Forum - View topicANN Book Club -- Wolf's Rain.
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Top Gun
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If I could give you any sort of tangible props for that amazing summary, I'd do so in an instant.
 My initial watching order of the series was a rather strange one, and I think I've only seen this most important of episodes once to date. I didn't really realize just how much information had been crammed into it.
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HellKorn
Posts: 1669 Location: Columbus, OH |
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Mm. I don't have to type as much. Yay.
Uh, I'll probably not do justice to your posts, JO, but there are a few points that I can tackle now before sharing my thoughts on the series as a whole:
For all intents and purposes, it's nearly reached here. The world is at the end of Kali Yuga, and about to begin once more. We see Paradise during the sequence before the cut to modern Japan. However... (See my question to JO two quotes below.)
Can you point to where the second part is mentioned in the series?
... Stop can be applied in a similar way, so could you make a more distinctive difference here? Just because the first sentence seems to contradict the importance of Darcia's eye.
The actors for Darcia the First aren't credited in either Japanese or English... however, that voice is definitely Norio Wakamoto, who is the seiyuu for the owl during his two appearances of this series.
Don't think I'll be anymore helpful there than I am here, but I'll try to catch up to the series and put in my two cents. It's a really fascinating if somewhat problematic series. |
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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I do the work so you don't have to! Like Scrubbing Bubbles only less moist. 
Seriously though, just respond to whatever piques your interest. That's all I ever do, really. *stares at complicated EVA thread*
Well, the "nearly" is the problem as it is a pure world, but not one without corruption, which immediately starts screwing up the purity of the world that had begun. (Admittedly not "human" corruption, but the evil presence that makes human beings the dichotomous creatures we are.)
Eh, sure. It's in the origin story that the Mon Tribe passes down and we can assume to be true simply because "it's there" and not refuted by further evidence at any point.
I thought the portrayal of human beings in Wolf's Rain was pretty consistent of this yin-yang view of human nature. Not good, but not bad either, and as Hubb and others demonstrate, altogether pretty helpless as far as influencing the grand scheme of the world's fate, at least compared to the parallel forces of good and evil (wolves and Nobles.)
I'm not entirely sure what you're asking, but I can clarify the potential outcomes of the Wolf's Rain universe versus what actually happens. In true yin-yang fashion, the world's fate comes down to a battle of purest good versus purest evil, and honestly, neither side wins. It would have been impossible for Darcia to enter the True Paradise, where no evil can touch down, but he doesn't know that. His goal is to rule Paradise and create a new world in his image, having lost everything but the strong desire to validate himself and all he's been through. He fails. Kiba's goal may have been attainable, but Darcia is built like a truck and absolutely ruthless, and Cheza is dying faster than any of them had previously planned. His goal was to open the True Paradise upon the world and live there forever, having been born with no other desire in his heart, chosen to rule over the final Paradise. He fails. What's more, we get the feeling this has happened many times before. The scene at the beginning of the series implies that Kiba has fallen short of his goal in past lives and past worlds and it's just happening again. In a weird way, we are also given great hope through this conclusion. After all, this appears to be the farthest Kiba has gotten. In the sneak peek of a past life we got in episode 1, he didn't have Cheza with him and probably wasn't anywhere near the gates to Paradise (maybe). The world he's rebirthed into is our own, weirdly enough, and by showing the wolves as human beings (actual human beings) it metaphysically places the ball in our court, to bring the worldviews of the story closer to home and further from fantasy. (AKA the Fullmetal Alchemist trick. Hey, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't!) All that aside, though, Kiba did not really win and Darcia did not really win, but both of their efforts made the "new paradise" what it was: dichotomous and flawed, pure in birth but rapidly corruptible. Kiba did not open Paradise, but he did protect Cheza, the "perfect" Hanabito. When the world dies, so does she, but as she wilts, she has seeds to spread across the world and ensure that life will go on in the next world. Like all the new paradises before them, though, it carries both the seeds of the old world and its evils. Darcia's eye, the bitter curse of evil that darkens the hearts of men, infects the new paradise and ensures that as the years past, it will grow as ugly as the world before it and die. This is the way it has always been, but not the way many wish it will always be, as we see through Kiba's admission of defeat at the end. ("They say there's no such place as Paradise, and yet..." becomes "There is no such place as Paradise, and yet...") Not to mention Cheza's parting words, "The next time we meet, the Paradise that we hoped for will..." *dies* In the ultimate scene in Japan, I think the creators wanted us to ponder the question "Can an imperfect cycle be broken, and is it in our power to do so? If it is, how should we be living?" Even if you don't believe in reincarnation, (or if you do, it's an important stigma of the Wolf's Rain story, though) it's a profound little circle of thought that's hard to answer.
Well, then, we know what happened to Darcia the First. He DIED. Violently, if Darcia the Third's fate is any indication. He did not, however, go to Hell or anything. He haunts the world and symbolizes the deceits of a false paradise. This is very interesting. I take it, then, that Darcia the First was not such a "good" Noble. ... Was about to shame the English version for not having the same VA for both parts, but surprise-surprise, it IS the same voice actor!  Joe Ochman's delivery is just fairly different. As Darcia the First, he's refined and calculating, like his grandson, but as the Owl, he's haunting and a wee bit nutso, kinda like...his grandson post-lupination, actually.
