#Michael Ostrog

[sgsy1005]

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Did Hijikata and Sugimoto's group just not question the disappearance of Vasily and Ogata as they got on the train to Hakodate?

Sadly...

...as far as we know the answer is yes.

As far as I can remember, the manga didn’t really show scenes of people searching for Vasily or worried about his whereabouts. We don’t even know if hey just assumed he would somehow tail them or forgot he existed.

Poor Vasily instead was likely clueless of their whereabouts but figured if he followed the 7th they would lead him to destination... which works SOLELY because:

1) Asirpa has an idea the gold might be buried near Hakodate and therefore climbed on a train directed there. Otherwise Asirpa might have remained in Sapporo until she figured out the star shape meant Goryokaku.

2) Those men weren’t sent back to Asahikawa but were sent to the gold location, which was the same place Asirpa’s group was meant to reach. Not that Vasily knows.

So yeah, although they suspect they’re about to have a final fight with Tsurumi’s forces and even ask for Sofia’s help, they forgot behind their talented sniper.

In regard to Ogata though, credits when it’s due, Hijikata and Sugimoto's group might not have known Ogata was at the Sapporo Brewery... because the only one who saw Ogata was Vasily.

I would have said not even Kadokura might have caught a glimpse of him as although it’s true Ogata appeared while Usami was harrassing Kadokura, the layout of the place is pretty unclear and the same goes for what happens to Kadokura.

When Usami tells Kadokura to ‘hold on’ the door seems pretty far from him. However when Ogata appears Usami is next to it and Kadokura is nowhere in sight.

We can speculate that Usami, hearing Ogata running up the stairs, has actually moved away, leaving Kadokura alone, thinking he won’t manage to escape, has moved in another room, placed behind the opening and waited for Ogata there. We can see, after all, that there’s an opening leading to a corridor on which doors open in the room in which Usmai and Ogata fight.

According to the volume version it’s not even the only corridor that opens on that room.

So yeah, maybe Kadokura was in another room and never saw Ogata, he just caught his chance to escape as soon as Usami left and Ogata, not knowing Kadokura was there, did nothing about it either.

What’s more... OGATA WASN’T SUPPOSED TO KNOW OSTROG WOULD BE IN THE AREA AROUND THE BREWERY... nor care about it if his goal was to take out Asirpa... which wouldn’t help him at all to get the gold and therefore the chance to climb in ranks he supposedly longed for but whatever, Ogata’s actions mostly stopped to make sense in the last arc.

To reiterate with how Ogata wasn’t supposed to be there, we should remember Ishikawa realized Ostrog would be around the brewery only in chap 247/248 and managed to pass the information to Hijikata and Co.

The 7th division got wind of it when Usami overheard Ishikawa saying he figured out and attacked him. Escaping, instead than eating the map or keeping it with himself, Ishikawa ripped it into pieces and let it drop on the dark street... and somehow Usami was capable to find all the pieces and piece them together, discovering the location because Ishikawa conveniently marked it.

But how did Ogata find out?

Supposedly we should assume he waited up until than day then tailed them out without noticing Vasily (Ogata will only discover Vasily exists when the latter will break his rifle) nor being noticed by him (even though Vasily was out for his skin), nor deciding to snipe them one of the previous days (he had no idea Vasily was guarding the place so he could have done it) or while they were moving to get there or while they were there, decide to find a sniping/observation spot when they’re around the brewery but continue not to snipe them, decide to try to snipe Asirpa only when he’ll figure Kikuta and Usami might bring her to Tsurumi and be stopped by Vasily.

Basically it’s not really logic behaviour and why I say Ogata is useless in the story since none of his actions affect the plot relevantly.

But okay, the group might have not questioned Ogata’s disappearance beyond the ‘Ogata should have figured out Sugimoto and Asirpa joined forces with Hijikata and revealed he killed Wilk so he figured he wouldn’t be welcomed in Hijikata’s group anymore and left on his own’ because they had no idea he was around the brewery too.

Maybe they even hope he remained in Sapporo as he supposedly should have no idea they moved to Hakodate and this too should have been the case.

In fact we see Ogata noticing Kadokura and Kirawus before Asirpa contacted Hijikata claiming she has figured out how to recognize the fake skins.

Now, you might say, maybe Ogata followed Kirawus and Kadokura... but no, Kadokura and Kirawus had remained behind and then Kantarou and Toni Anji went to retrieve them and they reached the station ON HORSES.

By foot Ogata shouldn’t have been able to follow them unless they started shouting around they were going to Hakodate. So Ogata’s only choice to figure out the group was going at Hakodate was to notice Sofia, assume she was travelling toward were Asirpa was and tail after her and her men without being noticed.

Well, credits when it’s due, Sofia and her men standing on top of a train shooting are quite a sight worth attracting attention. I hope they, at least, had gotten on the train discreetly, otherwise Tsurumi didn’t need to solve the code, he could have just tailed after the noisy bunch of Russians whom he knew were Asirpa’s allies.

So yes, they forgot Vasily and might have had good reasons to assume they would leave Ogata behind.

Thank you for your ask!

[orthodoxydaily]

Saints&Reading: Thursday, August 24, 2023

august 11_august 24

VENERABLE THEODOSIUS, (FEDOR) PRINCE OF OSTROZH (1483)

Saint Theodore, Prince of Ostrog, gained fame with the construction of churches and by his defense of Orthodoxy in Volhynia against the enroachment of Papism. He was descended from Saint Vladimir (July 15), through a great-grandson Svyatopolk-Michael, prince of Turov (1080-1093) and later Great Prince of Kiev (+1113).

The first time the name of the holy Prince Theodore is mentioned is in the year 1386, when the Polish king Jagiello and the Lithuanian prince Vitovt affirmed his hereditary possession of the Ostrog district, and they augmented the Zaslavsk and Koretsk surroundings.

In 1410 Saint Theodore participated in the defeat of the Teutonic Knights of the Catholic Order at the Battle of Gruenwald. In 1422 the holy prince, because of sympathy for the Orthodox in Bohemia, supported the Hussites in their struggle with the German emperor Sigismund. Theodore introduced the Hussite formation (i.e., the Taborite, adopted by the Ukrainian Cossacks) into Russian military strategy.

In 1432, after winning a series of victories over the Polish forces, Saint Theodore compelled Prince Jagiello to guarantee the freedom of Orthodoxy in Volhynia under the law. Prince Svidrigailo, apprehensive of the strengthening of his ally, locked Saint Theodore into prison, but the people who loved the saint rose up in rebellion, and he was freed.

Saint Theodore was reconciled with the offender and went to him for help in the struggle against the Lithuanians and the Poles. In 1438, the holy prince took part in a battle with the Tatars. In 1440, with the accession to the Polish throne of Cazimir, youngest son of Prince Jagiello, Saint Theodore received the rights of administration of the city of Vladimir, Dubno, Ostrog, and he was granted extensive holdings in the best regions of Podolia and Volhynia.

Saint Theodore left all this behind, together with princely power and fame. After 1441 he entered the Kiev Caves monastery, where he received the monastic tonsure with the name Theodosius, he struggled there for the salvation of his soul until the time of his blessed repose.

The year of Saint Theodore’s death is unknown, but it is probable that he died in the second half of the fifteenth century at a great old age (S. M. Soloviev in his History of Russia gives the year of his death as 1483). The saint was buried in the Far Caves of Saint Theodosius. His glorification apparently took place at the end of the sixteenth century, since in the year 1638 the hieromonk Athanasius Kal’nophysky testified that “Saint Theodore rests in the Theodosiev Cave, where his body was discovered incorrupt.”

Saint Theodore is also commemorated on the Synaxis of the Monastic Fathers of the Far Caves on August 28.

SAINT NYPHONTES, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE (1483)

Saint Nḗphon II, the Patriarch of Constantinople, was from the Peloponnesos. His parents were named Manuel and Maria, and he was named Nicholas in Holy Baptism. Later, he was tonsured as a monk at Epidauros, receiving the new name Nḗphon.

After the death of his Elder Anthony, he went to Mount Athos, where he occupied himself by copying books. Afterward, he was chosen as Metropolitan of Thessaloniki. In 1486 he occupied the Patriarchal throne of Constantinople.

Banished in 1488, the Saint went to the Holy Mountain, at first to Vatopedi Monastery, and then to the monastery of Saint John the Forerunner (Dionysiou). He concealed his rank and occupied the lowliest position. By God’s providence, his rank was revealed to the brethren of the monastery. Once, when the Saint was returning from the forest where he had gone for firewood, all the brethren went out to meet him, greeting him as Patriarch. But even after this, the Saint continued to share various tasks with the brethren.

In all, he served three times as Patriarch of Constantinople: 1486-1488; 1497-1498; and 1502.

Saint Nḗphon reposed on September 3, 1508 at the age of 90. Immediately after his death, he was honored as a Saint in many places. On August 16, 1517, in the newly-established monastery of Curtea de Argeş, Patriarch Theoleptos of Constantinople, together with the Synod of the Romanian Lands, and the Igoumens of the Athonite monasteries, performed the solemn glorification of Saint Nḗphon, decreeing that his Feast Day be celebrated on August 11th.

His relics are kept in a shrine at the Monastery of Dionysiou, where there is also a chapel dedicated to him. In gratitude, the Athonite monks gave the Saint's head and hand to Nyagoe Basarab, who placed them in the Monastery he built at Curtea de Argeş in what is now Romania. In the XVIII century, these relics were placed in a silver reliquary.

At the behest of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church, they were brought to Craiova, to the church of Saint Dēmḗtrios, the Metropolitan cathedral of Oltenia on October 25, 1949.

In 2009, the relics of Saint Nḗphon were moved to the Cathedral of the Ascension of the Lord at Târgovişte.

Source: All texts Orthodox Church in America_ OCA

2 CORINTHIANS 7:1-10

1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 2 Open your hearts to us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have cheated no one. 3 do not say this to condemn; for I have said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. 4 Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation. 5 For indeed, when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts, inside were fears. 6 Nevertheless God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, 7 and not only by his coming, but also by the consolation with which he was comforted in you, when he told us of your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more. 8 For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while 9 Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. 10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.

MARK 1:29-35

29 Now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 But Simon's wife's mother lay sick with a fever, and they told Him about her at once. 31 So He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her. And she served them. 32 At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to Him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed. 33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door. 34 Then He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew Him. 35 Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.

