HIKA'S BLOG

And Celine said 'I do'

And Rumi said 'ALL OF ME'

I felt that, you felt that, your neighbor felt that

It takes me back to who Mizu was as a child, and even who she was before her husband betrayed her (I honestly feel like that's what started it all). Like Mizu had gone through mistreatment her entire life, being bullied by Taigen and his friends, having to hide because there are people who literally want her dead, just being a mixed race person she was hated. But she still had an innocence about her. One place you can see this is with the flashback of Chiaki coming to get a sword from Master Eiji, Mizu was actually upset with him for even question making him one, but it was only because she couldn't understand what Master Eiji could about Chiaki. In all his wisdom and experience he knew something was off, but of course Mizu being a child didn't know any better, she just wanted to help someone who had been done wrong by what she could hear herself.

She was a far cry from what she is today, and even during her marriage she was a totally different person. Still compassionate and soft after everything she'd been through. Mikio's betrayal really poisoned the well of any potential love she could have for anyone. I feel like even the woman she was before her marriage would be afraid of who she's become today considering just how different she was. Even her quest was motivated by her love for her mother and by how she wanted to do right by her by avenging her (she was fighting because she loved her not because she just hated those four white men).

But of course that's not to say she doesn't still have the capacity to love and be compassionate because of course she does. No matter what anyone has to say about how "demonic" she may be, she's still human. She's not too far gone. She even acknowledges how everyone saw her as a monster and that maybe they were right about it. I know I've talked about this before but I'll say it again; it seems like she wants to be wrong. I think her interactions with Ringo, Taigen, and Akemi prove to her that she can be loved, but its her own actions that prevent it at this point. I think that's why you can see her start to wonder rather than be certain that she was just a monster, and why we see her want to be wrong about herself.

Ringo doesn't hate her because she's a blue eyed she-devil, he couldn't care less about what her gender or heritage say about her ability with a sword. He dislike that way she treats him and eventually hits him where it hurts when she's trying to push him away.

Taigen doesn't hate her for being better than him, he hates that she left Akemi and the Shogun in danger after knowing about Fowler's plans (he even tells ringo "Mizu doesn't care about anyone but himself")

Akemi doesn't hate her because of her eyes, she's not even afraid of her, telling her "your face isn't even so scary, you're just angry" even going as far as to trust Mizu to save her from her father's guards. She despises her for not saving her when she needed her to.

Taigen's words hit her hard because everything she'd done at this point had been selfish acts against people that had warmed up to her. She is capable of being admired, and loved and cared for, but was so jaded by the situation with her mother and Mikio that she doesn't know what to do as far as any relationship, she only knows her one goal of revenge, but after cleansing her heart she changed all of that essentially, trying to make things right with people that trusted her. Saving the Shogun's sons, saving Akemi, teaching Ringo, fighting beside Taigen. She's slowly starting to regain her sense of compassion and care for others and it makes me wonder if it'll impact the next season

OOH I like this question because the thoughts on this have been swirling around in my brain for a while and I don't think I ever properly talked about this, outside of maybe this post (which is barely coherent imo). There, I compared Mizu/Taigen to Mizu/Mikio, as well as to the main romantic couple in the movie Yentl. Then from both those comparisons, I tried to speculate on Taigen's reaction to Mizu's gender reveal, based on what would make the most narrative sense.

However, I didn't really analyse Taigen himself in that post, and neither did I ever come up with a concrete conclusion to what his reaction may be. So this ask gives me a good chance to speculate even further and hopefully come up with a proper and more in-depth answer.

Similar to you, anon, I don't think Taigen will have a bad reaction per se, though I guess it depends on what you'd define by bad.

Because this is Taigen we're talking about, I don't think he'd exactly be chill about it. He's very much a drama queen, especially around Mizu, as he's never afraid of stepping on her toes, and thus will vocalise his feelings to her whenever he's feeling them. That, combined with his short temper and his brashness, means that there's almost certainly going to be conflict when he finds out the truth. He will be shocked, and because he's immature, he'll be angry and upset because of this shock. Simply because he doesn't know, and hasn't yet learned, how to deal with his emotions in any other way besides getting angry.

So I think that will definitely be his first instinct. To get upset.

I don't think he'd immediately know why he's upset. Maybe only after a few minutes of angry questioning (think something along the lines of "Why are you telling me this now?!" and "You've been hiding this all this time?!"), he'd finally come up with some tangible cause for his anger.

What would the cause for his anger be then? Well, it could be several things.

Possible Reason #1

He feels "betrayed" because Mizu didn't trust him enough with the truth even after the two have grown close, and after Taigen has put his life on the line for her numerous times.

Possible Reason #2

He feels "cheated" because Mizu is not the man he'd believed she was, thus making it feel like their entire friendship was a sham. This is because the basis for their relationship, in the way he'd related to her, bullied her, envied her, admired her, allied himself with her, and eventually grown attracted to her, had been entirely based off the premise and belief that Mizu is his fellow man, his peer, comrade, and fellow samurai. Thus, discovering that Mizu is not a man would, initially, feel like all of that has been ripped away from him. And this is actually related to the third possible reason.

Possible Reason #3

This is a big one, and the reason everyone, including myself, is putting their bets on: misogyny.

Essentially, Taigen would find out that this whole time, the person he'd been envious of and struggling to beat in every single fight, is not a man, but a woman. And as far as he knows, even if women in feudal Japan could once be warriors (see: the Onna-musha), perceptions have since changed by the time of the Edo period. Furthermore, even if women could fight, men were still expected to be stronger, because men are supposed to protect women.

