Spoilers to RG Veda, handle with care. This writing is based solely

on the manga, as I haven’t seen the anime unfortunately…

 

Little can be said about Taishakuten’s life before the infamous bargain with Ashura-ou.

 

All we can pick from the various flashbacks is that he was not everybody’s favorite in the imperial court of Tenkai. In the manga, he catches a group of courtiers whispering about his “dubious origins”, which leads the reader to believe his past is not very clear. Also, a mention of his brutal methods of repression is made.

 

Concerning his position in society, in the introduction he is referred to as “a simple military commander”, but later we learn that he is also  Lord Raijin, the God of Thunder. During a discussion with Ashura-ou and Ryu-ou, Tentei vents the idea to grant him the status of “bushinshou”, warrior god. To use an understatement, Ryu-ou is unsettled at the thought, and voices her fears that Taishakuten, though deserving of the position for his strength, might one day rebel against the emperor. Certainly his conduct had to be questionable to some degree. It is not clarified, however, if Taishakuten becomes a bushinshou or not after all. It’s anybody’s guess, I presume.

 

Another episode outlining Taishakuten’s character is the infamous “fencing lesson” with Ashura-ou he asks as a reward for his accomplishments on the field. If that is not a display of arrogance, I don’t know what is. In view of certain facts *cough cough* revealed only at the end of the manga we understand the show-off was for Ashura-ou’s sake only, but it still seems a bit off scale. I can only guess since Ashura-ou is the anti-heaven, the closest to the Tentei (much to his own disgust I presume), it is not very easy to catch his attention. Taishakuten completes the picture by declaring that what he wants, he gets. I swear, he had some nerve doing so in front of the twelve guardians with their hands at the hilts of their swords, but that’s Taishakuten for you.

 

It is not clear whether the two gods grew somewhat closer after that episode. During and immediately after it, Ashura-ou seems disturbed to say the least. However, when they meet in the darkened hallway in the palace, the night their bargain is made, he addresses Taishakuten in an almost companionable way, in my opinion, and in general they seem quite relaxed around each other. I think that, if Ashura-ou had not grown to know Taishakuten as a better man than what commonly opinioned, he would have not risked making any kind of pact with him, no matter what Kuyo told him about Taishakuten’s survival after the imminent war. Hey, people, it had to do with the life of his son!

 

There are hints here and there, but it is in the last volume of the manga that we witness Taishakuten’s transfiguration. It becomes very clear that to him feelings and desire are the only forces that should drive a man’s life, and that love and faithfulness are the two things he values above all else. His reasoning and consequent actions are always somewhat twisted, but after three hundred years of blood and gore, not to mention complying with Ashura-ou’s request to kill him and eat his body, I guess you can’t really help being a little morbid.

 

But I’m running ahead, am I not? So, in the last volume the mangakas (long live CLAMP!) finally see fit to share with us what had been going on since the start. Taishakuten, true to a promise he made to Ashura-ou three hundred years before the time of the story, is actually only trying to prevent the prophecy of the six stars from fulfilling. True, he is doing it just to protect Ashura-ou dreams, and using dubious means to say the least, but in the end it turns out that he was the one defending Tenkai all the time, while the so called “good guys” suddenly find themselves switched in the role of keys to the destruction of the world.

 

What did Taishakuten obtain in return, you’re asking? I don’t think the throne of Tenkai is to be considered any kind of a reward under the circumstances. I’m not sure he even liked the idea of being emperor to begin with, but the authors do not clarify this point either. What Taishakuten wants, however, is Ashura-ou. Surprise, surprise! And he gets him too, at least physically. How Ashura-ou felt about it, it’s another mystery, but he goes through with it as his part of a bargain in which Taishakuten’s end is to become the emperor and to keep Tenkai under a grip of steel, to prevent the six stars from gathering, Ashura from becoming the god of destruction and the world to end.

 

One more thing. The name issue. Somewhere in the manga, it is said that his name was formerly just Taishaku, and that he added the suffix “ten” to it when he be came the emperor. However, in the manga itself Ashura-ou and others address him first as Taishaku, but also as Taishakuten, and that before the Holy War even begins, so the matter is not very clear.

 

The above facts are reported in a personal point of view (I am an individual, am I not?), but I would like to keep this section as neutral as possible, so do not hesitate to let me know if I got out of line. Also, kindly report any mistakes you may find, thanks.

 

My fan-fiction writer’s ideas and interpretation of Taishakuten and the facts surrounding him can be found in the intro to the Raijin Chronicles. Hope you enjoyed.