moor

I am so grateful for your feedback on Tajima, Birk! <3 I don't think he's quite as severe as a father in his position would normally have been at this period of time in history; I think I softened him more than I perhaps should have; but I like how he has turned out as a person in this story. It has been difficult to blend that severity, that integrity, that model-of-behaviour with the fact that this man does indeed love his sons, he's just... doing it alone and out of his league and was never raised to ask for help from anyone (outside of perhaps his wife, and she's no longer with them). In short, dude doesn't know what he's doing. XD BUT! I tried to show that he respects Sakura, feels responsible for her, and wants to see her and Madara happy, it's just difficult for him to reconcile that he failed in his own role as a father and the kids (whom he always thought of as 'good' kids) are running when he thought they'd still be walking. His only relief is that they only run when they're together; otherwise, they do exactly as they're told. And overall, they've been good, very good, influences on each other. <3


Madara does have his father's passion; the difference is, Madara embraces his beating heart while his father tries to bury his, as he had to bury his wife. Both feel extremely strong emotions, I think; they just, for their own reasons, handle it differently. (Then again, Tajima has an empire and family to run interms of responsibilities, while Madara is young and fairly free wheeling in some ways.)

I think we all had our own passions at 15-16. :) Whether music, freedom, throwing ourselves into making our futures happen. For Madara, he's doing all he's supposed to--but the reason he's driven to do it, is Sakura. And Sakura is driving to meet everyone's expectations so she can be seen as 'worthy' of Madara's attention, and not a 'mistake'. <3

Thank you so much for reading, luv. <3