Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Season 1 quotes

Now I understand it, it was the same as back then, I'm the one with the blind spot, in my heart.

It's been a long time, Aramaki.

Aramaki

It can't be! What's the meaning of this?

At first I had no intention of doing anything, I only wanted to tell me the truth. A truth I thought posterity should know. The thing I needed to tell me, was that I overwrote my memories into my cyberbrain. I never suspected the potential danger of it. That it would turn me into an assassin.

Aramaki

What have you hidden in there? What's in your data library?

The truth about Okinawa. I only wanted to hand it down to future generations, but when I learned this truth, I discovered the truth behind mom's death. All I wanted after that was revenge. It was a miscalculation on my part. I had no intention of carrying out an assassination, but I am unable to stop the thirst for revenge that festers in my heart.

A basic rule of thumb about hackers is that we live to peek at things that others have hidden, it's our nature. But, the depth of darkness in the hotbed of corruption that I had tried to challenge defeated me, and all I could do was become a deaf-mute, and avert my eyes from it all. Just as you've done these past six years. The Laughing Man, hmm, that was a catchy name they came up with. And here I've been thinking that if I was unsuccessful in persuading you, I'd simply follow Holden's quote and disappear. They went with the Salinger angle, too, good grief.

We've been through this, like I've told you over and over, that's not true.

Then why was a member of Section 9 in contact with Mr. Serano while impersonating the Laughing Man

Look, that was only to...

To what?

Hey! Section 9 didn't even exist six years ago, did it? How the hell could it be involved with the Laughing Man incident?! Huh?!

Word has it that data falsification is a specialty with you guys, that true?

Huh? Ah... gimme a break, would ya? Six years ago I was a police investigator, same as you.

All right, let's take this again... from the top.

Batou

Hell, this is my own life. How I decide to waste it is my own damn business.

Once a problem child always a problem child, know what I'm sayin'?

Finally done putting up a fight? Damn... I killed him!

Batou

What's wrong? I forgot, I look dead to you don't I? Well, don't believe it.

Uh??!

Batou

I'm sorry, but I had to hack your eyes pal.

Oh God...we're weak and powerless...My fellow tachikomas and I.

That's not true. What you and the others have gained makes you far from powerless.

Goodbye.... Mr Batou! [Before both tachikomas sacrifice themselves for Batou]

Batou

By the way, I have something that almost didn't make it here. [Batou pulls out a wrist watch]

I knew it.

Batou

No matter how many prosthetic bodies you've went through this was the one thing that was always ticking away, keeping the same time as you. Nowadays thats far to fleeting, people entrust their memories to external devices because they want to set down solid physical proof that can distinguish them as unique individuals. That watch is all you have though, isn't it? Your only external mnemonic device that identifies the person you've been up to this minute.

Those are pretty serious words, where'd you get them from I'd like to know. A watch and weight training gear, both of us have clung to useless scraps of memory, haven't we?

It's not like I had aspirations to be a hero or anything. However, I'm positive we followed a code of justice that all of believed in without condition or compromise. Laughing Man, you were the one who first tried to shed some light on the black abyss of this case and bring it to the world's attention. Is it possible that at this moment, you're feeling the same as I am? Nah, you wouldn't. Your not the type to go in for that stuff. You must've had a revelation of something and you're watching this with eyes that see the big picture. Isn't that right? I could tell. Major...

Welcome. You took longer than I expected.

Motoko

Don't give me that. You didn't even send me an invitation.

"If you stay right where you are, then people will eventually come to you."

Motoko

I believe it was Doisneau who said that?

Yes.

I'll tell you. It was a simple piece of mail I stumbled across on the net that began the whole thing. What I'd found was a blackmail document that had probably been sent to Serano Genomics. It was armed with a thesis that was a comparative of the inadequacy of Serano micromachines versus the effectiveness of the Murai vaccine.

Motoko

Then the original Laughing Man was the person who authored it?

You could put it like that, I suppose. "I am the machine that reveals the world to you as only I alone am able to see it"

Motoko

Dziga Vertov. He was a Russian filmmaker, wasn't he?

Yes. I was kidding myself by thinking it was my personal mission to prove and circulate that information, vital data I alone had happened upon.

Motoko

Failing spectacularly. The pure innocent mediator grew dejected at the base nature of the social system and he turned mute.

You have to adapt in order to survive. Bend your morals, or you'll break eventually.

Who knew that copies could still be produced despite the absence of the original? If you had to give a name to this phenomenon, what would you label it?

Motoko

It would be "Stand Alone Complex"

Yes, it's the stand alone complex. From the start the very nature of our current social system has contained the mechanisms to trigger such an amazing occurrence. Personally however, I feel this marks the beginning of a new era of despair. What's your opinion?

Motoko

I don't know, it's impossible for me to say. Although I have found one thing that is capable of restoring your individuality after all your information has been syncronised.

Oh really, and what's that?

Motoko

Everyday human curiosity.