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Mai
Apr 10, 2006 1:36:00 GMT -5
Post by Awapuhi on Apr 10, 2006 1:36:00 GMT -5
Hm, interesting responses for such low screentime. ^.^ Here’s my two cents.
I disliked Mai quite a bit.
She was so… cardboard cut-out pessimistic anime chick. The kind of stereotype you see until it brings physical pain to your eyes. The teenager to give all others a bad name. I felt that the creators tried to give her the scary-gothic look with the knives and the “please kill me now” statement, but to me she just represents an immature mindset, underdeveloped and no contribution to society.
At this point, she is annoying.
If she is bored, let her put her mind to philosophy. Let her study plants, engage herself in scientific ventures. Or embellish on the fact that she is forbidden to do these things, and thus has a viable reason for whining. The reason I enjoy watching Sokka so much is that he may be a pessimist, but he has a natural, well-rounded personality, shaped by all of his past experiences both positive and negative. Katara empowers herself without becoming The Overlord of PMS, and Aang’s character arc is just marvelous.
To give an irritating personality that needs a solid background to a minor character is dangerous, as low screentime might make it difficult for that background to be worked in. From a writer’s perspective, Mai could have all the development and depth in the world, but to the viewer she’s going to eventually just become “that whiny kid with the hair.” I dislike minor characters that complain and moan and go on, and I sincerely hope that with the introduction of Zuko (who she seemed quite eager become reacquainted with…) and this new adventure for her to go on, she’ll be more… interesting.
The single point I had hope for her was when she laughed with Ty Lee and Azula. If the creators can flesh her out through those moments – convince me that there is something more than moody adolescent thoughts of how horrible and boring her own life is in that head of hers – then I bet I won’t have the overwhelming urge to scowl every time she comes onscreen and grunt, “Stop your bellyaching.”
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Mai
Apr 10, 2006 2:32:48 GMT -5
Post by firenationstooge on Apr 10, 2006 2:32:48 GMT -5
I think my sig characterizes Mai pretty well. ;D She is... interesting. I am frankly surprised some people are annoyed at her. Then again, I am quite tolerant of even the most annoying character (like anime Wrath from FMA ). Her dagger and knife work is quite... interesting (there's that word again!). I wonder where she learned such a skill. A friend of mine suggested maybe she picked it up because she was bored. This is possible since she seems to find joy when she's throwing sharp things at people. But I'm inclined to think that Mai's dagger skills and Ty Lee's pressure point tech may be something that they picked up at "The Royal Fire Nation Academy for Girls (TM)." Why? Well if they want the wealthy inheritance from a rich husband and they don't want to wait around... >_> If this is true, then I question the kind of social skills "The Royal Fire Nation Academy for Girls (TM)" teaches young Fire Nation ladies.
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Mai
Apr 10, 2006 12:18:44 GMT -5
Post by shiro on Apr 10, 2006 12:18:44 GMT -5
I like Mai, I dont think she is as stereotypical as some of the main characters especially Ang who is your run of the mill overly happy and hyper hero. I dont mean to offend all you Ang lovers, It's just that I rarely like the main character of a show.
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adictvbitrsweet
Avatar Korra
I am aware I've been misled; I disconnect my heart, my head
Posts: 1,044
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Mai
Apr 10, 2006 12:28:21 GMT -5
Post by adictvbitrsweet on Apr 10, 2006 12:28:21 GMT -5
I like Mai, I dont think she is as stereotypical as some of the main characters especially Ang who is your run of the mill overly happy and hyper hero. I dont mean to offend all you Ang lovers, It's just that I rarely like the main character of a show. I don't think Aang is stereotypical at all. In fact, I think he is one of the most dynamic, deep and thought-provoking characters of any show I've encountered before. And he isn't really overly happy or hyper at all - He's really been quite serious for most of the season so far. He was rather... overly optimistic for a lot of Season One. But it's kind of changed, now that he realizes the importance of his role in the world. But I'm with you on often disliking main characters of shows*coughtimmyturnercough*.
