I was very irked by someone who characterized her love for Takumi as dysfunctional.
Bloody hell. That's reading between the lines and using the space to write your own if ever I saw it. Did a fourteen-year-old make that suggestion, by any chance? Not that I'm generalising younger people here, no...
Did Mai withdraw because she loved Takumi less than Shizuru loved Natsuki, or because she's invested in more than one person, and thus better equipped to deal with loss?
I'd go with the latter. When Natsuki's important person - or the memory of her - is destroyed, her powers are nullified completely until she is prepared to acknowledge her love of another. Without such tunnel vision, Mai doesn't lose everything even when she thinks she does. Apart from anything, I'm coming to think that what changes is not how strong each form of love is, but whether or not a person acknowledges it, disregards the wellbeing of others in favour of it, is able to have it accepted, and so on. That is, it's not the love that affects Mai's performance, but how fit she is to cope with it in her life. I don't know how accurate that is, but it's the way I'm leaning at 2am.
Totally agree on the Takumi as first MIP though. I'm not in on the fandom (as of yet) - was it ever in question? (Also, any idea of where I should start, regarding fandom? I confess: I'm hooked.)
As far as Shizuru goes, I'd say the brutal violence is less what she was unwilling to show to Natsuki but the power she has to cause it. Her Child is strong, and Natsuki knows that this means she has someone very important to her. I think Shizuru's just reluctant to put Natsuki in the position of being able to put two and two together, particularly since she clearly doesn't give a damn about anyone else.
Question: what is a cipher? ^^;;;
I'd be firmly against the level-of-dysfunction theory, if only because the nature of dysfunction is so completely tied up in cultural expectations. Too flimsy for me. Going with the idea that it's not love but the way in which the HiME approaches it, however, and Akira, who was brought up a boy and completely unprepared to fall in love with her male roommate - or at all yet, given her age - will naturally be less powerful than, say, Shizuru, who has been brought up with a great deal of control and who fully embraces her love of Natsuki even as she conceals it from her. Both of them are no match for Mai, whose feelings for Takumi are as unashamed as Takumi's feelings for her, who is used to being a functional part of society and who loves so many people that caring for their wellbeing is second nature to her and is the sole reason she accepted Kagutsuchi in the first place (she even apologises to him for forgetting that and refusing to bring him out in case she hurt someone). By the time she switches to Tate, things have changed, but I reckon this is why she starts out so strong, a "monster" as Nao puts it.
I'm going to pay more attention to Nagi and Mashiro this time around. Mashiro's one of my least favourite characters, but now I know where she's headed I'll try to be a little more tolerant and observant of her.
Re: whoa, essay
on 2005-08-08 01:42 am (UTC)Bloody hell. That's reading between the lines and using the space to write your own if ever I saw it. Did a fourteen-year-old make that suggestion, by any chance? Not that I'm generalising younger people here, no...
Did Mai withdraw because she loved Takumi less than Shizuru loved Natsuki, or because she's invested in more than one person, and thus better equipped to deal with loss?
I'd go with the latter. When Natsuki's important person - or the memory of her - is destroyed, her powers are nullified completely until she is prepared to acknowledge her love of another. Without such tunnel vision, Mai doesn't lose everything even when she thinks she does. Apart from anything, I'm coming to think that what changes is not how strong each form of love is, but whether or not a person acknowledges it, disregards the wellbeing of others in favour of it, is able to have it accepted, and so on. That is, it's not the love that affects Mai's performance, but how fit she is to cope with it in her life. I don't know how accurate that is, but it's the way I'm leaning at 2am.
Totally agree on the Takumi as first MIP though. I'm not in on the fandom (as of yet) - was it ever in question? (Also, any idea of where I should start, regarding fandom? I confess: I'm hooked.)
As far as Shizuru goes, I'd say the brutal violence is less what she was unwilling to show to Natsuki but the power she has to cause it. Her Child is strong, and Natsuki knows that this means she has someone very important to her. I think Shizuru's just reluctant to put Natsuki in the position of being able to put two and two together, particularly since she clearly doesn't give a damn about anyone else.
Question: what is a cipher? ^^;;;
I'd be firmly against the level-of-dysfunction theory, if only because the nature of dysfunction is so completely tied up in cultural expectations. Too flimsy for me. Going with the idea that it's not love but the way in which the HiME approaches it, however, and Akira, who was brought up a boy and completely unprepared to fall in love with her male roommate - or at all yet, given her age - will naturally be less powerful than, say, Shizuru, who has been brought up with a great deal of control and who fully embraces her love of Natsuki even as she conceals it from her. Both of them are no match for Mai, whose feelings for Takumi are as unashamed as Takumi's feelings for her, who is used to being a functional part of society and who loves so many people that caring for their wellbeing is second nature to her and is the sole reason she accepted Kagutsuchi in the first place (she even apologises to him for forgetting that and refusing to bring him out in case she hurt someone). By the time she switches to Tate, things have changed, but I reckon this is why she starts out so strong, a "monster" as Nao puts it.
I'm going to pay more attention to Nagi and Mashiro this time around. Mashiro's one of my least favourite characters, but now I know where she's headed I'll try to be a little more tolerant and observant of her.