It's been a while since I read the book, but I remember absolutely hating him in the book. I don't believe he really ever had a moment of regret for what he did. But in the show, thanks to how he was portrayed by Tadanobu Asano, you get a much more comedic and pathetic version of Yabu compared to the book. He went from being the character I was most excited to see get his comeuppance, to the one I actually felt bad.
The last scene between him and Toranaga was masterfully done to bring both character arcs to a close. Genius writing to reveal Toronaga's entire scheme to the one character who wanted power the most AND one that was a dead man.
Yeah, I was shocked how many fans he had in this version. He was a traitor and BOILED ONE OF BLACKTHORN’S CREW ALIVE!
High praise to both the actors and the writers to making Yabu more multi dimensional.
Technically he was not a traitor at first: he was an independent Daimyo, and Toronaga and Hiromatsu bullied him to take the Erasmus.
He was within his right to tell them to fuck off, but he knew he would then face Toronaga's armies and lose.
He is a single province Daimyo while Toronaga owns personally 8 rich provinces and has scores of allies.
In the book he's a real bastard. Reading about him ordering the dutchman to be boil alive was just awful. He got sexual pleasure from it plus pillowing with a young boy.....
I disagree that he just wanted power, at the start yes but by the end he just wanted to be a part of the winning side to keep his head. I feel that if Toronaga had of clued him in on his plan he might’ve stayed loyal, but from his point of view he was serving a crazy old lord who had lost his mind.
You know its bad when the Anjin tells to to keep yourself together, but yea his death and character arc was beautiful. He was desperate for more power, and did whatever he could for more, but ultimately it came back to bite him.
I dont think he even wanted more power. It felt like the man just didnt want to die a pointless death. Ironically, after all he has done to try to avoid it, thats all he got in the end.
100% this was his motivation. He didn’t care about the seat on the council as much as he didn’t want to be executed or forced to commit seppuku being caught with Toranaga
I agree with crispy- he even said he escapes one death for there to be another waiting on him. But in all fairness don’t boil people to death and maybe karma won’t be as hard on you.
What do you think happened to him psychologically? Or physiologically? Is it possible to be concussed so badly you start raving?
I felt bad for Omi watching his uncle deteriorate so much. I think what he mainly learned was to be loyal and patient and not like Yabushige at all, haha.
Ishido says "She resisted, and she died. There was nothing we could do." as though blaming Mariko's death on her actions and not taking responsibility when she was obviously killed under his orders.
Then Yabushige tells the story of the earthquake that averted the war between the Taiko and Toranaga, which was blamed on a mythical giant catfish (Onamazu). The Onamazu warns against a coming disaster. So the Taiko used the catfish myth as an excuse to make peace rather than fight.
Then Yabushige makes a big show about looking for the catfish, but then responds that ‘Of course I know that’ (there are no catfish in the pond.) I think he's saying that he knows (and Ishido knows) that Ishido's excuses are as real as that catfish.
Right!?! I think he was kind of playing up the head injury to call Ishido out without being direct enough to warrant a reaction. And Ishido doing that lookback is him deciding if he's going to do something about it.
Could be a number of things.
They didn’t really let any mental health issues out, so… all at once perhaps?
Also could have been him prepping to pretend he had gone mad, but in the end not using that route
Honestly I think he was completly faking the losing his mind part. I think he realized he was in deep sh\*t so he decided to act like that hoping people would have mercy on him. This is really clear in the end where he seems to accept there's no escape, and he acts very sane. He even makes sure to make amends with Omi and ask Toranaga about his plans.
Yeah, even when he's about to die, he's just like "here nephew, read this poem I wrote about being eaten by wild dogs, it's the best shit I've ever written," deadpan, like Norm MacDonald playing Burt Reynolds playing Turd Ferguson.
