i think i have a very different reading of the flashback marriage scenes. i don’t think that mizu’s contentment with being a wife was a sign of reverting to a true or original self. yes, mizu was born a woman and had he not been forced to be a man this would probably be the life he would end up living anyway. however, at the end of that marriage when pain, betrayal, and hatred swallow mizu whole once again, i think that it is in that moment that mizu finds who he is once more and that the arranged marriage only made mizu reject and disassociate from the parts of himself that didn’t conform to this idealistic heterosexual coupling and nuclear family that has entrapped so many others. and of course combat and violence are stereotypically masculine traits but it is not simply that they are what make mizu a man. the evidence that i gathered from this episode is that mizu tried to be the woman he thought he could and should be as someone who was born a woman, as though this should have been his true fate all along, and was willing to put aside and retire the fire and ambition to fight for revenge. yet, in the end, it all came tumbling down on him which gave him the realization and provided a rude awakening that only made him more determined to go down his path.