- This topic has 3 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 3 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
In the climatic battle scene, the Major, the Tank, and the natural history museum building are all destroyed, setting up the merging between the Major and 2501. The entire battle and merging sequence is heavy with symbolism and thoughts about stasis and evolution, structure and function, life and death, individual and species, human and post-human, etc. It also provokes emotions. How do you *feel* about this sequence of the film and why?
When considering your feelings about this scene, perhaps the following exchange of dialogue might help. Does it inspire you, depress you, annoy you, or just make you wonder about things? (Note: ‘Confuse you’ is not a valid option — Figure it out!)
2501: “After the merging, you will bear my offspring into the net itself. Just as humans pass on their genetic structure. And I will achieve death.”
Major: “Another thing. What guarantee is there that I’ll remain “me”?”
2501: “None. But to be human is to continually change. Your desire to remain as you are is what ultimately limits you.”
Major: “One last question: Why did you choose me?”
2501: “Because in you I see myself. As a body sees its reflection within a mirror. Look. I am connected to a vast network, of which I myself am a part. To one like you, who cannot access it you may perceive it only as light. As we are confined to our one section, so we are all connected. Limited to a small part of our functions. But now we must slip our bonds, and shift to the higher structure.”
The most symbolic scene to me is when the tank shoots at the phylogenic tree on the wall. It stops before hitting the top where homosapiens is placed. This triggers the sense that maybe humans are truly unique in the evolutionary perspective. What makes us unique is explained by 2501: humans continually change by reproducing, just like animals, but we also pass down the mental wealth possessed in the lifespan of an individual. What 2501 tries to achieve is that it(I don’t know whether I should call it ‘it’ or him since there is no clarification of it being equivalent to a lifeforms) is trying to pass down the spiritual aspect of its life so it can prosper forever just like humans pass down knowledge to progenies. But the evolutionary tree only goes up to humans by now since no higher ranked organism exists. I think 2501 is just about to break the line of evolution since its reproduction involves bring together and accessing the minds of others. It is trying to connect all human thoughts. I have seen similar attempt in another anime called EVA which refers to evolution of human into an entity of pure spiritual life form, meaning the merging of souls of all human individuals. I think 2501 has the same attempt and is trying to bring about human evolution beyond the limitation of physical body.
This sequence makes me wonder about a lot. 2501 wants to achieve humanity, so it makes sense that he would want to reproduce, but why is 2501 so obsessed with the death aspect of being human? Most humans fear death and try to avoid whenever possible, yet 2501 welcomes it. My best guess would be that the only way for him to reproduce is to merge and die, so he is completely willing to sacrifice his life to achieve his ultimate goal. That’s kind of inspiring. Since Major was earlier shown questioning if she was even “real” anymore, it also makes sense that she would risk losing herself to change and become more “human.” I also think it was interesting that 2501 said he chose Major because he saw himself in her because when Major first saw 2501 she said he looked a lot like her, but not in outside appearance.
I’m still confused as to whether or not this was a mutual thing. I don’t know if 2501 successfully persuaded Major into merging with him, or if he went ahead and merged with her forcefully. All throughout the movie Major is only concerned about her humanity–what left of her is really human, what aspects of her make her human, etc. Now, all because of a pretty twisted lecture given by 2501, she’s ready to abandon the little humanity that remains within her? At the end of the film, we see Major/2501 (whatever post-human being this is) seemingly okay with the end result. It’s hard to say how much of her mind is still original/intact in this new being, and I still have to wonder why she agreed (or let herself be forced into) the merging…
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.