Quote:
Originally Posted by NinjaRealist
This post pretty much sums up the entire the thread.
These are sure to rub someone the wrong way but here are some examples using this logic.
ex. #1
Madoka = Strong female character
Nanoha = Weak character with strong powers.
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I'm a big magical girl anime fan, and hence I'm very familiar with both of these characters, and I like both of them a lot. That being said, I'm at a real lost to understand how someone could consider Madoka a "Strong female character" while considering Nanoha a "Weak female character".
Madoka is every bit as much the archetypal magical girl as Nanoha is - In fact, I think a strong case can be made that Madoka captures that archetype even more than Nanoha does. Just because Madoka Magica is a genre deconstruction doesn't mean that Madoka herself is anything unusual for magical girl leads. In fact, I would say that the whole point of her character at a meta level is capturing the essence of "the magical girl" as well as any one character can (and to Madoka's credit, I think she does achieve this). But being strong at a meta level doesn't necessarily mean you're strong at a narrative level.
Nanoha is a much more proactive character than Madoka is - IOW, Nanoha drives the plot and
displays agency in her show much more than Madoka does in PMMM.
I don't want to be insulting, but given your listings of Nanoha and Saber as supposedly "weak characters", I have to wonder if you have a bias against "lawful good" characters that's overly influencing your take on whether or not a character is a strong character. If you are, I wouldn't worry too much about it - A lot of people today sadly seem to think that a character has to reflect modern cynicism in order to be a strong character. But I don't see any good reason whatsoever for that position. Cynicism is hardly the only way to display strength, and in fact cynicism can showcase weakness if it goes to a certain paralyzing extreme.
Anyway, Nanoha is actually my favorite anime character of all-time, and I did a write-up of her
here.
Perhaps that can change your mind. Perhaps not. But either way, I would be interested in getting your take on it.