Saint Seiya, episode 72.
Ikki moves in front of Saga. He explains that he has truly understood why his friends had all fought to the point of sacrificing their lives for their convictions, for their goddess... Tears appear in his eyes then... Tears of sincerity. Do they stem from Ikki's obstinacy in wanting to convince Saga of his fault, though he knows full well it is a desperate cause, or simply from a feeling so profound and delicate that it cannot help but provoke emotion, an emotion nevertheless very subtle in this knight to whom life has never been kind...

To carry on to the very end... To regain courage... To never lose confidence in oneself... To know how to fight for one's ideals, one's friends, one's freedom... Such lessons are given to us by Saint Seiya throughout the TV series.

Ikki has shown it to us many a time. Guilty of an extreme wrong toward Athena, that of having opposed himself to her for a while, he has earned her forgiveness only as a result of her benevolence and mercy. A divine mercy which can be found within a number of religions, and which commands the admiration of men and reinforces their faith in their God. The second chance.

We are all given a second chance. It is however necessary for us to live in the memory of a failure. Of a death. Of a bitter disappointment in love. Of a total tearing of the heart. Of a fall within the abysses of the soul. It is the memory of these instants that defines our strength and our weaknesses. Remembrance of the past is the source of all. Remember a generous action which had been for you the beginning of an immortal and timeless friendship... Memory is the mother of all evolution. To not replicate past errors is to change. It is to ameliorate oneself. It is to progress one step toward culmination. Toward the opening of the unique spirit, this force, this entity which we call Big Will or cosmo in Saint Seiya, Nirvana in Buddhism, Wisdom in our culture. Not this Wisdom that aids you to better survive and gives you a semblance of auto- satisfaction on the day of your death. Rather, a wisdom which helps to advance the world, our humanity. This altruistic wisdom that permits others to benefit from a personal culmination.

For it is not for oneself that one must progress, but for others. It is not for oneself that one must live, but for humanity. We are all elements of one world, that of man. A world which looks to grow, to reach this perfection it has never been capable of attaining, this equilibrium that will make it radiate through the mists of time.

It is here that the symbol of Saint Seiya becomes ultimate and revealing. The Bronze Saints know how to go beyond their acquired capabilities (a rigorous physical training and an armor reputed to be invincible) to surpass their human state and to put themselves at the service of a progression of the world, through the eradication of the most evil tendencies which lie dormant within all of us; much time will be necessary before we can hope for that day when humanity would have entirely erased this Evil that inhabits it. However, while we wait for that day, we must live with and everyday attempt to create a balance between this Evil so easily perpetrated and the Good which today appears to only be the prerogative of a fistful of enlightened souls, who, after all, are maybe simply looking to reach their own salvation, in the ancestral fear of these demons who are waiting for them in Hell should they not sow Goodness around them.

Saint Seiya proves to us that one can go beyond these semblances of kindness, and only demonstrate consideration for others, and not oneself. All it takes is loving them. Have you ever loved? Yes, of this love that you will never forget, that will stay anchored to the deepest part of your being and influence it until the moment of death... The cosmos felt within by the Saints is this global love, the vital energy of others. The most powerful love in Saint Seiya, and maybe the least evident to the uninformed spectator, is that which Athena holds for the world. She represents the last virtues of man, the love one can have for this mixture of Good and Evil which cannot see the difference between the two, this animal that has not ceased to physically evolve to the point where it is now sovereign over the planet of his residency, but has forgotten to become his own master, through the controlling of his own thoughts, his own instincts, his innate impulses.

The other love of Saint Seiya is the one which Seiya holds for Saori. A double love, since he concurrently loves the woman she was up until she realizes that she is none other than Athena, but that he maybe even more loves this divinity which is none other than an absolute symbol of the good side of man, that which each locks within himself and instigates the causation of the love of others when he succeeds in externalizing it.

Ah yes, the love of Seiya toward Athena is the love of a man for his people, for those he has mixed with and has learned to love without prejudice, with the conviction that they all deserved to live, and that it is only through spiritual weakness that they had allowed themselves to perform Evil around them, without even realizing it... People like you and me. Not better nor worse.

For we are all similar. We are all born equals. Sometimes, adults instill in us the belief that only Evil can allow us to survive today. While there is a grain of truth in such a belief, it is due solely to a letting go on the part of humanity. If only we would stick together, there would no longer be unemployment, corruption, murder. It is to this perfect world that Athena and our Saints aspire. Unfortunately, some allow themselves to be completely invaded by these negative thoughts which they prefer to adopt through pure stupidity rather than fight. Maybe it is simply because no one around them has ever taught them to refute them. But it is up to us to naturally find the way toward this purification.

To never lose hope.

I will never forgive Hitler and all the other demons who martyred our world.

But I know that even though some allow themselves to consider them as role models, others will always fight to bring their crimes to light. And the important factor is that the latter are always more numerous. Generation after generation, if each contributes, we will succeed. The Saints will always be there to remind us of that... And with them, all the optimism of the heroes of our childhood.

Cyber Namida was created and designed by René-Gilles Deberdt. All rights reserved.