Worstgen

Excluding Kanki’s mass slaughter I pretty much agree with him politically I think. Kanki strikes me as some form of leftist which is where I would describe myself on the scale. “Fuck the rich, but especially fuck the middle class” is Kanki’s take. Which I’m more fuck the rich than the middle class but I think there is merit to both takes.

Elder Lee Hung

The area I disagree on is Kanki calling Sei a warmonger. Sei would unify China through peaceful methods if the other states would allow him to do so. And the most heinous of Qin’s war crimes are committed by Kanki, so Kanki’s claim that Sei has more blood on his hands than Kanki himself is just wrong.

Den_Den_Mushi

Yeah I agree that Sei would’ve gone the diplomacy route if he could but I do think Kanki is right that Sei is technically still the biggest war criminal of them all. No one forced Sei to give Kanki the right to wage war and it doesn’t seem like he cared too much about what Kanki did at Kokuyou. He both implicitly and explicitly enables Kanki to do bad things.

Den_Den_Mushi

In real life terms I see it as the distinction between Hitler and the Nazis. Yes the Nazis did terrible things and rightfully should be held accountable for individual war crimes but most of the world sees Hitler as the most evil party overall because he allowed everything to occur and even fostered the Nazi mindset. Likewise Sei fosters the bloody unification philosophy.

Elder Lee Hung

I think from anybody else’s perspective, yes Sei is responsible for Kanki’s actions as a Qin commander, but Kanki himself calling Sei evil when Kanki is the one committing all of Qin’s atrocities is just weird lol. None of the other Qin commanders are raping and murdering innocents, the rest of Qin’s commanders are fighting Sei’s wars which are fought to ultimately end the wars.

Elder Lee Hung

Kanki is the only Qin commander whose actions are in conflict with that point.

Den_Den_Mushi

This is where we run into the issue of intent vs impact. Whatever Sei intends, it’s hard to convince anyone, especially people of their time period that unification will actually end wars. Ryofui didn’t believe it. Kanki doesn’t believe it, even the Qi king had his reservations about the cultural genocide required for unification.

Den_Den_Mushi

Also I don’t think Kanki is the only commander committing war crimes. During Sanyou, Mouten even acknowledges that there are a lot of war crimes going on but the top brass and other soldiers simply turn a blind eye. It’s also quite unreasonable for Sei to hire someone whose moniker is the Beheader and do shocked Pikachu face when heads start to roll.