#the cross references are not systematic ive written about this a LOT lol

[majimemegoro]

ooh I didn’t remember that about detective sayama, and that’s a good catch with daigo, can’t believe i forgot this wonderful murderous dude lol! maybe sayama does suffer ‘narrative death’ by getting written out, but daigo sticks out as an interesting exception... unless it’s left ambiguous whether or not the many people he shoots die as a result? in which case he wouldnt count as a “confirmed” killer.

But in any case I do have a different take on why (most) killer characters die, thematically speaking! I don’t think it’s actually about punitive justice; I think it’s about the value of life. (This sounds paradoxical, I know; hear me out). *MASSIVE SPOILERS FOLLOW*

So I read the main theme of the games, or at least of kiryu’s stories, as being fundamentally about the value of life, and this is shown in 2 ways: a) the problem of suicide: how to live when you want to die (see: Kiryu, kiryu, kiryu, Nishiki, nishiki, Mine, Ok*dera, Baba; maybe Ryuji; arguably also Mirei Park, but in a different way from the others; note also all of Dead Souls and particularly the twist re: the zombie virus). And b) the problem of murder: how to live when you need to kill (see: Majima in y0, Saejima, Baba, Ok*dera; again everything about Dead Souls: Kiryu won’t even kill the zombies at first.)

Death and killing are treated so so seriously in this series, in a way that it usually isn’t in action media. I don’t think that characters who purposely die (Nishiki and Mine being the most obvious examples I think), have their deaths presented as redemptive. I think their deaths are presented as pointless and miserable and wrongheaded; these deaths dont leave us feeling like mine and nishiki redeemed themselves! they leave us feeling hollow and terrible! and I think that’s on purpose. that’s the point.

Just like Kiryu’s self-sacrificial instincts throughout the series, there’s something noble and tragic and seductive about death-seeking, but that doesn’t mean it’s choiceworthy or good or even useful, and I don’t think the games ever present death-seeking, or any actions that contribute to death, really, as a good thing.

It’s a similar effect to the way that reprehensible characters (e.g. Awano, but others too) always get redeemed a little AS and BECAUSE they’re defeated: the player is systematically prevented from being able to really be satisfied by the death of any character! Death is awful. death is always awful. always. even when living is awful, too. and that’s the point.

the killers are terrible. and the deaths of the killers are terrible, too.

tbh i think yasuko is such an interesting character bc a big theme in the games is how far ppl are willing to go to achieve their goals or protect the ppl they love.

it comes up w/ kiryu multiple times throughout the series and w/ majima in yakuza 0 when hes struggling over whether he can kill for saejima or not.

and over and over again, most protagonist characters arent willing to kill and i esp think thats notable w/ kiryu bc i think there are so many times where if he had just... pulled the trigger it couldve saved the life of someone he cared abt.

but yasuko is willing to kill and do whatever it takes to protect saejima. and no she doesnt necessarily like killing and she isnt happy that she did, but she saw it as what needed to be done, so she did it.

and then thing that gets me is i think she mustve still been a teenager when saejima was taken from her. we dont have a canon age for her, but i think she was like 16/17 based on saejima being older. she was left all alone to fend for herself and she wasnt even an adult yet. theres so much that couldve been done w/ that, diving deeper into her backstory and exploring just why shes willing to cross that line and kill for saejima, smth that does weigh so heavily on her.