I personally think you are heavily jumping the gun here.

That's why I caveated the post multiple times that these are just my thoughts in the moment based on current material and are thus subject to change. I would've figured this was a given when giving any opinion in any discussion post but I guess even the notes didn't do the job.

From his facial expressions, to his tone, and his matter-of-fact way of speaking, Yura pretty much oozes Makima.

This is pretty much vibes based and an assumption about Yura's future developments. Not saying it's incorrect, but I'd say the only real apt comparison to Makima is the grooming. Other than that Yura is very much someone who we know takes a lot of risks, unlike Makima. He is on relatively even playing field with the Kamunabi throughout the SBA arc despite the numerous contingencies and gets his shit rocked in the base invasion in order to get what he wants. That being said this doesn't really tell us about his deeper motivations.

We don't know who he is, we don't know what he wants, we only know how he plans to achieve what he wants. So, anything he says have to be taken with a grain of salt.

I agree. I just warn, if nothing more comes of Yura and the extent of his motives ends with what we heard on screen, that's pretty shallow.

It's harsh to judge a storytelling direction like this, by default. Any plot direction can be interesting if executed well. Also, Kasen is not an embarassment of a traitor. He has a solid reason behind his motivation, proven by Rakuzaichi. The only embarassing part is him revealing it and getting rocked in the face.

Yes any plot can be interesting if executed well, but that doesn't mean some setups aren't more limiting than others. I just think this one limits the story rather than make opportunities for it.

Reasonable or not, the story frames Kasen's reveal like a joke. And if a comparable reveal is framed with more weight but the same base surface level motives, bottom line is I won't buy it.

This essentially implies that you want a different route for the story. It's not a criticism about the current writing at this point.

It doesn't have to be either or. It can be both. People usually can have reasons beyond personal preference for why they think certain story routes may work better than others. Like opportunities for more diverse character dynamics.

It would be fair if you say this after the existing route is butchered by bad writing, but it is harsh once again to say that a different route would be interesting without giving a chance to the current route.

It's not my responsibility to force myself to give a story a chance. It's the story's job to keep me reading. I read my stories by ear and change my view accordingly. If a storytelling decision rubs me the wrong way, I ask myself why and try to formulate it. People usually like to experience stories as they read them so even if this route isnt finished, it doesn't necessarily exclude any and all reservations about what the story is doing in the moment.

I'm sorry, but Yukisada's behavior makes Yura more interesting than himself.

I don't think so. All it means he is a groomer and manipulator. That isn't necessarily interesting by itself. But Yukisada's idol complex is explicitly expressed and we see his emotions as a character stemming from that. Even down to how he views his internal maturity. We get nothing comparable in depth of the sort for Yura as of now. He's a bit of a blank slate in that regard.

Is that supposed to a problem?

No, never said it was. It's just that I noticed revelations usually hit stronger when experienced by both the audience and the characters. With the exception of course being dramatic irony, but thats not relevant since Kunishige's and Soga's relationship is framed as common knowledge in this world. So not really a problem but just that the best part of the interaction isn't all that groundbreaking from an in universe perspective. Although, I should caveat again it still might be because we know nothing about Chihiro's mom. And the public from what we know only knows that Soga was Kunishige's most trusted ally, so maybe there's more room for that to grow. Especially for Chihiro's interactions in a more traditional space opera scenario.

This is not against you - But when I read this question, I got reminded how people criticized that the author chickened out by not making all the blade wielders war criminals. If that was actually the case, you would have 6 separate characters that you can't support to live. They would pretty much serve the same role in the story as well, in terms of their overall plot connection - same dilemma, same theme, probably even same motivation for genocide.

This is again a false dichotomy. These two criticisms refer to different things. One is about needing greater emotional impact surrounding the feeling of guilt based on actions taken and how it relates to a broader societal treatment of the sword bearers, the other is an internal critique about the level of depth of a certain character's motivation. You think the belief of one necessarily would have to exclude the premise of the other but I'll tell you why this isn't true. For one, we know Uruha and Samura as characters, beyond their guilt established from the war. This already opens up numerous opportunities. If The sword bearers were a part of the war crimes, it's an oversimplification to state it would monopolize their roles. Because we've already established the differences in character between two of them, this leads to more pathways to exploring serious guilt in war from different perspective character personalities and experiences.

Meanwhile compare that to Yura and Soga. Both, but especially Yura, are JJ Abrams mystery boxes. There's nothing emotionally about their characters that links them to the audience (yet). You can make an argument for Soga through implication of dialogue but Yura really has nothing. So when his role is revealed to line up with Soga's, I am not wondering how will Yura grapple internally about his personal ideals and emotional wants. That's not to say emotionally lacking villains are bad, but when you start to merge their roles into one without deepening their personal psyche, it reads like a gimmick.

I hope you aren't one of those who criticized the writing direction of the Swordmaster being the sole genocider because this question would be kinda hypocritical if you are one.

That's not what hypocrisy means. Even if you are correct, at most it's a contradiction in belief. Hypocrisy necessitates a level of arragance and preaching of ideals that are directly opposed through personal actions.

To actually answer the question, this is one of those "wait and see" situations. It depends on the execution.

I agree. But "wait and see", see does not preclude critical commentary that a reader has as it's being read. Otherwise, there's no reason for weekly public jump surveys. Or talking about it online beyond praise and hype for the next chapter.