Wow, that really clarifies my understanding of the show in spades. I always wondered what happened to Darcia the First when he tried to open Paradise and now I knooooow. 
Speaking of the Darcias, I just realized that we have yet another flower/wolf-female/male comparison, albeit a twisted one, in Jaguara/Darcia. She was the guide that led him to her paradise and drove his actions throughout the story, while she needed him to actually "open" her paradise. Her embracing of him is oddly reflective of Kiba and Cheza's first meeting, except that while Kiba and Cheza both approached one another, Darcia just stands there like a statue while Jaguara talks his ear off. "Nope, not interested in a knockoff, woman, (Hamona knockoff + paradise knockoff) but thanks anyway."
"Laws of physics? Logic breakdown? Well, screw them, I'm trying to make a point!" Yeah, that's kinda Paranoia Agent near the end... ...I guess I'll comment on the OVA later. I'm tired and I need a bath and a cookie or three. |
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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Sorry for the double post, but a thought just struck me. Okay, wolves were chosen for the story specifically because Japanese mythology holds wolves to be the divine messengers of the gods, one of the noblest animals and closest to the desires of the gods.
So...why shouldn't the story's choice of an owl, (of all weird things) for Darcia the First to turn into be symbolic of Japanese culture? I went ahead and looked up different interpretations of the owl in Japanese mythology and as with most things in Japanese mythology...conflicting reports.  Just google it, you'll probably find a lot of the things I found.
All owls were symbolic of encroaching death, which I found interesting. Owls (whether good or bad) were supposed to possess the Jagan, the fearful evil eye that magic men and Yokai (which are malevolent spirits in human or animal form) used against human beings. That's why many owls are depicted in asian art with their eyes shut, or at least one eye. To look into an owl's eyes was terrible luck. (The owl of Wolf's Rain has eyes that never blink, however, but do shine really creepily from time to time.) But beyond that different species took different interpretations. The eagle owl was another messenger of the gods and often a friend to the hunter, despite his gloomy demeanor. The horned owl's call or Jagan-esque stare meant death, but he was not inherently evil. But the barn owl and the screech owl were to be feared, but not feared as in respected, feared as in loathed. Not only were they wicked, their crime was one of bitterness and ingratitude because they ate their own siblings and parents, and they brought death for malevolent reasons. They also symbolized crime of any kind, in keeping with their consuming nature. Children who are thought to be ungrateful or snotty in Japanese culture are sometimes called "owls." I don't know anything about flowers, but I know a lot about animals, and Darcia the First is very much a barn owl, one of those distinctive fat heart-shape-headed things. So this is very interesting. It was already pretty obvious that the owl was a symbol of death without looking it up, but barn owls are bitter ingrates who consume endlessly without remorse, as goes the mythos. That's DEFINITELY indicative of the nobility, and I can only assume, Darcia the First. So, upon opening Paradise, (the real one as it caused such a stink afterward and he WAS the chosen wolf,) Darcia was not stricken dead and never found, but...turned into an owl?Possibly the rulers of Paradise (Great Spirit, Mother Earth, shinto gods, who knows) saw fit to strip him of even his earthly power and make him something that better suited his own heart. After all, a fallen wolf is a bitter and ungrateful creature. Not to mention that Darcia's views of paradise are filled more with Jaguara's sentiment (see Garden of Eternity) than even his grandson's, who picks up on this and decides to achieve Paradise through wolfhood. (A better idea, but it still didn't pan out too well now, did it?) |
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HellKorn
Posts: 1669 Location: Columbus, OH |
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lol
Ah, thanks. I forgot where that piece is mentioned in the series, and just liked a specific reference.
I actually took the "he" in the first statement to apply to Kiba, not Darcia, because frequently people will incorrectly use such pronouns -- at least in my experience. I've become kind of conditioned to hear and read statements like that either way, so without a crystal clear context (as both Kiba and Darcia are trying to open Paradise, though the latter is unable to), I can be suspectible to misunderstandings. Or, long story short: my bad. 
I actually got most of your explanation for the ending on my first viewing, though missed the distinction between the different Paradises until coming upon this thread and catching it on my second viewing.
In addition to those questions, I think the staff are also asking, "Can this be the last world -- the last incarnation? If so, are YOU* willing to do what's necessary?" The snapshots we see of the main characters are very deliberate. Toboe taking an interest in a potential pet, Hige stuffing his face, Tsume riding a motorcycle -- all of traits that are not only carried over from their past lives, but also showing that they have become unmistakably human. Kiba, on the other hand... we only see him walking. After the aforementioned snapshots, we're treated to a shot of a rather beautiful flower (mm...), and then Kiba takes off. Given Cheza's final remarks, the cyclical disappointment that's slowly eroding from Kiba, and that final sequence, I do believe that this can be the last part of the cycle, though only if the effort is given to do so. (Applied to both the fictional-turned-borrow-reality in Wolf's Rain, and our own, factual world.) Also, I really like your points about the owl's place in Japanese mythology. To humor myself, I also did a quick Google search on Cats in Japan mythology. Nothing substantial came up, but... Cats, in Japanese mythology, "have supernatural powers with the ability to shape shift and control the mind. Spectral cats can grow to gigantic size and terrorize whole villages, even though they are barely visible. Cats are also considered to have power over the spirits of the dead." (Emphasis mine.) While the lone cat we see doesn't exercise power over humans, his placement in the series doesn't strike me as a mere coincidence... *Can be taken singularly or collectively, depending on one's own belief. |
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eyeresist
 Posts: 995 Location: a 320x240 resolution igloo (Sydney) |
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On an interesting tanget: A review of a book called The philosopher and the wolf.
