For our seventh episode, we are excited to have Tek7, the founder and president of Christian Gamers Alliance, as our guest. Also, starting officially with this episode, we have established our new permanent podcast hosting team: JP (Japes) and Sean! We have retired the old formula of switching out co-hosts every month, but rest assured, the rest of the Beneath the Tangles team will still show up from time to time! For this episode, we focus our discussion on “Humanism in Japanese Video Games/JRPGS,” but we talk about plenty more, so be sure to give the whole episode a listen!
Feel free to stream the episode below, subscribe on iTunes, or check out our RSS feed!
Also, be sure to email us with any questions you would like included in our “Listener Mail” portion, including the name you would like stated in the podcast and your website or blog for us to share!
Time Stamps:
Intro – 0:00
Announcements – 22:04
Otaku Diet – 23:43
Current Article/Discussion – 37:28
Listener Mail – 1:06:42
Closer – 1:21:58
Bloopers – 1:22:47
Note: Below are the links mentioned in the podcast:
- Beneath the Tangles is excited to welcome its new staff members!
- Check out Christian Gamers Alliance!
- Although Tek7 was not explicitly mentioned in it, he was greatly influential in JP’s life when suffering through depression and a lack of faith, as mentioned in Anime Today: When Anime Hits Home.
- 12 Days of Christmas Anime, Day 1: Cardcaptor Sakura - 12.14.2018
- 12 Days of Otaku Christmas, Day 12: Merry Christmas from Hatsune Miku - 12.25.2016
- Secret Santa 2016: Tsuritama - 12.24.2016
Reblogged this on Japesland and commented:
Easily our best episode yet!
Great podcast guys, and thanks for mentioning myself and the other new writers 🙂 Glad to see a gamer as a guest! That just made me smile. God bless, keep it going.
Best. Episode. Ever.
Yup
I really liked the talk of original sin and the fall of Man. Really good stuff in here, stuff that I relate to as a Lutheran. (Only posting now because I put off listening to it.)
Thanks! Sean and Tek are both very knowledgeable and great talkers!
If you liked this episode, I think you’ll enjoy episode 8 (posting Thursday)!
(I know this is like, 6 years later, but the topic of humanism is important to me and I’ve only seen this now)
(also spoiler alert, as I mention more specific plot points in this post)
This may be seen as a nitpick, but I think it is important to point out: Yin and Yang are not the opposing sides of good and evil. One side is hot, one side is cold, one side is male, the other is female, one is throw, the other is catch, one is light, and the other is dark.
Culturally, light and dark are strongly associated with good and evil, and that’s probably why everyone thinks of the white side of the yinyang to be good and the black side to be evil, but that is not the case. The over representation of one side or the other is evil, the balance of light and dark is good.
For example, are hot temperatures evil and low temperatures good, or are hot temperatures good and low temperatures evil? The answer is neither, because an abundance of heat means death, and an abundance of cold also means death, but having a balanced temperature sustains life.
I think in regards to SMT, that is also the point they are making between Law and Chaos. In the episode, y’all had described it as the “Choice to do good or the choice to do evil”, which based on what you had said about God, I am assuming you’re ascribing good to Law and evil to Chaos, but the point of SMT is that monic extremes should not be followed, and don’t have to be. Both Walter and Jonathan, based on their life experiences, believed the path they chose to be the right one, and sacrificed themselves for it. They were both doing what they thought would be good for society. They both thought they were choosing good. However, you can see the drawbacks of the paths they chose, because Law leads to the callous discarding of those who can’t fit into the system, and Chaos leads to an uncompassionate world.
Completely surrendering your will to higher powers leaves you vulnerable to harm or to be compelled to harm others. Jonathan obviously was horrified by the notion of sacrificing the entire population of Tokyo to stave off the demon threat, and felt compassion for the people in Blasted Tokyo, who were at the mercy of a mechanical threat placed there by God, but in both cases, he felt that God had a reason for doing what he did, and was willing to ultimately go along with destroying Tokyo.
Unlimited freedom tempered with no kind of restraints leaves people vulnerable and always in fear, unable to truly enjoy living. Walter, as a member of the lower class, had little to look forward to in his life, and he wanted people to have freedom to stretch into their potential, but he lost sight of what the common man had to lose. His compassion degraded to pity as he pursued his ideal world, but even so, he leaves it to you to rule the new world he makes, almost admitting that he can’t abide complete freedom.
So the conflict isn’t really between good and evil, as our human main characters are all pursuing good, despite being at odds with each other. The conflict is about judgement, about what *should* be done for the sake of good. What freedom should people have, and what freedoms should people sacrifice? What authorities can you trust, and which ones should be rebelled against? Is the path you’re on the right one, or is a change of course necessary?
I think when you come from a western, christian perspective, it is easy to see things in terms of The Right Path and All The Others, because in christian theology, the Right Path is laid out in front of you (it is Jesus). However, although the neutral route in SMT is typically presented as The Right Path, it is also hard to get on, as it is not one single choice or set of choices that can get you there (in SMTIV, it is notoriously hard to get on the neutral route, and even being *too* neutral can get you booted to one side or another). It is hard to get on The Right Path because it is hard to know what The Right Path is. Finding the balance is a struggle, and I think that’s one of the main takeaways from SMTIV for me.
This is so long ago, in fact, that we’ve had several more iterations of the podcast come and go since then! But regardless, I thank you for spending so much time writing these comments!
Oh, I didn’t realize I got a reply; I don’t seem to have gotten a notification.
But I am glad that you appreciate my comments. Even though I have a diametrically opposed worldview, or perhaps especially because I do, I find it valuable to engage in the conversation here.