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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Thanks for the clarification, Cornholio77.