[SPOILER] Click here to see my commentary for this page!
My comment for this page from Gaia: sic mundus creatus est:In these two pages, San is finally showing her true intentions. Naturally, that generated a huge number of comments. I was a bit surprised how many readers plainly called San “evil” although she doesn’t say or do anything particularly evil. She’s just showing her “will to power”. I particularly like the last panel with San’s smug grin and King Savos’ hard-to-read facial expression.
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I’ve always found San to be one of the funniest characters in Gaia. Girl’s got ambition. I get people find San a bit hard to trust after she Holy Light’d the ruler of dragons into submission, which is… less than acceptable from a diplomatic stand point… Aolilatse wasn’t acting very civil either. When the literal fate of the world is at hand I don’t blame San for wanting to resolve the meeting as soon as possible.
Since she’s the High Priestess, it’s hard to believe that San’s ambitions to rule the world are completely selfish. She was kept out of the public eye and was likely raised to strictly adhere and believe in the doctrines of the church… in retrospect, I think San’s ambition was “I alone have the power, as chosen by Gaia, to make this world a better place.”
I’m not saying she was right or anything, but I’d at least put her in the camp of Lawful Neutral
Honestly, I feel like San (with some degree of foresight from having read the comic before) is less *evil* and more ambitious/power hungry. Perhaps this comes from a noble place (“I’m the chosen one so only I can rule responsibly” kind of thing), but I get why people would be put off by it.
At this point, all we’ve seen is San call Lilith evil/harmful (when we probably like Lilith and are worried about her), assault someone with magic (yes said dragon was being rude, but it’s still assaulting with light and possibly harming them), and then proclaim (in private, but visible to the audience) that she intends to crown herself queen because she’s “chosen” and will use that chosen title to get rid of anyone she disapproves of even if they have many followers. Now, it’s early on, so we haven’t seen any other aspects of her character, but a snap judgement based off this isn’t the most illogical.
Overall, San looks to be incredibly confident, perhaps arrogant in how she acts. A strong first impression either way!
I wonder at what point of the story San and Savos became a couple. Was it a love at first sight kinda thing (or maybe a “they both realized they could benefit from such a relationship” ploy after their first meeting), or something more recent to current events?
I really should not be a surprise that the “will to power” is seen as inherently evil. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is a classic example of this view on the desire for power – and not least how the desire to rule, which she clearly expresses, is inherently an evil desire.
San here expresses her desire to dominate other free-willed, sentient (or “sapient”, rather) beings, and has in the previous pages clearly demonstrated how she is quite happy to use force to achieve that domination. It is more surprising to me that anyone would not see her words and actions over the past few pages as quite forceful indications of evil.
How is it not evil to use one’s overwhelming power to self-appoint oneself as the ruler of everything? How can you expect such a ruler to be just?
@ Troelsfo:
Yeah this. (And Pylgrim’s comment.) I am baffled by the author’s surprise.
@ Troelsfo:
There seems to be a bit of a divide here. From my viewpoint, what she is doing, and the agendas she is portraying, seems to be more in the category of a way of thinking that’s commonly called “noblesse oblige”. Similar to “with great power comes great responsibility”. If one follows that way of thinking, a “will to power” doesn’t necessarily stem from evil, and shouldn’t just be dismissed as such. However, it is easily corrupted to evil in the full passing of time, and is abundantly displayed in our history to have consistently devolved into practices which degrade the bloodlines of those who cling to power, and lead empires to ruin in the process. This is largely why I consider the idea of emperors and kings and queens to be abhorrent and inherently false, since the mechanisms to keep power over generations usually leads to progressively greater levels of depravity and incest, to be perfectly frank. So, while it seems I might be rambling slightly, the point of what I have to say is that it doesn’t start off as evil to have a will for power, but it usually ends up evil when taken to it’s logical conclusion, that is, the successive generations of power that follow after.
@Chris
I feel like we live in different worlds. In the one I live, authoritarian behaviour is generally considered evil, no matter what pretty words you dress it up in. Even from a pure utilitarian perspective, ignoring opinions of others and suppressing dissenting views with violence and intimidation leads to quite suboptimal outcomes. It has nothing to do with inheritance.
@ Fan:
The problem is when people confuse the majority rule for being in the right. Sometimes it seems like someone is imposing themselves unjustly on the people, but imagine if the people in question were bent towards completely unwholesome viewpoints? I am not arguing in favor for authoritarian behavior, by the way, just simply pointing out that having a knee jerk reaction towards rejecting any authoritarian slant is also as unhealthy as buying into it wholesale. So, I will say that your words notwithstanding, we do live in the same world, just that you obviously have your own biases at play here, as do I.
@ Chris:
No way. “Knee jerk reaction” against authoritarianism is a quite negative spin on a very necessary thing to do. Tolerating even the first inklings of fascism or despotism may very well waste your one chance before they acquire the means opf power and next time you want to voice a dissenting opinion, your loved ones may never hear from you again. But hey, it’s for the “greater good”, right? What is a few dozens of thousands suffering brutal tortures in a gulag if the tales of their suffering
intimidatesconvinces millions to bend the knee and accept the glorious peace the great and wise leader is offering?Even if you wanted to argue that a ruthless population needs tough love and a firm guiding hand to save them, a good, humane, decent would-be-leader would attempt to raise them all from the ground up, rather than raising oneself and then decreeing everybody to behave or else.
The people need a strong hand and holy guidance! Which is why you should all do what _I_ say. Don’t listen to those self-interested tyrants.
@ Pylgrim:
Here’s the thing, though. I wasn’t arguing for any of that. Not the gulag stuff, not the horrid tortures, not anything like that. What I will say, though, is that our history books are absolutely drenched in blood, and suffering, and torture, and censorship. All forms of government, no matter what, have some bloody hands. We have kingdoms and empires whose beginnings were the worst forms of authoritarianism and dictatorships, but they had good “PR” in the form of being able to dictate as victors what went into their respective history books. When I say *knee-jerk”, what I really meant was that all forms of authority eventually get corrupted, no matter what, and pretending like an authoritative start like San’s example was worse (than usual, anyways) would be the very height of ignorance, or pretention. Anyways, knowing what I do about her (in the specific context of this story), it prolly wouldn’t have come to that even if she had gotten her wish to become a leader in the way she wanted.
San seems to lack any… a graceful quality. She is always quite forceful, and demanding of those around her, and if not for her position of authority, I would struggle to think any would pay her any attention, except for her looks. The meeting of the major powers revealed a great deal about her character. She has a temper, and is willing to use divine force against an ally. He might be a tyrant, but she reduced him to a whimpering lizard. That feels wrong. It gives the impression she might not be any better than the tyrant she put down, especially as she speaks casually of replacing him, and claiming power over all.
And look… at this point I considered most of the exposition casting Lilith as some sort of magic slave to Eldor to be… of uncertain validity. Maybe exactly everything is true… but maybe there’s some play for power amidst the struggle to save the world. What’s the line… “never let a crisis go to waste”? Close enough.