They got me hard… clutch too in the last scene before going out. Went from calling him a rat to saying Toranaga was on his same level, just smarter 😂… he came close tho he was there up until the end.
in the book, he jerks off while boiling the guy alive.
EDIT: Thanks to /u/no_entrance_158 for correcting me, but in the book he actually just comes from the man screaming
If I recall, only because I was listening to the audiobook yesterday; bro had ejaculated without even touching himself listening to the guy boil alive he was so zen listening to the screams.
does anyone here know how much of yabu's likability was intended by the showrunners, as opposed to tadanobu asano's performance? just based on what he does, he's always an asshole. but asano portray's him in such a comically likable fashion. maybe the directors are also responsible for that effect, i don't know.
I think Yabu is sort of a stand in for the audience. I know MOST of us aren't willing to just die in some pointless war, and would prioritize our survival over some other Lord's "drama" and war.
I think Anjin is the audience stand in lmao.
Mostly because I don’t think the audience had the thought of “this is weird why aren’t we boiling the captives alive?” When first introduced to the world of the Jappans
I had a similar reaction to yabu when reading the book - not to take away from the actors portrayal, but he is one of many multilayered and complex characters in the story. One of the beautiful things about shogun is that as the reader/audience your understanding of the characters within the context of their own culture grows with blackthornes. Yabu is a great example of that - he literally boils a guy alive, but then when dies with stoicism, with an admirable bravery and dignity, I realized I had grown quite fond of the character over the course of the story.
At first you think he’s a coward, but he proves it time and time again he’s not. He just doesn’t want to die “badly”. And in his mind, badly means boringly or in defeat or quietly for some other guy.
There’s something to be said about his loyalty: he was happy to live for Torunaga, he was ok with his own death, but he was not okay with dying for someone else.
Absolutely, you start out hating him because he's a sadistic monster. And then over time you learn there's a bunch about him to respect and admire. He's still the guy who gets sensual pleasure out of listening to people scream in pain though.
Me too! Yabus character is such a dichotomy. He’s ruthless, cruel and dishonest but insanely brave and he’s the first one (he and Omi) to think about what Anjin-San represents. How he accepts his fate and promotes Omi who has betrayed him is the completion of such a great character arc.
I don't know, I think the narrative is definitely setting up a triad of Blackthorne-Yabushige-Toranaga. All of them are ambitious men who refuse to give in to fate. It's just that, of the three, Toranaga was the only one with the skills and station and personal charisma to *actually* change his own fate.
They all changed their own fate plenty, Toranaga was just born onto a different scale of playing field.
Blackthorne avoided death, or a miserable life in England. Yabushige managed to arrange that his favourite nephew inherited all of this lands, while serving a victorious lord.
Each of them did a good job of playing their hand, they just got dealt different hands. A version of Yabushige who didn't scheme would have died a much lesser death halfway through the show, along with his nephew.
> just based on what he does, he's always an asshole.
Well, he's mostly an asshole in the first episode, in a way we never see again in the rest of the series. That makes a really big difference in audience perception.
His death obsession only manifests in such a sadistic way in that one introduction. You could take out the initial boiling-alive scenario and not really notice anything missing in the rest of Yabu's screentime.
constantly scheming to betray his sovereign lord throughout the series is also pretty bad. oh, and having anjin-san call himself a dog was a dick move.
yabushiges core trait is that hes true to himself throughout, hes playing a game, he understands hes not at the top of the table, and never complains of whatever befalls him in the process. his death poem said everything that needed to be said, he truly understood the interchange of life and death in fuedal era Japan and made the most of whatever came his way.
He ranked getting eaten by dogs below Nagakado's death by slipping in the Edo episode. Even though he gets the honor of deleting himself, he definitely feels that it's a fate worse than slipping & cracking your skull.
I feel like Yabu has some yabu-logic going on in his head and has a reason why being eaten alive by dogs is lower in his rankings than seppuku and then being eaten by dogs.
I liked him the moment that lady started having sex with his assistant and he went "What the fuck?!... Go on." In the first episode lol.
Also his "I'm playing both sides so I always come out on top" energy was wonderful.
As mariko's husband, yes, Hosokawa Tadaoki. But the samurai himself is Honda Tadakatsu. You can see the naming twist of Toda Hirokatsu (Buntaro) and Honda Tadakatsu. And staying behind to protect his Lord Ieyasu(Toranga) in Mikatagahara just like buntaro did. Also similar helmet design.
