FIRST TIME WATCHING: Shogun S1E8

Would be cool if Fall ur 3 body problem would be next.

Thanks for another amazing episode reaction today Nat. This show just seems to get better and better. During his son's funeral, I wondered if the reason that we never saw Toronaga's face was because his illness was a ruse, but I'm still not entirely sure. Their traditions of honour are so complex. It took the death of his son and Hiromatsu's sacrifice to finally move him to action. Hopefully he will use his 49 days well. That line "I knew it would be this face to send me off" damn 😭 The dialogue is so good. This show is on Disney+ in the UK, and we don't get the black pauses here. I don't know whether or not Hulu is a commercial channel, and these spots are where the ads go, or if it's shown live before hitting VOD. I remember Game of Thrones here had a similar problem. It had adverts during it's first live showing, but on VOD it had title cards left in on either side of the ads, a nightmare to sync with you when I watched your reactions 😄 I look forward to the next show with you Nat 💛

I don’t believe it was the plan for Hiromatsu to commit seppuku, but when he saw Toronaga’s advisor put his hand on his weapon he knew he had to do something. In committing seppuku rather than sign the letter of defeat he condemned anyone else to have to do the same if they were going to retain honor. Instead of letting them join his argument he was like “this is between me and Toronaga!”He trusted Toronaga had a plan. He even told Buntaro to believe in our Lord, even when it appears he does not believe in himself. Toronaga needed everyone to sign the letter of surrender so it appears to the regents in Osaka that he isn’t scheming, so they will hopefully be less on guard. I think even his coughing and illness was a ruse. He sure stood up quickly the morning after Blackthorne and Yabushige departed. So much intensity in this episode. The acting and subtlety in their facial expressions was amazing. As gory as it was, it’s interesting to watch the seppuku scene again with the knowledge that Toronaga hasn’t and has never intended to surrender. Buntaro had a bad day. Utterly destroyed by his wife (and rightly so, even now he can’t see past his desire for her affection enough to truly see her), rebuked by his father, and forced to behead him. Damn. The fact that Toronaga put the lots for what will later become the Geisha district of Tokyo and the church next to each other shows that he’s never not scheming. And I love that the show itself does his scheming justice in that we have a hard time knowing what is going to happen next.

Hiromatsu's seppuku was needed to ensure the plan would move forward. As much as it sucks, him dying vs the hundreds that would die if the surrender takes place. He was the one thing Ishido would accept as a sign that Toranaga was a beaten man. Honestly, I am unsure if he maneuvered his son into his death for similar reasons. It is a terrible loss but one that would have happened in pretty much any other outcome. To quote a certain pointy-eared fellow "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

To be fair, John is English, works for the Dutch and speaks Portuguese. That's three languages already. He's pretty capable with learning new languages. In the books he also speaks Latin and he and Mariko even bond over how good they are at learning languages, but I guess they didn't really have enough time to get too far into it. It's still pretty fast, but he should be good at picking up Japanese, especially since his life depends on it. Also, Toranaga is such an ice-cold power player. Ochiba is great at it, but Toranaga is the true master and incredibly ruthless at it, too.

Poor Nat gets all blurry when she sick, yo...

Can we get Fallout after Shogun, plz? 😊

The only thing we care for is that you’re feeling better.

Careful Nat, no spoilers please 🤣