In this episode we move up the Gunfort, a location home to the Snake Eyes. Here with their flint guns they shoot all who trespass. This area is not easy to traverse.To make it through you have to use the grappling hook quite a lot just to get around. After moving through a bit we face one of the Snake Eyes minibosses, a woman covered in cloth with a hooked gun. I wonder if this was actually a play on words, as the Arquebus was known as a hook gun for the hook mechanism within it, and the Japanese Tanegashima is a form of Arquebus. Same strategy as before except she is very weak to poison unlike the other one. Then in the Gunfort in the armory we find Long Arm Centipede Giraffe. His name is really Kirin in Japanese but the game is kind of bad with localization. Same strategy as before, and we get a new prosthetic tool the Divine Fan. The statue here appears to be of Guan Yin, and important Buddhist and Chinese figure who is involved heavily in Journey to the West.
Past him we face the Immortal Snake again, this is actually the same one from the start of the game. We manage to escape and get to the Bodhisattva Valley, which is full of monkeys. I go over the various Mudra of the hands of the statues and what they mean, we can tell none of them are The Buddha since they aren’t doing the Earth Touching Mudra. Which is reserved exclusively for him. This was basically the home for Sculptor(Sekijo) and Kingfisher, two Shinobi who spent much of their time here sparring and being free. Many of the statues here appear to be warding off evil and have Mudra meant for fighting demons, gaining enlightenment, and for showing compassion. At its end in a big pool of water we see a great ape-like creature.
I apologize that I’ve been forgetting to update the thread, I’ve again been focusing too much on challenge run stuff. ^_^; It is hard to balance lore diving, LP’ing, speedrunning, and challenge videos all at once. But I like to do them all so i’m trying! So I did these updates and I have one rendering currently then I’ll upload it, we’re actually pretty far in the game at this point. The LP is likely over half over by now. But we do have a lot of things to look at and talk about in the future. The next episode will be setting up an ending, and a lot of Chinese folklore. Also I’ve been doing more art!
Art - Seven Ashina Spears
Here is some more art I did for Sekiro. Of the Seven Ashina Spears.
Art of the story of the White Snake from Chinese legends.
In this episode we get to do a lot of looking at the giant Immortal White Snakes. There are two different ones in the Sunken Valley, one with a dried heart and one with a fresh heart. The Snakes in their stories have hearts outside of their bodies that while protected keep them immortal. In this way they are like a lich. They are likely related to the story of the White Snake, Bai Suzhen. Sekiro has many Chinese influences on top of its Japanese and Indian influences(Many religions and stories from these religions also influence one another throughout history).
Here is a play about the Legend of the White Snake.
With that in mind we gather the viscera, one we get from cutting open one of the snake’s. Whether it is truly dead we do no know. The viscera is needed along with Holy Chapter: Infested and Holy Chapter: Rturn for the Return ending of Sekiro. We also meet Blackhat Mujina/Badger and help him reach the grave of his son.
I also talk about Gu, which is a form of malice/dark magic/poison. I’ve been reading The Divine Farmer’s Materia Medica, a feudal Chinese series of volumes about Chinese Medicine. I’ve been using it to help with my study of Koshin, parasites, infestation, Zhuangzi, the snakes and centipedes, to help get a better grasp of where a lot of concepts in Sekiro are from. Gu is often made from putting deadly poisonous creatures in a container until they consume each other. The idea is that whatever is left will have consumed and amplified all the evil and toxins into one creature. Usually this is done with things like centipedes and snakes, a lot of the volumes talk about curing Gu and snake and worm(centipede and caterpillar) bites. But centipedes were also used as a form of medicine.
I’ll be looking into this more, and I hope people have enjoyed all of the historical knowledge so far! Let me know if the history stuff is something you find informative and entertaining.
Wow, a ton of effort going into the historical context! I’m an East Asian studies undergrad myself so I should probably try to do some diving into this as well.
In this episode we face off against the next boss in Sekiro, the creature defending the Lots of the Palace which we need to form the incense to reach the Divine Realm. That thing in front of us, is Guardian Ape.
Guardian Ape is very different from a lot of the bosses we’ve seen up to this point. He is more akin to a Dark Souls or Bloodborne boss. His health pool is massive and it’s hard to purely beat him through deflect. Dealing vitality damage to him is highly recommended. Guardian Ape is immune to poison(Or rather I’ve used all emblems possible and been unable to poison him). It is really hard describing how to fight him other than through video. He has so many patterns and attacks. A lot of his attacks are hard to parry so most players will want to block and dodge mainly. He can hit very hard.
