Sindri42a said:Dodgers20 said:PoeticJustice said:
Maybe the waifu comment was an exaggeration, but she is still a flat, one dimensional character.
Replace the word "waifu" with "nanny", and it won't gonna be an exaggeration anymore. Because that's what Mikasa does: sure, there is some amount of justification of her behaviour and it's natural she wants to keep him alive since currently Eren is her only family left, but this side of hers has been overblown so much she doesn't have anything to write home about, to the point of making her effectively hollow in the inside in the bad meaning of words. She doesn't have enough diversity in her character to make herself more than a "badass" drone programmed to be around Eren no matter what, even if it's clear to her Eren is annoyed by her overbearing attachment that would even lead her to refuse orders from her superiors, which doesn't exactly reinforce the idea of a female character with a strong sense of self-conciousness, but more of a character who can't even function properly when her "owner" is around. Sure, this caring side is somewhat of an opposite of her "strong woman" image and would provide diversity, but there is such a gap and lack of integrity between these two sides she feels more like a character with two seperate personalities that are switched around in convinient intervals, instead of one single character with many personality aspects.
I don't see how it comes across as 2 different personalities. She became strong specifically because she cared for Eren and didn't want to lose the last of her family. Her reason for joining was to protect him, after all. It's the standard "the thing I must protect" reason most knights/soldiers train themselves to become strong. I don't see how you couldn't get that. Her strength comes about because of her care. They're linked, so I don't see how you could call them separate personalities. I thought they made that pretty obvious.
I have a feeling you haven't read the beginning of my comment, and I also have the feeling you misunderstood the angle I was talking about her character: I was talking about her in the way the writing executes her character, and not about how the story justifies her actions.
I acknowledged that she has a good reason to protect Eren, hell, the majority of episode 6 was dedicated to this point so much no one could've possibly missed her motivation when it comes to protecting Eren. The problem is that this side of hers stuffs the metaphorical room so much other personality traits can't fit in enough to make a mentionable diverson in her character, it's like the author was so obsessed to show off this side of Mikasa he forgot to write her character concept further with the same amount of attention this side gets. I understand it perfectly well why Mikasa holds Eren in such importance and why she joined the anti-Titan forces in the first place, but this doesn't mean she can't have an indendity of her own that shows she can "function" enough to be considered as an actual character. Because as it stands now, she has literally nothing to go for besides being Eren's OP nanny with the borderline addict behaviour, that's partially why I descriped her as a drone. For example: in episode 5, I would've appriciated it a good lot more if Mikasa would've said "Eren... be careful and return alive, okay?" to Eren with a faint smile when he was about to go away with his squad. Instead, she did what she usually does and practically begged Eren to let her go with him. In a way this is a too childish and rose-tainted portrayal compared to her similarly overdone and unimpressive "cold badass" side, and thus makeing a gap so large it hardly can be justified with diverse characterisation, but with laziness on the writing's side that attempts to do a "badass but caring" character, and ends with a character that overdoes both angles and archieves nothing remarkable in a writing standpoint. I like cool characters who have a caring heart of gold if this arhetype is executed well enough, but the way this story executes this character archetype just lacks the kind of charm that can make characters like her likeable and interesting. If anything, she's a half-hearted attempt at this archetype, with no concrete idea on the writer's side how to advance the bulding of her character.
Sindri42a said: When soldiers see their family and stop acting all stoic and show their loving side, you don't consider them separate personalities, do you?
Of course not, that's why I said that part about "one single character with many personality traits": normally there is nothing wrong if a strong character has a caring side since it adds diversity to their character and shows that the character has a more or less caring heart, makeing him or her more human than she first appears to be. When it comes to writing, it's fairly much a given thing that this kind of character needs to be created in a way these sides of the character doesn't feel forced, otherwise the character itself will just become a cheap, lifeless device so the author can squeeze out "dem feels" from the viewers/readers. In a sense, it's a gamble whether you can give off the impression that your character is complex enough or not, and in this aspect, Mikasa is a very good example to the latter case. Her "badass" side is unimpressively boring even though her sense of justice would've given her a good start to develop her character, and her caring side has become repetitive a long ago thanks to her being so stubborn she's not learning anything from Eren's reactions, or even reflecting on them to the point she can see the error in her initally not wrong ways (="caring is good, but not if I become a burden to him due to my nagging"). Again, I don't have any problem with her being a caring character who shows gratitude towards her "liberator", but there's no middle ground between her two sides to develop an actual character that can stand on its own, and more importantly, at this point she has nothing that could form her own agenda besides her constantly repeated caring that makes her character progressively boring in the long run, it looses its touch the more times and more frequently its shown. To be frank, I don't see any reason why I should care about her in the first place if her character is restricted to this tired out drama device that didn't even made a good impression to me since the series started (I figured there was a tragic past behind her caring side since the first episode, and I was right on the mark).
Sindri42a said: She's extremely protective of Eren, but who wouldn't be in this situation? He's just come back from being thought dead after she thought she had lost the last of her family. She certainly helps others and does her duty as a soldier, but if it comes down to them or the last of your family who you just recently thought had died and who you owe a great debt, I'm sure you would agree with what most people would choose. Especially considering Eren, at the time, is their only hope of plugging the hole and preventing the extinction of the human race.
For the record: it's perfectly reasonable that everyone wants to protect the person he/she cares about the most, but even this becomes repetitive in a story if this is presented with the same dramatic tone every single time and more frequently than necessary, treating viewers as people who have such short memory they need to be reminded all the time. In other words: this side of her got too much emphasis already, it's about time to actually develop her character into territories that doesn't necessarily involve protecting Eren with tooth and nails. Or if the author wants show off her caring side this much, at least let Mikasa feel something towards other people. It's pushing it a bit if she doesn't even mourn the death of her step-mother, and the disappearence of her step-father at all, just because she's so obsessed with Eren everyone else can sod off, just because they happen to be not Eren. Yes, Eren did killed those guys, but the step-parents should deserve a similar kind of gratitude and caring if they let her stay at their place as a step-child and treat her like their own child, which they did. To be honest, I was expecting that she would feel as much sadness and anger over the loss of her step-mother as Eren did, and the usual "badass" poker face and lack of wider thinking just doesn't cut it no matter how cold, or emotionally damaged she's supposed to be. This is another reason why I called her a drone, it's like her "programming" prevents her from having feelings that doesn't do anything with her "order" about careing only about Eren. |