The Fictional Relationship
Sep. 20th, 2010 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spottoThere seems to be a general consensus that girls like guyxguy and guys like girlxgirl. Beyond alternate preferences like someone preferring their own sex as opposed to the opposite and thus their preferences are inversed, that seems to be the norm.
What about heterosexual pairings though? I rarely talk about this side of the coin largely because I don't dig a lot of the het pairings out there that I know of, and the reason is not because "two guys are hotter than a guy and a girl" because well, I equally enjoy girlxgirl. Of course that tends to be reasoning of why this is. A straight female will like guyxguy, or guyxthemselves (well, that's what Twilight is >_>) and though this is obviously only a generalization because I don't fall into the category they tend to dislike any female characters that could rival themselves or another boy. On the other hand, the prevalence of harem manga seem to indicate that guys don't care if a guy character gets all the girls because they can either identify and therefore assign themselves into the role of the guy (in which it's kind of like....reverse Twilight o_o) or they just like seeing the fanservice that results from girls going after said guy character.
But for me, it's not like I dislike het. I have a few pairings I do enjoy that are hetero, for one classic example, the very pairing that introduced me into the fandom that resided on the internet: MaxMariam. I also like UsagiSeiya, but whether or not that is even het is kind of disputed. I like to think so though, just so I have more than one het pairing I enjoy ,even if it's complicated in that matter.
The reason for me that I usually go for a same-sex couple is usually how a heterosexual pairing and thus, usually a canon or at the very least hinted pairing is presented in some form of media is portrayed. There are far too many stereotypes and assumptions that come into play. For example a lot of media usually has an abundance of one gender over the other, either the manga or anime or movie or book or video game is filled with guys, or filled with girls. Unfortunately, the minority gender usually gets shafted and is thrown into its own sex's stereotypes far too often. Sailor Moon is an example. It is filled with girls and the few male characters that exist are the most boring characters ever. They are slotted into a stereotype of "saving all the damsel in distresses!" and ultimately failing beyond a monster-of-the-week episode because it's a shoujo and the girls are supposed to look the coolest. So how can you really enjoy a pairing between a strong female and a guy who barely does anything with barely any personality? Yes I am referring to UsagixMamoru, the main canon couple of everything. Males always appear strong and manly, and they try to protect their female but beyond that seem very one-dimensional.
I think the Live Action is a bit better in terms of that, particularly with the minor character Motoki who got an awesome personality upgrade from boring random nice blonde guy to adorable hilarious dork. The pairing MotokixMakoto seems a lot more interesting in that case because instead of "interesting character falling in love with undeveloped random male with no personality", there actually seems to be chemistry between the couple.
So because so many things I enjoy either have tons of males or females, the most interesting dynamics are usually between two characters who are friends. I personally do not believe in love in first sight. I think for love to be realistic and to work, you need to be friends with someone and to learn of their personality, have experience hanging out with the person and the resulting love would have a higher percentage of success. There are far too many media portrayals of a guy finding this random hot girl hot, and thus wanting to go on a date with them, then realizing their personalities clash horribly and no matter how large her breasts are or how long and curvy her body is, she is a bitch. This common media interpretation may be one of the reasons there are such a high number of divorces but I think that's just going off track.
The few malexfemale relationships I do enjoy are the rare ones that don't immediately jump into the realm of "love". Just because you have two characters and one is a girl while the other is a boy, doesn't mean you automatically have to jump into the whole "romance" realm. In the Lion King (I am mentioning this movie a lot because I recently rewatched it P:) I liked Simba and Nala eventually marrying and continuing the pride, despite it being pretty predictable and arranged, they were the best of friends as children and enjoyed each other's presence. Unfortunately I can't say the same with the movie's sequel because despite meeting each other as kids, Kiara and Kovu just hang out for an hour or so before disappearing for a few years. The sequel which actually focused on love, threw in the stereotypes yet again and the two characters seemed to just "love" each other out of pretty much nowhere and very quickly as well (but I suppose I can say the same for Romeo and Juliet, which it was pretty much based off of) so despite how pretty awesome the love song in the movie was (I especially like the cantonese version) the couple just wasn't as appealing.
Anyway beyond movies that are well-known for being pretty good, I liked MaxMariam because it again, subverted that whole stereotypical "love" notion. Beyblade is certainly not an anime you go to for romance because its genre is practically the opposite of romance. The target audience: little boys do not want to see a couple kissing or hugging or anything like that. They want to see action and fights with cool characters being manly and awesome. I think any media not focusing on romance seems to portray any potential pairing most realistically because the whole "love stereotype" does not immediately come to mind. There are obvious exceptions, but yeah.
