"Ameria (and Naga)" Note: This essay was a rebuttal to a character bashing. The "offender" said my essay was boring, and he/she stopped reading it a few sentences in. Well, sorry, but here at Slayers Uncensored, we like boring! >;P - "She really doesn't do much besides hang around Zelgadiss and dreams she's going to be in love with him." I have NO idea where you get this from. Yes, she does have feelings for Zelgadiss, but she definitely doesn't force them on him. Tell me when exactly does she "dream that she's going to be in love with him." Please don't use that lame excuse that at the end of NEXT when she said "I wish I was a bride..." she was automatically thinking of wanting to marry Zelgadiss. By the end of TRY, Zel and Ameria have developed a very good relationship (not necessarily romantic, but friendship). They talk together a lot and agree on many things. Ameria is GOOD for Zelgadiss. She's the only one who will sincerely LISTEN to him. Don't think this is true? It's not that Lina won't listen- she will if the subject at hand concerns her, food, or treasure. Yes, I know there are times when she does become a little more receptive of other peoples' feelings and does offer solid advice and the like, but I'm talking about the majority of the time. Gourry's no help, for obvious reasons. I'm not saying that Zel and Ameria are automatically "meant for each other" or whatever, but at least there is a solid friendship there. I can't stand OOC fanfics where Ameria is spouting off justice speeches every other second and then she proceeds to glomp all over Zelgadiss. Then Zel and Lina get annoyed and say they "hate her" or whatever. I don't know WHERE the hell these people get their characterizations from because they definitely aren't accurate to the anime and novels. NOBODY in the main cast hates Ameria. Well, maybe Xelloss, but then again, he could possibly hate EVERYONE and not show it. Next to Gourry, Ameria is Lina's best friend. They act like sisters, which I'm sure makes up for the void of having good relationships with their own sisters. "Another throw off is her use of Black Offensive magic. Ameria is able to use Shamnist magic very well, but when it comes to "Black Offensive magic" she has bad judgement. EX: Episode 14, Ameria wants to learn the Dragu Slave. The Child is hopeless. She wants to learn a Dragu Slave to bring justice to the world. Ameria is so naive because, coincidently, she believes that the Dragu Slave should be used to solve your everyday problem." There's a big difference between first season Ameria and NEXT and TRY Ameria. She matured a lot over the course of the series. Yes, she was naive at first, but over time she learned more common sense. She isn't terrible at black magic (not like Sylphiel at least, who only learned the Dragu Slave to compete with Lina over Gourry); she's casted other spells successfully (Gaav Flare, etc.). Discriminating against her because black magic isn't her strong point is like discriminating against Gourry because he doesn't use magic at all, Sylphiel because she mainly uses white magic, Martina because the only magic she uses consists of curses, etc. I know, let's all hate Lina because she can't cast the Ra-tilt! Picking on Ameria just because of that, when she's so skilled otherwise in white and shamanistic magic, is extremely biased and unfair. I think the reason why she was so naive at first has a lot to do with her childhood in the Saillune palace. She was always under the impression of her father, assuming everything he did was right and there was no other way. It's only natural for a child to pick up behavior practiced by their parents. It's like how a lot of the time abused children will end up being the abuser later in life. If you're going to blame someone for Ameria's justice obsession (which, may I add, is not as bad as Phil's), blame Phil (or Phil's parents, so on, so on), NOT Ameria. As she grows up, the naivety will eventually wear off. You can already see this happening in NEXT and TRY. I think the reason she's so gung-ho about justice is because she wants to be like her father. More specifically, she wants to be liked just like her father is. She knows that someday she'll be the ruler of Saillune and she wants people to look up to her the way they do to her father. Want an example of Ameria's increasing maturity? Think back to NEXT when Lina was debating whether or not to go after Gourry. Ameria insisted she didn't want Lina to tell her what Phibrizzo's master plan was, because if she knew, she might have to stop her from going. An immature person who wasn't thinking with common sense would most likely insist to know everything that's going on. Despite her extroverted, enthusiastic personality, Ameria's also got some negativity brewing around in her mind (this becomes increasingly evident as TRY progresses). She's extremely protective of Zelgadiss- any special attention to or from another woman is enough to drive her crazy. Sure, up until NEXT, we thought she had this cute, sometimes annoying, little crush on him. Fast forward a little and there's more and more proof towards this. Then finally, we get to the infamous "They're Talking About a Girl Named Zelgadiss?" episode. Gender-bending jokes aside, this was the first time (that we've seen) Zel show real interest in any woman. He even goes so far as to invite Miwan to tag along with Lina's group. When Ameria "gets the hint" that Zel's practically avoiding her to be with Miwan, at first she's disappointed. A scene change later, when questioned about Zelgadiss' whereabouts, Ameria literally screams "I DON'T CARE!!" to her friends, then sits down angrily. This is the point where we learn there's definitely got to be something more than just a little bubblegum, sugary, idealistic crush going on. Then in TRY, in the marriage temple episode, Ameria gets upset when Lina gets paired with Zelgadiss. At first, she claims that Lina is supposed to be with Gourry. Ameria, more than anyone else (even more than Lina and Gourry), knows that those two are meant to be together. This is when she starts sounding desperate to come up with excuses for why she doesn't like the pairings. She says that Xelloss and Filia definitely CAN'T be together, so something's got to be wrong. While walking across the bridge, she responds rather unenthusiastically to all of Gourry's questions, then she wonders what her problem is and why she's "being such a brat today." Inside the temple, Gourry gets lost, and Lina automatically starts blaming Ameria. It's obvious Ameria's too depressed to argue, and she ends up nearly crying over Lina's attitude (actually, Lina almost starts crying, too). Zelgadiss, who has done an amazing job so far of staying neutral, ever-so-slightly begins to side with Ameria when Lina starts "bringing up things we can't do anything about," as said by Ameria. Then Lina becomes mad at Zelgadiss, and everything's messed up. Anyway, what my point is, while the whole Miwan dilemma made Ameria angry and jealous, the little problem with Lina made her feel sad and betrayed. Ah, teenage hormones. Aren't they great? Another example of Ameria's negativity comes out when she's by herself in Lila and Honar's home. She reflects on the battle she was in before waking up in the strange house, and wonders where her companions are. Then she says, surprisingly without either decidedly positive or negative tone of voice, that since "the weakest member of the team" has survived, then the rest must be out there somewhere. This line completely took me by surprise, almost to the point of where it sounded out of character. Of course it's not, though. It's just another side of Ameria's personality that we haven't seen much of yet. Anyone who can seriously call Ameria "naive" from this point on needs to be smacked upside the head. She knows she's not the strongest of her friends; she knows she's not invincible (although she's definitely not the most useless- that award goes to Filia). She admits that she hopes her friends are searching for her- she most likely believes that she's not capable of finding them on her own. It's obvious from here on out that she knows her strengths and her weaknesses. That certainly isn't a trait that helps to prove someone as being naive. Then there's the time in TRY when Ameria speaks seriously of how "infuriating" it is that Filia can use holy magic while she can't. She's upset that the shrine maidens of Saillune, like herself, really have no purpose other than to be figureheads. Now that I think of it, Ameria sometimes showed resentment to Filia and dragons in general. I'm not about to say that she's prejudiced (far from it, actually), but add the above argument paired with how she once referred to dragons as "reptiles" (a possible racial slur), and you can get a general idea of her potential resentment (jealousy?) to dragons. She has good reason, actually. Many of the dragons (Filia included, in the very begnning) are extremely arrogant when it comes to humans. One thing I find interesting, which is true for both dragons AND mazoku, is that both races consider themselves far better than humans, yet many choose to take human form in order to fit in. The difference between dragons and mazoku in this aspect, however, is that mazoku assume the human form in order to get food more efficiently. I also noticed that in TRY, especially during the second half, Ameria's justice obsession seemed to fade away a little. Sure, it was still there, but there was the impression that it had become almost somewhat of a novelty, or something practiced out of habit. Even in the most "justice-filled" episode, "The Right Person in the Right Place! Ameria in the Village of Justice!," she admitted to Gourry that the main reason she was playing justice hero was that it made the old people happy, not because she really wanted to go fight "the demon" in the name of justice. This backs up the theory that in time Ameria's idealistic nature will submit to a more mature personality. Sure, she's never going to be the stoic that Zelgadiss is, but I seriously doubt she'll be anywhere near as extreme as her father. Both Ameria and Naga have emotional issues, maybe as many as Zelgadiss has. It's just that Zelgadiss chooses to complain and express his negativity, while Ameria and Naga put up fronts in order to try to block out the bad feelings. Besides, if she was really a complete goody two-shoes, do you think she'd keep hanging around Lina? And what about Zelgadiss? He definitely isn't the kind of guy you'd think a traditional, holy princess would be attracted to. I believe the reason Naga doesn't act as extremely as Ameria and Phil are: 1) She's older and has developed her own personality (she's no longer dependent on her father; as the series progresses this becomes increasingly true of Ameria); 2) She could have suffered some psychological change due to witnessing the death of her mother. Like I've said before, Gracia and Naga may be two seperate people at this point. This meaning the original "Gracia" personality may be completely different from the current "Naga" personality, and "Naga" may not know anything of "Gracia." For all we know "Gracia" may be lost in "Naga's" subconscious, with a possiblity of never returning due to emotional trauma. Evidence (as weak as it is) pointing toward this is in the December 2002 issue of Newtype USA magazine. Naga's profile asks what her hometown is, and she replies that she forgot. Yes, she may be (and probably is) lying to cover up her real identity, but I think Naga's a little too boastful to deny that she's a princess of Saillune. You'd think she'd use every opportunity to flaunt the fact that "I'm a princess and you're not- I'm better than you, oh ho ho ho ho." This leads me to a new theory- Gracia willingly forgot all her memories of Saillune. The stress and trauma from witnessing her mother's death may have been too much, and when she left she may have found a way to erase her memory in order to save her emotional state from going insane. As for her fear of blood (most likely caused by her mother's slaughter), you never know- some things could escape the memory erasing. Naga does fear blood, but she may not know why. Not knowing would be much better for her than to remember the murder every time she sees blood. However, that's just a theory (and not one that I believe). Mr. Kanzaka said in an unofficial interview that Naga keeps in touch with Saillune by various means, and sometimes she gets money sent to her. Also, I've noticed more things proving she DOES remember- like how when she is speaking to other royalty, she will speak to them as equals, whereas Lina tends to be more submissive and acts her role of middle-class commoner. "Her theme BGM is sooo nerve-wrecking." That's a new one. Actually, I'd have to agree with you on that (although only the first part- I happen to think the final minute and a half suits her perfectly). But that's not her fault, it's the music composer's. - Apologies to the person I took the quotes from. If you'd like me to take them down, tell me and I will. Thanks. =) |