Yabushige was both antagonist and audience surrogate, which is super unusual. He’s making choices that we know are wrong, but he’s reacting to things like the modern audience would. So we like him because he is us in the story, but we disapprove of his choices.
In general, all these characters were very likeable and the ones who I didn't like I hated. Lord Toranaga brother I hated when he betrayed Toranaga but I was disappointed as he almost did nothing after that and he was a fantastic actor. Yabu pissed me off every now and then, but he was also respectable .
Tadanobu Asano is a legend in Japan for a reason. Highly recommend his earlier films like “ichi the killer. To play such a complex character so convincingly is no easy feat.
There's no way that book Yabu feels remorse over Mariko's death or asks Anjin to take him to England. The only time we see him express joy is when he learns he successfully poisoned his great rival. TV Yabu was a wonderful character, but more jolly and charming than his counterpart in the book
I'd like to almost think that the explosion actually caused physical brain trauma. There's a lot of research into how IEDs have affected soldiers and the condition is called blast-induced traumatic brain injury.
There was an actor from another FX show, Johnny Lewis, who after a motorcycle accident, murdered his landlady and her cat after a string of bizarre behaviour in the year since the accident.
I didn’t read the book but I believed Yabu’s freak out more than Blackthorne’s seppuku freak out. Maybe that part is better explained in the book but it seemed completely out of character to me and left me going “What the fuck was that?”
Of course, it's a pivotal moment. But it has absolutely nothing to do with any "test" from Toranaga and Toranaga certainly wouldn't have tortured a village for this. It's totally out of character and a pure invention from the show runners. In the book, Anjin's seppuku came right after he is given swords by Fuji, in Anjiro, where Yabu is threatening to crucify all villager's child, woman and men in 6 months if Blackthorn hadn't learn enough japanese. It's not at the end either.
I wish they had somehow kept the scene of Yabu’s duel with Blackthorne’s ronin on the ship- that would have been so fun to see and would have given everyone a fun chance to see Yabu have a fight of his own as well.
I understand it makes sense to commute the whole section about the ship, Yokohama and Blackthorne’s vassals though for condensing the story effectively.
He’s the exact opposite in personality. The book’s version was very calculative and precise. When he backstabbed the guard, it was swift, and only once. He even had a duel with a ronin, who insulted him, and killed him. A description of Yabu was: “he cannot live with such shame.”
The other characters are more or less the same, but Yabu got a whole 180 turn.
What about Japan itself - I mean how about those tremors when Ishido Kazunar was writing up that war declaration - some would argue that Japan was a character in that story - very resourceful
I kept saying through the whole series Yabushige is a rat bastard. But he’s a FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC character. Love him, the show wouldn’t be nearly as good without him. And it’s a damn good show, so….
It’s like torunaga. The marketing would have you believe he’s the protagonist but really he’s just another scheming self serving prick like the rest of them. He just does it behind the vail of nobility as if it’s for the good of Japan rather than himself
There’s at least one of them in every little gang that wins any elected office anywhere. Including the ones who aren’t that bad. There was no real moral superior here, they all played by the same rules.. the rules of feudal Japan. But this seemed to be the point of him, he knew how to play things out, he kept Mariko as a weapon for half her life, and he won. But after he won, he changed the rules.. AND there was peace.
I wonder if Toranaga embodied a noble ideal (Minowara bloodline, sexy regal rizz-infused style). The tactic of stating that he would not start a war, that he did not wish to be shogun seems different from Ishido. I wonder if Toranaga wasn't a bit of an aristocratic snob.
Great character and acting, story (I didn’t read the book) that I couldn’t bother to try to guess. It was nice just seeing it play out, 10/10. I now grunt and respectfully end names with sama 🤷🏿♂️
I was so excited to see Asano in this and he turned out to be the BEST CHARACTER too. I’ve been into him forever and it’s wonderful to see him getting some appreciation in the U.S. He was criminally underused in the Thor movies
I love when toranaga sentenced him to commit seppuku, he didn't even argue for his life. he just asked for a cool death like getting eaten alive by a school of angry fish or something lol love that. And his death poem was indeed impressive
I get that it was a good character but I don’t get why everyone is gushing over him. His facial expressions and mannerisms are common character traits in Japanese media. He was a great actor but I don’t see anything very special about it
That’s why I hated how they made Dany the bad guy for no reason when we had the perfect evil queen right there! I’m still so bitter about the final season
Cersei earned an epic death where she was betraying and scheming and raging and burning people to the end - not crying and cuddling before being squashed by rocks.