While Max at the point of V-Force has a pretty well developed character, we have absolutely no clue who Mariam is. I found V-Force to have developed her personality exceptionally well, and so one of the biggest reasons I enjoyed this second season so much is pretty much this single character. Also when you think of the whole stereotype of love, you don't really see Max and Mariam as "guy who saves damsel in distress!" As far as we're concerned it looks more like Mariam is more badass and cool than 'adorable teddy-bear Max" so again there's already a subversion. The fact that Mariam defeats Max more than once also doesn't show her as weak little girl, but a very tough cookie. Also her personality came around as a result of her surroundings as well, despite a lot more people not liking Dunga because of his personality and character design, without him Mariam would not be who Mariam is. It is his taunting, his arguments with Mariam that drive her to do what she does, and then she begins to question the morality of what she is even doing. Of course Mariam again isn't a weak female being batted around like a domestic violence case, she too jabs back at Dunga and the dynamic there is quite amusing. I have nothing against the MariamxDunga pairing, it works, but Dunga's character design is not the most desirable. (What I don't understand is OzumaxMariam because I see no chemistry there!)
So we have Max. Usually the female character is pitted against Rei, but Rei seems to be one of the characters created (or at least developed for the anime) to gain a few female fans, so Rei was a victim of the "love stereotype" once again. He is strong, handsome, and very nice. (I don't think that last point really matters considering the amount of girls who like hot guys that treat them like trash) and all the female rivals he is pitted with always seem like they need him, or have some undying crush on him, as if Rei needs to save them from something. Not so much Mariah/Mao, but moreso Salima in this case. Mariah/Mao herself (and MAYBE Salima, who knows) seems to be a victim of the gender minority, especially since she was the first significant female character introduced, so she was pretty much the creator's prototype female in a male dominated world/sport. She therefore seems to have a personality of a "girl" rather than a "character". After so many guys in the anime and finally a girl, most people will take notice. To reinforce this, she wears tons of pink, has a pink bit-beast, a pink beyblade, a girlish voice, and an odd friendship with Rei that seems closer than just "friendship". Despite all the gender stereotypes she does seem strong, maybe not so much in the first season but I did like her a lot more in G Revolution.
So for the rare time that Rei isn't pitted against the girl, it is Max who gets Mariam, and the character development begins! I think, and this may be a pretty shallow theory but my opinion of the general populace isn't that high anyway, that Mariam is such a popular female character because she was pitted against Max. In terms of shipping, especially between crazy insane Yaoi fangirls, the biggest pairings appear to be "Kai/Rei" vs. "Kai/Takao" and Max is nowhere to be found there. So since the girl is not "interrupting with my favourite boyxboy pairing omfg!" she is less ratted on. I do think some female characters are unreasonably hated, but not that many female characters in Beyblade are that well developed in the first place. (A female character you SHOULD hate is Queen, she was a bitch.)
Of course that's only one factor. Anyway into the whole MaxMariam development. Max is generally regarded as the "weakest" of the Bladebreakers (that makes me sad :C) before Daichi came into view anyway, and since this is a male-dominated series, people do tend to see the "weaker" of the enemy team pitting up against Max, which could be a girl. (Or at least less developed) I mean in season one the only significant character I remember Max even battling was Gao, and he lost. So yeah. In season two, Max is usually the one first up to battle, therefore getting the weakest of the opponents. He has the disadvantage of knowing nothing of the opponent (but it's not like the team really does anything to realize the patterns with their opponents so it doesn't matter :\) so when he loses he loses hard since he lost against "the weakest of the other team" and it therefore makes Max look that much weaker.
That is why I like Max vs. Jim so much, arguably my favourite battle of Season Two (there's also Fate of the Spark Battle, and Kai vs. Gouki) despite Max losing he did not look weak, since Jim cheated and his artificial bit-beast kept being repairing and revived, causing Max to uncharacteristically pound him into dust and look pretty badass, winning twice before losing to the third and final battle. It also seems realistic, if it were Takao in that battle instead he probably would've defeated Jim ten times and then Jim would've collasped from exhaustion and died like Yuuya, therefore causing angst and character development to Takao, where Kane comes and tries to avenge his comrade versus Takao, giving Takao five hundred times more spotlight because he is the main character. Aw, why couldn't that have happened to Max? Instead, Max loses because he was being stupid. You need to fall before you learn, something Takao never seems to come into play (which he does in the manga, why I keep saying the plot of the manga is superior to the animes.)
