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5 Characters I Want To See More (Fandom and Canon)
There might be ranting, and behind every cut there will be spoilers (although in the case of Fringe and Soul Eater they are tiny and shouldn't ruin anything). But it feels good to get some of this off my chest. XD
1. TOPH. Fandom largely ignores this wonderful character outside of shipping, which isn't hard to do, I guess, when she practically disappears from the canon the second half of the third season and felt added to the epilogue more as an afterthought. What, me bitter about how everyone forgets my favorite character? Just a little bit.
Toph is a character who struggled to find herself before the show started, but adapted brilliantly to what life threw at her, surpassing all expectations on what her 'kind' could be-- as a noble, as an earthbender, as a woman, to become at the age of 12 arguably the greatest earthbender (Which is the potential vs actual level argument in action. I believe Bumi is currently #1, but when you point out she's 12 and he's 112, it is pretty amazing to think that Toph is at this elite a level).
But Toph is more than her earthbending. A lot of people dismiss her as a one note character, all about the power and boasting and nothing more. But Toph is not this emotionless heap of rock-- she has a strength of character that is built over her longing to be a regular kid, to be noticed by the world her parents tried to keep her from, her first (known) interactions with girls AND guys her own age group and arguably her first crush (to me, it says a lot about the character that her first crush was on Sokka, the one she deemed worthless upon first meeting, the Watertribe weapons guy who can't even bend).
And then there is the turmoil with her parents. It is heartbreaking to realize that of all the main characters in ATLA, Toph never had her big emotional crisis resolved. At the end of the series, she is still estranged from her parents, still doesn't know if they care for her beyond her being that pretty little blind girl for them to cottle and hide from the world. I find this my greatest frustration with the show, as I feel this is serious character neglect, beyond just Toph-- so many powerful women can feel abandoned by their own families for not fitting that mold their families want for them, and a lot of times it does start out when one is as young as Toph. And to have a strong rolemodel like Toph find some kind of closure about the mess-- even if it is that she has to make her own path and separate herself from her parents-- would have been awesome. But no, we only have a dropped storyline thread, her resolution in limbo, that messenger hawk forever searching for her parents.
But enough about the finale, because Toph is so much more than her family issues. For me, Toph represents the freedom of choice, of having a lot in life and not accepting it and going out and making your own future. Of molding who you are into what you want to become. And I think that is an incredibly powerful character for young girls to be exposed to, which makes her lack of character development in the series that much more frustrating, as well as the network's refusal to put out Katara and Toph action figures. I could go on about Toph for days (I have before, and probably will again), so I'll just point out that if Toph was a guy, there would be a billion fanfics written about her as the dom and shipping her with everything that walked. Or didn't. It is incredibly frustrating to me that because a character doesn't have a bit danging between her legs, she gets completely ignored. So much for embracing awesome characters, guys.
2. MATSUMATO RANGIKU. I long for the days in the canon when she was a balance of silliness and deep emotional connections with Orihime and Hitsugaya. Fandom largely writes her off as a dumb blond, ignoring completely her good heart and apparent eagerness to help people, especially those who don't wish for it. I love how she tries to get Hitsugaya to lighten up and be the kid that he is. I love how she was the one who brought him into the Shinigami fold, and I like to speculate that she feels guilt over bringing this kid in and him having all this responsibility thrust upon his still developing shoulders.
It is wonderful that Kubo created this vain, lazy, frequently irrelevant character with such a good heart. And one who is so incredibly strong emotionally-- it is undeniable that *something* was going on between her and Gin, even if it was a pseudosibling bond. And the way she crossed swords with him, to protect not herself, but to protect a friend, to put her duty as a lieutenant for the Soul Society above her feelings for this man, that says so much for her inner character. So much that is largely ignored by fandom as a whole, that ignores her emotional developments to sandwich her into an unhealthy OTP with Gin. Because putting her with a psychopath is perfectly healthy! Oh the bitterness you guys, the bitterness XD.
Kubo's big theme in Bleach is the heart, and to me Matsumoto characterizes some of the best (and some of the worst traits). And I wish we got to see more of her in canon, being as badass as she was set up in the first arc, instead of lying helpless on the ground while the main characters have their manly brawl above. But what guts Matsumoto has (or more aptly, did have, since, well, you know), taking on three foes while the others took only one. Her heart was so strong, continuing to fight even with the odds against her, even as a monster grew from her foes.
It was such a relief to see that she did survive, and I really hope Matsumoto has some hand in Gin's fate, along with Kira. Fights in Bleach tend to be thematic and the conclusions filled with flashbacks, so I hope the fact we haven't scene anything, really, for Gin makes me hope something big is going to happen, and the Gin/Kira/Matsumoto confrontation will happen later, at the manga's climax. And that this whole mess of a battle will give Matsumoto what she needs to steady her heart and find her bankai and be the crazy badass lady that she was before, who also has those flaws of characters that really make her even better a character.
