Why Jin [SPOILER] In Ghost of Tsushima

[WARNING: Spoilers for Ghost of Tsushima’s story below]

One of the many series of side quests players can complete in Ghost of Tsushima is helping Sensei Ishikawa track down his rogue student Tomoe. But after all the effort he and Ghost of Tsushima’s protagonist Jin Sakai go through to hunt down his former student, it’s shocking in the end when they seem to let her go without thinking twice.

When Jin meets Sensei Ishikawa, he wonders why he didn’t help at the Battle of Komoda Beach. He soon learns that the Sensei’s student attacked him, and after abandoning him, she joined forces with the Mongols and is teaching them the way of the bow.

This leads Jin to agree to help Ishikawa track down Tomoe in exchange for his help rescuing Lord Shimura and re-claiming the island of Tsushima from the Mongols. The duo search all over Tsushima before Jin finally comes face-to-face with the antagonist, who then (suprisingly) requests his help in killing her own archers after teaching them samurai secrets.

What Happens To Tomoe In Ghost of Tsushima

It’s clear that Ghost of Tsushima was trying to redeem Tomoe by having her turn on her own archers, even though she does so only when the Mongols betrayed her. She tries to justify all of the innocent lives she killed by arguing she gave them a swift (and thus just) death. But it’s arguable if this was enough to redeem her. Clearly, Jin and Sensei Ishikawa thought it was enough, however, as they do nothing to stop her from getting away.

After the group deals with the archers, the duo realizes that Tomoe is nowhere in sight. A letter reveals the young woman was leaving the island of Tsushima, likely for the mainland. After seeing Tomoe turn on the Mongols — though they turned on her first — they’ve seemed to accept that she had a change of heart or was never against Tsushima in the first place. They seemingly forget she used to ride with a group of bandits terrorizing locals, both before and during her training with Ishikawa, which is why he tried killing her originally, leading her to turn on him.

It’s clear that Ishikawa had a soft spot for Tomoe, as they had an odd father-daughter dynamic throughout the game. But it’s surprising that Jin, who is shown to be consistently dutiful and moral, has no problem letting Tomoe go. He killed his childhood best friend, Ryuzo, because he had teamed up with the invading Mongolian army to secure food for the starving Straw Hats. Jin couldn’t excuse that, but for some reason, he was okay with letting Tomoe go after she gave important samurai secrets to the Mongols for seemingly no reason. There’s clearly a double standard in the way Jin treated these two antagonists, and the lack of consistency is a major source of tension in the storyline. Tomoe’s story in Ghost of Tsushima was intriguing, but the most perplexing part about it is why Jin lets her go at the end so easily.

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