SPOILERS FOR: Front Mission 3
"These are the monsters you've protected."
- Sasaki, Front Mission 3.
Those were the words he had uttered as he was being handcuffed, after Isao had
managed to defeat the coup which Sasaki launched; a coup which had the backing
of many of the politicans there. He was speaking of the politicians and power
players who watched him on the sidelines as he was being secured, almost smiling
to themselves as the blame had been heaped up.
What he comments on is a very important point. Are we protecting the monsters in
our lives? Furthermore, should we? Why haven't we struck down all the monsters
that plague our lives, and lead us and all those around us into the future? We
have been encouraged all our lives to take up the sword and rid the world of our
evil, so why haven't we?
To answer that question, we need to understand what had happened around Sasaki.
For those familiar with the Front Mission world, you'd be aware of the Huffman
wars, where countries had conflicted over power, experiments and most of all,
politics, which drew in people from unlikely places. Kazuki and Ryogo were no
exception; they participated in many incidents, including a base bombing, the
Taal Base Raid and multiple skirmishes in the DHZ. Throughout their
participation, they were politicised, which is easily reflected through the
various reports from sources in the game; BBSes, travel advisories, e-mail, by
voice and in person; what they say, what they think, and how they feel
demonstrating how they move.
Sasaki, Kazuki, and Ryogo's world is a world where the truth is suppressed, and
where lies and allegations fly like artillery shells in a full-scale
bombardment. A world... so very much like our own. We see Kazuki and Ryogo being
fed half-truths, distortions, deceptions, and lies, all in furtherance of the
ends of those who seek to use them. Kazuki and Ryogo watch as their friends
seemingly manage to betray them, showing that they were not quite who they
actually say they were.
Sasaki wants to lead Japan into an age where Japan would lead the rest of the
world in politics, and in its military and civilian actions. He wants Japan to
be a country to look to, to be followed, to be reveredand respected. He wants to
see a world where the political scheming halts, and something much more clear,
something simple, understood, to be established under his direct guidance. He
wants to end the world which Kazuki and Ryogo had managed to end up in, one
which they did not choose to participate in willingly; one in which they were at
best deceived, at worst coerced.
....
It's not such a bad dream is it?
Well... we all know what happened after that, I would think. In the end, Sasaki
was scapegoated by the ones who believed in him, and nothing changes, with those
who did the scapegoating managing to get away, without so much as a smack on the
back of the hand, all of them managing to hide behind flimsy excuses. Isao
himself comments on that as he accepted the surrender, and even he commented on
how cruel his fate was.
But the question is, was Sasaki right? Was he right in saying what he said
above? And given his implication, should we act on it?
As one plays through this epic, the question remains... was he right? One
possible fate shows that the power players were exactly as how he describes
them, with Kazuki losing his beloved sister and his respected, if not always
liked, father, all for a weapon which countries were fighting for to gain
unrivalled military dominance. Emir may have stopped them for now, but the cost
was high.
The other fate at first glance seems to be much kinder, with all of them
surviving, many of the loose ends tied up, vendettas ended... However, the dark
spectre which Sasaki spoke of rises, at the very end... the power players still
determined to win what they desire at any cost, human or otherwise.
The next question however, is something that we all could ask ourselves, and I
suspect only we can answer ourselves...
Do we have the right to do what Sasaki did?
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