Anyway, then Max gets Mariam...well arguably he gets her before then, but you get my point. Mariam is not what I consider the weakest of the Saint Shields, the Saint Shields were a pretty well-developed group, so I don't think I could pinpoint a weakest link I could so easily for others. I mean maybe Joseph, but the fact that he can run around like a ninja kind of makes up for it. Still the fact that Max went up against Mariam first in the whole final fight may mean the writers were leaning to Mariam as the weakest, but I highly doubt it, or I'm in denial and I want her to be strong forever. Nonetheless, the fact that they started a rivals, more like a mystery that eventually blossomed into a lovely friendship did bring hints that yes, romance could be possible! The episode I refer to the most that caused me to fall in love with the series, episode thirty-six is the best episode for such. The fact that she taunts Max by calling him "cute" and "a teddy bear" and then Max saving Mariam in the collapsed building was very cute. Even if that whole scene does portray a moment of "strong guy saving damsel in distress" this is actually unexpected because Max is not a stereotypical guy and Mariam not a stereotypical girl.
Then the whole cliche "I MUST BANDAGE YOUR INJURY!" occurs. I think the whole point she owned a bandana was just for that scene. Awesome. Anyway, there's more than just this pairing that does exemplify something realistic than a "omfg guy likes girl" pairing, but I think MaxMariam is the strongest example. (KaixHiromi for example IS possible, but maybe Kai just doesn't want a dead body lying around and so saves her a bunch, you know. He is Kai.) I think besides Mariah/Mao in G Revolution the females weren't as strong as the ones in V Force. (What do I mean "ones"? It's just Mariam!) Julia looked like someone who was trying to become the same but I think she wasn't developed enough to work. Mathilda could've worked actually despite being very girlish and cute. She tried to defend Mihaeru from Barthez's abuse and got hit herself. She's certainly more indepth than the other members of her team and yet it was Claude that tag-teamed with Mihaeru instead. in the MANGA she was the one fighting and having second thoughts! So I guess beyond Mariam and maybe Mao/Mariah, Mathilda was another strong female in a way. (Hiromi MAYBE but by the time G Revolution rolled around she looked more like comic relief, lol)
The three Ms. Huh.
Beyond this pairing there is also UsagixSeiya. There is a dispute whether this pairing is even hetero at all, it's probably girlxgirl but alien biology escapes me, lol. Anyway when Seiya first meets Usagi they did seem more like friends at first, with hilarious adventures in her house for example and while Seiya DOES develop a liking for her a bit quickly (I mean, she did remind him of his own princess at first, and then probably started liking her personality. It does seem refreshing for someone to like Usagi for once and not some other girl because Usagi is always portrayed as the crybaby and least desirable, but eh) but both characters had personality and the dynamic just worked. I was very sad that it was only one-sided though, but oh well. I guess you can't fight fate in a series like this when boring male "save damsel-in-distress" characters are more interwined into fate than someone actually interesting. And without Mamoru there can't be HotaruxChibiusa! :D *shot*
Anyway all of this is seen a lot more often with friends and in series where there are tons of guys or tons of girls, you have to turn to a bunch of friends for any chemistry to develop. Yet at the same time, the characters also have to have their own bloody personaltiies. Their entire existence should not be because she or he is the "love interest" but that she is her own character as well, not a role. I can use an not-hetero pairing for an example. In Negima, while KonokaxSetsuna is wildly popular, I'm not that fond of the pairing because one character (Setsuna) is like KONOKA KONOKA KONOKA KONOKA 24/7, seven days of the week, and 365 days of the year. She had a bit of her own (somewhat cold) personality before that but now you can't really write a story about her without Konoka being a major party of it, otherwise it is OOC. I know there are tons of pretty popular pairings just like that (I do believe Kannazuki no Miko consists of one girl being majorly obsessed with the other, but I've never watched it so please correct me P:) Hell, in the entire series premise seems to be like that. You have Negi, a ten-year-old boy. Everyone likes him. He is awesome. I've always said I liked Yue until she fell in love with Negi. I mean she's still cool now because her whole friendship with Nodoka is questioned due to the love, but it's mostly Yue "blushing" when Negi is around now instead of how she was like before her crush was discovered.
