Princess Mononoke Part 2

Part 2! Please make sure you listen to Part 1 first!

“There cannot be a happy ending to the fight between the raging gods and humans. However, even in the middle of hatred and killings, there are things worth living for. A wonderful meeting, or a beautiful thing can exist. We depict hatred, but it is to depict that there are more important things. We depict a curse, to depict the joy of liberation.” - Hayao Miyazaki. 

So what does it mean to you to see with eyes truly unclouded by hate? 

Transcript

Princess Mononoke Part 2

Gabby Browne: [00:00:00] Hey. Hey everybody. We are back for part two of Princess Manke. If you are just tuning into this episode right now, you missed a lot of discussion, so you're gonna have to pop back to part one, or you're going to be very confused. Please listen to part one if you haven't already. If you're joining us after listening to part one, welcome back.

We're riding down the road to Princess Manque. I can deal with forest gods. It's humans I'm worried about. 

Aaron Couser: There's a huge battle taking place. And we're seeing Lord Asano getting closer and mean more threatening to irontown. A lot of people from Irontown are being killed and Jigo pops up and reminds her of the promise that she made him, which was to give the forest spirit's head to him and he would help her.

Destroy Lord Asana's army. So with that information, we understand [00:01:00] both motivations. Why Lady I Boshi is trying so hard to make these weapons a to kill a force God for her, she has to kill him to get rich, but also to 

Gabby Browne: protect her city. That's her freaking city. She built that. She built that city not on rock and roll, but she built that city on iron and that is her city.

And she feels she should not have to give any of her money to any Lord just because this is their land. Excuse me. Did you help anything in the building of my city? No, you didn't. This is Iron Town's iron. This is Iron Town's money. We do not need to pay any Samurai Lord punks, 

Aaron Couser: but she knows that if she doesn't get the head of this before Spirit, Jibo's gonna take all her his.

Is very important. His army away and Lord is going to take over Iron Town, 

Gabby Browne: 3, 2, 1. 

Aaron Couser: Mm-hmm. So she's stuck between iron. Iron in a hard place. What's Lady Abo? She's agenda. 

Jonathan VanSickle: Lady [00:02:00] Bohi is leaving Irontown. She's leaving the women to go kill the forest Spirit. Jibo's Rifleman 

Gabby Browne: may turn on this, and if that happens, I'll need every one of you here to fight them. 

Jonathan VanSickle: She's leaving the women in charge of defending Irontown Jibo's.

Gabby Browne: Goal is to receive the head of the four spirit, give it to the emperor, get rich, and then maybe he will and maybe he won't help lady a boshi cuz I don't trust him. He's got shifty eyes. The Boars, uh, CODOs goal is to wipe out all humans in a freaking world ending war. And we have no idea what Ashi Takas goals are because he's been passed out for days.

Ashi Taka wakes up in the cave and he's like, Ugh. Week, it's nighttime, and he looks over in Sosman son's passed out there. You can tell he's like getting the feels, you know, a little bit. 

Aaron Couser: And he catches some fresh air. Mm-hmm. Walks out of the cave and that's when him and Marow have a heart to [00:03:00] heart. Ashi Taka asks Marow, why can't the humans and the spirit animals just live in peace?

And she just dismisses the idea, doesn't even think it's even worth discussing. And he goes, are you willing to sacrifice son just for the hatred that you have for the humans? And she explains that Manke is the wolf tribe. The humans gave her up and now she is not 

Gabby Browne: human at all. Her parents literally threw her at Morrow's feet as they were trying to run away as, as they were trying to run away in fear.

They offered their own child up as bait a distraction to save their own lives. And she just saw the true selfishness and hatred of human humanity at that point. But she said, I'm gonna raise this girl. I'm gonna raise this. This girl named her son, which means three. Three in conk, so that is her third pup.

Regardless of if she's human or if she's half human. Mario 

Aaron Couser: goes by sunrise. You have to leave and never return, [00:04:00] or I will 

Gabby Browne: kill you. Kill you. Yeah. Na, big 

Aaron Couser: chomp. So he goes and lays by son for one last time. When he wakes up, they're all gone. 

