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Feb 17, 2011 11:16 AM
#1

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Oct 2010
18
Ok, this is something I discussed with my friend who is literally an expert in understanding things and why and how things happened and so on.

On Ashitaka Character site it says like this about him.

A prince of the Emishi tribe, Ashitaka is cursed in combat with a demonic boar. His only hope for a cure is to return to the forested land from which the boar-god originally came and discover what rage infected it. Leaving his people behind forever, he makes that journey and discovers the gods of the forest at war with the humans in a iron-mining town. Ashitaka vows to help the two sides reach a compromise, to cure them of the very anger that now eats away at him. The key to compromise appears to lie with a mysterious human girl who lives amongst the gods. Ashitaka falls for San (or 'Princess Mononoke' as the townspeople call her) and his slowly reciprocated love turns out to be the cure for the curse that effects him and the land.

This Part:
Ashitaka falls for San (or 'Princess Mononoke' as the townspeople call her) and his slowly reciprocated love turns out to be the cure for the curse that effects him and the land.

What cured his curse and saved him and the land was not his so called reciprocated Love for San.


Just in the beginning of the Movie this is being said by the Oracle:

Prince Ashitaka, are you steeled to gaze upon your fate?
You cannot change your fate, but you can rise to meet it.

Simply. During this conversation. She is talking about that a part of his fate has been revealed. And he must journey to the far west to seek a cure.

Now to the second part.

Firstly: Why was he cured in the end when the Deer God "died" and not when the Deer God was alive and healed his wound from the Gunshot on the island?

Simply. His fate is his fate. And his fate is not to get rid of the curse just yet. Why? Since if it did. He would left the West and return to the East, and Eboshi would probably have succeeded stealing the Head of the Deer God and much despair would have been created.

Therefore, the Deer God did NOT heal his wound so he would NOT leave the west. Instead stay, to stop the Humans and animals from fighting each other, and the whole earth being sucked up by the "Life Sucking Deer God Without a Head" since it wont stop until his head is returned. Though this is not known, since Eboshi beleived it to die and disappear when the Sun rises up.

Anyhow.. a Summary:

As told by the ORACLE, (should I remind you of what Oracle's do?) she spoke of his fate. She said he must journey west for a possible lift of the curse. This is true. That the cure exist. His fate was to go to west, stop the Humans and Animals from killing each other, Save San but most importantly, Save the Humans and Earth from going under.
And he was NOT cured cuz his fate to save all this was not completed. And would have failed if the Deer God Cured him at the time.

His Wound was healed as soon as the head was returned and the wolf's and animals were in peace since Eboshi and the Humans came to reason and want to try to live with the nature, instead of destroying it.

Even more simply put. His fate was to Save the West. He wasn't cured by the Deer God since then he wouldn't follow his fate. He would have then returned to the East and the west would have suffered a tragic fate.


Also
The Deer God did "die" in the end. As explained by askitaka, "he is telling us to live now" blablabla. Ill expain what he ment.

San is saying:
The Forest wont be the same. The Deer God is Dead.
Ashitaka:
The Deer God Cannot Die. He is Life Itself.
Life and Death, are his Give and Take.
He is telling us we should live.
(Now is shown that Ashitaka's curse is healing or almost healed. Curse lifted)

San cant forgive the humans for what they've done but Ashitaka says he understands but together, they can live. They'll visit each other and so on.

So yea. The Deer God CANNOT Die. He is LIFE ITSELF. Sry for using caps. I'm just clearing things up.

The Deer God left his message "Telling the humans and animals they should live" by sacrificing his ability to be a Deer or Nightwalker and give Green and life to all their surroundings after it's been destroyed by himself trying recover the head.
A clear message. "Live like all this is living around you" "Live now Ashitaka, as his cured is removed." "Live now San, as Eboshi is also now living a life with the nature intead of not caring about it"

It's a lot of it and its clear. And The Deer God is now living among them, ion all the life that exists. Forests, Animals, Humans and so on. He lives on as the Forest Itself.


