It's not exactly like the time Beetle taught him how to fish, but maybe in this weird still-possibly-a-dream world punching space dolphins in the face is the next logical step up from that in father-son bonding.
Kubo was sort of punching the space dolphins, anyway, blasting them with percussive bursts of sound from his shamisen. His paper whirled about himself and Beetle, slicing the space dolphins' delicate hides in sharp pointed paper planes and raw-edged pinwheels.
It wasn't death by a thousand cuts, but it was definitely severely distracting discomfort by a thousand cuts.
"You need to stop this!" he shouted at the dolphins that swam near enough, still trying to play the peacemaker even as he (temporarily) obliterated their sensitive sonars with his powerful sound. "The ship is here by accident. Your people don't need to die for this!"
And he meant it, but at the same time, the cosmic cetaceans had better stay the heck away from his father. Kubo had no intentions of going through any of that "watching Dad be viciously murdered just after finding him miraculously alive" nonsense again. He hadn't killed a dolphin yet, but he was making it as impossible as he could for them to reach Beetle, who WAS doing just that.
Compromised as he was, though, by his anxiety over keeping his father alive, he didn't notice one of the greater dolphin warriors, building speed as it swam at Kubo at ramming speed, concealed in his blind spot.
E!
Kubo was sort of punching the space dolphins, anyway, blasting them with percussive bursts of sound from his shamisen. His paper whirled about himself and Beetle, slicing the space dolphins' delicate hides in sharp pointed paper planes and raw-edged pinwheels.
It wasn't death by a thousand cuts, but it was definitely severely distracting discomfort by a thousand cuts.
"You need to stop this!" he shouted at the dolphins that swam near enough, still trying to play the peacemaker even as he (temporarily) obliterated their sensitive sonars with his powerful sound. "The ship is here by accident. Your people don't need to die for this!"
And he meant it, but at the same time, the cosmic cetaceans had better stay the heck away from his father. Kubo had no intentions of going through any of that "watching Dad be viciously murdered just after finding him miraculously alive" nonsense again. He hadn't killed a dolphin yet, but he was making it as impossible as he could for them to reach Beetle, who WAS doing just that.
Compromised as he was, though, by his anxiety over keeping his father alive, he didn't notice one of the greater dolphin warriors, building speed as it swam at Kubo at ramming speed, concealed in his blind spot.