But one of the white wolves shows Ashi Taka. . The path to Irontown hop. Onya cool. 

Gabby Browne: Hop Onya. Cool. He tosses the crystal, the crystal necklace that he received at the very beginning of the movie when leaving his own village, the Amichi tribe, and his sister, not sister, giving him. The crystal dagger to give 

Aaron Couser: to son, basically to say, I won't forget 

Gabby Browne: about you.

Yeah. I won't forget the same thing. In the same way that he received that and love that she's giving that to her, he's giving that to her in, in the same respectful love type of way. Like, I'll be thinking about you, I'll be remembering you. The wolf runs back to San and she receives it and she goes, uh, Hashi Taka like he gave this to me.

[00:05:00] She is like, fuck, I gotta go help with this war. I have to be Ako O's eyes. Akoto is blind and I need to see for him. And Mara was like, you knew he wanted to spend his life with you, didn't you? She's just so full of pent up emotion that she just can't realize that at that point that she would let her emotions for a human get in the way of her, for her love, for her home.

Not love. It's not even love her dignity, her her drive her. This is her, like the place that she must protect or the entire world will fall. She has to protect this being or everything will end. She is there on the battlefield as well as the other 

Aaron Couser: pups. That's when the silence before the storm ends. Yeah, because then the big war begins.

I had never seen a movie that he had made before and I was actually blown away by it. 

Gabby Browne: The longest running [00:06:00] anime feature film from Japan. It's the only movie before the year 2000 that is still in the top 10 grossing Japanese movies. And at the time it was number one. Yep, the old baby, until, until he made a second movie and then spirited away became number one.

Let's talk 

Aaron Couser: a little bit about Maki. 

Gabby Browne: They literally created Studio Gyy for Hi Miyazaki. You literally bought all this podcast equipment so we could create like a best podcast. They saw one movie by Hiam Miyazaki and they were like, we gotta get this guy a fucking platform. We gotta get this guy some money and we gotta make sure that he has a.

Something that is gonna support him. And so Studio Gibby was founded, it was founded by Haki Esa Takahata and Toshi Suzuki. And Takahata is also another director, but Suzuki is a producer. Suzuki was a big part of getting their name out there. Ha. Miyazaki was just [00:07:00] the Mastermind really behind so many of the JI movies.

Aaron Couser: He's totally brilliant and he's so disciplined with his craft and is such a master. It's insane at what he does. It's, it's, it's hard to believe someone like that even exists. He got a different kind of personality, a little bit of, uh, uh, a pessimist, sad sack, if you will. And you can see that, you know, in this movie for sure about the rage of man and, and nature and what people would do to each other for this, their selfish reasons.

Mm-hmm. Instead of seeing the bigger, bigger picture of, of life, I think he presents that in, in a masterful way, truly in a 

Gabby Browne: beautiful way. He also is very, In the realm of life is suffering. As you can tell, from literally almost all of his movies, especially this one, there are over 144,000 animation cells in Princess Manke on its own.

It's. Such a long anime, despite how many frames there are. Mia Zaki [00:08:00] definitely did at least 80,000 or more on his own. Incredible. That's how involved he was in this creation process because he is such a perfectionist. He said in many documentaries that he wishes he could just have another one of himself because there's no one else that sees his brain or his.

Thought process like he does. He is the only one who can see his full vision. He has a 

Jonathan VanSickle: determined vision and he, he's really visionary in this area of media. I don't think there's anyone else like him and the movies that he makes, the tone that he takes, the, the responsibility, he kind of gives the viewer as you come away from these movies with honestly big lessons, big questions to kind of chew on as you're walking out and walking away from it.

Aaron Couser: If you're gonna be great and if you're gonna be one of the best of all time, you kind of have to be this way. You have to be honest. You have to stick with your discipline. You have to stick with your morals. Mm-hmm. Even if it makes you unpopular to make something masterful. And that's really [00:09:00] all he cares about is making something to his highest potential, truthfully.

Gabby Browne: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And he, he will not stop until it is what his vision was. 

Jonathan VanSickle: And it's just that relentless dedication. One of those signs of a genius, someone who not only loves what they do but becomes consumed by it. Mm-hmm. Can't do anything else but that. And that's normally where you see a lot of these type of people, these extraordinary types.

