In Depth: Motoko from GITS?

[Lizzy]

I vaguely remember watching the show Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex when I was a little girl.

Not completely little, but very young. That might make some of you in your 30s or above groan :­p

But I don't remember any personality traits from Motoko Kusanagi.

My memories of that were.. that they all didn't have personality. Not very much. I didn't pick up much on them at all.

I think they basically ran after badguys. Or at least that's all I remember.

 

Fans of the series could really help here. I have both curiosity, and a desire to make her in Fallout 4. From another NPC.

Mostly because of this outfit: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/11647/?

 

What was she interested in, what where her morals, backstory? Likes, dislikes?

Did she actually have a personality? Has she ever shown emotion?

Please provide as many details as you can! 

[oblivionwithdongs]

The Major's personality is hard to pin down because it's different between her different portrayals.

In the manga she's more carefree and kind of a libertine (dat boat scene)

In the movies she's way more mysterious and serious but also unsure of exactly who she is and way more susceptible to malaise.

In SAC which the outfit is from she's closer to manga motoko. She's serious and commanding but also has a sense of humor and is prone to introspection.

 

All versions though (arise excluded since i aint seen it) are fearless leaders, ruthlessly protective of their comrades and dedicated to succeeding in their missions at any cost (particularly her own body, since she gets partially destroyed several times).

 

I guess in fallout terms it's always pick the good karma option too since Motoko's generally a good person even if she's violent as hell, hacks peoples' brains and drives like a fuckin' maniac through civilian traffic.

[naral]

Motoko is one of the most strange character of gits, mainly because she is a step ahead all others in transhumanism: she had a cybernetic body from childhood so she is far more detached to "humanity" than others like batou or on the opposite spectrum togusa or even saito. She is the best hacker of her section (probably the best after the laughing man and surely the best after the puppetteer case) and most of her reality is by definition virtual. She has a constant interior struggle between being human and a cyborg and often she question what means to be human, while others have their past as a guide to anchor their emotions she cannot distinguish between emotions and "programs".

That's why she probably "loves" batou but not has batou loves her.

 

She is a soldier and an officer, she isn't very empathic but understand the emotional state of others (like a psychopat), she follows orders but not much moral, her values are shaped more by the perception and expectation of others than by her own free convinction (aramaki is her guide and without him as a mentor i belive she would have been a monster).

 

When she progress on the transhuman path she becomes completly alien but in gits: innocence she seems to be able to rember or sympathize with human emotions (not unlike a father smiling to the foolishness of children)

[Lexi SubZero]

All aboard the hype train folks (..fingers crossed so DreamWorks does't fuck this up)   

First pic of ScarJo as Kusanagi..


..she looks good imo. I don't get the "whitewashing whiners"...there wasn't any statement her prosthetic body (a mass-production model on the outside to look less conspicuous with military grade cybernetics inside iirc) was meant to look asian in appearance...

ON TOPIC:
My favorite Motoko is the one from the manga...as oblivionwithdongs said...carefree, a bit goofy at times (still a certified badass though) and yeah..DAT BOAT SCENE indeed....really great read. Get it if you can...

[Lizzy]

Thanks to everyone for the explanations   Almost done with the 2nd Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex, watched the first movie and Innocence!

 

 

 

(Quoted for notifications)

Yes, I'm sick of that racist "white-washing" nonsense myself. What a ridiculous double-standard!

YouTubers are taking to their soap-boxes ranting about none of her merits, just that she's "white".

A silly label given to pale people who's ancestors hailed from many different regions   I'm pale myself, hardly "privileged" >_>

[Guest]

I literally couldn't sit through the Stand Alone Complex.  Motoko was suddenly a sex doll with a gun, who never changes costume; with all action and no story. Maybe it got better after the first episode but I didn't have much patience with her portrayal. 

 

And to say that her outfit was closer to the Manga...? You need to take a look at the Manga again and note all the *other* costumes she wore that weren't that look.

[Lizzy]

 

 

Well, I really like Standalone Complex. But I'm not bothered by her manner of dress. (I have a different view on that sort of thing)

She covers her choices I think, in a silly fight against Batou. One of her many reasons was sex appeal, and the enemy underestimates her.

It may have a lot of action scenes, but there's quite a bit of philosophy in the series too.

 

Cyber-brains and their implications are covered in more detail. Different cybernetic capabilities, and the concept of the show's title.

 

The only problem is, the most interesting debates come from the Tachikomas.

[Kamen Rider Kuuga]

Motoko is a brain in a case. Motoko can be any race, ethnicity and either gender. Besides, the majority of animu and manga characters are not even designed to look Japanese. They all look white, so why is it suddenly so horrible to cast a white person as an animu character? I mean, other than the fact that being white is now a hate crime based on something you cannot control.

