A Koumyou thought
May. 20th, 2005 01:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
louiseluxI am a slow thinker. This morning I had a fragment or two of thought about the Koumyou bit of the Reload Burial arc,
the bit where Koumyou meets Kenyuu for the first time. I'm sure this occured to everyone ages ago.
Kenyuu listens to the students gossiping about Koumyou and his pretty young boy. Kenyuu is bored by them, but he's listening anyway because I'm sure he doesn't like to miss out on things.
Later, with this in mind, when Koumyou says that Kenyuu reminds him of his Kouryuu it strikes me that initially Kenyuu might consider this to be a chat-up line, if he thinks that Koumyou likes boys.
Plus, randomly, I always think it's so sweet that Koumyou says 'I'm 39' when Kenyuu then asks 'How old?
And another thing. The Ukoku Burial arc appears to show that sanzos are chosen by seeing which of the students can kill (is this right, or have I misread it?) the old sanzo. So a sanzo has to die before another can be made. Does this mean then that Kouryuu would have had to kill Koumyou or just wait until Kouryuu died of natural causes? And is Kouryuu being unconventional when he simply passes on the sutra. Either way, Koumyou dies on the night that Kouryuu is crowned Sanzo thus carrying on the tradition. So either Koumyou was breaking with tradition, or more likely he knew he was going to die that night, or soon. How or why did he think that? I think this must be a vital plot point.
I should probably stop thinking now. It's not helping.
the bit where Koumyou meets Kenyuu for the first time. I'm sure this occured to everyone ages ago.
Kenyuu listens to the students gossiping about Koumyou and his pretty young boy. Kenyuu is bored by them, but he's listening anyway because I'm sure he doesn't like to miss out on things.
Later, with this in mind, when Koumyou says that Kenyuu reminds him of his Kouryuu it strikes me that initially Kenyuu might consider this to be a chat-up line, if he thinks that Koumyou likes boys.
Plus, randomly, I always think it's so sweet that Koumyou says 'I'm 39' when Kenyuu then asks 'How old?
And another thing. The Ukoku Burial arc appears to show that sanzos are chosen by seeing which of the students can kill (is this right, or have I misread it?) the old sanzo. So a sanzo has to die before another can be made. Does this mean then that Kouryuu would have had to kill Koumyou or just wait until Kouryuu died of natural causes? And is Kouryuu being unconventional when he simply passes on the sutra. Either way, Koumyou dies on the night that Kouryuu is crowned Sanzo thus carrying on the tradition. So either Koumyou was breaking with tradition, or more likely he knew he was going to die that night, or soon. How or why did he think that? I think this must be a vital plot point.
I should probably stop thinking now. It's not helping.
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no subject
Date: 2005-05-20 01:11 pm (UTC)We can't really extrapolate from only two data points, but my intuition says that the choice of a successor is left to the discretion of the various Sanzos. Ukoku's predecessor (whose name I can't remember) announced that his successor would be the student who could defeat (*not* kill) him in a contest of L33t Buddhist skillz, and so it was. Koumyou used different criteria. Who knows what the others do?
Did Koumyou know he was going to die? I hadn't thought of it that way before, but now that you point it out, it certainly seems possible, even likely. Why else would he place such a burden on a kid?
no subject
Date: 2005-05-21 11:08 am (UTC)Hehehe:-) On rereading it, it's clear that it's a contest of skill and power. It's Kenyuu who chooses to make it something else, although the suggestion is that he's hoping Goudai will kill him.
it certainly seems possible, even likely.
I think he knew something, mostly because his act of making such a young boy a sanzo smacks of desperation.