Brief Gungrave--Thoughts on Lee
Jan. 25th, 2012 09:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
labingiContinuing the Gungrave rewatch, I have brief thoughts on Lee and how Harry (inadvertently) broke him.
(Spoilers follow)
Lee was always an ambitious man, rather in Harry's mold. And he seems to have been raised in a dysfunctional, possibly murderous family, and was apparently trained to be a ninja, so I figure he was a bit odd (and scary) for some time before Harry met him. But at around 20, he was also within striking distance of mafia-ninja normality, a far cry from the sadist he's become by the time he's around 40.
What changed him was the conflict between his loyalty to Millennion (read, Harry--and Bob) and his loyalty to his brother, Cannon Vulcan. Now Lee was not close to his brother, whom he suspected of killing their father, but the inviolability of family is theme in all the sub-cultures in Gungrave, and if we are meant to think of the Lees as Fantasy!Korean-American, for example, family would certainly be a strong value. A combination of fraternal loyalty and personal ambition almost convinced Lee to sell Harry out. (And Bob? More on this later.*)
But Harry forgave him. (The dynamics of Harry's ability to forgive Lee's "betrayal" but not Brandon's could be an essay in itself, but we'll leave that.) He forgave him in a show of personal loyalty and affection, "Because it's you, Lee." And in that moment, I think, both Lee's motives shifted. He recognized Harry's power, and therefore, the ambitious part of him found siding with Harry prudent. But he was also moved by Harry's investment in him. Harry treats him better than his brother does, so he turns toward Harry.
The next step is to kill his brother (who is in possession of the weird science Harry wants to possess). But Lee can't do this. He tries, but he can't. Harry calls this Lee's "limit," without any show of disappointment or disapproval. He understands that sometimes you just can't kill your brother. So Harry kills Cannon Vulcan instead. This puts Lee in the position of having given his loyalty to the man who murders his brother in front of him. And this breaks him.
From this point on, his images of Harry-as-murderer and Harry-as-beloved-boss are inextricably entangled. He admires Harry; he holds him up as a role model for how to achieve and maintain power. But of Harry's many qualities, Lee is most aware of his ruthlessness. If anything, he overestimates how coldblooded Harry can really be.
Thus, to emulate Harry--to be worthy of him--Lee states explicitly 17-odd years later he needs to excise all emotional sentiment. He eventually takes to torturing people to death because he wants to attain Harry's coldness. Or that's his story. It's really more complicated, of course, mixed up with his murderous childhood and guilt over his brother's death and so on. But watching Harry kill his brother was the event that set his murderousness free.
(*Lee would seem to be selling out Bob too in selling out Harry, and this is hard to believe. He loves Bob. Possible answers: 1) Bob was in on it; he's certainly capable of being that conniving. 2) Lee was going to bring Bob in once he had definitively scored big with his brother. It is, nonetheless, a nice expression of Harry's knowledge of Lee--and of friendship--that his statement that Lee's behavior would disappoint Bob is one of the central statements that brings Lee back to his side.)
(Spoilers follow)
Lee was always an ambitious man, rather in Harry's mold. And he seems to have been raised in a dysfunctional, possibly murderous family, and was apparently trained to be a ninja, so I figure he was a bit odd (and scary) for some time before Harry met him. But at around 20, he was also within striking distance of mafia-ninja normality, a far cry from the sadist he's become by the time he's around 40.
What changed him was the conflict between his loyalty to Millennion (read, Harry--and Bob) and his loyalty to his brother, Cannon Vulcan. Now Lee was not close to his brother, whom he suspected of killing their father, but the inviolability of family is theme in all the sub-cultures in Gungrave, and if we are meant to think of the Lees as Fantasy!Korean-American, for example, family would certainly be a strong value. A combination of fraternal loyalty and personal ambition almost convinced Lee to sell Harry out. (And Bob? More on this later.*)
But Harry forgave him. (The dynamics of Harry's ability to forgive Lee's "betrayal" but not Brandon's could be an essay in itself, but we'll leave that.) He forgave him in a show of personal loyalty and affection, "Because it's you, Lee." And in that moment, I think, both Lee's motives shifted. He recognized Harry's power, and therefore, the ambitious part of him found siding with Harry prudent. But he was also moved by Harry's investment in him. Harry treats him better than his brother does, so he turns toward Harry.
The next step is to kill his brother (who is in possession of the weird science Harry wants to possess). But Lee can't do this. He tries, but he can't. Harry calls this Lee's "limit," without any show of disappointment or disapproval. He understands that sometimes you just can't kill your brother. So Harry kills Cannon Vulcan instead. This puts Lee in the position of having given his loyalty to the man who murders his brother in front of him. And this breaks him.
From this point on, his images of Harry-as-murderer and Harry-as-beloved-boss are inextricably entangled. He admires Harry; he holds him up as a role model for how to achieve and maintain power. But of Harry's many qualities, Lee is most aware of his ruthlessness. If anything, he overestimates how coldblooded Harry can really be.
Thus, to emulate Harry--to be worthy of him--Lee states explicitly 17-odd years later he needs to excise all emotional sentiment. He eventually takes to torturing people to death because he wants to attain Harry's coldness. Or that's his story. It's really more complicated, of course, mixed up with his murderous childhood and guilt over his brother's death and so on. But watching Harry kill his brother was the event that set his murderousness free.
(*Lee would seem to be selling out Bob too in selling out Harry, and this is hard to believe. He loves Bob. Possible answers: 1) Bob was in on it; he's certainly capable of being that conniving. 2) Lee was going to bring Bob in once he had definitively scored big with his brother. It is, nonetheless, a nice expression of Harry's knowledge of Lee--and of friendship--that his statement that Lee's behavior would disappoint Bob is one of the central statements that brings Lee back to his side.)
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Date: 2012-01-26 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-26 11:13 pm (UTC)