Monkey King art by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.
This episode features a lot of talk about the lore of Guardian Ape, and what may have influenced his story and design. I talk about Daoism and immortality and longevity from controlling your breathing(Shout outs to Araki) and how monkeys and apes are believed to be good at this. There is also a concept that monkeys turn into apes as they live longer. I also talk about Buddhist stories about a Monkey King(Not Sun Wukong). At times I go into historical depictions of apes in legend, descriptions of them, stories relating to them, how monkey and ape weren’t always considered separate creatures, and more. How these stories relate to the Water of the Palace and the protection of the sacred from humans, of corruption, change, the paradoxes of wisdom and foolishness, there’s a lot to talk about here covering all that I talk about in the video in text is hard without a full transcript.
Note: The episode has some silent blackness at the end, blame Sony Vegas!
Let’s Play Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - Episode 24 - Divine Rice
To take a bit of a breather after the last two lore heavy episodes, we’re going to be talking a lot with the Rice Ladies and the Divine Child of Rejuvenation. At the start we also face the Headless in Hidden Forest. This is also setup for the Return ending which will feature the Divine Child quite a lot.
This episode starts with a look at the Finger Whistle. This is a prosthetic that lets you draw enemies over and can stun certain enemies and cause them to attack friend and foe. Later upgrades for it will be incredibly useful. We finally pick up the Lotus for the Palace meaning we have every ingredient for the incense to reach the Divine Realm. Mysteriously upon picking up the last of the three story items, our idols in Ashina Castle reset except for the Abandoned Dungeon entrance idol.
Ashina is being invaded! The Interior Ministry has started to invade Ashina. This isn’t the first time this has happened, Gyoubu’s arena is full of dead Ashina and Ministry soldiers. The Ministry have managed to take over and infiltrate much of the castle. With Genichiro away doing who knows what Ashina Castle is vulnerable. Red Armored soldiers and Purple Lone Shadow Shinobi have entered Ashina Castle and its surrounding area. This is called Phase 2. During this we need to work our way up the castle and get all the idols again. At the top is the orchestrater of this whole affair, we’ll be seeing who is behind it next episode.
Art of Yamagata Masakage from Nobunaga’s Ambition. An important Takeda retainer who served Takeda Shingen as leader of the Red Fire Unit.
In this episode I discuss the possible inspirations for the Interior Ministry’s armor. How the Takeda and Sanada are likely who it is based upon. I do this with picture in picture on screen and some historical examples and modern art. Modern art is not exactly how things were in history, but will influence modern depictions still. Also in this episode the Ministers of Japan are discussed and I talk about the Osaka campaign, Tokugawa’s Shogunate and Ishida Mitsunari.
In this episode we continue to ascend Ashina Castle after dealing with some of the new threats. The Interior Ministry’s shinobi are quite a problem. We must dispose of another powerful Lone Shadow before finding our way to Isshin and Emma. Emma is preventing him from joining the fight, here we learn Isshin is planning to stop Genichiro if Sekiro can’t. As well they talk about how Isshin is dying from age/illness. He only has a few good sword swings left in him.
Shinobi are a thing I talk about this episode. To get that out of the way before the main story beats. Shinobi were a part of clans, they were typically not isolated societies but were a part of Japanese societies. Many served Daimyo, worked with citis and clans, and were a part of them. Koka/Koga and Iga are the main groups of Shinobi in history. Both served Tokugawa at points, the Iga especially were nearly destroyed by the Oda if not for the brilliance of Oni Hanzo then Tokugawa’s protection in exchange for service after. This will actually be familiar if you’ve played the game Nioh, another game of this type that is a bit more arcade and made by the makers of Ninja Gaiden. It’s quite good and I did an LP of that. In a lot of media there are a lot of tropes surrounding Shinobi, a main one being the honorable loyal servant Shinobi vs the rogue selfish Shinobi. I talk more about this in the episode. It should be mentioned that many Shinobi were hired, served as parts of clans and even as Samurai, and were even land owners. Many were also peasants and were a sort of separate lower class alongside mercenaries like Ashigaru.
The boss of Ashina Castle Phase 2 is none other than Owl. He faked his death long ago. Now he has come seeking the Divine Heir and the immortality that Kuro’s blood grants. He was working with the Interior Ministry and seemingly set up Hirata and betrayed it from within. Owl offers Sekiro a choice, Obey the Iron Code and join him. Refuse and die. If you choose to obey the Iron Code right now will be the final boss fight. However I won’t be showing that as we are not near the actual end of the game from Kuro’s path. Joining Owl is called the Shura path which I will be showing later. Instead of join him we have chosen to follow Kuro.
