So today I was thinking about what we consider in character for Sesshoumaru and I feel like both the best fanfic writers and beginning fic writers all seem to believe for Sess to be in character he has to be a man of few words killing machine that focuses all his time and effort on the task at hand without distraction.

At least that's how I've been writing him this whole time, but let me throw this at you.

Remember that one time he apparently captured some kind of demon ghost thing known as the unmother to trick InuYasha into thinking it was his mom? I haven't seen this episode in forever and never really thought about this whole thing, but now I am. Because I just don't see the Sesshoumaru we all know and love coming up with such a cruel elaborate plan. I mean InuYasha didn't know the location of his father's grave until he was put into a trance to reveal the location of the dark pearl, so Sesshoumaru beating the information out of him wouldn't have worked but still---

Where did he find the unmother?

Did he come up with this plan before or after finding the unmother?

Why was the path to their father's grave put into a pearl and hidden in InuYasha's eye in the first place, I mean Sesshoumaru couldn't wield the sword anyway so why such an elaborate setup for InuYasha to get his inheritance? Is elaborate plans something that runs in this family? I know the third movie isn't canon but maybe Inutashio would have had time to recover from his injuries and survive if he would have just written out a will and testament instead of going through the effort to create portals that were meant to be hidden in eyeballs... Unless it was just a final diss to Sesshoumaru for being so arrogant...

I'm assuming Sesshoumaru discussed the plan with Jaken before carrying it out. What was that conversation even like?

Sesshoumaru: My brother somehow possess the location to the Tetsusagia. Apparently he has been freed from the god tree so now is the time to strike.

Jaken: Yes Lord Sesshoumaru! He is just a half breed surely this victory will be easy to secure?

Sesshoumaru: No I will not fight him. Instead we will enlist the help of a suffering mother spirit that will give him false hope and comfort before revealing the location of the portal. I'm sure there could be other methods but in order for this to be worth our time we must leave him with emotional scarring.

Jaken: So we need to wrangle an unmother?

Sesshoumaru: As well as a sick flying carriage to make a grand entrance don't forget that.

My whole point is on rewatch this whole thing is kind of odd to me, because after this we always find Sesshoumaru roughing it in the woods only focused on his current objective. Hell I think he was over the whole sword by his fourth story line. He probably wouldn't even have the Tokijin if he didn't randomly come across Goshinki's head. My point is that Sesshoumaru just doesn't strike me as a planner and a plotter, but then again his first arc proves me wrong.

Thoughts?

If you listen to the Anime carefully and pay attention to Jaken/Sesshomaru's dialog in the Manga, it is actually cannon that Sesshomaru did not come up with the plan. To quote "Jaken, this scheme of yours is beneath me. If it fails, you will die". As for the hiding of the Black Pearl. The common consensus (at least that I have found) is that by hiding the sword in a portal inside Inuyasha's eye, the sword was technically 'in contact' with him and could seal his blood without the chance of it getting stolen when he was a helpless child

I think there are a lot of layers to sesshomaru that we don't see within the storyline. i think that's why their father left the tenseiga to sesshomaru because he knew there was more to his son than just a hard outer shell. I write sesshomaru out of character a lot because he doesn't seem like the one dimensional character that is portrayed in the anime/manga. He seems like someone who was wounded in his childhood and is now cold as an adult as a form of self protection. It wouldn't be a very good read either if he maintained that facade around the people he felt closest to.
I do believe that the purpose of jakken was to show how sesshomaru was trapped by tradition as well as constantly battling his own emotions even if he wouldn't express them outwardly. There are a few times were jakken even explains that he must show emotion and gratitude because sesshomaru cannot or will not. All in all, we all have our own interpretation of sesshomaru and there's not really any way we can know what is exactly right.