It's not just a passion, it's not just something they love. They have to do 

Gabby Browne: this. He literally was there seven days a week on his day off. There's no one else there in the studio painting when they sent this movie to. The United States and they sent it to Mira Max, dumb boy Weinstein was in charge. Then old Harvey, old prison boy, he was in charge then before he cut NACA so poorly, he cut 22 minutes of footage from naca.

So it's basically not even the same movie as it is. In English as it is in Japanese. So Ohio's manager sent a Katana to [00:10:00] Harvey Weinstein written note, cuts on it, and he didn't cut that movie once, and that's why it's the longest running anime.

JI'S people set up the mines, but they didn't tell lady a Bo's people that there was gonna be a bunch of mines, that the boars were gonna run over and explode, and that they didn't tell them that they were gonna be throwing grenades down, hailing basically on the boars, but also on the people of Irontown.

Yeah. Crazy. Yeah. And so, yeah, they're exploding boars, but they're also exploding people that they were supposed to protect too. So Darn Jibo's paid emperor. The government's always the bad guy, right? Yeah. 

Jonathan VanSickle: It's, it's. Massive amounts of destruction. Mm-hmm. And, uh, the bores are relentless. They just keep coming wave after 

Aaron Couser: wave after wave.

And this is also when a Boshi and Jigo and his army leave 

Gabby Browne: Irontown. Yeah. Just a little side swipe there, they pop [00:11:00] around. 

Jonathan VanSickle: Maybe a boshi leaves at that point. And that's when also cuz Jigo has kind of pulled this string with Lord Asano. That. He's like, Hey, lady Boshi isn't gonna be here. Mm-hmm. They're about to get attacked by bores.

They're gonna be weak. Not only are they fighting on, you know, we've talked about this as multiple fronts, multiple wars, multiple battles, and becomes a complete and total knot of just this hatred and misunderstanding. Yeah. Between all these clans. Go 

Gabby Browne: and get Lady and Bushy. I'll hold them off as long as we can.

I'll be back. I coming. So the women are defending Irontown, and Ashi Taka sees this and he's like, I have to go tell Lady Boshi. She knows I know that she cares about her city, hopefully more than she cares about death. So let's go find her. So he runs. To the area where the war is happening, but not before he's followed by many Samurai.

Then ultimately, shoot a little arrow in our sweet guys butt. You're [00:12:00] cool. I was like the saddest part of the movie and he's pulling that arrow out and of course he's gotta chop off some heads now. Oh God, let that demonn arm. Fly if we're shooting ya. Cool. He's like, stay ya cool. Stay. And he doesn't stay.

Ya cool. Falls into the battlefield because he doesn't wanna be alone. And I'm like, take that baby with you everywhere. Pulled him by your side. He's, he stayed by your side when you were shot all the way through. He carried your ass around. You better take him with you. Now I must find Lady a boshi. Oh, she's off hunting down the forest spirit.

Then someone's gotta stop her, call her 

Aaron Couser: back. 

Gabby Browne: Ahi Taka arrives to the battle scene and that's where he finds out all of what has happened. And that lady, a Boshi Jigo, have already left to go get the head of the four Spirit. Ashi Taka is really motivated to get rolling, but he knows that he can't make it anywhere very fast with ya.

Cool's bum being hurt like it is. And that's when one [00:13:00] of the fellow brother Wolves, uh, Mar's clan pops out from underneath one of the bore's bodies and he's like, ma, please save me. And of course, Jibo's people are like, we need to kill that wolf. That's Anella Live wolf. And Ashi Taka is like, no, no, you can't.

Finally, lady a Bo's, people defend themselves. They're not doing this anymore. For Jibo's people. They're going to attack Jibo's people and go help Ashi Taka, cuz this is the person that has actually helped them through everything they weren't lied to and put on the front lines to. Die Ashi Taka saved their dying.

So no, we're not gonna listen to you. Jigo people, emperor people, cuz at the end they're literally defying the note of the emperor. 

Aaron Couser: AKA was telling Jibo's men what is going on in Irontown and they didn't care anymore. 

