Talk:Touka Kirishima/@comment-108.28.7.188-20150706133940/@comment-10733658-20150717075543

I suppose we've hit the classic debate of Criminal Justice -- whether the point is Punishment for the sake of Punishment, or whether it is about Reform.

Your argument seems to be firmly on the side of the former, that Touka did wrong and therefore most be directly punished for that exact crime.

On the other hand, I ascribe to the Reform school of thought. I would argue that Ishida also seems to be favoring this school of thought, since very few characters have directly answered for crimes but have had to learn from their mistakes. They've faced consequences, and the biggest piece has been for them to regret their actions and grow from it.

I suppose my question, Magister, is what do you expect in terms of Touka "answering" for her crimes? It doesn't sound like you've given much thought to what that actually would entail.

Being berated by others for it? She's already stated she deserved to die for what she did. Yelling at someone that has already acknowledged their faults and tried to address them is pointless, and more often than not, cruel. It's kicking someone while they are down.

Being identified as Rabbit? That means she spends the rest of her life a fugitive, and is eventually caught and killed.

In this series, the point isn't direct punishment for mistakes or crimes. Instead, Ishida has given us multiple narratives of people screwing up and having to learn from it. Ideally, they accept that they were wrong and grow as a person.

Touka has done that. She's probably comparable to Juuzou, another person that did wrong in the original series and got punched by karma while not being held accountable/directly punished. Both learned important lessons, and devoted themselves to being better people going forward.