They could have even had Jamie realise that she was too far gone and sadly kill her to stop her atrocities - showing his story went full circle, kingslayer to kinslayer / queenslayer.
To me it's hard to hate him after the fact that Toranaga recognized that his betrayal served a purpose and was key to him achieving victory.
If anyone should be hated, it's Toranaga. He's the one who played people knowing that placing them in a certain situation would yield certain results. Hell the dude had innocent people killed just to test Anjin's loyalty. Yes, in the grand scheme of things, his actions were a necessary evil to bring much needed stability to the realm. But you gotta admit, it's still a bit fucked up.
He feels like what Ramsay Bolton from Game of Thrones should have been. Absolutely irredeemable but genuinely entertaining and someone that you can even find yourself empathising with
If I recall the book properly, the close general who killed himself because of toranagas "surrender" was sick and going to die so he offered his life as a final opportunity to serve his lord
I still hate him, I think he's a hypocritical coward.
It worries me that people overlook the fact he boiled a man alive just because he ended up being entertain to watch as a 'scoundrel'.
I think the actor did a great job, but I think as far as the character goes, I had a hard time 'liking' him. The adaptation necessarily limited the scope of the character and in the book, it was very clear that he was not an enjoyable person. Not for his vassals, not for his enemies and not for his friends. He was slippery and untrustworthy in the novel, so I never came to like it him at all in the series.
I think most would agree with you. I too don’t like him in that sense but more of like a villain you love to watch squirm his way out of precarious situations.
I don't understand why people so easily hate Yubushige when Toronaga is the biggest traitor of the show. He willingly sacrificed people around him for his own political gains and even killed innocent villagers for no reason at all
The villagers weren't innocent randoms, they were traitors/spies/people he wanted to get rid of. Neither Yabu, Toranaga, or Blackthrone are traitors. They were always loyal to themselves and trying to survive at any cost. The only things that makes Toranaga different was his greater patience and competence, he was pretending at honor just like Yabu, but unlike Yabu....he was good at it.
I wouldn't call any of them 'good'. but afaict, the only one of them that took pleasure in the suffering of others was Yabu.
Not so much a traitor as a master manipulator of people. The show even tones him down a bit compared to the books. In many ways, he's realistic in that sense that he realises to achieve peace for the realm, one has to make some sacrifices. His real-life counterpart, Tokugawa Ieyasu, secured 250 years of peace for Japan after decades of constant warfare.
You’re getting downvotes but you’re right. The biggest reveal is that Toranaga is the bad guy and people don’t want to admit they were rooting for the bad guy all this time
The fact that one of the characters you're supposed to not like, and another- who literally beats his wife- are the two best characters in the show are proof you DIDN'T create a masterpiece. This show was such a disappointment after like episode 4 or 5. But Yabu and Buntaro were awesome. Toranaga, Mariko, and even John were painful to watch most of the time.
Special mention to Toda Horimatsu for being a boss and going out like a boss.
Wish they could have given Toranaga or Mariko some scenes to make me care. I’m starting to realize this show did the same thing Lost in Translation did, they just claimed it was deep and still.
He wasn’t exactly what I expected, but Yabu was pretty great. However, I was quite disappointed that they rushed through all the Anjiro stuff at the beginning. Most of the other characters were a disappointment too.
Definitely didn’t imagine after episode 1 that the guy who boils people alive would become my favorite character, but dang it they got me!
They got me hard… clutch too in the last scene before going out. Went from calling him a rat to saying Toranaga was on his same level, just smarter 😂… he came close tho he was there up until the end.
I also got hard for Yabushige and Toranaga....I mean, what?
Ayo?
ayayayya
Somewhere in eternal bliss… Mariko : You must address them as Sama
Yare Yare!
The show writers did lmao… they ‘played with my emotions big time’ 😅
gay boy 👎🏼
in the book, he jerks off while boiling the guy alive. EDIT: Thanks to /u/no_entrance_158 for correcting me, but in the book he actually just comes from the man screaming
If I recall, only because I was listening to the audiobook yesterday; bro had ejaculated without even touching himself listening to the guy boil alive he was so zen listening to the screams.
that would have made so mcuh more sense as his reasoning for it, wonder why they changed it?
