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labingiThe Gungrave rewatch continues with thoughts on Bunji's first showdown with Brandon. In a part of the series that is generally its weakest (the boss battles part), this episode elicits some very sound character and theme development.
Bunji Logic
Throughout his various threats/attempts to kill Brandon, Bunji keeps demanding to know why he betrayed Millennion. This, in itself, is surprising. Of any character in the series, Bunji is most obsessed with loyalty as an a priori value. Prior to joining Millennion, he'd kill who he was contracted to kill with no qualms and no questions; he would absolutely keep his word as long as his employers did likewise. After joining Millennion (or, more specifically, agreeing to follow Harry), he persists in this value system. He states, in killing Randy, that he knows Randy did not betray Millennion but he did betray Harry, and Harry is the person to whom Bunji has given his allegiance. Acts against Harry will not be tolerated--not even acts by Brandon, whom Bunji genuinely does care about, hence his rage at what perceives as Brandon's betrayal of Harry.
But why should Bunji care why? He didn't care why Randy was about to turn Harry in. "Why?" would seem to be the one question that would have no relevance in Bunji's universe. But Bunji does care about Brandon; he viewed him as a role model, and he wants to understand how his role model went astray.
Bunji also has a remarkably trenchant moment when he tells Brandon that everything that has happened since Harry's takeover of Millennion is Brandon's fault. This hits the nail on the head--in a way. Brandon is not culpable, of course. But as casus belli, he was the trigger for Harry's disintegration. Bunji, then, goes on to state that Brandon caused everything to go awry by betraying them. This part is not true. Bunji couldn't directly know that; he wasn't there, but his inability to feel his way through what really happened marks some limitations in his emotional experience.
Friendship and Loyality
Of all the principal "friends" involved in the Millennion schism, Bunji understands it least. Harry and Brandon's falling out was predicated on their being best friends, and Bunji, alone of all these people, does not define his life through best friend/primary partner bonding.
The one who probably understands best is Bear Walken, who has all the same emotional dimensions as Brandon (and similar to Harry): a conflict between abstract loyalty and his most important person (Sherry) and a previous conflict of the same nature that (but for Brandon's intervention) required him to kill his best friend, Sid. He probably has a fairly clear idea of what happened in the elevator and why. He is loyal to Harry, but his sympathies lie with Brandon.
Bob and Lee are primarily Harry's friends, but being best friends with each other, they, too, understand the emotional depths of best friendship. They understand, in a word, that Harry and Brandon fell out and that this explains everything. Until Bob's death, neither of them shows much real anger at Brandon. They'll fight him to side with Harry, but they don't seem to take it very personally--perhaps because they weren't that close to Brandon but perhaps also because they understand that ultimately it's between Brandon and Harry.
But Bunji doesn't get it. He understands friendship; he was pretty good friends with Brandon. But in terms of life partnership, he's a loner by choice, and he is ill equipped to grasp the emotional meltdown (on both sides) that led to Harry and Brandon's split. He can't understand why it happened. To him, there is only loyalty, and Brandon was supposed to be Harry's man first, end of story. So he asks a question that he thinks is simple but, in fact, is anything but.
Why Did Brandon Betray?
Brandon does not immediately answer Bunji's question. It's the wrong question; it opens a whole can of worms. His primary response to it is to beat Bunji to a pulp in a manner reminiscent of Buffy beating up Spike in the season 6 episode, "Dead Things." It's an instance of the "good warrior" losing self-control and pummeling someone out of sheer anger. This is very rare for Brandon, as it's very rare for Buffy. Bunji enrages him.
This is partly situational: he cared about Bunji too. He considered him a good friend, a true companion at arms. And he, for his part, perceives Bunji as something of a traitor for siding with Harry and not the Millennion Brandon thought he'd been training him to serve.
But part of this rage comes from his inability to field Bunji's question. At the end, he does give his reply, raggedly and as if wrenched from the depths of his soul: "I don't betray."
Brandon deeply wants to believe this; he has based his entire life on holding this value to be pre-eminent, and yet it's not entirely true. He got skewered between two loyalties such that he could not be true to one without somewhat betraying the other, and in his attempts to reconcile these conflicting interests, he did, indeed, commit acts that could described as a partial betrayal of both.
He did ultimately turn on Harry--for a moment. It was a reasonable thing to do, but for Brandon, turning on Harry is always an act that feels fundamentally wrong, whatever its motivation. It's always an act at least partly against his heart.