[andronetalks]

Jack the Ripper police serial killer file found with photos and letters after 136 years

Mirror UK By Tim Hanlon – News Reporter12:16, 16 Mar 2024 A Jack the Ripper police file has been found after 136 years by the great-grandson of a detective who investigated the case. The archive has two photographs of Michael Ostrog, an early suspect for the Victorian serial killer and the only copy in existence of the so-called Saucy Jack postcard the Ripper purportedly sent to the police to…

[tribalsoupproject]

Michael Ostrog The Shadowy Figure in the Jack the Ripper Saga 9 of 13

[pixie-mask]

That’s our girl! <3

Asirpa is so amazing!

[kingslayerstew]

one of my fav things abt kikuta is how literally every single time he tries to accomplish something he fails its soooo funny. he didnt kill toni anji he didnt win tsurumis trust he didnt get ipopte to join him he never caught michael ostrog his yuusaku decoy plan failed. he dropped asirpa the moment he got hold of her. hes constantly trying to do his duty, risking so much for what he believes to be the greater good but in the end what does he contribute?? nothing absolutely zilch

[tripsterguru]

Temples and monasteries of Montenegro - 20 main shrines

New Post has been published on https://tripsterguru.com/temples-and-monasteries-of-montenegro-20-main-shrines/

Temples and monasteries of Montenegro - 20 main shrines

Crystal clear Adriatic Sea, mountain landscape, picturesque valleys, comfortable climate make holidays in Montenegro popular for people of any age. There are no communication problems (minimal language barrier), the infrastructure of the resorts is well organized (relaxation is possible at any time of the year), and a huge number of architectural sights of the country are available for viewing. Among them, in the first place are the famous temples and monasteries of Montenegro, hidden in the thickets of luxurious greenery of rare plants, shrouded in an atmosphere of ancient legends, secrets of Montenegro.

Ostrog Monastery

An endless stream of tourists, pilgrims go to the main attractions of Montenegro. The cloister of the miracle worker Vasily Ostrozhsky is hidden in a rock at an altitude of 900 m above sea level (his relics are the greatest shrine in the world of the Orthodox Church). It has long been a haven for people who believe in help, the fulfillment of the most secret desires of the miraculous power of the Holy.

In a place filled with prayers of a special energy (next to the holy source, miraculous relics), they find help in solving problems, troubles. A sacred place appeared in the middle of the XVII century. The prison consists of two parts: the upper (older) and lower parts, created in the XIX century. In the lower zone is the church of the Holy Trinity with the relics of a 12 year old boy – the martyr Stanko.

The parts are divided by a steep path, about 5 km long, and you can overcome the distance (going uphill) along a special path in 30 minutes. Before the appearance of Vasily Ostrozhsky, hermit monks lived here in a cave hidden from the eyes of people. Gradually, two churches appeared in the sacred place: Holy Cross Exaltation, Vvedensky (Introduction of the Blessed Virgin Mary). In the last place, the Great Miracle Worker, who died in 1671, prayed. His relics (in the role of the main shrine of Ostrog) are stored in a small cave of the Vvedensky church.

Cetinje Monastery

The architectural, historical ensemble of Montenegro is the political, cultural center of the country. Here, on the site of the Zeta (the ancient South Slavic princedom that existed on the site of modern Montenegro), a monastery was built in 1484, which existed until the Turks destroyed it in 1692. The new building was destroyed several times, restored and was the residence of the Metropolitan of Montenegro in its ancient capital – the city of Cetinje, located at the foot of Mount Eagle Cross.

In the Middle Ages, buildings served as a powerful fortress. She was surrounded by a moat with water and stakes, fortified by loopholes. Now you can see part of the brick walls of the fortress. On the historical territory are the Palace-Museum of King Nikola, the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Here are the remains of the king and his wife Milena, gifts from the emperors of Russia, a valuable collection of prints from the 13-19 centuries. The first printing house of Montenegro worked here. The first high school of the country opened in 1880 within the walls of the building. The famous works of the “Oktoih Pyatoglasnik”, “Psalter”, “Prayer Book”, “Four Gospels” are among the protected shrines. Keeps one of the richest collections of shrines of the Orthodox Church.

Moraca Monastery

One of the main Orthodox monuments of the Middle Ages in the Balkans is an architectural complex consisting of the building of the Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady, a small church in honor of St. Nicholas and living quarters for monks. It is located along the right bank of the Moraca Canyon in a beautiful mountainous area. All tourist routes try to include in their programs a visit to this unusual place.

The magnificent building with one nave, a cylinder-shaped soda was erected in 1252 from soft tuff covered with plaster. Of the many frescoes (the 13th-century technique of mural painting has no analogues in beauty), created under the direction of Stevan (the son of the Serbian king). His grave is on a local graveyard.

Now 11 scenes related to the life of the prophet Elijah have been preserved from the interior. The main work on the restoration of the destroyed architectural treasures was carried out in the XVIII century by the artists of Montenegro. The exact time of the construction of the small church of St. Nicholas is not precisely determined: the monks consider it to be a more ancient structure than the cathedral. Of interest is the interior decoration made by ancient murals from frescoes.

Piva Monastery

Among the 1600 church sights of the country there are large, small, included in tourist routes, almost forgotten. You are invited to see them on your own or with local excursions. Such a building, called the symbol of invincibility of the inhabitants of the country, is located near Pluzine in the northern part of Montenegro. Among the pine forests near the “Pivsky Oka” in the XVI century there appeared an ordinary house with narrow loopholes that did not attract the attention of the Turks.

Later (after the construction of the hydroelectric power station on the Piva River) the building was moved 2 km higher. In its former place, a guest house (konak), a bakery, a cemetery have been preserved. Here they helped the rebels, sheltered the rebels, held negotiations with representatives of the Christian world. The building is built of stones of gray, pink shades. It has large dimensions: height 13m, length 23, width 15m. The appearance of the building did not cause enemies to rob him.

Inside, there are many old frescoes, a gold-plated iconostasis with a huge cross. A large number of manuscripts, paintings, books, and jewelry are also stored here. One monk lives here permanently. He keeps order, manages the bells, which are not on the roof of the main building, but under the roof of a separate annex. Come to the center of the spiritual life of Herzegovina (now the existing monastery is owned by the Serbian diocese) is proposed by boat on Lake Piva.

Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Podgorica

For a long time in the country there was no main church of the Orthodox Church. Since 1993, the first stone was laid in the future huge building, striking in size, splendor of decoration, design. The construction began in the presence of Patriarch Alexy II. The author of the project was architect Pedja Ristic. The building belongs to the Neo-Byzantine style. It included many new architectural elements. The height of the two levels of the cathedral is 41.5 m, the belfry is made of 17 bells (2 brought from Voronezh), 7 crosses sparkling with gilding.

The monumental view of the building is formed by huge blocks of stone, decorated with antique. The interior is characterized by an abundance of images made of small pieces of granite, marble. Mosaic “Noah’s Ark”, a fresco above the entrance measuring 53.5 m 2. In one of the largest temples in Europe at the same time accommodates up to 5 thousand believers.

Daibabe Monastery in Podgorica

At a distance of 4 km from the capital of Montenegro is an amazing place hidden in rocky caves. You can find it by a small building dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary with belfries on the sides. The main premises are underground in caves located in the shape of a cross. Local legends say that as early as the III century, the first Christians were hiding in catacombs with their own source of water. The monastery appeared in 1897 and its first rector was the miracle worker Simeon of Daibab (his relics are stored here).

The first liturgy was performed in the cave church in January 1897. The dimensions of the cave used are 20 m in length and about 3 m in width. Chapels are hollowed out on the side walls; an altar is located in the center. The ceiling, the walls were painted by Simeon, his followers. The surviving murals are of great value. In an atmosphere of silence, peace, numerous pilgrims receive relief, hope for a favorable solution to their problems.

Cathedral of St. Tryphon in Kotor

The ancient building is depicted on the coat of arms of the city of Kotor. Saint Tryphon, repeating the path of Jesus Christ, is considered the patron saint of the city. The cathedral in his honor was laid in 1166. Previously, this place was a church, built in 809 by the noble townsman Andrii Saracenis. It was he who bought the relics of St. Tryphon au merchants of Venice.

The devastating earthquake of 1667 required the rebuilding of the bell tower of the cathedral. They are made in the form of high towers (up to 35 m high) made of special stone brought from the island of Korcula. Above the entrance is a window in the shape of the famous “outlet”. The ancient frescoes of the interior are poorly preserved. But even now, under centuries-old layers of stucco, lime on the apse, nave arches fragments of Byzantine-style paintings are revealed.

The exact time, the author of their writing remains the secret of the cathedral. The origin of the rare wooden crucifix in the church is also unknown. The relics of St. Tryphon are considered the main shrine of the Cathedral. In the sarcophagus, standing to the right of the entrance, lies the body of Andria Saracenis. The Cathedral, as a preserved example of the style of Romanesque architecture, is a World Heritage Site.

Church of St. Luke in Kotor

A modest, not conspicuous temple, standing in the historical part of Kotor, is in fact a famous landmark and the oldest church in Montenegro. It was built in 1195 at the expense of the rich feudal lord Kazafragi (a memorial inscription testifies to this). In the current church there are two altars: Catholic and Orthodox), which is rarely found in temples of the world. The two branches of the Christian religion lived here peacefully, in harmony. The main shrines of the cathedral are particles of the relics of St. Luke, the martyrs of Orestes, Mardarius, Auxentius.

Among the interior, fragments of ancient frescoes by Italian, Cretan masters of the 17th and 18th centuries have been preserved. In a small chapel owned by the church, there is a unique iconostasis depicting Christ in the image of the King. The temple opens on holidays, before the planned excursions, weddings, baptisms. An interesting fact is the burial of local residents inside the building. Its entire floor consists of grave gravestones. During the great earthquake of 1979, this church was the only building that was not damaged.

Church of St. Nicholas in Kotor

On Grets Square in the old center of Kotor rises a relatively young Cathedral building, erected in honor of the patron saint of travelers, sailors St. Nicholas. Historically, the existence of a Dominican monastery in this place, turned into a soldier’s barracks for Napoleon’s army, is historically confirmed. After the destruction of the church was built here, life, which broke off the fire of 1896. A new temple was erected on its foundation in 1909.

The building is in line with the pseudo – Byzantine architectural style. At the entrance are two tall belfries. Among the interior decoration stands the iconostasis of three meters high, created in 1908 by Czech artist Ziegler. The treasury of a beautiful building contains many valuable documents, icons, art objects, clothes. The most interesting are the Three-Handed icon, the book “The Sacrifice of Abraham of 1899”, the image of Nicholas the Wonderworker in the form of a mosaic at the entrance. In the courtyard you can use a source of healing water. Services are held daily.

