Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia

Episodes 8-10

Summer convention season is over, and I'm mostly over the flu I caught in New York City, so let's catch up with Sitara. Her chickens have come home to roost.

Despite her lot in life, Sitara has always had an air about her. She is quite confident in herself, in her ability to read others' motivations and reactions, and in her ability to outmaneuver them from the sidelines with a silver tongue. She paired with Ögedei's wife, Töregene, assured that the two of them could orchestrate the downfall of the Mongolian Empire by moving Ögedei's other wives and Tolui's wife, Sorghaghtani, like chess pieces to sow strife between the Great Khan and his brother's family.

She wasn't wholly wrong, but she failed to properly assess Boraqchin, the Great Kha'tun and senior wife to Ögedei. Now Sitara is left with her plan and partnership in tatters as the Mongolian Empire looks far from collapsing; instead, power is consolidated after the wives successfully assassinate Tolui under the pretense of an exorcism to bring a poisoned Ögedei back to health. Sitara failed to realize that, despite her general usefulness, she is still a slave and servant to the ruling family. They were never going to fully inform her of all of their plans. Instead, Boraqchin took Sitara's statements about Tolui and his wife, Sorghaghtani, at face value and found a way to get rid of them. Sitara is left in the lurch, reunited with Fatima's copy of Elements, separated from her one ally, and now expected to be in service of Boraqchin. She doesn't have the sense of fulfillment she expected, even though the man who took everything from her lies dead.

Boraqchin is the most interesting change-up in the series so far, and it is striking how easily she deceived Sitara. Boraqchin is treated with kid gloves because she's older and in poor health. Sitara likely misjudges her as frail, overlooking that her poor health is the result of continued self-poisoning. Boraqchin wants to maintain her position of power so badly that she has willingly consumed a toxic substance for years under the belief that she will become immortal. When Sitara plays to Boraqchin's pride by assuring her that she and Ögedei are so wise with their economically focused approach to ruling, all while warning her about Tolui's possible consolidation of scholarly and military power, she has teed up Boraqchin to kill her brother-in-law.

I can't help but see the tragedy of the result. Jaadugar has done an excellent job balancing the reality of the Mongolian Empire's conquest with the truth of their interpersonal relationships. For all of his military prowess, we see that Tolui never aspired to undermine his brother's rule. All he did was for the glory of the Empire. He lacked any selfish aspirations of his own. In the (beautiful, gorgeous) exorcism sequence, we see Tolui's spirit willingly take on the burden of death from his brother, cutting his soul free and sending it soaring on an arrow. We see that, among his men, there was some thought of Tolui being the more suitable khan, perhaps chosen by their god or more reminiscent of his father.

The exact events between Töregene and Boraqchin remain unclear, although it seems that Töregene may be in hiding. Sitara goes in search of her and is introduced to her and Ögedei's son, Guyuk. Guyuk is not well; he seems to be agoraphobic or is otherwise very nervous around strangers. We'll find out more about him next week.

As we near the finish line (presumably) of this season, my primary criticism is how often Jaadguar has felt like a series of false starts as Sitara is moved from wife to wife. When she finally settled in Töregene, I thought we'd get to see the pair scheme together and navigate the moral dilemmas of following through with their actions. We left off with Sitara questioning her decision not to inform the Jin about the incoming Mongolian attacks, but this doesn't go anywhere from a character standpoint. Tolui did manage to wipe out the Jin army of 100,000 men, but we don't see Sitara's reaction. As soon as Boraqchin enters the picture, Töregene is pushed out.

The beautiful animation continues throughout these three episodes. The exorcism sequence is exceptional, but the arrow shot in episode eight is spectacular as well. I hope this season can tie up the loose ends here for something satisfying, but I wouldn't be upset if we get a season two.

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Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.