天下制覇

Master Splinter, no!

Impressions:

To repeat the familiar refrain "I don't get what the writers here are thinking." We left Hyakkimaru after his last two arcs with the claim that he has no idea what family is and doesn't care about anything, so now here's an episode where he hangs out with his adopted father, for whom he shows love and genuine empathy. Not that he learns these things somewhere along the way. As soon as they run into each other, it's all weirdly handsy face caressing and tears. They still try to sell the former, mind you. We sit around a campfire as the emotiona music swells, throwing out the patently BS claim that he's more a monster than ever on the inside due to… how he's killing monsters? So he's never once mistaken a person for a monster, or even come close to it, and has even shown mercy to a monster, but let's wring our hands and internally narrate our conflict that maybe it might happen one day? Oh, I should have just let that maimed orphan die rather than help him and train him to kill demon trees. What torment this is.

I mean, sure, you could make the argument that since 99% of the humans in this world are mass murdering psychopaths who kill everyone who comes to their village, he's not really much like them, but that ain't what they're trying to push here. I think they're trying to contrast him with Tahomaru's "I will never let pity for demon rat babies sway me," but that's nonsense too. I have thrown away my emotions and rely on cold logic, and my cold logic tells me that I must kill Hyakkimaru because Daddy says that magical boogiemen will lower the rice harvest if he keeps killing monsters. Now, excuse me while I go kill monsters. You see the problems here, people? I can't tell if the writers are insane or if there's maybe three of them, none of whom are talking to any of the others.