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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SORRY I kind of let this sit. But I'm at work now and I just remembered ye olde book club thread...and that I'd hoped to rejuvenate the Paranoia Agent one...but I can't if we never discussed the veeeery end of this one! (Okay, we DID, but not all the stuff in between the END end and the 26th "cliffhanger ending.") So, I figured I'd squeeze out all my thoughts left on what this series has to offer and hopefully, some people will add to (or correct me!) on my conclusions.
Thanks again to all the people that participated in this thread, too! Just like the previous two, I learned an awful lot and really stretched my brain when I thought the series had stretched it enough as is! @eyeresist That was really interesting. It's somewhat related to the themes of Wolf's Rain, in a "human separation from the native beauty" kind of way. Interesting.
Oh yeah, definitely! I mean, that's the thing about a theme is that it has to apply to real life somehow. Wolf's Rain, (one of the reasons I'm such a fangirl of it,) is extremely subtle because it's dealing with delicate/controversial material, but still very powerful regardless of whether the viewer picked up that the writers wanted to make comparisons to real life or not.
That is the hope certainly. It would be very unfair of the creators to say that the wolves found Paradise and we had our happy ending, because that was never the point of the story. The point was that they undertook the journey and they were better for it, they were "fulfilled," I guess, because of the journey. Not everyone who undertakes something great at the sake of their own security has a happy ending, but they are better human beings (oops, I mean wolves  ) for the effort.
In the case of this story, not only did the previous actions of the Nobles make a "perfect" ending difficult anyway, but the creators obviously wanted to connect their allegory directly to the real world, so they "surprised" us with an "end" that was a beginning to the reality we know. Still, the creators also knew better than to imply that this was an eternal cycle and the wolves were foolish pawns of fate, quite the opposite of what they intended. So they gave Cheza that pivotal line and heavily implied that Kiba remembers what the rest of the world has forgotten in some way. It was the perfect ending to the show, but the problem with its ambiguity, (something EVA enthusiasts bash their heads into the wall over as well,) is that many viewers interpret it wrong because of ambiguity. Many people find the show VASTLY depressing because they think the story implies that Kiba will try and fail to find Cheza and open Paradise for all eternity, which is of course more like Hell than anything else. Clearly that's not what the writers wanted, but it's an understandable assumption I hoped to dissolve with the evidence presented in this thread.
Hm. I hadn't thought about that. Now I don't know that every animal in the Wolf's Rain story was meant to be symbolic, that may be stretching it, but given the coincidence, it's certainly possible! After all, the fat black cat and his many compatriots seem to be "sentries of the dead," lazing on sterile girders with half-lidded eyes focused on the "zombies" of the town. If there is a hidden metaphor (oh, those tricky writers!  ) it's most obvious in the very quick shots of cats scampering over the dropped and scattered (and quite useless!) riches of the dead, the many screaming people being shot down by Jaguara's fleeing troops. Hm.
Actually, the FIRST thing I thought of when you mentioned cats by their Japanese definition was not the cats in Jaguara's Keep, but Mew of the Garden of Eternity, a cat that could certainly be thought of a deceptive and tricky sentry of the dead. In any case, all I knew about cats in Japanese mythology was that they were one of the more common forms taken by yokai and, of course, the creatively interpreted purpose of the cat in the Zodiac folktale we learn about in Fruits Basket. OKAY! SO...FINAL DISCUSSION COMING UP IN A PINCH! |
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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Okay, so...
Episode 27: -- Darcia the First has a weird little monologue up front here, so I guess I'll quote it in full (from the dub here, just for natural syntax, but there's no contextual difference):
Okay, so this is pretty, but what's the point of it all? It's only a tiny glimpse into the mind of Darcia the First, which can give us a better look at the mind of his grandson. This is important because Darcia's irrational motivation cannot be taken at its word at the end of the series. He willingly contradicts himself and is about as crazy as you can get, so any glimpses at the Nobles' thought process is welcome. First off, I find it curious that Darcia deliberately asks "When are we born and when do we die?" The "why" is a normal philosophical question, but the "when" seems a little stupid, right? Everybody knows WHEN they're born and WHEN they die, but he's a Noble, so...does he really? The Nobles are fallen wolves, but very few of them ever realize this. So apparently falling from divinity comes with some kind of memory loss. Add to that how young Darcia the Third appears, relatively speaking, despite the fact that his grandfather was in the prime of his life 200 years ago. The Nobles know they are greater than common man and revel in it, (Orkham and Jaguara are better examples than the Darcias,) but their blessings of earthly power have taken their identities from them. Grammatically speaking, this book appears to be aimed at the Nobility. (This is obvious in Japanese, not so much in English. I don't speak the language much, no, but I can understand different sentence structures and pronouns well enough.) So, Darcia is lamenting not only a loss of purpose for the rich Nobility (the "whys,") but a loss of any identity, merit or history, (the "whens.") The Nobles sacrificed their divine rights to power and justified wolf's pride for temporal earthly supremity. An awareness of this loss and a desire for the eternal that was sacrificed is basically Paradise Sickness. Okay, that was long-winded, but with that in mind, the tone of what follows makes infinite more sense. Darcia