Rereading Buial Arc
Nov. 7th, 2005 05:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cicerGods, I love Burial Arc. I reread the Gojyo and Hakkai part a few weeks ago, and on a whim I started rereading the Sanzo part today. I think this arc might be my favorite chapters of Saiyuki.
Part of the reason I love it so much is that it's the 'missing years', but it's not filler. Those missing years are what shaped the characters and made them into the people we see in the later series. They're the events that gave the characters backbone and purpose, and strengthened their relationships.
I love the Gojyo and Hakkai chapters partly for the sheer OTP-ness. I mean, come on. They are so married. But I also love seeing at least in part how Gojyo went from being a gambler and playboy with nothing else to live for and care about into the Gojyo he is later in the series. And how Hakkai went from being newly reincarnated from Gonou and still deeply unstable, into becoming Hakkai. And still deeply unstable. *dies* And the advancement of their relationship with each other, and little bits of their lives before that are shown...it's wonderful.
The Sanzo chapters are particularly wonderful. It's some very important character development there, seeing how Sanzo went from Kouryuu to Sanzo, and seeing that even though he had the title, it really did take four years until he could let go of his anger and vengeance, and the life he had before to become Sanzo.
The Three Aspects were right; he really had gone off the path. He didn't know what he wanted anymore, he had no purpose and no clarity. He was apparently plagued by nightmares about his master's death every night, and he really was losing more and more of his sanity (like when he shoved the gun in that monk's face). After the Grand Reverend died, though, that was a real life-changing thing for him. It was first time he wore the robes of the Sanzo, after the Grand Reverend's death. And that was when he picked up the cigarettes, too. But more than that, he realized what he wanted, what he was living for, what he was fighting for.
And then, at the very end, after all that had happened, that's when he first starts hearing Goku. Wow.
And sweet Lord, the prologue and epilogue! The conversations between Ukoku and Koumyou, and then the little bit of Nii at the end...damn. It's obviously very telling, but as with many parts of Saiyuki, it's hard to figure exactly what we're being told.
This arc just blows my mind. Onto the Ukoku chapter!
Part of the reason I love it so much is that it's the 'missing years', but it's not filler. Those missing years are what shaped the characters and made them into the people we see in the later series. They're the events that gave the characters backbone and purpose, and strengthened their relationships.
I love the Gojyo and Hakkai chapters partly for the sheer OTP-ness. I mean, come on. They are so married. But I also love seeing at least in part how Gojyo went from being a gambler and playboy with nothing else to live for and care about into the Gojyo he is later in the series. And how Hakkai went from being newly reincarnated from Gonou and still deeply unstable, into becoming Hakkai. And still deeply unstable. *dies* And the advancement of their relationship with each other, and little bits of their lives before that are shown...it's wonderful.
The Sanzo chapters are particularly wonderful. It's some very important character development there, seeing how Sanzo went from Kouryuu to Sanzo, and seeing that even though he had the title, it really did take four years until he could let go of his anger and vengeance, and the life he had before to become Sanzo.
The Three Aspects were right; he really had gone off the path. He didn't know what he wanted anymore, he had no purpose and no clarity. He was apparently plagued by nightmares about his master's death every night, and he really was losing more and more of his sanity (like when he shoved the gun in that monk's face). After the Grand Reverend died, though, that was a real life-changing thing for him. It was first time he wore the robes of the Sanzo, after the Grand Reverend's death. And that was when he picked up the cigarettes, too. But more than that, he realized what he wanted, what he was living for, what he was fighting for.
And then, at the very end, after all that had happened, that's when he first starts hearing Goku. Wow.
And sweet Lord, the prologue and epilogue! The conversations between Ukoku and Koumyou, and then the little bit of Nii at the end...damn. It's obviously very telling, but as with many parts of Saiyuki, it's hard to figure exactly what we're being told.
This arc just blows my mind. Onto the Ukoku chapter!