A lot of people dismiss Matsumoto because they can only see the flaws in her character, can only see her big boobs, can only see her failure against her three foes. But that fight was doomed-- it took Yamamoto to cut that monster down-- so I don't think blaming Matsumoto for not defeating the creature is right. But I think there is so much potential in her character, both in canon and in fandom, that it really pains me to see her so ignored, or worse, dismissed.
3. DONNA. It breaks my heart that Donna's season was the Tenth Doctor's last, because it was clear that the narrative was going to focus on how to get 10 to the point where he'd self-destruct, not to show the wonders (and heartbreaks) of the universe from the companion's perspective. Her season was crammed with other companions getting the spotlight, so to end it with Donna being brainwashed (literally), of having her identity she gained as a result of her travels be stripped from her, of going back to where she was before the Doctor with absolutely no growth, and worse, to be reminded of this growth would make her HEAD EXPLODE? KOL SAYS OH HELL NO.
Yeah, I have a lot of issues with this, and I loathe how Donna is abandoned in fandom at large unless she's being shipped with the 10th Doctor. I would adore if 11 went back and fixed what 10 did to Donna, because my rage over her ending is feeding into my perception of this series, and I'm having a hard time embracing Amy because she's being allowed to shine, but Donna really wasn't. Tate's larger than life portrayal is what made Donna, not the storylines that were pushed her way.
And I really hate how the solution the writers came up with for 'fixing' Donna was to marry her off (again) and have 10 sneak her a winning lotto ticket. It felt like a cheat and really doesn't satisfy the narrative for the character, and worse, it seems like the only solution they could think for such a bold, brassy, wonderful character was to marry her off THREE TIMES IN ONE SEASON. Assuming, of course, that the specials are part of the 4th season.
4. PETER.I adore Fringe, so I'm going to limit this a bit so I'm not throwing massive spoilers around for everything but the recent episode, in which the characters got to act out being in a 30s Detective story, and was just fantastic. I love how Olivia was naturally the Detective and how Peter was once again what everyone was after, and it was really great to see the two actors working off one another. And how utterly wish fulfillment it was for all the characters involved, which the kid realizing that the story was unsatisfactory, because that's not how things end. You get a happy ending, a sharing of hearts, not just abandoning people, which is what Peter actually did before the series began. Just a great use of an AU setting to explore the characters, and really hammer in who Peter is, even though Olivia is still the POV character, even in a story Walter is telling. Just a great mix of acting and scripting that you don't get, because the writers clearly have respect for all the characters and try to balance things without pulling anything from the lead.
Again, I'm not going to go into series specific spoilers outside of that AU episode, but I'm heartbroken over Peter at the moment, just as I know the show runners are intending me to be heartbroken. But I want more, not less, and I'm disappointed in the lack of fall out and really want to see what is going on from Peter's eyes. He is a runner, I realize, but there's this big gap in the narrative and the emotional punch is really lacking. What I love about Fringe is Olivia is the Plot and Peter is the Emotion, and something is missing when one or the other isn't around for whatever reason. But there's so much to explore with Peter, especially in that time before the series began, so much anger and heartache and disgust with himself that can be written there, heartbreak over his father's decline and his reaction to it, and I really just want them to not push the development of two episodes under the carpet. Because this is the big thematic moment for the show, and I'm terrified they are going to screw it up, even though I really give the writers and actors a lot of credit with the show because of how well they have handled things (outside of the first four episodes, mind you).
Fringe has a very small fandom, which I find distressing and know part of the problem is the show is pretty satisfying as is for a lot of people. But I'd love to see more work with who Peter is, with what happened before, to really fill in the gaps that the showrunners are leaving open for whatever reason.
I totally have a thing for the heart characters, you guys X0.
5. BLACK*STAR. How can you not love Soul Eater?! How can you not adore BLACK*STAR? He is my favorite character in Soul Eater by FAR (which is pretty amazing considering the awesome that is Maka and how wonderful Tsubaki is) and I find endless delight in pretty much everything that dumbass does <333. I love how silly he is with these moments of greatness shining through, how he's still this boisterous egocentric force, but still has these shifting looks to Tsubaki and how he knows when something is wrong with her and oh god, the craziness that is his friendship with Soul and what big gigantic dorks the two are XD. My heart is filled with so much love for Black*Star, and I just want MORE.
Soul Eater is another of those small fandoms and is very shipper focused, so it can be hard to find much that explores deeper into who Black*Star is. His two big pairings are with Tsubaki and Soul, and it just seems like those two characters get all the exploration and not him ;___. So I'd love to really see more into the crazy guy. And you know, I love when the manga did *canon genderbending,* all that changed with Black*Star was he grew big boobs, so more of lady Black*Star would be awesome too.