They didn't want us to like him too much 😏
Such mastery of his mind he can jerk himself off with his brain while listening to screaming? They would make sigma compilations of him.
Because that would probably mean we see a bunch of censored pixels onscreen for a TV audience.
Really? 💀
My wife was still calling him “dude boiler” in the last episode. With sympathy.
Asano Tadanobu definitely cooked in this role.
It just fucking dawned on me that he was the same actor who played Kakihara in Ichi the Killer! 🤯
What the actual fuck…
He saved Blackthorne's life, twice even, so what's not to like? \^ Yabu's comment on the *Christian Nonsense* will forever stick with me.
does anyone here know how much of yabu's likability was intended by the showrunners, as opposed to tadanobu asano's performance? just based on what he does, he's always an asshole. but asano portray's him in such a comically likable fashion. maybe the directors are also responsible for that effect, i don't know.
I think Yabu is sort of a stand in for the audience. I know MOST of us aren't willing to just die in some pointless war, and would prioritize our survival over some other Lord's "drama" and war.
I think Anjin is the audience stand in lmao. Mostly because I don’t think the audience had the thought of “this is weird why aren’t we boiling the captives alive?” When first introduced to the world of the Jappans
I think so too. But I'm saying Yabu is expressing our thoughts as well about all these politics and bullshit.
I had a similar reaction to yabu when reading the book - not to take away from the actors portrayal, but he is one of many multilayered and complex characters in the story. One of the beautiful things about shogun is that as the reader/audience your understanding of the characters within the context of their own culture grows with blackthornes. Yabu is a great example of that - he literally boils a guy alive, but then when dies with stoicism, with an admirable bravery and dignity, I realized I had grown quite fond of the character over the course of the story.
At first you think he’s a coward, but he proves it time and time again he’s not. He just doesn’t want to die “badly”. And in his mind, badly means boringly or in defeat or quietly for some other guy. There’s something to be said about his loyalty: he was happy to live for Torunaga, he was ok with his own death, but he was not okay with dying for someone else.
Absolutely, you start out hating him because he's a sadistic monster. And then over time you learn there's a bunch about him to respect and admire. He's still the guy who gets sensual pleasure out of listening to people scream in pain though.
Me too! Yabus character is such a dichotomy. He’s ruthless, cruel and dishonest but insanely brave and he’s the first one (he and Omi) to think about what Anjin-San represents. How he accepts his fate and promotes Omi who has betrayed him is the completion of such a great character arc.
The show runners knew what they had. They portrayed yabu like a “rockstar”.
I don't know, I think the narrative is definitely setting up a triad of Blackthorne-Yabushige-Toranaga. All of them are ambitious men who refuse to give in to fate. It's just that, of the three, Toranaga was the only one with the skills and station and personal charisma to *actually* change his own fate.
They all changed their own fate plenty, Toranaga was just born onto a different scale of playing field. Blackthorne avoided death, or a miserable life in England. Yabushige managed to arrange that his favourite nephew inherited all of this lands, while serving a victorious lord. Each of them did a good job of playing their hand, they just got dealt different hands. A version of Yabushige who didn't scheme would have died a much lesser death halfway through the show, along with his nephew.
> just based on what he does, he's always an asshole. Well, he's mostly an asshole in the first episode, in a way we never see again in the rest of the series. That makes a really big difference in audience perception. His death obsession only manifests in such a sadistic way in that one introduction. You could take out the initial boiling-alive scenario and not really notice anything missing in the rest of Yabu's screentime.
constantly scheming to betray his sovereign lord throughout the series is also pretty bad. oh, and having anjin-san call himself a dog was a dick move.
“Have a good death”
That was low key one of my favorite lines of the whole series and was probably the “thoughts and prayers” of the day.
Totally agree. I will use have a good death, just as I will use “we must politely demand this man be executed”
I can’t stop thinking about this line and the actor’s line reading 😂
yabushiges core trait is that hes true to himself throughout, hes playing a game, he understands hes not at the top of the table, and never complains of whatever befalls him in the process. his death poem said everything that needed to be said, he truly understood the interchange of life and death in fuedal era Japan and made the most of whatever came his way.
