The Heart of Upper Moon 2
In television and manga-based films, we come across many characters who are quite hard to understand. Hated and loved by many, Douma is an interesting example. In all of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Douma is one of the most powerful and complex demons in the series. Many important details of his character writing are often glossed over due to hatred or disinterest, but there are also plenty of fans who believe that there's more to this so-called apathetic demon than "being emotionless." So how does Douma's heart truly manifest itself?
At his core, Douma is a character who lacks emotional depth, or the ability to understand his own emotions. He was born with pure white hair and rainbow eyes, which led to the assumption from his parents that he was born very closely with God. He was then assigned with the role of the leader of his father's cult, which was known as The Eternal Paradise Faith. Strangers would regularly come to worship and pray to Douma, who was a young child at the time, and ask to be led to paradise.
From there, Douma's own well-being was no longer taken into consideration. He believed that his only purpose in life was to lead these people to paradise, even when he believed that it didn't exist. After his transformation from human to demon, he chose to make Muzan, the demon king, the new God of his cult, as he admired him dearly.
Before this transformation, however, it was known that Douma couldn't recognize his own emotions aside from negativity. He would refer to the stories of his worshipers as "yawn-inducing" and would express feeling "awkward" when the adjustment to his role as a leader was first made. No improvements were made to this condition after his transformation either; among humans and other demons, it's often observed that he struggles to read their emotions as well.
To compensate for this, he wears an eccentric and charismatic mask, even while he's alone. He seeks extreme physical sensations, such as when he suggests that Muzan punishes him by removing his eyes, and expresses joy when he takes hard blows from his opponents, perhaps as another form of compensation for his absence of emotional depth.
The heart of Upper Moon 2 isn't all that bleak; this character has many layers that can be observed all the way from his first to his last appearances in the series. The awareness that his own condition is abnormal influences many of his actions, including what he does next when one of his keenest observers cracks his mask.
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