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Mai
Apr 12, 2006 1:31:38 GMT -5
Post by Confettie on Apr 12, 2006 1:31:38 GMT -5
O I meant to write this a while ago to why I think Mei is they way she is "the antsy anime chick". Ok it's long but I gather it from my own personal experience and from biographies of famous females of the past (school report). I think Mei is the way she is, is because she is depress or recently gotten over depression.
I think she is a smart well train fighter, but being the daughter of a Fire Nobleman she is trap in the life of a noblemen daughter. Which in turn cause her to be depress. She is force to take "finishing school", while she could be taking something that would better her skills as a fighter. Remember when Azula said they went to the GIRLS Fire Nation academy. Do you really think they teach girls the same thing they teach the boys. No I suspect the Fire Nation have the same thing going on as the Water tribe. Boys get teach one thing while girls get something else. Or get thought the same thing but not at the highest degree possible.
Mei is most likely well aware she getting the raw deal here because she friends with Azula. I'm sure Ozai would bend the rules to allow his precious daughter to be trained with the boys. Have you notice there are no girls fighting the war. Only Azula, and I'm sure the only reason the Fire Nation is even allowing Mei and Ty lee along is because they are her friends and she demanded their presence.
Alot of famous women in history dealt with severe depression because they were geniuses but no one thought of them as one because they were a women. One is Elizabeth Cady Stanton she went though depression because she was so smart but no one recognize her because she was a girl. I remember doing a report and one reason they stated women should not get a higher education is because all the thinking would cause the blood to flow out of the nervous system and the reproductive organs. Causing women to constantly faint and produce weak children. Yes I laugh my butt of when I read that too. That why I remember it so clearly.
In short I believe Mei is just depressed about her life. She could do so much with her talents and she knows it too. Because of uncontrollable forces such as she is a girl and born into a noble family. She isn't allow too, I think the only reason her family allow her to learn how to fight is because she was an only child. Now that Tom Tom is here they probably won't her to act more sophisticated. Also adding to her depression because she to me as for what I can tell right now, is a girl of action.
Think of it this way, everyone has gone through this I'm sure of it. You are in math class and the teacher gives you an extra credit problem your force into groups. The second you saw it, you know the answer. Your like YEAH TWO FREE POINTS FOR MY MIDTERM! But then the dumb Equus asinus Know-It-All like no that is so wrong my answers is right. Your arguing with the weirdo because you know your answer is right. But because the weirdo consistently act like their smart the whole team listens to the weirdo. You submit weirdo's answer and when the teacher finally reveals the answer your right all along. I see Mei situation as the same.
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Gotterdammerung
Casual Zuko
sorry. i'm fresh out of the ability to care.
Posts: 969
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Mai
Apr 12, 2006 5:57:29 GMT -5
Post by Gotterdammerung on Apr 12, 2006 5:57:29 GMT -5
Honestly, I think assuming that Mai is seriously depressed is overstating the case a bit. I don't really think, in terms of the Fire Nation, that there's much to support the idea that she's not being allowed to learn fighting to her hearts' content. Both she and Ty Lee seemed extremely deadly and skilled. Azula wants an elite team and she goes straight for them and we're not given the impression that there's anything abnormal about either of them being able to fight. I mean, you can assume that Ozai made and exception for Azula, but you can just as easily assume that he didn't and in the Fire Nation you train benders, regardless of gender. Plus, Zuko talked about how everything came easy to Azula. Somehow I can't imagine him thinking that if theirs was a highly patriarchal society where a special exception had to be made just for her to learn to use her bending to its full extent. Plus, she seems to have those two old women (who I assume are benders) as her masters. True, the Royal Fire Academy for Girls could be for girls because it has a different curriculum, or it could just be girl's boarding school based on the age old belief that adolescents learn better without their hormones to distract them. But I'm off on a tangent.
