This is a State of the Fangirl Address. ^_^

[spoke]

So this entry started out with me at work, thinking about Samurai Troopers. Because it occured to me to ask myself why is Shuten my favorite.

Because his virtue is loyalty. Because there is a question of who he should be loyal to, and why. Kind of hesitant to do this when I haven't finished watching the dvds yet, but...

In the beginning, no question but that he's loyal to Arago. Even as his... how to put this. His ...moral certainty is slipping. His sense of loyal, not so much, and that shows in his conversation with Kaos in the park. Kaos asks why he was about to be killed, and Shuten gets defensive. He and Arago have seperate wills, and he can't help it if he was in danger... but the thing is, he had a very defensive tone in his voice. Rejecting his doubts even as they grow, even as he did when he vowed to kill Rekka.

I think he had this idea that somehow what was happening to him was all Rekka's fault, and if he just killed Ryo, that would set things right. *sighs* Anyway...

What follows is the shock of hearing Kaos tell him Arago only cares about the armor.

Well, of course he only cares about the armor, hello evil demon out to reclaim his body and conquer the world!

But think about it from his perspective for a minute, and.. Well. Loyalty is a two way street : when a warrior swears service to a master, it's implied that the master will show loyalty in return. This is a given, something that shouldn't even have to be voiced, ideally. And for someone on the side of evil, Shuten has always struck me as awfully idealistic. This is therefore something that strikes at the core of him, and all his assumptions about his life so far : Arago. Isn't. Loyal. *shock gasp horror*

But Shuten, even in rejecting Arago, (and possibly because he is?) remains true to that ideal of the higher power showing loyal/extending protection to the lower. He's the leader of the Masho -he has a responsibilty to try and warn them what's really going on.

Well, he tried.

And there's so much in those last few episodes with him in the dungeon and the Troopers storming the castle, that I need to go over. But that... too raw? I feel... wounded, there. He tried, damnit, he did. Adn he couldn't save them, he couldn't help Ryo. ...'Course, Ryo was downspiralling because of the other guys...And I can't do this yet.

I'm about to begin on the episodes with Shuten-as-monk.

This I'm not touching until I've seen them, either.

Next time, damnit, I will have sqeeing episode notes!

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