Of course, he waited to the last minute to turn on Harry. He tells Big Daddy in his letter that he didn't report on Harry's machinations because he wanted to give Harry the benefit of the doubt; he had to believe these acts would be for the good of Millennion. But if we want to apply the Iron Code as strictly as Brandon himself generally demands, this was a betrayal of Big Daddy's Millennion. Brandon knew, for example, that Harry had embezzled funds from the organization. To know this and not report it would be a breach of ethics in a far less rigorous organization; it certainly constitutes a breach of the Iron Code in Millennion, all the more so when compounded with inside information on how the man is working on raising the dead.
Now let's imagine for a moment that Brandon, like Randy, had moved on this information as soon as he could. If he was sufficiently careful--as his scheming with Tokioka suggests he could be--he could likely have brought Harry down. Harry would have to be killed and Bob and Lee as aiders and abetters. Bunji, whose principal loyalty is to Harry, would have had to go down as collateral damage; otherwise, he'd be going around killing people to avenge Harry. It would have been a bloody, heartbreaking mess Brandon would have hated himself for forever.
But it quite conceivably could have saved Big Daddy's life, Maria's life, the integrity of Millennion, and the lives of countless others who fell afoul of Bloody Harry over the years, and it could have forestalled all the socially disruptive effects of having super zombies terrorizing your city. For their society in general--and for the Millennion Brandon serves--it would have been far the better choice. In the end, when Brandon says he keeps choosing Harry, though it's the wrong choice, this is a large part of what he's referring to.
So Brandon did betray--both sides he cared about--while breaking his heart in the effort not to betray anybody. This is ultimately why he is so infuriated by Bunji's question. There is no easy answer to it. It's the tragedy of his life. His final stated answer, that he does not betray, is inadequate and conjures up a guilt he profoundly feels but is not yet able to face, just as Harry is not yet able to face responsibility for wronging Brandon.
So why did Brandon betray? Because he tried not to?
[Bunji side note: I love Bunji's response to Mika's shrieking at him, which is in essence, "Shut up, shut up, shut up!!! I'm going to unload twenty bullets in your general direction!" At no other point do I identify so deeply with Bunji.]
Bunji Logic
Throughout his various threats/attempts to kill Brandon, Bunji keeps demanding to know why he betrayed Millennion. This, in itself, is surprising. Of any character in the series, Bunji is most obsessed with loyalty as an a priori value. Prior to joining Millennion, he'd kill who he was contracted to kill with no qualms and no questions; he would absolutely keep his word as long as his employers did likewise. After joining Millennion (or, more specifically, agreeing to follow Harry), he persists in this value system. He states, in killing Randy, that he knows Randy did not betray Millennion but he did betray Harry, and Harry is the person to whom Bunji has given his allegiance. Acts against Harry will not be tolerated--not even acts by Brandon, whom Bunji genuinely does care about, hence his rage at what perceives as Brandon's betrayal of Harry.
But why should Bunji care why? He didn't care why Randy was about to turn Harry in. "Why?" would seem to be the one question that would have no relevance in Bunji's universe. But Bunji does care about Brandon; he viewed him as a role model, and he wants to understand how his role model went astray.
Bunji also has a remarkably trenchant moment when he tells Brandon that everything that has happened since Harry's takeover of Millennion is Brandon's fault. This hits the nail on the head--in a way. Brandon is not culpable, of course. But as casus belli, he was the trigger for Harry's disintegration. Bunji, then, goes on to state that Brandon caused everything to go awry by betraying them. This part is not true. Bunji couldn't directly know that; he wasn't there, but his inability to feel his way through what really happened marks some limitations in his emotional experience.
Friendship and Loyality
Of all the principal "friends" involved in the Millennion schism, Bunji understands it least. Harry and Brandon's falling out was predicated on their being best friends, and Bunji, alone of all these people, does not define his life through best friend/primary partner bonding.
The one who probably understands best is Bear Walken, who has all the same emotional dimensions as Brandon (and similar to Harry): a conflict between abstract loyalty and his most important person (Sherry) and a previous conflict of the same nature that (but for Brandon's intervention) required him to kill his best friend, Sid. He probably has a fairly clear idea of what happened in the elevator and why. He is loyal to Harry, but his sympathies lie with Brandon.