1. TOPH. Fandom largely ignores this wonderful character outside of shipping, which isn't hard to do, I guess, when she practically disappears from the canon the second half of the third season and felt added to the epilogue more as an afterthought. What, me bitter about how everyone forgets my favorite character? Just a little bit.
Toph is a character who struggled to find herself before the show started, but adapted brilliantly to what life threw at her, surpassing all expectations on what her 'kind' could be-- as a noble, as an earthbender, as a woman, to become at the age of 12 arguably the greatest earthbender (Which is the potential vs actual level argument in action. I believe Bumi is currently #1, but when you point out she's 12 and he's 112, it is pretty amazing to think that Toph is at this elite a level).
But Toph is more than her earthbending. A lot of people dismiss her as a one note character, all about the power and boasting and nothing more. But Toph is not this emotionless heap of rock-- she has a strength of character that is built over her longing to be a regular kid, to be noticed by the world her parents tried to keep her from, her first (known) interactions with girls AND guys her own age group and arguably her first crush (to me, it says a lot about the character that her first crush was on Sokka, the one she deemed worthless upon first meeting, the Watertribe weapons guy who can't even bend).
And then there is the turmoil with her parents. It is heartbreaking to realize that of all the main characters in ATLA, Toph never had her big emotional crisis resolved. At the end of the series, she is still estranged from her parents, still doesn't know if they care for her beyond her being that pretty little blind girl for them to cottle and hide from the world. I find this my greatest frustration with the show, as I feel this is serious character neglect, beyond just Toph-- so many powerful women can feel abandoned by their own families for not fitting that mold their families want for them, and a lot of times it does start out when one is as young as Toph. And to have a strong rolemodel like Toph find some kind of closure about the mess-- even if it is that she has to make her own path and separate herself from her parents-- would have been awesome. But no, we only have a dropped storyline thread, her resolution in limbo, that messenger hawk forever searching for her parents.
But enough about the finale, because Toph is so much more than her family issues. For me, Toph represents the freedom of choice, of having a lot in life and not accepting it and going out and making your own future. Of molding who you are into what you want to become. And I think that is an incredibly powerful character for young girls to be exposed to, which makes her lack of character development in the series that much more frustrating, as well as the network's refusal to put out Katara and Toph action figures. I could go on about Toph for days (I have before, and probably will again), so I'll just point out that if Toph was a guy, there would be a billion fanfics written about her as the dom and shipping her with everything that walked. Or didn't. It is incredibly frustrating to me that because a character doesn't have a bit danging between her legs, she gets completely ignored. So much for embracing awesome characters, guys.
2. MATSUMATO RANGIKU. I long for the days in the canon when she was a balance of silliness and deep emotional connections with Orihime and Hitsugaya. Fandom largely writes her off as a dumb blond, ignoring completely her good heart and apparent eagerness to help people, especially those who don't wish for it. I love how she tries to get Hitsugaya to lighten up and be the kid that he is. I love how she was the one who brought him into the Shinigami fold, and I like to speculate that she feels guilt over bringing this kid in and him having all this responsibility thrust upon his still developing shoulders.
It is wonderful that Kubo created this vain, lazy, frequently irrelevant character with such a good heart. And one who is so incredibly strong emotionally-- it is undeniable that *something* was going on between her and Gin, even if it was a pseudosibling bond. And the way she crossed swords with him, to protect not herself, but to protect a friend, to put her duty as a lieutenant for the Soul Society above her feelings for this man, that says so much for her inner character. So much that is largely ignored by fandom as a whole, that ignores her emotional developments to sandwich her into an unhealthy OTP with Gin. Because putting her with a psychopath is perfectly healthy! Oh the bitterness you guys, the bitterness XD.
Kubo's big theme in Bleach is the heart, and to me Matsumoto characterizes some of the best (and some of the worst traits). And I wish we got to see more of her in canon, being as badass as she was set up in the first arc, instead of lying helpless on the ground while the main characters have their manly brawl above. But what guts Matsumoto has (or more aptly, did have, since, well, you know), taking on three foes while the others took only one. Her heart was so strong, continuing to fight even with the odds against her, even as a monster grew from her foes.
It was such a relief to see that she did survive, and I really hope Matsumoto has some hand in Gin's fate, along with Kira. Fights in Bleach tend to be thematic and the conclusions filled with flashbacks, so I hope the fact we haven't scene anything, really, for Gin makes me hope something big is going to happen, and the Gin/Kira/Matsumoto confrontation will happen later, at the manga's climax. And that this whole mess of a battle will give Matsumoto what she needs to steady her heart and find her bankai and be the crazy badass lady that she was before, who also has those flaws of characters that really make her even better a character.
