Vagabond Chapter 257 Discussion

Yeah, Takuan's preaching is getting a bit redundant. 200 plus chapters later, Musashi is still struggling to his own internal conflict. :\\

Well, I've always liked the discussion in this manga. The action is amazing when it occurs, don't get me wrong, but this manga appeals to me more because of the story and amazing artwork.

Mormegil said:
More than anything - regardless of whether its dragging or not - I'm having trouble understanding Takuan's convo. with Musashi. The whole volume(29) in general.I think it's one of those things where you have to experience it yourself to find out what it truly means. What Takuan says that our past and future are all preordained by the heavens, yet because of that we are truly free...is as Musashi puts it, a contradiction. It doesn't make sense because if everything is preordained then we're not making the decisions for ourselves, so how can we be free. We're just living out an already orchestrated life. I'm struggling to find out what that means too... Often times when they refer to the "heaven" in the manga I tend to interpret that as "life itself". Since I don't believe in a heaven, when I read it I take a different look at it to see how I think of it. So looking at it under this scope, I think that when Takuan says that our actions are already preordained by the heavens, he's saying that our actions are preordained by the life that we choose. If we choose to follow the life of the sword, then our actions are preordained by cutting down men, striving to be invincible, sword training etc. Hopefully that makes a little sense because I'm not sure if what I'm saying is entirely correct.

I fucking love Takuan.

Am i the only one who was a bit confused about this chapter?

On another note I very much love the art.