That's why my favourite characters in Negima are those who aren't in love with Negi. The only exception is Ako but she barely counts because she fell in love with a fictional man. Well, you have to admit that her "ideal" lover was again, very stereotypical and foolishly naive. Is a person like "Nagi" really possible in real life? He is so perfect, so "I save my damsel-in-distress" it was obvious that the pairing was tragic from the get-go, and so the iron woobieness of Ako only grows more. Chisame is also arguable, but I actually like Negi/Chisame because in the beginning she wasn't foolishly in love with him because Negi was awesome. She actually hated him. You could say the same with Negi/Asuna, except Asuna is the main female so them ending up together was probably pretty obvious, and then her whole backstory is revealed and now it's possible she's related to Negi so...I don't know what to think.
And up to this point she looked more like a concerned comrade, friend for Negi except recently. I mean sure she's blushed a few times, but having to kiss him for the sake of the world would probably make anyone blush (seeing as it was her first kiss) although now Akamatsu seems to be portraying her in a little "jealous" light when Negi is around others, but the translation of that chapter was kind of iffy so again I have no clue. At the moment everyone is preparing for FINAL BOSS BATTLE OMG so who knows. Stuff like that isn't in the picture anytime soon. And well Ku Fei seems to be falling for Negi too and that's just pissing me off because her reason seems kind of silly and not as realistic and argh I dislike harems.
Well at least I have Kazumi, Sayo (who too has some slight crush on Negi...sigh) and Yuuna.
Scratch that, just Kazumi and Yuuna. Oh man that's not a lot of characters, lol.
And so because of all that...I look for other relationships that might seem interesting as pairings. The whole "THEY'RE THE SAME SEX OMFG!" doesn't really bother me. It does help that I live in a pretty liberal society, that a family member of mine isn't straight, that I started liking Yaoi pretty young so the whole general "disgust" of such a possibly taboo topic doesn't seem to affect me. For that I am glad actually, to be a bit more accepting in that regard. I'm kind of sorry for those people who grow up in closeminded environments and so do not share my opinion, but who knows. The subject is so touchy that what I just said might've been offending. :\
That leads towards pairings that aren't hetero. I've ranted about why they might make sense several times. KaoruxMiyako I wrote an entire hint post with screenshots at one point. I think it makes sense and is cute, nothing wrong with Takaaki either, that pairing isn't bad but he isn't developed as well because he only shows up in two episodes, so I find KaoruxMiyako a bit more appealing P: Besides it feels like the writers were secretly shipping that pairing too >_> (TOO COINCIDENTAL DAMN IT) I mean not all my favourite pairings are stuff that have tons of hints. Rei/Max is not that common, well maybe the whole G Rev (OMFG KAI AND TAKAO KAI AND TAKAO KAI AND TAKAO) thing threw them together by default, but I think the dynamic could be really cute. I think a lot of my pairings besides this entire rant I like because they are cute. Not "sexy" (TWO GUYS TOGETHER ARE HOT OMG!?) but just simply cute. KazumixSayo is also the same. All these pairings are far too innocent to go beyond the "cute" border (I wouldn't mind if it DID but it's always awkward at first, the only thing where I'm willing to see something...not so innocent is probably Rei/Max because I've loved it for so long...and Korea/HK)
Yes, Korea/HK is the exception. I don't know WHERE it came from, it has no hints, HK barely has a personality, but it's hot. I think Hetalia is too shallow and silly for something more insightful, but hey that's just me. I think it's from roleplay mostly, and the lack of innocence is the pairing being rubbed off by Kirami (She is not innocent, and turns all my cute pairings into not so much, :D;) I think it COULD be cute though, I find both characters very adorable, but mostly they're portrayed as rivalling brothers that hate each other, or at least HK hates Korea but everyone...kind of does. I can go into another rant of how Korea is a very depressing character but that has nothing to do with this post, lol. (Oh the Japanese, why doth you portray the Koreans in such a negative light, oh how I wish both countries were a little more friendly with one another...) I think I'm missing a pairing. Oh yeah Jenrya/Takato. Well of course that's in the cute category, they're like ten years old! D<
I think it's my least interesting pairing though, but whatever. My lovely rant is over, hopefully I'll find time to rewrite the PPG review (having a browser crash on you is rather demoralizing) but yeah. I'm not a person who prefers shounen-ai to shoujo-ai or the other way around, or even the genre shounen and shoujo. I love a lot of things because of characters, and no matter their gender as long as it's cute and might possibly work, I'll love it. Screw the plot, Spotto is a character person. (The stuff I write on the other hand seems more plottish than characterish, huh.)
