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Originally Posted by Kaijo
Cana has spent years focusing on Gildarts, wanting to prove to herself that she is his daughter. Wanting to show him that she is his daughter. A child wanting a father's approval is a trope as old as time. that thinking consumed her, until all she could see was that, in order to live up to how great he was, she had to become S class like him.
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Wanting to live up to daddy is no excuse to what she did. Cana bailed on the rest of the guild in their time of need for her own selfish reasons, however had it been only that I would be ok with it. It was a huge lapse of judgment but somewhat excusable (not really but lets just say it was). However! It wasn't just that, she saw how strong just 1 of the 7 kins was, yet she not only had Gray split up from the group so he wouldn't find the oh so glorious location of the grave, and knocked Lucy unconscious, leaving her alone, in an unknown place knowing full well there were highly dangerous enemies running around.
All of it put together goes beyond what is expectable and in my opinion forgivable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaijo
I don't like perfect characters too much, so introducing this flaw into her character makes her more human, to me. And in the end, she still realized what she had done, and that her pursuit of her goal had blinded her to what was really important. that scene with her crying, and refocusing her goal, touched me far more than if she had never put Lucy to sleep and played the good little fairy tail mage.
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The thing is, Cana was not a perfect character to begin with. Not only that but there were plenty of ways of introducing "flaws" to her character that didn't involve her literally betraying her comrades for a selfish goal. Lucy could have been killed due to her delusion and lack of rational thought.
So far we've seen that every FT member (without brining the whole Luxus thing up) thinks of the guild first and then of themselves. Cana on the other hand proved that she doesn't think of the guild first, she has little regard for the guild compared to her own selfish desires. The fact that she had to be reminded of her mistake just proves that she sub-consciously doesn't care about the guild, basically her family, as much as she should.
The scene with her crying had the opposite effect on me, you cried, but I nearly punched the screen reading it, especially because I knew that Mashima would have FT forgive her as quickly as I can snap my fingers. She received no punishment whatsoever, in fact Mavis even gave her Fairy Glitter so she could shine a bit more, cause she is certainly the FT member that most deserves it...right? >_>
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaijo
Regardless of what you think of her, this course of action put her more firmly in the spotlight than if she was just relegated to the background as a normal mage.
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Like I said, there were plenty of ways that her story could have been played out, Mashima even kept key points a secret for so long that anything could happen by the point of her betrayal. Cana could have done many things and still receive as much, if not more character development and time under the spotlight, but Mashima went with the betrayal route. Lets not forget that FT is all about the cliche friendship and family love, yet Cana showed none of that until SHE WAS REMINDED OF HER ACTIONS. That shows that, like I said before, she isn't just flawed, she is weak and broken.
Actually, even if the story progressed the same way, all it needed was one little thing...say for example, instead of knocking Lucy out she sent her with Gray while she looked for grave. Yes, it was still horrible that she left the guild alone while they were being attacked for her own selfishness, but still it would be obvious that in the midst of all that, she had to worry of sending Lucy with Gray who could keep her safe better than leaving her laying on the side of the road with little cover...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaijo
What about Wendy? Did all the good things, still got her ass kicked, and hasn't done much since. Would you really want Cana to be like Wendy?
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Wendy is much younger and much weaker than Cana, hell she isn't even a fighter to begin with. Wendy is the White Mage of FT, she's there to stay back and do that healing while the others fight. Healer characters are naturally placed in the background, especially during heated moments in the arcs because their abilities, while super useful, are in no way the most exciting compared to the huge blasts from the fighters.
Also, she has done much, much more than Cana in the previous arcs, and even in this one considering that she isn't a fighter. If you compare Wendy's achievements and character development with the main characters (Natsu, Lucy, even Gray and Erza) then of course she comes short, any other character would, but when compared to any other character she has actually evolved quite a bit and has done a lot more than most.
Let's not forget that while Wendy is a new addition to the guild and also a DS, the main characters are still Natsu and Lucy with Gray and Erza following close behind. Wendy was not introduced to be a main character much like Gajeel, she was introduced to be the new DS addition to FT and possibly for main plot development later on.
I'm all for flaws and flawed characters, but this time it went completely overboard. Especially considering there are is no punishment for Cana, hell she was even rewarded...