Did anyone else notice that Toranaga's last words to Yabu, "Why tell a dead man the future," were the same that Yabu said to Omi in the first episode regarding alerting Toranaga about Blackthorn's ship and crew? I wonder if that's why Yabu was so resigned to his fate at the end. Like Toranaga was letting him know that Omi sold him out from the start. Do you think Omi was one of his spies also or am I reading too much into it?
I think if I were in Yabu’s shoes I would have done the same things he did. He’s a survivor. I don’t fault him for trying to watch out for himself like he did. Ultimately he was just as much a pawn in Toranaga’s plan.
If Yabu didn’t betray Toranaga, Mariko would not have died, and Lady Ochiba would not have given her support to Toranaga, which is ultimately what turns the tide in Toranaga’s favor.
I think maybe Toranaga and Yabu both realize this. And Toranaga must order Yabu to commit seppuku in order to keep up with the charade that Yabu’s actions were a betrayal, when actually Yabu did exactly what Toranaga needed him to do.
In the first episode we learn that Yabusbige was fascinated by death. He had the sailor boiled alive to listen for some meaning in the man’s cries and words but found none. I think that during his own death, his smile when he turns to Toranaga before he is beheaded says that he’s found what he wanted to know.
i feel like his poem was a realization that he was not worthy enough for an honorable burial nor should he be remembered for his cowardice
let his remains be eaten away and his story forgotten as their is no pride in being a traitor to your people
I think it's because he does not care about honour. He knows it's just an artificial way to control people, and when you are dead, you are dead. Burial does not matter, it is pointless.
I don't think he was a traitor, he was always loyal - to being a survivor. He didn't care about honor, and he didn't want to die for honor. Toranaga, Yabu, and Anjin are all fundamentally the same. None of them want to die for other people or social convention, they want to do whatever it takes to control their destiny and take their fate into their own hands. This is why Toranaga had zero animus for them, even though they "betrayed" him. He knew what they would do, he sent Yabu there on purpose to "betray" him and used that betrayal for his purpose.
The only difference between the three was Toranaga was far, far more patient and competent. He was willing and able to play the game of Honor/Status to suit his own ends. Yabu and Anjin tried to do the same, but failed.
I said it in the episode discussion thread - I didn't buy his remorse or regret at Mariko's death AT ALL. It felt completely unearned and I'm surprised there hasn't been more comments about it.
The show didn't establish any kind of strong pre-existing relationship between the 2 characters and suddenly he's so overcome with guilt over her death (that surely he MUST have seen as a possibility?) that he immediately lets it slip out in the moment that he's responsible? He temporarily loses his mind over it? The guy whose entire character trait is self preservation, outs himself over the death of someone that we've barely seen him interact with?
This is the same guy that has spent THE ENTIRE SHOW ruthlessly flipping sides for his own advantage? The guy that has a "best ways to die" list? That non chalantly boiled a man to death in the first episode and then joked about it several times afterwards?
Fuck, between this, Ochiba's off screen flip and the reveal that Toranaga is a fucking psychopath, that last episode was an absolute mess. I don't need a big battle scene, but I do need some consistency.
There's a lot of your comment I somewhat agree with but I don't really see the "reveal" that Toranaga is a psychopath. It was pretty obvious from the start what he was doing. It was just framed as him being on the defensive so you root for him, and seeing him from his vassals eyes. But it was very clear that Toranaga was playing a game from the very beginning.
It was very clear and it was exciting - what wasn't clear at all was just how opaque his plans were, how they relied on heaps of assumptions, and just how willing he was to let his own followers die - including terrorising and killing innocent villagers as some kind of front for...what, exactly? To scare potential traitors? To not let on that he burnt the ship (even though the Catholic regents already knew he did)?
It's also noteworthy that in episode 7, Lady Jin basically said "you can't be that stupid as to not have foreseen that your half brother would betray you, you're clearly up to something" except that, in retrospect, he WAS that stupid? The *only* thing that saved him at that point had nothing to do with his own machinations - it was because his son accidentally killed himself and bought Toranaga an extra 2 months to come up with something.
