HE REMEMBERED HER!
Ox remembered Tiger! Not as Tiger per say, but remembering her at all is good enough for my conscience. The meeting was also pretty successful, in a way. What Tiger desired most from Ox was the chance to prove herself. His unawareness of her identity may have made that possible. Ox even says it would be unfair of him to treat Tiger like the innocent girl she reminded him of. I couldn’t grasp why she didn’t mention her identity before, but this makes a lot of sense in hindsight. Her goal was accomplished one way or another and telling him the truth may have impacted that. Ox did indeed recognize her as a warrior and a comrade.
Tiger really had it easy though, if you think about it. She took place in two altercations, total. First, she decimated Sheep. Then she encountered Dragon and Snake and teamed up with Ox to win it in a pretty clean sweep. She only ended up dying because she saved Ox from Rabbit’s attack. As we know now, there was no chance she’d win it all so being respectfully killed after achieving the goal you set out to is probably the most successful and tame death this show has offered the viewers so far.
Nightmare Fuel.
For a hot second, it looked like Rabbit had acquired yet another power to conjoin the limbs of those he had under his control. I was ready to cry foul. Then, it was revealed that no, he couldn’t rejoin body parts, and he had made Monkey belt-strap his arms and legs in place… and then crawled inside of him…
This is just weird. Beforehand, Ox was desperately trying to think of the possible motivation behind Rabbit’s actions. That was clearly a mistake from the start. Rabbit seems to be at about the level of an elementary schooler mentality. Instead of glue-sticks and tape, he used belts and swords to pin himself together. Worst arts and crafts project ever.
Monkey bursting out of Rabbit’s chest was surprising but, after everything else that’s happened in this show, pretty par for the course when you think about it. Like an ‘AHHhheeh, I guess that makes sense’ Moment. Unlike Sheep and Dog, who suffered from underestimating their opponents, there was just no chance that Ox could win this. He was woefully uninformed about which fighters remained and how on earth do you plan for a fully formed fighter to burst through the chest of the person you’re fighting?
True to the original source, we didn’t know a damn thing about Rabbit even at the very end.
Oh. It’ Over.
Well, ok then. It’s just over. If there was ever a sign that this show had nothing to do with the actual zodiac war results, then this is it. There really could’ve been any action plot and the story would’ve been the same. I loved learning about the cast, but I can’t help but feel a little betrayed by the final product.
I appreciate the minor homage that Ox gave to the original story where the rat rides the ox’s head to cross the river.
And here comes the clap-happy magician again. What a startling cut. There were twists and turns along the whole ride, so I guess I just assumed that the giant explosion would be followed by, I don’t know, anything else. Looks like the show’s just done with that segment though.
Rat, the master of choice
So, thanks to the totally optional and not punishable by death interview, we get to learn more about Rat and his ability and it’s no mystery why the left it a secret until the end…
I’ve complained about the brokenness of some abilities before, like Rabbit’s necromancy and Dragon’s flying. This, however, is just waaay out there. If necromancy was an S tier before, it’s now a B tier at best. Just leave A blank because there needs to be at least one tier of separation between these powers. Holy crap, that’s just ridiculous.
Well, at least you get his perspective on life now, right? After witnessing hundreds of thousands of possibilities wherein horrendously bad things happen to you and the people around you, I’d be nihilistic too.
It looks like the war isn’t over yet for Rat though. A couple of hundred choices in, it looks like he’s being forced down a singular path to avoid his own demise. Apart from his powers, we have yet to see if he is really all that strong as a fighter. I’d wager a big fat no, but I’m ok with being surprised.
Post-interview
The next episode looks like it’s dedicated to Rat’s escape. With death at seemingly every turn, I genuinely am curious to see if he’ll make it out of this alive. Running 100 simulations seems to be near his limit and this city looks pretty booby-trapped up. This lab rat is stuck in a maze and I highly doubt there’s any cheese at the end.
Considering Boar’s father was the previous winner, and I can only imagine he had a lot less tact than Rat, I am also curious how he ever managed to make it out of that situation alive.
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