I mean... I am a person without a lot of attachments. I don't have a lot of trust in people, and I generally view people as simply everybody on their own path.
So then when I read other people's interpretations of gk, I'm often confused because I don't really understand where they're coming from.
For example, the idea of loyalty seem to be really important to a lot of other fans. Ogata is interpreted by almost everyone as a untrustworthy, with no loyalties.
But I don't understand why anyone in this story needs to have loyalties or why loyalty is even a good thing.
Everybody has completely different motivations and wants.
Tsurumi wants to split off a piece of the military, and use it to regain territory in Russia Where his wife and child are buried.
Hijikata says that he is looking to revive the Republic of Ezo, but actually he doesn't have the resources, or the time to do that so really he's looking for one last great battle and to die under that banner rather than to set up and new independent political entity.
Shiraishi has no real goals and just likes his friends and would love to get some money out of it. He later takes on Boutarou's goal.
Ogata has no real concrete achievable goal and is looking for an abstract sense of worth.
Sugimoto also has no real concrete goal and is using the gold hunt to avoid confronting the fact that he really has no place to return to. He says he has to get the money before he returns to ume, but this is just a prerequisite he set for himself, to delay returning. Ume isn't waiting for him, has no idea that he's out trying to get the money for her, and doesn't even know if he's alive. Despite all of the importance that he places on returning to her, he is a non-entity in her life, in the same way that Ogata is a non-entity in his father's life. The similarities and differences between Ogata and sugimoto is best left for another post.
Asirpa...... is a 12-year-old girl and is still trying to make sense of the world.
Many of the soldiers don't have any goals of their their own other than following orders or impressing their commander. People like Inenaga, ushiyama don't really have any aspirations for the gold. They just seem to be along for the ride since they have map tattoos.
My point is....
These are all clearly people with individual and completely different goals, to which the gold is just a means to an end. So I don't understand why loyalty is considered important, in fact I don't understand why it's a thing at all.
So given that ..... I don't understand why Ogata is considered a disloyal betrayer....
When I read comments by other readers, it really feels like there's an expectation that these groups be a found family of sorts. A place of trust and loyalty where people support and mentor each other and it makes no sense to me.
Like that's something you expect from the military. Members of the military are supposed to be brothers in against a common enemy led by a father figure and it is explicitly pointed out that this is not the case.
People bully each other, sometimes severely. The father figure is self-interested and the only sees his men as pawns. There are shifting loyalties and factions with their own goals in the same unit. The military is not a family substitute. Gold hunt groups are not a family substitute. Even family do not present the kind of loyal loving support that people seem to expect.
So I just..... I straight up have no understanding of why Ogata is considered to be a betrayer, because I don't understand how loyalty is a thing here. I mean to me, the very concept of loyalty in this story seems to be a lie used to manipulate people seeking identity and belonging, and have them be willing to die for the group.
When I look around on forums and discussions it seems like most people do not share this interpretation. People interpret media and events is through the lens of their own experiences. And I actually keep wondering if I'm missing something huge. Like if other people interpret loyalty in a totally different more meaningful way, what are their experiences that support this belief?
Just Curious
TLDR: this is not a story about found family as much as you want it to be. Instead it's about each person finding a place for themselves....not everyone is looking for a family.
Edit: I guess this is sort of meta. The reason I have this interpretation because I have a long history of working for corporations, and despite the found family culture that they try to create and all the team building exercises, people are constantly gunning for each other, trying to get people fired, taking credit for other people's work, making people look bad in front of management to elevate their own status, trying to jump ship and go to other companies in the same industry with proprietary knowledge... so my take on this whole story is that..."this is simply how people operate."
Like I've been on team building exercises with the company where everybody an outdooring trip and bonds over canoeing, and then immediately the next day people get back to trying to get each other fired.
That's just how people are. People form connections over all sorts of things, but that doesn't mean that they aren't out for themselves or that the connection will always exist, or that the connection is deep or that the person is loyal to you.
Цуруми и его цирковая труппа буквально предали свою страну в лице армии и императора ради личных планов Цуруми. А Огата изначально работал как раз на центральное командование, как и Кикута (интересно, а почему это никто Кикуту не называет предателем?). Кроме того он входил в группу капрала Томаи, и был против самоуправства Цуруми и его подгребанию власти в отдельном дивизионе под себя.
Тот же Цукишима легко убивает вышестоящего офицера по указке от Цуруми, хотя этот приказ очевидно тот еще саботаж. А потом этот же Цукишима в доме Эдогая пищит о том, что Огата предатель, потому что "предал своих товарищей"! Ну да, ну да.
Адмирал Който в мирное время обрекает на смерть экипаж корабля, который привел к Хакодате, воспользовавшись своим служебным положением. Знал ли экипаж, сохраняющий верность приказам адмирала, что вообще там происходило? Что это была не защита интересов страны, а просто отдельно взятый бородатый дед отдавал личный долг предателю страны Цуруми?
А Кироранке, который воспользовался по полной доверием Асирпы? Это другое, или как?
Но почему то ни Кироранке, ни Цукишиму, ни Който что старшего, что младшего, ни Цуруми, ни других персонажей седьмого дивизиона никто предателями не зовет. А вот Огата да, ужас-ужас.
