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On watching Gungrave again. This must be my fourth or fifth time through, and as with the best stories, I’m still spotting new things--and am aware I’m missing others. Below the cut, Harry observations with rampant spoilers, including substantial Iliad comparison.
Iliad Thought:
If Brandon is Patroclus and Harry is Achilles, then Big Daddy is somewhat in the role of Hector in that he is the recipient of the epic rage over the loss of the friend (though in Harry's case, the perception is that BD has stolen the friend rather than killed him).
One can only take this analogy so far, and yet the scene in which Harry kills Big Daddy is very Achillean. As Big Daddy lies there in a bloody mess on the floor, completely dead and quite done with talking back, Harry says that it's not enough. It hasn't quenched his rage. This is his dragging-Hector-around-the-walls moment. It's like the beginning, too, of book 24, in which Achilles has already killed Hector, dragged his body, denied him burial, dragged him some more, etc., etc., and none of it helps. He is still groaning in misery over the loss of Patroclus, because revenge does not cure grief. And though the nature of the conflicts in the two stories is very different, this message is surprisingly similar across 2700 years. (This episode is also the point after which the narratives of Gungrave and the Iliad diverge. Gungrave has no Athena figure to bring Harry to his senses. The nearest it has is Mika, God help them.)
One effect of Gungrave on my psyche is to shed new light on the Iliad. It's not a new thought that one can read Achilles's rage (albeit anachronistically) as something of a projection onto Hector (and Briseis) of his anger at himself at letting Patroclus fight in his place. I have, however, not devoted much thought to the idea of Achilles's anger at Patroclus--or Patroclus's at Achilles. There's room for anger on both accounts. Patroclus doesn't follow Achilles's instructions to stop his charge at driving the Trojans away from the ships. He's reckless and gets himself killed: naturally Achilles would be angry at him. As for Patroclus, his stubborn friend is letting the Trojans kill their comrades in a completely inappropriate way. We know Patroclus doesn't agree with this; he doesn't express his disagreement in angry terms, but the anger could well be there. Unlike the situation with Harry and Brandon, this anger is all suppressed (or projected). Achilles and Patroclus can't take on board the idea that they could be furious at each other. Yet Achilles's fury, like Harry's, is so beyond the pale that it reads well as an outgrowth of a much a more personal rage at himself and his friend than at Hector, who was, after all, just doing his job.
Harry's Fall
I've been tracking the trajectory of Harry's fall from grace more closely than I had before. It's actually fairly abrupt. He spends about four years building his power: investing in zombie technology, embezzling money from Millennion, assembling his team, and so on. But while this is crooked, and certainly "betrayal" of Millennion even by ethical standards less draconian than the Iron Code, it's not psychotic by mafia standards. Rather it's the somewhat ruthless--but not conscienceless--behavior of a very ambitious go-getter.
This frames Brandon's letter to Big Daddy as quite reasonable. He notes Harry's machinations but says he has to believe Harry is doing this for the good of Millennion. He doesn't want to doubt his best friend. But he also doesn't have a whole lot of reason to until near the end. Harry connives, but he appears decently content with Big Daddy's reign; he doesn't attempt to undermine it--not until he himself is threatened with exposure.
Then, Randy threatens to expose him, so Harry has him killed. This is his first real, brutal move against a Millennion person (also the moment Bear Walken realizes he's made a horrible, irrevocable mistake in giving his daughter to this man).
The next blow is Big Daddy's announcement that he's appointing some single-episode extra be his successor. This pisses Harry off, but even here, Harry does not immediately show signs of acting violently against Big Daddy to "correct" it. His initial response suggests a willingness to entertain the idea of biding his time since he's young yet and the man named as successor is not too much younger than Big Daddy.
Of course, we don't get much chance to see how Harry would react to this because the announcement of succession is, that same night, overshadowed by Brandon's announcement that he would kill Harry if Harry ever betrayed Millennion. This is what sends Harry over the edge.