Point being, I don't think Mai is depressed as in clinically depressed. Neither do I read her as goth or pessimist. I think she just has a case of ennui. She's a poor, little, rich girl who's probably never had to work hard for anything or want anything that wasn't handed to her on a silver platter so she's perpetually unimpressed by the world around her. Her mother tells her to enjoy being treated as royalty in Omashu, but she doesn't because it's uninteresting. She wants excitement and change. Now how much she likes them once she gets them remains to be seen. But I don't know that there's some profound and deep pain in her soul due to some grand oppression by The Man. I don't think her design is any more inherently gothic than any other Fire Nation character either. She wears reds and darks colours just like the rest of them. Her nails are manicured and colored just like Azula's. She's just the first character we've seen whose fighting style seems to lend itself more towards a ninja or an assassin. (Though, Zuko as the Blue Spirit is also very ninja; granted, with a different choice or arsenal.) Ty Lee in pink and apparently being hand-to-hand combat only is actually more anomalous for a Fire Nation fighter. Neither do I think that she has the traditional "goth" or pessimist mindset of dwelling on how horrible the world is so why be happy etc.
Mai is very straightforward: Omashu is bleak and unexciting. Nothing ever happens and she's bored. I don't imagine her composing angsty haiku about the dark shadows creeping around her soul and how no one understands her sekrit pain. I imagine her sharpening her knives and throwing them disinterestedly at an expensive wallhanging while she munches fireflakes and wonders how an occupying an enemy territory can be so dull.
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Horyo
RP Admin
All your bending are belong to us.
Posts: 2,572
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Mai
Apr 12, 2006 22:20:31 GMT -5
Post by Horyo on Apr 12, 2006 22:20:31 GMT -5
Well at least shes not a sue!
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adictvbitrsweet
Avatar Korra
I am aware I've been misled; I disconnect my heart, my head
Posts: 1,044
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Mai
Apr 12, 2006 22:21:01 GMT -5
Post by adictvbitrsweet on Apr 12, 2006 22:21:01 GMT -5
Mai kind of is a Sue, to a certain extent...
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Gotterdammerung
Casual Zuko
sorry. i'm fresh out of the ability to care.
Posts: 969
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Mai
Apr 13, 2006 4:03:03 GMT -5
Post by Gotterdammerung on Apr 13, 2006 4:03:03 GMT -5
I have to disagree entirely on that.^
Female Character Who Maybe Likes Zuko =/= Mary Sue
She hasn't had any great effect on canon; nothing has been warped so that it's all. about. her. (which is the major sign of a Mary Sue.) She doesn't have any heretofore unheard of powers. Everyone doesn't worship her. She's not suffering from the superlative disease. She's not OMGSOUNIQUE. She doesn't have a tragic past. She doesn't have sekrit pain.
Call her an archetypical character, or even a stereotype if you want, but she's not a Mary Sue.
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Arsid
Zhao
Pure Pwnage!
Posts: 844
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Mai
Apr 13, 2006 5:19:17 GMT -5
Post by Arsid on Apr 13, 2006 5:19:17 GMT -5
Heh, that's a good idea.
I hated Mai, she was a stupid emo brat. That's all I have to say.
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daycon
Jun
random firebender # 765
Posts: 469
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Mai
Apr 13, 2006 9:55:31 GMT -5
Post by daycon on Apr 13, 2006 9:55:31 GMT -5
She's certainly evil. I couldn't believe she watched the earth Kingdom people dronning out of the city presumably because of a horrible disease, and she didn't even rais a brow--major evil point. In fact, given that, I'd go so far as to call her more evil than Azula. (She certainly got Azula beat in the ugly department, that's for sure.) >_<
But that aside...I think she's a good character. maybe not the nicest nor the most emotionally stable, but they've set her up as a solid personality. They've set that entire trio up pretty solid and I'm very excited to see more of them. But I have to admit out of all three I really like Ty Lee the most. That girl is so darling, the cutest villain ever! "My aura has never been pinker" anybody who can say that and be on the "bad guy" side is just awesome!!
