Saiunkoku ending spoilers...
So, I just heard the ending to Saiunkoku from my grandma who's terrible at summarizing anything :(
Shurei dies. WTH?! Apparently, during the last few volumes, the capital was being threatened by locusts (as was typical of the time) and the swarm would be so huge that it could wipe out agriculture there as they know it. In other words, it'd be just like Shurei's childhood, but possibly much worse. At this point, Shurei herself was trapped somewhere on the brink of death with some sort of witch. The witch decides to grant Shurei one wish, and she begs her to give her just a little bit more life as she has something that she has to do. Her wish is granted and Shurei takes off for the capital to see Ryuuki. Once there, the capital is under some sort of chaotic attack. Everyone is scrambling to find Ryuuki and Shurei manages to find him first and takes an arrow to her back. She dies in Ryuuki's arms.
That's pretty much all that my grandmother told me. That and that she personally cried at the end. >_> She was more focused on the "afterward" epilogue actually, where the author talk about how she based her story on some sort of legend (or truth, I'm not sure exactly) about a woman who existed back in anciet china just like shurei who became an official, but actually went back to marry the emperor. (Yay, Ryuuki wins?) However, she dies a year later for some reason, but was able to give birth to a baby girl. The emperor raised her as the next Empress (adopting someone from the Ran faction for her husband). Another cute is that the emperor never took on any other concubines aside from "Shurei", making him very odd for the time.
Anyway, sorry for the terrible summary, but you now know what I know and if someone can find a nice summary of the events going on up to this point and the ending, that would be awesome! I looked, but all I found was hype buzz :(
Shurei dies. WTH?! Apparently, during the last few volumes, the capital was being threatened by locusts (as was typical of the time) and the swarm would be so huge that it could wipe out agriculture there as they know it. In other words, it'd be just like Shurei's childhood, but possibly much worse. At this point, Shurei herself was trapped somewhere on the brink of death with some sort of witch. The witch decides to grant Shurei one wish, and she begs her to give her just a little bit more life as she has something that she has to do. Her wish is granted and Shurei takes off for the capital to see Ryuuki. Once there, the capital is under some sort of chaotic attack. Everyone is scrambling to find Ryuuki and Shurei manages to find him first and takes an arrow to her back. She dies in Ryuuki's arms.
That's pretty much all that my grandmother told me. That and that she personally cried at the end. >_> She was more focused on the "afterward" epilogue actually, where the author talk about how she based her story on some sort of legend (or truth, I'm not sure exactly) about a woman who existed back in anciet china just like shurei who became an official, but actually went back to marry the emperor. (Yay, Ryuuki wins?) However, she dies a year later for some reason, but was able to give birth to a baby girl. The emperor raised her as the next Empress (adopting someone from the Ran faction for her husband). Another cute is that the emperor never took on any other concubines aside from "Shurei", making him very odd for the time.
Anyway, sorry for the terrible summary, but you now know what I know and if someone can find a nice summary of the events going on up to this point and the ending, that would be awesome! I looked, but all I found was hype buzz :(