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Old 2013-01-28, 16:46   Link #43
Repelsteeltju
DRRR!!
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: The Netherlands
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kirarakim View Post
Actually I don't think it is tricky at all who is responsible, in many of the instances you mentioned he manipulated the situation so the other tribes would be attacked and killed. It was pretty clear what his intention were.

And as for the queerrats, Satoru killed, Squealer led them purposely into a situation where they would have to defend themselves & kill his enemies.

Did Squealer lay the blow no, but that doesn't mean he is not responsible for what happened. Not to mention he is a coward, so manipulating others to do his dirty work is par for the course.

I also said he was responsible for the death of most of the queer rats (not all) and yes I will stick to that from what we have seen him do in the story.
I tried to sum up all the shown in-series occurrences of (mass) mole rat death. In some of these Yakomaru was involved (in)directly in others he was not.
Let's go to the cited example:

Quote:

And as for the queerrats, Satoru killed, Squealer led them purposely into a situation where they would have to defend themselves & kill his enemies.
It's a funny example because this is the only one example we know for sure he was physically present in. Where he stood on the forefront of the battle, risking death in defense of a queen that only moments ago nearly killed him over a curtain he accidentally lit on fire, over a silly accident. With all the accusations of cowardice flying around (I think him more calculating masking his true nature with old fashioned cowardice) that was a decidedly brave thing to do. Sure he was probably desperate and might have thought being around the child gods the safest but it's not like Satoru wasn't already intent on destroying the Ground Spiders and if Satoru --led along by Yakomaru or not (then still called Squealer)-- hadn't Kiroumaru would have and if even Kiroumaru wouldn't have have wiped them out the department of pest control would have. While he could have won with less casualties on his own side in a war of attrition he went on the attack in guiding Satoru to where he could dish out the most damage. I still lack the courage to judge Yakomaru for directly orchestrating the death of many Ground Spiders who may or may not have died regradless of his actions and who may or may not have been intent on either killing or inslaving him, his mother and his brethren. The world is too complex to just pin every cruelty on one character, there really isn't anyone in this show who murders for the heck of it. It's a cruel and inhospitable place filled with a dose of fairly justified yet unhealthy paranoia . There is no good path, no right nor wrong way to go about things form any position.

Similar arguments can be made for all the other examples.

I think the difference in our thinking lies in the weight we place on intent. I'd argue that it's nigh irrelevant as we can't ever really know what an another is thinking and from that I infer that we can only really hope to pass judgment on the actions we've seen on display, an act I cowardly waive because it's difficult.
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