Kino's Journey 11: Her Journey

[SuccubusYuri]

The Prime Directive meets Diogenes episode.

[SuccubusYuri]

I actually read the episode far more directly; that wisdom is rubbish.

Which kind of takes a bit of a potshot at Kino herself. Detachment from society is presented as an ultimate failure here.

Old Man Diogenes is seen as wise for refusing to participate in society, basically, and ultimately thinks it is a life squandered. Which can be read as a sort-of future of Kino, checking out of societies to just do her own thing, only to find her life didn't mean anything when she finally takes time to reflect. Maybe the wise man's "advice" helped people, maybe it hurt others. But he obviously didn't try, didn't take sides.

Which, maybe that's just my reading, but I do like the series for not mounting the protagonist on a pedestal, to make us question her now and again with these very basic life concepts.

[FaxModem1]

Not having seen this series, and only going off of Chuck's reviews, I'm kind of wondering if the show just takes the piss at every philosophical stance by taking it to extreme levels, including the one the protagonist is taking of wandering around and not getting involved?

That's how you get things like Kino taking the time to kill rabbits, feeling guilty about it, and for the dangerous act of giving food to starving people, it turns out she was totally justified in the though of wondering if she was wrong for doing so, as the three people she fed are slaver cannibals. It's a situation that seems tailor made for Kino to be in the right for letting people die as she drives on and doesn't get involved.

[Mecha82]

While I understand why Kino doesn't get involved I do wonder why she doesn't consider each situation seperatly and act based on it. Some times she could do good by getting involved instead of being all passive and not caring about other people. Sure that's not what story of Kino's Journey is about because it's all about Kino traveling and seeing world and meeting people rather than her solving problems.

[Formless One]

Not having seen this series, and only going off of Chuck's reviews, I'm kind of wondering if the show just takes the piss at every philosophical stance by taking it to extreme levels, including the one the protagonist is taking of wandering around and not getting involved?

That's how you get things like Kino taking the time to kill rabbits, feeling guilty about it, and for the dangerous act of giving food to starving people, it turns out she was totally justified in the though of wondering if she was wrong for doing so, as the three people she fed are slaver cannibals. It's a situation that seems tailor made for Kino to be in the right for letting people die as she drives on and doesn't get involved.

I think its more fair to read it as a series of philosophical explorations that aren't intended to have easy answers. Not all of the philosophies are presented as extremes, although the countries have an aspect of satire to them. Kino thus takes on her philosophy of non-interference as a vehicle for that format, rather than the show justifying her philosophy to us just because its the protagonist's philosophy. And its not the only rule in her playbook, either. The rabbits and slavers, for instance, has Hermes ask Kino if she would have done it all over again, and she evades answering rather than saying no. If the point was that she should always avoid helping or getting involved, the answer would have been no... but it wasn't. It was about the other morals that drove her in that instance to break from her usual pattern. The Golden Rule on one hand, and her obligation to the rabbits on another. Which ironically, you could see as her getting caught up in the old fashioned Sunk Cost fallacy, trying to justify to herself why she is doing this when she has reasons not to.

Remember how Kino says to herself "I thought I was done for this time" after killing the slavers? This is not her first experience with people trying to kill her, and it also begs the question of how such an experienced traveler could fail to notice that the truck smelled of death. The answer, of course, is the snow. The title card reminds us that snow hides things, and in this case I think it was the smell. Kino likely thought something was up, but couldn't put her finger on it, so she attributed her discomfort to the morality of the situation rather than the physical danger she was in. But that was all circumstance, so when she answers ambiguously to Hermes about how she would handle things like this in the future, it is because she too is only human and cannot prevent every tragedy. She wasn't born to be a hero, even if she is a badass.