#lo po bia yasratcha

What makes Yasratcha’s tragedy refreshing is that a lot of it is his fault. The fact is he was the one who put Wangwang there. He was the one who lied to Nennen. That Traumerei stepped in was simply one risk he failed to see, and unfortunately, a giant one.

Yes, there were many things outside of his control, such as Wangwang’s instinct, Traumerei’s experiments and dictatorship, and Nennen’s appearance. But towards the things that he could control, he made awful choices with them. For instance, he could have properly work together with Nennen to get Wangwang out. Sure, he might not have Wangwang all for himself but at least they’d all be alive. He could, you know, compromise his feeling for a safer route to the better future.

But he didn’t. He was so greedy and manipulative that he made a convoluted plan that ended up inviting a huge disaster called Traumerei. And Yasratcha was aware of the similarity. Just like how Wangwang couldn’t resist being an utter slave to his master, Yasratcha also couldn’t stop being a slave to his own desire. It’s their unstoppable, incomprehensible instincts. Ironically, they both acknowledge that such way of living sucks, with Yasratcha forever lamenting that they couldn’t escape their instinct and Wangwang wishing his children to live freely unlike himself.

That tragedy with Wangwang is neither a push for Yasratcha to better himself nor an excuse for his wrongdoings. I mean, after that, Yasratcha commits genocides at least twice, and is indirectly responsible for Haratcha’s and who knows who else’s. The tragedy doesn’t nullify his sins or make him a saint, if anything it makes him worse. It is just an explanation of what happened in the past that drove him to become the person he is today; a simple cause and effect of his own decisions.

I’m not saying that Yasratcha deserves to get controlled and forced to kill a dear person like that -It’s simply too painful for anyone to bear- But there is something poetic in a bleak, sad way that he ends up destroying the very thing he wishes for thousands of years with his own hands. It’s almost like the story of Haratcha, except there is no ounce of selflessness involved and it has everything to do with selfishness.