Last week I had the fortune of stumbling across Netflix's latest animated series, Blue Eye Samurai. I didn't expect much, but I was so bowled over by the sheer excellence of this show that I ended up binging the entire first season overnight. Like all shows, it's got its flaws, but they're so few and so easily dismissible it doesn't matter. What I love about it the most, the gorgeous settings and the awesome soundtrack aside, is the character design and character building for each of the cast.

And this is where my inspiration for this post comes- from the show's main villain and boogey man, Abijah Fowler (whose name is basically a messing up of the letters that spell ‘flower’ btw). He is one of the sole four white people that made it to Japan to trade before the country went into its isolationism phase during the 1600s Edo period. I won't go into why that's significant to the main character because it's beyond the point of the article today. But what I will say is that Fowler is easily one of Japan's most ruthless, cruel, twisted men (there's reason for that, too). He's also filthy rich, confined to a castle to spare the Shogun the embarrassment of having allowed a white man to exist in Japan, and has a plan to plant his own puppet Shogun instead.

And here comes the point of today's article, summed up in the still I got from one of the most revealing scenes about the character: the scene where Fowler talks to God, prior to launching his plan to overthrow the Shogun.

Fowler is an Irishman, so he's a Catholic. Not a practicing Catholic, but from what we garner, he does have some belief that God exists. And in this one moment where everything is about to launch and, like anyone would, he has the jitters about how successful his plan will be, he goes to talk to God. The way he talks to God is astounding. Not in what he says (he offers a trade of souls in return for success of his plan) but in what that reveals about him.

Fowler is a trader, a political puppeteer, and someone who has no qualms about here he stands in terms of alignment with God's tennets. But he makes an offer to God like a tradesman. He speaks to God like he's approaching another trader, trying to find what common ground there can be, and then uses that to make his ‘pitch’ about soliciting God's help in the fruition of his plan.

We learn a lot about Fowler and how he thinks from just a 2 minute scene. Because belief and how we behave within belief is basically a mirror.

No matter what religion you ascribe to, no matter if you ascribe to no religion, if you're atheist or agnostic, or anything in between, you have a set of beliefs. How you interpret and apply these beliefs in your daily life tells everything about you (and next to nothing about your dogma).

Let's take the Ten Commandments, just because I assume people are familiar with them. There's one that goes “thou shall not kill”. But it never has stopped people from killing each other while ascribing to the Commandments. The belief is there (we shouldn't kill each other) but how it is applied is what reveals our true self:

“We shouldn't kill each other, but you're not part of us, so I can kill you.”
“We shouldn't kill each other, unless you're not good enough, then I can kill you.”
“We shouldn't kill each other, and thus I can't kill you because you're one of us.”
“We shouldn't kill each other, but because I don't like you, you're not one of us, and I can.”
“We shouldn't kill each other, but I have God's authority to do it, so I can.”
“We shouldn't kill each other, so killing is off the table no matter what.”

The above examples are pretty broadbrushing. Tons of nuance can come out of how a character acts/reacts according to their belief, letting the audience know the core of their personality and stance. And because a belief system doesn't need to be religious, it can work whether your character is faithful to anything or not.

The most dangerous thing about belief is that it isn't the fence or net holding people back or shaping their behavior that it's made out to be. Rather than a fence keeping people from doing certain things, it is a prism. Intent for certain things goes in, and through the prism it morphs into different behaviors that serve that wish, no matter how clashing to the creed/belief system that wish may be.

This holds true for those who are “true” believers (as in, they make sure they have some rationalization about why what they do is acceptable within their belief system) and those who aren't. We live in a society, and society has a belief system that makes certain things acceptable and others unacceptable. It's how people grapple with both categories that reveals their true nature, personality, and range.

And so exploring how a character reacts to their own faith/belief system is a great way to show, rather than tell, what that character is all about! Just like what we learn about Abijah Fowler.

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