SLBP Mitsuhide Act 2 (happy ending)
Dec. 15th, 2019 01:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waterscrollIt continued to be a very oddly structured route, right to the end. And I loved it. I've seen it called boring and confusing in fandom, and I can understand why, but I think I'd prefer to call it subtle and thoughtful.
Most of the route is Mitsuhide and MC doing chores around the house together, trying to be good to each other, trying to better communicate, and doing their best to turn their deep love for each other into a happy domestic marriage. The communication proves a bit of a challenge since Mitsuhide's natural language is symbolic gestures, but they start to get the hang of it after a while.
Meanwhile in the political realm Mitsuhide and the MC are both entirely passive. Which is odd, because they were both so active in Act 1. But it's as if Nobunaga's increasing megalomania and narcissism doesn't leave room for anyone else to act. MC continues to cook but it doesn't have the kind of political impacts it used to. Mitsuhide tries to talk Nobunaga out of doing something from time to time but it never works.
Even when Mitsuhide goes to kill Nobunaga it's not presented as an action, or even really as a decision. More that Mitsuhide understands that this is necessary and inevitable. When he corners Nobunaga at Honnoji he tells him that he doesn't want to kill him, and I believe it. All Mitsuhide wants is for Nobunaga's atrocities to stop, and he knows he's responsible for making that happen, because he's been responsible for helping Nobunaga commit them.
And then Mitsuhide comes back home, and there's more tea and more domesticity and more walking in the garden. When Hideyoshi finally arrives to ask, what the heck, Mitsuhide has no answer, no explanation and no plan. Because of course he doesn't, he never had a plan, Nobunaga was always the one with plans. Mitsuhide responds with one word, faith, because that's all he has. He's ready to accept death, because that's of course the next thing that happens when you kill your lord. Except, he loves his wife, and she doesn't want him to die.
Hideyoshi is, as expected, exactly the guy you don't want to piss off. When he comes back with his armies to kill Mitsuhide, turns out Hideyoshi conscripted some farmers and put them on the front lines. That's quite a clever thing to do to a guy who went so far as to betray his lord because he couldn't stand killing civilians in war. Mitsuhide, realizing that he's been outmaneuvered, tries to throw the battle and get Hideyoshi to kill him. But because I chose the AU happy ending, Hideyoshi just strips him of his name and title and lets him escape.
The last scene is Mitsuhide living in a mountain village with MC, under the name Tenkai. They gather vegetables together, do domestic chores, go for walks, hold hands. It's really all they wanted, to be able to be married in peace without having to worry about Nobunaga and his crazy shenanigans.
(Tenkai was supposed to be a monk, and I was hoping for some explanation for how Mitsuhide could be a monk and also be married, but I suppose I'll have to fill that in myself.)
It's all very beautiful, with a lot of emphasis on small, subtle joys. I liked it a lot. I'm very tempted to redo it and get the other ending but I'm going to push myself through the Nobunaga route first. I hope that won't make me too mad at Mitsuhide, I'm quite attached to him.
I feel like, if the Mitsunari route seemed like it was written to attack me personally, the Mitsuhide route was written to make me happy. Earnest, sincere, loyal, clever, strong but kind of submissive, ending as either a monk (in this route) or a history teacher (in the reincarnation ending). For all my venting about the lack of fanservice in this game, I feel very well served.
Most of the route is Mitsuhide and MC doing chores around the house together, trying to be good to each other, trying to better communicate, and doing their best to turn their deep love for each other into a happy domestic marriage. The communication proves a bit of a challenge since Mitsuhide's natural language is symbolic gestures, but they start to get the hang of it after a while.
Meanwhile in the political realm Mitsuhide and the MC are both entirely passive. Which is odd, because they were both so active in Act 1. But it's as if Nobunaga's increasing megalomania and narcissism doesn't leave room for anyone else to act. MC continues to cook but it doesn't have the kind of political impacts it used to. Mitsuhide tries to talk Nobunaga out of doing something from time to time but it never works.