However, I believe that Taigen's particular flavour of misogyny is a little different, in that he does not view women as "inferior." Because remember, his fiancee was Akemi. This was a woman who took no shits! She was snarky and playful and intelligent, and moreover she was a princess, superior to him in every way, and he knew and respected all of that, and respected her as an individual who could make her own choices. When she'd told him the news of their engagement, Taigen asked her, "He's [your father] sure? You're sure?" And then, when she tried to seduce him in Ep 2, he asked her, "Akemi, are you sure?"

His respect for her is the only reason why Akemi had been so desperate to marry him in the first place. She did not love him, but knew he would be good to her. Because she could not guarantee that any other man would treat her nicely as he would.

Thus, with that being said, I don't think Taigen is some "alpha male dudebro" who thinks women belong in the kitchen etc. Instead, I think Taigen simply believes women are just... different from men. So it's not that women can't or shouldn't fight, it's that they just don't. It's not that women can't or shouldn't be friends with men on equal footing, it's just that they aren't. You get what I'm saying?

It's like, imagine your whole life, you're told, and fully led to believe, that a lamp can't light up. They're just meant to be in your house as decoration. And then suddenly, you find out that your lamp lights up! And you're like, "OMG a lamp is lighting up! How is it doing that?! I thought light only comes from candles and the sun! This can't be right, I thought lamps never light up! Isn't that a fundamental part of their design?"

Now, put aside that this is a pretty bad analogy because it's 1am as I'm writing this and I can't think of a better one atm, but I hope the point comes across, in that this is clear-cut misogyny (I'm comparing women to a piece of furniture here on purpose), but the lucky thing about this particular flavour of misogyny is that it's rooted in ignorance, and is not inherently malicious. It can be, but it isn't necessarily.

Ignorance can be undone through learning and educating oneself. And luckily for us, my friends, educating oneself out of ignorance is the entire point of Taigen's character! He represents the uneducated masses who blindly follow the flow of the fucked up system. This is in contrast to Mizu who has never had a place within the system to begin with, Akemi who has spent her whole life struggling to go against the grain of the system, and Ringo who has always tried to follow the system, but due to his disability, is denied full access to it.

Thus, we've already seen him take the first steps to unlearn his xenophobic and racial prejudice, and we've also seen him start shedding his massive ego and desire for glory, which are both used to mask his own insecurities. If Netflix gives us all 4 planned seasons, then we have 3 more seasons for Taigen to fully grow out these backwards mindsets and finally reach his full potential to become—not a good man—but a great one.

THEREFORE, whatever the reason for his upset at discovering Mizu's gender, I firmly believe that Taigen will get over himself in the end, regardless of whether his anger stemmed from his misogyny, hurt, confusion, or whatever else.

Because Taigen's short temper and emotional immaturity is born from him spending his whole life on the move. Unlike Mizu, who is always alone with her thoughts and meditates constantly to try to cleanse herself of her restless emotions, Taigen is used to surrounding himself with people (see:him in the Shindo Dojo) and ignoring his emotions completely (see:him trying to forget Kohama). Which is why, when he does feel anything, it's overwhelming, and he doesn't know what else to do with it except let it out, usually in an angry outburst. Only when given the proper chance to reflect in Kohama in Ep7, does Taigen finally go through some substantial growth and start feeling remorse over how he'd treated Mizu.

Hence, I suspect something similar will happen when he discovers Mizu's gender, in which he will get upset and shocked and confused first, but then he'll reflect and regret and try to make up for his past behaviour.

And this is what I meant earlier when I said that I don't think he'll 't have a "bad reaction."

Essentially, it is my belief that his reaction will not follow in the footsteps of Mikio's, but instead, directly oppose and subvert that. This is related to the points I referenced in the post I linked above, but also, more importantly, because Taigen and Mikio are narrative foils.

Thus, where Mikio had betrayed Mizu and left her for dead, I believe Taigen will, at the end of the day, remain loyal and continue to fight by her side until the very end.

Because the thing about Taigen, as a person, outside of all the attitudes and prejudices that have been ingrained into him, is his relentless devotion. He gives himself into everything he does, puts in his all, and does not do things halfway. That's what makes him such a good soldier. He does not lead, but follows. He is inherently self-sacrificing and driven by a desire to protect, and we see this in how protective he is of Mizu to the point of enduring torture for her and telling her to use him as a human shield; how his first instinct upon hearing Akemi had been dragged off to get married against her will, is to get up and try to go to her; and how, when hearing the shogunate is in danger, he immediately goes straight to Edo palace to try to warn the shogun, even if it might get him killed in the process.

I could go on about why I think this is what makes him so good for Mizu (because Mizu's arc, especially in Season 1, is literally about accepting help and opening herself up to others) but this post is already atrociously long, so I'll just leave it at that.

A silly little comic I doodled (pretty much sums up their relationship kind of-)

"... you got a girl"

"a preetty girl!"

"Wait..."

"How does that work?"

I mean look at this

Have you seen how intricate that instrument is? And we don't even get a full shot of it

The boxes in the background too!! Some of them have unique patterns that didn't even get used in other assets (I'd know, I've been obsessively collecting screenshots of background details LMAO)

And my god, the wall drawings are GORGEOUS. There was another one like this in episode 1 that I barely paid any attention to when I first watched this show

It's not just the backgrounds, even tiny items and furniture have the most beautiful patterns and drawings. SO much effort went into making this world and so much of it doesn't receive enough appreciation.

also Taigen when Mizu: