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Oct. 20th, 2005 08:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spokeYay for randomly successful days! I got cleaning done, and gave my car oil and I made an icon!
Learned how to handle Paintshop a little better, too.
A random thought that I keep meaning to put down - I figured out what it is about Otogi Ryuji that is so squeeful. He actually has a sense of compassion.
No, seriously. Yugi-tachi as a whole? They're not big on compassion. Pity and sympathy and the odd attempt at understanding, yeah - compassion not so much. I see these used almost as the same word at times, so to clarify for purposes of the point:
Pity: Sympathy and sorrow aroused by the misfortune or suffering of another.
Compassion: Deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it.
There is a disconnectedness to pity, though. It's like... pity is sad, but compassion hurts.
Really, the story in a nutshell (thus-far) is that Suguroku (Grandpa) had a gaming apprentice, who tried to challenge him for the Puzzle (then still in its box) in a student attempting to surpass the master thing. Like many such students, he got burned. Going by what we see of the facial damage, literally. >.>
So. He raises his son to get revenge on Suguroku for him, via beating Yugi and taking the now-completed Puzzle. To hear him lecturing, and at one point in Ryuji's face yelling at him, the focusing of this raising has been on hate. Ryuji is an instrument of revenge to him, and as such is supposed to have absorded his own hatreds.
What Ryuji's actually absorbed is that his Daddy is in a lot of pain and very sad, and his getting revenge will make it better. He almost says as much, answering the yelling by reminding Dad that he's been hearing this story since he was little, has taken on his sadness and anger, and reassures him he'll get revenge. No yelling on his part - only the Dad.
It shows up again when his Dad breaks the Puzzle. Yugi is maybe-winning a little over halfway through, Dad comes busting into the game to yell at Yugi, Ryuji tries to get him to stop and his Dad kinda freaks. He decides to help Ryuji by breaking Yugi's will to fight, and tries to break the Puzzle. At first he can't - then he focuses on his hatred of Suguroku, and it comes apart. First the one piece, with a *click* then the Eye-piece and the rest of it just falls.
Yugi starts crying. The Dad is still mocking him rather viciously as he tries to pick up the pieces, and Ryuji stands up suddenly, goes over to Yugi with this sorrowful expression, and starts helping him pick up the pieces. And apologizes. "I'm sorry... Yugi... I know it was an important puzzle for you..." Once they're done getting the fallen pieces, he stands up and gives his Dad a reproachful stare. He snatches the chain holding what's left of it away from him, and orders him not to touch it anymore and not to interfere with his fight.
And they do continue the game, and he is quite serious about becoming the next bearer of the Puzzle in his own right. He wants the challenge, which is the other part of his thoughts during the game, as if he's attempting to balance the need for revenge with the thrill of the challenge - which really shouldn't be conflicting impulses, should they?
Except he is not the bastard his Daddy raised him to be.
Now you contrast that with the way Yugi and the others hardly give a first thought to the people who go insane or die all around them, much less a second one? And it's no wonder at all that Yugi is impressed when meeting someone who actually gives a damn about an opponent's welfare this way.
Learned how to handle Paintshop a little better, too.
A random thought that I keep meaning to put down - I figured out what it is about Otogi Ryuji that is so squeeful. He actually has a sense of compassion.
No, seriously. Yugi-tachi as a whole? They're not big on compassion. Pity and sympathy and the odd attempt at understanding, yeah - compassion not so much. I see these used almost as the same word at times, so to clarify for purposes of the point:
Pity: Sympathy and sorrow aroused by the misfortune or suffering of another.
Compassion: Deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it.
There is a disconnectedness to pity, though. It's like... pity is sad, but compassion hurts.
Really, the story in a nutshell (thus-far) is that Suguroku (Grandpa) had a gaming apprentice, who tried to challenge him for the Puzzle (then still in its box) in a student attempting to surpass the master thing. Like many such students, he got burned. Going by what we see of the facial damage, literally. >.>
So. He raises his son to get revenge on Suguroku for him, via beating Yugi and taking the now-completed Puzzle. To hear him lecturing, and at one point in Ryuji's face yelling at him, the focusing of this raising has been on hate. Ryuji is an instrument of revenge to him, and as such is supposed to have absorded his own hatreds.
What Ryuji's actually absorbed is that his Daddy is in a lot of pain and very sad, and his getting revenge will make it better. He almost says as much, answering the yelling by reminding Dad that he's been hearing this story since he was little, has taken on his sadness and anger, and reassures him he'll get revenge. No yelling on his part - only the Dad.
It shows up again when his Dad breaks the Puzzle. Yugi is maybe-winning a little over halfway through, Dad comes busting into the game to yell at Yugi, Ryuji tries to get him to stop and his Dad kinda freaks. He decides to help Ryuji by breaking Yugi's will to fight, and tries to break the Puzzle. At first he can't - then he focuses on his hatred of Suguroku, and it comes apart. First the one piece, with a *click* then the Eye-piece and the rest of it just falls.
Yugi starts crying. The Dad is still mocking him rather viciously as he tries to pick up the pieces, and Ryuji stands up suddenly, goes over to Yugi with this sorrowful expression, and starts helping him pick up the pieces. And apologizes. "I'm sorry... Yugi... I know it was an important puzzle for you..." Once they're done getting the fallen pieces, he stands up and gives his Dad a reproachful stare. He snatches the chain holding what's left of it away from him, and orders him not to touch it anymore and not to interfere with his fight.
And they do continue the game, and he is quite serious about becoming the next bearer of the Puzzle in his own right. He wants the challenge, which is the other part of his thoughts during the game, as if he's attempting to balance the need for revenge with the thrill of the challenge - which really shouldn't be conflicting impulses, should they?
Except he is not the bastard his Daddy raised him to be.
Now you contrast that with the way Yugi and the others hardly give a first thought to the people who go insane or die all around them, much less a second one? And it's no wonder at all that Yugi is impressed when meeting someone who actually gives a damn about an opponent's welfare this way.
