Comment by jonhohle
12 hours ago
I wouldn’t call Lady Eboshi a villain or really anyone in the movie, not even Jigo (no allegiances, just working a job). Everyone has different motivations and the movie is about those motivations conflicting. Not because anyone is particularly wrong or bad, they just want different things. No one is perfect, sometimes pursuing the things we want is destructive to the things others want. The gods tasked with protecting the forest ultimately lead to the deer god’s death.
That’s the joy in most Miyazaki movies. Any other movie would have an obvious evil villain. Miyazaki gives all of his characters motivation that is immediately relatable. Sometimes characters that appear to be villains at the beginning are heroes at the end.
All of these things mirror the real world. Rarely is someone actually intentionally evil. They may have different priorities, goals, fears, and motivations, and those may produce behaviors or beliefs that seem bad, but without understanding the why or what, it’s easy to just assume their “bad” people. Ashitaka doesn’t take the bait and is kind, respectful, and generous to everyone who isn’t obviously doing something atrocious (like the samurai slaughtering peasants).
Princess Mononoke is easily one of my favorite movies of all time and my favorite Miyazaki movie.
I think you're conflating villainy with evil. Eboshi abandons her village for cash in the climax of the film. SHe's told the village is in trouble and says "let them deal with it, mama's gotta make that cheddar"
Jigo lays a trap that sacrifices hundreds of his own men in order to kill a god.
I'd put both of them in the villain category. Before the battle, I wouldn't put either of them in that category, but the climax really makes them out to be awful people. Eboshi in particular hides behind smiles and buying up the contracts of prostitutes (to make them her slaves) and helping lepers until the climax when she completely abandons them, throwing them to the wolves in service of money.
She has made a somewhat Faustian bargain with the other warlords and by extension the emperor. She is very different than them in caring for outcasts, but the state is still the source of her power, so when the emperor wants the deer-god's head she goes hunting, thinking quite naturally that this is the best she can do for her outcast villagers. Money for the village's needs (they are far from self-sufficient), the emperor's favor, and (as far as she knows) an end to god-attacks on the village? Of course she goes. The villagers are equipped to deal with more short-term threats, she made sure of that.
She is absolutely a non-evil, non-villainous antagonist.
I’m not saying they aren’t antagonists. Villains by definition are cruel. Jigo and Eboshi don’t act out of cruelty. They think their actions are the appropriate way to survive in a rapidly changing world.
Eboshi is socialism. She cares for the people in her village and will overthrow gods and warlords to protect them. She’s in direct conflict with the forest gods and has what she thinks is an opportunity to bring peace. She’s willing to put herself in jeopardy for her people. I have never assumed anything but her pure altruism for the people of her village. She’s the type of leader you want to protect you and don’t want to be up against. That protection doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and just like historically socialist societies, she’ll use violence to achieve what she sees as ideal.
Jigo is capitalism; self centered and money motivated. He’s just a bounty hunting mercenary. He doesn’t care about the consequences, just about getting his job done. He does have some loyalties and is very honest about his approach to the world. The men he eliminates are not his men, but local samurai who are the least morally ambiguous. He’s not a hero trying to protect Irontown from the same samurai, but at the same time, he needs to ensure he comes out with the prize, otherwise he doesn’t get paid. He’s calculated and efficient, and his men actually kill two birds with one stone.