[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Swampstorm

But that's the part that I don't understand. Why should Nanase need to monitor the progress on Ranka's gift to Alto at all?

Because she's interested and wants to know how it's going.

If Ranka loves the guy and wants to express her feelings through a gift, then why would there be any doubts about Ranka following through with it?

Because she's shy and may chicken out. There's also the question of whether she actually like him and wants to express it.

A recipe is just a set of instructions. You get the same results whether someone gives you the instructions or if you find them in a book.

Wrong. I've read recipes and didn't make it very far past the ingredient list. With a human being, if there's something you don't understand, you can ask for explanations. I don't really remember, but there's also the possibility Nanase oversaw part of the process. A book can't do that.

But why complicate things? It's clear that this particular recipe is something outside of Ranka's normal skillset, and there's nothing that says that she has to go with cookies. So why doesn't she do something that she both enjoys doing and has some practice with? How about plane shaped Nyan Nyan buns?

Plane shaped buns? How does that work? And we don't know that she can cook at all. All we know is, she got buns from her workplace.

Or how about simply creating a song about what she thinks about Alto?

She may not be much of a writer. Or lack inspiration. Besides, it'd be pretentious of her to do so - despite the fact that things are going well, she's still a rookie in the entertainment industry, not a confirmed pro.

When you care about someone and simply want to express it, then ideas come pouring in on their own accord.

Yes, love is power! Love can change the world, makes you scream a name while jumping in a waterfall or whatever it was. More seriously, caring about someone doesn't necessarily give you any special insights or inspiration. It enabled her to try her best with various level of successes, but I'm not going to look at her lack of imagination concerning birthday gifts and conclude she doesn't like Alto.

There are plenty of possibilities out there.

Such as?

Gift giving isn't supposed to be a big challenge. So unless both Ranka and Nanase had decided to combine their talents to give Alto a gift together, I don't see why Nanase's participation was necessary.

And I don't see why it's bad that she asked for advice. Part of "trying hard" is "not picking whatever is easy and saying 'whatever', it's not like it's supposed to be a big challenge". Maybe Ranka tries too hard. One could certainly argue for the value of something store-bought, made by a skilled artisan, vs the more personal but potentially shoddy homemade stuff. But IMO, it's more endearing than not trying hard enough.

It's the combined effect of Nanase's involvement in all stages of Ranka's gift giving process that makes it look like she lead Ranka by the hand, every step of the way. That may not have actually been the case, but we can only go by what we saw. It would probably have been much easier for to see Ranka's actions as independent had we seen her put some effort into the gift in a scene which didn't involve Nanase.

What independence? She heard, probably from Nanase, Alto's birthday was coming up, and decided to do something about it. Did we see her get browbeaten into it? Did we see it took an enormous amount of effort to convince her? Yes, Nanase was involved. Mostly because she likes being involved in Ranka's life. So what?

If so, that sounds like a similarity to me.

Not really. Sheryl acts like it's a privilege to help her, and admits she doesn't thank people often. She isn't precisely ungrateful, but it certainly embarrasses her to say "thank you", so she avoids doing it.

He wasn't writing about whether Ranka had grown or not. He was just stating that he generally disliked how Ranka's character had been written, thus far.

Allow me to quote what I was answering to:

lately all she has been doing is crying Alto to rescue her from situations that she should be able to handle on her own.

When's the last time she's cried for Alto to rescue her? Gallia 4, when she was prisoner of the giant bugs. The time before that? When she was taken prisoner by said giant bugs. The time before that? When she was attacked by an hydra. So, which of those situation should she have "been able to handle by herself"? Also, it's not all we've seen from her. We've also seen her career progress and her confidence grow, from "I don't know if I can play Mayan Girl B" to "I'll play Mao" to "Listen to me, Zentran lolicon, and stop fighting!". He was denying that. We've also seen her relationship with Alto go to the point where she wanted to do something nice and personal for him. Even if her efforts failed. And yes, she didn't precisely do it on her own, but I don't see why she should have.

Well, if escaping from the Vajra nest is not something that Ranka "should able to handle on her own", then it certainly doesn't qualify under his original statement, does it?

No, I think it doesn't fall under it. Considering Ickem's use of the word "all", he may disagree.

Any discussion of "worth" has to take place relative to a system of values. But whose values do we use? Yours? Mine?

"Fair" doesn't exist, as far as preferences are concerned. The very fact that they're "preferences" makes them distinctly unfair. The only thing that matters in all this is your love for the characters. You can't tell someone else why they oughtn't to think poorly of a character. But you can tell them why you love the character in question.

And who knows? Love can be infectious.

There are also some objective criteria. For example, Ranka didn't poison Sheryl. Any statement to the contrary would be "unfair". If you don't like a character, you tend to see the worst in them, and deny their good sides. (And conversely, if you like them, you'll see the best and deny the bad.) You can either let that impulse rule you, or you can try to be... "fair". Disliking Ranka for her dog-ears like hair and fangs? Fair, she really has those. Disliking her because - and claiming that - she spends all her screentime crying for Alto when she should be solving her problems on her own? Unfair. Not only does she do more than crying, but when she does, it generally involves some big, dangerous creature she can do little about.