Macross Frontier Character Discussion - Ranka Lee

[Wildstar]

Ranka is the one having the emotions... Ranka has the best access to and understanding of her own emotions... her power seems to be largely based on her emotions... based on her own understanding of her own emotions, she was dead-on correct. Anyone ELSE would have to know through experiment and scientific observation how Ranka's singing works on the Varja, but Ranka has herself to gauge these things by. She was aware that it was the wrong time for her to sing. She was right.

RANKA never said "oh I know what I need, a fold-wave amp"

That was said by Luca. Based on what happened, I'd say Luca is wrong, she definitely should NOT sing using the amp because the Varja's berzerk-ness would dial up to 11.

Ranka never said "ah yes the Fold Wave Amp, I assure you that THAT is what will make it work." ...she was going with her friends to safety, and in shock being dragged at that.


...when Ranka knew it felt wrong to sing, it wasn't about FOR herself or FOR everyone else, it was simply wrong to sing, the end.

[indr0008]

Originally Posted by Wildstar

She was aware that it was the wrong time for her to sing. She was right.

she was surprised that her singing did not work... do i have to put screencap here ?

she did not want to sing because she thought that it would not work........

[Deryns]

Originally Posted by aneeshadc

Most of us are not blaming her for Michaels death, I never did. Her initial selfish refusal is what cinched the disappointment in ranka as an empathetic character for me.

The first refusal was the all time Ranka low for me as well, which is ironic since in the beginning I really didn't care about the triangle but I thought she had as much chance as Sheryl.

[Wildstar]

Originally Posted by indr0008

she was surprised that her singing did not work... do i have to put screencap here ?

she did not want to sing because she thought that it would not work........

Haven't you ever known in your heart something was wrong, acted against your instincts and tried it anyway, and then been surprised at the disastrous results?


For instance, you know in your heart someone is wrong for you, you initially resist or avoid, you fall for them anyway, your heart is eventually broken and you are surprised, yet your initial gut reaction was perfectly accurate. You may even say to yourself after being surprised "Oh I just knew this wouldn't work."

It's complicated being human.

[Wildstar]

Originally Posted by aneeshadc

You're completely missing the point. The flashback abt her fantasy made it clear that the reason she initially refused to sing was because her fantasy of alto was shattered. That was morally wrong. She was ready to sing before that

I don't think I am.

Her fantasy about Alto was shattered. This led to horrible feelings that made her say "I want to die." Very negative. Negative feelings while singing to the Varja lead to a very negative reaction from the Varja. It was wrong to sing under those conditions, she refused to sing. Waddayknow, her intuition was completely dead-on accurate and had she not had been pressured further or had she been more assertive in refusing (slapped Sheryl back! haha), things would have turned out better.

[aneeshadc]

Originally Posted by Wildstar

Haven't you ever known in your heart something was wrong, acted against your instincts and tried it anyway, and then been surprised at the disastrous results?


For instance, you know in your heart someone is wrong for you, you initially resist or avoid, you fall for them anyway, your heart is eventually broken and you are surprised, yet your initial gut reaction was perfectly accurate. You may even say to yourself after being surprised "Oh I just knew this wouldn't work."

It's complicated being human.

You're completely missing the point. The flashback abt her fantasy made it clear that the reason she initially refused to sing was because her fantasy of alto was shattered. That was morally wrong. She was ready to sing before that, she reaches her hand out to alto to sing before her flashback.

The tool thing was smthing she additionally said after she started crying, it felt like she was grasping for straws in the midst of her panic & despair, grabbing on to her earlier doubts that had probably been at the back of her mind as an excuse to justify her not wanting to sing.

Yes it is human to feel all that u mentioned above, but when we face such situations, there arent people dying or in danger of dying in our close vicinity! Or are u saying it is alright for us to put our own pain above those of others lives.

[Wildstar]

oh geez lol I can quote you before you speak!

[aneeshadc]

ya, ur fast, so fast that I'm wondering if ur taking the time to actually register what i'm saying.

