#yeah i'll just stay down here and stare at the ceiling for a while ta

[whatacartouchebag]

Alright, so like.

Big massive Blue Eye Samurai spoilers that I'll tag appropriately if you're filtering for that, but I am freaking out about this single shot in the finale. The rest of it was delightful as hell, but that's a whole other post that I probably won't get to jkhdfjk

The fuckin... the sheer perfection of the narrative within this single shot is making me climb the walls and I immediately paused it to just draw a sharp breath at this scene.

Akemi, craving nothing more in her whole life than to escape from her life of royalty and suffocation and pressure and having every little thing decided for her before it's ever given thought. Seeking only freedom from men's choices. Needing only to be seen as a person.

Taigen, a man bound by incredibly strong honour, to follow the rules, to be a man amongst men, to be the strength he only wishes he could be. There is nothing about him that isn't for the supposed greater good that is so rigid in his mind (even in this scene, he comes around a little in his pleas to her, but give him time, he's still learning).

Both of them staring the other down on this bridge between worlds, knowing what lies at their backs, and knowing what the other sees over their shoulders.

And a thread that tied them both to their own anchors of their old lives now laying dead between them.

Akemi, staring into the beautiful and peaceful freedom that is finally within her grasp, seeing a pristine sky and flourishing greens, a life she's only tasted from the outside, now so close to her should she only walk towards it. A life of her own choosing. Her own destiny to carve and mould in her hands like so much potter's clay.

Taigen, seeing the very world he's strived for, the very person he's risked everything for; all of it haloed in a crumbling, fiery mess, collapsing on itself as she tells him no. All his honour, for nothing. A life of death and loss and little else left in his hands after all his work.

Everything behind her of this old life turning to ash as she tells him she's going to be the strength he wishes he could be.

Everything behind him feeling so devoid of life and the happiness he seeks as he watches her defy him, reducing him to nothing as he witnesses the sheer gods damned strength of this woman.