Naruto 436

[timepiececlock]

So this all comes down to Mutually Assured Destruction?




That's it?

















Really?







Damn. Orochimaru was a better villain. I can respect a classic power-grab for the sake of power-grabbing. Who doesn't want to live forever and torture everyone who doesn't obey you?

I know I've said it before, but I hate this "I want peace MY way" justification for massive war. I've seen it used in half a dozen anime/manga series, and I can't help but wonder if it's a giant cultural hang-up from the U.S. justification for bombing Japan to end the war quickly. (They even used it in the Jet Li movie Hero, which is one of several reasons I could not take that film seriously.) The problem with M.A.D. is that it doesn't really work. The whole thing fell apart, remember? And it's only pure luck that we didn't blow ourselves to kingdom come before the Cold War ended. Hell, we still might.

So every time I see it brought up in an anime series, and especially brought up in this most overly simplified, juvenile fashion to make the villain "sympathetic" or "believable", I just roll my eyes because, no, dude, that's NOT believable. I approve of trying to add gray area to your characters, but not everyone has to be secretly wanting peace. That's not a convincing argument. Most bad people aren't like villains from Gundam or Naruto or Hero who just want to conquer the world "to save it."

More believable Bad People on a "kill thousands to millions of people" scale are like Orochimaru (power hungry jerks) or Millions Knives (xenophobic genocidical murders) or both (Fire Lord Ozai.)


I want Naruto to be all "Dude. Dude. That's the biggest crock of bullshit I've ever heard, and I lived with Jeraiya for three years. Level with me, man, and tell me why we're all REALLY here."

Comments

[mildmay.livejournal.com]

hahaha Yes. This. I am glad there is someone else who feels this way because I was just looking at the Naruto comm and the number of people thinking Pain is making good sense and has Naruto trapped in some sort of ethical dilemma was making me facepalm a lot.

Though, I admit, I actually find Pain entertaining from the standpoint of his just being highly mockable. I mean he calls himself Pain and spews this epic bullshit and is so very SERIOUS about it all that I just kind of have to sit back and laugh. He honestly strikes me as very childish and bratty. And I enjoy mocking it.

[gojira007.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it says something about my own inexperience with the world that I actually found Pein's motives believable, not because they're feasible but because I've met people who are so sure of their own definitions of how the world works that once they've reached a conclusion that seems correct, no matter how flawed it actually is on closer scrutiny they will not let go of it. Ever.

Besides, despite Pein's claims of founding Akatsuki, we all know the REAL puppetmaster here is Madara, and he's made it clear his interests are entirely selfish: he wants the power of the Tailed Beasts so he can rule the world. End of Story.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

See, I liked his reasoning because his talking about massive destruction for the sake of a few periods of peace, which is... he's just aiming so low. And while I think he's still a hypocrite at least MAD sounds plausible, so I can understand how he could believe it, which is often lacking from most villains plans.