The Spirit of Life of Death: The End and the Means

by Mistress Nightshadow

I was just sitting back after another bout with essays, and I was thinking back to the the Final Fantasy movie. It's an odd thing, I know, but for some odd reason, I was reminded of General Hein when watching certain things unfold before me.

He was the Seifer look-alike who had much of the military might to protect the human race from the phantoms. He had a common cause like Aki, and he firmly believed that there was a solution to the world's problems, and he believed that the solution was the Zeus Cannon, a devastating weapon which they believed could eradicate the phantoms.

Who could blame him? He had lost his family... his wife and daughter to this menace, he was all too aware of how dangerous they could be.... and how they were so intent on killing off the human race.

But it was not his solution, even with the best of intentions, which proved to be the most effective. Even though he wanted to stop the phantoms from harassing the human race more than anyone else, he seemed all too evil...

The question I ask is, why was he so clearly villianistic, even though he had the same goals as the rest of the humans in the movie?

Now, as you all may remember, he was adovcating a quick military strike with the use of the cannon right at the heart of the problem. It was clean, it was exceeding quick, and it was so clearly simple. But the council chose to pursue other alternatives; one which was more peaceful, but also, one which was not finished yet and one which proved to take some time.

The frustration was very clear; General Hein was seething that such a clear cut, easy solution was not taken, instead delayed so some 'so-called' scientists could chase some touchy-feely idea, one which didn't involve guaranteed eradication.

One could almost see why he went to such an extreme to convince the council to give authorization to use the cannon... why he believed there was justification in sacrificing so much to eventually get permission from the council to use his solution. Why he believed the end justifies the means.

But really, does it? Should such an end, particularly such a violent one, no matter how simple it may seem, justify the loss of innocent people?

We discover as we progress through the movie that although he had his sense of justice, that he had his sense of responsiblity to the world, you could easily tell he just wanted a world without this menace... that he also had his sights painted red with anger. His emotions were influenced by his desire to exact revenge on the phantoms. He wanted revenge for the ones he had lost personally, who died because of the phantoms.

Although I would imagine that many of you would have felt for his loss, the question remains, did that automatically give him the right to do what he did? Did that sense of revenge give him the right to risk lives of people who he didn't even know?

We saw how General Hein's decisions so carefully and so nearly successfully hampered Aki's attempts to bring forth another solution... one that did not seem so easy, one that did not even seem likely. We saw how he used the military to hamper Aki's work, with the hope of shutting her, and the entire project headed by Dr. Sid, down entirely.

Who or what gave him the right to sabotage all other attempts to broker a solution, particularly one which was more peaceful although much slower? Who or what gave him the right to put Aki and her friends' lives at risk? Was the fact that he could stop the phantoms almost immediately with a simple press of a button the reason why he could attempt to kill off all other attempts to broker a solution? What gave him the right to conduct an action that in any normal circumstance would be defined as murder?

Then you remember the next step he took. He went to the control centre and shut down the shields which protected the New York settlement, letting in the very phantoms he wanted to destroy. This action killed off many innocent people as the inital isolated leaking proved to be the end of the settlement; even Aki and her friends did not escape this unscathed.

Who or what gave him the right to decide such a dangerous decision was justified, even though he was well aware of the consequences? Was the fact that he was doing it to save humanity a sound enough reason to effectively condemn thousands, perhaps millions of people to death? What gave him the right to conduct an action that in normal circumstances would be considered a massacare?

As it turned out, the cannon brought immediate results; the phantom infestation seemed to recede. However it was shown as a temporary solution at best, and it also damaged the Earth itself, the same Earth that General Hein sought to protect for the good of the human race. It also nearly destroyed the long-term peace that Aki and the phantoms had almost reached.

And I will ask now, who or what gave him the right to take actions which would put the Earth itself at risk of destruction, when he knew the consequences? Was it the fact that he was so close to getting an apparently perfect solution as well as a method to get his ultimate revenge, the reason why he could put billions of people on Earth at risk, and so effectively nearly cut off all other solutions? What gave him the right to conduct this action, which would be seen normally as attempted mass genocide?

It seemed that the non-violent solution proved to be one for the long term; it showed that the hard work, although difficult and sometimes near impossible due to several influences from both sides, would indeed pay off. It showed that the solution, which involved accepting the phantom spirits, was an embracing one, rather than one which sought to eradicate the problem through excessive amounts of force.

Maybe, just maybe, the end never justified the means... And maybe approaching a situation in a hostile manner may not be the best solution, regardless of how it looks in the short term.

Maybe this is one of the lessons which FF:TSW sought to teach the world. It is a very simple, yet very powerful message which it seeks to share to us.

I see the world around me approach situations with different methods, and I see them produce different results. Each situation has a slightly different approach, but they could easily be categorized into two basic types, and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within showed what could happen.

Maybe that's why Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within didn't fare well... maybe it was a message which so few of us wanted to hear, one we should heed.