Gabby Browne: Now all the people of Irontown were like, we need to save our city. Ahi Taka is gonna be the one who's doing it, not you guys.

All the towns people [00:14:00] lift up the body of the dead bore and they help out the little pup, 

Aaron Couser: and that's when the white wolf leads Ashi taka towards the forest to stop a boshi. 

Gabby Browne: And to tell a boshi, cuz I truly think that he thinks that when a Boshi hears about this, that she will think critically and go save her city instead of living this life of hate.

Nope. She need to have money. And in the realm of thinking, number one, she's gone too far. Like they are literally in the force with the gun. She knew her town was gonna be attacked by the Lord. Regardless, she thinks this is the only thing. This is her last chance to save her city by abandoning it literally to go, like her logic is just not there, but it's because of greed.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 

Jonathan VanSickle: Exactly. 

Gabby Browne: Come on, keep moving straight ahead. Today 

Aaron Couser: we finish this one of Chico's men Tell Chico, Okat to is [00:15:00] badly and almost fatally wounded, but is headed towards the forest Spirit. With son and he's very happy to hear this. Oh, they're going to beg him for 

Gabby Browne: his help. Are they? Keep after them, but 

Aaron Couser: stay outta sight.

Mm-hmm. 

Jonathan VanSickle: Because he's gonna beg for healing for his. Mm-hmm. You know, for his life. Life, 

Gabby Browne: life. Exactly. So they're gonna follow okat to by doing the grossest and most disturbing thing in the entire movie. Well, 

Jonathan VanSickle: yeah. I think this is the important part. Lady Ya Boshi asks. Ask Jigo why? Why is he like that? What is on his face?

And he says, it's bore's blood. Mm-hmm. So they can't smell the human.

Gabby Browne: Son is helping Oko up to the mother tree to help heal him. The apes come and they were like, there's something coming. There's something coming. It's, it's, and it's, once again, it's the monk. This is also the monk, the thing in between two worlds [00:16:00] man who smell of. Rotting bodies of animals. This is the supernatural spiritual fear there that even these animals have that they can tell that this smells like something that's recognizable but isn't.

That's also the fear for them. This is their thing that's in between their two worlds. They've come back, my warriors. And so you see these men underneath the corpses, the, the skinned remains of bores. And they're like, have these black eyes and they're crawling around like little worms. And it's disturbing.

It's more disturbing for me than the hate evil squishy 

Jonathan VanSickle: stuff just shuffling across squiggles, the floors floor. I know like. Slithering about kind of silently and very, very yearly. I mean, of 

Gabby Browne: course Oko is blinded by all of his death and dying, and he's also dying. And he's like, my men never return to me.

And he is like totally like super motivated [00:17:00] to get back so he can survive for his men. So he starts charging through. He can't see. He can't see with his eyes. So he's literally using his smell to tell that these are his people and he can't. See how fucking creepy they actually look. OK Kato leads them right there, right to the waters where the spirit of the forest is to transform into the night walker, right?

In his domain. The 

Aaron Couser: men that are dressed in, uh, in boar, almost like they go 

Gabby Browne: towards, towards him, and they like, it almost seems like applaud him, or it's like they're attacking him. They're 

Aaron Couser: attacking him. Where OK Oketo thinks that they're coming to embrace him. Embrace. Embrace him and then they start and they start attacking him, and then that's when the, the rage just takes over.

Gabby Browne: OK. Kato starts turning into, so when the hate finally fuels him, is after his little dead piggy body start poking him with knives and stuff. I burn [00:18:00] lings growing inside of me. He realizes those aren't his folk and he's over it. The hay starts to develop within him, and the squiggles are coming, and sand's ripping off the squiggles.

Swat, swat, swat, those squiggles away. So you gotta swat the hate away. And then that's when the 

Jonathan VanSickle: guy like 

Gabby Browne: slingshots her a rock and she passes out on top of Oga Okat to, and now she's surrounded by the squiggles. Yeah, she's surrounded. She's engulfed in squiggles. 

Aaron Couser: Engulfed. Exactly. So with all that chaos he hears 

Jonathan VanSickle: the roars, the screams, the mm-hmm.