realizes that he and his kind have been tricked. By sacrificing accountability to the old Paradise in favor of world supremacy, they have given up eternal happiness for a world that ends and rebirths repeatedly. They may have complete dominance over the world instead of any servility to the Great Spirit or strife with humanity, but it will end eventually and leave them scattered in the wind. We have exceeded our natural lifespan, but we never suspected that the world is finite. This knowledge fills me with despair. Of course, this would be why both Darcia Uno and Darcia Tres want to return to Paradise somehow, being aware of the grave and damning error they have made, but that doesn't mean they're remorseful in any way, but "embittered," if the comparison to the owl is to be noted. By opening Paradise themselves, could they not have the dominance they had on earth with the eternal perfection they sacrificed and beat fate at its own game? That is the true motivation Darcia the Third can't quite express in his grief, madness, and all-around ambiguity later. Actually, the words "all around ambiguity" can be applied to all of Wolf's Rain! It's amazing what hits you like a sledgehammer once you really hone in and pay attention, but if you choose not to, the story doesn't really present itself as some deep allegory at all, just a run-of-the-mill post-apocalyptic fantasy. Very unusual. It's certainly impossible to watch Lain, EVA, or Kino's Journey without realizing philosophies are being pushed and emphasized, not that that's bad, but the opposite approach is certainly much rarer. -- The people of Jaguara's Keep finally get their..."comeuppance?"...seems weird to say as they maybe didn't do anything wrong, but they reap the ignorance they've sown when we see them get gunned down, one and all, with their privileged riches and shattered gate passes laying in the streets for the cats to sniff at and the soldiers to steal on their way out. It's sobering and a wee bit harsh, but it certainly needed to be shown to drive the "false paradise" point home yet again. (Is that the bookseller's cat we see, perhaps?) -- It was kind of Kiba to forgive Hige, and I think this illustrates a key change in his character from the beginning of the show. Originally, Kiba was very dismissive and furious at any wolf that wasn't pure in his divine drive, putting his pride above all else. He didn't really seem to care if anyone came with him or not. Hige and Toboe just did, and because of Toboe's kindness, so did Tsume. Over the course of the show, he has parroted something entirely different, though. That all of them have to go to Paradise together, for some reason. Kiba has acquired a compassion for the other wolves, flawed setbacks though they may be at times, that changes his character for the better, and will come up again when he faces Darcia. (Even if they are problematic at times, they saved him from the Garden of Eternity, not his "wolf's pride," or whatever.) -- The soldiers may have escaped Jaguara's Keep with their spoils, but as Hubb observes, they have a "falling out," and end up killing each other, laying in pools of blood covered in riches. Yum, delicious irony...and some more obvious illustrations of the theme. -- One of the most depressing moments in this series is probably the conversation Hubb and Cher have after they find Blue. Hubb asks if it would be possible for them to go to the new Paradise if it was only wolves that could enter. Cher states the obvious: "No." Hubb asks what the two of them are supposed to do then, and Cher replies, "Die out." This is shocking when you think about it, and pretty damning of humanity until you consider the idea of there being "two paradises." I wrote a near-essay on that idea a few posts back, so I won't repeat it, but it's safe to say from various illustrations of humans' presence in Paradise that Cher is not giving up on the pursuit so much as the method. She tells Hubb that "The new Paradise would be twisted and impure with us in it. In the New Paradise, humans would be created perfect again." The only way for Hubb and Cher to enter the "New Paradise" would be in death, not in a corporeal grand entry where they would rule, but as a resignation to the end of their lives and the beginning of the afterlife. This is also why Darcia doesn't decide to enter Paradise by dying. Usurp Paradise as a finished ghost? Not likely. Hubb still seems very resigned to this idea, but at the very least, the two of them keep going. Side note: I do find it interesting that Cher realizes she could never have children because the world was ending. People unconsciously becoming sterile all of a sudden is a tenet of most apocalyptic mythos, after all, so I guess it had to be stated here. -- So, Cher begins the steady, accelerating pattern of violent death that all our characters will experience before the story ends. Oooooh boy. In a possible shout-out to Revelation's account of the apocalypse, a shattering of their number is brought down by the falling of a shooting star. And it's not the first time this will happen either! Certain percentages of the population or new waves of earthly plagues were foretold by the reddening of the moon, the breaking of seals, the falling of a star, and the outpouring of giant bowls of destined death upon the world in Revelation, but in a softening of that, a falling star pierces the ground in Wolf's Rain and takes Cher's life at a really terrible time for Hubb. He just got his woman back, they finally reconciled, and now she's gone. (And JesuOtaku cries big salty buckets about it, fo reals.) Interestingly enough, though, Hubb still presses on with the quest for Paradise. The only thing he ever lived for, obtaining a happy life with his wife in his arms again, is impossible now. (It was before as the world is a giant lifeless snowball, but it wasn't so tragically apparent.) Why would he bust his buns to keep going? You could call it resignation, but I don't think that's it. Hubb seems genuinely impassioned to see the New Paradise open, and we see that in the way he talks about what he's having to do: "I'm seeing the world for what it really is, for the first time...right as it's about to end." Whatever ardent passion had possessed Cher from the beginning of the story has certainly gotten ahold of him by this