(It should be noted that Harry is not hearing what Brandon is actually saying. Brandon is saying, "I'll kill anyone--including Harry--who betrays the ideals of the institution. I will do what is right." Harry is hearing, "I'll kill Harry if he betrays you, Big Daddy. I will choose you over him." This miscommunication does not get cleared up for about fourteen years.)
From that night on, Harry is playing a bloody and aggressive game, and he's doing so largely to see what Brandon will do about it. He's testing him. Within three months, he offs the unimportant successor guy, and while he doesn't exactly admit to this, he must guess Brandon won't miss the convenient timing of the man's death. The big test, of course, is the test in the elevator, where he proposes killing Big Daddy. Harry's chief goal is not to get rid of Big Daddy; it is to assess whether Brandon will choose Big Daddy or Harry when push comes to shove. In Harry's eyes, Brandon fails this test, and the rest is history.
Proposing to Someone You Know Will Say No
In his last three months before killing Brandon, Harry is much in the position of someone gearing himself up to propose marriage to someone he knows will turn him down.
Why do we put ourselves through farces like that? We do it when our most heartfelt desires conflict with our powers of perception. All the evidence tells us one thing, but we can't accept it because we want so very terribly for the reverse to be the truth. So we lie to ourselves and go through endless logical contortions, all to try to convince ourselves that maybe, just maybe, if we take the plunge, we will be pleasantly surprised by the outcome. But inside we know what we're going to hear.
Brandon will not agree to kill Big Daddy with Harry. Harry knows this, and in his mind, this is tantamount to Brandon's deserting him for Big Daddy. But Harry can't accept that. He needs to believe that it's possible that he can--as he sees it--win Brandon back. He needs Brandon. He can't see a way forward in which Brandon has chosen someone else. So they spend a melancholy day together, pretending they're still on good terms, and then Harry proposes marriage, and Brandon turns him down.
Did Harry Intend to Shoot Him?
For three months, Harry has been in agony. In his mind, Brandon has put him through this agony. No wonder he's enraged at him. No wonder he's coming to hate him. My guess is that pretty damn soon after hearing that Brandon would be willing to shoot him, Harry starts telling himself that he's quite willing to shoot Brandon. In his mind, this would be no more than turnabout being fair play.
But there's a gulf between ideation and act, and Brandon is his best friend, and Harry wants to believe he can win him back. So in his mind, he creates a scenario with two possible outcomes. He will test Brandon--he'll give him a chance to prove his loyalty, and either Brandon will do so or Harry will kill him. This is frightening, frightening game, a marriage proposal with the stakes raised to infinity. So Harry puts it off because he can't quite work up the courage.
My guess is all that last day Harry is planning to pop the question. My guess is he initially planned to do it hours before they ended up silently heading back to the office in that elevator. Maybe he planned to it out at pier or on the open road, surrounded by memories of better times. But it was easier just to pretend they were having fun, and chance after chance slipped away until it was the end of the day and he couldn't put it off anymore.
I don't think he had really, seriously come to grips with the reality of killing Brandon. I think he'd thought about it. I think he'd told himself he'd do it. But as a real plan, it's a horrible plan: to stand in point blank range of someone who has said he will kill you for betraying Millennion and betray Millennion to his face, knowing he can outshoot you any day of the week, and to do this without even having your gun in your hand. Harry is flying on emotion. The thrust of his act is to give Brandon that final chance.
And he really gives it to him. He exposes himself to Brandon body and soul. He places himself physically in a position where Brandon could easily kill him and gives him ample reason to. He lays all his cards on the table. He tells him exactly what he plans to do. He even tells him the big secret of the past four years: that he's been hoarding a secret power that can take him straight to the top. He shows Brandon everything.
Brandon's response, of course, could have been "worse." He could have killed Harry right there; he believed he should. Instead, he drops the gun, but that can't erase the fact he raised it. And for Harry, that's enough. "I killed him because he pointed a gun at me," he tells Big Daddy, and this is absolutely honest. Brandon failed the test, and Harry shot him because that was the only other option, because he couldn't contain the fury anymore. He did it only half aware, I think, of what he was really doing. He spends the rest of his life figuring out the other half.