The chaos, pain in the demonic possession that's happening here. One 

Gabby Browne: of the babe pups is like, you're too freaking slow. Hop on. And then that's when they get to move and he knows that there's some shit about to go down.

Is it 

Aaron Couser: son? She's in danger. Let's go. Before he arrives to 

Gabby Browne: son, he reaches lady a boshi. Finally, because he is riding a wolf. That's what happens. Telling 

Aaron Couser: a Boshi what's happening [00:19:00] to Irontown, that it's being under attack by Laura Asano and people are dying. 

Gabby Browne: Only the women and the lepers and also so many people are already dead.

And there's, you gotta get back, lady. You gotta, they need someone to lead them. The women are on their own now. I've done all I can for them. They can take care of 

Aaron Couser: themselves, but she chooses to continue. After the 

Gabby Browne: forest spirit. He doesn't even wait though. He runs away. He's like, he's like, he literally is like, it's like a drag guy.

Jonathan VanSickle: Yeah. 

Gabby Browne: He's like cleaning about you. I time is under attack. Your people need you to leave them. Run, run, run. I'm gonna beat you to the forest here. Right? Yeah. He's like, I'm beating you there first. I do not care. And it's not even that. It's like he's gonna go say son, like he is there as a messenger for that.

Now he's gonna go save his lady. 

Aaron Couser: She's left with a choice, a boshi. Go and save the people that she's already saved, the lepers and, and the prostitutes from other towns. Or continue to push on. Push on and, and do what Jigo wants to 

Gabby Browne: do. I think she thinks too, that this [00:20:00] is internally saving her people as well.

You know, she doesn't think she can save them without chios people. If you 

Aaron Couser: don't have the hired guns, eventually they're just gonna get taken over. So she really has no choice. Mm-hmm. And she moves on. Going to kill the, the forest Spirit. But Ashaak 

Gabby Browne: is faster. Yep. Ashaak is faster. He's got a wolf, he and a Demonn arm.

Whoa. He yells for her, yells sad and she can hear him and she goes, Ashi Taka. It's 

Aaron Couser: beautiful. So she does have feelings for Ashi Taka. Yeah, 

Gabby Browne: she does. You can tell she like him. You like him. He 

Jonathan VanSickle: sees Maru, right? Oh yeah. Laying in the lake. 

Gabby Browne: She's passed out. She is? Looks tired. Yeah, she's on the verge right there.

Yeah. And he sees Maru and he's yelling for son. And Maru also says, I was using the last of my strength to bite off that ratchet woman's head, but now I must save my daughter. Marow is also choosing to take a different path than a codo. Marow is choosing to [00:21:00] not leave the forest spirit or the like magical mother tree area because.

She's gonna rest right now. She knows that her life is almost up. She has lived long enough and she is going peacefully and not revenge fully. This is her choice. She is definitely still dying from that medal or that's in her, but she's choosing not to go by hate. She is choosing to go peacefully as the force.

Spirit would like all living things to go, 

Aaron Couser: but it shows the difference between nago and and 

Gabby Browne: marow. Yep. They are two very different things here. I was saving the last of my strengths to bite off that damn woman's head, but I must save 

Jonathan VanSickle: son. 

Aaron Couser: She's about to die. She wants to save son from the curse that she's about to be exposed to.

That's 

Gabby Browne: when they come. That's whenever they come in. Yeah. The boar comes and then, 

Jonathan VanSickle: and that's whenever son starts responding to him. Yeah. Calling out her 

Gabby Browne: name [00:22:00] and they're like ripping at each other. He's trying to get her out and he can't. They're shooting. Well, he gets poisoned dart arrows 

Aaron Couser: at him. Ashi Taka gets thrown off.

San is engulfed within OK Kato's mouth. With the red squiggles of hate and rage. The Forest Spirit shows up and that is what quells the rage. 

Gabby Browne: Marow is at a point too, where she's allowed to grabbed son with her mouth to try to pull her off of Okau and the Forest Spirit ques the hate almost. It just literally disintegrates.

In his presence, the squiggles are no longer living. The squiggles are just black, mushy, mushy, tar. Now, that's, and everyone's covered in it, son has marks now and Ashi takas covered. They're both 

cursed 

Aaron Couser: and about to die. 