point, and he will do whatever it takes to reach Paradise with the wolves, even if, as Blue puts it, "I'm turned away at the gate." (Not that we don't detect some cynical resignation in Hubb...more on that in two episodes.) Episode 28: -- Tragically, Quent has not "let go of all his anger," as Hubb and Blue had hoped. He still refuses to believe that the wolves had nothing to do with his family's massacre...refuses...but does he believe it anyway? Why, if this is true, would he disown Blue? It's not because he feels she's betrayed him, not at all, by his own admission to Hubb. He wants her to be free of him so that she has some possibility of a future. That's interesting, and it only goes to show that Quent believes Blue...but chooses "not to believe her," if that makes any sense. So, what's the deal? Why would he deny the truth? He puts it one way to Hubb, ("Don't make me feel any more pathetic than I already do,") but goes more in depth for Toboe. He notes that human beings don't have this unshakable faith in their destiny, this "pride" that wolves live off of. People, (by which he means "him" and some other people, but generalizing helps the depressed feel better,) have to cling to something regardless of if it's true or false. Quent has lived loathing wolves and living to blame them for everything for so long that without that certainty...he has nothing else to hold faith in. He would rather believe something that isn't true, blame something that isn't there, than admit that his life has been pointless. This is quite different for Hubb who realizes that his life has been a useless cycle of boot-licking and resolves to turn it around. Quent is consumed only with despair and futile resolve to validate himself through something pointless. In other words...he is spiritually, though not literally, a fallen wolf. He and Darcia, in their own words, understand each other perfectly, because they are living and dying the same way. Now, that being said, Quent does have some vague evidence that wolves were behind the massacre, and that half-truth is what he clings to. He saw a wolf looking at him...just one, if not all of them, (yay, ambiguity,) but he only mentions one, that looked at him with contempt, mocking his loss. What do you want to bet that was Darcia the Second? (Actually, I'm of the opinion that that's the only reason there's a two-generational gap between Darcias here...so the middle generation could be used as a plot device.) In any case, that's my best guess, because it couldn't have been Darcia the First or the Third...and the timeframe is juuuust right.
-- Quent would almost certainly have died a poor, pathetic example of a human being, in denial and delusion until the end...but Toboe, quite by accident, ironically, jumps in front of Quent's rifle and is mortally wounded. The gravity of taking this innocent life...seeing a young boy die, which certainly has an impact on Quent, lest we forget, snaps him back to reality. He drops his gun, his vengeance completely forgotten for the moment. This leads us to... Episode 29: -- Toboe's not dead. I nearly peed myself, but he's not. (Oh, come on, that was scary! *sudden RAWR!*) His valiant attempt to stop Darcia is a wee bit useless, though. Now, Darcia's statement coming up is...well, both of them...are rather contradictory. So I'll have to explain my take on them. "I no longer feel pain. Jaguara's poison is eating me away." Lies. Wait until we see him fight wolves with a little more bite. It hurts. A lot. But he's not dying by any stretch of the imagination, he's still the Hulk Hogan of the wolf world. Why would he say this? He's referring to his complete emotional resignation, again, one we can see in Quent, or could before he makes a little deathbed conversion. He no longer CARES that he's in pain, and he longer cares about Hamona or Jaguara or his lost kingdom or his curse, just the possibility of survival and becoming supreme ruler of Paradise...validation of his prideful life. Oh, and he's very nuts at this point. Jaguara said nothing about the poison causing his slow death, her aim seemed to be principally that he pass out and reawaken, wounded, to think she was Hamona. The poison warps his mind more than weakens his body, (he's still strong as an ox!) and his dismissal of that incredible physical power as well as many contradictory statements to come, only prove that the poison is driving him mad, not literally killing him. "You, fallen wolf, were cast out of Paradise and cannot return to your former shape." Contradiction? Everything in the story up to this point has strongly supported the idea that the Nobles are fallen wolves and ordinary Joe Schmoes like Quent are created humans. This statement by Darcia is a glaring contradiction to that assumption, and the only one in the show. Why would he say this? Is there any truth to it? Mmmmm, not really, not literally, but we learn something through the statement. First of all, there's that idea of supremacy, not only in the statement itself, but how he says it in Japanese and English both. "You can't become a wolf, but I can, what now, bi-atch?" (Essentially.) It's a gloat. Oh, and he's very nuts at this point, again. When you consider that, and remember how much he and Quent saw the same desperation and anger in each other, it makes sense that he would call Quent a "fallen wolf," because they are of like minds, but Darcia uses his last words to Quent as a kind of barrier between them. He says "you're a fallen wolf," but what he means is: "I'm better than you. I'm worthy of Paradise. Die." -- Actually, Darcia would have done better with Quent's fate. Through Toboe's sacrifice, Quent realizes that he doesn't have to be chained to a false hatred to feel validated. Blue loved him and this little wolf who doesn't even know him sacrificed his life for him. He may be a callous old guy, but not even he can ignore that kind of love at the expense of some lie he came up with. It's clear that Toboe's love for him doesn't remind him so much of Blue as it does of Roose, his own son. ("Stubbornness was the only thing he ever got from me." Toboe is as stubborn as they come.) Quent's last words, "You saved me, boy," are clearly referring to a spiritual rescue rather than a physical one. Then Toboe goes to Paradise. With Granny. I cry buckets. That is all.
