Mouloxas said:And they don't have to go full edge mode to show that he's a racist that hates demons and gods.
I just think it’s wrong to confuse his duty as a king and his personality, these are not the same, being king binds him and puts him outside of the crowd. A king is judged differently. Like when people said that he was an asshole for imprisoning Nina – but Nina took part in a terrorist attack and an assassination attempt at an authority that cost lives. He’d have been much more of an asshole as a king if he hadn’t imprisoned her, and this responsibility is more important than his feelings.
So why is he racist? I mean this exact word. A lot of insults are thrown at the character, but many of them don’t make sense. As a person Charioce clearly isn’t. If he was interested in torturing demons for fun he could have torture fairs around his throne all days of the week, but he doesn’t, instead he chastises Kaisar for not looking properly at a fight in the coliseum, because it’s not respectful to the demon fighters. And he talks to Dante and Belphegor before ordering to attack them. It’s obvious that he recognises personalities and value in demons, but yeah, he pits them in coliseum because it gives him bonus support points for his riskier plans. He works for humans and humans alone. You don't necessary need to be racist to wage a war on someone too or hate someone for that matter.
Additionally let’s not forget that their level of development is Middle Ages, and slavery wasn’t seen the same way as it is now. Hell, colonialism lasted way into XX century. The setting is modernized, but not completely, so bashing Charioce, say, for being an absolute monarch in absolute monarchy (I love the argument that he suppresses free speech, for example) or a conqueror in a pre-globalization period isn’t exactly fair. And this is going a bit far, but I honestly would be very surprised to learn that demons in their world don’t use slaves, that’s just too much their style.
Mouloxas said: Also, i may be wrong on that one, but didn't they use hostages to draw out Azazel in one of the earlier episodes? EDIT: I went back and checked, and he actually did. In episode 3, Charioce had brought some demon hostages in the town square, was torturing them and threatening to behead them one by one until the rag demon came out.
Yeah, they used hostages to draw out Azazel, who has been running amok in the capital for a while and whom they have failed to catch in another way. They evacuated humans and set up an operation. That’s a sound plan, as far I know such things are still practised in war situations.
The most surprising thing is that they actually didn’t kill any of the demons. They zapped one demon with a green field, but we know that the field is painful, but doesn’t have lasting effects. Basically the king, for whom killing demons is not new at all, just ran around a bunch of them and shouted. That’s a lot of self-restraint, and it’s even illogical – they could’ve started to kill them to get to business faster and, most importantly, make demons hate Azazel.
Mouloxas said:See, that's what i hate. The fact that we view the demons with some prejudice compared to the other races. As i've already said, humans are doing the same things demons did back in season 1
But, er, that’s the point – demons did this in season 1, i.e. first. Favaro was earning money by fighting dangerous demons who killed humans. Azazel did whatever to people’s lives for centuries. Then demons continued to do the same after the war as seen in Jeanne’s flashback. I seriously doubt that individual humans invaded demon cities and killed through them – they just couldn’t technically. And we haven’t seen demons doing anything good for humans at all, actually we haven’t even seen them doing anything else, so the hate isn’t unfounded. That is partially because of poor writing, but the facts stand.
Mouloxas said: You know, Azazel has shown way more emotion and acts way more human than Charioce has ever done in the entirety of this show. He fought all alone in the beginning, he really cares about his demon brethren, he has lost many of his comrades, he would cry for an angel, he would fall into despair.
Azazel sure has shown a lot of feelings. And sadly Charioce hasn’t – I don’t know why they always make him so static. But Azazel hasn’t expressed any remorse over killing humans or gotten to the idea that him messing their lives also contributed to the animosity towards demons. He has learned to compromise a bit, because he is down, but it doesn’t look like he has stopped being murderous. Now he is racist as a person – he has no empathy for humans, because they’re inferior to him. And, well, on the matters of Mugaro and caring for one’s brethren, the king tried to date a half dragon girl and is giving his life for his people. Azazel initially thought that Mugaro was one of the demon slaves, that's why he picked him. Azazel is a terrific character, but humane he is not, he wouldn't accept such a definition himself, probably. (Actually I don't understand where they're taking him at this point, if he is supposed to be redeemed, and in whose eyes.)
Finally, I am not sure about the whole discussion about justification. Charioce has done a lot of bad things, but as to why he has done them – it’s clear and easy to understand: before him demons killed innocent kids in human cities, now they don’t. It’s undeniably an improvement for humans. We don’t know what’s his final big goal is, but he drones about wanting to make human lives better, he did and he does. There’s a reason behind his actions. And that makes him at the very least not evil for the sake of evil, so it’s possible to empathize with him too. I don’t see the show portraying him as good, because he is in the position of the main antagonist, continuously likened to Bahamut, everyone good gangs on him. But do we truly need to always agree with a character to care about them? I don’t get this, because why? They can have their own reasoning and circumstances, they can have flaws (btw, Azazel, ahem). And Charioce is way too interesting – he is a history changer and an uncommon personality, so it’s possible to forgive some of the weaker moments in writing.
Eh, I’ve typed this, but we should probably agree to disagree to save time. |