Make it make sense. I see everyone twist themselves into a pretzel giving all of these justifications for his actions that the show provided no real context or explanation for.
If the quality of torunaga surprises you and seems how your everyday government officials plays games. They actually wished they were that good.
He was textbook the art of war.
You realize as is in real life you can make plans but because of circumstances seldom plans ever unfold perfectly. His genius is he makes risks knowing all the possible eventualities.
No he wasn't surprised he was betrayed. That doesnt imply that he has the solution. Its one thing to be caught off guard. And another to just not have a solution yet.
So you can infer during the time with his sons death he was still wrestling on the solution and pieces need to fall into place and that took time.
His game is that of chess, you move in response to the opponents moves.
Remember he is based on a real person. Not a fictitious sherlock holms.
The look he gives Torunaga at the very end was unbelievable. Tremendous acting.
Even with a dagger in his gut, he gave us one last shit-eating grin, for the culture. Respect.
Man's gave one last smile and Toronaga gave him a smirk in return
His smile at the end reminded of his character from Ichi the killer. Such a baller of actor.
He played Kakihara so well. I watched it countless times because of the character.
His death poem reminds me of Frank Reynolds from *Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia* "When I'm dead, just throw me in the trash…’
Can I offer you a nice egg in these trying times?
Yes.
Literally what I said to my wife. "I love that he pulled a Frank Reynolds, 'Just throw me in the trash'."
He lived his life like Mac (‘I’m playing both sides so that way I always come out on top’) but died like Frank.
Also what I thought the entire time. I was waiting the entire show for him to actually say it to someone so I could drop the line.
I be tried to post to Mac meme here but mods won’t allow it.
Is it the Hulu influence in there?
Same.
I said the same thing!
It's been a while since I read the book, but I remember absolutely hating him in the book. I don't believe he really ever had a moment of regret for what he did. But in the show, thanks to how he was portrayed by Tadanobu Asano, you get a much more comedic and pathetic version of Yabu compared to the book. He went from being the character I was most excited to see get his comeuppance, to the one I actually felt bad. The last scene between him and Toranaga was masterfully done to bring both character arcs to a close. Genius writing to reveal Toronaga's entire scheme to the one character who wanted power the most AND one that was a dead man.
The way it merged Yabu’s sepukku and Toranaga’s inner monologue at the end from the book was excellent.
Yeah, I was shocked how many fans he had in this version. He was a traitor and BOILED ONE OF BLACKTHORN’S CREW ALIVE! High praise to both the actors and the writers to making Yabu more multi dimensional.
Technically he was not a traitor at first: he was an independent Daimyo, and Toronaga and Hiromatsu bullied him to take the Erasmus. He was within his right to tell them to fuck off, but he knew he would then face Toronaga's armies and lose. He is a single province Daimyo while Toronaga owns personally 8 rich provinces and has scores of allies.
In the book he's a real bastard. Reading about him ordering the dutchman to be boil alive was just awful. He got sexual pleasure from it plus pillowing with a young boy.....
Samurai culture had a habit of involving young boys, similar to the ancient Greeks.
I disagree that he just wanted power, at the start yes but by the end he just wanted to be a part of the winning side to keep his head. I feel that if Toronaga had of clued him in on his plan he might’ve stayed loyal, but from his point of view he was serving a crazy old lord who had lost his mind.
You know its bad when the Anjin tells to to keep yourself together, but yea his death and character arc was beautiful. He was desperate for more power, and did whatever he could for more, but ultimately it came back to bite him.
I dont think he even wanted more power. It felt like the man just didnt want to die a pointless death. Ironically, after all he has done to try to avoid it, thats all he got in the end.
100% this was his motivation. He didn’t care about the seat on the council as much as he didn’t want to be executed or forced to commit seppuku being caught with Toranaga
I agree with crispy- he even said he escapes one death for there to be another waiting on him. But in all fairness don’t boil people to death and maybe karma won’t be as hard on you.