So yea! Should we change some descriptions on the ending? Or do you guys totally disagree with me and saying I'm wrong and that Everything was saved by Ashitakas slowly developing love for San? Like this was a romance story? Dont think so..

also it says " he makes that journey and discovers the gods of the forest at war with the humans in a iron-mining town."
The gods? yea they maybe were calling the Boars "gods" but they arent. The God, the Deer God didnt participate in a warish matter at all whatever happened.
Cornholio77Feb 17, 2011 11:29 AM
Nov 2, 2011 6:10 PM
#2
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Feb 2011
886
Your friend is totally awesome. Reading all that was worth it. If it isn't changed yet, please do so.

I agree and this makes a lot of sense.
Feb 4, 2012 8:36 AM
#3
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Feb 2011
2
The deer god did not cure Ashitaka's curse just to keep him buzzing around?
Ashitaka isn't that kind of people who would run away after he's cured. Morever, where would he GO afterward? Go back to his clan? No, the oracle already said 'You're dead forever to us now' or sth like that when he left the clan. Doesnt that mean if he returns to his clan, safe and sound, he won't be welcome as a prince?l
but I somewhat agree with you about that part that the deer god made a trade - he gets his head back and Ashitaka got his curse taken.
excuse me if I misunderstood you.
Apr 10, 2013 6:53 AM
#4

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Feb 2012
1041
Thanks for the elaborate explanation. I got kinda confused in the end, but it makes all sense! Like what MaedhrostheTall said, reading the whole thing was worth it.
You can just be yourself. Do things your own way, one step at a time. You'll get there. Just be yourself, you'll be fine."
~Fruit Basket
Apr 27, 2013 8:42 PM
#5

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Nov 2012
35
Dknight210 said:
The deer god did not cure Ashitaka's curse just to keep him buzzing around?
Ashitaka isn't that kind of people who would run away after he's cured. Morever, where would he GO afterward? Go back to his clan? No, the oracle already said 'You're dead forever to us now' or sth like that when he left the clan. Doesnt that mean if he returns to his clan, safe and sound, he won't be welcome as a prince?l
but I somewhat agree with you about that part that the deer god made a trade - he gets his head back and Ashitaka got his curse taken.
excuse me if I misunderstood you.

Given, I'm not an English native but this is exactly why you should watch sub instead of dub. While I can't affirm the authenticity of the sub, the phrase "You're dead forever to us now" is not written. The thing is, I'm pretty much the dubbers watched it till the end, reached the part where Ashitaka said he'll return to the ironwork (instead of his village) and summarized that Ashitaka's clan custom forbid him from returning once he's gone. Even I thought like that; it simply require a minimal amount of logic to understand the hint. But God forbade the dubber to allow the viewer to go through the same thought process and think that the sooner they tell the viewer the better.

The thing that grit me is, never complain about not understanding the plot unless you watched it subbed. Dubbers rarely stay faithful to the script to accommodate the speech length. They like to localize because viewers are too lazy to understand Japanese culture. It doesn't matter whether the dubs enhance or weaken the show, it's not faithful and doesn't allow the viewers to think through a show the way it's meant to be.

--- End of Rant ---

Back onto the topic, I'm surprised that someone believed Ashitaka isn't healed because fate requires him to stay. That is an interesting theory and it never crossed my mind before. However, I firmly believe that whatever isn't said or shown simply doesn't serve to prove anything. While that theory makes sense, Ashitaka said the Deer God give and take life, so to some extent I believe whatever it does is on a whim; it simply has no ulterior motive to bestow new life or take away someone's life. And I'm contented with that thinking. As a being bestowed with higher power, it simply doesn't care petty things like life and death. As the caretaker of the forest, he simply wanted to rejuvenate the vitality of the forest. The destruction it brought upon the land is simply a side-effect in his effort to retrieve his head. Destruction of mankind simply never occurred to it as he's simply watching over the forest, reclaiming life that's at it's end.

So yeah, since the purpose of this thread is to change Ashitaka's character profile (which had been done years ago), good job for altering the false information.
May 12, 2013 9:45 PM
#6

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May 2013
223
Thanks for the clarification, Cornholio77.
Armageddon was yesterday, today we have a problem.
May 5, 2017 4:01 PM
#7
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May 2017
3
I may be in the minority here, but I would've liked to have seen them end up together. For a couple reasons. It may have been cliched, but not all cliches are necessarily bad. And it would've been a good message about acceptance and tolerance. If they accepted eachother into their lives and put aside their differences, it would've been a strong message about accepting those who are different.