Gabby Browne: A lady Boshi is like pew and like shoots it in the neck and she's like, it's gonna take more than that.

This feet sink into the water, hops back up Jesus' style on top of the water and just [00:23:00] walks across the 

Aaron Couser: water. The forest Spirit goes to okat, to and Morrow, and puts him to sleep. Gives 

Gabby Browne: him a kiss, kiss of death, 

Aaron Couser: a peaceful death 

Jonathan VanSickle: to 

Gabby Browne: release them, to release them from their hate. We finally start to see the transition of spirit of the force turning into the night walker.

Lady a boshi turns to her men and say, now everyone, look, I'm going to show you how to kill a God. I'm like, okay, bitch. Calm now. No, your, your ego is out of control right now, but she waits for its neck to get a little bit longer and then.

You will die,

pops that head right clean off, but without a head. What's all that goo gonna do? [00:24:00] What's all that goo gonna do? The night Walker literally explodes onto this beautiful, peaceful place where his steps used to create life, and now they're disintegrating his beautiful forest around him. The trees are literally falling as this goo, this flubber, I dunno what to call it, is just like encapsulating the forest and engulfing and killing men as it goes.

So ev do not touch that stuff. That guy is looking for his head and that is poison. Right 

Jonathan VanSickle: now we see it start to form into almost a headless shape. Becomes engulfing over everything in every region. It's looking for its 

Gabby Browne: head. Yeah. But son and Ahi Taka are determined that they will find a solution to this, but not before Lady a Boshi and Jigo go grab the head and put it into this.

Container. That's like a safe, [00:25:00] but Lady abo, she can't get away quick enough. The dead wolf's head still bites. Marow pops out her head decapitated from her body to cut off the arm of Lady Abo. She knocked that bite right off. Lady. A boshi is harmed. She is in pain. Give her to me, I'll cut her 

Aaron Couser: throat. 

Gabby Browne: Your clan has been avenged.

Your mother saw it to that 

Jonathan VanSickle: here. 

Gabby Browne: Lady Boshi is severely injured and Ashi Taka goes to her aid and son cannot understand this. She just shot off the head of the God of the forest killing an unkillable being, or, and Ashi Taka still gonna help her. What? In the what? In the saying, hell no. That's not how that works.

There's like kind of the island in the middle of the pond. They make their way to that island for a little bit of safety as they watch their world crumble around them. 

Aaron Couser: Ahi Taka embraces son, but she stabs Ahi Taka with the crystal dagger that his sister gave him. [00:26:00] But he continues to 

Gabby Browne: embrace her, and that's her true realization that no good will come out of hate.

That's like her true realization. She can be as mad as she wants at him, but he will. Still do what he thinks is right. This anger is not for him. This later anger is for what's happening and just because she can't understand it, the goo is searching for its head, the goo, the guy is a headless body and he is reaching out, blah blah.

Searching for his head. Gonzo takes Lady Boshi and Vego to safety while son and Ashi taka hop on the wolves to go warn Iron Town and to. Get the head back. It tells 

Aaron Couser: everyone to go to the lake. Mm-hmm. You're, you're safe in the water. Yeah. Yeah. Just hide in the water and the goo can't get. Get you there.

Yeah. 

Gabby Browne: But it's so hard for all of those women and everyone to watch. They're finally abandoning irontown. They've never thought that that would be a thing. Their ruler, their leader, their [00:27:00] God is Lady a boshi, they would never do anything to, to go against her, but this is, this is their realization that the rules are off.

If the world's ending, you gotta leave irontown. If there's a big. Flubber mess. That's going to kill you. You gotta get away from that. 

Jonathan VanSickle: A boshi was their, their God and their Savior. But there was something bigger. Yeah, there something bigger. You know, they say many times the forest Spirit is the God of life and death.

Everything in its path. Forest, iron town, humans, animals, everything was being destroyed. This is a complete and utter destruction because of humanity's greed. 

Aaron Couser: In that moment, Tom Whites has a famous sign and says, you can. Drive out nature with a pitchfork, but it always comes roaring back again. And in this situation, that's exactly what happens.

Absolutely. You can't live without nature. 

