Hmmmm. I really like your analysis but I'm not sure I agree with it. Most of the time I've seen the "create war to make peace" trope in manga or video games produced in Japan, it's never tied with religion. It has also has several different variations that I've seen much more commonly. One is that the threat of war unites the people so that the dastardly villain can take over it by presenting himself as a public protector, concealing the fact that they caused the conflict in the first place like in 20th Century Boys. Often the public who buys it is portrayed as unthinking sheep, ready to be caught up in the idealistic promises of the fraud. Another is that with everyone dead, there will be ultimate peace because you can't fight if there's no one to be soldiers such as in Final Fantasy X or, in a weird way, Neon Genesis Evangelion. The only straightforward use of this trope I've seen was in Skies of Arcadia and even then it wasn't "a BIG war will produce a BIG peace" but rather "If we rule the whole world, there will be no more war because there will only be no one to war with" and that was just a sympathetic minion not the main bad guy.
I think I'm missing some of your argument, though, so feel free to set me straight. Finals are not good for one's brainpower.
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Date: 30 Jul 2010 05:45 am (UTC)I think I'm missing some of your argument, though, so feel free to set me straight. Finals are not good for one's brainpower.