Episodes 5-7 – Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia

Thank you, everyone, for your patience while I was gone on vacation. It’s now time to delve into the increasingly complicated politics of Mongolia circa the 13th century now that Sitara has gotten herself firmly placed at the side of Töregene in the hopes of working together to undermine the Mongolian Empire. While I could recount a play-by-play of the last three episodes, I think it’s far more interesting to look at the larger conflict present within Jaadugar.

Sitara and Töregene are subjugated people. They were pulled, violently, from their homes to be placed into the service of the Mongolian khan family. Their attributes: attractiveness, cleverness, and education put them into more favorable positions, at least in proximity to power. However, this did not heal their hearts. In a less layered narrative, this point of view and the bloody violence that fuels their quest for retribution would be enough for a satisfying story. However, history is not so simple. Between Sitara and Töregene’s discussions are moments with Ögedei Khan, with traveling merchants, and other visitors to the Mongolian settlements. The audience is presented with the ancient conundrum centered on any nation bent on conquest and colonization: no cultural unification exists without cultural loss. A larger “benefit” for all, such as safety (as explained by the merchants about the trade routes), is not the result of mutual bargaining and pacts; it was wrought through aggressive and deadly tactics.

We see this in Töregene’s story as a Merkit tribesmember. As one of the major tribes during the period, they had ongoing skirmishes with the Mongolian Empire before mutual betrayal led to their dissolution, absorption, and subjugation. Töregene is just another victim, originally little more than a political bargaining chip between the Naiman tribe and the Merkits. Her anger feels twofold: she resents her status as a woman, a person to be bartered with and sent as a sacrifice to appease an intruding enemy, and as the wife to the man who killed her husband.

Sitara, who previously questioned her dedication to revenge after otherwise eking out a pleasant life at camp, is now all in.
The two women, two captives, plan to use their combined cunning and access to information to orchestrate the dissolution of the Mongolian Empire entirely. They don’t seem to consider the great picture: what will the fall of the empire look like for everyone tied to it, but that doesn’t seem to be their concern. At the forefront is to show the ruling family, be it the conquest-hungry Tolui or the money-minded Ögedei, that their aspirations have a price and they’ve been untouchable for too long. The best way to achieve this is from within, but Sitara has her own thoughts as they’ll have to allow Tolui to pull off a successful campaign against the century-old Jin dynasty. A success that spells the starvation and slaughter of millions of people.

Casting turmoil between the three brothers, who all likely have their own aspirations to be the Great Khan, is a sound one. If any of my rudimentary knowledge of medieval and ancient civilizations is correct: the moment you become the ruler is the moment someone is trying to kill you. This could be father to son, uncle to nephew, brother to brother, or any other combination you can imagine. Rome was rife with familialcide and, despite more than a thousand years into the future, Mongolia seems no different.

The audience will have to decide for themselves where the pieces fall on the moral spectrum and if anyone can wholly be a hero in a time like this.

Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.