of most demons killed by a Demon Slayer as he turned them into demons (indirectly or otherwise) to begin with.
While he needs to eat flesh to survive (at first), it is shown that he kills out of spite and not simply for food.
While he tends to be more cordial and even fair towards demons that have earned his respect such as Kokushibo, Akaza, Hantengu, Gyutaro, and Rui (someone he saw a kindred spirit too), that doesn't prevent him from being particularly cruel and manipulative with them. For example:
He manipulated Rui and corrupted him into becoming a murderous demon.
He harshly punishes Akaza for his failure on killing three Demon Slayers (who were not even Hashira)
He threatens to purge the Upper Ranks (which included Kokushibo and Hantengu, two of whom are very loyal to Muzan), just because they couldn't accomplish the tasks given to them.
Although he is seen with a human wife and step-daughter when he turned an innocent man into a demon and later shown being kind towards his family by sending them home in a carriage without him, declaring he had some work to do, his behavior towards them is nothing more but a kind facade.
While there are many times when the heroes and protagonists are portrayed for comedy, Kibutsuji's character and personality are always portrayed seriously and almost causes the protagonists to lose their comedic moments in his presence.
Overall, Muzan is responsible for all the tragic events that happened within the story of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. Most of the major demons are portrayed as tragic, instilling sympathy, and also showing insecurity, but Muzan never had any sympathetic qualities, having been utterly selfish and remorseless from the start.
Background[]
Even before becoming a demon, Muzan showed signs of his insanity and petty envy towards humanity, wishing that all of them would die, mainly because of his critical sickly condition. This shows that even before becoming a demon, Muzan was already an unstable sociopath.
When he believed the doctor that was trying to heal him was a fraud, he murdered him with a bonesaw, even though the doctor was doing his best to cure him.
While Muzan regretted the act, it was only because he realized that he couldn't walk in sunlight anymore as it would burn him into ashes, and if Muzan hadn't killed him, the doctor could have finished a finalized version of the cure, allowing Muzan to walk in sunlight without turning into ashes. In other words, Muzan only regretted killing the doctor because doing so eliminated what could have been a useful asset, rather than genuine remorse for a brutal act of murder on a whim.
After becoming a demon, he devoured thousands of people. Though he stopped killing people for food once he lost his appetite, he continued killing people for other reasons, most of them being quite petty and spiteful.
He caused five of his wives during the Heian period to commit suicide via verbal abuse.
As he left the mansion, he murdered all the guards that tried to stop him by slicing all them to a thousand pieces, leaving a pool if not a lake of blood on that road. While they did try to kill him, the smile on his face tells the audience he does enjoy killing them.
After Muzan became a demon, he vowed to find a way to conquer sunlight during the daytime by creating a demon that could withstand sunlight that he could devour. This resulted in him mass spreading demon kind by turning innocent humans into demons or simply massacring them, having no qualms or regards for his actions in order to conquer sunlight.
He is responsible for many tragedies Demon Slayers and other humans have endured, the most notable ones were:
Yorrichi's wife along with their unborn child both eaten by a demon.
Kanae Kocho, Shinobu and Kanao's sister, and Inosuke's mother, Kotoha Hashibira, both murdered by Doma.
Masachika Kumeno, Sanemi's best friend, murdered by the former Lower Moon One.
Gyomei's whole family except Gyomei and his younger sister, his orphan friends, and also being responsible for Gyomei being a criminal.
Yuichiro Tokito, Muichiro's older twin brother, by a random demon slashing him when he entered Muichiro's house.
Giyu's friend Sabito along with many of Urokodaki's students by being devoured by the Hand Demon, and was also the reason Giyu's sister died too while trying to protect Giyu at a young age.
He also turned Shizu, Sanemi's mother into a demon which made her attack, murder and eat five out of the seven children in Sanemi's family, this later forces Sanemi to kill her in order to protect Genya and the latter hating the former for doing so.
He is also responsible for the Snake Demon having the Iguro family perform human sacrifices to satisfy her and the horrific treatment of Obanai Iguro.
He created The Twelve Kizuki in hopes of searching for a way to conquer the sun which massacred even more people and filled more graves.
He was frightening enough to intimidate the swamp demon, who was very scary in his own right. Additionally, he had him beaten as well.
In addition to his multiple corruptions, he turned Rui into a demon, deliberately withheld the information that he would become a monster after Muzan cured him and encouraged him to know that his family isn't worth his time, which shaped him into the heartless individual with a twisted belief about family.
Since Muzan is the creator of the other Demons, the countless number of their crimes fall on his shoulders as well, as he deliberately caused them to turn evil (even though some were already evil monsters before becoming demons, such as Hantengu, Gyokko, and Enmu).
Converted various humans with issues and tragic backgrounds by tempting them and corrupting them into killing other humans. Such as turning Hantengu into a demon so he could murder the magistrate that sentenced him to death just because he felt "pity" on him. Another occasion is Gyokko becoming a demon just after he got stabbed to near death for murdering a child and stuffing him in a pot.