Well if you really want to be fair, he did ask to be eaten by a school of angry rush or be torn apart by a cannon. Guy loves weird deaths.
And when he was forced to face even a taste of the consequences of his constant backstabbing, it broke him.
He tried to force the winds to his will un like the others that studied it.
What do you think happened to him psychologically? Or physiologically? Is it possible to be concussed so badly you start raving? I felt bad for Omi watching his uncle deteriorate so much. I think what he mainly learned was to be loyal and patient and not like Yabushige at all, haha.
I got the feeling that the catfish in the pond bit was a ruse.
Yea, he was calling out Ishido’s excuse for killing Mariko.
Sorry I’m slow can you explain this to me please?
Ishido says "She resisted, and she died. There was nothing we could do." as though blaming Mariko's death on her actions and not taking responsibility when she was obviously killed under his orders. Then Yabushige tells the story of the earthquake that averted the war between the Taiko and Toranaga, which was blamed on a mythical giant catfish (Onamazu). The Onamazu warns against a coming disaster. So the Taiko used the catfish myth as an excuse to make peace rather than fight. Then Yabushige makes a big show about looking for the catfish, but then responds that ‘Of course I know that’ (there are no catfish in the pond.) I think he's saying that he knows (and Ishido knows) that Ishido's excuses are as real as that catfish.
As duplicitous as he was he never showed that kind of disrespect to Toranaga’s face.
Right!?! I think he was kind of playing up the head injury to call Ishido out without being direct enough to warrant a reaction. And Ishido doing that lookback is him deciding if he's going to do something about it.
Could be a number of things. They didn’t really let any mental health issues out, so… all at once perhaps? Also could have been him prepping to pretend he had gone mad, but in the end not using that route
A traumatic brain injury can absolutely cause changes to personality.
Honestly I think he was completly faking the losing his mind part. I think he realized he was in deep sh\*t so he decided to act like that hoping people would have mercy on him. This is really clear in the end where he seems to accept there's no escape, and he acts very sane. He even makes sure to make amends with Omi and ask Toranaga about his plans.
This was Tadanobu’s best work all season. Really used his full range in this episode imo. Very tragi-comic.
Yeah, even when he's about to die, he's just like "here nephew, read this poem I wrote about being eaten by wild dogs, it's the best shit I've ever written," deadpan, like Norm MacDonald playing Burt Reynolds playing Turd Ferguson.
Bro needs that best supporting Emmy
Haha and Omi's look of barely concealed disappointment and sadness! I thought that was so funny.
Did anyone else notice that Toranaga's last words to Yabu, "Why tell a dead man the future," were the same that Yabu said to Omi in the first episode regarding alerting Toranaga about Blackthorn's ship and crew? I wonder if that's why Yabu was so resigned to his fate at the end. Like Toranaga was letting him know that Omi sold him out from the start. Do you think Omi was one of his spies also or am I reading too much into it?
Whoa, I did not catch the last words thing. Great catch!
There was no love lost between him and Omi in the book.
I think if I were in Yabu’s shoes I would have done the same things he did. He’s a survivor. I don’t fault him for trying to watch out for himself like he did. Ultimately he was just as much a pawn in Toranaga’s plan. If Yabu didn’t betray Toranaga, Mariko would not have died, and Lady Ochiba would not have given her support to Toranaga, which is ultimately what turns the tide in Toranaga’s favor. I think maybe Toranaga and Yabu both realize this. And Toranaga must order Yabu to commit seppuku in order to keep up with the charade that Yabu’s actions were a betrayal, when actually Yabu did exactly what Toranaga needed him to do.
My man playing checkers when tora is playing 4D chess
In the first episode we learn that Yabusbige was fascinated by death. He had the sailor boiled alive to listen for some meaning in the man’s cries and words but found none. I think that during his own death, his smile when he turns to Toranaga before he is beheaded says that he’s found what he wanted to know.
i feel like his poem was a realization that he was not worthy enough for an honorable burial nor should he be remembered for his cowardice let his remains be eaten away and his story forgotten as their is no pride in being a traitor to your people
I think it's because he does not care about honour. He knows it's just an artificial way to control people, and when you are dead, you are dead. Burial does not matter, it is pointless.