[Wildstar]

Originally Posted by aneeshadc

Yes it is human to feel all that u mentioned above, but when we face such situations, there arent people dying or in danger of dying in our close vicinity!

The German soldiers in WW2 are another good example. They wanted Germany to be strong again and to be able to throw off the extremely unfair terms of the Versailles treaty... they wanted to keep their country safe and regain what it had lost. Their intentions were in some ways very good... they even had a doctrine of not getting involved in politics.

In their guts, maybe Hitler gave them that wrong feeling, but clearly things were going great, they'd reoccupied the Rhineland, etc etc, things were looking good... later down the line, when things were bad, they were completely shocked at horrible decisions Hitler was making .(Stalingrad etc) By then it was too late. Only then did they see that the military should have stepped in and stopped Hitler back when he was just part of a brownshirt militia.

There you go, tens of millions of people dying, emotional decisions very close to the heart, same human drama.

Originally Posted by aneeshadc

Or are u saying it is alright for us to put our own pain above those of others lives.

[a decision to overcome] Pain wasn't the the determining factor in Ranka singing. Her emotions are what affect the Varja during her singing. When Ranka is in a negative emotional state, it is VERY BAD for her to sing. It makes them react negatively, so she shouldn't sing. When Ranka says she doesn't FEEL like singing, you had better GET WITH THE PROGRAM, unless you like having your city blown up around you, watching your friends get eviscerated, etc etc...

[Wildstar]

Originally Posted by aneeshadc

ya, ur fast, so fast that I'm wondering if ur taking the time to actually register what i'm saying.

sorry, I will use less spice from now on.

[Wildstar]

I think I'm just not going about this the right way... let me try using a thought experiment.


SCENARIO #1
I'm totally depressed and despondent. The love of my life betrayed and dumped me in the most heartbreaking way imaginable. I'm totally crushed. I'm sitting here in this room with my gun, feeling despondent. There's a guy on the other side of the room who is about to push a button that will set off an atomic bomb and blow up a city somewhere... the only way I can stop him in time is to shoot him with the gun, which, what with me being a pretty good shot, and the guy being close enough, is doable.

It would be selfish of me to wallow in my sadness and let him do it. I should overcome my emotions long enough for something more important and blow the guy away... THEN go back to moping


SCENARIO #2

Same as above except I have no gun. In fact, the guy by the button has a magic forcefield that will protect him from all physical attempts to stop him. However, if I can feel better, he will keel over dead and disaster will be averted because that's his one great magical weakness... so how do I DECIDE to overcome my pain and feel better? Am I selfish if I can't manage to feel awesome in the next 5 minutes?

(and to extend the analogy, what if, if I fake feeling better in hopes of stopping him, the atomic blast becomes 10 times more powerful? What if someone pressures me to keep a stiff upper lip, put on a brave face and so on? What should I do then?)

Originally Posted by kilroy0097

I don't know how a normal person changes their emotion from sad to happy in a split second regardless of the reason. Are you bipolar or something? Is this some kind of special human ability that I'm not aware of? Ranka's song would never have worked regardless of how hard she tried unless she has this mysterious power of changing emotions immediately upon command. If you have this power then please demonstrate it to the millions of people suffering from depression in the world and the thousands of others that want to commit suicide. I'm sure they would all love to know how to be happy immediately.

[Eidolon Sniper]

Originally Posted by Teletha

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just dying. No big deal. FFS. You can't be serious with this shit. What the hell are Ranka's "heavy burdens"? A past she doesn't remember? Her singing? She doesn't even seem to acknowledge her own power. There is no more heavy a burden for a human then knowing you are dying. All you are saying Ranka knows nothing about. Theoretically Ranka could have it tough, but as shown so far she just does not.

Ranka is weak and pathetic because she acts weak and pathetic. Not because she doesn't act like Sheryl.