Iliad Thought:
If Brandon is Patroclus and Harry is Achilles, then Big Daddy is somewhat in the role of Hector in that he is the recipient of the epic rage over the loss of the friend (though in Harry's case, the perception is that BD has stolen the friend rather than killed him).
One can only take this analogy so far, and yet the scene in which Harry kills Big Daddy is very Achillean. As Big Daddy lies there in a bloody mess on the floor, completely dead and quite done with talking back, Harry says that it's not enough. It hasn't quenched his rage. This is his dragging-Hector-around-the-walls moment. It's like the beginning, too, of book 24, in which Achilles has already killed Hector, dragged his body, denied him burial, dragged him some more, etc., etc., and none of it helps. He is still groaning in misery over the loss of Patroclus, because revenge does not cure grief. And though the nature of the conflicts in the two stories is very different, this message is surprisingly similar across 2700 years. (This episode is also the point after which the narratives of Gungrave and the Iliad diverge. Gungrave has no Athena figure to bring Harry to his senses. The nearest it has is Mika, God help them.)
One effect of Gungrave on my psyche is to shed new light on the Iliad. It's not a new thought that one can read Achilles's rage (albeit anachronistically) as something of a projection onto Hector (and Briseis) of his anger at himself at letting Patroclus fight in his place. I have, however, not devoted much thought to the idea of Achilles's anger at Patroclus--or Patroclus's at Achilles. There's room for anger on both accounts. Patroclus doesn't follow Achilles's instructions to stop his charge at driving the Trojans away from the ships. He's reckless and gets himself killed: naturally Achilles would be angry at him. As for Patroclus, his stubborn friend is letting the Trojans kill their comrades in a completely inappropriate way. We know Patroclus doesn't agree with this; he doesn't express his disagreement in angry terms, but the anger could well be there. Unlike the situation with Harry and Brandon, this anger is all suppressed (or projected). Achilles and Patroclus can't take on board the idea that they could be furious at each other. Yet Achilles's fury, like Harry's, is so beyond the pale that it reads well as an outgrowth of a much a more personal rage at himself and his friend than at Hector, who was, after all, just doing his job.
Harry's Fall
I've been tracking the trajectory of Harry's fall from grace more closely than I had before. It's actually fairly abrupt. He spends about four years building his power: investing in zombie technology, embezzling money from Millennion, assembling his team, and so on. But while this is crooked, and certainly "betrayal" of Millennion even by ethical standards less draconian than the Iron Code, it's not psychotic by mafia standards. Rather it's the somewhat ruthless--but not conscienceless--behavior of a very ambitious go-getter.
This frames Brandon's letter to Big Daddy as quite reasonable. He notes Harry's machinations but says he has to believe Harry is doing this for the good of Millennion. He doesn't want to doubt his best friend. But he also doesn't have a whole lot of reason to until near the end. Harry connives, but he appears decently content with Big Daddy's reign; he doesn't attempt to undermine it--not until he himself is threatened with exposure.
Then, Randy threatens to expose him, so Harry has him killed. This is his first real, brutal move against a Millennion person (also the moment Bear Walken realizes he's made a horrible, irrevocable mistake in giving his daughter to this man).
The next blow is Big Daddy's announcement that he's appointing some single-episode extra be his successor. This pisses Harry off, but even here, Harry does not immediately show signs of acting violently against Big Daddy to "correct" it. His initial response suggests a willingness to entertain the idea of biding his time since he's young yet and the man named as successor is not too much younger than Big Daddy.
Of course, we don't get much chance to see how Harry would react to this because the announcement of succession is, that same night, overshadowed by Brandon's announcement that he would kill Harry if Harry ever betrayed Millennion. This is what sends Harry over the edge.
(It should be noted that Harry is not hearing what Brandon is actually saying. Brandon is saying, "I'll kill anyone--including Harry--who betrays the ideals of the institution. I will do what is right." Harry is hearing, "I'll kill Harry if he betrays you, Big Daddy. I will choose you over him." This miscommunication does not get cleared up for about fourteen years.)
