I Have Held Back No Water In Its Season

Okay. Enough of the SaiMono novels are out that I finally have some idea of where the Emperor!Seien storyline needs to go.

See, the difficulty is that the first arc fits in pretty neatly. Just swap around a few characters, and it still works. After that, though, we start to have problems.

( Spoilers through novel 12 herein. )

Actually writing all this will probably take a good long while. But I’m very pleased with where the canon storyline has been going, and the fact that a lot of complex issues are having justice done to them. Plus, I’m totally giggling over the idea of Seien giving Ensei a flower. Probably with a bunch of insults thrown in.

Argh! I hate it when this happens.

Okay, so, the single set of remains we have seen, in Saiunkoku, are Enjun’s ashes. However it seems, according to Watson via this article, that most of Imperial history has favored interment rather than cremation. Therefore, I suspect this is another example of using Chinese trappings but keeping Japanese content.

So how do I depict Senka’s funeral?! With historical accuracy, or with canonical accuracy? Argh, argh, argh.

I suppose I could assume that Enjun was given Buddhist rites because he was disgraced or some such, but…

Shuurei. Rocks. So. Hard.

That? That was just beautiful. That totally makes up for her not booting Saku in the balls, the way he is clearly in need of. (Though, I have to admit, that hairdo was almost as good.) Mess with Kou-hime, will you? Ha!

*extremely pleased*

Shunki is also turning out well; they could have given her a better voice, but she’s clearly another ass-kicking Hyou lady.

I’m also quite taken with the complexity of the politics overall, in this show. It’s very nearly historically accurate. We’d need some eunuchs floating around to complete the picture, not to mention a whole lot more dynastic turnover, but this is gratifyingly labyrinthine.

I think I may need a Saiunkoku icon.

…which I am now typing down so that, hopefully, they will leave me alone.

1) The entire Saiunkoku cast cheering and whistling for Kijin to “take it off”.

2) Kouyuu, very reasonably explaining how Shuuei needs to go around in a white wedding dress, complete with veil and flowers, because he is, after all, groomed by his family as Prince Seien’s “intended”.

Note: Apparently, Shuuei really was groomed to go to court as Seien’s supporter/advisor/defender, at least until it all went kablooey. This amuses Kouyuu to no end, and he isn’t going let go of this ammunition for a good, long time. I have evil-minded muses.