Quote:
Originally Posted by Tenchu
That's 100% true, but, consider, everything that made the actual Samurai was nothing in their actual blood.
When it comes to the death of a breed, the mongrel has the last bite.
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True, but you could have had as loyal and courageous and honorable a farmer as you like, and they'd still have said, "Ah, Tanaka-san, you are truly amazing for a farmer... but kindly get away from my daughter. >/"
He could be a hero, but actually called a samurai? Nah, only very exceptionally.
As for the line at the end of the film, I don't think it makes Aldren a samurai. He's a sympathizer; he says the line for Katsumoto's sake to remind the emperor that his most loyal subjects have died to make him realize that the traditions of Japan should be preserved and remembered, or else they face the same cultural (albeit not literal) destruction at the hands of the west as the native americans. The message is "Old Japan will willingly die for the sake of New Japan if that is what New Japan wants, but don't make us something shameful."
If anything, it's
painfully ironic. "You've killed Katusmoto, and look what's come in his place; an american mimicking a samurai, the same as you are an emperor mimicking the west. Is this what you want?"