Jormungand - "Gun Metal, Calico Road" - Necessary Evil

For those who are unfamiliar, Jormungand is the story of arms dealer Koko Hekmatyar, who travels the world with her eight bodyguards. Requiring a ninth one, she enlists to her team one Jonathan Mar, a child soldier with a considerable knack for killing. There is only one problem: Jonathan (or Jonah as he is often called) has an extreme abhorrence to guns and often preaches opposition to their use.

In his introduction, Jonah comes off as a boy who cannot seem to extend his trust to anybody. He barely speaks other than to respond to others, and he doesn't really gravitate toward anyone in particular. Koko makes it her mission to help melt some of that ice, and takes him as her last-line protector for the two missions which occur in this episode.

It becomes quickly apparent that Koko's true intent is in her curiosity towards Jonah. She even goes as far as to goad him upon the completion of his first mission, challenging his hypocrisy in a long-winded speech:

"You hate your weapon, but can you give it up? You know you can't; you'll spend the rest of life with a gun in your hand. You may hate weapons more than anyone, but that doesn't matter in the end, because you also know better than anyone how useful, how necessary they can be. Do yourself a favor and stick with me. I deal in weapons, Jonah. I can show you how to live with your hate without giving up your gun." - Koko

The way she chooses to express these thoughts does generate a few questions. Could it be that she too has a distaste for weapons, and had learned to accept her craft in spite of her personal aversions? Could it be that she may intend to have Jonah follow in her footsteps one day? We don't know, but we can easily infer something along those lines. At her core, Koko Hekmatyar is arguing that her hypocrisy is justifiable, that it is a necessary evil.

We've seen before in this blog why evil can be quite necessary - first in Ghost in the Shell, and again in Danganronpa and Durarara. If violent and illicit criminal activity is the mechanism for great social change, then the weapons trade is merely a mechanism for the mechanism, so to speak. This should become more apparent as we continue to watch these characters undergo their business dealings, because we can judge the intents of our characters based on how they respond to the demands of their clientele.