This evening I was going to write a very long, heartfelt blog post about peace, but in my current state of mind there is nothing I can write which will be any different, or any better worded than the following clip of Doctor Who, of all things. Therefore, tonight’s post will be about how the most unexpected of fiction can change your philosophy on life. For now, though, here is the clip; and I must say, spoilers for The Zygon Invasion and The Zygon Inversion, two recent season 9 episodes.
When this scene aired on TV I had to stop my jaw from dropping, for it took my pacifism and worded it so brilliantly and so perfectly, it was as if some ridiculously more skilled version of myself wrote them out and acted them. Unfortunately, the clip shown here leaves out the minute before the main speech takes off, where he talks about cruelty begetting cruelty, but the main course of the meal is there. And, of course, I didn’t come around to this way of thinking of my own accord. I got it from another unexpected fiction.
Naruto.
Yes, Naruto, that anime that you probably saw on Toonami with the twelve year old ninja kids running around throwing knives at each other. And, in my defense, I watched the original Japanese version in English subtitles, which allowed me to take it far more seriously; nor did I feel much of a connection to the series until the time skip which aged all the characters up to around sixteen. But that’s besides the point.
Naruto is an anime (originally a manga) which starts out with a seemingly goofy orphaned protagonist who wants to be the Hokage (…basically, King of his village, one of the five leaders of the ninja world) to earn the respect of everyone, who abhors him for being the host of a demon fox which destroyed the village years previously. He acts up in class, he’s dumb, all that fun stuff. But as the anime goes on, the themes of war become more and more prevalent, and Naruto’s character growth is marked by his understanding of war and his determination to stop the pain.
Speaking of which, if you don’t mind spoilers, look up the “Naruto vs Pain fight” online. I don’t know how much this would speak to you without the context of the previous 400 episodes, but the climax of the fight is what first opened my eyes to this view in the world. The rest of the anime complemented this theme and I soon found myself with a passion for the subject matter, as despite it being an anime about kid ninjas, it so worryingly mirrors our own world with its injustices and its ignorant cruelty.
(Here’s some more information for if you want to view it: if, as I’d recommend, you’d rather watch an official source of the full episodes of the fight, it begins with episode 163 – free to watch. Where it ends is more problematic; the official ending is on episode 175, although this includes a few analeptic episodes that reveal the antagonist’s past. Ignore episodes 170 and 171, they’re irrelevant filler episodes. That leaves over three hours of footage, so er, grab some popcorn if you’re truly committed to seeing my point through.)
What really resonated with me was the struggle to overcome one’s often impassable, visceral emotions when faced with such overwhelming cruelty and grief. If somebody killed your friend, your emotions would likely insist that you take their life to right this impossible wrong, furthering the cycle of hatred, possibly to no fault of your own. And it’s what the global powers do, only their snake-like tongues wrap everyone else around to their way of thinking, or at least subdue them to the point of not fighting them.
If you are going to watch that Naruto story arc, though, please take note that I haven’t seen it since I was sixteen; if there are any glaring flaws in there, I probably blindly followed them back then. I was in my “I can save the world!” phase. Boy, that was a comedown.
What I’m trying to get at here – albeit in a messily structured, writing this at sleep’s horizon way – is that fiction has the power to sway perception, and that is not a power to be taken lightly. Whether in novels, television or anime; no matter how unlikely the source, if it has a message that demands to be taken seriously, it should be. And as writers, it is imperative that we do not use this to spread darkness in the world, for I think we can all agree that there is already enough of that.
Perpetually Perturbed 