Even when Mitsuhide goes to kill Nobunaga it's not presented as an action, or even really as a decision. More that Mitsuhide understands that this is necessary and inevitable. When he corners Nobunaga at Honnoji he tells him that he doesn't want to kill him, and I believe it. All Mitsuhide wants is for Nobunaga's atrocities to stop, and he knows he's responsible for making that happen, because he's been responsible for helping Nobunaga commit them.
And then Mitsuhide comes back home, and there's more tea and more domesticity and more walking in the garden. When Hideyoshi finally arrives to ask, what the heck, Mitsuhide has no answer, no explanation and no plan. Because of course he doesn't, he never had a plan, Nobunaga was always the one with plans. Mitsuhide responds with one word, faith, because that's all he has. He's ready to accept death, because that's of course the next thing that happens when you kill your lord. Except, he loves his wife, and she doesn't want him to die.
Hideyoshi is, as expected, exactly the guy you don't want to piss off. When he comes back with his armies to kill Mitsuhide, turns out Hideyoshi conscripted some farmers and put them on the front lines. That's quite a clever thing to do to a guy who went so far as to betray his lord because he couldn't stand killing civilians in war. Mitsuhide, realizing that he's been outmaneuvered, tries to throw the battle and get Hideyoshi to kill him. But because I chose the AU happy ending, Hideyoshi just strips him of his name and title and lets him escape.
The last scene is Mitsuhide living in a mountain village with MC, under the name Tenkai. They gather vegetables together, do domestic chores, go for walks, hold hands. It's really all they wanted, to be able to be married in peace without having to worry about Nobunaga and his crazy shenanigans.
(Tenkai was supposed to be a monk, and I was hoping for some explanation for how Mitsuhide could be a monk and also be married, but I suppose I'll have to fill that in myself.)
It's all very beautiful, with a lot of emphasis on small, subtle joys. I liked it a lot. I'm very tempted to redo it and get the other ending but I'm going to push myself through the Nobunaga route first. I hope that won't make me too mad at Mitsuhide, I'm quite attached to him.
I feel like, if the Mitsunari route seemed like it was written to attack me personally, the Mitsuhide route was written to make me happy. Earnest, sincere, loyal, clever, strong but kind of submissive, ending as either a monk (in this route) or a history teacher (in the reincarnation ending). For all my venting about the lack of fanservice in this game, I feel very well served.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-15 11:27 pm (UTC)Ha! I have noticed this from the ES.
This sounds like a really great route, and Mitsuhide's attitude toward Nobunaga's death and what comes after is really interesting.
How much did you feel Mitsuhide's Buddhism ended up affecting the way things played out?
no subject
Date: 2019-12-16 01:50 pm (UTC)In a few different ways, I think. On the most obvious level, he's *really* upset by Nobunaga burning monks. This is partly because he objects to killing civilians in general, but he also says to Nobunaga that 'people can't live without faith.' He also objects when Nobunaga tries to confiscate written prayers from Kennyo and his faction that people were finding meaningful.
On another level, the word faith comes up a lot in his route, and seems to be Mitsuhide's core value, although its meaning keeps changing.
We don't actually see Mitsuhide pray but in his castle lottery there's an altar. We do see him doing tea ceremony and he has an important relationship with a tea ceremony master.
Something about the intensity of his focus makes me think that he spends a lot of time meditating.
And yes, I do think there's something very Buddhist about the way he thinks about stopping harm and not about taking power or having ambitions. I'm still thinking about it though.
ETA because I'm *still* thinking about this question...I feel like there's something Buddhist about the focus on ordinary moments, It feels very religious, anyway, not sure if it is specifically Buddhist.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-16 02:17 pm (UTC)https://samurailoveballadhistory.tumblr.com/post/149880470505/the-discussion-of-irises-and-whatnot-are
no subject
Date: 2019-12-17 03:58 am (UTC)