And that is all, Spotto be off!
What about heterosexual pairings though? I rarely talk about this side of the coin largely because I don't dig a lot of the het pairings out there that I know of, and the reason is not because "two guys are hotter than a guy and a girl" because well, I equally enjoy girlxgirl. Of course that tends to be reasoning of why this is. A straight female will like guyxguy, or guyxthemselves (well, that's what Twilight is >_>) and though this is obviously only a generalization because I don't fall into the category they tend to dislike any female characters that could rival themselves or another boy. On the other hand, the prevalence of harem manga seem to indicate that guys don't care if a guy character gets all the girls because they can either identify and therefore assign themselves into the role of the guy (in which it's kind of like....reverse Twilight o_o) or they just like seeing the fanservice that results from girls going after said guy character.
But for me, it's not like I dislike het. I have a few pairings I do enjoy that are hetero, for one classic example, the very pairing that introduced me into the fandom that resided on the internet: MaxMariam. I also like UsagiSeiya, but whether or not that is even het is kind of disputed. I like to think so though, just so I have more than one het pairing I enjoy ,even if it's complicated in that matter.
The reason for me that I usually go for a same-sex couple is usually how a heterosexual pairing and thus, usually a canon or at the very least hinted pairing is presented in some form of media is portrayed. There are far too many stereotypes and assumptions that come into play. For example a lot of media usually has an abundance of one gender over the other, either the manga or anime or movie or book or video game is filled with guys, or filled with girls. Unfortunately, the minority gender usually gets shafted and is thrown into its own sex's stereotypes far too often. Sailor Moon is an example. It is filled with girls and the few male characters that exist are the most boring characters ever. They are slotted into a stereotype of "saving all the damsel in distresses!" and ultimately failing beyond a monster-of-the-week episode because it's a shoujo and the girls are supposed to look the coolest. So how can you really enjoy a pairing between a strong female and a guy who barely does anything with barely any personality? Yes I am referring to UsagixMamoru, the main canon couple of everything. Males always appear strong and manly, and they try to protect their female but beyond that seem very one-dimensional.
I think the Live Action is a bit better in terms of that, particularly with the minor character Motoki who got an awesome personality upgrade from boring random nice blonde guy to adorable hilarious dork. The pairing MotokixMakoto seems a lot more interesting in that case because instead of "interesting character falling in love with undeveloped random male with no personality", there actually seems to be chemistry between the couple.
So because so many things I enjoy either have tons of males or females, the most interesting dynamics are usually between two characters who are friends. I personally do not believe in love in first sight. I think for love to be realistic and to work, you need to be friends with someone and to learn of their personality, have experience hanging out with the person and the resulting love would have a higher percentage of success. There are far too many media portrayals of a guy finding this random hot girl hot, and thus wanting to go on a date with them, then realizing their personalities clash horribly and no matter how large her breasts are or how long and curvy her body is, she is a bitch. This common media interpretation may be one of the reasons there are such a high number of divorces but I think that's just going off track.
The few malexfemale relationships I do enjoy are the rare ones that don't immediately jump into the realm of "love". Just because you have two characters and one is a girl while the other is a boy, doesn't mean you automatically have to jump into the whole "romance" realm. In the Lion King (I am mentioning this movie a lot because I recently rewatched it P:) I liked Simba and Nala eventually marrying and continuing the pride, despite it being pretty predictable and arranged, they were the best of friends as children and enjoyed each other's presence. Unfortunately I can't say the same with the movie's sequel because despite meeting each other as kids, Kiara and Kovu just hang out for an hour or so before disappearing for a few years. The sequel which actually focused on love, threw in the stereotypes yet again and the two characters seemed to just "love" each other out of pretty much nowhere and very quickly as well (but I suppose I can say the same for Romeo and Juliet, which it was pretty much based off of) so despite how pretty awesome the love song in the movie was (I especially like the cantonese version) the couple just wasn't as appealing.
Anyway beyond movies that are well-known for being pretty good, I liked MaxMariam because it again, subverted that whole stereotypical "love" notion. Beyblade is certainly not an anime you go to for romance because its genre is practically the opposite of romance. The target audience: little boys do not want to see a couple kissing or hugging or anything like that. They want to see action and fights with cool characters being manly and awesome. I think any media not focusing on romance seems to portray any potential pairing most realistically because the whole "love stereotype" does not immediately come to mind. There are obvious exceptions, but yeah.