He also turned Akaza into a demon after he murdered all the 67 people from a rivaling dojo. This basically incited Akaza to murder more people due to his motto of "I loathe weak people".
His actions caused Ubuyashiki Family to be cursed for birthing him. The curse inflicted them with the same disease he got as a human, causing a lot of deaths in the clan.
Tricked Tamayo into becoming a Demon by withholding the details that she would become evil and gain a hunger for humans, which led to her murdering her family.
When Tamayo called him out for it, Muzan deflected it by blaming her for wanting to see her family, not him for lying to her and letting her kill her own family.
Ordered Kokushibo to kill the current head of the Ubuyashiki Family to prove his allegiance to him.
Along with Kokushibo, he slaughtered the users of Sun Breathing. This made Sumiyoshi's descendants, later becoming the Kamado family go into hiding and the Sun Breathing technique was lost to Demon Slayers for centuries.
He tried to turn Tanjiro's family into demons that could withstand sunlight but failed as they all died, expect for Nezuko. And if Nezuko did not remember her brother and her love for him, she would have killed him.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba[]
He once turned an innocent man into a demon in front of the public as a distraction to ensure he isn't exposed or killed by Tanjiro.
He killed off two drunk men when he was on his way back to lead his kind, then shared his blood with an innocent woman, but ends up killing her without regards. To be fair, Muzan did genuinely try to leave them alone, only attacking the men after they provoked him, but killing the woman was completely uncalled for, it could possibly be that he was trying to turn her into a demon since she didn't provoke him. Even before he was trying to tell them he was sorry, it was clearly nothing more than a facade to keep up his appearance.
He sent Susamaru and Yahaba to murder Tanjiro after witnessing him under fear.
Put a curse on all his Demons, which would trigger and destroy them if they happened to mention his last name or his whereabouts. So when Susamaru said his last name, the cells of Muzan tore her front body and brutally smashed the rest of her body until all that remained was her kimono, her detatched hand, one of the temari balls, and one of her eyes.
As far as his curse is concerned, it is completely meaningless, as all of Muzan's enemies already know his name but do not know anything about his abilities and weaknesses, further demonstrating his extreme paranoia, which means he will kill even those who are closest to him just to prevent his enemies from finding out how to defeat him in the first place.
According to Kyogai's past, he was stripped from Lower Moon 6 by placing an X on one of his eyes and causing it to bleed due to "reaching" his limits. (Though in a twist of irony, this saved him from being brutally killed by Muzan later on). This led to Kyogai attempting to find a human with marechi blood (a human blood that can increase a demon's power 100 times more than normal human blood) so he can reclaim his place back in the Twelve Kizuki.
He murdered almost all of the Lower Ranks of the Demon Moons without hesitation due to the death of Rui, seeing them as useless and he no longer needed them.
He reads Kamanue’s mind and just dismissed him as weak before attempting to kill him despite the demon attempting to apologize.
Mukago who was nothing but loyal to Muzan wasn't spared either as Muzan said she would run away, but she said she’d put her life on the line for Muzan, and Muzan stated she shouldn’t contradict him before killing her.
Wakuraba knew there was no attempt in staying alive whether is agrees with Muzan or disagreed, and attempted to run before having his head chopped off.
When Rokuro states he can still be of use if he was given some of blood, Muzan interprets this as an order and takes huge offense to this. Even thought Rokuro had begged for mercy and apologized for his mistake, Muzan had squashed him until he was just a pool of blood and stated he deserved to die.
While he spared Enmu, he did so not out of altruism because of his sadistic nature and fanatical worship, the former of which entertained him and the latter he enjoyed. Muzan even injected Enmu with a portion of his blood and ordered him to eliminate Hashira and Tanjiro, just so promising he would give Enmu more of his blood. While giving him blood, he stated that Enmu could possibly die if he took too much but Muzan didn't seem to care if he did.
He later orders Enmu to go murder Tanjiro, leading to Enmu nearly devouring 200 people on the Mugen train by fusing with it and then sent Akaza, knowing Enmu would likely fail, leading to Kyojuro Rengoku's death.
He tortured and berated Akaza - even though the latter had recently slain the Hashira Rengoku as part of Muzan's wishes - just for being unable to finish the other three Demon Slayers who were around Rengoku at the time, and for failing to find any information about the Blue Spider Lily. Which goes to show that he overall treats his allies like pawns, as he has never shown any care if they died. Like after Enmu died, Muzan didn't show any bit of sympathy for him. He did recount Rui’s death to the Lower Moons, but it was just an example to show how weak they were,
Ordered Gyutaro and Daki to lay a trap for the investigating Demon Slayers, knowing that Gyutaro would be weak with Daki on his side. He also manipulated Daki into killing demon slayers by pretending that he loved her while thinking of her as a “stupid little girl”.
In spite of Gyutaro and Daki's failures, their actions still caused severe damage to Yoshiwara's Red-Light District, killing several residents and nearly leading to the death of the Sound Hashira, Tengen Uzui. Although he survived, Tengen was forced to retire, due to losing one of his arms.