A lot of people dismiss Matsumoto because they can only see the flaws in her character, can only see her big boobs, can only see her failure against her three foes. But that fight was doomed-- it took Yamamoto to cut that monster down-- so I don't think blaming Matsumoto for not defeating the creature is right. But I think there is so much potential in her character, both in canon and in fandom, that it really pains me to see her so ignored, or worse, dismissed.
3. DONNA. It breaks my heart that Donna's season was the Tenth Doctor's last, because it was clear that the narrative was going to focus on how to get 10 to the point where he'd self-destruct, not to show the wonders (and heartbreaks) of the universe from the companion's perspective. Her season was crammed with other companions getting the spotlight, so to end it with Donna being brainwashed (literally), of having her identity she gained as a result of her travels be stripped from her, of going back to where she was before the Doctor with absolutely no growth, and worse, to be reminded of this growth would make her HEAD EXPLODE? KOL SAYS OH HELL NO.
Yeah, I have a lot of issues with this, and I loathe how Donna is abandoned in fandom at large unless she's being shipped with the 10th Doctor. I would adore if 11 went back and fixed what 10 did to Donna, because my rage over her ending is feeding into my perception of this series, and I'm having a hard time embracing Amy because she's being allowed to shine, but Donna really wasn't. Tate's larger than life portrayal is what made Donna, not the storylines that were pushed her way.
And I really hate how the solution the writers came up with for 'fixing' Donna was to marry her off (again) and have 10 sneak her a winning lotto ticket. It felt like a cheat and really doesn't satisfy the narrative for the character, and worse, it seems like the only solution they could think for such a bold, brassy, wonderful character was to marry her off THREE TIMES IN ONE SEASON. Assuming, of course, that the specials are part of the 4th season.
4. PETER.I adore Fringe, so I'm going to limit this a bit so I'm not throwing massive spoilers around for everything but the recent episode, in which the characters got to act out being in a 30s Detective story, and was just fantastic. I love how Olivia was naturally the Detective and how Peter was once again what everyone was after, and it was really great to see the two actors working off one another. And how utterly wish fulfillment it was for all the characters involved, which the kid realizing that the story was unsatisfactory, because that's not how things end. You get a happy ending, a sharing of hearts, not just abandoning people, which is what Peter actually did before the series began. Just a great use of an AU setting to explore the characters, and really hammer in who Peter is, even though Olivia is still the POV character, even in a story Walter is telling. Just a great mix of acting and scripting that you don't get, because the writers clearly have respect for all the characters and try to balance things without pulling anything from the lead.
Again, I'm not going to go into series specific spoilers outside of that AU episode, but I'm heartbroken over Peter at the moment, just as I know the show runners are intending me to be heartbroken. But I want more, not less, and I'm disappointed in the lack of fall out and really want to see what is going on from Peter's eyes. He is a runner, I realize, but there's this big gap in the narrative and the emotional punch is really lacking. What I love about Fringe is Olivia is the Plot and Peter is the Emotion, and something is missing when one or the other isn't around for whatever reason. But there's so much to explore with Peter, especially in that time before the series began, so much anger and heartache and disgust with himself that can be written there, heartbreak over his father's decline and his reaction to it, and I really just want them to not push the development of two episodes under the carpet. Because this is the big thematic moment for the show, and I'm terrified they are going to screw it up, even though I really give the writers and actors a lot of credit with the show because of how well they have handled things (outside of the first four episodes, mind you).
Fringe has a very small fandom, which I find distressing and know part of the problem is the show is pretty satisfying as is for a lot of people. But I'd love to see more work with who Peter is, with what happened before, to really fill in the gaps that the showrunners are leaving open for whatever reason.
I totally have a thing for the heart characters, you guys X0.
5. BLACK*STAR. How can you not love Soul Eater?! How can you not adore BLACK*STAR? He is my favorite character in Soul Eater by FAR (which is pretty amazing considering the awesome that is Maka and how wonderful Tsubaki is) and I find endless delight in pretty much everything that dumbass does <333. I love how silly he is with these moments of greatness shining through, how he's still this boisterous egocentric force, but still has these shifting looks to Tsubaki and how he knows when something is wrong with her and oh god, the craziness that is his friendship with Soul and what big gigantic dorks the two are XD. My heart is filled with so much love for Black*Star, and I just want MORE.
Soul Eater is another of those small fandoms and is very shipper focused, so it can be hard to find much that explores deeper into who Black*Star is. His two big pairings are with Tsubaki and Soul, and it just seems like those two characters get all the exploration and not him ;___. So I'd love to really see more into the crazy guy. And you know, I love when the manga did *canon genderbending,* all that changed with Black*Star was he grew big boobs, so more of lady Black*Star would be awesome too.
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