Saint Seiya LR; Review #175 Response
It's been a while since I got the chance to do one of these. Anyway, this is my response to reader review #175, who asked a couple of questions about the story. I hid a spoiler in it for the chapter in red.
First of all, thank you very much for the kind words 😊. I really appreciate everything you said. A lot of hard work does go into each and every chapter so every bit of feedback is well appreciated, take my word for it.
So yeah, the Specters.
I think the reason why the reader asked this question is because Saint Seiya Specters, in LR, are often described and spoken about in very clear terms about their cruelty. It's a fair question to make if they have any redeeming features or they're just like the Orcs from LotR. I'm not kind to them at all, and this last chapter being reviewed pretty much exposes one of their leaders, by the mouth of Priam no less, to be very much the type of self-deluded person with no redeeming qualities.
But this goes back to the inception of LR, this depiction of the Specters.
From their very first depiction with Bennu Yakos' raid on Alexis' village, they are shown to be violent, selfish, resentful and frankly self-absorbed. With the build up and release of the False Holy War Arc, I explored what exactly is going on in their heads, and now with the Third Arc where the 'real' Holy War is about to commence, Specters are pretty much confirmed, even by the main characters' own words, to be largely a group of psychopathic narcissists interested in no one's well being but their own.
And... well, yeah, that's kind of the point here.
The reason why I depict Specters the way I do is because, as they are described (or implied to be) in Saint Seiya's various stories, I really just don't see their cause to be in any way just or redeemable. Putting aside the exact nature of how they are recruited; this is an army of people whose objective, clearly, is a combination of total genocide and exclusionary apotheosis. Specters, who are humans, not only desire their fellow brethren on the surface to be indiscriminately murdered and punished in Hell for, like... stepping on flowers, but they also desire to be taken to Hades' Elysium at the exclusion of all these punished humans.
I could just end the post right here, as to why I treat the Specters like scumbags.
But really, there's more to this matter than just classifying Specters as evil, because, in LR, they are not just evil, but TALKED ABOUT as being evil. As in, Lance and the rest of the cast rarely, if ever, mince words about just how much they despise anyone who puts a Surplice on.
To pick an example, from Chapter 77;
Here, Lance describes Alraune Queen to Cerah (who grew up in the Underworld with Lucian and the False Specters) as not only someone she cannot fundamentally trust, but also someone who thinks they are superior to her. To Queen, Cerah is just a worm to her that he doesn't even lying to her matters. Cerah is not worth humane treatment to him.
This is a lot of charged-up language and anyone with a basic understanding of extremist thinking, intolerance and other similar topics can very instantly surmise that Specters are not merely depicted as villains in Saint Seiya LR, but outright monsters.
And this 👇 is how Alraune Queen rewards Cerah for thinking a 'sinner' can reason with him on the same level.
Pretty vicious, right? No room for doubt about what Queen thinks of anyone who isn't a Specter.
Later on, when Cerah asks Lance his unfiltered opinion on the Specters, this is what he has to say;
They 'worship genocide'.
And yes, for those unfamiliar with Saint Seiya's canon, that is how Kurumada ends up depicting them, whether he realises it or not. Specters are, very consciously, working towards a goal where their God will 'wipe the slate clean of sinners'.
And it might seem like a weird, especially in the eyes of someone who complimented my writing for depicting 'complex characters', correct? Why do I treat so many characters like Azrael and Priam with the benefit of the doubt, describing their acts as evil or unconscious, but rooted on a relatively understandable motivation, but with the Specters I am just so "yeah, they just suck and want to kill everybody"?
Well,... it's because I just don't respect the Specters. Not as they are described in Saint Seiya stories.
To me, everything they do screams that kind of unrepentant, in-your-face selfishness that I do not find at all worthy of analyzing. Specters really do believe, in all of their depictions, to be "a group of 108 humans personally chosen by Hades as 'sinless', and therefore worthy of punishing everyone else".
Later on it is revealed to us by Pandora that Thanatos and Hypnos never intended to spare the Specters after victory over Athena, and together with Pandora herself would join the billions of humans in hell in eternal suffering, because mortals in Elysium is just that a disgusting thought to Hades and his two cohorts.
Some people might think that invites pity or mercy on the Specters, but if there's any point to the False Holy War arc is to show that, if the Specters were told they were being lied to, they would just pick another cruel extremist to rally under, like Daemon Lucifer.
Because the problem isn't in the promise that was made to the Specters, but in the fact they said 'yes'. For thousands of years, too, if Lost Canvas' depiction of their revival cycle is accurate.
In other words, Specters are not merely evil villains. They are cruel, they are selfish and, yes, they are supremacist, for no other reason that some higher authority fed them that pleasant lie.
And people who embrace that, who do not question it and in fact revel in the idea they'll get the chance to be in the Ark to Heaven while everyone else drowns? Even as they watch human beings suffer right in front of them? And in fact work towards accelerating that outcome?
To me, that is just the pettiest, smallest type of person. Specters may not be as deluded as Azrael, as destructive as Priam, as sadistic as Cetus, as insane as Elisa or as violent as Menelaus, but they are something worse. They are selfish.
And they're selfish in a stupid, meaningless, small-minded way, that sabotages everyone else and accept no peace terms unless forced upon them. They are selfish by choice, by ethos and by virtue, and Hades' promise was just the excuse most of them was already looking forward to so they could unleash their worst instincts on innocent people.
Compare them in the real world to religious fanatics, the kind of people who adhere to apocalyptic evangelist cults who preach in their churches to support genocidal states so that 'the Rapture can happen and God can end the world', and you will understand the framework with which I look at Specters in my story. It's why I have no patience for Specter apologetics and why I really do believe Saints of Athena, who fight and die for trees whose shade they shall never sit under, would reserve nothing but the worst kind of commentary to these guys, above every other enemy they face.
