Kenshin route to end (both endings)
Mar. 10th, 2020 08:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waterscrollI really like Kenshin a lot. He's sweet, principled, thoughtful and loves nature and beauty. I loved him in Shingen's route and I've liked many of his event stories. But his main route really did not give me what I was looking for, which might be a matter of personal taste.
Part of it was that his route gives ominous hints about what is up with him rather than telling us outright. I kept feeling like I was supposed to put those hints together and figure it out, but also feeling like trying to do that while reading it over the course of nearly a month put me at too much of a disadvantage. If I could play it all in a day and then go back and replay scenes, the challenge of trying to figure out what is up with him might have been interesting, but as it was it felt frustrating and at a certain point I stopped caring.
What does eventually come together is that he has some sort of terrible disease that will make him blind and then kill him. In the Destiny ending, which is beautifully written, he eventually does die of it and then reincarnates. In the Fates ending Saizo (!) ends up helping him find a cure. This was less well-written, but it was nice to see him alive.
The more fascinating puzzle was about his tragic romance with a woman who he was (apparently) unable t protect. We don't learn much more about her, but her brother is a major character in the route. He comes to join Kenshin with the intention of killing him, and even tries once. Kenshin is very willing to let him, but one of his retainers saves him. In the end the brother chooses to stay with Kenshin, and seems to love him the way his sister did.
The other way in which this route was not to my taste is that the antagonists were the Hojo, who I haven't seen yet in any route. So much of what is fun for me about historical otome is seeing the same story from different perspectives, so the hero in one route is the antagonist in the other route. I wanted to see Kenshin fighting against Nobunaga or Shingen, not against someone I don't know. At the very end of the Fate ending Yukimura and Saizo show up to help Kenshin against the Hojo, and after that we have a *very* brief scene of Kenshin defeating Hideyoshi and Inuchiyo by using the extremely clever tactic of attacking them in the rain so their guns don't work. But this is only a little, and only at the end.
So yeah, Kenshin is lovely and his retainers were a lot of fun. I did like a lot about this route but I think it's my least favorite so far.
And now I'm on Nobunaga's act 3, and so far I'm loving it. It starts when Nobunaga and MC have been together for a few years, and their relationship is definitely not perfect but you can see them working together as a team. It's fun to see. The politics hasn't started yet so we'll see how that goes.
Part of it was that his route gives ominous hints about what is up with him rather than telling us outright. I kept feeling like I was supposed to put those hints together and figure it out, but also feeling like trying to do that while reading it over the course of nearly a month put me at too much of a disadvantage. If I could play it all in a day and then go back and replay scenes, the challenge of trying to figure out what is up with him might have been interesting, but as it was it felt frustrating and at a certain point I stopped caring.
What does eventually come together is that he has some sort of terrible disease that will make him blind and then kill him. In the Destiny ending, which is beautifully written, he eventually does die of it and then reincarnates. In the Fates ending Saizo (!) ends up helping him find a cure. This was less well-written, but it was nice to see him alive.
The more fascinating puzzle was about his tragic romance with a woman who he was (apparently) unable t protect. We don't learn much more about her, but her brother is a major character in the route. He comes to join Kenshin with the intention of killing him, and even tries once. Kenshin is very willing to let him, but one of his retainers saves him. In the end the brother chooses to stay with Kenshin, and seems to love him the way his sister did.
The other way in which this route was not to my taste is that the antagonists were the Hojo, who I haven't seen yet in any route. So much of what is fun for me about historical otome is seeing the same story from different perspectives, so the hero in one route is the antagonist in the other route. I wanted to see Kenshin fighting against Nobunaga or Shingen, not against someone I don't know. At the very end of the Fate ending Yukimura and Saizo show up to help Kenshin against the Hojo, and after that we have a *very* brief scene of Kenshin defeating Hideyoshi and Inuchiyo by using the extremely clever tactic of attacking them in the rain so their guns don't work. But this is only a little, and only at the end.
So yeah, Kenshin is lovely and his retainers were a lot of fun. I did like a lot about this route but I think it's my least favorite so far.
And now I'm on Nobunaga's act 3, and so far I'm loving it. It starts when Nobunaga and MC have been together for a few years, and their relationship is definitely not perfect but you can see them working together as a team. It's fun to see. The politics hasn't started yet so we'll see how that goes.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-11 11:58 pm (UTC)In the Fates ending Saizo (!) ends up helping him find a cure.
O____o
Did Shingen send them?
The Hojo were in Saizo's route as Kenshin's allies...and they were very boring there, too.
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Date: 2020-03-12 02:37 am (UTC)There was definitely some of that! But there was more of him hating himself and being suicidal.
And from the common route he had, I thought his thing would be that he valued everyone (and everything, including rocks) to such an extent that he didn't value any person at all.
Yeah I kind of felt like the writers weren't up to the task of writing someone with such unusual thought patterns for a sustained arc. I think if they were willing to commit to how much he loves rocks that would've been enough for a route and you wouldn't need the suicide attempts and illness and war. Especially since the illness and war were better done on Shingen's route, I thought.
But I do think he cares about the people close to him. He does have some great retainers. I don't know why they chose Kaegie as the one to give a route to, though, of all of them he doesn't seem the most interesting.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-12 03:50 am (UTC)Yeah, I thought his thought patterns were really interesting, and it would have totally been enough for a route! There was so much they could have dug into there. I would love a route like that.
I don't know why they chose Kaegie as the one to give a route to, though, of all of them he doesn't seem the most interesting.
Heh, my first reaction was "who?"
But I eventually remembered him, not because I remember anything about him, but because he's the one wo is not the single dad who is running everything, not the funny one, and not the quiet one out for revenge.
no subject
Date: 2020-04-06 03:14 pm (UTC)I think Kageie is more interesting in Hotaru's route!
He seems to be very clever -- he figures out that there's something off about the MC very quickly, and he distrusts her throughout the route. He catches her alone in the middle of the route and tells her that he's going to accept her because Kenshin accepts her, but if she hurts Kenshin, he's going to kill her. I'm sure there's an Angsty Backstory there.
I think the tension would make for good shadow!MC/Kageie shipping, actually. And I could see a route about the radiance!MC and Kageie teaming up to make sure Kenshin is safe and happy.