Saga of Tanya the Evil--interpretation (spoilers)

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beneficii
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04 Sep 2020, 10:06 pm

So recently, I've been watching the Saga of Tanya of Evil anime, which is quite interesting. I imagine there are some other people on here who've also watched it. When reading about it online, lots of people seem to think Tanya is the one in the right, just intelligently using Being X's powers when she needs to and otherwise defying them, and seeming to just buy all the BS the guy she was in her past life was saying about how rational and logical he was. Of course, he takes on an attitude that I think is common in young men nowadays in developed countries, where they think they're uber-rational and that every thought that pops into their head is rational; thus, people should just take them at their word it's rational, because after all, it originated from their rational selves.

Some observations:

1: The guy Tanya was in her previous life was not as rational as he makes himself out to be. One, he failed to consider that not everyone was the emotionless jerk he was and that's what got him pushed in front of the moving train.

2: This same guy and of course later Tanya (who still has all the guy's memories) repeatedly sees miracles happening in front of her, caused by a being (whom he calls "Being X") who has repeatedly demonstrated that they can cause time to stop just for her; they can talk through people, animals, and even inanimate objects; and they are capable of choosing whether she can reincarnate and choosing who to reincarnate her as. I mean, if this being is not a god, then what is?

3: Tanya loves to remark how much she doesn't need Being X, but we are repeatedly shown her having to pray to them whenever she uses the jewel that allows her to wipe out her enemies. Sure, she seems to have dissociative fugue whenever she does it and she bitterly regrets it afterward, but it's pretty clear: She depends on Being X to get her out of many tough situations which could have easily seen her be killed and denied any future reincarnation. This is ironic, because in her previous life she told Being X that as a smart businessman she would never need to depend on them, only the weak and desperate would.

These points I don't think get discussed enough in discussions of this show, but they make this show quite interesting for me. :) I guess the reason why not is because a lot of these fans are twentysomething males who think like that?

Interestingly also, many aspects of this show make me wonder if I should have posted it in PPR instead. :lol:


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Bradleigh
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04 Sep 2020, 10:59 pm

I don't think anyone is right in the series. The notable part about Tanya is that Being X does not cause every problem for her, but it is actually herself. Tanya is smart, but continuously misunderstands how people will react to her actions, such as in general thinking that being an amazing soldier will allow her to be put into safety, that coming up with a bunch of revolutionary war prospects would not put her in charge of implementing them and so on. Like the time she spoke like an actual little kid to warn the enemy that they were about to bomb them, so she would not get in trouble on the international stage, I don't think she realised that it would just look like a prank so that the enemy would not take it seriously. Her own team thought that her intention was to act like a kid so they could bend the rules of engagement, they called it acting despite it may actually just be her natural voice.

Most of the ways Tanya stands above her own leaders are things she knew well from history, such as that smoking has bad side effects, that armies can be slow to adapt to technology advancements for combat strategy, and what a decision to for war will lead to continued conflict. Tanya is also plenty mistaken, indeed when as a man he did not see what his actions would lead to his own death, she commits war crimes that she can get away with because they don't exist yet, people on her own side think she is recklessly evil and provokes an enemy that is just going to continue to make things bad for her.

Granted, Tanya does have some points in whether the Being X is worth worshiping, since he seems so concerned over what Tanya thinks in the first place and is rather petty about making a lot happen just to get her to acknowledge him. What kind of actual god would be that concerned over one person saying he is not real?


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beneficii
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04 Sep 2020, 11:27 pm

You make some interesting points. Being X strikes me as testing Tanya, which I know is something the God of the Bible would often do. The closest I can think of is Job, but Job was already faithful from the get-go, so that analogy doesn't work. Maybe there's something in Buddhism or Taoism that this lines more closely up with? But still, this is what it strikes me as: Being X is testing Tanya.

Being X does not appear to be omnipotent, as they spoke of overwork from running the cycle of reincarnation. Granted, a lot of the "tiredness" seems to come from people lacking faith, and the God of the Bible was known to weary of it. And they seemed especially concerned with a lack of faith in themselves. So an almighty God, or merely one in a pantheon that is perhaps competing with others? I don't know. Still, its ability to decide where and in what circumstances, and when to reincarnate someone and who to reincarnate someone is, as well as whether to do so clearly marks them out as divine. That much I stand by.

Now why did Being X choose that Japanese businessman over anyone else? I have no idea. But from an in-universe perspective (as we are dealing with a fictional story), I guess it's pretty much just the mysterious ways incomprehensible to humans that gods tend to act, as they are dealing with things on a level mortals cannot even imagine attaining.

Still, Tanya needs to realize that she's ultimately helpless against Being X's power. Even if she survives the war, and manages to avoid any accidents or whatever, she'll still eventually die of old age. And even if she comes into some technology to stop aging, Murphy's law implies she'll still eventually die of something however long it will take. (And ironically here, she herself quotes Murphy's law in the story.) So the only way out for her is to play ball; she otherwise has no escape. If she continues to let her pride get in the way and refuses to show faith, then one day she will die, and that'll be it, no more reincarnations. That is the power of a god.


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