In the Upper Rank Meeting, he berates his Upper Ranks and denounces them, claiming that that they are no longer ranked by power anymore but by their remaining humanity, using Gyutaro's love and care for Daki as an example. He even goes far to say "I'm starting to question why you all even exist." simply because the Upper Moons couldn't find the Blue Spider Lily he longed to have, (which was no fault of their own as the Blue Spider Lily grew in daylight), or find a trace of the Ubuyashiki Family which he wanted to obliterate. This led to the Upper Ranks' response:
Hantengu begs for mercy and forgiveness for disappointing Muzan while Akaza is fearing what will happen next.
Kokushibo and Doma both state how hard it is to find Ubuyashiki or anything related to Muzan’s goals for that matter.
Gyokko states he found an interesting piece of info that can “change everything” which led to him ripping off Gyokko's head and said he despised his comedic side and that he hated change. He even threatens him to never present information without confirming it.
He then sent Hantengu and Gyokko to wipe out the Swordsmith Village to stop them from making swords for Demon Slayers (making him responsible for the people who were killed there), and does not care when they are killed, only caring about what Hantengu had discovered.
Upon hearing Nezuko's ability to walk in the daylight and realizing that he had an opportunity to overcome the sun, he became so thrilled that he decided that he had no use of hiding anymore and to slaughter and kill his own foster mother and her maid without a second thought with the possibility of even the entire foster family.
After he figured out about Nezuko can withstand sunlight, he tried all he could to kidnap her in order to devour her and gain her daywalking ability, allowing himself to be able to walk in sunlight.
He ordered Nakime to use her ability to find and infiltrate the Demon Slayer HQ and Kagaya (who was currently at his death bed due to his cursed illness)
Arrived at Kagaya's mansion solely to cripple the Demon Slayer Corps and to wring Nezuko's location out of him.
Upon arriving at the Headquarters and heavily injured due to Kagaya's sacrifice to kill Muzan with him backfired, he transported all the Demon Slayers with him in his Infinity Fortress, which some of them were slain by the Upper Moons while he had time to recover to his final form. This included Genya by being ruthlessly decapitated by Kokushibo, Muichiro by being bled to death, and Shinobu by having her neck broken and then absorbed by Doma.
He ruthlessly murdered dozens of demon slayers and a crow that was in the Infinity Castle through slicing them all to pieces while sadistically and maliciously thanking the new headmaster for giving him food sources.
When confronted by Tanjiro and Giyu, he expressed his annoyance of Demon Slayer's persistence and their desire of avenging their families and his remorseless advice that they should think of themselves as lucky for not being killed and just forget about their loved ones after their deaths. This shows how much of an evil and selfish person Muzan really is, and even Tanjiro called him out by saying he is a being that should not be allowed to exist.
Even when Muzan professed care and favoritism for some of the Upper Ranks, it's just because some of them have abilities extremely invaluable for him, as well as because replacing them would be an extremely difficult task, not out of any genuine feeling of affection towards them. He still despised every other Demon (excluding himself) due to being proof of his supposed weakness. This is why he murders Nakime by crushing her head when she got hypnotized by Yuishiro.
During the fight, he directly/indirectly kills Tamayo by crushing her head, Obanai by having his face being severly slashed, Mitsuri by having her ear and both arms ripped before dying, Gyomei through severing his left leg from the knee and brutally murdered, and so many other Demon Slayers. He also nearly murdered Tamayo's cat.
He poisons Tanjiro during their fight just after he severed his arm by injecting some of his blood into his body.
Before he was about to die by sunlight, he shared all that's left in his blood into Tanjiro in order to make him his successor to become the next Demon King and influence him into becoming like him. It's considered to be a very impactful moment when everyone Tanjiro knew has no choice left but to kill him at that moment or find a way to talk him out of this. What's worse is that Nezuko just got turned back into a human and Tanjiro, now a demon, never had the chance to happily see her like this until Kanao cured him. This moment proves how much damage Muzan left behind without remorse and how much he's put everyone through.
He is also indirectly responsible for Giyu's arm getting ruthlessly cut off after Tanjiro becomes a demon.
Even though genuine tears were rolling from Muzan's eyes just before this happened, he was crying due to accepting Kagaya Ubuyashiki's words on the inevitability of death, rather than actual sorrow for his horrific atrocities, and then used these words to "leave something behind" in the form of making Tanjiro the most powerful demon ever to exist, more so than Muzan himself. Therefore, Muzan's emotional moment in this scene is not redeeming in any way.
In his final moments, he tries to manipulate Tanjiro into thinking no one wants him after becoming a demon. But the latter fails as Tanjiro is returned back to normal thanks to everyone he ever knew, both alive and dead. In the end, Muzan is left devastated and forever burning in Hell for all eternity for his crimes and is forced to spend that eternity all by himself, a well-deserved karma for such an egotistical, demonic, and immortality seeking villain.
✓
Pure Evils