25 April 2013

Ergo Proxy - 13: Conceptual Blindspot/Wrong Way Home


Conceptual Blindspot


"Why do you allow her to act with such independence."
"If she is more than you can deal with, then what use are you?"
"She is your raison detre. Lose her, and you will lose your meaning."
"Such is the bond between an entourage and its master."

"I really don't care about jurisdiction. I'm going one way or the other. If you are afraid of what grandfather will say, I'm fine going alone."

This, in a nutshell, is what this episode is about.

Love.

Yes, you heard me. This episode is about love.
To love someone is to want to make them happy.

But if what if they want you to leave? What if they would be happier if you didn't love them? What if they want you to destroy yourself? What if they want to become someone else?
Do you really love them? Or do you love the person they used to be? And if you really do love them, what choice do you have, but to try to stop, even though your purpose in the first place is to be with them, to make them happy. Even though your intentions will be thrown into a paradoxical state.
This sounds entirely abstract and philosophical and phrased about as blandly as possible, but the effects and truths are real. And you can see them unfold with brilliant clarity.

What do you do if your master dies? If your master leaves you? If your master doesn't want you anymore?
No matter who they are, the master is the master.

"No matter who they are" - even if you hate the one you love. Even if they are flawed. Even if they despise you. You can't help loving the person you love. Mother, father, brother, lover, child... you love them, and you cannot very well stop loving. "The master is the master."
"It seems even more true now that I have a soul."
Now Iggy realizes more than just a fundamental need commanded of him and given to him as a raison detre. Now he knows a need borne of choice, emotion, and love. And he is helpless before it.


What do you do if you hate the one you love or the one you love hates you?

And what of other forms of love...? The love of the autoreiv child for its own master Proxy. They lived peacefully and protected one another. The autoreiv bringing trinkets and gifts to the gentle giant. The giant fiercely and savagely protecting its consort, and the autoreiv wholly loyal and devoted in return. At least that is how I see it. The autoreiv performs its final duty, attempting to lay its master to rest, but in doing so overhears Iggy say, "If I kill the one who took her, she'll come back." Whether it is the result of a muddled mind, or perhaps the effect of a child mad with grief, the autoreiv learns that it should now dedicate its life to killing Re-L. How ironic that it is Iggy that nearly causes Re-L's death, and in so doing, separates himself from her completely.

And still, there are other kinds of love. Despite Re-L's treatment, Vincent is still hopelessly in love with her. He dotes on her despite her derision, and he puts up with her every insult without thought. Maybe he believes her to be better on the inside, or maybe this is the madness of adoration.

Let me say too, that while Pino may be saner than the rest, she is not a perfect robot either. The same thoughts that let her be cute and retort to Re-L, "Not now! I'm reading!" let her see Vincent be abused while trying to help Re-L. That same Cogito that Iggy has, lets her see Vincent's ardor, and maybe even lets her have pangs of jealousy. She is uncharacteristically uncooperative. Maybe because, like a difficult child, she wants attention and love, and is afraid of losing it. Later she helps out because she wants to be approved up. She is turning into a real child.

Let it be known that Iggy was infected long before this episode. It is not his cogito that drives him mad, but his freedom, his thoughts... his love. What is wrong is not his despair, or his attempts to address his problems, but rather his attempt to force Re-L to change into something she isn't. Just like Re-L tried to force Iggy to be someone he wasn't. He doesn't love who Re-L has become, only the phantom of who she used to be. Just as Re-L announces "Iggy is dead," so too, is the old Re-L that depended on Iggy.

(More on this in the Reactions section of the guide.)

Iggy is allowed to follow and discovers a cave that is more or less the same as the Wombsys of Romdeau. This place appears to have been a dome in the past, with manufactured people, just like Romdeau. Iggy audibly wonders if the Proxy created the dome, and the dead proxy, despite its condition, looks like some kind of sleeping god. Each dome has a proxy. Each dome seems to be falling to ruin. Autoreivs, Proxys, Humans, Domes... how do they all link together? What does it all mean?


I'm going to be a bit pedantic about cinematography and presentation for a bit:
Iggy shoots the autoreiv with a single-use flare gun. (there is a flash of temporary light afterwards) He grabbed it from the U4 when the autoreiv first showed up and began hammering on the side of the ship. There are two red flare guns, but I don't think the other one ever turns up again.

I also find it interesting that Iggy says, "You said an autoreiv like me could never truly understand you because I don't have a soul. But I do have a soul. How could you not notice?" referring to the previous episode. In reality, Re-L said, "Explain what? How do I explain to an autoreiv? How do I convince you, when I don't even understand."