While Max at the point of V-Force has a pretty well developed character, we have absolutely no clue who Mariam is. I found V-Force to have developed her personality exceptionally well, and so one of the biggest reasons I enjoyed this second season so much is pretty much this single character. Also when you think of the whole stereotype of love, you don't really see Max and Mariam as "guy who saves damsel in distress!" As far as we're concerned it looks more like Mariam is more badass and cool than 'adorable teddy-bear Max" so again there's already a subversion. The fact that Mariam defeats Max more than once also doesn't show her as weak little girl, but a very tough cookie. Also her personality came around as a result of her surroundings as well, despite a lot more people not liking Dunga because of his personality and character design, without him Mariam would not be who Mariam is. It is his taunting, his arguments with Mariam that drive her to do what she does, and then she begins to question the morality of what she is even doing. Of course Mariam again isn't a weak female being batted around like a domestic violence case, she too jabs back at Dunga and the dynamic there is quite amusing. I have nothing against the MariamxDunga pairing, it works, but Dunga's character design is not the most desirable. (What I don't understand is OzumaxMariam because I see no chemistry there!)
So we have Max. Usually the female character is pitted against Rei, but Rei seems to be one of the characters created (or at least developed for the anime) to gain a few female fans, so Rei was a victim of the "love stereotype" once again. He is strong, handsome, and very nice. (I don't think that last point really matters considering the amount of girls who like hot guys that treat them like trash) and all the female rivals he is pitted with always seem like they need him, or have some undying crush on him, as if Rei needs to save them from something. Not so much Mariah/Mao, but moreso Salima in this case. Mariah/Mao herself (and MAYBE Salima, who knows) seems to be a victim of the gender minority, especially since she was the first significant female character introduced, so she was pretty much the creator's prototype female in a male dominated world/sport. She therefore seems to have a personality of a "girl" rather than a "character". After so many guys in the anime and finally a girl, most people will take notice. To reinforce this, she wears tons of pink, has a pink bit-beast, a pink beyblade, a girlish voice, and an odd friendship with Rei that seems closer than just "friendship". Despite all the gender stereotypes she does seem strong, maybe not so much in the first season but I did like her a lot more in G Revolution.
So for the rare time that Rei isn't pitted against the girl, it is Max who gets Mariam, and the character development begins! I think, and this may be a pretty shallow theory but my opinion of the general populace isn't that high anyway, that Mariam is such a popular female character because she was pitted against Max. In terms of shipping, especially between crazy insane Yaoi fangirls, the biggest pairings appear to be "Kai/Rei" vs. "Kai/Takao" and Max is nowhere to be found there. So since the girl is not "interrupting with my favourite boyxboy pairing omfg!" she is less ratted on. I do think some female characters are unreasonably hated, but not that many female characters in Beyblade are that well developed in the first place. (A female character you SHOULD hate is Queen, she was a bitch.)
Of course that's only one factor. Anyway into the whole MaxMariam development. Max is generally regarded as the "weakest" of the Bladebreakers (that makes me sad :C) before Daichi came into view anyway, and since this is a male-dominated series, people do tend to see the "weaker" of the enemy team pitting up against Max, which could be a girl. (Or at least less developed) I mean in season one the only significant character I remember Max even battling was Gao, and he lost. So yeah. In season two, Max is usually the one first up to battle, therefore getting the weakest of the opponents. He has the disadvantage of knowing nothing of the opponent (but it's not like the team really does anything to realize the patterns with their opponents so it doesn't matter :\) so when he loses he loses hard since he lost against "the weakest of the other team" and it therefore makes Max look that much weaker.
That is why I like Max vs. Jim so much, arguably my favourite battle of Season Two (there's also Fate of the Spark Battle, and Kai vs. Gouki) despite Max losing he did not look weak, since Jim cheated and his artificial bit-beast kept being repairing and revived, causing Max to uncharacteristically pound him into dust and look pretty badass, winning twice before losing to the third and final battle. It also seems realistic, if it were Takao in that battle instead he probably would've defeated Jim ten times and then Jim would've collasped from exhaustion and died like Yuuya, therefore causing angst and character development to Takao, where Kane comes and tries to avenge his comrade versus Takao, giving Takao five hundred times more spotlight because he is the main character. Aw, why couldn't that have happened to Max? Instead, Max loses because he was being stupid. You need to fall before you learn, something Takao never seems to come into play (which he does in the manga, why I keep saying the plot of the manga is superior to the animes.)
