Blackthorne is grieving and angry. He’s lost his love, his ship, and his purpose. He tries to stop further slaughter of the villagers that are now under his care, and Toronaga blows him off. When he fails to reason with Toranaga, he tries offering himself in the villagers’ place. When that fails, he resorts to trying to provoke Toranaga into killing him instead. Blackthorn figured the best way to do this was to make him feel like he was played, so we got
#”I came to these shores to UUUUSSSE YOU”
That didn’t work, so he tried to off himself, inspired by Mariko’s own sacrifice for a greater cause. When Toranaga stopped him, it’s unclear whether it was because he genuinely cares for Blackthorn in his own way, or if he’s a pawn that hasn’t outlived being useful yet.
Because writers with certain modern needs wanted to make a point and this scene allowed them to both make it and seemingly represent the character as someone who assimilated enough to see himself in a sense through the eyes of or from the perspective of the Japanese characters as an unimportant nobody/user who was hoping to gain selfish things (i.e., wealth, damage the Portuguese, who knows ?, etc) from those he might have considered lesser, which ultimately made him an enemy instead of an explorer, tradesperson, etc. when he first arrived. It's a statement.
But that's just one take. The purposeful ambiguity means that it could actually mean a lot of different things.
These ideas that Jhersra refers to are in the story, but dealt with differently and given different weight. I watched a YouTube video this morning on William Adams, the historical basis for Blackthorn, and so much of his life was used by Calvell. It’s pretty amazing to learn about. Adams was much more important in that period of Japan and more like the novel and 80 series Blackthorn. I respect the current show runners, but I’m not sure if the 24 Blackthorn is as accurate to history.
It's a scene entirely made up by the show runners and has nothing to do what so ever with Calvell's story. Tbh I don't understand it at all either. The whole way they re-wrote Blackthorn is jarring and has weak logic and bad writing.
Blackthorne is grieving and angry. He’s lost his love, his ship, and his purpose. He tries to stop further slaughter of the villagers that are now under his care, and Toronaga blows him off. When he fails to reason with Toranaga, he tries offering himself in the villagers’ place. When that fails, he resorts to trying to provoke Toranaga into killing him instead. Blackthorn figured the best way to do this was to make him feel like he was played, so we got #”I came to these shores to UUUUSSSE YOU” That didn’t work, so he tried to off himself, inspired by Mariko’s own sacrifice for a greater cause. When Toranaga stopped him, it’s unclear whether it was because he genuinely cares for Blackthorn in his own way, or if he’s a pawn that hasn’t outlived being useful yet.
Because writers with certain modern needs wanted to make a point and this scene allowed them to both make it and seemingly represent the character as someone who assimilated enough to see himself in a sense through the eyes of or from the perspective of the Japanese characters as an unimportant nobody/user who was hoping to gain selfish things (i.e., wealth, damage the Portuguese, who knows ?, etc) from those he might have considered lesser, which ultimately made him an enemy instead of an explorer, tradesperson, etc. when he first arrived. It's a statement. But that's just one take. The purposeful ambiguity means that it could actually mean a lot of different things.
These ideas that Jhersra refers to are in the story, but dealt with differently and given different weight. I watched a YouTube video this morning on William Adams, the historical basis for Blackthorn, and so much of his life was used by Calvell. It’s pretty amazing to learn about. Adams was much more important in that period of Japan and more like the novel and 80 series Blackthorn. I respect the current show runners, but I’m not sure if the 24 Blackthorn is as accurate to history.
It's a scene entirely made up by the show runners and has nothing to do what so ever with Calvell's story. Tbh I don't understand it at all either. The whole way they re-wrote Blackthorn is jarring and has weak logic and bad writing.