Church on the Island of the Virgin

The history of the creation of the ancient church on the reef, which turned into an island in the original construction way, annually attracts many tourists to the city of Perast. Virgin Mary, living on a reef, protects the local sailors. As a token of gratitude, the locals regularly spend here a feast of fashinada. On decorated boats, they swim around the island three times and throw stones into the water, strengthening the shore.

In such a strange construction way, for almost two centuries, stones were collected on the sunken ships, reefs, a stable platform was formed. It grew an ancient landmark of the country church. The ground floor of the building is decorated with icons, paintings of artists of the 17th century, an organ sounds, whose age is 300 years. The altar is made of four types of valuable snow-white marble and is decorated with the image of the face of the Holy Virgin. It illuminates the interior of the chandelier made of real Murano glass, made almost 3 centuries ago. The archaeological museum is invited to see old exhibits: Roman crosses, a fountain, silver roots.

Drimsim is the first universal sim card for travelers. Internet abroad starts at $ 1 per megabyte, and calls start at $ 3 per minute. Works in 197 countries! Lifting mechanisms, lights, bells and other elements belonging to ships of different countries at many times. On the second floor are amazing ancient amphoras, jugs, mysterious captain’s chests. A collection of paintings depicting ships, the olive stele of Diva, adorning the bow of a ship in the Middle Ages. Among them is a unique icon of the Holy Virgin, embroidered by a woman from Perast, who had been waiting for 25 years for the return of her sailor husband. Thousands of plates (gold, silver, bronze) are mounted in the walls of the building. They were presented by sailors (the custom still exists) in gratitude to the Virgin for a successful voyage.

Cathedral Church in Bar

A magnificent building was built on the site of the construction of the XVI century in 1863. The last reconstruction was carried out in 2016. The cathedral was consecrated in the name of the first ruler of Montenegro, Jovan Vladimir, who accepted the death of a martyr on the cross. The snow-white architectural creation is decorated with three golden, sparkling domes. They are trophies taken during the Austro-Hungarian occupation in 1918. All bells, guns, cores were remelted and new ones were made. For the past few decades, the cathedral has been the main Orthodox church in the city.

For the manufacture of walls, a beautiful-looking solid stone (red limestone) was used. On the facade there is a window in the form of a “rose outlet”. Inside the cathedral, frescoes with images of Saints have been preserved. The cathedral church is called the largest religious building in Montenegro. Its height is 41 m, an area of ​​1200 m2. Services are held daily. In a special room of the amphitheater, events are held for cultural and spiritual development of the population.

Gradiste Monastery

In 1116, the construction of Hradiste began on the site of ancient buildings (Grajevine) and the old Greco-Roman cemetery. It became a monument of fresco painting of the Middle Ages in Montenegro. The surviving ensemble includes a cell building, the ruins of a protective wall, a cemetery, and the structures of three churches.

Among them:

Saint Sava. One-nave building of alternating rows of white, red stone and a belfry with three bells. The iconostasis was painted by Nicholas Aspiotis in 1864.

St. Nicholas. Built in the XII century, painted by a fresco master from Budimlya. Among his creations is the fresco “Mammal” (patroness of young mothers). In antiquity, mother’s gifts that did not have breast milk were left next to her. A luxurious carved iconostasis appeared here in 1796.

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The small building is located on the upper platform next to the cemetery. The frescoes depict saints from the Nemanich family.

  The buildings suffered greatly from destruction during the invasion of the Tatars, the French, during the war of 1941, from a severe earthquake.

Podmaine Monastery in Budva

Historical facts indicate the emergence of a Christian structure at the foot of Mount Ostrog or in a place called Maina, around the time of the reign of the Nemanichi dynasty. For a long period of time here was the residence of the country’s metropolitans. Within its walls, Negosh wrote a literary work, “The Crown of the Mountains,” which became the literary monument of Montenegro. The buildings were given a new life by the modern restoration and opening of the complex in 1995. The complex includes two churches dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The large building was renovated in 2000. The icon painter again portrayed the scenes of the Last Judgment, placing among the sinners the image of the communist leader Broz Tito of Yugoslavia. The small church (4 m long and 2.5 m wide) is a catacomb of the first Christians and is located under cells. The building was built in the XII century. A stone water tank is installed in the center. She is famous for amazing stone carving. There is an inscription in the room, indicating that the last restoration took place in 1630.

Dulevo Monastery

There is a written mention of the structure that appeared in honor of the soldiers of King Dushan in the middle of the XVI century. The novices of the Decana parish came here after a haircut. The building was often destroyed by wars, natural disasters. Now it is fully restored. On the walls of the south and north sides are visible traces of former buildings, a cell building with narrow windows in the form of loopholes, a belfry with a bell. Inside the old building, fragments of two layers of ancient painting, the original frescoes, have been preserved.

They depict scenes from the lives of saints and are a matter of pride. The vault of the room is decorated with compositions covering important gospel events: the Present, Christmas, and the Crucifixion. On it are six medallions depicting Christ, Our Lady of Oranta, and saints. Two cells are located in the upper part of the building (Saint Sava worked in them before traveling to the Holy Mountain).

On the territory there is a source (Savvina Voda), which helps pilgrims treat diseases of the stomach. According to legend, the soldiers of King Dushan were healed of typhoid fever by this water. It is also proposed to see an old oak tree under which Saint Sava sat. The complex is located on a plateau above St. Stephen.

Praskvitsa Monastery

High in the mountains, near the villages of St. Stephen and Pržno, not far from a stream that smells of peaches (where the name of the building came from), an ancient monastic monastery lurks. The religious shrine of Montenegro appeared in 1059. After severe destruction, a new stage in her life began in 1844. The new church of St. Nicholas (the original construction was carried out in 1413), together with the Holy Trinity Church and monastery cells, are included in the architectural ensemble, which is a landmark of the country.

Along with the tour, you can sit at a stone table where the council of elders made crucial decisions of the Middle Ages. Visit the museum with a treasury. It contains a valuable collection of icons, ancient artworks, ancient weapons. Manuscript books (among them the Gospel of the 16th century), documents of the Pashtrovich era, an old monastery seal, the golden cross of Dushan. In the cells there is a valuable library with a total number of books over 5,000 copies.

Rustovo Monastery

In the current monastery for nuns live 8 sisters. They serve the buildings included in the monastery ensemble. Today it includes the construction of three temples. In 2003, a monastery was founded on the site of the ancient church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (built in the XIV century, destroyed by fires, an earthquake). His consecration took place on the Epiphany Eve. You can still consider the preserved foundation of the ancient structure.

During the construction process, the remains of the pastoral martyrs of the XIV century were found. Archbishop Amphilochius laid the foundation in 20005 for a small cathedral dedicated to members of the Romanov family who were martyred. The remains of the XIV century sufferers were first placed under the altar of a large church, and then buried in the foundation of the Romanov temple.

The third temple (paraclis) is located in the cell building. It is dedicated to the famous saint of the VI century, who founded a large number of temples. Located next to Chelobrodo Hill. It offers a panorama of the most beautiful part of the Adriatic Sea of ​​Montenegro.

Church of the Archangel Michael in Herceg Novi

The Orthodox Church, whose age is just over 100 years old, is considered the pearl of the Montenegro region. It stands in the center of the old quarter, on the Stefan Vukmcha square in Herceg Novi. The unusual architectural style is associated with the participation of several architects in its construction. Each of them expressed his preference for the Romanesque, Byzantine, Gothic, Baroque, Islamic architectural heritage. All elements blend in harmoniously and form a unique appearance of the structure.

The interior is striking in its exquisite beauty. The altar and iconostasis were made by master Bilinich from beautiful, rare marble. Many icons are considered rare, unique. They are written by Czech artist Ziegler. The local library holds a large number of church books, including from Russia. The building is surrounded by majestic palm trees. On the beautiful square there are many cozy cafes, places for relaxation, viewing the temple.

Church of the Savior in Herceg Novi

Behind a high stone fence on the main street (Negosheva) is an old temple complex consisting of the churches of the Savior and St. George. The first was built in 1713 from stone blocks brought from the island of Croatia. It received its final appearance in 1864 as a result of a complete restructuring, starting with the foundation. In the middle of the next century, an interesting iconostasis appeared in the building, a belfry with three bells.

Among the many decorations of the interior are several Russian icons. The Church of St. George was built at the end of the 17th century. This place used to be a Turkish mosque. The main shrine is a round icon depicting Saints Peter and Paul. The archives store old books, icons, church dishes made of silver. Behind the fence is an old cemetery, a two-story building of the residence of the bishops of 1700, a school where the future famous poet and priest of Montenegro Negosh studied.

Savina Monastery

The current complex (10 monks live in it), surrounded by a garden with many exotic plants, is the center of Orthodoxy among the settlements along the Boka Kotorska Bay. It is named after the first archbishop of Serbia, St. Sava. The complex includes three buildings: Malaya Uspenskaya, Bolshaya Uspenskaya and St. Sava Church (it is located next to the upper cemetery). The Small Cathedral (10 m long and about 6 m wide) was built in 1039.

The main preserved value is the ancient frescoes made in the Byzantine, Gothic styles. At the end of the 18th century, under the leadership of the Venetian architect Nikola Foretic, the Great Temple was built in the style of luxurious baroque. The iconostasis of the 18th century, consisting of separate zones created in the traditions of the Orthodox style of the east, has been preserved.

Sacred relics are considered to be a crystal cross belonging to Savva and decorated with rubies, the relics of Tsarina Helena, George the Victorious, the shroud of 1642. Icon collection, library containing over 5,000 rare manuscripts, handwritten gospel. The church of St. Sava was built by him in the 1230s. Now it is used as the parish church of the monastery.

Banya Monastery in Risan

The existing convent, founded in the 15th century, is located on the shore of the Gulf of Risan. In ancient times, there were Roman baths, which gave the name to the new building. In the XVII century, a temple was erected on the foundation of an ancient medieval fortress in honor of St. George the Victorious. Particles of the relics of the great martyr are the main shrine. The existing look was created during the restoration in 1729, carried out at the expense of wealthy sailors of the region.

Now here you can see old icons, clothes used during religious rituals. It is skillfully embroidered with silver, gold threads, decorated with gems. Many faces of saints are made using the techniques of ancient embroidery. The library archive contains a large amount of church literature. It is allowed to visit the interior with a guided tour, groups of pilgrims when performing the prescribed form of clothing and observing all the rules.