Anyway, then Max gets Mariam...well arguably he gets her before then, but you get my point. Mariam is not what I consider the weakest of the Saint Shields, the Saint Shields were a pretty well-developed group, so I don't think I could pinpoint a weakest link I could so easily for others. I mean maybe Joseph, but the fact that he can run around like a ninja kind of makes up for it. Still the fact that Max went up against Mariam first in the whole final fight may mean the writers were leaning to Mariam as the weakest, but I highly doubt it, or I'm in denial and I want her to be strong forever. Nonetheless, the fact that they started a rivals, more like a mystery that eventually blossomed into a lovely friendship did bring hints that yes, romance could be possible! The episode I refer to the most that caused me to fall in love with the series, episode thirty-six is the best episode for such. The fact that she taunts Max by calling him "cute" and "a teddy bear" and then Max saving Mariam in the collapsed building was very cute. Even if that whole scene does portray a moment of "strong guy saving damsel in distress" this is actually unexpected because Max is not a stereotypical guy and Mariam not a stereotypical girl.
Then the whole cliche "I MUST BANDAGE YOUR INJURY!" occurs. I think the whole point she owned a bandana was just for that scene. Awesome. Anyway, there's more than just this pairing that does exemplify something realistic than a "omfg guy likes girl" pairing, but I think MaxMariam is the strongest example. (KaixHiromi for example IS possible, but maybe Kai just doesn't want a dead body lying around and so saves her a bunch, you know. He is Kai.) I think besides Mariah/Mao in G Revolution the females weren't as strong as the ones in V Force. (What do I mean "ones"? It's just Mariam!) Julia looked like someone who was trying to become the same but I think she wasn't developed enough to work. Mathilda could've worked actually despite being very girlish and cute. She tried to defend Mihaeru from Barthez's abuse and got hit herself. She's certainly more indepth than the other members of her team and yet it was Claude that tag-teamed with Mihaeru instead. in the MANGA she was the one fighting and having second thoughts! So I guess beyond Mariam and maybe Mao/Mariah, Mathilda was another strong female in a way. (Hiromi MAYBE but by the time G Revolution rolled around she looked more like comic relief, lol)
The three Ms. Huh.
Beyond this pairing there is also UsagixSeiya. There is a dispute whether this pairing is even hetero at all, it's probably girlxgirl but alien biology escapes me, lol. Anyway when Seiya first meets Usagi they did seem more like friends at first, with hilarious adventures in her house for example and while Seiya DOES develop a liking for her a bit quickly (I mean, she did remind him of his own princess at first, and then probably started liking her personality. It does seem refreshing for someone to like Usagi for once and not some other girl because Usagi is always portrayed as the crybaby and least desirable, but eh) but both characters had personality and the dynamic just worked. I was very sad that it was only one-sided though, but oh well. I guess you can't fight fate in a series like this when boring male "save damsel-in-distress" characters are more interwined into fate than someone actually interesting. And without Mamoru there can't be HotaruxChibiusa! :D *shot*
Anyway all of this is seen a lot more often with friends and in series where there are tons of guys or tons of girls, you have to turn to a bunch of friends for any chemistry to develop. Yet at the same time, the characters also have to have their own bloody personaltiies. Their entire existence should not be because she or he is the "love interest" but that she is her own character as well, not a role. I can use an not-hetero pairing for an example. In Negima, while KonokaxSetsuna is wildly popular, I'm not that fond of the pairing because one character (Setsuna) is like KONOKA KONOKA KONOKA KONOKA 24/7, seven days of the week, and 365 days of the year. She had a bit of her own (somewhat cold) personality before that but now you can't really write a story about her without Konoka being a major party of it, otherwise it is OOC. I know there are tons of pretty popular pairings just like that (I do believe Kannazuki no Miko consists of one girl being majorly obsessed with the other, but I've never watched it so please correct me P:) Hell, in the entire series premise seems to be like that. You have Negi, a ten-year-old boy. Everyone likes him. He is awesome. I've always said I liked Yue until she fell in love with Negi. I mean she's still cool now because her whole friendship with Nodoka is questioned due to the love, but it's mostly Yue "blushing" when Negi is around now instead of how she was like before her crush was discovered.
