The Twelve Kingdoms Forum

lol! But it only works with some pairings (Even if I find Auron and Rikku cute, I actually like her better with Gippal who is closer to her age and... well... alive). I was just suggesting the Shokei and Gekkei (oy! Thier names!) thing because he seems to spend a lot of time and effort on her. But in the end, I'm sure you're right. It would be a bitweird, plus it's not very good match politically I'm sure.

On a side note, what do you think the chances are of Gekkei being picked by the next Hou kirin (provided we ever see its ranka start growing on the tree)?

I'm glad you understand--though I can't speak of FFX pairings due to not playing it...

As for the odds: it's hard to predict who the heavens will choose. Let's look at some the example their picked: a child, a Taika high school girl, a high ranked soldier, a serious official, an old lady, a normal woman who knows nothing about government...I'd say he has chances, but I dunno. Maybe the heavens won't pick him because he killed Kourin, but in my opinion he's the best choice to reign, since he's so honest and devoted to the kingdom, and even better, he's humble and doesn't think of himself as a savior, and instead feels guilty and tries even harder. I hope for Hou's sake he's the picked ruler.

There is one thing that I have noticed about Tentei's choices for rulers: They tend to be reactionary. For example in Tai the old king had been a merry-maker, someone who spent extravagantly on the arts and entertainment, after that guy's mandate runs out, we have Gyousou who is a frugal, upright, military sort. In Kei the old queen was an emotional, frivalous sort of person and then Youko is chosen, who is serious and studious. In Ren the king before the current ruler was one of the nobility, and the current ruler is a farmer. In Hou the ruler before Chuutatsu allowed his court to become rife with corruption and so the king that was chosen was disturbingly virtuous. It's almost like Tentei just picks someone who's the opposite of the previous ruler and hopes for the best.

As for Gekkei in particular as a ruler, I don't think you're wrong, I think he has the makings of an excellent ruler. He is humble and it's clear he wants what is best for his kingdom, he has the love of both the court and the people so he would be an excellent choice. That said, there is one slight character flaw I notice about him that might be a problem should he ever be chosen. He's a little too humble, or rather, his guilt continues to eat away at him. He's set it aside somewhat, and he is working to keep the kingdom together, but if he were to be chosen to rule I think his continued feelings of guilt will eventually make him loose the Way in some fashion. He doesn't seek power and that's good, its also good that he only takes up the power of the moonlight court to help out someone he sees as being in need of redemption (or as helping him find his own redemption) but at the same time I think his wariness of the throne would prove to be his fatal flaw in some way.

That's an interesting you noticed: I didn't notice that pattern on Tentei's choice of rulers. But then, a "reaction" to Chuutatsu would be a ruler who wants to enforce the kingdom's law without violence and less strictly, and a man who listens to the people more than to the rules. I think Gekkei could fit that role. As for his guilt problem: all kings have weak points, but considering he's already experienced in being a ruler, being a temporary ruler and also the leader of the Kei province for a long time and being approved by the people, I think he has enough confidence and has mostly conquered his weakness. He also has very good people by his side who will certainly help keep him in line, and hopefully the kirin will be good as well. He coudl also visit Kei sometimes so he can talk to Kantai and Shoukei about the kingdom and feel less pressure this way.

I wouldn't use the word "reactionary", which generally is used to mean someone extremely conservative, old fashioned and right wing. However, many rulers seem to be selected for their ability to correct the problems from the previous reign.

I also know the term "reactionary" with that meaning, but I think he meant it as in "reacting against the previous ruler", regardless of the political directions the ruler took.

Yes, I meant reactionary as in "for every action there is an equal an opposite reaction" but if Tentei were not, for his/its own mysterious reasons, going to choose Gekkei (via the next Hou kirin if it ever appears on the tree) as the next King of Hou, I think Tentei would choose a person who is a good listener. Someone who is willing to weigh true justice against the letter of the law and err on the side of mercy... however, that may also be that hypothetical ruler's greatest weakness.

It should appear on the riboku in Houzan: I think there's a "queue", and the kirins are born in the order according to the most recent king deaths. I don't think Tentei would simply abandon Hou, especially considering their people did the right thing. Well, they overdid it by killing Hourin, but still, they still thought they were doing good for the kingdom when they killed her.

