Tamal Kundu
‘Green Snake,’ also known as ‘White Snake 2: The Tribulation of the Green Snake’ or ‘Bai She II: Qing She Jie Qi’ is the second entry in the ‘White Snake’ animated film series. It revolves around Verta or Xiao Qing, who gets separated from her sister Blanca or Xiao Bai while confronting the demon-slaying monk Fahai. Blanca is imprisoned, and Verta is sent to Asuraville, a city that is neither hell nor heaven.
Once there, she finds herself amid a power struggle between the humans, Rakshasas, ghosts, and the ox-head and horse-face monsters. She encounters a mysterious masked man along the way who doesn’t recall anything about his past life but is intricately connected to Verta. Here is everything you need to know about the ending of ‘Green Snake.’ SPOILERS AHEAD.
Green Snake Plot Synopsis
The film begins as Verta and Blanca face off against Fahai, but the latter proves to be much more powerful than them. Blanca’s magical bone hairpin breaks, and she is imprisoned under the monk’s tower. Blanca leaves her infant child with Verta and asks her not to hate the child’s father. However, Verta is not that generous. She criticizes the child’s father’s weakness and inability to protect the woman he claims to love before giving the child to him. When she tries to attack Fahai again, he sends her to Asuraville, a city that exists beyond the cycle of reincarnation, space, and time.
Asuraville looks like a dystopian version of a modern city, inhabited by humans, demons like Verta, Rakshasas, ghosts, and sects of ox-heads and horse-faces. Verta soon learns that the souls that have held onto some form of obsession get trapped in Asuraville. Only after they let go of their obsession can they return to the cycle of reincarnation. For Verta, the obsession is Blanca, and she adamantly refuses to part ways with the precious memories that she and Blanca made together.
Right after she arrives in Asuraville, she is saved by a mysterious masked man. Later, she meets Sima, the human leader of the Rakshasas. He saves her life from an ox-head and brings her to their lair after a large swarm of ethereal monsters attack. The following day, Verta accompanies Sima to the Precious Jade Workshop, run by a fox demon. The masked individual is there as well. It is then that the ethereal monsters attack again. Sima reveals that anyone who gets bitten by those monsters is turned into one. After surviving the attack, Verta and Sima go back to the rakshasa lair with the masked man, only to discover the ox-heads and horse-faces have invaded their territory.
Sima later leaves Verta and the masked man behind and goes back to the fox demon’s workshop to get rid of his obsession. Unable to deal with the betrayal and still reeling from the effects of separation from her sister, Verta almost lets the charging enemies kill her. But the masked man takes his mask off, and a startled Verta discovers that he has similar features as her sister. After they have become relatively safe, the man tells her that he doesn’t recall who he is. He shows her a bone flute that he believes is related to his obsession.
There is a pool underneath the fox demon’s workshop. It serves as a gateway out of Asuraville. However, one has to give up their obsession to travel through it. Verta saw Blanca when she approached the pool earlier. But the mysterious man didn’t see anyone. Like his memory, his obsession is hidden as well. Ultimately, Verta and the man decide to go back to the workshop to ask the fox demon if there is any way to leave Asuraville with their obsession. She tells them that the city is shaped like a snake whose head and tail are almost connected. Sometimes, a bridge grows out of the tail. By traversing through it, one can leave Asuraville without parting ways with their obsession.
Green Snake Ending: Who Is the Masked Man? Does Verta Reunite with Blanca?
When the ox-heads and horse-faces attack the workshop, it is revealed that the masked man has been working for their leader, wearing a mask that makes him look like Blanca. However, when the leader gives him another mask as a reward for leading him to the workshop, it still takes Blanca’s appearance. The mask lets a person appear in whatever way they want to be perceived. And it seems that Blanca’s soul subconsciously wants to look like her.
Ultimately, the man sacrifices himself and turns into one of the ethereal beings so that Verta can leave Asura City. In the movie’s final scenes, Verta retrieves the pieces of her sister’s hairpin from the museum that stands at the same place where Fahai’s tower used to be. When she places the bone from the man’s flute among the pieces, the hairpin becomes whole again, indicating to her that the masked man is a reincarnation of Blanca.
Yes, Verta reunites with Blanca. As the film ends, a woman’s voice greets Verta. As she turns, her eyes light up. Through tears of joy, she greets her sister’s latest reincarnation. Just as Verta’s obsession is Blanca, the latter’s obsession is Verta. Blanca has spent several lives looking for her sister. And now, they can be together again.
Does Verta Defeat Fahai?
Yes, Verta defeats Fahai and brings his tower down. She relentlessly confronts him time and again for 20 years, losing every single of their battles except for the last one. Each time she loses, Fahai sends her back to Asuraville. But she immediately goes back to face him again. Meanwhile, the man that looks like Blanca keeps the ethereal monsters and the others at bay.
When she finally wins, Verta returns to Asuraville of her own volition. Her victory and the subsequent destruction of the tower likely free Blanca. After she permanently leaves Asuraville, Verta discovers that a new tower has been erected. And it has a museum showcasing all the treasures that have been found there.
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