I was looking through my old posts. And while I usually hate things I’ve written that long ago, I felt like reposting this from over a year ago. I was replying to some post I saw claiming that the “villain set” in Princess Mononoke was “weak.” It’s one of my favorite movies.
There’s a really good reason for why you think the “villain set” is weak. It’s because this movie doesn’t have a villain. No one in this movie is evil. Character do evil things but are not evil characters. Maybe the difference between those two things seems subtle (you obviously missed it) or trivial (it absolutely is not) but the movie goes into painstakingly elegant efforts to make that as clear as it can.
Lady Eboshi is established early on as what, in any other movie, would become the villain. But as she shows Ashitaka Iron Town, we learn of all of the good she has done for her people, that she provides a safe life for lepers (traditionally, the people you would be most justified in excluding) and that she has legitimate care and concern for all of her people. Her actions and motivations throughout the entire movie are based on providing a better life for her people. She is misguided in how she attempts to bring about that better life, but she is not evil.
It’s really easy to hate Jigo. He is introduced as a friend to Ashitaka, and then we learn of his true motives and it’s impossible not to feel a sense of betrayal. He is selfish and deceptive until the very end. Actually, there’s no hint given when the movie ends that he learned any kind of a lesson or that he will ever change. But he isn’t evil. He is misguided. He does not understand the balance of the world like Ashitaka does, he doesn’t understand the harm that killing the forest spirit will bring. If being short sighted is evil, then we are all evil people.
No, the point of this movie is that there do not need to be evil people for evil things to happen. Everyone has their reasons and everyone thinks that they are justified. Ashitaka murders several people throughout the movie. Sure he “did what he had to do” but I doubt the families of the people he killed felt that way. San would have destroyed Iron Town if she had the chance. Knowing what we do at the end of the movie about the people who live there, how could we defend that?
The contingencies of life place us into contradictory situations. Our perspective skews our values, and while we act on what we think is right it can inexplicably lead us to evil actions. The best we can ever do is to try and see with eyes unclouded by hate. If you’re looking for a villain in this movie, it’s hatred. I don’t think you can get much better than that.