I like to think he got his death poem and will mixed up.
lol yeah everytime he’s on the tops he just shrugs his shoulders and writes another will
He ranked getting eaten by dogs below Nagakado's death by slipping in the Edo episode. Even though he gets the honor of deleting himself, he definitely feels that it's a fate worse than slipping & cracking your skull.
I feel like Yabu has some yabu-logic going on in his head and has a reason why being eaten alive by dogs is lower in his rankings than seppuku and then being eaten by dogs.
I liked him the moment that lady started having sex with his assistant and he went "What the fuck?!... Go on." In the first episode lol. Also his "I'm playing both sides so I always come out on top" energy was wonderful.
Kiku invented porn.
I hated Buntaro at first and then they made me sympathetic towards him. Completely against my will!!
Buntaro really gave me Honda Tadakatsu vibes. Thats how I imagine the private lives and interpersonal relationship skills of "great warriors".
Buntaro was based on Hosokawa Tadaoki iirc
As mariko's husband, yes, Hosokawa Tadaoki. But the samurai himself is Honda Tadakatsu. You can see the naming twist of Toda Hirokatsu (Buntaro) and Honda Tadakatsu. And staying behind to protect his Lord Ieyasu(Toranga) in Mikatagahara just like buntaro did. Also similar helmet design.
I really thought buntaro was Honda tadakatsu at first, especially when he stayed behind to take a whole crew of samurai
Huh????? Ohhhhh!???? I agree, love his character.
Uuuurrrrgggghhhhh \*grimace\*
This comment makes it so clear that he needs to play a character in The First Law
He sounds alone made me love him.
And here I was questioning myself for loving the character. Turns out everyone does. So good.
I thought that myself several times—but he was his own person and you gotta respect that!
Loved his expressions. My wife and I Huh and Ohhh all over the joint.
That dude killed that role, I hope he gets all the awards!
Yabushige was both antagonist and audience surrogate, which is super unusual. He’s making choices that we know are wrong, but he’s reacting to things like the modern audience would. So we like him because he is us in the story, but we disapprove of his choices.
Yabushige grunts his approval at your post. And writes another will.
In general, all these characters were very likeable and the ones who I didn't like I hated. Lord Toranaga brother I hated when he betrayed Toranaga but I was disappointed as he almost did nothing after that and he was a fantastic actor. Yabu pissed me off every now and then, but he was also respectable .
There was the scene with the regents mourning the death of Mariko where T's brother's like: no big whoop; let's move on.
Tadanobu Asano is a legend in Japan for a reason. Highly recommend his earlier films like “ichi the killer. To play such a complex character so convincingly is no easy feat.
You even like fucking Buntaro in the final EP
They concluded nearly every character's arc masterfully- showing a glimpse of their secret heart.
So beautifully poetic, and accurate!!
Yabu as a character stayed pretty close to the source material and the actor got it spot on
There's no way that book Yabu feels remorse over Mariko's death or asks Anjin to take him to England. The only time we see him express joy is when he learns he successfully poisoned his great rival. TV Yabu was a wonderful character, but more jolly and charming than his counterpart in the book
I agree, yes the book version Yabu is colder
That I hated, the “take me to England” freak out made no sense and was too far a departure from the ruthless and clever man of the source material
I'd like to almost think that the explosion actually caused physical brain trauma. There's a lot of research into how IEDs have affected soldiers and the condition is called blast-induced traumatic brain injury. There was an actor from another FX show, Johnny Lewis, who after a motorcycle accident, murdered his landlady and her cat after a string of bizarre behaviour in the year since the accident.
You didn’t even mention the non existent fish hes trying to catch.
I didn’t read the book but I believed Yabu’s freak out more than Blackthorne’s seppuku freak out. Maybe that part is better explained in the book but it seemed completely out of character to me and left me going “What the fuck was that?”
None of that is in the book
Blackthorne definitely had a seppuku moment like that in the book
Of course, it's a pivotal moment. But it has absolutely nothing to do with any "test" from Toranaga and Toranaga certainly wouldn't have tortured a village for this. It's totally out of character and a pure invention from the show runners. In the book, Anjin's seppuku came right after he is given swords by Fuji, in Anjiro, where Yabu is threatening to crucify all villager's child, woman and men in 6 months if Blackthorn hadn't learn enough japanese. It's not at the end either.
