#bc he knew that sekiro had the potential to rise far and fast and he'd rise faster and further if properly educated

[kinnoth]

Fully making shit out of nothing but I think baby!sekiro was a displaced/runaway monk novice.

He's found by the owl scavenging a battlefield with nothing but the clothes on his back and a carved wooden Buddha

The Buddha is obvious, but the clothes are plain to the point of being remarkable. In a time where even the cursed peasants of mibu village have access to patterned clothes, sekiro's plain orange robe appears to reflect a deliberate lack of adornment, most similar to the rough homespun worn by the senpou monks.

Anyway I think this would at least in some part explain sekiro's fairly black and white philosophy; he's never stopped viewing the world through the lens of religion: himself as a vessel, his commandments as absolutes, his master as god.

If indeed his master is his new god, it would explain why he views genichiro's suggestion of defection as heresy.

#sekiro #would also explain why he comes Fully Trained in religious ritual as he does #just don't see the owl as the type of guy to really cleave close to religion like that #my prior suspicion was that he'd sent sekiro away to be fostered by monks at some point #bc he knew that sekiro had the potential to rise far and fast and he'd rise faster and further if properly educated #but i think it also works if he came already religiously trained #would also explain why the owl makes up a bullshit code #if indeed he is looking to replace sekiro's religious indoctrination with another doctrine #the owl positions himself as this monk's new god etc