Saiyuki poll

[louiselux]

Saiyuki people, it's time for a poll:

So, emungere and I have been pondering these important questions about Sanzo and Hakkai.

[Poll #646083]

Do feel free to elaborate with comments.

Comments

[devikun.livejournal.com]

I wasn't gonna comment, basically because pretty much everything already said about Hakkai is dead-on and I couldn't have said it any better.

But then I thought, 'Sanzo'...

And I actually have this belief that Sanzo is kind of the only one who actually, really practices love. I'm not as articulate about this topic as I want to be, but I'd like to talk briefly about Saiyuki's serious interludes. Fan-wielding, obscenity-screaming and angst-ridden memories aside; basically Sanzo's a Buddhist, yes? It's a tenant of his faith to have no attachments, but that doesn't mean being incapable of love. It just means that love is not something done out of fear, or a need to feel less alone, or a desire to have someone love you back.

As an example, when Sanzo says 'Do what you like', he actually means 'I love you' (and don't that sound hysterical!), because saying anything else would be a statement of control over another person and therefore self-interested and therefore attached eg 'No, I want you to stay here, or 'Shouldn't you stay here'. So in this way, he's actually being both a very good Buddhist and demonstrating how he loves. It sounds cliche, but he loves enough to able to let others make their own decisions and lead their own lives and he doesn't judge for himself the value of those decisions. It's part of the tension I experience reading Minekura's work, which shows just how challenging non-attachment is (to me at least) - if Goku were to say 'I'm leaving', I know full well Sanzo would say 'Alright' and let him go. Sanzo's the only person - fictional or otherwise - who could actually say that and not mean 'It's not alright but go anyway'.

Sanzo isn't cold, or cruel, or actually inaccesible. I can't cite the instances, but there are examples throughout the manga (and occasionally in the anime, but mostly the parts taken directly from the manga) where he practises exactly what he preaches and shows that he is a feeling, loving individual. If he seems callous or cruel, it's only because the rest of the world is tuned to the attached kind of love, rather than the truly non-attached.

[here endeth the rant. thanks for listening ^^;]

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

I've sometimes thought that Sanzo loves so much and so deeply that he can't get attached-- that it would destroy him.