louiselux | Dressing up and Ukoku's brain

puddingcat came to Reading yesterday to get fitted for her coat of many buttons, so in the afternoon I met up with her and her dressmaker friend Claire and landlady Laura. We hit up the John Lewis haberdashery and Fabricland and a couple of shoe shops and now I feel so enthused about dresses and fabric and shoes. I can't wait to see

puddingcat's coat - she showed me the pattern and it's a sort of pirate frock coat with panels and huge cuffs.

I'm thinking of commissioning a dress from Claire too. I just have to decide on what I want: either something 60s style in a simple A-line/shift dress style, or a full skirted 50s style dress.

Also, when we were randomly chatting about stuff,

puddingcat made a really interesting point about Nii - he's a sanzo monk, so can he really be so evil? Is he really going to suck Sanzo into his black hole of doom and destroy him, or is he just teaching Sanzo something, but doing it in a particularly nasty way? Maybe he is working to the greater good. Innnnnteresting.

puddingcat compared him to Kanzeon Bosatsu, who isn't exactly pleasant in the way she goes about things. She didn't have to let Goku be imprisoned in a cave for 500 years after all.

I like this idea, because it balances Ukoku's character somewhat. Also, I don't know if Koumyou was actually such a nice person. Discuss.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Augh! I am in the middle of something and haven't got the time to type out and organize all my thoughts on this matter. I shall return and comment more, but I just want to toss out this idea re Kannon's particular brand of 'mercy': one of the main mythological aspects of a bodhisattva is that they have reached enlightenment but chose not to enter Nirvana and instead help others to reach enlightenment too. Obviously, Saiyuki plays with the concepts of enlightenment and heaven a bit, but I think this idea fits with Kannon rather well. She meddles with the lives of the people on earth, yes, but that seems to me to fit in with her position as a bodhisattva. We've been lead to believe she's doing this strictly for her own entertainment, but perhaps that's not so. I think it's possible she has a plan in mind, and is nudging everyone along toward a particular goal she's chosen. And if her goal is to get all of them 'enlightened', that would make a lot of sense, considering her status as a bodhisattva.

Of course, this opens up whole other realms of possibility as to what would happen if the Ikkou ever did reach enlightenment. Would they reascend to heaven? Would they become bodhisattvas themselves? Would they choose to stay on the 'wheel' and keep getting reincarnated? I don't know.

Ack, this got sort of long anyway. Must dash, will comment more later!

In the original Journey, they all go back to Heaven. Of course, Tripitaka was a vegetarian there, too. I've always suspected they'd get the offer and say 'fuck you.'

They would, I am convinced.

Yup! I mean, "Congrats! You passed the test, and now you get to come to Heaven forever" doesn't get any reply other than the fuck you Lady G suggested, and maybe some shooting. How many times have they announced, all of them, that the only side they're on is their own? Fuck enlightenment, and Heaven is just one big monastery, a place for hiding from the world. And where's the fun in that?

Would they get a choice? I was hoping (and hoping, and hoping) that the end of Gaiden would have them all cast down into the mortal world without actually having to, y'know, die or anything. Wouldn't a next life in Heaven be similar? They'd die as their current incarnations, and be reborn as kami with no memory of their past lives? Or isn't that how it works? *knows next to nothing*

Mind you - I definitely agree that Gojyo wouldn't want to be a paper pusher in Heaven for anything!

Weeeel it depends on how Minekura's Heaven's run, which has never been particularly clear to me. In the Journey they're cast down, but again, the method isn't clear-- they do all remember who they used to be, though. (Except Tripitaka, who is just Tripitaka.)

Hahah. No!

I do agree - I think she is helping them, in her own way. I suppose being enlightened means she can see things far more clearly than others, and is able to judge outcomes more accurately. She takes the long view, as someone above commented (sry, can't remember who that was now), which is an idea I love.

Thanks for your thoughts, it's great to think about this, and Saiyuki (and Buddhist thought) is always so good for stretching the grey matter.

Dressing up and Ukoku's brain

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject