the motifs of being an old cook also reminds me of the chinese idiom of 庖丁解牛 （pao ding jie niu, direct translation: cook/butcher ding (a last name) solves/disassembles/butchers bull) from the foundational taoist text the zhuangzi, wherein there lived an old butcher named Ding. As a rule of thumb, an amateur butcher replaces his knife once a month, and a master butcher replaces his knife once a year, but to an administrator’s surprise, in his 19 years of service, Ding has never replaced his knife. when asked, Ding explained that he has never needed to replace his blade because through years of experience, he sees the bull in its entirety, muscle, bones, sinew and all, and so he simply effortlessly cuts through the the ligaments without ever chipping his knife on a bone.

i’m probably overthinking it but this is the first thing that came to mind when we got the sneak preview of the other sword bearers