Gabby Browne: The great spirit's head's been cut off and he wants it back. Ji ego's running around with the head. He's still trying to get it [00:28:00] to the emperor. I really dunno how he thinks that that's possible. When the entire sky is turning into a headless monster trying to find its head, aan and Ashi.

Taka are like messing with Jigo trying to get around of the head. Thing breaks and it starts rolling down the hill and Jigo catches it and barrel rolls down. Finally they get the head. They're all trapped on this rock. Surrounded by the goo Ashi Taka says, Jigo, you must do this. Human hands must return the head.

And Jigo says, I'm not doing that. So son and Ashi taka open the box. Together, the four spirits head is covered in nasty, like true flubber, not blue. Flubber like green, nasty flubber. They lift up the head together and he says, for spirit, I gave you back your head. And the forest spirit's long gangly neck comes down to envelop the head and also [00:29:00] son and Ashi taka together.

Aaron Couser: And as the head is returned to the forest spirit, the goo starts going away. 

Gabby Browne: The quote, unquote, death of the Four Spirit, the entity of what the Four Spirit is no longer a singular entity. Now the Four Spirit is all around you. The Four Spirit gave, it's everything. When it fell, the world started to change back even better than it was before.

Truthfully. Iron Town is covered in green. Even 

Aaron Couser: son and Ashi Taka find that they have been healed from their curse. 

Gabby Browne: No more demonn squiggles, 

Aaron Couser: but the scars of the curse are still there. So the scars of the sin of the hate and the rage are still present even though the curse has been lifted. And this is the moment where you think Son and Ashi Taka are about to ride [00:30:00] off into the sunset happily ever after.

Mm-hmm. Together. 

Gabby Browne: This isn't a love story, babies. 

Aaron Couser: This is a different Hollywood movie son. . Deep inside of her doesn't trust humans and she parts ways with Ashi Taka 

Gabby Browne: lady, a Boshi, has come to terms and says, I'm going to be building a, a better city this time. Going to not live the same selfish ways. Girl lost an arm and lost her hay.

That wolf bit a lot more than it could chew. But the movie finishes in its final scene with one of our sweet little kodama pops out. He, he gives a little goodbye to everyone saying, guess what? Nature's always gonna heal itself. Don't worry about us. We're good. Thank you. Little kodama. And that's it. Yeah, that is it.

Aaron Couser: For me, walking away from this movie, I'm getting the spirit of Miyazaki. [00:31:00] Life is hard, life is suffering, but we have to find the things that are important to us so we can wake up in the morning and keep crawling towards our destiny or our path. As you go through 

Jonathan VanSickle: life and as you have your focus, your mission, just, I think one of the important things that's expressed here is being willing to work with others and being able to see from other people's point of views and try to bring, bring people together in a peaceful and cohesive way.

You don't have to go it alone. There's so many ways that he could have gone in this movie where he said, you know, I'm cursed. I have nothing left. I'm just gonna go and die. If you choose to work with others and you choose to reach out and empower each other, You know, you can reach greater goals, greater good.

So I think that's one of the big things from this movie that I always took from it is even if you don't see eye to eye with someone, it doesn't mean you can't work together. You can't find some humanity 

Gabby Browne: in each other. And how you approach situations is the most important thing [00:32:00] going in feeling as temperate and as in control as you possibly can.

Cuz Ashi Taka was always in control. Regardless of whether or not he was in pain from his arm, he still was in control. And it's the control of yourself in your environment, your actions, your choices that make what happened to your life. Makes sense, I guess, to 

Jonathan VanSickle: see with eyes unclouded by hate. 

Aaron Couser: Three different personalities, backgrounds, and we come together and we make what I consider an artistic podcast.

Am honored and blessed to be with you two as we do that 

Gabby Browne: in the moonlight. I Felt Your heart quiver like a bow strings pulse in the moon's pale light. You looked at me. Nobody knows your heart. When the sun is gone, I see you beautiful and haunting, but cold like the blade of a knife, so sharp, so sweet.

[00:33:00] Nobody knows your heart. All of your sorrow, grief and pain locked away in the forest of the night. Your secret heart belongs to the world of the things that cry in the dark spotlight.

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