-- More Darcia madness/weirdness/contradiction. He grabs Hubb by the throat and laughs, "You are only a human." As...if he couldn't tell before? Sadly, Darcia's magnificence as a villain continues to go out the window with more nastiness, aimed at Kiba. He commands him to "discard all that is impure" before entering "his" Paradise. What the heck? Clearly Darcia has chosen to think of himself and Kiba as two sides of the same coin, the magic token that will open Paradise. Anything to make himself feel important, I guess. Oh wait, there's Cheza...they need her...um...she's a tool. Yeah, that's right. He does treat her like one, barely regarding her as alive even in the way he mechanically sinks his jaws into her skin. In his world, it's only him and Kiba. -- Hige and Tsume have started to realize this, however. They know that only the most untainted and divine among them could have the right to open Paradise. The rest of them are too bound to the world and wrapped up in their own guilt and feelings of worthlessness. (Or, in Toboe's case, fatally attached to a dying humanity.) This makes Kiba something of a Messiah figure, but as he will point out later, his companions were far from useless baggage. -- Tsume's story to Toboe FINALLY confirms to us why he was so in for the long haul to Paradise before he even believed in it. Remember waaaaaay back in an early post when I was talking about Tsume's change of heart in episode 6? Basically, I think that Tsume, even though he didn't believe in Paradise, felt compelled to defend it because he knew it was the only thing that Kiba was living for and he wanted Kiba to keep being strong, even if he didn't really believe it all himself. Now this is after he has gained some respect for Kiba. It's also long before he starts believing in Paradise on his own after meeting the people of the Mon Tribe. So what got him to leave Freeze City and risk his life for something he didn't believe in to begin with? That was a question posited at the beginning of this thread and we're just now getting the answer: He thought he was undeserving of companionship or love, and Toboe gave it freely from the moment he met him. Tsume was obligated to return that in some way. He loved and respected Toboe, and if there was the slimmest chance that Paradise was real, he wanted Toboe to go there, even if he couldn't himself. Instead of helping Toboe, though, he, like Quent, was saved from a life of hatred and self-deception. "You were the one who brought me all the way here." (But no yaoi overtones! None! Stop it! ) I particularly liked Toboe's character, so I was very happy that, despite being a burdensome weakling physically, the series emphasized the emotional salvation he offered to many other characters, mostly Tsume, Quent, and Kiba, but even Hige to an extent, and Blue to a slimmer extent.
-- The Tree of all Seeds has an interesting name. Once again, the show does not spoonfeed us what this tree means or where it came from, but just given the name, it is probably the origin of all life, the "Tree of Life," if you will, kind of a wellspring that started all life as eternal. I guess letting it die and unlocking its aurora borealis-shaped powers of eternal life would be what rejuvenated the earth after it died and pointed the way to the gates of the Paradise that would swallow up this new perfect slate. All we really know, though, is that it has been in its place since the beginning of time and that the Darcias put a seal on it. Why would they do that? To keep the wolves from opening Paradise. Why would the Nobles want to keep wolves from opening Paradise? Because it would mean the end of their earthly power, naturally. It is why Darcia the First's effort to open Paradise is so pivotal. He didn't do it because he wanted to repent for choosing humanity over his divine right, he did it because he discovered the world was finite no matter what he did, and he wanted to possess a power that would last forever. But it's not like he lifted the seal. After all, he tried to open Paradise as a Noble, and ended up the ghost of an Owl. Darcia the Third is going to do him one better, destroy the seal, and open Paradise as a wolf. When Kiba and the others figure this out, they're shocked. If Darcia opens Paradise before they do, he will rule it, bringing his evil self into a perfect realm and consuming the world in darkness, no doubt. I will admit that when I first heard this, I felt a little sick and disappointed. Since when was this a cliche yin-yang competition over the fate of the world? If the wolves were servants of the Great Spirit and the true Paradise was an eternal good, how could one obnoxious baddie opening the gates and claiming himself king be such a big deal? No one but Kiba could even be worthy of opening Paradise, much less someone as "unworthy" as evil incarnate Darcia. It was cliche and contradictory to what had been established about the show. Fortunately my fears were allayed by the end of the show as Darcia is the first to open Paradise, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Thankfully, not even Kiba knows everything, and we aren't in for a dualistic ending where one character will open "good heaven" and the other character will open "bad heaven." Wolf's Rain was too good a show to slip down into such campy basics. -- The last pages of the Book of the Moon are blank. It's up to Kiba to fill them, it seems. (Tragically, he doesn't fill them the way I'm sure he had planned.) -- So, Hubb's death. Here we see that resignation I mentioned earlier. He still misses Cher, and I'm sure part of him just wants to give up and die despite the fact he does believe in Paradise and wants to see things through. He is put in a position where he knows he's going to die, and he accepts it, but then we have a curious quick shot of Tsume offering a hand of rescue to him as he falls. Hubb sees it but doesn't take it. He falls and dies. Because as valiant as he's been recently, he's still only human and he laments his inadequacy as well as the loss of his wife. He's already given up, and he won't be let into Paradise, so he doesn't take Tsume's hand, er, jaw? Nobody, it seems, is as devoted to Paradise as need be, except for Kiba. Not the other wolves, and certainly not Hubb. He dies with the victory cigar originally given to toast a false Paradise, raised instead to the new one. Of course, he doesn't have a light, so instead he inhales another intoxicating scent: a faint memory of his wife lingering on a tacky scarf. -- We hear the prophetic poem from the Book of the Moon for the last time at this point, and because it has finally taken on its true meaning, I guess I'll quote it in full. Due to the less flowery vocabulary of the original version, the subbed passage is actually easier to understand. By the by, I found this to be BY FAR the most interpretive part of the dubbed version, which is nice for listening to pretty poetry, but obnoxious for trying to figure out what it secretly means. (I was surprised at how fast and loose they played with the translation, but the original was kinda basic, and I guess they were going for pretty. You get the gist either way, but I'm hunting specifics.)