[spiritsanddemonspodcast]

Jack the Ripper: The Suspects

(Again, all of my info comes from JackTheRipper.Org)

Hello and welcome again!! Last week we discussed the victims of the infamous Jack the Ripper, and today we are talking about possible suspects! So buckle up, buttercup, because there's a lot. Like I said last week, this is a 130 year old unsolved murder mystery. There's plenty of suspects.

Suspect #1: Montague John Druitt.

Chief Constable Sr Melville L. MacNaghten personally believed that Mr. Druitt was Jack the Ripper. Druitt was a lawyer (specifically a barrister) and worked as an assistant schoolmaster at a South East London boarding school. Several member's of his family were doctors, but Montague John Druitt was definitely NOT a doctor. He was, however, dismissed  for unknown reasons form the boarding school in November of 1888. 

MacNaghten stated Druitt's family suspected him as the ripper, but really there's no evidence of such claims. Druitt committed suicide between November and December of 1888, and his body was found in the Thames on Dec 31, 1888. It's most likely probable that he committed suicide due to being let go from the school. 

It's worth noting that none of the other inspectors, police, or other involved in the investigation ever suspected Druitt.

Suspect #2: Michael Ostrog

Ostrog was MacNaghten's second favorite for the running of Jack the Ripper suspects. He was supposedly a Russian doctor and convict. However, he was actually just a "petty thief and con artist" (jack-the-ripper.org). He had a long criminal career but only had one known instance of violence (he pulled a gun on police at the station in 1873). 

He was looked at because he had convinced the court that he was clinically insane when he was arrested again in 1887 and sent to an insane asylum. He was released on March 10, 1888. So when police started suspecting a "lunatic with medical knowledge", Ostrog fit the bill. 

However - he was actually in France (and in prison again) during the Ripper Murders. So whatcha gonna do?

Suspect #3: Aaron Kosminski

First - I would like to say there was a 2019 DNA study done that places Aaron's DNA on the last bit of evidence that survives today - the shawl that was possibly found with Catherine Eddowes' body. But let's not forget that the shawl has no evidence of belonging to Catherine and this is over 130 year old shawl that's been passed around willy-nilly since 1888. Any and all DNA from that shawl should be looked at with a grain of salt. Catherine was supplementing her income with prostitution, ok?

Now - Why MacNaghten thought Kominski could have been the Ripper was because he was a Polish Jew who resided in Whitechapel. That's it. that's why he was suspected. Two other officers also suspected Kominski - Robert Anderson and Chief Inspector Swanson.

There's no real evidence of him being the killer.

Suspect #4: George Chapman

Chapman wasn't a suspect until he was arrested, tried, and convicted of murdering 5 women (lovers and wives) with poison in the 1903. While Chapman was definitely a murderer, his M.O. was poison, not throat slashing and disemboweling. 

Fun fact: He was born Severin Klowoski and changed his name after meeting (get this) a woman named Annie Chapman in 1893.

Suspect #5: Thomas Cutbush

Cutbush was named as Jack The Ripper in The Sun newspaper (which was far more like a tabloid than a news paper and has *no* affiliation to the current Sun Newspaper) in Feb 1894. He was not a prime suspect during 1888 as the murders were taking place and MacNaghten took offence to the idea that Cutbush was the ripper.

Cutbush was definitely mentally ill, and definitely had some anger issues, but it's not very likely in my opinion that he had much to do with the murders, especially as he seemed to be in and out of mental asylums his whole life.

Suspect #6: Dr. Francis Tumblety

First off - Look at that mustache. That is one wicked mustache, omg.

Chief Inspector John Littlechild, who was head of the metropolitan police department (specifically the Irish Branch??) was written a letter by journalist George Sims asking if a "Dr. D." was a suspect (referring to Druitt), and Littlechild said "nope. But an American Quack named Tumblety comes to mind". 

Tumblety was arrested for indecency and skipped to America where NYPD put him under surveillance only to conclude that he couldn't have done the murders. 

The case for him being Jack is that a man named Dunham claimed to have been a guest at Tumblety's house where the man proceeded to "fiercely denounce '...all women and especially fallen women'" and showed him several jars with the uteri of several women. However, Dunham was known to be a trickster. So... again, whatcha gonna do?

Suspect #7: James Maybrick

James Maybrick came to the public light more-or-less in 1992 when someone produced this "diary" of James. In it, he describes the 5 murders of the Jack the Ripper case and blames it on his wife being unfaithful (typical male). He was murdered in 1889 by said wife with arsenic. 

So initially experts thought the diary might be legit, they agreed it was of the right time period at the very least, but more forensic investigation needed to be done. However!!! The guy who produced the diary confessed he forged it, but then withdrew his confession and stated that his wife's family had had the diary in their possession since at least WWII. So...  who knows? 

Around the same time, a pocket watch with the initials of the victims and J. Maybrick "I am Jack the Ripper" engraved into it was "discovered" as well. So if he *was* the killer, he was rather proud of himself. But if he wasn't, he was either a dick wanting to take credit for horrible murders, or someone was using him as a "get rich quick" scheme.

Suspect #8: Walter Sickert

Patricia Cornwell pointed Walter Sickert as Jack in her 2002 book "Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper Case Closed". She sited impotency and hatred for women as the cause, but there isn't a lot of evidence to prove either. In fact, he probably had a few kids, even.

Suspect #9: Charles Cross

Charles Cross, or as he was born, Charles Lechmere, was one of the few (or possibly only) suspect to have actually been at the scene of the crime. He was the one who discovered Mary Nichols' body.

Cross told inspectors that he left his home around 3:30AM and noticed a large bundle lying in the gateway in Buck's Row. He stated he thought it might have been a tarpaulin and useful to his job as a meat transporter, he went to inspect. When he noticed it was a body of a woman, he heard Robert Paul (last episode I accidentally stated Cross and Paul were coworkers in last week's podcast - that was incorrect, they were both carters, but worked for different companies, neither man knew each other despite going the same rout to work every morning, but we'll get to that)walking towards him so he told Paul "Yo, come look at this dead chick" (direct quote LOL jk). 

Cross told police he touched her face and reported he thought it was warm, and then her hands which he said were cold. He also stated Paul  touched her chest and reported "I think she is breathing, but very little if she is". Cross also reported that Paul suggested sitting her up, but Cross wouldn't touch her again. 

Both Paul and Cross left, telling PC Mizen about the woman, stating she was either drunk or dead, and went to work.

On the other hand, Robert Paul reported to the police that he passed Buck's row at 3:45 and saw Cross standing where Nichols was. He stated Cross came towards him, but Paul tried to keep a wide berth but Cross kept coming saying "Come look at this chick, dude!" (again, totes direct quote LOL). Paul states he felt her wrist and was sure she was dead, but couldn't see any blood due to how dark it was. He then left and told the first PC he saw that there was a dead woman in the street.

Cross is only placed at the first scene, so we can't say for sure if he was the Ripper (we can't say for sure ANYONE was the ripper, because it's been over 130 freaking years). But he is a good suspect.

The 10th and final suspect I will be talking about is, you guessed it: H.H. Holmes.

Who was actually born Herman Webster Mudgett. He was a con-artist in Chicago (and actually all over America, we'll do an episode about him), who build the infamous Murder Castle in Chicago during the World Fair of the 1890's. He came into the spotlight as a possible Jack the Ripper because his great-something-grand child thought it made sense. He went into a ton of detailed research and produced a documentary on it and everything.

The main reason is that the Ripper killings ended in November 1888, and shortly after that there is a ship log with a passenger "H. Holmes" from England to America, and Holmes' murder spree started in the end of 1888.

Personally, I don't buy this and if you listened to the podcast you know why. 

But that's it. Those are *most* of the key suspects - there are others (gods are there others. Holy hell, there's so many...), but these are the top 10, if you will.

So who do you think did it??? Leave a comment below!

[chibivesicle]

Golden Kamuy chapters 249 and 250 - Abashiri 2.0

After several weeks of waiting we finally have chapter 250 which really continues the build up from 249.

249 starts out with another Shiraishi parody cover where he looks like a lovely lady posing with Sapporo beer.  It does make me laugh since a very good friend of mine decorated her bathroom in a Showa era theme with sexy ladies posing with various brands of alcohol.

The longer I read GK, the more I can’t help but wonder if Shiraishi has a more nuanced background and may not be straight.  And I don’t mean looking at Shiraishi through ‘shipping goggles’ but looking at him in general.

However, I digress. Let’s get back to the chapter.

The events in Sapporo are bringing all the parties back together.  The first team we see is that of Koito and Tsukishima with Nikaido in tow.  Koito mentions that Usami and Kikuta should already be there, and he interestingly phrases it as a question which Tsukishima confirms as correct and that they are to meet at the clock tower.  What I like is how Tsukishima than airs his concerns with Tsurumi arriving the next day.

Tsukishima hesitates before asking Koito if he can interact with Tsurumi as he has previously with what they have done and what they now know.  Tsukishima looks stressed out and Koito is at first surprised before he turns the question to Tsukishima with stress lines under his eyes as well.  This seems to indicate that after Karafuto, Ogata’s information to Koito, the link to the Manchurian Railway, Hanazawa’s death and the conversations between both men, that they will be facing Tsurumi with a different attitude, which could be interpreted as no longer working towards Tsurumi’s end goals.

The tension breaks when Koito offers to trade his menko with Tsukishima who of course wouldn’t have made one.  Even though this is a silly gesture I think it speaks to Koito’s relationship with Tsukishima.

That even if they are separated they can hold onto the other persons.  This implies that they know things are going to get dangerous and it is a gesture that implies the faith and trust that they have in each other.  Both men are now tied together as members of the 27th who ‘know too much’ which makes them now a liability.

The action returns to our large group of convenience with a complicated plan to launch in the dead of night.  A few of the cast have changed; Kirawus, Boutarou and Ariko are new taking the places of Ogata, Kiroranke, Inkarmat, Tanigaki and Ienaga from Abashiri.

Honestly, it is pretty obvious this is going to be just as large of a disaster as what happened with Abashiri.  What is slightly different is that Hijikata is completely in charge of the plan as opposed to the more democratic method at Abashiri.  Kiro figured out how to tunnel, Shiraishi found the weak point.  And just like what went wrong at Abashiri, Hijikata has them breaking up into smaller groups, though this time he at least keeps partnerships that are more trusted together.

The division of labor is interesting since all the signalers are good offensive fighters; Asirpa, Kirawus and Ariko are skilled with longer range weapons and Nagakura is not one to be trifled with. 

