Pride is the most insidious of sins, and it can make an alien cactus think it’s a god—until the Outlaw Star’s pilot, Melfina, stomps it flat.
It’s the end of another week and another month! Wait…wasn’t it Christmas yesterday? What is time?!
Joking aside, I’ve been reflecting on another scene from an old a classic anime that the “Toonami generation” (i.e. Millennials) will remember fondly: Outlaw Star. This space western follows pseudo-antihero Gene Starwind and his ragtag crew of ne’er-do-wells as they go on adventures in space to make a sorta honest buck while looking for the fabled Galactic Ley Line. Basically, it’s a pulpier, goofier version of Cowboy Bebop.
In episode 13, “Advance Guard from Another World,” the crew gets into some shenanigans while taking odd jobs, including the alien cat girl Aisha Clanclan hunting a bug monster in the sewer.
Meanwhile, Gene and the mysterious deredere bio-android, Melfina, investigate the disappearance of a cargo of strange plants. Later, Gene goes on a date with a girl named Claire, who’d helped him a few episodes before. They come upon an ice cream stand that has a potted cactus on the counter. Everyone is flocking there and buying its mediocre ice cream. Gene and Claire feel compelled to do so, too. Long story short, these plotlines all come together when Gene’s 11-year-old business partner, Jim Hawking, is mind-controlled by a malevolent force—that turns out to be the cactus.
Yes, the cactus.
It is actually a powerful alien who pompously calls himself “The Great One.” He is the missing cargo Melfina is searching for, and the giant insect Aisha is chasing is his minion. Using Jim as his mouthpiece, he says he will conquer all “inferior life forms.”
After a scuffle with the bug, in a humorous twist, the self-proclaimed “god” is stomped to death by Melfina while demanding she stop.
This is both funny and satisfying because the arrogant villain gets his comeuppance in an ironic fashion. It brings to mind one of King Solomon’s most well-known sayings in Proverbs 16:18 (ESV):
Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.
“The Great One” was utterly destroyed by a naïve “inferior” life form, who basically walked on him. It’s just as likely that the cactus’s claims were lies: he could use telepathy for mind control, but he was not a god.
That makes his humiliating death equally as deserving. As Christians, we know only God can lay claim to divinity, and He will not suffer the haughty for long. As James 4:6 (ESV) says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” And because God has a sense of humor, He’ll often use ironic means to humble the arrogant. In 1 Corinthians 1:27 (ESV), the Apostle Paul says, “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.”
We can laugh at ridiculous anime villains when this happens to them or take satisfaction in seeing this happen to real-life braggarts, but pride is an insidious sin. In fact, in some Christian traditions like Catholicism, it is the deadliest sin.
The “pride of life” (1 John 2:16) can take root in our hearts without us noticing. All it takes is a little success for us to inflate our egos. But humility isn’t self-loathing; it’s a realistic perception of yourself. We must guard against pride. Otherwise, we’ll end up drifting from the Way—or maybe even a squished cactus under an anime girl’s boot.
This article was published first in a devotional format on our Substack. Subscribe to receive an email each Friday featuring an original, anime devotional + a wrap-up of the week’s content from BtT.
- Pride Goes Before a Fall…of a Cactus - 02.27.2026