From that night on, Harry is playing a bloody and aggressive game, and he's doing so largely to see what Brandon will do about it. He's testing him. Within three months, he offs the unimportant successor guy, and while he doesn't exactly admit to this, he must guess Brandon won't miss the convenient timing of the man's death. The big test, of course, is the test in the elevator, where he proposes killing Big Daddy. Harry's chief goal is not to get rid of Big Daddy; it is to assess whether Brandon will choose Big Daddy or Harry when push comes to shove. In Harry's eyes, Brandon fails this test, and the rest is history.
Proposing to Someone You Know Will Say No
In his last three months before killing Brandon, Harry is much in the position of someone gearing himself up to propose marriage to someone he knows will turn him down.
Why do we put ourselves through farces like that? We do it when our most heartfelt desires conflict with our powers of perception. All the evidence tells us one thing, but we can't accept it because we want so very terribly for the reverse to be the truth. So we lie to ourselves and go through endless logical contortions, all to try to convince ourselves that maybe, just maybe, if we take the plunge, we will be pleasantly surprised by the outcome. But inside we know what we're going to hear.
Brandon will not agree to kill Big Daddy with Harry. Harry knows this, and in his mind, this is tantamount to Brandon's deserting him for Big Daddy. But Harry can't accept that. He needs to believe that it's possible that he can--as he sees it--win Brandon back. He needs Brandon. He can't see a way forward in which Brandon has chosen someone else. So they spend a melancholy day together, pretending they're still on good terms, and then Harry proposes marriage, and Brandon turns him down.
Did Harry Intend to Shoot Him?
For three months, Harry has been in agony. In his mind, Brandon has put him through this agony. No wonder he's enraged at him. No wonder he's coming to hate him. My guess is that pretty damn soon after hearing that Brandon would be willing to shoot him, Harry starts telling himself that he's quite willing to shoot Brandon. In his mind, this would be no more than turnabout being fair play.
But there's a gulf between ideation and act, and Brandon is his best friend, and Harry wants to believe he can win him back. So in his mind, he creates a scenario with two possible outcomes. He will test Brandon--he'll give him a chance to prove his loyalty, and either Brandon will do so or Harry will kill him. This is frightening, frightening game, a marriage proposal with the stakes raised to infinity. So Harry puts it off because he can't quite work up the courage.
My guess is all that last day Harry is planning to pop the question. My guess is he initially planned to do it hours before they ended up silently heading back to the office in that elevator. Maybe he planned to it out at pier or on the open road, surrounded by memories of better times. But it was easier just to pretend they were having fun, and chance after chance slipped away until it was the end of the day and he couldn't put it off anymore.
I don't think he had really, seriously come to grips with the reality of killing Brandon. I think he'd thought about it. I think he'd told himself he'd do it. But as a real plan, it's a horrible plan: to stand in point blank range of someone who has said he will kill you for betraying Millennion and betray Millennion to his face, knowing he can outshoot you any day of the week, and to do this without even having your gun in your hand. Harry is flying on emotion. The thrust of his act is to give Brandon that final chance.
And he really gives it to him. He exposes himself to Brandon body and soul. He places himself physically in a position where Brandon could easily kill him and gives him ample reason to. He lays all his cards on the table. He tells him exactly what he plans to do. He even tells him the big secret of the past four years: that he's been hoarding a secret power that can take him straight to the top. He shows Brandon everything.
Brandon's response, of course, could have been "worse." He could have killed Harry right there; he believed he should. Instead, he drops the gun, but that can't erase the fact he raised it. And for Harry, that's enough. "I killed him because he pointed a gun at me," he tells Big Daddy, and this is absolutely honest. Brandon failed the test, and Harry shot him because that was the only other option, because he couldn't contain the fury anymore. He did it only half aware, I think, of what he was really doing. He spends the rest of his life figuring out the other half.