So, to break it down, the original Japanese poem-thing does NOT mention man as the wolf's messenger, at least I can't tell that it does, which really simplifies matters. That phrase always kind of bothered me in the English, because I knew that wolves were the gods' messenger, so...human beings were the wolves'...messengers? It's interesting as far as humans needing to emulate the wolves, but I think it's inconsequential to what's being hinted at here, so toss it, it was a creative rewrite. The word "work" is indicative of a creation or achievement, and because the wolf was just mentioned, I guess that's what it means. The wolf, though divinely powerful, is given none of that power on earth, but dwells in silence. Then there is a command, apparently to the gods or Great Spirit, whatever, to give him that blessing. It's a very brief, vague statement, but I take it to mean that Darcia wishes he could be like the wolf, as he is tired of his empty earthly power and wants the peace of divine birthright once more. Compare that to the very pretty but a little hard to understand English rewrite and you get something that sounds nice but you just can't tell who it's referring to. "blessing of the blood of the gods bestowed on...who?" Just extra words, pretty much. I do hate that the translation lost this unusual plea that Darcia the First injected into the text, to be like the wolf. Then we have the pointing out of a specific flower, an eternal one, that wins the favor of "The Lord of the Night," who we can assume is Darcia, since he created Cheza, the unwilting perfect Hanabito. (Or she would have been if people hadn't kept injuring and exploiting her!) She shares "a scent," the guiding light and only true path to opening the True Paradise. Yay, a passage with an obvious meaning! We need more of those!
Finally, we have a statement of admission that the world will end, and will end by freezing and returning all flawless things to dormancy so they can be reborn. "Then appears the wretched beast!" This last line, of course, was misinterpreted by Jaguara to mean Kiba. Of course she thinks of him as a wretched monster, as she hates wolves, those wicked creatures who think themselves superior to the nobility! But now we see the "wretched beast" is in fact Darcia the Third, the last semblance of evil that will rise up to prevent Paradise from being opened. Episode 30: -- At the top of the episode here, Darcia espouses a common sentiment people tend to hold about a "perfect" afterlife. How is perfection any fun? He puts it in deeper terms of course, that there can be no joy without sorrow, happiness without misfortune, or life without death. I'll break out the Why would he say this? again, I guess. Well, think about it. He wants so badly to believe that he and Kiba are two sides of the same coin. He wants to believe that Paradise is just like the world he knows, only un-ending, and must contain good and evil to exist. He can't comprehend the idea of perfection only being purity, purged of evil that represents death. We've all experienced the hardships of life, so it's because we have known sorrow, misfortune, and death that we know what joy, happiness, and life are, not that we want both. It's not quite the same, but it can be compared to the real world belief of some people that heaven ain't no fun if there's no drugs, sex, danger and debauchery. Those are worldly pleasures, and the more people are tied to them, the more it's all they care about. The theme of Wolf's Rain shows up agaaaain. I'd like to believe that people are just too flawed and tied to the goodies of the world to comprehend what perfect pleasures actually are. Personally, as a Christian, I believe that those who are in heaven think of all the world's riches like toddler toys, and all us human beings can't begin to fathom the Mustangs and Ferraris they're getting in exchange for their Lincoln Logs. (Off-topic-ish, whee...) -- Tsume's contempt for Hige is heaped on his back when Hige actually tries to use Tsume's old hatred of him as motivation for Tsume to put him down...as if Tsume would deny him a mercy killing otherwise. Okay, yeah, I found this especially mortifying. Talk about having to eat your words. Not often does this metaphor become so literal as sinking one's fangs into another person's throat. I bet Tsume felt like crap for a while as his words came back to him thousandfold. -- Tsume finally expresses what we've known all along right before his death. He's been supporting Kiba and Toboe and their passions this whole time, but his fears catch up with him. He himself was never worthy of opening Paradise. He's gained friends and learned to love them, but sadly, I don't think he ever learned to forgive himself for what he had done. The scar is just a little too deep. -- Now we arrive at the last place in the world to freeze over: the gateway to the true Paradise that lies reflected directly under the moonlight. After Darcia gets through his little Noble history lesson that I've already run into the ground, (how in the WORLD did he swallow that stone?) he says something else quite fascinating. Kiba did not have a pack. Did he remember one? No. He remembered flowers, dozens of them, being burned to ashes and he remembered many wolves dying. That doesn't mean they were his pack. Heck, why can he remember seeing Lunar Flowers when no other living wolf can? That was many many years ago, and the only wolf who could remember that far back was an old geezer on the verge of death in episode 5. Kiba was "uniquely created," as Darcia puts it. He was placed on the earth solely to open Paradise, very much a Messiah figure. In Darcia's mind, it was just too bad that he let himself get tied down by all those unworthy mongrels. This may also illustrate why Darcia tries to cut off his own emotional ties. He denies that Hamona is in Paradise despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. He at first denies that she would be in any Paradise he could create as a Noble, then stops himself and says she does not exist at all. Bull, clearly, and he might know it and