Blade of the Immortal, volume 14
Jul. 6th, 2005 01:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlockI read Volume 14 today, and I loved it. I was making "OMG!" and "WTF?!" faces in the Barnes and Noble store. I did have some confusion though, and wanted to pose a question to see if someone else out there reading this series could help clarify for me.
Rin's motivation is really starting to puzzle me. Heck, it's probably puzzling Manji too.
In the previous volume, when Rin and Anotsu were crossing the mountain, Rin obviously underwent a serious episode of Stockholm Syndrome. But her comments in volume 14, at the end of the confrontation, really confused me.
Why is she letting him live? If I remember/read correctly, she said something like she will track him for the rest of her life, waiting to see if he succeeds or fails, and when that happens, she'll come kill him.
Um, what the fuck? I don't follow. If she's angry enough to want his death because of her personal vengeance, she should kill him while she has the chance, a chance she might never get again. If she wants him dead because she doesn't want any more child or wife or sibling or family to suffer like her, or because she's seen such horrible carnage and wants him to know what his quest will cost in blood volume (as it did here), then what's the point of letting him conquer the world and THEN killing him? More people will die by then and much carnage will occur. It's not like Anotsu's going to have a moral attack and realize the horror of bloodshed any time soon. By letting him go (several times as of late), she's willingly failing to avenge her parents AND making it possible for him to kill/maim/rape/destroy many more people in the meantime.
I don't understand what's going on in her head. Help me understand.
On a side note, what sickness was Anotsu stricken with, again? I thought it was fatal? At the end of the fight he was sitting there, weak with a fatal illness AND stabbed in the chest. But then suddenly he's healthy and strong again?
...oh, right, I forgot. This is anime/manga.
It's just kind of disappointing, seeing as BotI has been pretty good about that sort of thing so far-- pretty much everyone except Manji who looks like they should be dying, does.
All that aside, I do have to say I loved the volume. I was on a high for about an hour afterward.
Rin's motivation is really starting to puzzle me. Heck, it's probably puzzling Manji too.
In the previous volume, when Rin and Anotsu were crossing the mountain, Rin obviously underwent a serious episode of Stockholm Syndrome. But her comments in volume 14, at the end of the confrontation, really confused me.
Why is she letting him live? If I remember/read correctly, she said something like she will track him for the rest of her life, waiting to see if he succeeds or fails, and when that happens, she'll come kill him.
Um, what the fuck? I don't follow. If she's angry enough to want his death because of her personal vengeance, she should kill him while she has the chance, a chance she might never get again. If she wants him dead because she doesn't want any more child or wife or sibling or family to suffer like her, or because she's seen such horrible carnage and wants him to know what his quest will cost in blood volume (as it did here), then what's the point of letting him conquer the world and THEN killing him? More people will die by then and much carnage will occur. It's not like Anotsu's going to have a moral attack and realize the horror of bloodshed any time soon. By letting him go (several times as of late), she's willingly failing to avenge her parents AND making it possible for him to kill/maim/rape/destroy many more people in the meantime.
I don't understand what's going on in her head. Help me understand.
On a side note, what sickness was Anotsu stricken with, again? I thought it was fatal? At the end of the fight he was sitting there, weak with a fatal illness AND stabbed in the chest. But then suddenly he's healthy and strong again?
...oh, right, I forgot. This is anime/manga.
It's just kind of disappointing, seeing as BotI has been pretty good about that sort of thing so far-- pretty much everyone except Manji who looks like they should be dying, does.
All that aside, I do have to say I loved the volume. I was on a high for about an hour afterward.
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Date: 2005-07-06 06:21 pm (UTC)I wish I'd watched Xena so I could understand your analogy.