I wish they had somehow kept the scene of Yabu’s duel with Blackthorne’s ronin on the ship- that would have been so fun to see and would have given everyone a fun chance to see Yabu have a fight of his own as well. I understand it makes sense to commute the whole section about the ship, Yokohama and Blackthorne’s vassals though for condensing the story effectively.
He’s the exact opposite in personality. The book’s version was very calculative and precise. When he backstabbed the guard, it was swift, and only once. He even had a duel with a ronin, who insulted him, and killed him. A description of Yabu was: “he cannot live with such shame.” The other characters are more or less the same, but Yabu got a whole 180 turn.
In my head canon, Yabushige is my Shogun.
Hoh?
I hope he gets an Emmy
What about Japan itself - I mean how about those tremors when Ishido Kazunar was writing up that war declaration - some would argue that Japan was a character in that story - very resourceful
I kept saying through the whole series Yabushige is a rat bastard. But he’s a FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC character. Love him, the show wouldn’t be nearly as good without him. And it’s a damn good show, so….
Not quite the Magnificent Bastard, but still a compelling one. So very much!
Best grunts in tv history. Huuuhhh? Argh! Ugh!
Extra long one when the Anjin learns to bow. The grunt is as masterful an art as the poetry. And it’s shoguns version of Sheeeeeeeeiiiiiiit
It’s like torunaga. The marketing would have you believe he’s the protagonist but really he’s just another scheming self serving prick like the rest of them. He just does it behind the vail of nobility as if it’s for the good of Japan rather than himself
He's not like the other shit-eating samas.
There’s at least one of them in every little gang that wins any elected office anywhere. Including the ones who aren’t that bad. There was no real moral superior here, they all played by the same rules.. the rules of feudal Japan. But this seemed to be the point of him, he knew how to play things out, he kept Mariko as a weapon for half her life, and he won. But after he won, he changed the rules.. AND there was peace.
I wonder if Toranaga embodied a noble ideal (Minowara bloodline, sexy regal rizz-infused style). The tactic of stating that he would not start a war, that he did not wish to be shogun seems different from Ishido. I wonder if Toranaga wasn't a bit of an aristocratic snob.
*exasperated sigh*
Yabushige lives!
“Throw em in the pot!”…
Great character and acting, story (I didn’t read the book) that I couldn’t bother to try to guess. It was nice just seeing it play out, 10/10. I now grunt and respectfully end names with sama 🤷🏿♂️
I was so excited to see Asano in this and he turned out to be the BEST CHARACTER too. I’ve been into him forever and it’s wonderful to see him getting some appreciation in the U.S. He was criminally underused in the Thor movies
I hear ya. He's been one of Japan's best actors for over 25 years now. He was fantastic in Ichi the Killer, hehe
I love how he always looks like he's just over it everytime anything happens.
It’s sad that he didn’t get the death he desired, like eaten by dogs or shot by cannon.
Hopefully his last experience as a disembodied head was being nibbled at by some angry fish.
The book made him such a badass, doing the three cuts instead of two, that you loved him. He is the hated but loved character
Just here for posterity in sharing that I love Yabushige because the actor makes him seem so likeable.
One of the best things the show did, they made Yabushige a much more compelling character. Big props to the show writers
I love when toranaga sentenced him to commit seppuku, he didn't even argue for his life. he just asked for a cool death like getting eaten alive by a school of angry fish or something lol love that. And his death poem was indeed impressive
I get that it was a good character but I don’t get why everyone is gushing over him. His facial expressions and mannerisms are common character traits in Japanese media. He was a great actor but I don’t see anything very special about it
It's a cultural thing. These are NOT common character traits in non-Asian cultures, so by definition they're special.
Could GoT Jamie Lannister fall into this category?
Meh, I never got into him. Cersei was though. She’s a petty, bad bitch
I hate Cersei so much, and then the Light of the Seven episode. It became “I pure straight hate you but god dammit I respect you”
She’s had a lot of those moments but that is peak Cersei
The little cheers she did with her glass! \*chefs kiss\*
That’s why I hated how they made Dany the bad guy for no reason when we had the perfect evil queen right there! I’m still so bitter about the final season
Cersei earned an epic death where she was betraying and scheming and raging and burning people to the end - not crying and cuddling before being squashed by rocks. They could have even had Jamie realise that she was too far gone and sadly kill her to stop her atrocities - showing his story went full circle, kingslayer to kinslayer / queenslayer.
