distraction, abstraction
Oct. 25th, 2002 12:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
incandescensYes, watching that episode helped.
This entry is disjointed. Tant pis. I'm working on something else. This is scribble.
So if you went against your most trusted friend's advice -- for he's a friend as well as a servant -- and sacrificed a hundred of your men, people who were willing to die for you, for nothing, what then? And do you remember their voices as they called on you to do it, and as they gave their lives in the belief that you would defeat him?
Look at the shattered pieces of crystal.
Watch the four of them turn away from you, having saved you as if it meant nothing to them.
Powerless? You're a 500-year-old youkai prince, you're a sorcerer, a warrior, you can put down anyone else in your kingdom with one hand, and you were just slapped down by the person you tried to fight, and then saved by the people who are your enemies.
As if to add insult to injury -- oh, definitely to add insult to injury, how else could he have meant it? -- he told you that he wasn't interested if you weren't going to use your own strength.
You paid that price, you nearly lost yourself, and he took it as weakness. You can still taste the electricity in your mouth, still . . .
How are you going to go back now and look either of them in the face?
Anger's a key here. Anger and shame. I can get that. And the urge to hit someone, and the knowledge that there's only one clear target. Sort of. Not quite sure. Babble mode on, off, on.
Really, the keyword here is fire. What else could it be?
---
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), "The Devil's Dictionary", 1911:
EDITOR, n. A person who combines the judicial functions of Minos, Rhadamanthus and Aeacus, but is placable with an obolus; a severely virtuous censor, but so charitable withal that he tolerates the virtues of others and the vices of himself; who flings about him the splintering lightning and sturdy thunders of admonition till he resembles a bunch of firecrackers petulantly uttering his mind at the tail of a dog; then straightway murmurs a mild, melodious lay, soft as the cooing of a donkey intoning its prayer to the evening star. Master of mysteries and lord of law, high-pinnacled upon the throne of thought, his face suffused with the dim splendors of the Transfiguration, his legs intertwisted and his tongue a-cheek, the editor spills his will along the paper and cuts it off in lengths to suit. And at intervals from behind the veil of the temple is heard the voice of the foreman demanding three inches of wit and six lines of religious meditation, or bidding him turn off the wisdom and whack up some pathos.
This entry is disjointed. Tant pis. I'm working on something else. This is scribble.
So if you went against your most trusted friend's advice -- for he's a friend as well as a servant -- and sacrificed a hundred of your men, people who were willing to die for you, for nothing, what then? And do you remember their voices as they called on you to do it, and as they gave their lives in the belief that you would defeat him?
Look at the shattered pieces of crystal.
Watch the four of them turn away from you, having saved you as if it meant nothing to them.
Powerless? You're a 500-year-old youkai prince, you're a sorcerer, a warrior, you can put down anyone else in your kingdom with one hand, and you were just slapped down by the person you tried to fight, and then saved by the people who are your enemies.
As if to add insult to injury -- oh, definitely to add insult to injury, how else could he have meant it? -- he told you that he wasn't interested if you weren't going to use your own strength.
You paid that price, you nearly lost yourself, and he took it as weakness. You can still taste the electricity in your mouth, still . . .
How are you going to go back now and look either of them in the face?
Anger's a key here. Anger and shame. I can get that. And the urge to hit someone, and the knowledge that there's only one clear target. Sort of. Not quite sure. Babble mode on, off, on.
Really, the keyword here is fire. What else could it be?
---
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), "The Devil's Dictionary", 1911:
EDITOR, n. A person who combines the judicial functions of Minos, Rhadamanthus and Aeacus, but is placable with an obolus; a severely virtuous censor, but so charitable withal that he tolerates the virtues of others and the vices of himself; who flings about him the splintering lightning and sturdy thunders of admonition till he resembles a bunch of firecrackers petulantly uttering his mind at the tail of a dog; then straightway murmurs a mild, melodious lay, soft as the cooing of a donkey intoning its prayer to the evening star. Master of mysteries and lord of law, high-pinnacled upon the throne of thought, his face suffused with the dim splendors of the Transfiguration, his legs intertwisted and his tongue a-cheek, the editor spills his will along the paper and cuts it off in lengths to suit. And at intervals from behind the veil of the temple is heard the voice of the foreman demanding three inches of wit and six lines of religious meditation, or bidding him turn off the wisdom and whack up some pathos.
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Mmmmm!
Date: 2002-10-24 06:23 pm (UTC)Consolation
Date: 2002-10-24 07:25 pm (UTC)Consolation 2
Date: 2002-10-24 07:37 pm (UTC)...unless I say it is. I don't say that ep is, because Kou's attitude to throwing away the lives of a hundred youkai runs counter to what we've seen of his feelings about sending youkai out to be killed for no reason in the manga.
All through second season *and* the film, Kou's existence is an embarrassment for the director. He's got to be there because he's part of the settei, but he can't be allowed to do anything because though he's probably going to play a major role in the denoument of Saiyuuki he hasn't played it yet in the manga. Hence there's nothing for him to do except be defeated any time he turns up to fight. (I still blame Minekura partly for that. She cut him down way too easily in the manga after starting him out so strong.)
I do hate exigency plotting.
-mjj
Re: Consolation 2
Date: 2002-10-25 02:30 am (UTC)(bounces metaphorical tennis ball off metaphorical wall)
Maybe I'm coming at this from the wrong direction, and should drop the mechanics of time and location based on episode, and go for the character dynamics again. Kou has one big motivation to fight Homura which he doesn't have for anyone else, after all; he's the only person around whom he can lose his temper at without jeopardising his mother's safety, getting into awkward ground about who owes who, or behaving inappropriately to retainers. :) (Nobless oblige, after all. A nobleman does _not_ take out his temper on people who happen to be serving him.)
And it's very annoying how he got so thoroughly watered down, yes.
(Perhaps I could have Kou flatten Shien in a straight fight. Or Zenon. Or both, privatim et seriatim. That might be amusing.)
no subject
Date: 2002-10-24 08:22 pm (UTC)Then I picked up the first season of the anime. I watched it over a week. The first ten or so episodes were fine. But after that, everytime Kougaiji came on I /cringed/. He seems to be there only to pick fights with the Sanzo-ikko. Kougaiji is not a filler, dammit! In the episode where Yaone gets captured and Hakkai saves her, Kougaiji was practically wailing like a spoilt brat. Jealous of Yaone's apparent affection to Hakkai? When he issused the usual this-is-not-over-don't-you-forget-it speech, everyone was practically dismissing him. *sigh* Like I said, poor Kougaiji. His character-development in the anime was awkward.
Anime Kou related quibbles aside, Kougaiji is a great character and still one of my favourites. I've watched the last two episodes of Saiyuki (at my friend's place) and he and Homura... well, let's just say, it's going to be a power struggle. ^^;;
no subject
Date: 2002-10-25 05:48 am (UTC)(I've seen the whole second season, btw, so I know what you mean. And even then -- sniff. Beaten again. Poor Kou.)
One hopes that the manga will live up to the expectations we're building. One could even wish that there will be a third season of anime based on more recent manga stuff, and that it would include Barcoded Kou, and . . . sigh.