duo, pay attention.

[kaigou]

This is my personal theory - we discussed it in passing at dinner on Saturday evening, but despite Sharon & Jana (I think) demurring, I hold to it. Duo, next time you come with, 'cause I want backup on this. Casey was too busy talking to DC to be much help.

Heero - suicidal not by virtue of choosing death, but by virtue of not wanting to continue the life he'd led so far; there's a subtle but important difference
Duo - far from suicidal at any point, but homicidal? hell yeah. Only willing to contemplate self-destruction when his back is against the wall and he's assured he's going to take plenty of the enemy with him.
Trowa - suicidal because he can't think of anything better to do with his time. I know that sounds odd, but that seems to be his attitude: "Oh, well, guess I'll try this, then."
Quatre - altruistically homicidal. Again, back against the wall, but he takes that route as the last option, and knowing that in doing so, he's making sure the cause itself continues.*
Wufei - the only one IIRC who never even considers the option of self-destruction, let alone tries, but that fits with his character. Knowing you're the last one surviving of your family puts a heavy burden on ya, I'd think.

*I think this is the main reason Duo later has no issues listening to Quatre's lead, and in fact seems to turn to Quatre on Peacemillion as de facto leader. If Quatre is willing to be so ruthless about his own life, he's clearly a leader who won't ask you to do something he himself wouldn't do. Compared to Heero, who may be 'the heart of outer space' but has the leadership qualities of a brick. Heero won't bother asking another to do what he'd do; he'll just go do it himself!

---

Every now and then I contemplate writing an essay or two for Zania's site, just because she doesn't have enough to code already. Gotta keep those archivists busy. *smirk* Which reminds me, I still have to post girl_starfish's new story, and if it doesn't get finished, I'm going to be stringing her up when I get to Japan next Spring.

And wah, there went my brain. Watch it go. Will add more later, when I'm done with the one-shot on Relena for A Very Late Addition to Psyche's Before the Beginning challenge. I kept meaning to write it, and then I'd get distracted, but right now I'm finding it almost impossible to make the mental leap necessary for Celia in Dancing. I've got the scene, I've got the setup, I've got Keegan ready and willing to be all supportive-y friend, and Celia won't behave. *kicks characters* More later.


EDIT: whew, got it done. only been promising for what, two months now?

( one secret )

for psyche's before the beginning challenge. rated PG, no warnings, no pairings, no cussing...just a rite of passage.

Comments

[kodalai.livejournal.com]

Something that takes your enemies entirely out of the equation?

On the small scale, perhaps, but impractical in the long run, since I think there's yet to be a single historical example of exterminating your enemy nation so thoroughly that there are no remnants and no survivors. One side or the other always has to come to the conclusion that the fight is no longer worth fighting, and the goals are no longer worth the losses gained in pursuing them. That's what war is really about; not to kill your enemy, but to make him decide it's easier to give you what you want than to continue with the war.

...Of course, there might be some people who decide to go to war for other reasons, but they generally aren't in their right minds, and in the long run, the larger picture tends to win out.

But to apply it to this situation: What was OZ doing with its weapons? Attempting to convince the colonies to submit to its rule and offer up their resources. Destroying the colonies would have been counterproductive. What were the Gundams doing with their weapons? Attempting to convince OZ to leave the colonies alone. Even Duo, who openly admitted that his personal motivation was revenge for the wrongs done to him, knew better than to think he could kill everyone in OZ, not even for the sake of personal revenge.

Then you get nutballs like Quatre deciding that the conflict would end if all the Colonies with weapons were destroyed, or Zechs deciding that the conflict would end if Earth was destroyed, but then, these people weren't exactly in their right mind, and their tactics are universally condemned as being 1) counterproductive, 2) rather terrorist, and 3) batshit insane.

I'm no longer quite sure what point I was trying to argue...

[sarolynne.livejournal.com]

*laughs*

No, certainly not in their right mind. Sort of like cutting off your toes to avoid stubbing them.

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

The other thing to keep in mind, I suppose, is our own slant as Westerners/Americans. I recall when I was studying comparitive government and my professor mentioned something about violence in the US. At the time, there was a rash of abortion clinic bombings, and while there are people who feel this way or that about the legality and/or morality of abortion, the bottom line was that even people who believed in the cause disagreed with the use of violence (and even murder) as a means to achieve a goal. There are always a fringe few who think the ends will justify the means, but in the US we tend to lean towards using the processes and precedents set up for peaceful resolution of such issues. Violence in pursuit of a cause often loses more people than it gains.

I was discussing nonviolence the other day with CP and JH, and JH commented that Ghandi's concept of nonviolence - used to great end by King - really only works if you have three hundred, three thousand, etc people standing in ranks with you. Three people alone are just hustled off as bothersome. Nonviolence as an option only works at great numbers; in that respect, it seems the few in the GWing world who wanted a resolution were perhaps just not enough to make non-violence an option. Certainly five kids together wouldn't do much.

Perhaps that's one of the things EW was seeking to resolve - I think so, at least. Given the anti-war, pro-pacifism of the series, it was still rather bleak and unlikely. Let's take away all the guns - and EW was a play-out of how little people would then be able to defend themselves. Who was it who said again that 'an armed society is a polite society'?

I'm getting off-topic.

Uh. What was the topic again?