Gaiden

[tj_dragonblade]

Oh.  Gaiden.  I...there are no words.  Just the ache.  It breaks the heart, yes, but it moves the soul in such a way...

Dear, brash, big-hearted Kenren. Of course he's the first to go.

...

...

...It is entirely inappropriate, perhaps, in light of...well, everything...that even as my heart is in my throat and my eyes are beginning to prick, there is still a piece of me capable of being quietly awestruck at how utterly beautiful Goujun is on the final page.  Blood and all.  Or perhaps it's that 'everything' that puts such beauty in the panel.  It just...oh.  Everything.  Everything.

*Observes another moment of silence*

Comments

[deathlike.livejournal.com]

Is okay... There's more dead bodies in Bleach 8(

[aliaswestgate.livejournal.com]

He really hasn't changed as Gojyo though. He still jumps in front to get bashed first, instead of the others. Most of the time, he's the first to get back up again too. Which is why he's such a nursemaid in the first place and he's so subtle about it. Hearing about this makes me sad, but i knew it was inevitable.

The big question is what is this going to do to Tenpou, who basically went a bit apeshit after he was only imprisoned? I expect a more insane berserker out of him after this. Calm, quiet, implacable death on two feet.

[tj-dragonblade.livejournal.com]

The bigger question might be, Will Tenpou survive long enough to confirm that Kenren's dead, let alone react? Oh, these boys. Of course we know it's coming, but it still makes an impact.

Yeah, Gojyo and Kenren definitely have that caring and self-sacrifice in common under the cocky bad-ass front. It's part of what makes each of them such 3-D and sympathetic characters. *sigh*

[sychogrl.livejournal.com]

Point me to the scans? *big eyes* I just read the material in volume 3 this weekend and would like to see more.

[tj-dragonblade.livejournal.com]

Where does Vol 3 leave off? I will gladly upload the scans I've gathered of subsequent chapters for anyone who'd like them.

[scribblemoose]

Minekura can even make blood, gore and death incredibly beautiful. She's just amazing.

If Gojyo didn't already exist I don't know how I'd cope!

[tj-dragonblade.livejournal.com]

I was thinking the same thing about Minekura, looking at all the bloodied-and-beaten that we get in this chapter; I think it might be in the bitter nobility that's under it all. Even when Kenren's lying on the floor with blood all over his face, there is still conviction in his gaze and grim determination in the weary set of his mouth. And his final speech. It incites admiration more than anything else.

And yes. If it weren't for the whole reincarnation factor, this wouldn't be much of a story at all. I love the way that both pieces of the story enhance one another - Gaiden would be hopelessly, pointlessly tragic without the main timeline, and the main timeline would feel somewhat more...shallow to me, I guess, without the deep undercurrents of Greater Meaning that Gaiden's left running underneath.

[torre85.livejournal.com]

How is everyone reading this?

[sychogrl.livejournal.com]

Let me know if you find out. :/

[tj-dragonblade.livejournal.com]

Most folks so far as I'm aware are getting the raw scans from radiofreebanri; usually there will be fan-provided translation (or link to such) somewhere in the comments to each post. athena8 has posted a translation to the chapter (http://athena8.livejournal.com/340791.html) in her LJ this time around. Me, I'm begging copies off friends until saiyuki_manga is able to bring us Gaiden scans as well as Reload. Hang tight a day or two and I'll have zip files uploaded of post-vol-3 Gaiden chps.

[torre85.livejournal.com]

Hey thanks for replying!

[tj-dragonblade.livejournal.com]

Here's the link (http://www.4shared.com/dir/7211242/98488b95/Gaiden_Scans.html) to where I've uploaded the last three chapters. If you need to see further back in the story (I don't know if there's scans or scanlations of volume 3 out there on the net somewhere or not), let me know. It'll take me a little longer, but I can upload those for you too. ^_^

[torre85.livejournal.com]

You did this for ME? My God, you are a generous soul! Now I'll know what everyone's crying, I mean, talking about. Thank you so much!

[sychogrl.livejournal.com]

Oh, I see. I thought I'd heard that RFB went under.

I used to be a member there, yeah. In the interest of tact I won't talk about why I left.

Thanks for the reply though. :)

[tj-dragonblade.livejournal.com]

I used to be a member there, yeah. In the interest of tact I won't talk about why I left.

Ditto. :/

[tentiqa.livejournal.com]

Join the crying fangirl circle.

There are still a few tears in my eyes everytime I even think about it.

And yes, Goujun-sama is just, everything. You are making me cry again. ;__;

[tj-dragonblade.livejournal.com]

If it weren't for the knowledge that Gojyo and Hakkai can't exist unless Kenren and Tenpou die, I'd be pretty well inconsolable, y'know? And yet I have to admire the dignity and the nobility and the spirit of our dear taishou's farewell even as it saddens me. Goujun's silent, heartfelt respect on the last page just clinches it. It's tragic, and beautiful, and pure Saiyuki pleasure-pain. Minekura amazes me. She's turned me into something of a masochist, at least where this manga is concerned. ^_^;

*hands you tissues*

[tentiqa.livejournal.com]

I know. Ever since the end of Gaiden vol 2, I've been preparing myself for the end, but it is still not enough.

