Theory, also spoilers
Nov. 1st, 2014 07:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
branchandrootThe Psycho-pass writers went to a lot of trouble to parallel the gym scenes for Kougami and Tougane in the second ep, and I think I may have an idea why.
Neither Kougami nor Tougane are the actual main or POV character—that’s Akane. What they are, I think, are the characters who set the tone for the season and give us cues for how to understand the action.
Kougami’s gym session highlighted the release of fairly uncontrolled rage as he destroyed the sparring mech with his bare hands, and the release of control, the enabling of the Id, was a major theme in the first season. That was what Makishima embodied; he even said it himself, that in order for his pass to be so consistently white and his coefficient to be consistently 0, his body must be generating incredibly powerful signals that say what he is doing is Absolutely Right. And what he is doing is releasing every single impulse the anti-stress therapies and drugs try to erase or suppress. As Akane says, he and Kougami are two sides of the same coin, and if we think of that coin as the Id, as acting on and letting out violent emotion, then it makes a little more sense that Kougami doesn’t accept the salvation that Akane offers him (and that he knows himself she offers him; he says it the moment he wakes up after she shoots him to stop him shooting the first victim—under an Inspector like her he could become a detective again instead of a hunting dog).
Tougane’s gym session highlights control. He defends himself and subdues the mech with minimal force. It’s only when we learn, with Akane, that Tougane’s coefficient is the highest ever recorded that we understand what he is controlling (and possibly manipulating, given that he was a Therapist, and could well have the skill to read Akane well enough to manipulate her—not that I expect to find out for sure for a long time given how much another theme of this season is the question of who and what you can trust). Tougane even asks Akane’s permission to fire, even though we know Enforcers are authorized and even encouraged to fire without prior permission at whatever level Sybil determines appropriate; he’s the very embodiment of control over what we are given to understand are incredibly powerful violent urges. If Tougane is the other side of the coin from Kamui, then Kamui’s methodology may become clearer (aha, clearer). Given how violently anti-drug Kamui’s pawns are, he may be doing this without drugs, though given that theme of questioning trust or reliability I think it just as likely he does use a drug of some kind (ETA re ep 4: ahahaha, I love being right), quite possibly related to the drugs Tougane’s family is producing. In any case, what we have seen so far of his “clearing” process is that he provokes intense response and emotion such as fear or, as he notes, excitement, followed by reassurance and reinforcement of selfhood, accepting the small violences left available to his subject without showing them any disapproval or fear. I theorize that what he is doing is carefully discharging emotional stress in his subjects—that is, controlling and manipulating it.
If Akane comes to understand this, her moral dilemma regarding Sybil will come to a head, because Kamui represents an alternative to Sybil. Sybil controls the populace by suppression of the Id and, it is becoming increasingly clear, tracks the populace that way too, because any rise in emotional volatility shows up immediately against that shallow background. Kamui’s method has proven capable of disrupting that control and tracking while still maintaining emotional stability in his subjects. What will cause Akane to reject the opportunity he represents, I think, is that the stability in question does not seem to accompany any ethical or moral system at all—and of course it doesn’t, because the population doesn’t have an ethical or moral system. They don’t need one because a conflict-less life has been provided (substituted) by Sybil.
I suspect Akane’s own resilience is because she does have her own moral system, outside of the simple sedation that Sybil enforces. Kamui can break Sybil’s control, but he cannot, for whatever reason, provide any moral infrastructure to guide the required emotional discharge.
Which raises the question: can Tougane?
Neither Kougami nor Tougane are the actual main or POV character—that’s Akane. What they are, I think, are the characters who set the tone for the season and give us cues for how to understand the action.
Kougami’s gym session highlighted the release of fairly uncontrolled rage as he destroyed the sparring mech with his bare hands, and the release of control, the enabling of the Id, was a major theme in the first season. That was what Makishima embodied; he even said it himself, that in order for his pass to be so consistently white and his coefficient to be consistently 0, his body must be generating incredibly powerful signals that say what he is doing is Absolutely Right. And what he is doing is releasing every single impulse the anti-stress therapies and drugs try to erase or suppress. As Akane says, he and Kougami are two sides of the same coin, and if we think of that coin as the Id, as acting on and letting out violent emotion, then it makes a little more sense that Kougami doesn’t accept the salvation that Akane offers him (and that he knows himself she offers him; he says it the moment he wakes up after she shoots him to stop him shooting the first victim—under an Inspector like her he could become a detective again instead of a hunting dog).
Tougane’s gym session highlights control. He defends himself and subdues the mech with minimal force. It’s only when we learn, with Akane, that Tougane’s coefficient is the highest ever recorded that we understand what he is controlling (and possibly manipulating, given that he was a Therapist, and could well have the skill to read Akane well enough to manipulate her—not that I expect to find out for sure for a long time given how much another theme of this season is the question of who and what you can trust). Tougane even asks Akane’s permission to fire, even though we know Enforcers are authorized and even encouraged to fire without prior permission at whatever level Sybil determines appropriate; he’s the very embodiment of control over what we are given to understand are incredibly powerful violent urges. If Tougane is the other side of the coin from Kamui, then Kamui’s methodology may become clearer (aha, clearer). Given how violently anti-drug Kamui’s pawns are, he may be doing this without drugs, though given that theme of questioning trust or reliability I think it just as likely he does use a drug of some kind (ETA re ep 4: ahahaha, I love being right), quite possibly related to the drugs Tougane’s family is producing. In any case, what we have seen so far of his “clearing” process is that he provokes intense response and emotion such as fear or, as he notes, excitement, followed by reassurance and reinforcement of selfhood, accepting the small violences left available to his subject without showing them any disapproval or fear. I theorize that what he is doing is carefully discharging emotional stress in his subjects—that is, controlling and manipulating it.
If Akane comes to understand this, her moral dilemma regarding Sybil will come to a head, because Kamui represents an alternative to Sybil. Sybil controls the populace by suppression of the Id and, it is becoming increasingly clear, tracks the populace that way too, because any rise in emotional volatility shows up immediately against that shallow background. Kamui’s method has proven capable of disrupting that control and tracking while still maintaining emotional stability in his subjects. What will cause Akane to reject the opportunity he represents, I think, is that the stability in question does not seem to accompany any ethical or moral system at all—and of course it doesn’t, because the population doesn’t have an ethical or moral system. They don’t need one because a conflict-less life has been provided (substituted) by Sybil.
I suspect Akane’s own resilience is because she does have her own moral system, outside of the simple sedation that Sybil enforces. Kamui can break Sybil’s control, but he cannot, for whatever reason, provide any moral infrastructure to guide the required emotional discharge.
Which raises the question: can Tougane?