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adictvbitrsweet
Avatar Korra
I am aware I've been misled; I disconnect my heart, my head
Posts: 1,044
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Mai
Apr 13, 2006 11:11:01 GMT -5
Post by adictvbitrsweet on Apr 13, 2006 11:11:01 GMT -5
I have to disagree entirely on that.^ Female Character Who Maybe Likes Zuko =/= Mary Sue She hasn't had any great effect on canon; nothing has been warped so that it's all. about. her. (which is the major sign of a Mary Sue.) She doesn't have any heretofore unheard of powers. Everyone doesn't worship her. She's not suffering from the superlative disease. She's not OMGSOUNIQUE. She doesn't have a tragic past. She doesn't have sekrit pain. Call her an archetypical character, or even a stereotype if you want, but she's not a Mary Sue. Only meant "to a certain extent." I'm not saying that she is one hundred textbook Sue. I only meant that her kind of character, which is most often used in correspondence with the words "emo," "depressing," and "pessimistic,", is sometimes used in fanfictions where the heroine is in fact "depressing," "gothic," and melancholy. She does have uniqueness to her; I'm not denying that. I'm just saying that the stereotype she seems to display is often used in shotty and not-shotty fanfics. It had nothing to do with her possible intrest in Zuko.
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Gotterdammerung
Casual Zuko
sorry. i'm fresh out of the ability to care.
Posts: 969
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Mai
Apr 13, 2006 13:08:39 GMT -5
Post by Gotterdammerung on Apr 13, 2006 13:08:39 GMT -5
Which is true of just about any character.
Ty Lee's type of character is much like your average happy-go-lucky, "kawaii", unassuming-but-deadly Mary Sue.
Katara on the whole has a character type much like the generic Mary Sue. Beautiful, powerful, prodigious, object of the hero's affections, can have a temper, but is ridiculously kind-hearted, healing powers.
Azula's character type is also like a Mary Sue. She's the relative of a pre-established character and younger, yet more powerful and she humiliates Zuko.
Point being, in my experience, a character either is a Mary Sue or they aren't. The main thing that makes a Mary Sue is not the basic character type that they exhibit, but how the character is used. The thing that makes most OFCs Mary Sues is the fact that they are self-insertions and are used as such in the stories in which they appear. The thing that makes a canon Mary Sue can be the same in instances of things like a novel, but in something with many creators involved like a television show, a Mary Sue tends to be identifiable mostly when their point-of-view is always aligned with objective reality. Which more or less means they're always right. Other things I mentioned are signs, and if you have enough of those you'll be hard-pressed to not have a Mary Sue, but Always Right syndrome is the kicker.
So, I hold to the fact that Mai is not, in fact, a Mary Sue. No more so than just about anyone else on the show.
And I'm sorry if it seemed like I was generalizing when I made a point of the Zuko connection. I was having flashbacks to all the Song Is A Mary Sue madness, which...Song has to be like the least Mary Sueish character ever to appear on the show, in my mind.
If you hadn't gleaned it Mary Sues are a BIG issue with me. Too, too, too much time in fandom reporting and mocking Mary Sues, making litmus tests and the like.
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adictvbitrsweet
Avatar Korra
I am aware I've been misled; I disconnect my heart, my head
Posts: 1,044
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Mai
Apr 13, 2006 13:18:56 GMT -5
Post by adictvbitrsweet on Apr 13, 2006 13:18:56 GMT -5
You're right. Everyone is a Mary Sue/Gary Stu on the show in some way. I was only singling Mai out because of Horyo's comment. I personally have nothing against Mary Sues in fan fictions and the show alike; I just don't like the predictability.
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daycon
Jun
random firebender # 765
Posts: 469
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Mai
Apr 13, 2006 13:27:36 GMT -5
Post by daycon on Apr 13, 2006 13:27:36 GMT -5
Personaly I think Katara is the most obvious mary sue of the cast..but she's been a constant presence too so maybe the others will out mary-sue her in time XD
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