Owl is quite unhappy about this an uses Shadowrush to try and kill Sekiro from behind. The Shinobi skill tree is based a lot on the abilities and teachings of Owl. the Skills actually give you hints about the natures of people. For instance the Prosthetic Skills Text is the teachings of Sekijo the Sculptor. It also contains the Nightjar slash, and Nightjar are found in the valley with the monkeys where the Sculptor used to train. The Monkey Axe is likely his, and its combat style is similar to that of the Nightjar.
Owl is a very big man, he is almost ten feet tall. It is time to do battle with the father who adopted and raised Wolf. He actually has many of Wolf’s skills and can Mikiri Counter thrusts. Owl uses poisons, bombs that negate healing, shuriken, and firecrackers. He’s one of the most dangerous bosses up to this point. This Great Shinobi will use every underhanded trick and will use deception in battle, eventually adding to his arsenal smoke bombs.
After the defeat of Owl he is impressed with Sekiro. He has advanced more than he ever dreamed. Owl was a self centered man, but a part of him enjoyed raising Sekiro. While it started out as a way to forge a tool he grew to like the boy. In Hirata it was Owl who stabbed Sekiro. The cinematic has a different blade from a different height do it, but Owl is fond of literally backstabbing and talks as if he thought he personally killed Sekiro.
Owl as it turns out was the one who stole the branch of the Everblossom Sakura. It is after Owl that you can proceed to the Divine Realm with all of the incense pieces. However, he also opens up something new. The Purification Path. this involves eavesdropping on Kuro, and telling Emma about his plans to have Sekiro kill him for Immortal Severance. The way to Sever Immortality is to be beheaded by the Mortal Blade after some other items are found. Instead we decided to talk with Emma, do some searching, listen in on her and the Sculptor after vising the graves of Tomoe and Takeru, and she finally gives us the Bell of Owl. Or, Father’s Bell. This will allow us to travel to a different memory from the past. But we’ll be saving that for a later date.
Boss Guide: Great Shinobi Owl
Something I’ve also started is my boss guides. I still need to do more and write up attacks and patterns and tactics. But Great Shinobi is a boss many have difficulty with and this is a more detailed guide than is in the LP video(For the sake of not adding another ten minutes to that video).
Just wait till we get to the final zone, it’s unlike anything we’ve seen up to this point. Probably I will do two refights for the next episode, then Purification, then the final zone before the end of the game.
So I’ve been collecting photos of every single thing in game, every enemy, close ups of all textures and designs, visible text in every language, every character, piece of artwork, piece of architecture, what zones are visible from where. This is the first album that is completed for this. Some examples below of what’s in the Prologue.
Art of Genzai Shichimen, sourced from Art Institute of Chicago.
In this episode we finally get to meet the Shichimen. The Shichimen Warriors are a mysterious group of Minibosses in Sekiro. .They are ghosts, seemingly made up of many dead bodies. These bodies are mixed by some means and show different characteristics, each Shichimen has the same model as far as I can tell.
To note the Helm of the Shichimen, their Kabuto, has a crest similar to the centipede of Date Shigezane. However, centipedes are very important in Sekiro so it may just be coincidence as Date Shigezane seems unrelated to them and he’d still be alive.
Both of these Shichimen drop useful items. One drops the Ceremonial Tanto, this allows us to gain temporary Emblems in exchange for health, similar to Blood Bullets from Bloodborne. The other drops Malcontent, the ring of Kingfisher who used to play somber melodies with her slender finger that we found inside of Guardian Ape. She was once the Shinobi partner of Sekijo the Sculptor.
So we killed Guardian Ape in Sunken Valley, at least seemingly. But despite Sekiro knowing the Mortal Blade is needed to kill Immortals, witnessing the Centipedes in Senpou and killing them, Sekiro for some fucking reason didn’t kill the Centipede even though I had Gracious Gift of Tears on my back. And this time in the refight there is a second Ape. Wonderful right? This is Apes Duo, you fight weakened version of Guardian Ape’s 1st and 2nd phases at the same time. They have reduced health and aggression, though on NG+7 they are a massive pain to no hit no damage due to the RNG nature of the fight. It is a good idea to kill Brown Ape first, that Ape has the lowest health. However when we kill Headless Ape this time we get to kill the Centipede and examine some interesting aspects of it.