There is then a rather intense discussion between Boutarou and Asirpa about her role in things.  He is smart to do this as the groups disperse where it is only the Toni & Sugimoto groups.  Boutarou asks Sugimoto directly if they should have Asirpa hang back as the key to the gold.

Sugimoto answers first, that they are going to stay together since Hijikata already double crossed them (at Abashiri) and Asirpa tells Boutarou that they are partners.  She uses the excuse that if she hides she is not working for the sake of the Ainu and their future.  Sugimoto looks upset at her statement and Boutarou continues to ask if this is her dream.

She very boldly states that someone has to fight for the future of the Ainu and she is going to do it.  Ariko listens with great interest while Sugimoto passively hangs back.  Boutarou wants to know if that will make her happy as well. . . . it is clear he has hit a nerve as she tells him he’s too chatty and she doesn’t like how he asks about people’s dreams. 

Boutarou is no dumb guy as has been previously established, he wants to know if anyone has a dream better than his.  This implies that he is flexible and will change his goals if he truly can find a more fitting goal.

As the only person from his family still alive, he finds it important to pass the knowledge of his own family down to his children so that they are not forgotten.  I think that Boutarou telling Asirpa this is deliberate, a Japanese guy is calling out that Asirpa and by extension the Ainu are in danger of fading out of existence something that Kiro died to prevent.  Boutarou is much more straightforward about his desires and they make him very relatable as he doesn’t want to be lonely nor forgotten.

It is clear by the final panel that Boutarou struck a nerve in Sugimoto as he frowns while his eyes look contemplative and serious.  I’m certain that Sugimoto is feeling things that he’s been running away from while Boutarou is in his own way trying to move towards.  Sugimoto’s own discomfort with Boutarou’s words is obvious as he literally uses the excuse to tell a woman to head home for the evening as a way to run away from Boutarou and Asirpa’s conversation.

Boutarou notices things clearly as he watches Sugimoto and he asks the question if Sugimoto will be in Asirpa’s future as well.  She looks a little surprised at his question and unfortunately, Noda leaves us with an unanswered question and the action goes to the set up to catch Jack.

Shiraishi is the first ‘lady’ who is approached and of course he has a nice bum.

Sugimoto using his rifle the way that he prefers, whacks the man and they confirm that he’s just some regular old guy looking to pick up a prostitute.  Kantarou first appears to be the one approached by Jack which leads to our awaited Kadokura flashback about the convict.

The man is Michael Ostrog and he’s a generic European guy who murdered a prostitute and was arrested and sent to Abashiri.  With the help of our spineless reporter, they realize that this man is likely Jack the Ripper, repeating his crimes from London and he is the right age to fit the profile.  With a map of London as a reference they are able to determine where he will be in the future.

The chapter ends with Usami approaching Kadokura after killing a horse to warm up for the evening as Jack meanders to his final location.

Let’s move onto chapter 250 where our cast begins to converge on chaos.  Koito and Tsukishima have met up with Kikuta sans Usami who is off on his own.  Kikuta takes charge telling the rest that since Jack is out to kill tonight, they can’t wait for Tsurumi to arrive and it is there task to find him.

Of course as an actual spy from central, Kikuta is going to push for as much leverage as he can get against Tsurumi and this makes me curious if this group will become turned against Tsurumi either by their own actions or as a result of Tsurumi not trusting any of them.

Usami approaches Kadokura for assistance about his current location which is clearly going to lead to a terrible reunion between the two men.  Kirawus looks much more nervous as he holds the firework watching and Kadokura attempts to run away.  Thinking he’s a prostitute Usami is almost polite as he goes to help him up after he trips with the ladies shoes on.

With tension increasing quickly, instead of getting Usami’s reaction to Kadokura, we switch to Sugimoto and Asirpa.

Sugimoto, well ‘Sugi-splains’ to Asirpa that she is to stay in the shadows in case Ogata targets her with his rifle.  Since now Sugimoto is 200% sure that Ogata just wants to kill her because she knows the code.

The conversation doesn’t go the way that Sugimoto would like it to as Asirpa doesn’t look at him as she doubts Sugimoto’s logic.  Since Asirpa had time to talk to Hijikata alone, it is clear they discussed more than the skins and Hijikata is under the indication that Ogata is still interested in the gold.  Therefore, Asirpa reasons that Ogata can’t kill her, which makes a lot of sense.

Sugimoto turns away from her as he states that he doesn’t know that Ogata wouldn’t try to kill her.  Sugimoto changes his tune slightly saying now that he thinks that Ogata teamed up with Kiro for a part of the gold and he was patiently waiting for Asirpa to learn the code.  Of course, Sugimoto doesn’t understand Ogata’s meltdown on ice and it is clear that Asirpa hasn’t told him what Ogata said to her so Sugimoto thinks Ogata aiming his rifle at her was an intent to kill her when Ogata wanted her to shoot at him.

With great weight, Sugimoto makes it clear that because they are working with Hijikata again, Ogata had no choice but to flee from them [him] and Ogata wouldn’t work for Tsurumi.  Sugimoto has to highlight that Ogata is alone and his only course of action is to prevent anyone from getting the gold. 

Asirpa than states that to do that he’d kill her and thus ruin everything.  She looks very reflective as though she thinks she has a better insight into Ogata’s behavior.  The next page reveals that Ogata is in a building watching the action unfold with his binoculars as Asirpa summarizes Sugimoto’s idea that Ogata’s gold is to ‘disappoint everyone’

And that reflective facial expression on Asirpa is spot on as she tells Sugimoto that she wonders if things are really that simple and she recalls that when Ogata raised his rifle at her, it was with respect to his statement that ‘it is simply not right that people like you [Asirpa and Yuusaku] exist.’

She’s spent enough time with Ogata to at least learn he is not just a lone wildcat making a mess of things and something else is driving him.

Things finally get back to our Kadokura-Usami reunion.  Usami is blushing as he finds Kadokura and he thinks that he is actually working as a prostitute in Sapporo.  Sometimes the obvious really escapes Usami . .. or he’s blinded by his strange love for Kadokura.

Kadokura loses it screaming which that gets Usami thinking that Hijikata might be around.  Ushiyama charges Usami, who also uses the butt of his rifle to hit Ushiyama in the face.  It is clear that he thinks that was sufficient and we only see Ushiyama’s hand grab Usami’s uniform.  I suspect that Usami might be in trouble.

Kirawus then lights their firework since Ushiyama is tangling with the 27th.  However, the action returns to Jack approaching the wee babe Kantarou, with one of his knives out.  Hijikata runs into attack but notices another firework going off.  This distracts Jack but Hijikata is clearly going full force and Nagakura about to light theirs as his cranky old man self wonders who messed up.

This catches everyone’s attention; Shiraishi, Sugimoto and Asirpa; Kikuta, Koito, Tsukishima (and Nikaido); Boutarou; Ariko and Toni; Vasily alone and likely outside since the background is grey and Ogata inside pulls his rifle up, ready and waiting.

This leaves us unclear of where both Vasily and Ogata are located and if Vasily is actually just watching things wanting to find Ogata or if he is interested on what is going on below.

This time, now that we know that Ogata is high up in a building, it gives even more vibes of Abashiri 2.0, he’s waiting for his opportunity to make his move.

The firework catches the attention of another horrible convict Ueji which begins a flashback of a young boy with his dog (just like the dog he killed and put its head in the box).  He is a child who is disappointing his father who was on the winning side for the Meiji government.  Sei Kobiyama has a helpful tweet for those of us unable to read it in the original Japanese.

Ueji is also likely from a family like Koito and Hanazawa where they gained from the establishment of the Meiji government and the defeat of the shogunate.  Yet unlike Koito or even really Ogata, Ueji did not live up to the expectations of his family and something lead him to becoming the child serial killer that he is.

Ueji goes from having black eyes as a child (never a good sign) here where his father scolds him.

And he cries in disappointment to him still crying as an adult.  Now he has his very unusual eyes where there is a white line down the middle.

I honestly have no idea what this means other than it makes him look creepier. He laughs at the firework.  I honestly hope he wanders out and gets sniped by either Vasily or Ogata.

The chapter wraps up with Tsurumi spotting the single firework and that he’s here a day early.  This is never a good thing for most of the cast.  I am assuming he will spring into action to see what is going down near the brewery.

And with that, Sugimoto the non-thinker that he is, rushes into action, Asirpa fast on his heels with her bow out.

So after his long ‘Sugi-splaining’ to Asirpa about staying hidden and not making herself a target for Ogata, he dashes off saying that Ogata be dammed he’s unstoppable and he’s going to skin Jack. 

Wow, the irony as the chapter ends and now all the factions are going to converge on Usami, Ushiyama, Kadokura and Kirawus.  And as the chapter ends, I feel like it is any major sporting event from the 90s “Are you ready to ruuummmbbbllleeeee?” as of course we are going to get some intense action scenes.

What do I think of chapters 249 and 250?  A few things really stand out for me.

This truly is Abashiri 2.0.  All of the factions have broken up into smaller groups and they are going to beat the shit out of each other.  There are so many conflicts that will become worse.  Nikaido will likely see Sugimoto and I have no idea how that will go down.  Ariko and Kikuta may be working together and we don’t know what will happen with that.  Koito and Tsukishima both know that they might no longer be loyal enough to Tsurumi and they know too much and let Tanigaki and Inkarmat escape.  Boutarou is making Sugimoto nervous and think about the things he’s been running away from. Asirpa has caught Ariko’s attention.  She also questions Sugimoto’s opinion of Ogata.  Vasily and Ogata are now both in position and Vasily is back for Ogata.

I mean this is going to get insane with all the groups converging into chaos.

1.) Koito and Tsukishima know they are in trouble.  It is unclear how much they know about their situation, but both men realize that they aren’t in as good of a position in regard to Tsurumi.  Koito wanting to trade menko with Tsukishima is Koito’s way of saying that he cares about him and that they could do this to support each other if shit really does hit the fan.  Which it is totally going to do.

2.) Two convicts are likely not going to live much longer.  Ueji and Jack are pretty much screwed as all of the factions close in around them.  If Ueji is truly a moth drawn to a flame he’s toast.  Jack is being attacked by Hijikata.  With Nagakura as back up.  The real question will become, who gets the skins?  And do either of them have a key kanji?

