Making Sense of the Shogun Finale

My thoughts and interpretation of the Shogun (2024) mini-series, as someone who has not read the book or watched the '80s series.
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Josef Suk, Serenade, Op 6 - A Far Cry
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review, recap, breakdown, reaction, rundown, analysis
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0:00 General Thoughts
1:34 Spoiler Chat on Episode 9 - 10

[@user-je3yv3hd1c]

Disappointing finale

[@amumuisalivedatcom8567]

I doesn't agree, for me it was the perfect show and it was the best ending i saw since a long time!

[@xtscarfacem8255]

I think tje 9th episode left us wanting something worth Mariko's death.

[@amumuisalivedatcom8567]

@@xtscarfacem8255 you had in in episode 10 when right after the earthquake during the council to go to war against Toranaga, Asano said to Ichido "it's funny how the same exact thing already happen when the regents wanted to go to war against Mahiko" and while saying that he lost his mind.
When you take this scene and the one where the courtisane chief told Toranaga he wasn't the kind to let his army die because of an earthquake and she spoke about somes other Toranaga soldier she spotted not so far.
That my friend was the biggest reveal, Toranaga can control the illusion of an earthquake probably by bombing underground cavity (he knew well Osaka because he was held captive as a kid there).
Meaning he planned the fall of Mahiko only because he knew Ochiba was promised to become a queen and he wanted a leverage against her.
That's why he gave Mahiko to Buntaro, to make sure she would never forget her desire of dying and revenge.
Toranaga is a devious old fox and i loved his relation with Blackthorne!
In the scene when Toranaga tried to dissuade Blackthorne to retaliate against the portuguese and Blackthorne said 'unless if i win' was one of the best scene about the whole show.
Toranaga was ready to kill him if Blackthorne couldn't become a pawn because Toranaga expertise is about the Bushido, the samurais.
Like he said, he didn't needed Blackthorne to win, since he was a kid he started his plan, even making sure his own brother would hate him to be sure when the moment would come he would betray him.
About Blackthorne it was a true friendship, Toranaga isn't the kind of men to take any risk but with Blackthorne he did without any apparent reason, even when Blackthorne tempted him to jump to the sea, he did and almost died at the same occasion and even tho, he didn't killed him because he found Blackthorne fascinating, when Toranaga hated the samurais, Blackthorne was the only one in his eyes that deserves his respect and that made Toranaga open his heart.. while he had to sacrifice Mahiko.. that's why he was so lost at the end and started to kill farmers even tho he was the culprit and knew it was unfair.
But even tho everyone didn't cared, Blackthorne offered his life for Toranaga salvation, even tho he knew Toranaga could just once again say "just do it and stfu".
If Toranaga said he would had to destroy Blackthorne ship once again, it wasn't because Blackthorne was useful to him (even tho Blackthorne is really useful, Toranaga never used his skills), he said that only because he consider Blackthorne as one of his true friend and don't want to loose him (also because he knew Blackthorne wouldn't truly mind because of his love for Japan).
Anyways, i'm more then happy of the show, sure it would have been cool to have just 2 mores episodes to be able to actually see Toranaga big scheme happen, i understand why they didn't.
The whole point of the show wasn't war, it was the illusion of it.
There's no point in Toranaga fighting because the samurais follow the Bushido and it's a major handicape for him, except if he have the biggest army, he just can't win on the battlefield, samurai would fight fair and if never he dare to be flagrant about his scheming on the battlefield, even his allies would had betrayed him because of the Bushido way of doing things.