That's why my favourite characters in Negima are those who aren't in love with Negi. The only exception is Ako but she barely counts because she fell in love with a fictional man. Well, you have to admit that her "ideal" lover was again, very stereotypical and foolishly naive. Is a person like "Nagi" really possible in real life? He is so perfect, so "I save my damsel-in-distress" it was obvious that the pairing was tragic from the get-go, and so the iron woobieness of Ako only grows more. Chisame is also arguable, but I actually like Negi/Chisame because in the beginning she wasn't foolishly in love with him because Negi was awesome. She actually hated him. You could say the same with Negi/Asuna, except Asuna is the main female so them ending up together was probably pretty obvious, and then her whole backstory is revealed and now it's possible she's related to Negi so...I don't know what to think.
And up to this point she looked more like a concerned comrade, friend for Negi except recently. I mean sure she's blushed a few times, but having to kiss him for the sake of the world would probably make anyone blush (seeing as it was her first kiss) although now Akamatsu seems to be portraying her in a little "jealous" light when Negi is around others, but the translation of that chapter was kind of iffy so again I have no clue. At the moment everyone is preparing for FINAL BOSS BATTLE OMG so who knows. Stuff like that isn't in the picture anytime soon. And well Ku Fei seems to be falling for Negi too and that's just pissing me off because her reason seems kind of silly and not as realistic and argh I dislike harems.
Well at least I have Kazumi, Sayo (who too has some slight crush on Negi...sigh) and Yuuna.
Scratch that, just Kazumi and Yuuna. Oh man that's not a lot of characters, lol.
And so because of all that...I look for other relationships that might seem interesting as pairings. The whole "THEY'RE THE SAME SEX OMFG!" doesn't really bother me. It does help that I live in a pretty liberal society, that a family member of mine isn't straight, that I started liking Yaoi pretty young so the whole general "disgust" of such a possibly taboo topic doesn't seem to affect me. For that I am glad actually, to be a bit more accepting in that regard. I'm kind of sorry for those people who grow up in closeminded environments and so do not share my opinion, but who knows. The subject is so touchy that what I just said might've been offending. :\
That leads towards pairings that aren't hetero. I've ranted about why they might make sense several times. KaoruxMiyako I wrote an entire hint post with screenshots at one point. I think it makes sense and is cute, nothing wrong with Takaaki either, that pairing isn't bad but he isn't developed as well because he only shows up in two episodes, so I find KaoruxMiyako a bit more appealing P: Besides it feels like the writers were secretly shipping that pairing too >_> (TOO COINCIDENTAL DAMN IT) I mean not all my favourite pairings are stuff that have tons of hints. Rei/Max is not that common, well maybe the whole G Rev (OMFG KAI AND TAKAO KAI AND TAKAO KAI AND TAKAO) thing threw them together by default, but I think the dynamic could be really cute. I think a lot of my pairings besides this entire rant I like because they are cute. Not "sexy" (TWO GUYS TOGETHER ARE HOT OMG!?) but just simply cute. KazumixSayo is also the same. All these pairings are far too innocent to go beyond the "cute" border (I wouldn't mind if it DID but it's always awkward at first, the only thing where I'm willing to see something...not so innocent is probably Rei/Max because I've loved it for so long...and Korea/HK)
Yes, Korea/HK is the exception. I don't know WHERE it came from, it has no hints, HK barely has a personality, but it's hot. I think Hetalia is too shallow and silly for something more insightful, but hey that's just me. I think it's from roleplay mostly, and the lack of innocence is the pairing being rubbed off by Kirami (She is not innocent, and turns all my cute pairings into not so much, :D;) I think it COULD be cute though, I find both characters very adorable, but mostly they're portrayed as rivalling brothers that hate each other, or at least HK hates Korea but everyone...kind of does. I can go into another rant of how Korea is a very depressing character but that has nothing to do with this post, lol. (Oh the Japanese, why doth you portray the Koreans in such a negative light, oh how I wish both countries were a little more friendly with one another...) I think I'm missing a pairing. Oh yeah Jenrya/Takato. Well of course that's in the cute category, they're like ten years old! D<
I think it's my least interesting pairing though, but whatever. My lovely rant is over, hopefully I'll find time to rewrite the PPG review (having a browser crash on you is rather demoralizing) but yeah. I'm not a person who prefers shounen-ai to shoujo-ai or the other way around, or even the genre shounen and shoujo. I love a lot of things because of characters, and no matter their gender as long as it's cute and might possibly work, I'll love it. Screw the plot, Spotto is a character person. (The stuff I write on the other hand seems more plottish than characterish, huh.)
And that is all, Spotto be off!