3.) Boutarou is the substitute for Ogata and is making the Sugimoto-Asirpa partnership tense.  I have really been enjoying what Boutarou brings to the dynamics of Sugimoto and Asirpa.  He sees what Sugimoto is oblivious to and what Asirpa is embarassed by and the second character to see what her crush on Sugimoto is, a crush.  He throws Sugimoto off because the have the same background.  Yet, Sugimoto will label him a criminal who can be skinned because he ended up in Abashiri.  Sugimoto is okay since he’s only killed people as a solider and people who could have harmed him or Asirpa so it makes him better than Boutarou.  The whole thing that Boutarou does is that he strips Sugimoto of his pretense that he’s one of the good guys.  Furthermore, Boutarou is better about facing his own fears and feelings and is doing something to directly sort them out.

Just like Ogata saw Asirpa’s crush in the swamps hear Kushiro, Boutarou is flat out asking her what her purpose it in the quest as a young girl, why she partnered up with Sugimoto and what she wants out of her life.  Even more, he wants to know if she wants to include Sugimoto in her Ainu future even though they are pretty much opposed as Sugimoto has no issue with supporting the Japanese government’s policies towards the Ainu.  Sugimoto doesn’t really want Asirpa to fight for the Ainu, that’s what Wilk set her up to do.  Which, by the way, Sugimoto still has never referred to Wilk as Wilk while Ogata has . . .

Anyways, I really like Boutarou and I like how he’s acting as an independent voice towards Sugimoto, Asirpa and Shiraishi. 

4.) Ogata is clearly not just messing around with others in the hunt for the gold.  Sure, Sugimoto wants Ogata to be an element of chaos, but really Sugimoto is much of an element of chaos as Ogata could be.  Sugimoto has swapped sides, lied, and many other characters have wanted him dead because is such an issue.  We also get what is ‘standard’ by now.  We see Ogata, but he is being described by other characters not himself.

What really caught my attention in chapter 250 was the flashback where Sugimoto is guessing at Ogata’s original motive with Kiro.  Which was lifted from chapter 148, when they were at the Karafuto fox farm.  Ogata is confirming what he understands from Kiro of the current facts, while Asirpa looks at the foxes in the background.  Out of all of the possible Ogata-Kiro flashbacks, Noda picks this one.

This completely gets me all riled up since if you have been reading my posts long enough, you’d know that I am obsessed with chapter 148, specifically this panel.  I am absolutely obsessed with this page where Kiro tells Asirpa about the history of the Ainu on Karafuto and what happened to Wilk’s parents and his village.

Noda is very deliberate in his arrangement of his panels and placement of characters.  To have Ogata in the background looking at the foxes while Kiro tells Asirpa about the colonial contest between Russian and Japan and how it broke up families and communities means something.

Both @goldenkamuyhunting​ and I have hypothesized that Ogata’s background may be mixed race, with a relative at one point in time living in Karafuto and then returning to the main island of Honshu.  Wilk, Kiro, Asirpa are all characters who are mixed race in background and Ogata clearly had more trust with Kiro than any of our other male characters.  I’m still waiting for the flashback where it shows Kiro pull Ogata out of the river and deposit him on the riverbank for the 27th to find him.  Kiro and Ogata both speak Russian which made their alliance even more useful.  And anyone who enters an alliance with a partisan willingly likely sympathsizes with the cause for a reason.

Tsukishima speaks Russian and we learn that Ogata does as well (which was pretty much assumed since he teamed up with Kiro).  Yet as far as I can tell, Sugimoto doesn’t know about Ogata’s Russian speaking ability or anyone on team Hijikata as well.  And Koito isn’t in a situation to tell Tsurumi that he knows that Ogata speaks Russian.

But what I’m really stuck on is the fact that this page implies that Ogata is a victim/result/realted to the of Treaty of St. Petersburg, just like Wilk.  And now with chapter 250 dropping a bit of chapter 148.  You bet I’m intrigued Noda!

Well that is enough for now.  What we can all predict is that the ensuing chaos will result in the realignment of the varous groups, again.

[sgsy1005]

札幌の凶悪囚人

そろそろアニメに出そうなので楽しみ

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Replies to assorted asks regarding if the ending is rushed and how this impacted on the ending Ogata got

This is really a bad working time so yes, I’m still behind in answering to all the ask. This group of asks is tied to the pacing of the manga and to how it might have impacted with Ogata. Asks that regards different things will be in different posts.

Again, as they’re many, I also transcribed them in case the image won’t load.

Sorry again for my lateness in replying to everyone.

Anonymous said:

Greetings. I know this is a strange question, but seeing the way the last arc of this manga has developed.... Do you think the author is speeding up the ending to move on to something else? Or does he don't want the manga to end as an infinite series and is putting his foot on the accelerator, even if it means sacrificing the quality of the writing? It's not a justification, but it's something that started to haunt me after Ogata blew his head off in such a dramatic way.

I’ll start not with my opinion but with some official info.

Q1: Do you already know how you’re going to end the story?

Noda: I know how I want to end it, and there’s not that much left. I want the landing to be akin to one of a gymnastics gold medalist, but I refuse to rush through things and make it ugly just to reach the conclusion, out of both pride as a professional mangaka and responsibility towards my readers. [Q&A corner from the DVD bundle of the 15th volume of Golden Kamuy translation courtesy of @piduai​]

Of course since this is an old interview (Vol 15 came out on September 19, 2018) things might have changed so it’s not really fair to use it as proof that now that almost 4 years are gone he doesn’t want to rush things, however when he released the fanbook (November 19, 2020) he was still caring about the characters having endings that he hoped it would be satisfying for everyone.

Q: Please leave a message for the readers. Or maybe some advice for the troubled youth. Noda: I want people to say that everyone in Golden Kamuy had a satisfying ending, and I want that for everyone involved more than anything. As for advice for the troubled youth, there’s none. Life is survival of the fittest. The weak ones get eaten. [Interview with Noda Satoru from the Golden Kamuy fanbook translation courtesy of @piduai​]

Even in the recently released message about the end of the manga Noda confirmed he would add changes to the volume version and implied that he was working so that everyone would like it.

Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t get the vibe of a person who’s tired and want to rush into a conclusion because he has something else to do, but of a person who’s working hard for his work to be well received.

I might not like the past chapters but I’ve always admired Noda as a mangaka for how hard he works on his manga and I think he’s trying to work hard on it still. The result might not be of my liking but this doesn’t mean it’s because he stopped caring for this manga.

Sure, maybe I’m wrong and naïve but that’s overall how I feel.

I’ll add KamuyCentral’s observation that 314, the number of the final chapter, in Japanese might also be read as ‘Saichi’s death’ (though there’s also a more optimistic option suggested by a Japanese fan).

So what all this mean?

That Noda likely made for “Golden Kamuy” a draft, a script, a plan, something and that his plan was to follow it. This plan might have extended to picking up the final number of chapters beforehand.

So he’s not running?

It really depends on many factors.

Did he really set the story to end at 314?

Let’s assume he did.

So why people get a feeling he’s rushing?

I mean who feels the story is running can point out at the following things:

1) The convicts moved from 24 to 23, although it turned out Kadokura had a tattoo for a total of 24 tattooed beings. It’s possible this was planned beforehand for surprise value but it generates some plot holes in the early premise regarding the convicts (not that Noda cared much about that part as he mostly asked us to suspend our disbelief about it). Regardless, some perceived it as a shortening.

2) Three convicts were introduced one after the other and dealt with at a fast pace when, previously, the story would introduce one convict, deal with him, and move to the next. Again, it could have been done on purpose for a greater showdown in Sapporo (I remember that in robot series they liked to have the robot face 3 enemies at once either around the finale or in some important episode so the 3 convicts being tossed all together might be merely a Japanese trope, nothing more) but it might also have been done to shorten up things.

3) By the way, Jack the Ripper was a historical figure but the way he’s handled is a mess compared to how the manga handled historical figures.

4) Relevant retcon in the volumes clearly hinted to changes of plans in regard to the characters’ characterizations, which made people doubt if the characters’ arc were established before or if they were created as the story went.

5) The way the story was told changed. Before we had many groups which act independently, their actions crossing over and all relevant for the plot. However, although the cast was still divided in many small group, the story slowly started to prefer focusing on 2 groups overall becoming more streamlined and simple to follow, placing into the sidelines the other groups by giving them actions of little to no real relevance to the plot, until everyone converged in one group or the other. Again it can be a choice, but it’s a choice that who preferred the previous structure might not enjoy causing them to think groups are deliberately being neglected.

6) Vasily. While other characters might get neglected, Vasily doesn’t get developed at all to the point some wondered if Noda forgot to draw him here and there, he, basically, has 0 relevant impact on the plot and seems to be there to just get killed. For a mangaka who’s usually awesome at creating and developing characters this feels strange and, if it was a conscious choice, a peculiar one that a good part of the fandom doesn’t particularly appreciate.

7) Ogata. He moves from a character who actively influence the plot to one who’s just in the sideline, his motive felt unsatisfying to a good part of the fandom, a part of his actions feel all of sudden dumb, there’s plenty of things about him that remain unexplained and he took himself out of the plot while the main characters watched, again with basically little to 0 relevant impact to the plot. I’ll go back to him later so for now I’ll stop at this.

8) People had grievances for Vasily, Tanigaki, Sofia, Ushiyama and Hijikata’s deaths for different reasons, not so much because they died but how they died. Vasily died almost offscreen. Tanigaki dies in a blink (if he’s really dead). Sofia’s death was felt by many as unemotional, the reason why she hesitated and was killed by Tsurumi poorly constructed. Ushiyama died by a stroke of bad luck (if the grenade hadn’t, by accident, fallen near Asirpa he wouldn’t have sacrificed himself) and not by Tsukishima’s efforts. Hijikata’s battle is unclear but, again, his death seems to be another case of bad luck with his extremely cool getting up timed in a too convenient manner so that he wouldn’t hurt Koito. This can fall a bit in the ‘in the volume version all those scenes will be expanded but in a chapter of 18 pages it wasn’t possible to do so’ part, and a bit in the conscious effort to keep Koito and Tsukishima safe. Some still wonders if the characters with unclear deaths are actually alive and the unclear death was meant to hide it for surprise value.

9) Asirpa’s black eyes get solved easily and equally easily the characters seem to accept they’ll have to give up on the gold because Asirpa has said so. Sure, it might be this will be developed better later but… sure it’s easy.

10) As the cars are disconnected and only 3 chapters are missing people feel there will be no time to answer all the questions they had and Tsukishima and Koito’s arc will be cut abruptly… which we can’t tell yet for sure but sure the fear is around the net.

11) The story progressing in an overall ‘easy mode’ that uses luck/bad luck and deus ex machina to solve problems quickly instead than having the characters tackle and solve them.

