Chris wrote:Kaioshin Sama wrote:Basically a lot of people seem to have forgotten that how a character acts in a given situation and how they think they would have reacted in that situation are not the same thing and that a character behaving differently from the way they think they should act is not necessarily bad writing or characterization.
I've been seeing a lot of shows getting hammered for this, and it's often not even a matter of characters acting out of character which would actually be a legitimate issue, it's characters not behaving how a particluar viewer absolutely believes they should, whether it be the usual hot button issue of a character making a mistake in judgement (characters with flaws? Oh heavens no), or acting "emo" (The term has gained blanket status in the last couple of years to mean any time a character shows any regret whatsoever), and that viewer blaming it on the studio and writers, even if it's well within the logic of the scene and the characters personality for them to do these things.
Basically I think some people might need to hear a lecture on the fact that they are not the word of god when it comes to a particular characters actions and what they think they should be doing, and when they don't like how a character has acted in a given scenario then the onus is on them to explain why it is a legitimate characterization flaw. And if they can't find a way to prove that it is a real writing flaw and instead have to resort to supplanting their own standard of characterization instead of the what is actually the case, it then becomes their problem and not the studios for them not feeling the connect with character.
I think we touched upon a related issue several times, most notably when discussing Mizushima's reaction to Japanese fans on the internet. This is along those same lines of what we already discussed - fans come with with list of 100 personal expectations of a show, and if it doesn't follow all of them, it sucks. If they don't like the way a certain character acts, even though that's how the character SHOULD act, it becomes the annoying catch all of "horrible writing."
Case in point: you mention the ever-annoying complaint of "emo," and I recall that in Gurren-Lagann after Kamina died, people were raging about Simon going "emo" for three episodes and how it ruined the show. What, do you expect someone to just be happy-go-lucky when a very close friend dies? It's like these people are projecting some unrealistic, tough-guy version of themselves onto these characters, and when the characters show any human emotions or flaws, they suck.
Even though we've discussed this, we'll probably come back to it because the problem is getting worse and someone needs to call out all these bitchy fans who have to whine about everything.
Well if you are ever looking for some good material to address as far as terminal bitchiness goes then one of my associates managed to round quite a few of the latest ones for 00 up in this
article here. Of course you guys inspired me to do my
own version of the straight talk express, only a little more direct to pointing out the hypocrisy in whining about characters whining. Sometimes they just make it to
easy though.
It has become a lot worse recently though and it seems like it's always the same few "issues" getting brought up over and over again. "Overpowered" mechs, emo characters and "no the character shouldn't have done this, he should have done this because I said so" type arguments.
Of course one could always chose to view this sort of behaviour as a comedic farce, which is a level of discourse that isn't really all that hard to break it down to.
Anyway enough on that subject, I really like the Top 5 Best and Worst Villains list. I won't go into too much detail other than the names tonight, but here is my list:
Best:
5. Ali Al Saachez (What's not to like about him. He's got a wild personality that is almost infectious and he's probably the best non-Innovator MS pilot in the show)
4. Paptimus Scirroco (For pretty much the exact same reasons listed in the podcast)
3. Treize Khushrenada (A rare suave and debonaire type villain who is good at what he does, but who also has tremendous compassion for those who put their lives on the line and conflict and even for just the common man. I see what you guys were referring to with him being out of place, but I think if he would work better anywhere it wouldn't have been Gundam 00, it would have been Code Geass. Then again that would be like having two Schneizel's so I don't know)
2. Haman Khan (A rare strong female character in the Gundam franchise and a worthy adversary to pretty much everybody)
1. Char Aznable (Do I really need to explain it?)
Honorable mentions:
Frost Brothers
Gym Ghinghnam
Katejina Loos
Worst:
5. Iron Mask/Karozo Ronah (Just a total weak sauce villain as mentioned. We never really learn anything about him and he's just another pure black villain in the end who wants to commit genocide. Ghiren did it better)
4. Yuna Roma Seiran (Such a pathetic and whiny baby like character. I couldn't stand his antics and found it extremely depressing that so much time was put into taking care of this clown. They also felt the need to devalue Cagalli's character in order for her to have to have her struggle with this guy)
3. Chief Engineer Tuberov (HAHA! With my Mobile Dolls we'll make Romefeller the master of the Earth Sphere. Mobile Dolls, Mobile Dolls...Preciiiiiiiiiiiouuuuuuuuuuusssssssssssssssssss Mobile Dolls. Even back when I didn't know any better
I thought this was such a dumb character and I still remember to this day laughing my ass off at his death scene where he went out in an explosion rambling about how awesome his mobile dolls were)
2. Lord Djibril (MWHAHAHAHAHA! That about sums this guy up)
1. Sweatson Sutero (Like Chris said, this guy is just ridiculous and stupid. He's absurdly fat for some reason, gets off on jumping on his subordinates, and does absolutely nothing of value whenever he's on screen. I've always had my qualms with Tomino's style of comedy, but this guy was just beyond lame. I don't think anybody was sorry to see him get punk'd by Gym later on in the series. I would have probably done the same thing if I were in his position.)
Honorable Mentions:
Murata Azrael
Lupe Cineau
Wong Yun Fat
Ulube Ishikawa
Dekim Barton