SimonLaDigger said:L-Ryoshi said:That episode was extremely poignant. Even now after watching it an hour ago I feel very somber.
Without getting into a debate over whether Lise deserved her fate or not, I just want to say that it's difficult not to feel sorry for her regardless. She may have been messed up in the head, but it wasn't her own actions that led to that. Being born into a fascist totalitarian state where the concept of "trust" was pretty much non-existent wasn't her choice. Nor was being persecuted for being born into a family on the wrong side of the state either. All the inhumane things that she experienced subsequently weren't of her volition, and yet it broke her down, rebuilt and molded her back into what she ended up becoming.
Some of you may say "I'd rather die than do this, or do that", but have you actually ever been placed in a situation where you were required to actually make such a choice? For most of us, I highly doubt it.
To blame her for her mindset and for what she subsequently became is akin to blaming a person who had been forced to take drugs for the very first time with a gun pointed at their head, and subsequently became an addict. Sure you can blame her for the choices that she made after she became this addict, but if you have never experienced just how powerful an effect a drug addiction has on a persons mind and body, then saying something like "you had a choice" or "you didn't HAVE to do it", is merely hypocritical rambling of someone who sees themselves on a higher moral ground without having ever experienced being forced to stoop down to what they perceive to be as "immoral" levels.
She may have had too many screws loose in her head to be redeemed in the end, but she was a victim of circumstances at the end of the day.
By the same situation I believe that Theodore makes for a failure of a protagonist. He escaped from the Stasi with his life because his sister sacrificed herself, and yet he never thought to search for her whereabouts or to think of rescuing her from her captors even after all these years. Even when he found out that she was still alive, I never saw him actually that joyful in the knowledge that she had survived the purge which destroyed their family. And in the end he went so far as to sleep with her in order to try and bring her under his control. I couldn't empathize with his tears this episode, and in the end the feeling I got when he shot his sister dead was simply "this is a mess that you made, so it's right that you be the one to clean it up". This dude gets no sympathy from me. He messed up with almost everything he's done since the first episode (like calling Irisdina a Stasi dog), and to me it's been more of the same ever since.
To me, Steinhoff had the best quote of the series:
Good Protagonists learn to wipe their own ass. Theodore who's needed help in getting his ass wiped every step of the way thus far makes for a poor protagonist.
You are forgetting that in a totalitarian government you simply can't just look for people. Having lived in a government like that, at his age he should understand that you cannot just find people. We don't know what happened pre the year the anime starts from. For all we know, he tried his best looking for her but gave up. Perhaps even people told him to just give up and he accepted that. They don't hate the Stasis for nothing and they very well known what they capable of doing and brainwashing people is not foreign to them. You are right, one cannot understand the actions someone makes with out understanding the circumstances that lead to it, unless you firsthand experience them. But then again, how was Theo suppose to help her when he didn't know what happened to her? Its not like he knew all along all the brainwashing done to her that made her do what she did.
We take your drug addiction problem, that would be true if you knew from the beginning there was a gun pointing at them that made them take drug: or if you even knew they had a drug addiction problem in the first place.
Theo didn't know any of this, so he tried his best. "People are suspecting you of being a stasis spy but I know deep down you are not. I know you are my sister whom I have been missing since we separated. I will defend you when people say you are a stasis dog, because you are not" don't you think he felt betrayed when it turned out she was a stasis spy/dog afterall? And it costed someone very special to him their life?
You assumed too much of Theo, that he knew Lisa told Axman everything about the defection plan in order to keep Theo safe. You assume that he knew how badly she was mistreated and found hope is Beatrix because she promised her she would met him. It was only after their first battle that he became aware of this and then right away he sees Pham get killed so cold hearted. I don't think Lise even bothered to see who it was. You think Theo cared what Lise went through at that moment? Surprisingly he did because he didn't kill her. So no, Theo is not a bad protagonist. Now fully aware of this, filled with anger, what exactly was he suppose to do the moment he fought her again?
We can take what you said about having high morals and not being on their shoes, but tell me honestly. If someone who you care about, told you everything they've been through, how much they been abused, and endured this just for the sake of meeting you again and knowing you are safe, killed someone else you loved, in front of you, with out a second thought, no remorse at all. You are telling me you would forgive them right then and there? Or even the next day? or the next week? At this point, you don't care anymore, you no longer CAN understand what they been through, they are now dehumanized, you can still feel emotions towards them but these are old emotions caused by nostalgia. If you saw your crush today, you wouldn't have a crush on her, you would remember that crush you had on them and think back of those days.