- Joined
- Mar 11, 2020
- Favourite title
- Shenmue II
- Currently playing
- Hyaku Eiyuden, Shenmue
The prophecy is for sure a metaphor. I used to think that it was talking about Lan Di, as the dragon rising from the earth, casting the heavens into darkness, and Shenhua as the phoenix, descending with a trail of violet in its wake. It might be pulling double (triple?) duty, though.I’m starting to wonder whether the prophecy is a metaphor for the destruction that will be caused by the impending war between Lan Di (the dragon) and Niao Sun (the Phoenix). Chiyou is the god of war in Chinese mythology so the prophecy could be suggesting that Niao-Sun rising up will bring death and destruction to China.
That said, Shenhua could just as easily be the Phoenix and the power within her could be the spirit of Chiyou.
This power seems to enable her to live for a long time (possible eternally) without aging and so it would make sense for Tentei/Zhu to covet this power now that he’s starting to get on a bit.
I'm pretty sure Suzuki mentioned in one of the Shenmue Masters interviews that Shenhua is legitimately 16 years old, and not immortal, or anything. In the Kickstarter interview with Miyawaki, he mentioned that the original design request for Shenhua was for a Tibetan girl. So, I tend to think that Shenhua is meant to be the reincarnation of a historically prophetic figure, like the Dalai Lama, for instance. This would explain why she has memories of her ancestors.