Quote:
Originally Posted by Sol Falling
From my personal perspective, hate doesn't even make sense until you have acquired a reasonable understanding of motivation. Just because someone has done wrong to you, doesn't make them evil, because this world is to put it simply too small for all of us and we're already trampling over other lives as it is. So for me Mayuri's death is in itself a very poor reason to succumb to hate. The selfish response of simplistically saying "You hurt me or mine, that means you are my enemy and I don't give a damn about your circumstances" is to me by comparison the single most destructive way of approaching the universe.
Contrarily, I can actually somewhat understand Okabe's frustration at the very moment he witnessed Moeka's complete obsession with FB, and the way she was not even responding to anything else. It's not a "You killed Mayuri!" thing, but a "Do you even realize what you have done? You killed Mayuri for something miserable like this?" sort of feeling.
However, implicit in the act of "understanding, then hate" is that you already understand. And in this way, resisting the emotional descent into hate is always possible.
It's not really about whether Okabe has a 'right' or not; humans will always do what they do, regardless of its legitimacy. I am not judging him so much as a person than judging his actions in this single particular circumstance. I think it is always unfortunate when hate is chosen over acceptance (of reality, at least) because hate ultimately does not even do anything for the hateful person him/herself. I don't think it takes a saint not to hate others so much as simply an awareness of the burden that you yourself represent and a willingness to seek understanding.
In any case, foregoing hate itself does not deny resistance or the ability to take action when necessary. Self-sacrifice might be what I would refer to as sainthood. Self-restraint is, in my opinion, nothing all that extraordinary.
:P You could say intellectually I'm something of a Buddhist. But indeed, this is the standard to which I hold myself so I don't think it's too much to ask of a main character (Okabe might not be perfect, but in the end he is still acting out these generic good intentions of empathy/sympathy). Whatever the feelings of various members of the audience, for the nature of Steins;Gate as a work and the culture it came from the idea that Okabe could have lynched or brutalized Moeka to exact revenge on her was, to me, never even a remote possibility.
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I have to admit, this was a very good response on your part.
I now completely see where you're coming from, and your position is reasonable at least.
For me, the key is that you're not judging Okabe as a person so much as you're judging his actions. Within that framework, I have little issue with your arguments.
I agree with you that Okabe was
particularly disgusted with the fact that Moeka killed Mayuri "for something miserable like this", as you say. Okabe may have preferred it if Moeka was, say, motivated by strong political beliefs that happened to line up with SERN's, and hence she was loyal to them for something a bit more logical and concrete.
Honestly, I was surprised by Moeka this episode, because I myself was expecting her reasons for siding with SERN to be political in nature (since SERN's goals are, after all, establishing a worldwide authoritarian government). The fact that Moeka was motivated entirely by a basic need to feel needed and wanted was a very surprising character revelation to me. A good plot twist, in some ways.