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This was the biggest question I had for Gorou Miyazaki's debut animated film
_Tales from Earthsea_. Was the motivation for Arren's murder of his father
ever revealed in the anime or in the original _Earthsea_ series by Ursula K.
Le Guin? Or was it just a projection of the inner feelings the director had
toward his father?


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2015-03-02T09:52:51.533
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2023-08-05T04:27:37.390
2016-06-12T16:10:16.590
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question
tales-from-earthsea
Why did Arren kill his father?


Gorou Miyazaki had denied that Arren's murder of his father was a reflection
of his own feelings; rather, it was more or less the feeling of the young
Japanese generation:

> On Earthsea, Goro denied that Arren’s oblique patricide reflected the
> director’s own feelings in an interview at the Venice Film Festival. “I do
> not have much relationship with my father; because of that, I have never
> felt like killing him. I decided to start with the son murdering the father
> because I understand that’s more or less the feeling of the young Japanese
> generation. When I worked in the Ghibli museum, most of the staff there were
> young people with common problems. I wondered about why that was and tried
> to come up with reasons, which are reflected in the film. I purposely didn’t
> explain why Arren stabbed his father because I wanted the audience to think
> about it, and reach a broader idea of why these problems exist.”

Source: ["Tales from Earthsea and family feuds", _UK Manga Entertainment
Website_](https://web.archive.org/web/20161208202501/http://www.mangauk.com/post.php?p=family-
feud)

However, as Gorou purposely didn't explain the why, it proved to be a
challenge for many viewers to figure that out for themselves. For what it's
worth, Ursula K. Le Guin thought the murder was committed without much reason:

> The moral sense of the books becomes confused in the film. For example:
> Arren's murder of his father in the film is unmotivated, arbitrary: the
> explanation of it as committed by a dark shadow or alter-ego comes late, and
> is not convincing. Why is the boy split in two? We have no clue. The idea is
> taken from A Wizard of Earthsea, but in that book we know how Ged came to
> have a shadow following him, and we know why, and in the end, we know who
> that shadow is. The darkness within us can't be done away with by swinging a
> magic sword.

Source: ["Ursula K. Le Guin: Gedo Senki, a First Response",
_ursulakleguin.com_](https://www.ursulakleguin.com/adaptation-tales-of-
earthsea)


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2015-03-26T09:42:58.500
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2023-08-05T04:27:37.390
2023-08-05T04:27:37.390
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