12) Other reasons I completely forgot and for this I apologize to the people who shared them with me.

Sure is… quite a lot and I understand everyone’s concern.

Part of all this might be due to choices, choices which might not have been as appreciated by everyone as Noda hoped or by the page constraints of the magazine and will be fixed in the volumes.

Part of this can be due to miscalculating how many chapters he would need to finish it.

I mean, if you tie yourself to a certain number of chapters, you must plan them in an EXTREMELY CAREFUL manner because you might end up expanding too much a part (maybe to explain better something) and so, to remain in the scheduled number, you might be forced to cut something which Noda maybe thinks to add again in the volume version.

It’s hard to say.

Still this has going on by too long to assume something had abruptly ended and Noda decided to cut the manga short. We might say the Sapporo arc began with chap 224… which was released on December 19 2019. If we go back further to post Karafuto escape… well, we can genuinely say, for something ‘rushed’ Noda still spent years on “Golden Kamuy” instead than have Asirpa being forced to tell the code to Tsurumi in Karafuto and then escaping and meeting up with Hijikata with them realizing how to spot the fake one as well that they’ve enough skins to figure out the place is Goryokaku even if they don’t get Heita, Boutarou and Ostrog’s skins… or just claim Hijikata found and killed them off screen so as to get their skins too into the mix.

So… I don’t know.

Maybe Noda deliberately offered us a ‘summary’ version in the magazine so as to persuade us to buy the more detailed volume version. Maybe he believed a faster pace and a change in storytelling would be more liked. Maybe additions to the story forced him to also do some cuts. It’s really hard to tell.

An endgame is difficult, maybe the most difficult part of the story because readers will demand it to fulfill all the expectations the story has built in them, the longer and more complex the story the more the expectations.

It can be even Noda is aware of this and is using the magazine as a ‘test trial’. We’ll be able to fully judge his story only after the last volume release in July 19, 2022.

For now we can only postpone our judgment to that date.

@howtodestroyacharacter said:

Golden Kamuy will end with chapter 314. Could my doubt that some artistic choices were due to a hasty closure of the series be sadly true? It is possible that for such an editorial choice a story was sacrificed that was so beautiful by "killing" and eliminating some characters in a hasty way and taking them out of their character. I think I have only the fanfictions of good writers left to hope for a more "realistic" ending than what Noda is presenting to us.

Anonymous said:

Well, i actually liked those last chapters, but now with the news that we'll have only 3 chapters until the end i can oficially say that most of the questions that i still have about some characters will not be answered lol. I hope that Noda made at least 1 of those chapters a litte bit bigger than the others so it can fit more resolution for the end, but i really doubt that it will happen so... Anyway, damn, i'm really going to miss Golden Kamuy :(

Well, all that Noda has to ABSOLUTELY include is:

- how the story will deal with Tsurumi

- how the locomotive will be stopped

- what we can call a final chapter, which might tie up some loose ends by telling us which will be the fate of the surviving characters or share additional info and points to ponder or… leave the ending open because this too is a possibility.

Noda is not Toriyama or Arakawa, so the fight between Tsurumi and Sugimoto (and possibly Asirpa) is likely not going to take a lot of chapters even if Tsurumi is the final boss.

To give you a better idea, Kiroranke was killed in 2 chapters and a half, after all, Nikaidou in 1, Sofia… in few panels.

I dare to hope that the story won’t handle Tsurumi’s fate in ‘easy mode’ but that whatever fate will befall to the characters will be the result of their actions, not of good/bad luck (that is unless Kadokura shows up, as Kadokura ultimate weapon is his amazing good luck and we all know about it so, if he were to show up, is reasonable to assume Tsurumi would slip under a banana peel, fall off the train and against a pole on which he would stab himself and die while Kadokura laments his ‘misfortune’ that stopped him from taking part to the battle).

Still, it can be Noda will need only 1 more chapter to deal with Tsurumi… or that he’ll make the fight longer enough we’ll get some of it in each chapter (alongside with Asirpa’s attempts to stop the train).

Therefore yeah, for what Noda really need to do, 3 chapters are enough.

For closing up each loose thread… no, 3 chapters aren’t enough but, at this point, I don’t think he means to do so. He has told the story he wanted to say for all the rest he probably feels ‘But that is another story, to be told another time.’ (quote from “The Neverending story” which deliberately left subplots hanging very often to drive home the point that it is, as the title says, a ‘Neverending Story’).

Anonymous said:

I agree that Ogata should have died in Vol 19 instead of what happened to him in the end.  But I had a thought hit me, that it's possible that Ogata was kept alive for so long not only for plot reasons but also because he's a popular character.  Perhaps because he was so popular that Noda decided to wait to kill him off later (unfortunately in the most contrived way).  What do you think?

Again, I don’t really know if Ogata was really meant to die in Vol 19 and was kept alive till now merely due to popular demand or if the plan was ALWAYS what we saw, that he has to commit suicide in Vol 31.

While satisfy his readership is an author’s duty, it is generally not a good idea to do so blindly, keeping alive a character because readers said so without any plans for him.

Of course if the editor gets involved into said matter and impose the author certain things, the author can either comply or drop the series but… honestly, keeping Ogata alive at the time in which the chapters that will go in Vol 19 were released wasn’t such a huge deal that I think an editor would impose Noda to do so.

“Golden Kamuy” was going strong at the time, sure, part of the readership might have gotten disappointed and this might have seen a decrease in the selling… but it wouldn’t have been probably something so dramatic it would have caused the manga to be forced to end prematurely and, since they would have 12 volumes to recover, it might have even be a better way to deal with the problem (a manga that ends in a dissatisfying manner ends up not being recommended which causes sales to drop permanently as no new chapters will be released that can help readers to change their mind).

So I don’t think Noda went to his editor and said ‘hey, I think to kill Ogata in the next chapter’ and the guy answered him ‘NO WAY! DIDN’T YOU SEE HOW READERS LOVE HIM? HE’S TOO POPULAR! YOU MUST KEEP HIM ALIVE AT LEAST UNTIL THE LAST VOLUME OR ELSE!’

If Ogata was meant to be killed in Vol 19 and then he wasn’t, I want to think it’s because Noda had decided to do something different with him… and then his plan got aborted somehow and he went back on the original track.

We had seen with too many volume releases that differ from the manga version that Noda changes his plans, often for the better, so this might have been just this.

Again I might be wrong. I’m not Noda I’m not really with him as he takes his decisions.

Anyway the reason why I think it would have been better to kill Ogata in Vol 19 is the same due to which I think it would have been better not to have Vasily return. They’re kept in the story for basically doing nothing but going back to Vol 17 (Vasily) & Vol 19 (Ogata).

Vasily is shoot in Vol 17, doesn’t die, comes back in Vol 21 but none of his following actions impact the plot in a way that required Vasily to be there or we would have a drastically different story because some fundamental plot point couldn’t be reached without him.

I mean, if you remove Boutarou the gold coin can’t be recovered but if you remove Vasily you can just tweak a little with the story and it goes on the same way.

Ogata is almost the same. He only makes a really relevant contribution, which is to trigger Koito’s distrust of Tsurumi so that Koito and Tsukishima don’t follow Tsurumi and will probably survive to the train ride of hell (unless their wounds were so severe they’ll die off screen or Nagakura won’t kill them off).

Replacing him in that scene would have been a bit tricky because things in Koito’s kidnapping should have gone differently so that it would have been Tsukishima who would have to inadvertently tip him… or Usami (whom we have discovered likes to run his mouth and reveal things that aren’t probably meant to be revealed) would end up saying something to him out of his jealousy, same as he had done with Ogata.

So yeah, I guess Noda could have put Usami in the kidnapping trio instead than Ogata and Usami might have ended up telling him something… but, well with Ogata the scene worked better.

Then what of Ogata? He recover his sniping ability so he can kill Vasily off and then kills himself.

Sure, okay, he killed Usami but there was no specific need to kill Usami in such way in that precise moment. Usami’s role wasn’t that big that, if he had lived until the Goryokaku siege episode and it was Ushiyama that snapped his neck off the story would have taken a totally different course.

Ogata could just have had his epiphany and die in Vol 19 and we wouldn’t have noticed any big difference. Chap 311 showed Asirpa overcoming what had happened just fine. Actually if Ogata had died in Vol 19 his death would have served the plot better.

In chap 206 Sugimoto, in an attempt from dissuading Asirpa from killing, points out that the Ainu belief that people who kill end up in hell might refer to how the intense guilt stop them from returning to their old self. Although Asirpa knows Sugimoto has been changed from his experiences, she doesn’t know the previous Sugimoto and Sugimoto is still an overall sociable and happy guy for most of the time so Sugimoto’s words might not feel that terrible to her. If however she had seen a man kill himself in front of her out of it she would have had a better idea of what ‘who kills end in (psychological) hell’ means.

Asirpa is a bit of a peculiar character in “Golden Kamuy” as her arc is not plot driven but character driven (her arc is basically a ‘coming of age’ arc with her moving from her innocent self to someone aware of her people’s problem and willing to kill to protect what she loves) so this would have worked well.

But that’s just me. I’m not Noda, I don’t have access to his draft, I can’t see what it said and how many changes it suffered. It can even be that, although he was meant to kill him in Vol 19, Noda too loved Ogata and wanted to keep him until the end.

Not everyone is Conan Doyle and want to toss his characters off a cliff, after all.

And the fact I don’t like how Noda handled it, doesn’t mean everyone feels the same and Noda wrote that ending for him with ill intentions toward him.

I don’t really know, maybe we’ll never know why Noda chose such ending and if Ogata was meant to die in Vol 19 or not. Maybe it’ll be revealed in a Q&A or in an interview. Maybe it’ll remain a secret forever. We’ll see.

@xyamaneko said:

What do you think about the page where huci is singing the lullaby and the part with:

“I’m sure the gods are watching you so that you’ll grow up to be a fine man.”

Is shown while Ogata is sleeping? I mean it clearly meant something and I always thought this was to show that he would have some sort of redemption but in my opinion it was never shown?? Now he is dead while everybody hated him.

Any opinions on that?

The reason why Ogata is a controversial character is because his arc has conflicting points.

Some readers watch his arc, see points that are typical of the redemption arc and think ‘it has to be a redemption arc’.

Some readers watch his arc, see points that are typical of the story of the minor bad guy that get killed by the hero for his crimes and think ‘it has to be a justice arc’.

