A Story of Logic and Immorality -- Insights On Suikoden V's Cutscene, "Beaver Lodge Under Attack!"
Updated: Mar 11
(Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4cRqFYo73o )
The Immorality of Minority Isolation
A flicker ignites, a village engulfed in flames. My eyes watched as the cutscene unfolded, showcasing a plot with chilling logic built on a foundation of abhorrent, merciless morality. The irony clawed at my conscience: a video game resonated with an unsettling truth about the consequences of blind obedience and the illogicality of hate.
A psychotic character named Dolph, commanded his legion of lethal assassins known as the Nether Gate, raining fire upon a secluded village of sentient beavers. The beaver's crime was their choice to live in seclusion from the rest of the Queendom of Falena. A desire for quietude, an escape from the civil war beyond their settlement (and in general). Their hostile, collective isolationism, parallel to the real-life Sentinelese, is a shield against conflict. On the other hand, it's also their executioners' justification for a more-homogonous society.
To quote the extremely ruthless Dolph:
"When differerent people and different cultures collide, a nation suffers. And yours is the most vile of cultures... His Excellency wants a Falena for Falenans"
His logic, a twisted reasoning that tries to justify genocide, unravelled before my eyes. To sacrifice lives for borders drawn on maps, to deem existence unworthy based on lines of loyalty – what madness was this, if not a reference to ideologies such as anti-semetism?
Yet, within Dolph's warped rationale, I glimpsed a chilling logic. Those deemed outside the circle of nationhood, the "insufficiently involved," were deemed unnecessary. Expendable sacrifices on the altar of national unity. An actually-vile notion, pretending to be humane logic, paints cultural isolation as a crime punishable by annihilation.
Such is the systematic genocide attempts of people, whether succeed or fail: Purely logical and based upon the perception of excessiveness not as a potential virtue but as a great liability that needs to be cut off.
When you consider something -- or some people -- as "not pure" in any way, to be worthy to reside within your territories, the purely-cold logical thing to do is to dispose of them. It's like purifying a drug from impure material -- some components "have to go".
I can comprehend the twistedly-pure logic, the cold efficiency of Dolph's act by playing the devil's advocate. But to accept it as legitimate? To equate peaceful isolation, where no harm to the external world is desired by the people as an indication for planned extinction?
No. Even if they are not their own self-defined nation, why exterminate a peaceful populace? No man, no kingdom, held the right to extinguish lives seeking solace, their desire for harmony no justification for such barbarity. Even if they are within a country that isn't their own, does not justify it.
And then, amidst the embers of the ravaged village, hope arose from the ashes from the destruction. The protagonist and their rebel army, defying the tide of injustice, rescued the beavers. After lives spent in solitude, they were forced out of their sanctuary by flames and fury, and these beavers chose a new path. They joined the rebels' fight, not for conquest, but for the overthrow of the tyrannical regime that had usurped the throne through the blood of the protagonist's own parents.
Such is the good that can stem from the natural evil of vengeance.
The beavers' choice mirrored a profound truth: Sometimes, the quietest of introverts can rise the loudest, fueled by the fires of fury. Their isolation, once a shield, became the crucible that forged their resolve. In choosing to fight, they defied the logic of purification, proving that the desire for peace can be the spark that ignites revolution. For peace is often fought with war and blood.
Conclusion
The story serves as a stark reminder that logic, devoid of empathy and compassion, can become a twisted blade. It challenged the notion that isolation equates to weakness, highlighting the quiet strength found in seeking peace.
