Desert Warfare for the Spirit

Procure for yourself a good ship of war, well furnished with guns, in order to make war on sin, and strike terror into the powers of Hell. – St. Francis di Giromalo

Father Sebastian White’s editorial at The Magnificat is a magnificent reflection on Lent and Our Lord’s temptation in the desert. Reminding readers that the desert “evokes a state of weakness, vulnerability, and abandonment,” he emphasizes that “it is not limited to these negative connotations.” Citing Pope Benedict XVI, he says that the desert can also signify “a place of refuge and shelter—as it was for the people of Israel who had escaped from slavery in Egypt—where it is possible to experience God’s presence in a special way.”

This resonated with me in an intriguing manner, albeit somewhat differently. For one of the things I associate with the desert, in addition to both its potential for scarcity of resources and its potential to hide, is its potential as a battlefield.

Allow me to explain: conflict plays a major role in my image of a desert primarily because of a series I watched as a child. It was not a Western series, either; though I watched and still will view as many Westerns as I can, they did not form my overarching image of a desert. No, what formed my idea of a desert as a place of life-or-death combat was a Japanese cartoon (or anime).

The series was titled Zoids: Chaotic Century for what is commonly known as “the English dub” – that is, the series’ dialogue is translated into English for English-speaking actors and actresses to voice over the characters. When such Japanese shows are translated into Spanish (Japanese anime is quite popular in Latin America) it is known as “the Spanish dub.” Last year the Japanese celebrated the toy series’ fortieth anniversary (the one time I would have LOVED to go to Japan, and I couldn’t, drat).

Zoids: Chaotic Century focused on the human pilots of enormous mechanical animals known as zoids, which took various forms and were used by both the Guylos Empire and the Helic Republic during their war. The series had everything a young girl could want: action, romance, giant metal cats (seriously, you have to love those cats!), and a magnificent, otherworldly setting. In the pilot episode for the series, it is revealed that the Guylos Empire and the Helic Republic are observing a tenuous, tense ceasefire after several years of war.

Right into this ceasefire strode the hero of the series, a young boy of fourteen named Van Flyheight. Large swathes of both the Republic and the Empire were covered in desert; Van himself lives in an oasis colony in Republican territory which is called the Wind Colony. A free spirit determined to become the “greatest zoid pilot ever” like his father before him, we learn that Van regularly escapes his older sister (and his chores) to explore the desert early in this first installment in the series.

Van’s excursion in the pilot episode sees him chased by a bandit boy named Bole, who has just captured a wild Guysack (pronounced “Guy-zack” – it is a scorpion-type) zoid. Bole wants to show off for the older bandits in his gang and is chasing Van to accomplish this feat. The young hero flees to some nearby ruins for shelter, during which time Bole manages to get himself trapped in rubble after firing on the ancient structure. This allows Van to duck inside the building as Bole’s associates come to dig him out, but they pause to bombard the ruins to trap the younger boy within them.

Surviving the bombardment, Van soon finds that the attack has opened a previously hidden passage in a nearby wall. He goes further inside and discovers two stasis pods, accidentally opening the first to release a small, Tyrannosaur-type zoid slightly taller than a human. Befriending the creature, Van names the zoid (soon revealed to be a “breed” of zoid known as an Organoid) after his father’s Command Wolf, which his father had called Zeke.

Not long after this new friendship forms, Bole enters the ruins to gain revenge on Van, which leads to a brief fight. Zeke escapes with Van and proves that Organoids have a special ability: they can fuse or “enter and inhabit” larger zoids, increasing their power and even bringing them back to life. Zeke does this to a wrecked or dead Shield Liger (a lion-type zoid) so that Van can fight back against his attackers. In the newly resurrected Shield Liger and with Zeke’s help, Van quickly defeats the surprised bandits.

Zeke then leads his human friend back into the ruins to open the second pod. This one, however, holds not another Organoid but a blonde girl with extreme amnesia. Unable to remember anything, the girl at one point says the name “Fiona” apparently on impulse, prompting Van to dub her Fiona in lieu of any other moniker. The two young teens – with Zeke’s aid – save the Wind Colony village and Van’s sister from the bandits when they return to steal the Organoid, whom they have determined would be a very valuable asset if they could sell him to the right people.

Leaving home to keep his loved ones safe, Van and Fiona wander aimlessly through the desert until they enter another set of ruins, where the two discover a pillar with alien writing on it. Fiona recognizes the writing but can only decipher two words past the splitting headache this recognition gives her: Zoid Eve. Van decides that this mysterious, previously unheard of zoid is the key to Fiona regaining her memory and the two set out in search of it. They meet many allies and enemies in this quest, leading to battle after battle to discover Fiona’s true identity and unravel the mystery of the Zoid Eve.