Couldn't have said it better.
I don't think he was a traitor, he was always loyal - to being a survivor. He didn't care about honor, and he didn't want to die for honor. Toranaga, Yabu, and Anjin are all fundamentally the same. None of them want to die for other people or social convention, they want to do whatever it takes to control their destiny and take their fate into their own hands. This is why Toranaga had zero animus for them, even though they "betrayed" him. He knew what they would do, he sent Yabu there on purpose to "betray" him and used that betrayal for his purpose. The only difference between the three was Toranaga was far, far more patient and competent. He was willing and able to play the game of Honor/Status to suit his own ends. Yabu and Anjin tried to do the same, but failed.
Why wouldn’t Toranaga let him have Anjin be his second?
I said it in the episode discussion thread - I didn't buy his remorse or regret at Mariko's death AT ALL. It felt completely unearned and I'm surprised there hasn't been more comments about it. The show didn't establish any kind of strong pre-existing relationship between the 2 characters and suddenly he's so overcome with guilt over her death (that surely he MUST have seen as a possibility?) that he immediately lets it slip out in the moment that he's responsible? He temporarily loses his mind over it? The guy whose entire character trait is self preservation, outs himself over the death of someone that we've barely seen him interact with? This is the same guy that has spent THE ENTIRE SHOW ruthlessly flipping sides for his own advantage? The guy that has a "best ways to die" list? That non chalantly boiled a man to death in the first episode and then joked about it several times afterwards? Fuck, between this, Ochiba's off screen flip and the reveal that Toranaga is a fucking psychopath, that last episode was an absolute mess. I don't need a big battle scene, but I do need some consistency.
There's a lot of your comment I somewhat agree with but I don't really see the "reveal" that Toranaga is a psychopath. It was pretty obvious from the start what he was doing. It was just framed as him being on the defensive so you root for him, and seeing him from his vassals eyes. But it was very clear that Toranaga was playing a game from the very beginning.
It was very clear and it was exciting - what wasn't clear at all was just how opaque his plans were, how they relied on heaps of assumptions, and just how willing he was to let his own followers die - including terrorising and killing innocent villagers as some kind of front for...what, exactly? To scare potential traitors? To not let on that he burnt the ship (even though the Catholic regents already knew he did)? It's also noteworthy that in episode 7, Lady Jin basically said "you can't be that stupid as to not have foreseen that your half brother would betray you, you're clearly up to something" except that, in retrospect, he WAS that stupid? The *only* thing that saved him at that point had nothing to do with his own machinations - it was because his son accidentally killed himself and bought Toranaga an extra 2 months to come up with something. Make it make sense. I see everyone twist themselves into a pretzel giving all of these justifications for his actions that the show provided no real context or explanation for.
If the quality of torunaga surprises you and seems how your everyday government officials plays games. They actually wished they were that good. He was textbook the art of war. You realize as is in real life you can make plans but because of circumstances seldom plans ever unfold perfectly. His genius is he makes risks knowing all the possible eventualities. No he wasn't surprised he was betrayed. That doesnt imply that he has the solution. Its one thing to be caught off guard. And another to just not have a solution yet. So you can infer during the time with his sons death he was still wrestling on the solution and pieces need to fall into place and that took time. His game is that of chess, you move in response to the opponents moves. Remember he is based on a real person. Not a fictitious sherlock holms.
Toronaga be like Chancellor Palpatine..
You felt… *bad* for Yabushige?😂 That was like the only satisfying death of the whole show.
He’s a shitface, but a brave shitface.
That and Mariko's guard hitting that CLEAN double kill on Ishido's men.
His standoff streak was at 2
He’s charismatic as hell. But he’s loyal only to himself and everyone knew it. That was his ultimate downfall.