I think you must have misunderstood me here. Sheryl didn't have to contend with doing anything wrong to the entire Macross Frontier fleet because of her past. Ranka is just starting to realize what her past could do to her friends, that she could kill them. Sheryl actually has a lot of things going good for her than Ranka because she's such a strong person she's made out to be from the get go. Seriously, you have amnesia, and then when you gain your memories, you find out that you're some kind of super weapon developed and harnessed to get those nightmares of your childhood to kill everyone around you. oh wow, that doesn't seem so bad now isn't it? I'd rather die than get the entire universe killed for what I am. If it means I am to harm innocent people, thousands or millions or billions of them, then I would rather die. It's more of a moral problem that you become a murderer because of your past or whatever you are that is deemed dangerous to the entire human race, a past you can't recall and when you did you probably can't stop it or something. When you get killed off for being so, you get burdened with killing all those innocent people for what you are, and that's somehow worse. Probably dying isn't enough for you to be absolved of all your sins.

I am not saying dying is not as bad as that. It IS bad, but at least Sheryl is not going to be part of the bigger problem in the survival of Frontier. Ranka is; she's threatening the survival of the entire human race or even that of the universe or whatever Kawamori wants her to end up as in. Sheryl is trying to make herself useful until she draws her last breath; she's not burdened with the thought that with whatever she's planning to do with her life now, she can harm Frontier, she can kill anyone. Ranka? If she knew what she was for entirely, probably she'll snap and get all her thoughts in a muddle and probably become the bad Vajra Queen we've all been waiting for.

[aneeshadc]

Originally Posted by Wildstar

I think I'm just not going about this the right way... let me try using a thought experiment.


SCENARIO #1
I'm totally depressed and despondent. The love of my life betrayed and dumped me in the most heartbreaking way imaginable. I'm totally crushed. I'm sitting here in this room with my gun, feeling despondent. There's a guy on the other side of the room who is about to push a button that will set off an atomic bomb and blow up a city somewhere... the only way I can stop him in time is to shoot him with the gun, which, what with me being a pretty good shot, and the guy being close enough, is doable.

It would be selfish of me to wallow in my sadness and let him do it. I should overcome my emotions long enough for something more important and blow the guy away... THEN go back to moping


SCENARIO #2

Same as above except I have no gun. In fact, the guy by the button has a magic forcefield that will protect him from all physical attempts to stop him. However, if I can feel better, he will keel over dead and disaster will be averted because that's his one great magical weakness... so how do I DECIDE to overcome my pain and feel better? Am I selfish if I can't manage to feel awesome in the next 5 minutes?

(and to extend the analogy, what if, if I fake feeling better in hopes of stopping him, the atomic blast becomes 10 times more powerful? What if someone pressures me to keep a stiff upper lip, put on a brave face and so on? What should I do then?)

Okay, u r really missing the point nw, like I said, i dont blame ranka for the vajra's reaction or for the fact that she wasnt able to sing without feeling pain at all whatsoever. What I dont agree with is the fact that she didnt even want to try to save people's lives when she knew her singing affects the vajra's.

Let me see if I can make u understand by using ur thought experiment but with different scenarios because frankly, ur scenarios suck & hav no great bearing in the given context that we are discussing. I'm going to pick scenarios which have a closer bearing to the situation we are discussing.

SCENARIO #1

Girl is heartbroken & going through unbearable emotional pain because the LOVE of her life betrayed & dumped her. She is crying her heart out in the corner of a street. She witnesses an assassin gutting someone with a knife & running away. She immediately put aside her pain, rushes to the person, calls the ambulence as well as the police, trying to tend to the injured person & doing evrything that is in her power.

SCENARIO # 2

Same situation, but instead of doing something, She runs away scared & continues to wallow in her self-pity.


Now, while Ranka' situation is different from scenario # 2 ( because I cannot see ranka being that cowardly & heartless to just leave an injured person to die) at that moment what she should have done was put aside her personal pain & not refused to try to sing because at that moment that was the only thing she could do to try & diffuse the situation. Again I am not asking her stop feeling pain, What I wanted her to do was what she did after she got slapped. TRY

[aneeshadc]

Originally Posted by Eidolon Sniper

I think you must have misunderstood me here. Sheryl didn't have to contend with doing anything wrong to the entire Macross Frontier fleet because of her past. Ranka is just starting to realize what her past could do to her friends, that she could kill them.