When it is killed Sekiro grabs it and pulls it out of the Headless Ape, and stabs it a bit below the head with the Mortal Blade. A thing to note, the Centipede appears to be not just inside the body but connected. It looks like it has replaced part of the spine, and resembles the spinal chord an has a clear anchor point for it. It also reminds me of umbilical chords, and how a fetus is nourished while in the uterus.
I also talk a bit more briefly about Gu Poison since we were at the Poison Pools, below i have put an article with more on it and how it shaped Chinese culture and its origins in Xenophobia. I contain other links to sources that people may find interesting.
This is a Manga being released that will be about the backstory of Hanbei. It is about his struggles against Isshin and how he became immortal. This Manga will detail a lot of the history of the world and will og into who Hanbei’s master was(Judging by the cover seemingly it was General Tamura from the game’s opening). This releases on May 27th, this monday.
In this episode of Sekiro, we go back to Hirata. After Purification has been set up, we can use Father’s Bell Charm at the statue near Sculptor to visit another version of Hirata. This is normally called Hirata 2 in the community. This version is an end game form of Hirata, the second half of it has new enemies, and three refights that are slightly different.
Our first refight is against Lone Shadow Masanaga the Spear Bearer. He is again present with dogs, apparently he was at the burning of Hirata. This was the Lone Shadow that was found at the Serpent Shrine in Phase 2. He was standing over the dead Long Shadow Masanari. We fought him and his dogs, though in that fight you could sneak past his dogs. In this fight he will whistle to summon them. If you simply never stop attacking him he can’t summon them. Killing him here doesn’t remove him from the future, seemingly what we do here doesn’t alter the present despite what you do in Hirata 1 altering the present.
Unfortunately next is Juzou the Drunkard. He’s back, and this is very confusing since it appears we really fought Lady Butterfly and killed her before this, but there is a fog wall after him that only lowers if you kill him. Hirata continues to make no sense at all. He is standing there talking to Masanari, who is alive back then. Him and Masanari talk about how Owl gave them the intel, and is working with the bandits and Interior Ministry, however they also mention how he is out for only himself and neither trust or respect him. A similar fight, simply there’s more archers and a Lone Shadow. Fighting both is a pain, it’s better to dragon Masanari away, or simply use stealth sugars to backstab and puppet him to help fight Juzou. You can also whistle Masanari over.
Let’s Play Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - Episode 29 - Father Owl, Mist Raven, and Usui’s Forest
In this episode we finally get to confront Owl in the memory/past. This form of Owl is younger, though looks a bit older in ways. It’s hard to tell since this was only three years again and he was already very old by this point. Owl here has a bit of a different array of abilities. We find him here since this is after he stabbed us in the back in Hirata 1 after beating Lady Butterfly. It is our final battle against our evil adoptive father. With him is the Mist Owl, it functions similar to the Mist Raven(I wonder why) and offers him a fire sweep attack. In this form he can do Shadowfall, which we can Mikiri. Otherwise it’s mostly the same fight, after we get the branch and from his dialogue and remnant we learn that Owl raised Wolf to use him, but grew to actually like being a father. I also discuss how Hidden Forest may be Usui’s Forest.
Let’s Play Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - Episode 30 - Abandoned Dungeon Malpractice
Serious content warnings for this episode, they are in the start of the video, please heed them. This episode is about surgery, torture, medical experimentation, and reveals a character to have split personalities(Which is awful to do, don’t portray mental illnesses and disorders as evil).
In this episode we focus on the Abandoned Dungeon quests. The surgeons Dosaku and Doujun require us to find them research subjects, and to gather materials. Doing this will kill the NPC’s we bring to them over time. I honestly don’t want to talk too much about the disturbing things in the thread, this is a side story, and is totally skippable and actually gives no real rewards other than useless items. Basically, Doujun and Dosaku are the same person, and in then end he “Loses his mind” and goes red eyed along with either Jinza or Kotaro. Then you have to kill them all.
Let’s Play Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - Episode 31 - Dragon’s Return and Kotaro’s Happiness
In this episode we do much happier stuff! We set up another one of the endings, this one is based upon the Journey to the West, which is the legend of Sun Wukong. We don’t get to see too much of tht, though as a heads up this ending is seriously weird. Bloodborne all three umbilical chords ending levels of weird.
I also touch upon the story of the Crab and Monkey, about greed and persimmons. The Return ending quest line involves feeding something to the Divine Child. That’s right you guessed it.
