Saiyuki thought

[louiselux]

I should be working (just because I've had 3 weeks to do it, doesn't mean I can't finish it off on Sunday night!), but a fragment of fannish thought interrupted me, as they so often do.

Someone on my flist recently (very recently I think, and I'm sorry I can't remember who it was) mentioned that the whole Gojyo being kidnapped by youkai plot is an exact parallel to what happened with Kanan, and here Hakkai is, in the same situation again, the poor sap.

I'd never thought of that parallel consciously before, or had forgotten about it if I had. The cosmic irony of it all and Hakkai's line, 'It's harder to not kill,' actually struck me as being very funny, in that very dark way that Minekura does so well.

I wonder how Hakkai feels afterwards, when he puts his limiters back on? There's a case for saying that the killing is a release for him. I don't think I mean to say that he enjoys it, although... maybe he does.

I love that 'you're really not cut out to be a villain' line to Gojyo at the end. I like to think Gojyo stops pretending to be Mr Tough Guy after that, at least to Hakkai.



eta: a translation of the autumn 05 Ward by flemmings that's making me teary-eyed.

Comments

[emungere.livejournal.com]

I just read that bit, and the thing that struck me most was the two broken umbrellas on Hakkai's list of damages afterwards. The umbrellas were fine in the scene before he changed. Which means youkai!Hakkai was fighting with umbrella-fu, and that just cracks me up completely. *g*

Also, to be a little less shallow, there's this running theme of "you can't change who/what you are" all through it; almost everyone says it at one point or another. But what the story seems to be about is the ways all of them have changed. Which is, you know, kinda cool.

In conclusion, youkai!Hakkai is hot like fire, and if I were Gojyo I would be swooning all over the place, so it's a good thing Gojyo is cooler than I am. Yep.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

You can't change who you are, but you can change your behavior about it, the way you treat others, the way you treat yourself.

[emungere.livejournal.com]

I think Hakkai's still having a little trouble with that last part. Possibly they all are.

[emungere.livejournal.com]

And after having thought about it for a while, that's pretty much the theme of the whole series, isn't it? Strangely hopeful for such dark subject matter, which is maybe why it doesn't seem dark at all most of the time.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. Because even though they're all having this terrible time on the road, actually in a peculiar way its good for them, almost like they could never actually live happily any other way.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

Mmm, exactly.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Well, Gojyo was lying down when Hakkai took his limiters off, saving him the indignity of having to faint. Yes, the umbrellas! I read somewhere that Hakkai's entrance with the umbrellas was a deliberate echo of a hero pose from a famous martial arts movie, but I can remember nothing else about it right now. But if it's true it's so very funny.

They're still them, but they've changed how they think about themselves (and each other) to something better, or at least started that process of change.

[kanzenhanzai.livejournal.com]

It's actually a genre of martial arts movies, jidai geki (http://www.kungfucinema.com/categories/jidaigeki.htm) - I remember reading that too .

and re: emungere and your comments above - This is why I think that whenever Minekura wraps this up, it's not going to end the same way as the original story. For them, I think choosing to go back to heaven would be the "easy way out" at this point, and I just can't see that happening.