Bob and Lee are primarily Harry's friends, but being best friends with each other, they, too, understand the emotional depths of best friendship. They understand, in a word, that Harry and Brandon fell out and that this explains everything. Until Bob's death, neither of them shows much real anger at Brandon. They'll fight him to side with Harry, but they don't seem to take it very personally--perhaps because they weren't that close to Brandon but perhaps also because they understand that ultimately it's between Brandon and Harry.
But Bunji doesn't get it. He understands friendship; he was pretty good friends with Brandon. But in terms of life partnership, he's a loner by choice, and he is ill equipped to grasp the emotional meltdown (on both sides) that led to Harry and Brandon's split. He can't understand why it happened. To him, there is only loyalty, and Brandon was supposed to be Harry's man first, end of story. So he asks a question that he thinks is simple but, in fact, is anything but.
Why Did Brandon Betray?
Brandon does not immediately answer Bunji's question. It's the wrong question; it opens a whole can of worms. His primary response to it is to beat Bunji to a pulp in a manner reminiscent of Buffy beating up Spike in the season 6 episode, "Dead Things." It's an instance of the "good warrior" losing self-control and pummeling someone out of sheer anger. This is very rare for Brandon, as it's very rare for Buffy. Bunji enrages him.
This is partly situational: he cared about Bunji too. He considered him a good friend, a true companion at arms. And he, for his part, perceives Bunji as something of a traitor for siding with Harry and not the Millennion Brandon thought he'd been training him to serve.
But part of this rage comes from his inability to field Bunji's question. At the end, he does give his reply, raggedly and as if wrenched from the depths of his soul: "I don't betray."
Brandon deeply wants to believe this; he has based his entire life on holding this value to be pre-eminent, and yet it's not entirely true. He got skewered between two loyalties such that he could not be true to one without somewhat betraying the other, and in his attempts to reconcile these conflicting interests, he did, indeed, commit acts that could described as a partial betrayal of both.
He did ultimately turn on Harry--for a moment. It was a reasonable thing to do, but for Brandon, turning on Harry is always an act that feels fundamentally wrong, whatever its motivation. It's always an act at least partly against his heart.
Of course, he waited to the last minute to turn on Harry. He tells Big Daddy in his letter that he didn't report on Harry's machinations because he wanted to give Harry the benefit of the doubt; he had to believe these acts would be for the good of Millennion. But if we want to apply the Iron Code as strictly as Brandon himself generally demands, this was a betrayal of Big Daddy's Millennion. Brandon knew, for example, that Harry had embezzled funds from the organization. To know this and not report it would be a breach of ethics in a far less rigorous organization; it certainly constitutes a breach of the Iron Code in Millennion, all the more so when compounded with inside information on how the man is working on raising the dead.
Now let's imagine for a moment that Brandon, like Randy, had moved on this information as soon as he could. If he was sufficiently careful--as his scheming with Tokioka suggests he could be--he could likely have brought Harry down. Harry would have to be killed and Bob and Lee as aiders and abetters. Bunji, whose principal loyalty is to Harry, would have had to go down as collateral damage; otherwise, he'd be going around killing people to avenge Harry. It would have been a bloody, heartbreaking mess Brandon would have hated himself for forever.
But it quite conceivably could have saved Big Daddy's life, Maria's life, the integrity of Millennion, and the lives of countless others who fell afoul of Bloody Harry over the years, and it could have forestalled all the socially disruptive effects of having super zombies terrorizing your city. For their society in general--and for the Millennion Brandon serves--it would have been far the better choice. In the end, when Brandon says he keeps choosing Harry, though it's the wrong choice, this is a large part of what he's referring to.
So Brandon did betray--both sides he cared about--while breaking his heart in the effort not to betray anybody. This is ultimately why he is so infuriated by Bunji's question. There is no easy answer to it. It's the tragedy of his life. His final stated answer, that he does not betray, is inadequate and conjures up a guilt he profoundly feels but is not yet able to face, just as Harry is not yet able to face responsibility for wronging Brandon.
So why did Brandon betray? Because he tried not to?
[Bunji side note: I love Bunji's response to Mika's shrieking at him, which is in essence, "Shut up, shut up, shut up!!! I'm going to unload twenty bullets in your general direction!" At no other point do I identify so deeply with Bunji.]
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Date: 2012-01-30 07:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-30 05:13 pm (UTC)