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unfortunatelyuncreative · 2 years

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Ousama Ranking Episode 22 Analysis PART 2

2. Daida and Miranjo's dynamic (& the question of marriage)

2A.Now let's get into something a little more meaty. Before that through, I want to establish something very simple, very clearly. Remember when I said that a relationship between a 10 year old and a 13 to 15 year old was still Really Weird but that I'd get back to it? Well, I'm back to it.

DAIDA AND MIRANJO ARE NOT IN LOVE

THIER RELATIONSHIP IS IN NO WAY ROMANTIC

DAIDA DID NOT PROPOSE OUT OF ROMANTIC FEELINGS AND HE DOES NOT THINK HE'S IN LOVE WITH MIRANJO

MIRANJO DOES NOT THINK THAT DAIDA IS IN LOVE WITH HER EITHER

Now, with that out of the way, let's dig in.

Medieval marriages, at least Royal marriages, were not matters of romance but usually purely political. Daida asked Miranjo to become his wife as an act of political sanctuary.

In the one fan translation I found of the manga chapters episode 22 was adapted from (which have since sadly been taken down), there seem to have been a few lines that were taken out of the anime. At least that was my impression. It was a pretty poor translation to be honest, but my interpretation at least was that Daida, in claiming Miranjo as his fiance, saves himself from a big political mess. The Captain of the Underworld was about ready to lob her block off the second she was revived. With an Axe. If Daida had refused to hand over a random fugitive, it would would have been seen as outrageous and completely irrational. As his intended bride however, Miranjo would have valid ties to the kingdom that would legitimate a refusal to hand her over or kill her. As it is, even this would barely be enough to protect her. My impression of the translation was (I'm really sorry I don't have any proof, you'll just have to take my word here) that the captain insisted that even still a war would likely break out, and everyone around is immediately like, "oh crap, we'd totally loose." Even Despa is expecting his brother to declare war, and is extremely shocked when he doesn't. Thankfully Despa smooths things over, but the point is that Daida proposed as a way of taking care of Miranjo like his father wanted.

Furthermore on the issue of love, while it's true that Daida did say "Miranjo, you were someone I . . . " (from here I think it's safe to fill in the blank with 'love'), in that moment he was recognizing that despite Miranjo betraying him, she had always been important to him. This isn't a romantic confession but rather a begrudging admittance that the person he wants to hate most, he can't. Sure MAYBE Daida might have the first traces of a crush on her or something. But those wouldn't develop for a good long while.

Going back to the idea of a medieval marriage, political betrothals in the middle ages could last for years or even decades. And there's no reason to think that even if Daida and Miranjo did "get married" relatively soon, that they would be expected to actually act as husband and wife for a Long, Long time. All the touchy-feely stuff is completely off in the distance and not relevant to the significant parts of their relationship.

2B. Now to the really tricky part. Is Daida just experiencing Stockholm syndrome and continuing to be a victim of grooming? I mean, we've already established that the boy's not in love, but has he just been manipulated into forgiving his abuser?

Now, whatever else he is, I truly don't think Bosse was being manipulative by showing Daida his memories. He never makes himself out to be a virtuous person, going so far as to show Daida how he killed everyone around Miranjo's mutilated body, even an innocent child. Daida in turn, is visibly horrified by this, much as he is when he learns of how Bosse is responsible for Bojji's curse. Daida knows his father is pretty awful in certain respects.

Now it is possible that Bosse just wants to paint Miranjo in a more positive light than she deserves. But he also shows Daida Miranjo's involvement with the demon as well, and as for the rest of Miranjo's crimes, it'd be kinda hard for Bosse to show Daida memories of things that he wasn't physically present for. I do think that Bosse's perspective is colored by bias, but he's not actively trying to deceive his son.

That being said, even if Daida isn't being tricked into it, he's still forgiving Miranjo for some pretty heinous stuff and I do think it happened too quickly. I think it does help to consider Daida's character though. Aside from just being young, Daida also values loyalty above almost anything else, a lesson well instilled by Bebin. Because of what Bosse showed him, he comes to see Miranjo as someone who used and betrayed him yes, but also as someone who did so out of an overabundance of twisted loyalty to his father.

2C. Daida vs Bosse

I think it also helps to compare Diada's relationship with Miranjo to Bosse's relationship with Miranjo. Bosse, however much he felt he "saw what people were really like underneath," was not someone who knew how to raise a small traumatized child. He was never even really a good person. Also, just fyi,

MIRANJO & BOSSE'S RELATIONSHIP WAS NEVER ROMANTIC EITHER

IT WASNT THE SAME AS MIRANJO'S DYNAMIC WITH DAIDA BUT IT WASNT ROMANTIC EITHER

THE MAN EVEN SAYS THAT MIRANJO . . .

NOTHING ABOUT THIS IS ROMANTIC

OK. Now that that's over.

Bosse cared for Miranjo, but he was never able to see her the way she needed to be seen. (And again, I don't mean romantically here.)

Think about it. Bosse sees Miranjo as someone totally weak and a perpetual victim. Therefore, he treats her like he's a stepfather who's trying to get a kid to like him. He gives her whatever she wants to try and make her happy, but he never connects with her as her own separate person. By seeing her as someone completely dependent on him, he relegates her to such in both of their minds, which really screws up their relationship.

Miranjo says she'll be happy when Bosse is happy, so he doesn't question it & becomes the strongest man. Miranjo is ashamed of herself because of her face and distrusts people, so he builds her a giant basement for her to do weird magic stuff in and be alone.

Now to his credit, I don't think Bosse knew for certain that Miranjo killed his first wife, but he definitely suspected her. He figures out that she's become this twisted person because of him, but still doesn't know how to address it. So he gives Hiling his best soldier as a bodyguard to prevent it from happening again, but if Miranjo decides she wants another journey, and Hiling and Daida have to die for it to happen, he'll go along with it. He wants Miranjo to return to her old, compassionate self, but he won't step in and save his family unless she decides she's conflicted about killing them.