The hearts of the Immortal Snake Gods. Eating them is incredibly painful for her, and renders her blind. Afterwards her rice turns cold and heals us more. This quest involves the idea put forth by the founder of Senpou Temple, that one must become a cradle to hold the Divine Heir and who will then travel to the West. Where the Dragon originated from.
Now in regards to the story of Journey to the West an the historical view on this, the West does not mean Europe. They actually viewed Europe as the South in Japan at this point, Robert and his father are said to even come from the South. Instead this would mean the Western regions of China or the Northeastern regions of the Indian subcontinent. This is where the Dragon’s heritage came from. We’ll be learning far more about that in future episodes. I also touch upon the Wisdom King that Senpou seems heavily influenced by.
We also finish up other forms of Kotaro’s quest. Giving him the White Pinwheel and using Divine Fan on him sends him to the Halls of Illusion. Here he is going to live seemingly for eternity comforting the other Children of the Rejuvenating Waters who died during the experimentation. He gives you a Taro Persimmon, a rare item that you can attempt to give to the Divine Child but she’ll say it’s too pure for her to waste. Kotaro and the kids will happily keep each other company. The other one is using the Red and White Pinwheel, rather than sending Kotaro to the Abandoned Dungeon we can send him to help Anayama. This is still not a happy ending per se but Kotaro while working with Anayama is happy and we will be getting some good benefits in the future from our merchants.
It is time to head to the Fountainhead. This is where the entire quest for Kuro has been leading, we’ve collected everything we need for the incense to give us the Fountainhead Aroma. With it we can head to the Wedding Cave doors in Ashina Depths, past Mibu Village, where we fought the Corrupted Monk Illusion. After passing through the doors and sitting in the palanquin and waiting something stirs.
The giant straw doll crushes the spot, and begins to walk towards the Fountainhead. This doll is impressive, and stands above thirty feet in height. It walks across chasms and through the woods up to a cliff side.
After the short journey the doll collapses against the cliff, there Sekiro/Wolf climbs from it to the path nearby. We rest at an idol, then look around. To note, the doll is likely based upon Wara Ningyo.
This was the closest form of doll I could find, usually they are small straw dolls. There are magical and non-magical versions. The magical variants were typically used similar to the popular concept of a voodoo doll. It involved a ritual that needed to be done in secret, which required the person to use a long nail to nail the doll to a tree. They were used to force others to fall in love with the caster, to be cursed, and to become ill. There was another version as well that was used like a sponge for malice and evil. They’d soak up evil near them, and needed to be purified by being placed in rivers. This was also just a pretty standard type of doll in a non-magical sense.
Up ahead is a bridge. It is very suspicious. We just got brought here by a giant doll and it’s just totally open to us. No one is guarding the gate. There is a feeling of something crawling up my spine but I don’t see anything. Well time to continue.
Well a giant nun wearing a Hannya mask and wielding a Naginata just slammed into the other side of the bridge. This is the True Corrupted Monk. However, we already fought her so it can’t be that much harder.
Oh she has three healthbars, and lots of new attacks, and new abilities, and can summon illusion clones of herself. Well this is certainly more difficult. This form of her is less of a damage sponge but is also far more dangerous. She has many dancing moves and can hit incredibly hard. A lot of her attacks will ignore guard, and when they don’t will do a lot of posture damage. Her combos are very long and can in essence infinitely loop. However, this means she is disgustingly weak to a lot of deflecting. Her unending offense ends up allowing you to deal huge amounts of posture damage on her.
In her second phase she will summon illusions. Anti-Illusion tools will work on them, but it’s a waste. You can jump up into the tallest tree and get a free deathblow, or just wait off the bridge where they can’t spawn and block/deflect the stray swings that come your way.
In the third phase the Corrupted Monk unleashes her inner goddess. Did I say goddess? I meant centipede. This phase is similar but adds a super quick long reaching sweep, a very quick hard hitting overhead, and spit. The spit is honestly hard to dodge, it tracks hard and she can seemingly instantly do it whenever she wants.
We bring her to an end with the Mortal Blade, and rip out then kill the centipede thus bringing her life to an end. While the game doesn’t give her much of a direct story, her name actually has a lot of meaning.
In the Japanese text her name is given, Yaobikuni. In English she is only called Yao. 八百比丘尼 - Kanji for Yaobikuni.