be intentionally denying it. He finds this sacrifice of other impure beings, (a Noble he loved but no longer does) and outright self-deception that he is a wolf through and through now to make him worthier than Kiba of opening Paradise. He is "purer" in his own mind's eye. Kiba concedes and admits that he has always been alone. What Darcia says may very well be true. However, he denies that being apart from others would have made his quest purer. On the contrary, it only would have made it more hollow. He says he has no use for a Paradise that he rules in alone, as Darcia might. A Paradise without the love of his "nakama" would be no Paradise at all, whether they were meant to "open it" or not. This is an excellent point. After all, Hubb dies to see Cher, Toboe dies and sees Granny, Quent dreams of dying to see his family. Love and perfection are equivalent values, because both are eternal. -- And then they fought, and it was bloody. But get this! Good was not triumphant! It was the wicked Darcia the First who was stronger simply because...well...he was stronger. I was happy that the writers didn't pull an out and have some giant light beam shine down to give Kiba the win. Looking at their statures, Darcia is a Kodiak bear of a wolf, and Kiba is just...a really pretty, muscular wolf, but not a complete monster like Darcia. There is no way he would win in a fight, and he doesn't. But it doesn't matter because Darcia's theory about being the flipside of a token to Paradise is completely false. A combination of Cheza's blood and his own should open Paradise, technically. Same with Kiba and Cheza. But a combination of Cheza's blood and his own results in a deadly poison. Darcia retches and vomits after biting into her, and stumbles his way over to the entrance to Paradise gleefully. (Can you say psycho? Yeh.) The dualistic cliche I mentioned earlier is dispelled in a fiery inferno of rainbow DOOOOOM as Darcia screams in pain and vanishes. The True Paradise did not open for him, and whatever happened to him...it wasn't good, and I don't think he got a seat as ruler of anything except possibly "Freaking scariest anime beast villain ever." Even then, that's subjective.
-- Unfortunately, this does not mean that Kiba can open Paradise either. He's on the verge of death. Mere feet from the entrance to Paradise, he will die, Cheza will die, and the world will die along with them. Cheza lives just long enough to scatter her seeds with hopeful final words: Thanks to Kiba's efforts, another chance has surfaced for the world to be reborn, and the next time, Kiba and Cheza will open their true Paradise, and the journey will be over...she hopes. We get the feeling this has happened before, which is very sad, but oddly enough, the first time it happened, Cheza was not with Kiba. Now she is. Progress? You decide. Whatever the case, their blood does combine, spill across the ice, and peter into the entrance to Paradise. It's clear and perfect, like crystal water. Paradise WOULD have opened for them...but it just wasn't meant to be this time. -- The world is frozen over and reborn. Kiba's last view as he sinks into the water is the bloodred moon turning pure white and clean again. Lunar flowers regrow, pure and white, and the world is reborn as paradise...but not...THE Paradise. This new world is uninhabited, humanity has not even emerged before the inherited evil of a past age seeps into the perfect flowers, decaying them and showing us that this beautiful world, too, is finite...all because of Darcia's eye. One little bit of evil is all it takes for perfection to slowly decay into death. -- Flash forward. We've already discussed all this so I don't have much to add except that I'm not entirely sure if Kiba is a wolf or a human being. Perhaps it's left ambiguous on purpose? We know this is our world and that the creators are making an allegorical statement, so naturally, we should assume Kiba is human, like the other wolves, right? But there's a literal white flower that seems to be signifying Cheza, and if that is the case, why wouldn't Kiba be a wolf? But when he falls into the water at the end of the old world, all his fur starts coming off, right? So he's human? But he almost seems to remember needing to find Cheza, the way he breaks into a run...? So he's a wolf?
My personal guess? He's human. I don't think he remembers that he's "Kiba," I think he's just pursuing the goal at the edge of the apocalypse again, in a different form. He might not even know what he's looking for yet. But we're not really meant to know. Side note: We finally have our first (and last) anachronism for the wolves in human form. Basically, Kiba performs an action that cannot possibly be performed by a wolf, only a human, in that position. He wraps his arms around Cheza and rips the fabric of her leotard in the back. They both wrap around each other, embracing as tightly as possible as they die. Yes, it's moving, but HOW IN THE WORLD are they doing it? Isn't Kiba completely incapacitated with his head in Cheza's lap? I don't know, I think we're supposed to shrug it off.
WHEW! I'm done! Please chip in if you have things to add about the grand finale to this great show! I had so much fun exploring this tangled web of religion, mythology, philosophy, thrills, chills, and boxes of Kleenex with y'all!
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armandru
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Right now I only had time to scan your insanely long post but something caught my attention...
You interpret that Nobles are fallen wolves. However, I believe that is hinted more strongly that they are aliens. Yek mentioned that all humans were decendants from wolves, "except for the nobles". Plus Darcia mentioned that Quent was one of those fallen wolves and he is no Noble. Furthermore, Jagara said that the Nobles have become disconnected from the place of their birth. And lastly, there is one interview that mentions that during the production stages, the idea was to portray the Nobles as aliens. |
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