Ghost in the Shell - Stand Alone Complex

[Vic Mancini]

Apologies if I'm annoying anyone by starting a new topic for an old anime that I'm sure has been discussed to death, but I couldn't find any older GITS threads on this forum that pertained to general discussion of SAC episodes. And since I'm having trouble finding any GITS forums on the net that haven't been mostly abandoned some time in 2006/2007, and since I know my beloved Macross World is always active, I decided to start a fresh topic for general discussion of SAC.

And now for the question that's been on my mind and burning in my brain since I first watched 2nd Gig. The episode I want to discuss is "Poker Face". There is something that has bugged me about the ending of that episode for years that I've never been able to understand. Hopefully some of you guys are familiar with the episode and can help me figure it out. First I'm going to review the scene step by step. Here goes...

Step 1: Motoko charges up the stairs of the Hospital, peeks her mirror around the corner, plugs her cyber brain into her rifle, charges out from behind the corner, fires 3 shots at Saito's jamming gear - destroying it, and holds her stance.

Step 2: Saito comes out from behind his cover, takes aim at Motoko, hesitates in fear from what he sees, and then returns to his cover without firing. He's terrified to his core because he can tell from her posture, that she's full cyborg and that he's about to die because she has superior reflexes.

Step 3: Saito runs a trial scenario in his head to see what will happen if he takes a shot at the major. Every simulation ends up the same with Motoko shooting down his bullet out of mid-air. And because Motoko's rifle is semi-automatic, and Saito's is only bolt-action, Motoko has the advantage of being able to fire a second round before Saito will be able to take cover, which will result in his defeat.

Step 4: Saito racks his brain for an alternate strategy and notices that the Major used 3 whole rounds to take out his jamming gear. Saito questions why the Major would use 3 shots to destroy the gear if she had mid-range fire control software installed, since she could easily do the job with one round, and comes to the conclusion that she in fact doesn't have the software yet. ...And that she's probably downloading it via a satellite link at that exact moment.

Step 5: "Get there first", says Saito in his head. He charges out from his cover to take a shot at Motoko before she has a chance to finish downloading the mid-range software. Of course this was all a bluff by the Major to lure Saito out from hiding and induce him to take a shot at her, (and the whole reason the flashback is taking place during a symbolic poker game.) Brilliant.

(Now this is what I don't understand)

Step 6: Motoko returns fire at Saito. But instead of shooting down his bullet out of mid air, and using the advantage of her semi-automatic rifle and mid-range fire control software to snipe Saito with a second shot, her bullet passes straight past Saito's bullet in mid air. Saito's shot grazes the Major's cheek, (which was a close call IMO), and her own shot passes through the scope of Saito's rifle scope destroying his left eye with the broken shards of glass.

Step 7: Motoko runs up to Saito's cover in the aftermath of the showdown and disables him by pinning his hand to the column with her knife, and says, "From now on you're mine." Saito responds, "You had the software all along". This confirms the Major's bluff.

Here's what makes no sense to me. Why didn't the stand-off end the way Saito simulated it? If Motoko was simply counting on Saito to narrowly miss putting a bullet in her head, and planning to use one round to disable Saito without shooting down his shot first...why didn't she shoot at him in STEP 2? Why bother bluffing at all?

The whole point of the bluff was to get Saito to shoot first so she can shoot down his bullet and use the advantage of her semi-automatic and software to get a second shot at him before he can take cover. But in the end she didn't need Saito to shoot first at all because she didn't even bother shooting down his round or using the advantage of her semi-automatic. The whole bluff was for nothing which really sucks because she could've just opened fire at STEP 2 and had the same exact result.

I've watched the episode 6 times and I just don't get it.

[Xeros]

That episode IMO is one of the best of the non plot related episodes in both seasons.

The way I see it, she do all of it to prove Saito she REALLY is better than him. I mean, at the beginning of the episode he was the one on control of the situation, but only because Motoko was struck with a bunch of idiots (you can even count Batou on that group) and only she and Ishikawa being the ones capables to counter saito's moves

Then you must remember that Saito says that snipers are a valuable asset at the time, and the fact that all the section 9 has an unconditional allegiance to her. So, the best way to win Saito allegiance in that situation would be to force that one on one encounter and win it totally, disabling Saito's eye and hand.

[Macross007]

That episode IMO is one of the best of the non plot related episodes in both seasons.

The way I see it, she do all of it to prove Saito she REALLY is better than him. I mean, at the beginning of the episode he was the one on control of the situation, but only because Motoko was struck with a bunch of idiots (you can even count Batou on that group) and only she and Ishikawa being the ones capables to counter saito's moves

Then you must remember that Saito says that snipers are a valuable asset at the time, and the fact that all the section 9 has an unconditional allegiance to her. So, the best way to win Saito allegiance in that situation would be to force that one on one encounter and win it totally, disabling Saito's eye and hand.

I second that. The reason why the Major (too much respect to call her by her name) did not shoot at step 2 is due to the fact she knew all along that Saito will be too afraid to shoot her right away. Knowing this, the Major was playing with Saito's fear to keep f*cking with him.

For the simulation question, I guess that since Saito was sh*tting on himself he surely made mistakes when he was simulating the outcome of the battle.

Edited July 1, 2009 by Macross007

[Vic Mancini]

That episode IMO is one of the best of the non plot related episodes in both seasons.

The way I see it, she do all of it to prove Saito she REALLY is better than him.

But why didn't she use her mid range fire control software to properly defend herself against Saito's first shot, and then use the advantage of her semi-automatic to safely disable him? I want to agree with you about Poker Face being one of the best Stand Alone episodes, but the ending feels soooo arbitrary. Motoko goes through all the trouble of orchestrating an elaborate bluff, and then in the end she doesn't even use it to her advantage. In the end all she does is rely on Saito to have bad aim. Wtf? It makes no sense to me. I think it would've been one of the greatest all time SAC episodes if the stand-off ended the way Saito simulated it.

[Vic Mancini]

It's like...the poker game for example. During the game Saito is chasing a straight flush while his opponent is building 4 of a kind. His opponent thinks Saito is chasing the A to complete a royal flush, and doesn't think Saito knows that he already has all the aces as part of his 4 of a kind. But Saito does know, and lets him continue thinking that Saito needs one of those aces to win the hand, meanwhile he completes a King-high straight flush which is still good enough to beat the 4 aces that his opponent has.

Now imagine the poker match went down differently. Imagine it starts out the same by Saito building towards his straight flush, his opponent is building towards 4 aces, Saito let's him think that by holding the A that he needs for a royal flush it makes winning impossible for Saito...etc...etc....same as before... but imagine instead of using that misinformation at the end of the hand to win all the money, Saito misses his straight flush and only makes a straight, but the straight is still good enough because his opponent also missed his quads and only made 3 of a kind. All those mind games and mental tactics go down the drain and are good for nothing, but Saito still wins the hand anyway because his opponent simply didn't make a good enough hand to win. Wouldn't you go, "wtf" and wonder why the writers of the episode would bother with all that build up and misinformation just to have it come down to Saito's opponent missing his draw and making a worse hand than Saito? It would be so arbitrary. Why lead his opponent to believe that 4 of a kind would be good at all?

And that's exactly what happens during the standoff between Saito and the Major. In the end her bluff wasn't used to defeat Saito at all...and neither was the tactical advantage of her semi-automatic rifle over Saito's bolt action rifle. In the end Saito just had bad aim and the Major took him out the same way she could have in Step 2.

Edited July 2, 2009 by Vic Mancini