 

Since I don't care for The Laughing Man stuff, I find a lot of Stand Alone Complex to be dull.

[27X]

There are several hints that the Major was actually a guy before getting full conversion.

 

There is no set personality until near the end, and that's the point. The Major has literally lost everything, including "her" personality. The reason she wears what she does is to express that she is a human being and also a sexual creature, all the implications thereof.

 

 

 

debate

 

Again part of the point; the Tachikomas are actually much more "human" than their idols. Their idols have chosen rather deliberately to take enhancement over "experience", and as we see there are serious costs for doing that. The major is essentially an "autistic" sensory-addicted death machine and Batou uses humor to hide everything he's lost, including the inability to relate to anyone outside the unit/military framework.

 

GiTS is about transient humanity and how much is required to keep mentally and physically  without losing those qualities.

[Lizzy]

 

Motoko is a brain in a case. Motoko can be any race, ethnicity and either gender. Besides, the majority of animu and manga characters are not even designed to look Japanese. They all look white, so why is it suddenly so horrible to cast a white person as an animu character? I mean, other than the fact that being white is now a hate crime based on something you cannot control.

 

Since I don't care for The Laughing Man stuff, I find a lot of Stand Alone Complex to be dull.

 

I have to agree with the first part, and what's more, I find that behavior completely racist.

Insane people have called it "reverse-racism". Nope. That's not it. Just ordinary racism.

 

The Laughing Man stories interested me, until the Major role-played that hacker.

The mouth(cursing) on the guy was completely out of character. She went overboard.

But that the LM hacker was manipulating people to expose corruption, that was pretty cool IMO

More of what I like about the series is the covert operations carried about by their team.

 

There are several hints that the Major was actually a guy before getting full conversion.

 

Is that from the manga? I haven't seen anything like this yet, or missed it. There's an episode of Standalone Complex that explains her history as one of the two child survivors of a plane crash fatal to all other passengers. She was the girl in a coma, and her vitals abruptly failed. They put her in a full prosthetic body. The boy was Hideo Kuze, who begrudgingly accepted a prosthetic body also.

 

On a side-note (since this category is "off topic"), I think all the modern anti "gender roles" blab is just silly. Only because we have not reached the level of technological sophistication this series shows. There's no way to fully swap genders, and to try is mutilation. I would totally try many different bodies if I could swap! Find out what it's like to be a dude, knowing what I already know about how not to approach women. Kuze's type would be my first choice, for either gender. That kind of armored body able to withstand attacks! But Motoko's abilities would be fantastic too. Her agility, how she can peek into other people's brains, thermo-optic camouflage to become invisible, and best of all, controlling people with E-brains to make them say what I want  

 

[Chbaakal]

On a side-note (since this category is "off topic"), I think all the modern anti "gender roles" blab is just silly. Only because we have not reached the level of technological sophistication this series shows. There's no way to fully swap genders, and to try is mutilation. I would totally try many different bodies if I could swap! Find out what it's like to be a dude, knowing what I already know about how not to approach women. Kuze's type would be my first choice, for either gender. That kind of armored body able to withstand attacks! But Motoko's abilities would be fantastic too. Her agility, how she can peek into other people's brains, thermo-optic camouflage to become invisible, and best of all, controlling people with E-brains to make them say what I want  

 

 

From watching the series, I got the impression that there was a difference between commercial prosthetics and military-grade ones. Full body conversions were uncommon to the general public, expensive, and had several limitations. There were many references mentioned about governmental control of 'licenced' manufacturing of those cybernetics available to the general populace, so the luxury of having such a body would only be available if you were one of the 'elite' (rich), you had certain connections to the black market, or you had a top government or military position.

Motoko's adult body was basically 'military issued', with many enhancements above standard models, and was allowed certain freedoms outside of civilian legal statutes regarding full body replacements. She does have a rebellious streak, however, and dresses in accordance with a sense of thumbing her nose at authority, and for reinforcing her status as a highly competent female combat officer in an initially male-dominant military.

 

At the time of Motoko's accident, the full body prosthetic method was in the early stages, and it seems that she and a few other children were actually a sort of experiment, to guage how well a child could adapt to an entire body replacement. In her case, she was 'gifted', one who could fully adapt to her new body much easier than most. It was still an awkward period of her life, since 'growing up' was the process of switching bodies, and not one that a 'normal' girl would go through. Another difficulty she'd had at a young age was not connecting with her 'Ghost', or gestalt personality, and had always wondered if she truly was herself, and not just a 'copy' of a child that died in an accident.