Some similarities:
- An outdated system of personal loyalty
- Countries tearing themselves apart
- Revolution overthrowing the old order
Honestly, it wasn't really until the last disc that I started seeing this. Before then, I'd been unhappy with King Louis, wondering if he was as much of a jerk as he seemed. I questioned D'Eon's blind loyalty to a king like him. When he was in Russia and found someone who needed and could probably deserve his loyalty, and he sincerely refused because he already had a liege, I kind of wanted to smack him. Instead I just sighed and looked pained and rolled my eyes and smiled crookedly like the others with D'Eon because innocents like D'Eon are transparent to the core and a bit embarrassing. You don't argue with them because you can't win; no logic will sway them. The way things are is ingrained in them by birth and choice.
I can admire loyalty and commitment to a liege, but maybe I'm too highly influenced by Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga where loyalty is never completely blind and where the overall good is the goal, sometimes at (too) great cost to the heroes. (I'm particularly thinking of Shards of Honor and Barrayar here [NOTE: In 2001, Barrayar was a Nominee for the Seiun Award--Japanese Hugo--for best translation of a foreign novel.])
I give Le Chevalier D'Eon credit for sympathetically showing other reactions to the call for blind loyalty in knights. D'Eon was the protagonist, but that doesn't mean he's always right.
I find myself wondering if some anime or Japanese movie has done as good a job at showing the range of options open to the samurai in their similar situation. It was pretty peripheral in Rurouni Kenshin and the Shinsengumi anime that's made it's way over here (PeaceMaker comes to mind).
Can you think of any good examples?
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment