Here, I'll address most of the reasons people hate
"She's just like Usagi!"
"Miaka and Tamahome are so stupid and the
"All those bishounen fell madly in love with her!"
"She caused Nuriko to turn STRAIGHT!"
"She's a Mary Sue!"
Miaka. I'll say right now that some of em are
pretty ridiculous, but that's all I'll say. My goal
here is to speak my mind, not scold other fans.
Miaka does indeed fit the role of "Typical Shoujo
Heroine"-she's an ordinary girl with a big appetite
who hates studying, squeals over good-looking boys,
and cries easily. But within the first few episodes,
she discovers she's really a magical girl-er,
priestess, and destined to save the world. And she
hooks up with an amazingly cute, gallant boyfriend.
Yes, that's pretty typical shoujo to me. But in spite
of all that, Miaka is NOT a clone of, say, Usagi
Tsukino or Sakura Kinomoto. No matter what their
prototype, every magical girl is shaped differently
than the next. But that's beside the point here...
Back to the subject at hand: Miaka may be a
typical shoujo heroine, but in many ways she's
more. She's much braver than fans give her credit
for. Yes, she cried her eyes out when Tamahome
was evil, and I admit, I wish she'd told him off
instead of just collapsing to her knees and weeping.
But after she'd come to love him and trust him the
way she did, how could she NOT cry? And then there
was the fact that it was because of Yui, her best
friend, that Tamahome was evil. As if losing Yui
to Nakago's influence hadn't hurt enough, now
Tamahome was dragged over to the dark side as well.
romance makes me sick!"
And speaking of which...yes, the constant
"Tamahome!" "Miaka!" thing DID get annoying.
I love romance as much as the next person, but
sometimes the "bliss scenes" CAN get a little
tiring. And then there's the whole "Oh, they break
up and make up every other episode!" issue most
fans have. I only know about the "Tamahome is evil",
"Taiitsukun tells Miaka to break up with Tamahome
because she has to be a virgin to summon Suzaku",
and an incident with Tokaki and Subaru...that's
THREE instances. I'm sure there are more, but I'm
also sure that it did NOT happen "every other
episode".
THIS, in my opinion, is the dumbest argument for
hating Miaka. It isn't even accurate!
Let's see...there's obviously Tamahome, then
Hotohori spent most of the series in love with her...
Tasuki had a thing for her in the second OAV...that's
THREE guys. Then there was Amiboshi-getting his ass
kicked by Tomo trying to protect her, caring for her
when she ran away after she was afraid she'd been raped.
Yep, that DOES seem like love, I guess. But according to
Watase, it wasn't-not in a romantic sense, anyway.
Sigh...this is one of the arguments I find the
most ridiculous. It isn't even all that accurate,
to say the least.
Yes, he DID say he loved her. But then he said he
loved Tamahome, Tasuki, and all the Suzaku Seishi.
Which means he didn't love Miaka romantically. He
also said he was giving up on trying to pursue
Hotohori, but that doesn't mean he no longer loved
him. Nuriko also stopped crossdressing because of
Miaka, but it was because she convinced him not to live
in the past, to just live HIS life and keep the memory of
his sister in his heart always. And the "cutting his hair
short" thing had nothing to do with Miaka. It was Tasuki's
fault. :P He didn't "stop being gay" because of Miaka. As
she said, he wasn't a man or a woman. He was Nuriko. Period.
Since this is a whole other (VERY long) rant in itself,
it's given its own page.
Why Miaka Is Not a Mary Sue
