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Actual Vigilante Yuri Petrov ([personal profile] lunadickery) wrote2012-04-26 03:31 pm
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[essay] What is this Thanatos thing, anyway?

SO WHAT IS UP WITH THIS THANATOS THING, ANYWAY? aka Yuri is an arrogant douchebag.


I don't know what people think of him referencing Thanatos, but I consider Thanatos to be...a literary allusion. Not a voice in his head, not a stand in for his father, not a separate personality manufactured by his broken psyche, but just an allusion that he refers to because he's an arrogant snob.

My reason for thinking this? His character song. Translations of Lunatic's character song are by [tumblr.com profile] lilyginnyblack and can be found in this link. Hover over the red asterisks for the translator's notes.

Quelling the evil hearted who run rampant with [my] blue [-green] flames,
Unseemly evil will [receive] retribution from the moon.
That guide will lead all sinners to justice,
And bring Themis’ scales back into balance.

This reference to Themis makes me think that his constant reference to Thanatos is not him referring to an entity (real or imagined), but rather that he is using the thematic importance of invoking a god of death by name as a way of placing himself on a level above others. He obeys only the voice of Thanatos. This is not that he thinks that Thanatos is an actual god, or that he hears a voice that tell him what to do. Instead, he says this to be arrogant, to let others know how highly he thinks of himself. He's on a divine mission, punishing evil and destroying sinners. He's above the law, above the rules that he applies to everyone else.

That's not to say that I believe that invoking the name of Thanatos has absolutely no thematic importance to him. It's just that Yuri is a guy who has a basement lair that is purposefully kept dark and brooding with a replica of The Last Judgement on the ceiling. His invoking of these divine figures and the painting of The Last Judgement feel almost like ways of reinforcing the idea of him being on a divine mission of sorts to himself.

The thing about placing himself above other people is that it neatly evades the issue of him being one of the criminals he ought to punish. If he's above everyone else, then the rules he applies to everyone else don't apply to him. It allows him to adhere to his justice without actually have to follow it. Which brings us back to his character song.

Latching onto righteousness in the fissured darkness, day after day,
Why is it that there is no hesitancy [within me]?
In order to ridicule my own deep sin,
***
My unfading scar aches.
The whispering of "Who [really] is the most damnable one?"
Still does not reach me.

These lines are particularly interesting to me, because it brings up the point that he does, in fact, feel some sort of guilt towards his actions. So while he places himself above his self-imposed rules of what is just, he knows what he's doing is wrong. Yet at the same time, the last two lines also imply that while he feels some sort of guilt, he represses and ignores it because his mission to destroy/punish evil takes priority over his feelings. The line about hesitancy I read as him questioning more why he doesn't feel more guilty about his actions rather him questioning why he's doing what he's doing. It's not so much that he's questioning why he's doing this as much as him questioning why he doesn't feel more guilty/wrong about doing this.

Coffins are not needed, for everything shall be turned to ash,
As I bestow upon [them their] just ends.
Atonement is the only road left [for them].
I won’t allow for a single one to escape.


More reiteration of his idea that death=atonement.

Embracing my unhealed scars,
Without faltering, I inflict the punishment of an untimely death.
Wickedness, of course, leads to nothing but ruin...
***
[Something] I must consider closely reconsider [for myself].***

The translator's notes for the last line are huge, so I'm not completely clear as to what, exactly, is meant to be taken from it. My reading of it is that he's stating again how he knows—to some degree, at the very least—what he's doing is wrong, but doesn't actively feel guilty of it because he's placed himself above the petty rules of common folk or something. There is guilt brewing around in his mind, however, but it's almost...a subconscious sort of guilt that he tries to suppress. Facing his guilt would be ruinous, yet he can't ignore it either because the proof of it is right there on his face.

But he doesn't hesitate or falter because he can't. If he begins to reevaluate what he's doing and face his guilt head on, he'll probably stop doing what he's been doing, or at the very least start applying his own rules to himself. That's not something he wants to happen. There's a sort of disconnect there, where he knows what he's doing and why it's wrong, but he doesn't really acknowledge it either because he can't afford to.

And all this just makes me think that he may think of himself as even a martyr of sorts, sacrificing his conscious for the sake of the greater good, as viewed in his eyes.

Even [with them] burning in the fires of Hell,
My buried memories still cling on [to me].
***
But once I have burned all of my hated [memories]...
In order to ridicule my own deep sin,

This is just referencing his guilt that he's been kept buried. Even with him going around being, uh, justice-y, that won't eliminate the fact that he's guilty. Perhaps a part of him thinks that if he can somehow eliminate all evil from the world, he'll be rid of his guilt, but there's another part of him that knows things won't work that way. That's where the disconnection comes in—he purposefully deludes himself so he won't have a breakdown. It's not a good solution by any means, but, well... Since when did he have good ideas.

My unfading scar aches.
There is still the far off whispering of
“Who [really] is the most damnable one?”
Embracing my unhealed scars,
Without faltering, I inflict the punishment of an untimely death.
This is the form of my justice.
So now, hear the voice of Thanatos!


Okay, I'm tired. Hear the voice of Thanatos, blah blah blah

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