It’s not that one side is making up things, Ogata’s arc is rich of conflicting elements so that both sides, when deciding to write meta about their views, often have to work a lot to give a sense to all they see without slipping in the easy ‘let’s dismiss what doesn’t fit with my theory’.

Ultimately, what we got was neither the ‘redemption arc’ nor the ‘justice arc’ but just a ‘self destruct arc’ that, according to many, didn’t really answer fully to all the things observed about him.

The split in the fandom, with people still trying to fit this arc in their previous views, and the countless takes that are being created by fans as we speak to explain why we got to a ‘self destruction arc’ despite people thinking we would either get a redemption or a justice arc, can be a hint that something didn’t work the way it should have because the ‘solution’ we had to the mystery that Ogata was didn’t cause the fandom to come to an agreement but only split it further.

Maybe Noda originally was uncertain between the ‘redemption arc’ and the ‘justice arc’, hence elements of both were included in the story, then decided a ‘self destruct arc’ was a ‘fair’ compromise between the two sides.

Maybe things will be better cleared up in the volume version.

Or maybe we’re missing elements because we don’t belong to his target audience.

I don’t know.

The elements and tropes we, as readers, are bound to pick up are tied to our culture and our experiences. We aren’t his target audience therefore our readings can be as different as WE are different.

Surely, ultimately, the words “I’m sure the gods are watching you so that you’ll grow up to be a fine man” ended up not being foreshadowing, quite the opposite.

It can be that Noda wanted to create a conflict, to show that, differently from Sakamoto’s son, Ogata, who was a child who wasn’t born by parents who loved each other, wasn’t ‘watched by the gods and so he didn’t have the chance to grow up as a fine man’. After all the previous bit talked about how the kid’s parents were working hard to fed him, so more than a song about gods watching over you, is a song about your parents caring about you, which is something Ogata didn’t have. Ops, no, wait, chap 310 said maybe they did love each other for a short time… not that Ogata could benefit of it. But I’m digressing.

There’s probably some cultural aspect in that blessed thing and gods watching, but I’m not that knowledgeable of Japanese customs at the moment.

I could spend hours watching that double spread as it’s one of my favorite and make a deeper analysis of it but I get that’s not what you’re really asking.

I don’t really know what to say on that regard.

Although a part of the fandom loves the chapter in which Ogata dies, the other is disappointed, to put it mildly, each person for their own reasons. If it can be of some comfort, you’re not alone in being disappointed in how Ogata’s arc ended.

Sorry I can’t really help any more than this.

[orthodoxydaily]

Saints&Reading: Wednesday, August 24, 2022

august 24_august 11

THE MONK THEODORE, PRINCE OF OSTROZH (1483)

Saint Theodore, Prince of Ostrog, gained fame with the construction of churches and by his defense of Orthodoxy in Volhynia against the enroachment of Papism. He was descended from Saint Vladimir (July 15), through a great-grandson Svyatopolk-Michael, prince of Turov (1080-1093) and later Great Prince of Kiev (+1113).

The first time the name of the holy Prince Theodore is mentioned is in the year 1386, when the Polish king Jagiello and the Lithuanian prince Vitovt affirmed his hereditary possession of the Ostrog district, and they augmented the Zaslavsk and Koretsk surroundings.

In 1410 Saint Theodore participated in the defeat of the Teutonic Knights of the Catholic Order at the Battle of Gruenwald. In 1422 the holy prince, because of sympathy for the Orthodox in Bohemia, supported the Hussites in their struggle with the German emperor Sigismund. Theodore introduced the Hussite formation (i.e., the Taborite, adopted by the Ukrainian Cossacks) into Russian military strategy.

In 1432, after winning a series of victories over the Polish forces, Saint Theodore compelled Prince Jagiello to guarantee the freedom of Orthodoxy in Volhynia under the law. Prince Svidrigailo, apprehensive of the strengthening of his ally, locked Saint Theodore into prison, but the people who loved the saint rose up in rebellion, and he was freed.

Saint Theodore was reconciled with the offender and went to him for help in the struggle against the Lithuanians and the Poles. In 1438, the holy prince took part in a battle with the Tatars. In 1440, with the accession to the Polish throne of Cazimir, youngest son of Prince Jagiello, Saint Theodore received the rights of administration of the city of Vladimir, Dubno, Ostrog, and he was granted extensive holdings in the best regions of Podolia and Volhynia.

Saint Theodore left all this behind, together with princely power and fame. After 1441 he entered the Kiev Caves monastery, where he received the monastic tonsure with the name Theodosius, he struggled there for the salvation of his soul until the time of his blessed repose.

The year of Saint Theodore’s death is unknown, but it is probable that he died in the second half of the fifteenth century at a great old age (S. M. Soloviev in his History of Russia gives the year of his death as 1483). The saint was buried in the Far Caves of Saint Theodosius. His glorification apparently took place at the end of the sixteenth century, since in the year 1638 the hieromonk Athanasius Kal’nophysky testified that “Saint Theodore rests in the Theodosiev Cave, where his body was discovered incorrupt.”

Saint Theodore is also commemorated on the Synaxis of the Monastic Fathers of the Far Caves on August 28.

THE HOLY MARTYR SUSANNA AND THOSE WITH HER  (295)

The Holy Martyr Susanna the Virgin was the daughter of Presbyter Gavinius and a niece of the Holy Bishop Caius of Rome (283-296). She was raised in strict Christian piety and in her youthful years dedicated herself to God. The family of the saint was related to the emperor Diocletian (284-305), who heard reports of her virtue and beauty.

Having decided to give Saint Susanna in marriage to his co-emperor Maximian (305-311), Diocletian sent his own kinsman, the dignitary Claudius, to the priest Gavinius, and then his own brother Maximus. Both of them, together with the wife of Claudius Prepedigna and her sons Alexander and Cythius, accepted Baptism after conversation with the pious family. Having learned that the entire family of his relatives had been converted to Christianity, Diocletian sent them into exile.

Soon they burned the martyrs at Ostia, not far from Rome, and threw the ashes into the sea. They took the holy virgin Susanna to the palace, and the empress tried to persuade her to submit. But the empress, secretly a Christian, supported the martyr in her intention to preserve her virginity for the sake of the Lord. She explained to the emperor about the virgin’s unwillingness to enter into marriage with a pagan. Diocletian gave permission to his co-ruler to defile the holy virgin, but an angel defended her.

Macedonius began to urge the martyr to offer sacrifice to the idols. “I offer myself in sacrifice to my Lord,” she answered. Then Macedonius cut off the martyr’s head. The empress secretly buried the body of the saint. The room where the murder occurred was consecrated into a church by the holy Bishop Caius. Soon the father of Saint Susanna, Presbyter Gavinius, accepted a martyr’s end, as did Saint Caius in the year 296.

Source: All texts Orthodox Church in America_OCA

MATTHEW 23:29-39

29 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30 and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.' 31 Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt. 33 Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? 34 Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. 37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 38 See! Your house is left to you desolate; 39 for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'

2 CORINTHIANS 3:4-11

4 And we have such trust through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. 10 For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. 11 For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.

[grimmlyfairies]

Jack the ripper

TRIGGER WARNING: Murder, Crime and graph details and a brief talk about religion 

Time: 1888-1892

Main Nickname: Jack the ripper.

Where: London and Yorkshire in england 

In 1888 there was a famous killer named Jack the killer he killed 5 women in total ‘Jack’ only targeted women all of the throats of the women and sometimes even had some organs removed and jack had completely mutilated the body so much. So let’s start from the beginning in 1888 Jack would go out late at night and hunt for women and ended up killing his first Victim Mary Ann Nichols on August 31st her throat was cut killing her quickly. Annie chapman was found on September 8th she (may have been) killed by asphyxiation with a handkerchief around her neck then she had her throat cut. Elizabeth stride was found on september 30th she was believed to have died from extreme blood loss from her liver. And the last body was found and her name is Mary Jane Kelly she was found November 9th her cause of death was lots of blood loss to the neck area. Now here are the suspects that are believed to be the ripper and I will tell everyone what I believe Our first suspect is/was a russian his name was/is Michael Ostrog he was a criminal and a physician who was placed in a asylum for homicidal tendencies. The next suspect was/is named Aaron Kosminski he was a resident at the church near where the bodies where found at/near/in he was known to hate women which people believed the ripper had a strong hatred towards women and he was hospitalized after the last murder and he is strongly believed to be the ripper

 I do not mean any harm to anyone that was affected by this I mean this with full educational purposes and please correct me if I have been wrong with anything. And sorry for this being very short I currently have Covid and I wanted to post something before 12 have a goodnight/day

[generationexorcist]

Meet Aaron Kosminski—AKA Jack The Ripper; 10 Reasons We Know It Was Him

The mysterious serial killer known as Jack the Ripper has captivated the imaginations of people around the world since the Victorian Era. Jack was known for brutally murdering and dismembering at least 5 sex workers in The Whitechapel District of London from 1888 to 1891. Despite being spotted fleeing the scenes of his crimes by dozens of witnesses, he still evaded capture. The case has since gone cold.

Melville Macnaghten, the chief constable at Scotland Yard named three main suspects; M. J. Druitt, Michael Ostrog, and Aaron Kosminski. There are hundreds of theories with additional suspects posited by true crime junkies. For over 100 years, people have been trying to figure out the true identity of Jack the Ripper, but all of the theories are based on circumstantial evidence. However, there has been recent DNA evidence discovered to suggest that the true identity of the Ripper was Aaron Kosminski. Many people have criticized the findings, and refuse to believe the evidence. What exactly did this DNA reveal, and what circumstantial evidence points to Kosminski being the real Jack the Ripper?

Full Article

[pixie-mask]

Golden Kamuy ch255

My thoughts while reading

1+ First of all I forgot about this guy

2+

...ugh...not gonna lie. Young Jack the Ripper...pretty cute👀

3+

I care less about the panels regarding Jack the Ripper and more with the panels that address Asirpa’s ptsd after her incident with Ogata. 

Also with everything that also follows I’m happy that the manga didn’t stop to take a moment to just stamp on Christianity/Catholicism out of no where

Back on point in regards to Jack the Ripper’s death...

4+

Holy shit. I think it’s been a while since I’ve seen a kill in this series that made me just pause for a moment and enjoy. Every nice.

5+

holy shit! Holy Shit! There are two more skins left! We do know where one of the skins are and they just need to handle Ueji. But I’m so off the skin count so I’m super excited. Even more so about what comes after.

6+

And this has become more picture heavy than I can bare so it’s getting it’s on post (that I’ll put it on later). But I’m proud (and more) about Ogata winning that fight.