Bunraku (Samurai Mecha Quest)

[X]Exit your bunraku and grant him a honorable death at the hands of another samurai.

Won't lie, though Bunraku were a lot bigger in my head before I read the last upd8 before this. I thought they were like, Gurren Lagann (the Mech itself) sized, survey the whole battlefield stuff. Makes a lot more sense now that I'm assuming it's about Lagann sized able to go one-on-one, and not like, standing up against a castle battlement size.
 
[X]Exit your bunraku and grant him a honorable death at the hands of another samurai.

Won't lie, though Bunraku were a lot bigger in my head before I read the last upd8 before this. I thought they were like, Gurren Lagann (the Mech itself) sized, survey the whole battlefield stuff. Makes a lot more sense now that I'm assuming it's about Lagann sized able to go one-on-one, and not like, standing up against a castle battlement size.
I put an image in the OP, but to clarify, Bunraku to scale:


 
Very cool art. Does it come from anything in particular?
Okko is a French comic set in a medieval fantasy Japan. The concept of the bunraku as a giant armor controled like a puppet by a man inside comes from there; in Okko the Bunraku changed the face of warfare making the samurai as an elite warrior largely irrelevant in ways that parallel the narrative of "guns ended the age of chivalry." It's a fantasy comic featuring various creatures from Asian (not exclusively Japanese) folklore and I am drawing from it liberally for this Quest, although it lacks the apocalyptic aspects of my setting. In Okko, Bunraku puppeteers tend to be artisans of short stature (better to fit inside their armors) rather than warriors themselves, whereas I'm more going for them being the elite of the elite.
 
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[x]Take him prisoner and bring him to the lord of Summer, who can make a show of his execution or suicide as a warning to all bandits.

We do need a door gift....
 
[X]Strike him down with Harvest's spear, like a common bandit.

Yup, bandit. Treating him as a samurai would probably be an insult to Shidao and his remaining men. Dragging him back with us is risky because there aren't many of us and we need to recover the whatsit in the tower growing all the vines as well.
 
[X]Strike him down with Harvest's spear, like a common bandit.

For me it was between this, or giving him a samurai's death, and ultimately this feels truest to our character.
 
[X] Strike him down with Harvest's spear, like a common bandit.

I'd like to remind everyone that some of the Samurai's greatbow wielding lackeys are still around and that the honorable action requires us to expose our fleshy, fragile body to the possibility of sharp pointed objects moving at impressive speed.
 
[X] Strike him down with Harvest's spear, like a common bandit.

I'd like to remind everyone that some of the Samurai's greatbow wielding lackeys are still around and that the honorable action requires us to expose our fleshy, fragile body to the possibility of sharp pointed objects moving at impressive speed.
Nah, that's not really what this choice about. Pretty much all the troop are routed and there's not going to be a surprise sniper death for picking the wrong choice. This is entirely about defining Tomoe's approach to a ronin's honor and what mercy an enemy deserves.
 
[X]Strike him down with Harvest's spear, like a common bandit.

I mean, for want of a master we're going to pledge ourselves to a Dragon. I doubt we've got a high opinion of ronin.
 
[X] Exit your bunraku and grant him a honorable death at the hands of another samurai.

We are an Imperial princess, and can most certainly spare the attention to kill him the way he deserves - samurai he may be no longer, but the blood is the blood.
 
Oh, he's a noble? I must've missed that somehow.
All samurai are noble by definition, although plenty are lesser nobles with only nominal land to their name. Iron Raven is a ronin, so he is a samurai, and therefore a noble, although he is very likely to own nothing but the clothes on his back and his swords.

Well, he would claim he is not a ronin since he says he serves the "Pauper Prince," but that's a bandit and no one cares about bandits and they don't count as proper masters. So a ronin he is.
 
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Well, if that's how it works, then that's how it works.
[X] Exit your bunraku and grant him a honorable death at the hands of another samurai.
 
[x]Take him prisoner and bring him to the lord of Summer, who can make a show of his execution or suicide as a warning to all bandits
 
Worth pointing out that the only banditry we've actually seen them engage in is fighting soldiers from an insane dragon-lord. I mean, we're going to work for said dragon lord, but either way we don't actually know what if anything he's done other than oppose these soldiers.

Either way he's going down, and my vote remains - Tomoe doesn't, I think, acknowledge him as an equal - but it's something to think about.
 
Worth pointing out that the only banditry we've actually seen them engage in is fighting soldiers from an insane dragon-lord.
Which were posted there to protect the territory from bandit raids if Shidao is to be believed. There could be something else they want in Summer territory other than rob and pillage, but I would not bet on it.

The size of their army is impressive, though. They have training and weapons to arm over a hundred men, and even maintain cavalry - there could be a bandit quasi-state out there. Not sure if that changes anything.
 
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