Quote:
Originally Posted by MeoTwister5
Legends are generally bad news; there's not that much difference between heroes and madmen. -Solid Snake
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Yakomaru may be many things, but he doesn't strike me as a madman. Quite the contrary - He strikes me as very sane and with a keen sense of self-preservation (he demonstrated this way back when he first met Saki and Satoru).
If Yakomaru strikes you as a madman, I'd be curious to know why.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kuromitsu
But then, one society's hero is another's monster. Third-party observers like us, however, have a clearer picture and can decide how we regard the individuals involved based on our own approach to certain ideas and executions thereof.
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There's some truth to this. But I think it's important to remember that this narrative is told in a way that may bias us against Yakomaru:
1. All the major protagonists are humans. The story is told from the perspective of a few of those humans, and primarily Saki (who is totally creeped out by Yakomaru).
2. We ourselves are humans while Yakomaru is some ugly looking creature. The Queerats in general are not exactly easy on the eyes.
I think it's good to be cognizant of how these things may bias us, and so it might be good to try to strip them away as much as possible in order to get a fuller picture of what exactly is going on here. So I tried to think of a scenario that captures how your average Queerat in this world might see things, and then relate that to us in a way that we'd understand.
Now, like I wrote, there's no question that Yakomaru is a sneaky and untrustworthy fellow. He's very manipulative and machiavellian. There's little doubt that his own personal empowerment motivates him some.
Nonetheless, the ideals he espouses are ones that I'm sure many would find great value in. Is Yakomaru using those ideals purely as propaganda in some world domination quest? Maybe. But there's reason to think that he himself might value those ideals for their own sake.