Burning Angel wrote:Arg... fine I'll answer you, kamugin. I was really hoping someone would have answered you before me; I guess I was being lazy.
Well, If no one answered before, it's possibly because they agree.
So let me get this straight: first you critize a character, Figure Four, that is surprising popular (or respected) in this forum. I personally don't have a problem with that, it's your opinion and we can discuss it. The same goes for Rakkan.
I criticized him because I really dislike him, my right. People stood up to defend him and they stated why they like him, their right. So I put an end in that disscussion because it was meaningless to go any further, I didn't want to start a flame war.
But then you did something that I find very questionable; you insulted the people of this forum, calling them simple minded, just because they disagree with you. Now that bothered me. So what I am going to do is simple: dismantle your Rakkan defense into pieces.
Then I'll dismantle your condemnation:
In a previous topic about who will die next in the ZOTT, I also asked why Rakkan doesn't deserve redemption, this was
before I criticized Figure and even before the raw phase 103 was available. Yukito doesn't like to create one sided characters, true that there was many evil guys who died without a background, however those appear in scene for a short time and die --I'm remembering that psycho motorball player that killed a bunch of spectators just to avoid Alita. Rakkan was introduced many chapters ago, so it was the time to give him a background. Nobody was born evil in real life, Yukito made Alita's universe in the same way.
Rakkan is a character created to be hated: he is a cold assassin, he is a rapist, he doesn't follow the bushido.
I'd hardly call Rakan cold, he's actually seems very batshit insane.
Yeah, yeah... I realized after that "cold" isn't appropriate to decribe him. I just wrote a cliche "cold assassin", without realizing it. Rakkan actually likes to kill, however it doesn't makes me lose my point.
He is the opposite of the noble Touji so. Thus we hate Rakkan with enthusiasm!
Zekka is also a character extremely unlike Toji, yet we don't hate him. I actually like Zekka more than most characters.
Please read again until you understand. Initially
Rakkan was made to be hated! Zekka is opposed to Touji in many ways, but he wasn't thrown into the story to be a plain evil character. He is evil in many ways, but undoubtedly he have his own particular sense of honor, otherwise he just could have killed everybody there already.
Then Yukito tells us that this plain evil character was once a good man, a beloved father and husband.
Ok, that is just speculation. His filler backstory doesn't explore his background that deeply. He could have easily been a jerk while he was still sane. At least he seemed very cocky for try demonstrating he can dodge or catch bullets while he was still sane.
Speculation!? Oh god, this is so...silly... that I don't want comment it any further! However I must:
I know every reader have his
own reading of a story. Everybody have his own particular understanding (unfortunately), but we aren't talking about the fucking bible or James Joyce's Ulisses here! Alita's epic may be one of the seven wonders of the manga, but it doesn't have that kind of
complexity!
Borrowing "your understanding" for a while... Who knows what kind of atrocities Alita may have done, under Thiphares command, back when she was a tuned agent?? She isn't like that you may say, but she was pretty crazy then! Even now I feel sorrow for the dung beetle, the snake and the mouse she killed in that gaiden... Oh, the deckman too!
Ok, now I'm bored. I'm just going to skip the next part. HERE COMES THE BEST PART.
I'm bothered, not tired... Is it comming? I hope so!
What the fuck are you talking about. The reason that Rakkan is hated and doesn't deserve forgiveness is because he is so unapologeticly evil about it. He simply doesn't care. No no... even worse... he seems to be proud of his actions, claiming that he will do them again. And he hasn't, as of yet, been punished for his actions.
Rakkan was plain evil before, now we... we?... at least I... knew he was once a beloved father and husband. A stupid accident turned him into the psycho he is today. He deserves to die? Yes, maybe. However he isn't a plain evil character anymore. He deserves some of our time to think about his reasons, before we hang him up. Quoting phase 103:
_My son, my wife, are you watching me from somewhere out there?
...
_My son, I'm sorry I couldn't live up to your expectations that time!!
_But daddy has changed!!
_Now your father can dodge any bullet, no matter what!!
See? Deep inside he stil care about his son and wife. He lives with the sorrow he wasn't able to fulfil his son's expectations. He failed to him. Even with an insane mind he tried his best to fix that, so he may be a mad man, but he is trully a karate master now. Yukito turned him into into a multi faceted character as he deserves, not a pure expression of the evil. He turned Rakkan an human being like any of the biggest characters that appeared in the story so far.
Meanwhile Yoko has shown remorse for her actions to the point of almost destroying her psyche (while in her Gally persona), and she has been punished for her actions by being thrown out of Jeru and FALLING AND BURNING INTO EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE AND ROTTING IN THE SCRAPYARD FOR 200 YEARS.
I consider Alita and Yoko two different persons. Yoko was a genocide, there's no doubt about it (...I hope). While she was alive, she haven't shown any regret of her actions. She was almost a mindless killing machine back then. And I say "almost" just because she feared death and tried to escape. Her only regret was probably being unable to flee. Think about the magnitude of her crime, she not only have killed over 100 thousands of people, she also halted human exploration of space perhaps forever! She was fulfilling orders you may say. This is the best excuse of such criminals. She was no different of any muslim terrorist. Alita was able to forgive her, but not the rest of mankind. Even I would condemn Yoko to death and also ordered the bombing of Guntroll for such terrorist actions. Therefore Yoko was properly sentenced to death and actually died.
However
Alita was born when Ido rescued her from that pile of garbage. Yoko was condemned and executed, so Alita was born free of any gilt. However Alita, our angel, tries to clean Yoko sins through her actions,
through her redemption!
And, unlike Rakkan, we have been following Gally/Yoko's struggles and adventures for years (I have been a fan of the series since 2002). I have a lot invested (emotions and similar things) into the Gally character.
This is Alita's epic, isn't it?? When have I implied that the manga turned into Rakkan's story just because Yukito made him human??
I have gone to the point of almost crying for her; I consider the saddest moment of the series when, during the TUNED arc, she finally finds Ido, the man she loved like a father, resurrected, after 10 hellish years of fighting and searching for him, only to discover that she can't stay with him because he has amnesia (due to him discovering Salem's secret), and Gally being with him would be dangerous for him. So she is forced to leave with a smile on her face, knowing that deep within her, she is devastated and holding back 10 years worth of tears and agony. Only to release them that night, screaming IDO!!! and weaping like a child who lost her parents.
Such melodrama... but me too, I was almost drived to tears back them. Don't consider yourself special because of that.
Meanwhile, Rakkan is a relatively new character to me, and I don't give two shits about him. Well besides the fact that he was introduced a perverted, psychopathic asshole and his character went downhill from there.
Seriously, him being black and Yoko/Gally white has nothing to do with it.
I hope someone now is able to give a little more than "a shit" for Rakkan. Now that I've expended so much of my time and my latin to answer you.
Seeing racism in such doubtless condemnation, even if it's unconscious, is my right, my perception. You have the freedom to disagree.
) and that Figure presumably was faithful during this time, one year is doable. Probably a good thing that he doesn't know about this whole ZOTT business.
). Also the guy is super lucky - he survived the Barjack attack on the train, didn't get blown up by the rent-a-gun, avoided a nuclear meltdown and the resorting tornado, didn't fall off the high rise, was barely touched by the Barjack despite having a building fall on top of him, and just when he's about to die of thirst, Bigott pinpoints their position and has fish and water rain down.
