Aramintai

Toranaga is the titular shogun, but his presence frequency per episode is that of one of the side characters here.
And I believe having a clear main character most of the times is beneficial for the plot. And the book was smart in telling the story from an outsider's perspective. Because it's easier for readers to get into the story when the protagonist is a blank slate that learns along with them. I've seen feedback about this drama that all of this parade of characters is confusing for a foreign audience who can't tell who's who, because they don't know historical background for this.

They magically turn into swimming pools with clear water. All of them.

I'm still bummed they've cut most of the scenes where Blackthorne was actually learning about Japan and its language. That includes important private moments with Mariko. Most of the focus of this drama clearly is not on the protagonist, but on various side characters. Just big misuse of the main character.
Comparing the two TV series attempts it sure looks to me like the old ones had a better structured plot.

Let's hope the writers didn't get confused by their own plot in the end. I'd hate to see plot holes here as it often happens with time travel/different timelines plots.

I recall her in Snowdrop. She had a nasty complicated character there, but memorable.

Second hand embarrassment was real there 🤦‍♂️😂

Yea, but the outrage over her unjust death we're about to see in the last episode would have still happened.
Nothing he could have done there would have benefited him, he was outplayed. Not sending assassins because everybody would know they were from him, not kidnapping her, not leaving her alone to leave with the rest of the nobles.

She's all over the place, but that's what makes it funny here.

Calling dibs here that FL will change the past in way that it will be her ringing that bell in the end.
But in original timeline? Who knows?

Also, I'm still wondering how her naive 19 self would pass her exams when there's an older self inhabiting her body for several months straight and doing nothing but stalking ML. She really doesn't think of her own future here.

Eh, that taxi driver teaser - they better not insert some sort of serial rapist/killer subplot here. Do not want.
Also, will that be the car that hits her in the future?
And also, ML being involved in her car incident - was that in the original timeline as well? Or was it the consequence of changing the past? If it was in the original timeline - does FL suffer from memory loss or something? It's all very confusing what's been changed through her past manipulation and what was already there. Now it was shown that he called her on purpose on the radio show. He knows her number and knows her personally, but she's no idea who da ef was that.

And lastly, I dunno about these guys but FL is such a red flag 😂. Split personality, stalking, very erratic behavior...I'd stay away if I were them. Don't go for the crazy, as they say.

Ishido was to lose either way in that situation. Perhaps he wanted to kidnap her? It kinda looked like that. Not sure what it would have accomplished. To scare other nobles?

No, I got it. That's why ML also said what he said, that he'll go to hell for that instead of her. It is twisted logic though, because she herself has the intent to end her life and does the mortal blow to herself. She uses this logic to justify her sin, but it still hers. That somebody else would help finish her off is just a point of semantics.

Also, another potential bs - assisting in jigai, female seppuku. Women usually did it alone, nobody helped them with a sword. And they usually slashed their throat or belly, not trying to pierce their heart like FL here. Also, no farewell poems.
And there certainly was some twisted logic here by implying that whoever assisted her with a sword would take on the sin of murder. But mortally slashing yourself is ok. Wtf, lol. Only in this plot, I guess.

I also seriously doubt that her father wanted her to die for his sake. All that he did was knowing the repercussions of failure, so he made arrangements for her to live before that. And there was nothing to avenge - he wasn't wronged, he acted out of his personal reasons on his own. And if not for fatherly love, nobody expected anything of women back in the day besides birthing children, especially not fighting wars in men's stead.
That she still chose to do that through single thing she could control is fine here I suppose, but again, due to historical inaccuracies of this plot her character's behavior just looks very illogical. Not to mention abandoning her Christian faith for this. Irl person her character was based on was nothing like that, the only thing they've in common was their death's consequences.

Mariko was the MVP in this episode, but as I've said this before, her character is suicidal for no good reason, especially historically speaking. And if she so wanted to die here for the sake of her father, she could have done it years ago no matter what her husband ordered her to, opportunities galore. But no, she knew dying like that was pointless, it served no purpose and she wanted to make a spectacle out of it for the sake of revenge. I guess good for Toranaga for knowing his vassals so well and knowing when to use them. He's been throwing them under the bus masterfully.

It looks like you can't talk about the future, but you can try silently change it when it's about to happen? But then how can FL freely talk about being ML's fan, which only happened in the future? Plot hole?

So it's new here in the drama?

A question for people who finished the webtoon - does FL still end up in a wheelchair?

What? Like sugar daddy?