Apart from the Zoid Eve and other Christian hints in the series, what I love best about it are the titanic struggles in the deserts. The heroes experience many deprivations there, from Fiona’s misguided dumping out of the fortified water Van carried early on their adventures, to the second death of Van’s Shield Liger, to the final battle with the monster that could destroy the entire planet. The fact that the hero piloted a lion zoid helped, as the lion in Christian art often represents Christ. It also was representative in Christian art of “strength, courage, fortitude, kingliness,” and the Resurrection, something an active young Catholic imagination could intuit even if she could not articulate it or fully recognize it.

Father White states in his editorial that “temptation does not mean defeat,” something many people – Catholic or not – may be inclined to think it does. This is again what leads to my image of the desert as a place of conflict, a place of war, something supported by Scripture. For forty years the Israelites wandered in the desert after displeasing God, tempted and accosted by sin, until a generation loyal to the Lord had reached adulthood. Once that happened Joshua took command of the Israelites and led them in their conquest of the Promised Land, retaking it for them and for God.

It almost goes without saying that Christ’s forty days in the desert reflect this fact from the Old Testament. Forty “generally symbolizes a period of testing, trial or probation,” and while Christ could not sin (as Father points out), He still underwent this time of testing. He also, as we do, faced the devil in the desert.

Zoids: Chaotic Century did not lack for devils nor for tests. The heroes fall and falter; they are broken, they are hurt. At more than one point in the first season Van breaks down, certain that he must give up the fight to protect those he loves. Yet this is a temptation, one he never fully succumbs to despite its strength and reoccurrence during the series. We all face this temptation at one time or another.

In his editorial, Father White touches on this point as well, using the life of St. Catherine of Siena as an illustration. He describes several of her temptations and how she dealt with them by leaning on the Lord, Who once answered her question “Where were You?” with “I was in your heart.”

St. Catherine thought this unlikely if not impossible, given the thoughts that had assailed her, but Our Lord replied that since the thoughts disgusted her, it was proof He had always been there. If He had not then the thoughts would have given her pleasure. Like Van in the desert wrestling with his depression over an injured friend or an apparent loss, we also can lose sight of God in our hearts when temptation assails us. We can lose the perspective necessary to fight, something the devil likes very much. For an enemy that has given up is an enemy who can be conquered and taken at leisure.

Of similar importance is St. Catherine’s advice not to debate the devil since that is what he wants. At one point in Chaotic Century, Van ends up making the mistake of verbally dueling with the overarching villain of season one, Gunter Prozen. Using relativistic language about suffering and pain, Prozen briefly convinces Van that he and Prozen are the same because they are each “using [innocents] and [their] suffering” to gain what they want. Fiona’s bold (and angry) denial is the only thing to snap Van out of his error. When he lost sight of the truth, she knew it and bravely brought it to his attention.

Deserts bring out the best and worst in all of us. They are places of conflict where we strive with “powers and principalities” – and, occasionally, with men. Yet without this combat with the forces of darkness, as Father White says, we would not learn courage. We would not find inner strength and fortitude to face the devil and defeat him with God’s help.

Chaotic Century has a running theme in its story of zoid pilots needing to find their “full potential.” My young, Catholic imagination never put this in a physical context nor in the generally pantheistic context that is well-known in Japan. Rather, that little girl always associated “finding” or “drawing out” one’s “full potential” as reaching for or chasing after God. For what, ultimately, is one’s “full potential” in this life and the next but union with God?

St. Catherine of Siena is one of many saints who achieved her “full potential” in battle with the devil by keeping her eyes on God. Van Flyheight is a good character but he can only be a character – an image that helps to point to a great truth. Heroes from life such as St. Catherine and many others cannot help but be greater examples, as there are enough saints from every walk of life to give us patterns to emulate to “achieve” our “full potential” of union with God in eternal life with Him.

As Father White reminds us in his editorial, one need not be a member of a religious order, the priesthood, or even a “great” person to find his “full potential” in life. All that is necessary is to recall – particularly this Lent – that we are in a desert, and deserts are not just places of want and heat during the day and bitter cold at night. They are refuges, places in which one can safely hide when the enemy seeks to destroy us.

They are also places of combat, and while the ground may not always be of our choosing, we do not fight alone. God desires that we all reach our “full potential” and gain eternal life, eternal happiness with Him in heaven. He will not abandon us.

With that in mind, it might be wise to remember the words spoken at the end of every preview for the next episode of Zoids: Chaotic Century. They are true words, words to live by in this vale of tears. While we struggle in the desert this Lent with powers and principalities, we should remember to salute one another thus:

“See you on the battlefield!”

For we do not fight alone. We are armed and armored by God, supported by Him even when temptation roars it’s loudest. The battle is not lost – the devil just wants you to believe it is. If you confront him, then he has already lost, and he knows it.

See you on the battlefield this Lent and always, readers!