I don't know if there is any significance to the way Pino sits bewteen Iggy and Vincent in their confrontation. Perhaps symbolizing her autoreiv-ness in comparison to her human-ness. Perhaps playing the innocent helpless one in a fight between two men-of-action. (Hahaha, Vincent, a man of action...! He is in this case, but it still is hilarious) Maybe just a convenient set piece to increase the tension.

A few moments later something similar happens. Re-L, Iggy, and Vincent all stand facing each other. There is a single point where Re-L stands at the crossroads. (Here she admits, "you beat me." She lets down her arrogance, she realizes her flaws, and she turns to face her future as a more mature woman... because of Iggy's lessons I might add) and then they all spring into action. Iggy dies for her and Vincent protects her. The choice, whether hers or not, has been made. Her future lies ahead, not behind.



.......
So much is said in so short of a time.......

Iggy could not manage the emotions that coursed through him. The anger of betrayal, the fear of abandonment, the love of a parent and a teacher. All just discovered at the point they were being torn apart. He didn't know how to act, and so his life, personality, and perspective fell to pieces. He died of devotion and fear and anger. All of the emotions we struggle to hide and control. I'm not sure. But I think... he was still Iggy to the very end.

And emotions. Even though they are so destructive and terrible and heartbreaking and uncontrollable. They are not to be destroyed themselves. Sadness and anger... they are still... good. They are still valuable and worthy and beautiful and ... as Pino puts it, "I think it actually makes me happy." And why? "Mmm, I don't know."

Even though they are wrong and meaningless alone, I believe they are links to meaningful truths. And even though we never understand the nameless autoreiv, nor Iggy for that matter. They are still intrinsically valuable and should be ... cherished for the life that they were. So it is a beautiful thing, to feel sad and to love them and to put flowers on their graves, even though we do not understand them, we can at least understand that they... had thoughts like us.



In the last scene Vincent returns her gun. Maybe it is a token of his love for her, and the importance of her happiness to him. Maybe it is a sign of his complete dedication to her, and his meaninglessness without her attentions. Maybe it is a way of saying that he loves her so much, that he too would give his life for her. Or perhaps it is a way of saying that he will love her, even if she becomes someone else, he accepts her for who she is and who she will become. I don't know. But lovers should respect each other as equals, not as masters and slaves.





[VIEW SPOILERS]
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////////////Reactions:
Iggy's name appears to be a reference to Saint Ignatius.
This fits Saint Ignatius' life, as the theologian preached these ideals: Self-sacrifice, erasure of personal desires, seeking the will of God in all things, self examination of faults, the process of removing those faults over several days, humility and service, vows of obedience, and action for the sake of goodness. His motto was "In all things, to love and to serve."

"You don't get to write me off just because I've gotten complicated."
So, what if Re-L had instead reacted with respect for who Iggy has become. What if she had taken the first step, and instead of the two trying to force each back into who they used to be, had instead adapted and learned who they had become. Can we blame Iggy for giving up on Re-L new personality any more than we blame Re-L for giving up on Iggy's new personality? Could he have learned to change, mature, and live a new life as a grown, adapted entourage?
Or did Iggy perish when Re-L no longer needed him. Was that programmed personality so dependent and false, that it was wholly incapable of life without her needs to give it motion? These remnants. Are they the frail leftovers of a personality that lurked unused within Iggy, ("not-Iggy") that came to the forefront when Iggy disappeared from existence? Are they the beginning of a new personality, that could stabilize and fill out to become something new? Or are they who Iggy truly was, without a "programmed morality" to guide him?
(Are we utterly inhuman without society to tell us right from wrong? Maybe that's taking the metaphor a little farther than it can stretch.)

I don't know. I don't know who Iggy was, because just when he was born and helpless, he died.

But in his death. What a gift Iggy gave us. What a hint into the unknown.
Iggy showed us that his character could be so very much deeper than we ever gave him credit. His death cut it short, but maybe that is for the better. It leaves him a mystery never to be solved.

(It is astounding how flawed these characters are. Iggy is horrendous in his behavior, but he is so accurate about Re-L's flaws. Re-L is so very flawed, but so to is she accurate that Iggy is behaving like a madman. And yet, how selfless and perfect Iggy is, that he only desires to protect Re-L, even at the expense of his own life. He only, (only!) acts out of love. "My beloved Re-L." He has nothing else to guide him. Self-love for a time that he cannot reverse, but it is all he knows. Tragic heroes both, I can only wonder what would have been if they had realized their own flaws instead of focusing on each other's. It was not meant to be. Iggy cannot protect Re-L anymore. The dangers are too great (A proxy and a rogue autoreiv) but also Re-L must grow up or it is all meaningless. Re-L cannot, even if she wanted, depend on Iggy any more. It would mean she never matures and it would mean she denies who she is. She has her own purpose to pursue in life, and sad though it is, she must no longer be Iggy's other half.)


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