Stuffe n' Things

There are a lot of ways to approach the class trials and what they have to say symbolically in THH, but I want to examine class trials as a metaphor of interpersonal conflict and how Makoto navigates it.

A class trial is fundamentally a disagreement between people on an important issue. It is about the process of answering questions any issue involving more than one person should consider. What is the truth? How do you not only find what the truth is, but make it palatable? How do we get even the most disagreeable kinds of people to act on what is best for everyone? That's why the gun is so interesting to me. As a metaphor for how Naegi sees what he’s doing during trials, this is how he frames/ feels about his own voice.

It’s a weapon he’s using against people. At the beginning of the game it's a weapon he's using to protect himself, then ultimately by the end to protect the others. From Junko, from despair, from themselves--the parts of themselves susceptible to the former. It remains a weapon.

You would think it doesn’t suit someone so non-aggressive. Makoto is a bit of a jackass, and he's not immune to lashing out, but a bullet is a precise kind of harm. It’s less about aggression, then, symbolically, and more about disruption. Mr. Normal McNothingspecial visually disrupts other people's words by firing at them with a gun.

It is abnormal behavior to cause disruptions. Be polite, save face, blend in. This is what is expected of the average person in society. The flash and spectacle of a gunshot draws attention. The sharp crack of a gunshot demands attention. Makoto is making a scene. To openly disagree with someone to the point of undermining them is outside of what would be considered acceptable behavior when talking to his peers. The importance of the issue on the table removes Naegi's ability to cling to normalcy. Normal boys don’t carry bullets in their pocket, but even though Naegi doesn’t start any of these conflicts, they involve him anyway, so he can’t just nod along to whatever the majority is saying. He can’t go with the flow if it’s going the wrong way. No one is allowed the dignity of deflection or overlooking a faux pas, everything you say can and will be used against you, ruthlessly. Often, Makoto is the one using his friends' words against them.

The game is a disruption of normal life. The gun is a disruption of normal conduct.

There’s nothing civil about a gunshot wound. Getting shot overtakes your entire nervous system. It hurts like a bitch and keeps hurting. In an argumentative context, this is humiliation. Nobody wants to make their friends look bad. Nobody wants to make others feel bad. To get to consensus, everyone in the room must be on the same page, and there's not always a way to do that that doesn't hurt someone's feelings or image. Naegi cannot allow them to be wrong; openly disagreeing with them still feels like shooting them point blank. It’s so backwards to normal it can only be framed as violence.

It also plays into Makoto’s insecurities about how insignificant he feels next to people his own age, his own class even. A gun, unlike a knife or sword or fist, is an equal opportunity sort of weapon. A pop star can’t win a knife fight against an athlete. Even a loser who does their research on reddit could kill someone with a gun. There’s something to believing yourself to be powerless, and giving yourself power through a weapon anyone can wield. Load the bullet, aim, fire. See the look on your friend’s face. Reload. Any of these people could shatter you like glass if they decided they wanted to, but you can do this much. You can load another bullet into the chamber. Makoto is so insistent that his class trial performances are nothing special. He doesn’t believe he could do it if it was special; anyone can be effective with a loaded gun.

I think this leads into the concept of Makoto’s future survivor’s guilt quite elegantly. The very process of forming consensus wounds his friends. Over and over, every time a new shock to the system. He’s hurting them by arguing with them, by never letting anything slide, by disrupting discussions when they head the wrong way. Some of them couldn't handle the stress and cracked, and died. They died because he never let a bullet go unfired, except that he did.

He never shot to kill Kirigiri. He did let someone save face. He didn't use her words against her. If he could do it for her, should he have done it for the others? Would they be alive if he hadn't hurt them? Should Alter Ego have let him die? He lied, he lied, so why did his friends die and not him? Why didn't anyone shoot his own hypocrisy at him when he came back? (nothing about the killing game was anyone's fault but the mastermind's. It will still feel like he could have been kinder.)

That last segment, shooting the hope bullet, brings this rejection of politeness somewhere interesting to me. In this framework this one last shot, is not a metaphorical killing blow. In effect, he is killing Junko, but in practice, this becomes surgery. Targeting the center of his friends' fears, their worst impulses, and excising the parts of them that hurt them the most. An outlet to bleed the rot that accumulates over an adolescence's worth of trauma, over a killing games worth of despair. Sometimes, humans cut someone open to heal them. Naegi shoots his friends to inspire them. This is significant! Guns are not tools the way other weapons are, the only thing they should be able to do is injure, yet this moment defies that box. There is always hope in this world. This world where even a gunshot can be kind if the hands holding it care about you.

I think this says something else nice too. That to be truly inspiring, to change the world, (to help a friend) you can’t be afraid of disrupting the peace. Minding your own business is great for a trip to the grocery store, but when it matters? When someone you care about is looking you in the face saying some absolute nonsense? Disrupt them. Stop that thought in its tracks. Conflict with them now is a better alternative to losing them altogether later. Some things are worth causing a fuss about.

these are really fun to make

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