MovieChat Forums > Mio min Mio (1987) Discussion > The problem of the stone heart

The problem of the stone heart


There is one thing I could not understand when a child and I still cannot understand it now. When Kato dies he thanks Mio and tells him it is terrible to live with a stone heart. So we may think he didn't like being evil. But a man becomes good doing good things. What could prevent Kato from doing good things? Stone heart attacks?

Devil, fear your child born with a human heart!

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That is quite weird yes.

But throughout the film, they talk about how things should be, and how things has been planned for thousands of years. So maybe he can't choose to be good, because he 'should' be evil?

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"So maybe he can't choose to be good, because he 'should' be evil?"

Every person can choose between good and evil. Otherwise it is not a person, it's a programmed computer. But a computer cannot suffer.

Devil, fear your child born with a human heart!

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It´s an adventure, and in adventures everything is possible. :)

Johanna.

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Fatalism is a very strong theme in a lot of fantasy. It is actually very prevalent in a lot of the modern world in religion. Fatalism is at the core of Islam and quite a few Christian literalists also believe that all is preordained as well just as a few examples. God controls everything, and no 'choice' is actually made. Obviously real world fatalists still suffer.

In Lord of the Rings, or more specifically the Silmarillion Tolkien describes Dragons, Trolls and the other creatures made by Morgoth as being basically robots. The core difference between the evil creatures and the 'good' ones is that the good ones can choose to be evil because they have souls. Trolls and the like just do what their creator made them to do; be evil, and cannot choose good.

Tolkien never really focused on the suffering of the creatures of Morgoth though, so rather they can suffer emotionally isn't clear. I doubt that Tolkien ever really came to terms with that aspect of his stories.

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Quote:

"Fatalism is a very strong theme in a lot of fantasy. God controls everything, and no 'choice' is actually made. Obviously real world fatalists still suffer."

I think there are no 100% fatalists in real life (excluding people who have mental disease). A good person can call himself a fatalist and can suffer, but he still chooses good when it comes to it. And an evil person just like to call himself a fatalist to make his conscience sleep. And he does not suffer.

About Tolkien - I think Smaug enjoyed being evil!


Devil, fear your child born with a human heart!

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'Every person can choose between good and evil. Otherwise it is not a person, it's a programmed computer.'

It never occurred to you that a real person cannot be made of stone either? Or that there are no such things as genies or invisible cloaks?

It is a fairytale.

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Invisible cloaks now really exist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD83dqSfC0Y

Johanna.

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If i remember correctly (it's been about 15 years) Kato gained some powers when his hert became of stone, the heart poisoned his mind and was eating away his soul, causing great suffering, yet Kato's greed was not going to let him part with that power willingly, that was the cost of such power! And most of all, don't forget it's fantasy!

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My grandmother has just finished reading "Mio min Mio" by Astrid Lindgren. She paid attention to the fact that after Kato's death Mio found a bird that hadn't been there before and let it out. She thinks that Kato himself was enchanted and after he died the spell was broken and he turned into the bird. This could explain why he couldn't help being evil.

Devil, fear your child born with a human heart!

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There are several legends about a wizard whose beloved betrayed him. To ensure that nothing ever hurt him that way again, he removed his heart and placed it inside an egg, inside a fish, inside an eagle, inside a great stone, at the bottom of a great deep lake, which was inside a mountain. He also gained immortality, but without a human heart, he became cruel and wicked.
Perhaps this same thing happened to Kato. He may have wanted simply to stop his own suffering, and lost that which made him able to understand the pain of others. I had an idea that Kato was once a Prince, just like Mio, who had been sent to conquer the last Evil One. Instead of destroying the power of the wicked one, Kato tried to keep it for himself, and make it serve his desire to do good. It ended up devouring him instead, and turned him into another host for evil, which is why Mio knew to let go of the stone of power instead of trying to keep it. Just a thought.

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The bit with the bird was (and is) my favourite part (it would make me teary-eyed when I was younger, now that I'm older and hardened, it's mental tears, rather than real ones;)). Anyway, it's been a while since I've reread Mio, but I've always believed that the little bird (which was different from the big birds who were the enchanted kids) is the tiny bit of good that was still alive in Kato after all these years, but was shackled as it were, because the evil in him was much bigger and the stone heart was too strong. There was a line about the bird being a captive for too long (sorry, haven't read the English translation and have no idea how the line goes there).

Simply put, I've always taken it to mean that Astrid Lindgren was saying that no one is truly and entirely bad.

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Well, I thought, as the heart changed into a bird later, that he himself was once a lost child, and the Dark Lord before him captured him and made him his heir, and death is certainly redemption. In mean, his body was destroyed, only the heart lived on. If it would have been total evil, it should fall to ashes too.


Starry Vere, God bless you!

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I thought it was more just that he was so hard hearted his heart literally turned to stone and by freeing the bird he was freeing Kato's soul. There's even something similar in Sailor Moon Sailor Stars. The evil Sailor Scout Galaxia's goodness was turned into a cute little child named Chibi Chibi! Restoring her restored her goodness.

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