I always knew those Platonists were crazy.
I suppose he’s right that the avatars are closer to an ideal, at least more so than normal people. I mean, the online “draggle” is closer to the ideal “draggle” than the real “draggle”. Except I have no idea what the ideal “draggle” is even supposed to be… but maybe that just means I don’t have a personality that’s distinctive enough.
Still, I don’t really get why these “ideal forms” are something anyone would want in and of themselves. For example, we already have the ideal form of a moronic hack in the real world. And why would anyone be happy about that? This murderer’s motivation just doesn’t make much sense to me. I could see why you would want a specific ideal form, but I can’t understand why you would want to have ideal forms in general.
PSYCHO PASS is not Moe
PSYCHO PASS is not moe.
PSYCHO PASS is not moe.
PSYCHO PASS is not moe.
PSYCHO PASS is not moe.
Further Thoughts
That was certainly not what I expected him to do with the alcohol. It seems really dangerous to have holograms like this everywhere. They get in the way of the police a lot. You’d think that the police would have a way to disable these things. For a totalitarian state, they sure don’t put much stock in safety standards.
Shoot first, ask questions later. Actually, more like don’t ask any questions at all. This seems really silly. You can’t find co-conspirators, which you’d think the police would be interested in. It’s not like this guy presented any sort of physical threat to the police at the moment, either.
This guy was an awful antagonist. He had no clear motive, and we never even learned that much about him. Psycho-Pass seems more focused on implementing “edgy” themes and ideas than actually creating a good anime.
I’ve been trying to defend the Sibyl system just to see if I could, but this is turning into a losing battle. These detectives literally stormed into this guy’s room, surrounded him and turned an unarmed man into a puddle of blood. Although they’ve been morally ambiguous up to this point, this is the first time they’ve killed anybody in such an inhumane fashion. At least before they had reasons (even if they weren’t very good).
The next episode (#6) boosts exactly your thoughts, the guy had no motive. He just wanted to kill, and was given the power to do so by a mysterious benefactor.
I’ve given up on attempting to defend the Sibyl system as well. It’s pretty hard to justify a system that encourages the murder of unarmed men surrounded by police.
I’m hopeful that the boss of this week’s villain will have some better motivations.
Re ideals: As I understood it, Makishima’s idea was like this: Humans try to realize a specific ideal if they choose an avatar and to get rid of what limits them in the real world. The avatar remains imperfect, though, because it’s just an imperfect human who owns it. I think Makishima tried to free the avatars from the meddling of human nature. This would have been a nice idea (safe for the murders!) if the avatars were to continue their lives by themselves, now unspoilt by their owners’ influence. Avatars, however, are more like puppets and can’t exist w/o an owner. Makishima did not set free those avatars, therefore, but just changed the person of their owner, maybe delusionally thinking he, Makishima, would be the “ideal” owner.
Re moe: Love the third pic from above in that section!
Re holograms: As I understand it the holograms work the same way as painting a garden bench brown and calling it a leather sofa. Or do the holograms also add the tactical experience of the item they are presenting? Reminds me of the bread in Jintai. PSYCHO PASS society might turn out to be quite miserable in terms of material wealth. Maybe the earth’s resources are gone and everything is just Ersatz covered by holograms?
That was my understanding as well of his ideal. I’m not sure there was really a problem in his execution as the avatar’s puppeteer though, it seemed the fans thought the avatars were closer to their ideal under his operation than they were before. Not that your concern wouldn’t be valid, I’m just not sure the show was trying to say that.
That’s an interesting thought. All of the town fountains and decorations are faked with holograms. I wouldn’t say that means they’re poor though— with such excellent holograms, who needs the real thing? Now they are free to invest their wealth in more important pursuits than decorations.