I thought it was that way too, with a que, but in the anime they clearly state that the next kirin-ranka for Kou is already growing on the tree with its own nyosin standing watch but when you look at the sashinboku there is only the one little golden fruit and no others. Hou fell a number of years ago, one wonders just how long Tentei intends to wait before putting another fruit on that tree.

If I have to guess, I'd think the ranka would appear while the new Kouki is a child, and would end up giving birth some years after Kouki(or Kourin) leaves Houzan. Hopefully. But I wouldn't be surprised if Hou suffered less from youma than other kingless kingdoms because there's some order: the "court under the moon" led by Gekkei is quite possibly better than the future Hou-ou. Maybe Tentei doesn't punish this situation as much as Kou or Tai.

Since children come into the world in 12 kingdoms in such a very different way (Tentei has taken all the biology out of it) I wonder what kind of verb they use for bringing new life into the world, because our phrase "to give birth" is irregular in itself. If you look at it from the outside, if a person did not know anything about the process of pregnancy and bearing children then can you imagine one of those babelfish (or whatever it is that the Sages have that acts as a universal translator) trying to come up with an equivalent for our use of the phrase? The first thing they'd probably ask is "what is a birth and who are we giving it to?" The italian phrase for "to give birth" is "dare de la luche" or to give to the light, and it describes a woman's ability to gift the world with light, almost literally. I suppose in the world of 12 kingdoms they probably use a phrase that translates as either "harvest" (like one picks apples) or "receives" as receives a blessing from Tentei.

Maybe being a sennin also gives you the full comprehension of all languages? Either way, both "harvest" and "receives" are probably correct for the term used in the actual Juuni Kokki world. Either way, I find it very annoying when people complain about rankas as if it was a crime to science: it's a fantasy world, what's wrong with people being conceived by the heavens and being born into trees?

On a side note, the "dare de la luche" phrase is also present in other Romance languages, but you probably already know that.

I did not know that actually, so thank you for the info, that's pretty cool.

I think that in the world of the Twelve Kingdoms, part of the reason why the Tentei that made thier world made it so that children were born only by divine will might have actually been two-fold. First he probably wanted to give his people the best chance for having a loving, stable healthy life at home so he figured that children who are born only into houses that want them and would love them would make better people in general. A god possibly would be able to see into other worlds, and see how much being over populated, or children being born into homes that don't want them or can't support them takes its toll, not to mention the stigma that existed until the turn of the twentieth century about a person being born "illegitimate" who couldn't inherit or even be acknowledged really, not without some sort of specious shame. My family provided foster care for many years and growing up around that I could often only think to myself "people should have to have a license to breed!" Parenting is a huge responsibility and its sad to see how so many are too immature or self-centered to give it the attention it requires. So tentei is a good god for nipping that in the bud, and more power to him.
Second, children being born from a tree rather than from out of a woman takes the "biology" argument right off the table. You probably know the one I mean, that old argument about women being suited for nothing more than bearing children, raising them, and taking care of the home because they are physically formed for the task and so that's the only thing women should ever get to do. Sure, women's physical bodies in the world of 12k are shaped differently from men, but I bet you would never see anyone try to talk Risai out of leading her army!

You're welcome, language diversity is culture.

Yeah, I agree parenting is very hard. My family only provided care for one child and it was really hard because their single child already used up so many resources: I feel intense pity for families with over 10 children who can barely or simply can't even feed them. Juuni Kokki is a much better world in this aspect: it bothers me that Rankas have haters. They are so single-minded: just because in their world reproduction is viviparous doesn't mean fantasy worlds have to be as bad as them. As for the women part, not only are their societal roles much less restricted, but also their health: the Juuni Kokki world doesn't have advanced medicine, so imagine how risky giving birth would be.

As well as mine. My top 5 consists of Gekkei, the two Hanjyus (Kanta and Rakushun), and Lady Risai.
Interesting to note is that Shoko is another one of my favorite characters and I was going to use his name as my screen name.







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I am happy someone else likes him; doing bad things doesn't invalidade you as a character.