RG Veda 10
Posted: December 28, 2007 Filed under: RG Veda Leave a comment »I don’t think this series is terribly good, and I think there’s a lot wrong with the conclusion, but damn if this isn’t a great ending.
I have a serious problem with sudden reversals for villains, which sorta kinda happens here. It wasn’t a sudden reversal, and Taishakuten stayed true to his word through the entire series, but you finally find out his motives. They’re priceless, quite honestly. Two characters who had no chance with one another were suddenly gay lovers in the past, and “kill me, then eat my flesh” is one of the coolest lines that will ever be uttered by any CLAMP character. It’s a shame they topped themselves dialogue-wise so early in their careers.
When I say I hate villain takebacks, here I mean more that the reader was supposed to feel sympathy for Taishakuten at the end, because they now know why he did what he did. I still don’t think his promise justified most of what he did, like, say, slaughtering the entire Yasha tribe, which is why I hate things like that. But his flashback more than makes up for any weaknesses in the story leading up to it.
The love stories in this series are terribly sweet, even between characters I hate. I think the series could have been much shorter, with more emphasis on romance, and things would have been much better. Poor Ryuu-oh though. He’s the only one who doesn’t get to die for the one he loves. Karura, Kendappa, Bishamonten, even Ashura and Ashura-oh. They’re all big softies.
The last couple pages still bring a bit of a tear to my eye, even though the lead-up to them isn’t terribly good. I’m still not sure where Yasha and Taishakuten got the scars from their faces, since Yasha in particular still had both his eyes right up until Ashura did the deed, but I’m willing to let that slide. He may have been sitting there for thousands of years, after all. Maybe a bird did it. Or maybe the Ashura castle (if that’s what that’s supposed to be) caught fire at some point. I don’t know.
All I know is that I don’t particularly like this series, but I think it has a fantastic ending, and I have a serious love for the Ashura/Yasha pair.