Yes, but neither did Ranka when she initially refused to sing for Frontier when Alto asks her too. The justification that u r providing would come after Ranka begins to realize the full implication of her powers which she hasnt yet. She herself doesnt understand y the vajra became more violent after she started singing.

Sheryl actually has a lot of things going good for her than Ranka because she's such a strong person she's made out to be from the get go.

Like what? Being strong doesnt mean, Sheryl's problems are less of a burden than Ranka's are.

Seriously, you have amnesia, and then when you gain your memories, you find out that you're some kind of super weapon developed and harnessed to get those nightmares of your childhood to kill everyone around you. oh wow, that doesn't seem so bad now isn't it?

It does sound very bad but Ranka hasnt gained her memories yet, She's only had a few flashbacks which havent revealed any of her gruesome past to her yet. So u should save ur justification for a later time when she actually begins to remember these terrible facts.

Besides, ranka isnt the only one dealing with remembering fragments of her past, Sheryl is too. While canaria clearly stated that ranka has dissociative amnesia, we still dont know y Sheryl's memory is fishy too. She too has vague memories, but unlike ranka, sheryl seems to have remembered some of her worst memories.

I'd rather die than get the entire universe killed for what I am. If it means I am to harm innocent people, thousands or millions or billions of them, then I would rather die. It's more of a moral problem that you become a murderer because of your past or whatever you are that is deemed dangerous to the entire human race, a past you can't recall and when you did you probably can't stop it or something. When you get killed off for being so, you get burdened with killing all those innocent people for what you are, and that's somehow worse. Probably dying isn't enough for you to be absolved of all your sins.

I agree. You have valid points, but they do not justify ranka's actions in ep 20 because she is still ignorant of all these scary revelations. I am sure we will be shown how she deals with these things later on & I believe that after her experience in ep 20, she will be able to deal with her revelations maturely & comendably redeem herself.

I am not saying dying is not as bad as that. It IS bad, but at least Sheryl is not going to be part of the bigger problem in the survival of Frontier. Ranka is; she's threatening the survival of the entire human race or even that of the universe or whatever Kawamori wants her to end up as in. Sheryl is trying to make herself useful until she draws her last breath; she's not burdened with the thought that with whatever she's planning to do with her life now, she can harm Frontier, she can kill anyone. Ranka? If she knew what she was for entirely, probably she'll snap and get all her thoughts in a muddle and probably become the bad Vajra Queen we've all been waiting for.

True, But While Both Ranka & Sheryl are burdened with difficult problems, so far, I do believe that as of now, It is Sheryl Who has been suffering the most. I repeat at this point in the anime that is what I believe. I am not saying ranka has had it easy, but she has had it easier than Sheryl. That of course will probably change once she regains her memory, but u have to keep in mind that much of Sheryl's past is also still shrouded in mystery. So we dont know anything for sure.

Bad Vajra Queen= ranka, hopefully not , I like her, Do not want her to go evil on us (Though it does sound interesting)
I honestly cannot picture her that way, I was watching the 1st few ep again, & she's so cute & charmingly sweet in them. She really is very much like a child when compared to alto & sheryl & the past few ep have done nothing but reinforce that fact for me.

[Joachim]

Originally Posted by aneeshadc

Bad Vajra Queen= ranka, hopefully not , I like her, Do not want her to go evil on us (Though it does sound interesting)
I honestly cannot picture her that way, I was watching the 1st few ep again, & she's so cute & charmingly sweet in them. She really is very much like a child when compared to alto & sheryl & the past few ep have done nothing but reinforce that fact for me.

i forgot who said this but someone did say.. the most evil villain is actually the most innocent, and cute looking ones

and actually.. fear the loli

[kilroy0097]

Here comes a possible fire bomb. *dons fire suit*

What was Ranka's frame of mind when she sang to quell the Vajra before in the series?