Daida on the other hand, while being "the most like Bosse," still has a lot of his mother in him. In fact the first good decision he makes in the show, refusing the elixer Miranjo gave him, is arguably due to her influence. Daida will call bull out when he sees it, and he will draw a line he won't cross. He's not like Bosse who hangs around for a while out of guilt but eventually wanders off when he's needed most. When Miranjo moves to shuffle off into the darkness again (when they're both trapped together in Daida's body) he immediately asks her not to leave. And not only does he stay by her side the whole time, but the first chance he gets, he makes sure Miranjo will be a part of his family, instead of Bosse who simply gave her the title of Lady.

I would like to interpret all of this as proof that Daida is not enabling Miranjo to use him again, that he isn't going to listen to her just because she flatters him, that he'll rely more on people like Bebin and his mother. But I honestly don't feel like I know enough about things like abuse and grooming to argue whether becoming better people together is likely for them any more than I already have.

3. Daida & Miranjo's growth

I do think however that I can argue pretty well that Daida has grown a lot as a character. By being trapped in the darkness with Miranjo, he doesn't see her as he once would, as he once saw Bojji. He doesn't think of her just as a victim as Bosse saw her, because she becomes his one comfort, a friend and equal who shares in his suffering. (There's a love your enemy joke that could be made here but I won't stoop that low) Once Daida felt that to live with some impediment or some unfixible mistake was worse than death, but by saving Miranjo (and being saved by Bojji as well) he decides that life is worth living even if you've screwed it up horribly or suffered continuously. That's the fulfillment of his arc.

Miranjo by contrast, went from someone willing to be used, to someone willing to use others, and then into some sort of middle ground. While living with Bosse, she wanted to serve him no matter the cost to her own soul. I think it's worth noting that despite knowing where the demon lives, (or I guess, the demon knowing where she lives) Miranjo never wishes for her own body to be returned to how it once was. Even Killing Bosse's Own Wife, was in her mind, a choice made for Bosse's sake, to save his life. Of course, this really wasn't a selfless decision, although it takes Miranjo another 10 years to figure that one out. And even though after this choice (and coincidentally making her second deal with the demon at the same time), Miranjo still feels she has a selfless cause, her appetite dramatically increases. She doesn't just want Bosse to live, she wants the days of old back where it was just them together. She wants Hiling dead and the kingdom in ruins. (I think it's also fair to imply here that on a subconscious level Miranjo was also taking some resentment against her own mother out on Hiling.) It is only by being offered Daida's empathy and seeing Bojji's true selflessness in action that she comes to her senses and remembers what it really means to love someone. Her first act of repenting, of turning away from her path is to heal Kage, but this puts her face to face with her own past. A past she feels that has led her down a path she cannot break free from.

Now in this part of the story, Ouken is still on a rampage, but I think it's ok to assume that Miranjo is not only in inner turmoil but is very low on magical reserves, so she probably couldn't do much to stop him. Then Bosse, her constant protector comes, but for once he fails when facing Bojji. And Miranjo gives up. It's too late for her; Daida being set free by her death is the best thing that could happen. Lucky for her, Bojji and Daida didn't give up on her.

From Miranjo's perspective, being saved is totally unfair, and I think the audience is supposed to agree too. (I mean, I do think that the author thinks Miranjo is way more likeable and sympathetic than she really is, but that's another can of worms I don't need to open.) She's made the first step towards fixing her mistakes, as insurmountable a task it may be, but still has a long way to go.

3. Now just one more issue remains. Why does everyone else forgive Miranjo so fast??? I mean, we the audience might feel she deserves a second chance at life, even if she's still wholly unworthy of all the good things happening to her. But why should the other characters?

Bojji, and Despa have literally experienced her entire life, and I don't think it's too hard to imagine that Kage would be OK with forgiving anybody Bojji wants to forgive. Apeas of course already wanted Miranjo to be saved, so he's dancing for joy.

That just leaves Hokuro, Domas, the Captain, Bebin, Dorshe, Anne, and Hiling. Now Hokuro too I think might be OK with forgiving Miranjo under Bojji's direction pretty easily. Domas has little room to talk when it comes to guilt. The captain, we've seen, is pretty rightly pissed as hell, but if the prince tells you to stand down, you stand down. Bebin is not only very loyal to Daida, but keeps his cards close to his chest. Even if he felt Miranjo should be punished, I doubt he'd argue with Daida publicly, especially after they day they've all had, and the threat of war only narrowly being avoided.

Now the next three give me the most trouble. With Dorshe, I suppose you could say that he knows Hiling cares most about her sons being OK, and as long as that's the case, he'll just wait & go with whatever she decides. Anne is a soldier too so it's not her place to debate all these kings & princes. But she did ya'know. Get her throat slit. :/

With Hiling too, it's def hard to see her forgiving Miranjo anytime soon, even if she's learned to be less judgemental after almost killing Hokuro.

That being said, the truth is some things just got resolved too quickly. And it sucks, but as viewers we can either decide the show isn't worth our time (which is always a valid option), ignore the flaws, or be like me and type disgustingly long metas trying to rationalize an anime. Or you can write fanfiction too!

Anyways I'm done now. If anyone actually reads this horrible behemoth of a post, thank you so much, I spent half the night working on it 😅.

#Ousama ranking #My post #Long post #Meta #ousama ranking spoilers #Ranking of kings #ranking of kings spoilers #ROK #ROK spoilers #Miranjo #Bosse #king bosse #Child miranjo #Lady miranjo #Daida #prince daida #Daida!bosse #Analysis

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