Goujun-sama. Oh, Goujun-sama. *you made me cry again*

But, Tenpou... I'm now known as the seiow girl in the corner tearing up for no reason at all. I warned all my friends that when Tenpou.. leaves, I will not come to school, I'll take a AWOL and just cry.

*takes tissues* Thank you

[kintail.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

Local con is this weekend, and my western army coat is in my closet, skull and chains in the accessories box, and I still haven't decided if I can handle wearing it this year.

(Previous years I'd already had dyed black hair to go with it. This year, I'd dyed it plum over dark blond about a month ago, and it's fading to a pink-ish red colour this week.)

edited for wrong icon

[tj-dragonblade.livejournal.com]

I get where you're coming from - it's rather like a period of mourning and respect to the dead is in order before celebrating the character can resume. I won't be touching the WIP KenTen PWP anytime soon, either, just because the proper headspace is more difficult than usual to get into right now.

He chose a noble death. A beautiful death. An at the risk of sounding Klingon Honorable death. Oh, Kenren.

...Somehow I envision random teary fangirls accosting you with sympathy and hugs all weekend if you do don the cosplay. Assuming, of course, that up-to-speed Gaiden fans are among the congoers. *sigh* And just think - fading-to-pinkish-red hair suits anime-Kenren perfectly, not that we want to encourage the mis-conception.

...Maybe CosplayKenren would be heartening/comforting to the morale of Kenren fans who'd cross his path?

And yet...it's just...yeah. T_T

[tj-dragonblade.livejournal.com]

Yes. YES. I think that's why that panel strikes me so deeply - it's not just that Goujun is inherently pretty, it's...everything else. The look in his eye, the set of his mouth, the salute, everything that goes unspoken underneath that gesture and I just ache with it. If only Goujun could have seen to the heart of his general before the end. It's unfortunate that he barely knew the man as anything more than an insobordinate irritant, barely had the chance to see that there was something more, something worthwhile and suitably dragonish underneath. And yet the whole tragedy of it all is part of the appeal.

Goujun afforded Kenren full respect in the end; even though Kenren will never know he's finally earned that from his commander, we know it. And there's just a little echo of when Tenpou and Kenren turn him loose in the hall a few chapters back, resign their commissions, in the gesture. It moves me. Deeply. My beautiful, dutiful, conflicted Dragon King.

Also, I am relieved on another level that Kenren's end did not come at Goujun's hands. I was pretty sure it wouldn't, somehow, but there was a little piece of me fretting all the same.

[teru-bozu-ebi.livejournal.com]

I dunno... I was really sad like everyone else, and at the same time not... He went out embracing all that is *living* in such a grand way, giving himself to life, not to death. Walking to work the next morning I found myself really appreciating the blooming apple trees above my head, and thinking about that "bloom and bloom" line, and smiling. Does that make any sense at all, or am I just that much weirder?
Of course, it helps immensely that we know that this isn't really the end with him.:(

[tj-dragonblade.livejournal.com]

For me, it's more a somber heartfelt respect and sense of loss than anything else. Kenren was pure Kenren, through and through, and he was Kenren to the end. I can't help but admire his spirit, and I'm so glad that the sense of loss can be tempered by the whole reincarnation factor, and how much of that spirit still burns through in Gojyo.

His final speech is incredibly moving and heartening, yes, and the...voiceover/text-over interspersed with it, taken all together - I don't think you're at all weird. ^_^ The fact that there seem to be tears in the Nataku-beast's eye, also, gets to me. It might just be pain at its wounds, but then again it might be pain for the entirety of its existence. It points to Kenren's (and Gojyo's) empathy with all things used and abused and cast aside, makes his speech all the more poignant, de-villainizes the creature somewhat, and just...he went with such fire and nobility, y'know? Like he said to Goujun just before - he's decided.

And of course he goes out protecting others, protecting a man he hardly even likes at the very last, sacrificing himself to the nature of a beast that bears no fault in being made what it is, even. Noble. Honorable. Admirable. Beautiful.

This series gets to me, plucks all the chords of my emotions, like nothing else. Is it any wonder I call it an addiction?

Oh, Kenren.

[zalia.livejournal.com]

*whimpers* Yeah, I've been kind of achey and nostalgic since I found out about what happens too.

Ah, Kenren <3

I'm definitely gonna' be interested to see what Tenpou does now.

[tj-dragonblade.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It's gonna be a long wait until the next chapter. *sigh* You know it's coming, you know it has to happen, but still - it leaves a mark on the soul.

[torre85.livejournal.com]

I finally read the what everyone’s talking about thanks to you and I have to say… *choke* it was beautiful. You expressed it eloquently enough. Poor Kenren.

On a side note, Minekura sure is obsessed with her characters losing an eye. I mean, that monster’s claw was freaking big and thick and yet it had the precision to only tear out Gojun’s eyeball. What are the chances?