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GARGANTIA #10 - - Watch & Learn
You know, it does make plenty of sense for Pinion to start going power mad after he’s salvaged all this high-tech, dangerous weaponry. We’ve
seen him bristle under command a few times already, so it also makes sense that
he’d want to want to assert himself once he established a base of leverage. And,
given how we saw his brother get horribly murdered by the Whalesquid, we can’t
really argue with the logic of him just shaking off these creatures' deaths, either.
Nobody’s cheated to get us here but, to reiterate, I’ll be disappointed
if this show ends up becoming yet another screed about “man’s inhumanity to
man.”
See, what I’ve appreciated about Urobuchi’s previous work is his level-headed, almost economic approach to the morality plays you usually see in
genre adventure. For instance, both MADOKA MAGICA and PSYCHO-PASS acknowledged
that, in the greater scope of things, some level of evil actually is needed for a civilization to function. That’s a more
intelligent theme to aim at (and it takes more skill to properly hit) than a
maudlin, nihilistic message that any moody middle-schooler would shoot for
in creative writing class. It’s just too easy.
So, if we can’t get the lower-stakes ‘summer job’ angle I was hoping
for, I hope the show will do something a little more daring and maybe have Ledo realize the validity of Chamber’s logic about the irreconcilable antagonism between the
Hideauze and humans. Killing them makes him sick to his stomach, sure, and it horrifies
some of the surface dwellers… but it has to be done to prevent these monsters
from exploiting the ignorance and superstition these people have developed over
centuries of isolation.
Does that seem callous? Well, keep in mind that this all fantasy at the
end of the day. The fantasia is a metaphor for whatever you want it to
represent. In some stories, Frankenstein is a gentle and misunderstood
creature. In other stories, Frankenstein is a horrible blight on nature. So
there’s no inherent way to ‘read’ the whalesquid just yet.
And I hope the reappearance of this familiar mech will put us in that
direction.
Watch this episode, “Island
of Ambition" here and decide for yourself, then read my comments on the
previous episode here.
About the Author
 | Tom Pinchuk’s a writer and personality with a large number of comics, videos and features like this to his credit. Visit his website - - tompinchuk.com - - and follow his Twitter: @tompinchuk |
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