Yes, still Fushigi Yuugi. I know I am spamming but I can't help it.

[dangermousie]

We are snowed in and what can be cosier than sitting with your husband, eating chocoloate scones (baked by yours truly) and watching Fushigi Yuugi?

The whole thing about the book being a form of sacrifice is really interesting and makes me wonder about reality v. role v. illusion. Miaka is getting more and more tied to this world. So she can be sacrificed? Interesting. Has all of this happened before and so much as it seems new, the course of events is predetermined, really like a play? Hmmmm....Maybe.

Also, loved Miaka bringing Tamahome food (must be true love if she doesn't eat it on the way :P) and he is all asleep, exhausted (and snoring) and she just tucks the blanket around him and he pulls her to him in his sleep and when he wakes up and she tells him, his reaction is "Darn, should have tried something better." I love that no matter how much he is her OTP or whatever, he really acts like a 17 year old boy and wants to get into her pants. Realistic :P

How neat is it that Hotohori's sword protected Miaka? Hotohori love.



Also, Nuriko's background story is twiiiiisted. He dresses as a girl in order to be one with his dead sister? What with Tamahome's sense of failure and protection issues because he failed his family (he is ten times more protective and single-minded now) and Chichiri's eternal repentance for murder done in anger and Mitsukake's failing his fiancee and then having to kill her, not to mention Hotohori's eternal loneliness etc, I think everyone in this group needs therapy. Lots of it. Maybe that's what Miaka should wish for.

Also, Nakago has a girlfriend? Soi? Cooooool. Of course, since she is apologizing for her failure to kill Miaka while she is horizontal on top of him in his tent, when she says 'give me another chance' I expected Nakago to say 'I'll give you another chance if you give me another blow job.' Heeee. He seems to be the only one with a sex life in this show, anyway. I do love when Suboshi walks into his tent just then and bolts outside because of what he's seen and tells Nakago Yui wants to see him, Nakago's response is "I'll be with her shortly." Heeeee.

So far my Top 5 characters (in order) are:

1Tamahome: Seriously, someone hit on what would make dangermousie happy in a hero. It's like they went into my head a bit. Love, love, love, love. And unlike most of my fictional crushes, he actually wouldn't be bad in RL either.

2 Hotohori: How could you not love Hotohori? Got to be something wrong with you. He is noble and gorgeous and lonely and quirky and funny and guuuuuh. Excuse me while I hyperventilate. In fact, in RL I might pick him over Tamahome. Or most likely, I'll just not be able to choose.

3 Nuriko: I want him for a girlfriend.

4 Tasuki: So funny, and fiery-tempered and amuses me so. Plus, red hair!

5 Miaka: Yes, I know. But I find her fun and amusing and a good angst supplier and the show pokes fun at her at times so I don't feel an 'odour of sanctity.' Me likes

Least favorite is Yui. Stop with the whining and uselessness and 'the world owes me' attitude.

Comments

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

Re: Nakago. I actually really believe that if Nakago cared for anyone, it was Soi. The has never done a redeemable thing the whole time we see him (maybe saving Yui, but he had his own reasons, psychological and otherwise, for doing that), yet he's almost noble right before he dies and it's because of Soi. You'll see what I mean when you get there. There are a lot of issues in the FY fandom about whether Nakago was fixated on Tamahome or whether he really cared about Soi. I personally believe that latter since I think the former was more about humiliating Tamahome than anything else.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Wht really surprised me is that Soi failed and what does she get? A make-out session, a second chance and actually even a chance to rest because she might not be equal to the exertion. Which, if you compare his way of treating everyone else, is shocking. He almost whips Ashitare to death for comparable failure! (what is with his whip fixation anyway? Is he a subscriber to Whiplovers Monthly?) Not to mention he sends his other flunxies with an expectation they will be killed.

With Tamahome, I think it's a fixation that is somewhat sexual in nature just because of Nakago sex and power and humiliation seem to be kinda mixed up into one crazy bag, but it's really a hate and desire to humiliate and break down, even if there is potentially lust in there. But with Soi? It's a lot more normal and caring in nature (well, as normal as anything gets with him).

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

Soi failed and what does she get? A make-out session, a second chance and actually even a chance to rest because she might not be equal to the exertion.

Exactly, which is what has always led me to believe that he really did care for her. Nakago has interests in nothing other than his mission up until Soi gets involved. He uses everyone as a tool but her. Well, he does use her sometimes, but there's always at least some interest for her well being in it. Even when she screws up he doesn't try to humiliate her. What he does towards the end makes me think even more that he really did care about her, at least as much as someone as screwed up as he was could. I honestly think had his life been different, Nakago would have ended up as a decent guy, but to watch your mother raped and killed in front of you and then to be sexually abused for years is enough trauma to push you a lot farther of the deep end than Nakago went.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I do think he really cares for her. He acts pretty normal with her and for someone with a baseline as screwed up as his that's a huge huge deal. I think he doesn't really see other people as individuals but only as tools, to be used or punished ot discarded at his convenience. But with Soi, you get the feeling he sees her as a person.

I honestly think had his life been different, Nakago would have ended up as a decent guy, but to watch your mother raped and killed in front of you and then to be sexually abused for years is enough trauma

I wonder if they will go into his background in the anime. I like the fact that it seems his evil is part choice and part his screwed-up circumstances. Could he have chosen to be a good person even with his background? Of course. But the chances of him being decent would have been exponentially higher if not for his past.

But his background really does explain his fascination with power and humiliation and even his disregard for people (because they so disregarded him and if they aren't real, what they did isn't real either and they have no power over him). And even the weird twisted sexual vibe I get in his interactions with Tamahome as if he is trying to put Tamahome where he (Nakago) was to break him, from first hand knowledge of how bad it can be.

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

I don't remember the anime going into his background much, but then the manga did a lot more than the anime. It also explains his severe need to be in control and how he learned how to manipulate. That was really his only recourse until he physically became the warrior he is now.

There are also issues with him being a "foreigner", which is why his family was attacked in the first place. If you notice, he's the only blond. That's the reason. There's a lot of "well, screw you" to his manipulations too.

If you like FY, aside from Inuyasha, I think you'd love Magic Knights Rayearth. I'm not a huge fan of the "magical girls" genre, but even I love Rayearth and the charming Furio (who picks the smart girl with glasses in the group...what a man).

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Nakago is a character I definitely hate (considering I just got to the part where he raped Miaka (or made her believe she was raped, I am not sure)). But he is not only effective and twisted and really evil, he is very individual about his evilness and how he deals with the world so that is interesting.

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

It's never really cleared up, but I just can't see Nakago actually doing it. The nobility that Watase lets the character retain at the end I just can't see her allowing a rapist to get away with. Most people believe he didn't actually rape her, just made her and Tamahome think so. Still sadistic and still very much in Nakago's character.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I haven't gotten to any point in the story with any nobility so going only on what I've seen of his character so far, I could see him doing that. I don't know, sadistic either way, as you said.