In Japan there is a creature called a Ningyo in their folklore. It is compared to a mermaid, but is considered quite hidious. They bring misfortune to those who bring them harm. A story goes that one day a group of people were dining at a fisherman’s home. One went into the kitchen and saw the fish being served was part human. They warned the others not to eat the fish. One person at dinner forgot this, and gave to his daughter who demanded a gift the fish. She ate it, he realized after but it was too late. Over time nothing appeared to happen and she married. Eventually as a young adult she stopped aging, everyone around her died then she left. Yaobikuni was her name, she eventually became a nun and died at the age of 800. The Corrupted Monk in Sekiro wears the garb of a nun, and the weapon of a battle nun.
After defeating her, the Fountainhead Palace is free for us to enter. However, it is not interested in giving Sekiro/Wolf an easy time. The Palace is full of dangerous and mythical creatures, the famous Yaobikuni was only the beginning of its powerful horrors.
The Battle of Yashima in Genpei War, Yoshitsune Retrieving his Bow, 1893, Artist Kokunimasa.
We have gotten past the Corrupt Monk Yaobikuni who guarded the entrance to Fountainhead Palace. Within it we will find a truly twisted society and culture that has been destroyed by their own avarice and desire for immortality. The enemies here are very strange in appearance, and have taken on some fish-like traits and lost their humanity.
Here we find the Palace Nobles. They are slow movie and lack legs, instead they have a long slug-like tail with tendrils, four arms with elongated features, and empty eye sockets. These are people who have been twisted by the waters of the palace. They are obsessed with living forever, and will drain the life from Sekiro. Using their flute, they suck the youth at a distance of others. When our youth is stolen, we become enfeebled and can barely move or fight. In this form any hit is an instant death with no revives. It is possible to kill only palace nobles like this, but it is very hard to do so. When one does, they bite the noble like a Vampire and suck the youth back. Some clips ahead on Enfeebled Kombat. Note, seemingly on NG you don’t have enough attack power to do this when you reach Fountainhead.
The dogs of Fountainhead are just as unpleasant. While they have low health, they still hunt in packs. They appear to enjoy eating Eels, which are noted to be distant relatives of dragons and protect against lightning. The dogs are able to summon lightning and throw it, however they do so quite inaccurately and slowly. Their bodies have been heavily warped at the head, making them appear like a Bloodborne enemy. As well they wear a form of necklace.
Another new enemy for us is the Okami Warriors. These warrior women are not native to Fountainhead and are said to be from an old clan. They are described as warring with Ashina at points in the history of this world. Okami Warrior Women are highly weak to Blue Rust Poison, which the Sabimaru contains. Each of them wears older forms of armor that was typical of the Heian and Kamakura periods/eras, as well as the Genpei War. Rather than having guns contemporary to the 16th and 17th century ,they use bows. Their armor appears to be Ō-yoroi style armor. They also wear Noh masks, and practice theater. Many giggle as they fight you and make eerie noises, their fighting style is similar to Genichiro’s, and as such they fight like Tomoe did.
To note, this is not yet the actual Divine Realm. This is where a Great Sakura is located, but Fountainhead is how you reach the Divine Realm, theoretically the Divine Realm is another plane of existence not a physical place.
Here we run into one of the two twins, these are two elderly women who are worried for their father who have become obsessed with something called the Great Colored Carp. Carp and Koi are pretty interchangeable here. We agree to help her, then have to go through a seriously annoying stealth section that is made palatable by Gachiin buffs.
Statues of Tomoe Gozen and Yoshinaka, from Yoshinaka Museum in Japan.
This episode features a lot of discussions of the history of the Minamoto and the Kamakura, which Fountainhead Palace is based upon. Their history is quite long, it is hard to go into the entire struggles of the Minamoto and the Taira, how the Minamoto entrenched themselves, the founding the Kamakura, the rise of Samurai then Daimyo and fall of the Imperial Court then eventually the waning power of the Shogunate, the take over by the Hojo, and then the foundation of the Ashikaga Shogunate.
For a brief understanding, the Minamoto would marry their daughters into the Imperial Family, then use their connections and direct blood relation and alliances with the Emperors to get what they wanted. Over time they were able to gain great power this way, then ended up in a war for the throne against the Taira clan, a powerful military rival who also laid claim to the throne of the Emperor. This war was known as the Genpei War, and set into motion everything that led to the rise of the Samurai and the start of the Sengoku Era. Afterwards the Kamakura Shogunate(Bakufu) was established as a military component of the government which could protect the Emperor and his court. For more reading I’ll link a source below that seems pretty good.