And I didn't like San's reason for not wanting to be with him. She says she still somewhat hates the humans by saying she "Can't forgive the humans for what they've done". I understand why she said that and where she's coming from, but in my opinion, it sends the wrong message. It sends the message that it's okay to be filled with hate and anger, and not forgive those who wronged you, despite how hard it can be.
May 16, 2017 1:08 PM
#8

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Oct 2016
77
Ryan_Blanche said:
I may be in the minority here, but I would've liked to have seen them end up together. For a couple reasons. It may have been cliched, but not all cliches are necessarily bad. And it would've been a good message about acceptance and tolerance. If they accepted eachother into their lives and put aside their differences, it would've been a strong message about accepting those who are different.

And I didn't like San's reason for not wanting to be with him. She says she still somewhat hates the humans by saying she "Can't forgive the humans for what they've done". I understand why she said that and where she's coming from, but in my opinion, it sends the wrong message. It sends the message that it's okay to be filled with hate and anger, and not forgive those who wronged you, despite how hard it can be.


I completely agree with second part. I am a big hater of clichés, but it's like the whole message was that people can't get over their grudges and hurt because it's impossible. That's just wrong. We become better when we forgive an evil doer. Some things can't be forgiven nor forgotten, that stays (I'm talking about extreme crimes and monstrosity). But this could be great example that love is more powerful than hate and other petty feelings. This just proved it was kinda one-sided love, if her hate won over her other feelings.
Jun 16, 2017 11:52 AM
#9
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Jun 2017
1
Cornholio77 I agree with you. Aside from the fact that I found Mononoke Hime to be a masterpiece in my own opinion what your friend and you spoke about and what you wrote sounds spot on. I do feel that the deer god is life itself. The giver and the taker. But for me there were other gods. Call em what you will, maybe demi gods; yea thats what the boar, the wolves, were. Just Demi Gods compared to the Deer God whom brings life and takes it. Due to the fact of their size and the fact that they commanded such respect from the smaller four legged beings that were of the same species and genus. I also do feel that in a way yes it was a battle between humanity and their evolving technology with deforestation as well as their fear of nature due to the fact that they lost their connection with nature and their lack of respect of Mother nature that was causing anger amongst the four leggeds. In particular the Demi God Boar whom went on the angry rampage. I have personally spoken to people all over the world and there are people whom live in third world countries that are surrounded by forests and live in the cities and yet they fear the forest so deeply. It reminded me of Mononoke Hime, the part when the boy prince finds Iron town and watches as the people try to hurry to get in through the gate of Iron town because of their fear of being out in the open, not just because of princess mononoke and her mother wolf and her two brothers but also the wild. People that fear that which they don't understand, hate and react in anger. And don't see past their fear and anger, hence hatred is born. Its easier to hate and blame than to try to take the time to understand unfortunately. Anyway when the prince fought the boar theres no doubt in my mind that he was poisoned by anger and malice. We got to see malice in a physical sense take hold on the boys arm. And its dark. Imagine when you have gotten angry or full of hate,can you remember how it felt? It was like poison entering your system. Anyway lol, the boys fate. Yes he was fated to teach humans to learn to live harmoniously with nature. And it took the boar to infect him to set him on the path. Aside from the oracle clearly telling him where he had to go. This movie when I saw it i was 15yrs old, i ended up getting the movie, each time i saw it i came away with something more. I felt and still feel like this anime is one of many masterpieces. But its just my opinion and only my opinion. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Matter of fact Mononoke Hime was the very first anime I was introduced to. And I fell in love. One of my exbest friends was trying to find an anime that i would be interested in because other anime he kept showing me i just couldn't understand. So when he showed me this movie, it was love at first sight. Thank you for reading this and bearing with me. I'm interested in your thoughts. Not interested in negative comments as that only breeds more negativity and this world already has enough, negativity to go around the world a hundred thousand different ways over.

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