Thursday, November 10, 2011

Vagabond: Decoder Rings and Toy Swords

Earlier in life, influenced by tons of manga and anime, I decided to follow the philosophies of the samurai. I was young and stupid. Now, I am slightly older and still as dumb as I was. With one difference - I found out that the Code of Bushido, the Book of Five Rings as written by Miyamoto Musashi himself, was a lie.

There are allegedly historical records saying that the Samurai did not have a death before dishonor code. Far from it. There are accounts, written by the samurai themselves that tells of fort sieges.

It went something like this:

"We laid siege for two weeks, thinking this shit will be over in one. So we went home."

The samurais, with their armies, went home. Death before dishonor my ass. So I wandered the land, a vagabond, shocked at realising that this philosophy was a lie concocted simply because samurais wanted to continue getting an allowance from the Tokugawa government. See, after the Battle of Sekigahara and several other smaller battles, Tokugawa Ieyasu became shogun and united all of Japan. The feudal wars were mostly over and samurais - gods of war during more turbulent times - find themselves hardly relevant in peace times, but continue to receive money from the state. Just in case war breaks out again and Tokugawa needed some generalising.

So there I was, all that was taught me, ultimately, tragically and pathetically, a lie.

Did I lie down and allow myself to be raped by Imperial dogs? No! I decided that if generations of people can subscribe to a lie as a guiding philosophy, so shall I.

I decided to construct my own code, cobbled together from comic books. Tells of the same shit. Honour, loyalty, all that jazz.

Later on in life, I was like, fuck all this shit, and came up with my own code. I have no morals, just a few ethics. And right now, my code tells me I need to go to sleep and get ready for another day tomorrow.

There is no one who can guide me, except myself. There is no one who would listen, except myself. There can be only one truth, and I am the only one who can tell me what it is.

I am Lucifer! Called the Morningstar! And I shall carve my own kingdom with my own hands, and wear my crown upon a troubled brow. By this dick, I rule.