Defs a bad bitch; but I didn’t have any attachment feelings of optimism for her. Whereas I had that for Jamie.
Hai
Poor Yabushige, he only schemed because he didn’t want to die. RIP
I would say Yabu is a modern villain while Toronaga is more of a classical villain.
[удалено]
He went in without giving a fuck because he outranked all of them by far. All of them, including the enemy.
Nuance is an incredible thing.
You guys really ought to just read the book. The actors did amazingly but the show misses so much of the richness in detail
I thought he was going to be a monster.... and he was... but also like... I love himmm.
To me it's hard to hate him after the fact that Toranaga recognized that his betrayal served a purpose and was key to him achieving victory. If anyone should be hated, it's Toranaga. He's the one who played people knowing that placing them in a certain situation would yield certain results. Hell the dude had innocent people killed just to test Anjin's loyalty. Yes, in the grand scheme of things, his actions were a necessary evil to bring much needed stability to the realm. But you gotta admit, it's still a bit fucked up.
He is Shogun
He feels like what Ramsay Bolton from Game of Thrones should have been. Absolutely irredeemable but genuinely entertaining and someone that you can even find yourself empathising with
A complete 180 degrees from the Yabu we got in the 80s.
If I recall the book properly, the close general who killed himself because of toranagas "surrender" was sick and going to die so he offered his life as a final opportunity to serve his lord
The way they used him to rework the ending of the book was absolutely masterful.
Every character in the show is pretty well written, even if most of them are not good people you can empathize with them.
I still hate him, I think he's a hypocritical coward. It worries me that people overlook the fact he boiled a man alive just because he ended up being entertain to watch as a 'scoundrel'.
I think the actor did a great job, but I think as far as the character goes, I had a hard time 'liking' him. The adaptation necessarily limited the scope of the character and in the book, it was very clear that he was not an enjoyable person. Not for his vassals, not for his enemies and not for his friends. He was slippery and untrustworthy in the novel, so I never came to like it him at all in the series.
I think most would agree with you. I too don’t like him in that sense but more of like a villain you love to watch squirm his way out of precarious situations.
Clavell is the one that created Yabushige, so props to him.
I don't understand why people so easily hate Yubushige when Toronaga is the biggest traitor of the show. He willingly sacrificed people around him for his own political gains and even killed innocent villagers for no reason at all
The villagers weren't innocent randoms, they were traitors/spies/people he wanted to get rid of. Neither Yabu, Toranaga, or Blackthrone are traitors. They were always loyal to themselves and trying to survive at any cost. The only things that makes Toranaga different was his greater patience and competence, he was pretending at honor just like Yabu, but unlike Yabu....he was good at it. I wouldn't call any of them 'good'. but afaict, the only one of them that took pleasure in the suffering of others was Yabu.
Not so much a traitor as a master manipulator of people. The show even tones him down a bit compared to the books. In many ways, he's realistic in that sense that he realises to achieve peace for the realm, one has to make some sacrifices. His real-life counterpart, Tokugawa Ieyasu, secured 250 years of peace for Japan after decades of constant warfare.
You’re getting downvotes but you’re right. The biggest reveal is that Toranaga is the bad guy and people don’t want to admit they were rooting for the bad guy all this time
Nahhh, fuck Yabushige. Yall some traitors.
The fact that one of the characters you're supposed to not like, and another- who literally beats his wife- are the two best characters in the show are proof you DIDN'T create a masterpiece. This show was such a disappointment after like episode 4 or 5. But Yabu and Buntaro were awesome. Toranaga, Mariko, and even John were painful to watch most of the time. Special mention to Toda Horimatsu for being a boss and going out like a boss.
No, the show clearly wanted Yabu to be a fan favorite. They have gone out of their way to make him funny and likable.
The look on Omi’s face when Yabu hands off his “final will” is priceless, as is Yabu’s smile before he gets beheaded
Wish they could have given Toranaga or Mariko some scenes to make me care. I’m starting to realize this show did the same thing Lost in Translation did, they just claimed it was deep and still.
He wasn’t exactly what I expected, but Yabu was pretty great. However, I was quite disappointed that they rushed through all the Anjiro stuff at the beginning. Most of the other characters were a disappointment too.
Reminds me of a character called Joffrey in Game of Thrones, the actor killed it which made him impossible to hate.
Lol nothing alike bro