MTG Salvation

First off, this is not where the story will be posted from now on. Just so we're clear on that.

Now, Edgecrusher has questioned why exactly I had Aseno training with the monks, as opposed to the Yamabushi or some other class, to gain better skills as a kami slayer. So, that's the topic I'm putting on the table.

I feel that, while a Yamabushi would definitly be better at killing Kami, the skills Aseno picked up in Jukai were

1. The most convenient. He's in the forest- why would he travel to the mountains to learn to fight if he's already with martial artists?

2. By the very nature of Aseno and the Yamabushi, they are enemies. Maybe one day he could train with them, but for now, he's too much an adversary of them to really train with them, I think. But it's debatable. Also, were the Yamabushi's talents known before about a decade into the war? I don't know.

3. The skills of the monks require no weapons. One of the greatest weaknesses of the Samurai(or at least, I think so, it's what "Yojimbo" taught me) is that samurai are very useless when they can't get a weapon. If he can defend himself without a weapon, he's all the stronger, and has eliminated a huge weakness.

Discuss!

Quote from edgecrusher »

Note to Yodafan: As always, I argue with vehemence, but don't think I'm condemning you or anything if you choose to completely disregard my arguments. I'm merely trying to argue a perspective I hold which I personally think would be of benefit to your story. It's your call as a writer whether or not I have a pretty good point, or I'm talking out of a part of my anatomy other than my mouth.

Oh, no, I don't take it personally at all. Of course all writers will have their critics and (hopefully) fans, so I don't personally take it one way or another. I do appreciate you pointing this out, though. And, for the record: I do believe you have a good point, and you tell it to us well. It simply isn;t how I wanted to tell it.

Now, onto the actual argument of my original points- Yeah, fighting without a weapon may be a skill that some samurai have. However, I've got to think that they recieved training for such skills. Also, yeah, he was against a freak of a guy... OK, so maybe he was a decent fighter. However, I've got to think the samurai who could "Throw down" got training SOMEWHERE...

Also, You may be right on the loss of sword fighting sense. I'm not sure, because I've never been a samurai who trained with monks and became a martial artist. For my story purposes, I assumed it added to his abilities, though it is certainly possible that he did lose his sword fighting sense. I guess that ones in the air.

I do believe that the abilities weren't known for a while. I'm not certain, but I think Kumano's short story occured a few years at least into the kami war. Of course, I am not certain of this. Really, the timeline is unknown

Also, while it could be a new point of character development, it could also be hell. Some tension would be good, but Kumano and the rest of the yamabushi don't seem to be at all interested in the well being of the land. Note that they refused to join the fight for the majority of the war, and possibly all of it(not sure what the final story there is). Where as the monks, who pride the well being of the land over any other thing, would be glad to train him if he thought it would help. So, the Yamabushi would most likely refuse, and naturally Aseno could not force them to teach him. If he had their abilities, it would lead attention to the Yamabushi, which they seemed to be desperate to avoid. So, I think just out of their lack of interest in the fate of the rest of the world, sending Aseno on the journey to Sokenzan and back would be a useless endevor, due to lack of cooperation.

Also, the Sokenzan mountains would be a very dangerous place for an unarmed samurai. If he hadn't met the monks, it's fully possible that something would have eaten Aseno in Jukai. He only had a stick as a weapon, you may recall, so what he'd be doing travelling into a land famous for it's scorn of the Daimyo's men is anyone's guess. He'd have to use his common sense to survive, but if he'd used it in the first place, he wouldn't have gone there to begin with. To answer your question about whether or not he'd go to the peak and meet the wisest, I do not think he would. As far as he knew, the wisest people he could reasonably get to were the monks. They are renowned for their wisdom and skill: Remember, while it was still in the Kami war, Iwamori defeated a kami that killed a hundred of Konda's best men. That's skill. And I don't think that Iwamori was the strongest monk that ever lived, even. I think it's perfectly reasonable.

Well, it's quite obvious that you have more of an idea what you're talking about, as far as martial arts go, then I do. I see no reason to disagree with you further, as I have no facts, and you clearly do: I was wrong. Were I to go back and change it, I would probably do something to correct it, but you are absolutely right, I think, on the issue of martial arts. So, I concede this point to you. To be perfectly honest, that's mostly in there because I thought it would be cool to see a shao-lin samurai (you have to admit, there are some similarities between the Jukai monks and Shao Lin monks). However, as you've pointed out, those can't exist without a decision made when they were very young. But I can dream, can't I?

Also, the rejection of the Yamabushi was based solely on how I see them. It is fully possible they exist in a different way, but from the little I could draw on them from the Kamigawa storyline, they really don't care about the rest of the land. I think that's completely interpretation.