The first example of this, Sheryl asks Ranka (implies) to sing with her. Together they save Alto in the mouth of that Vajra cruiser. This first time she probably wasn't aware she did anything because she didn't know about the situation or the results of it.

I can't remember if there is an example between the first and second times I referring to here in this thread.

The second example she is sent out on a test run to see if her song does anything in a controlled environment. She succeeds in this though it's not entirely clear what her emotional state is. She seems to want to do it to help the people of Frontier but I'm sure she is also doing it to partial because of Alto.

Then we have the scene when she asks Alto if it's right for her to use the song as a weapon. Alto says it's ok so that alleviates her initial concern for it because now she is singing for Alto and not so much the people of Frontier.

The third use she goes out there on her own because she knows that the fleet is having issues with the Vajra (weapons not effective). She does that probably because she wants to save Alto. That is when she first feels the major pain in her chest when all the Vajra are killed in that mega Frontier beam weapon blast. I do believe after feeling that pain she probably has reinforced doubts on singing again as a weapon. She just doesn't tell anyone about it.

The fourth attempt is in episode 20. She figures out finally that her entire reason for singing, at this time, is for Alto and convinces herself that she is going to tell Alto her feelings for him. So the reason for her to sing is Alto. Her hopes are pinned on Alto loving her. Then in her mind at the hanger on top of the building her reason for singing dies. Her hope of Alto loving her dashed. She has convinced herself that her ONLY reason for singing is Alto. Please try and understand that. She herself BELIEVES that Alto is her ONLY reason for singing. Hence without Alto she CAN'T sing.

So when Alto asks and begs her to sing to save the people, instead of telling Alto that she can't sing because Alto broke her heart, she says she can't sing because she doesn't want to be a weapon, which is a secondary reason. She probably does that because she doesn't have the courage to tell Alto the truth and never has. So now she has two reasons why she can't sing. One because her power to sing comes from Alto's love for her (which is in her head) and the second one is because she doesn't want to go through the pain of singing as a weapon again because the last time she did that it hurt physically.

Sheryl slaps her and brings her back to reality and says she understands that Ranka sings from her heart, implying that Ranka sings for the love she thought she had from Alto or feels for Alto. However then Sheryl says that Ranka is a professional and needs to sing regardless of what her heart tells her. She needs to try. Because Sheryl asks her this and because Ranka respects Sheryl as a singer she listens to her and reluctantly says, ok. That's when she tried to sing.

There is a missing ingredient in the mix. Without the ingredient she doesn't think she can sing. Sheryl says try and sing anyways. She does and it horribly backfires. Does she know why it doesn't work? Probably not. I really don't think has any clue of why it backfires. All she knows is that she didn't want to sing, Sheryl convinced her to sing and she tried and it failed. Luca makes the issue a tangent issue thinking that it must be because of a lack of power. So he suggests using the Sound Amplifiers to make it work this time. No one knows, except for Grace, why her song didn't work. Grace is the only one to discover the negative emotional state of -7.3. Everyone else is left in the dark at this time. Now she sees Micheal die. I wonder what her emotional state is now. Will it finally work? Will she suddenly gain her composure? I really don't know.

Bottom line after my long post. Ranka's source for singing is gone. Ranka believes her ability to sing is gone. It takes Sheryl to convince her to try to sing. Singing backfires and Ranka probably now thinks that her power is fracked. All in all I think all the negative scorn against her for not succeeding or trying in that extended scene is bias and based upon the emotional state of the viewers and not what is actually going on with the characters.

Do I think Ranka is wrong to pin all her hopes and dreams of singing on the love of a single person? Yes, it's a poor reason to continue a singing career. Do I think she is a naive and immature not to mention prepubescent looking 16 year old? Absolutely. Do I think she acted inappropriately in the scene knowing what the viewers know about her? No, I think she acted exactly the way her character should have acted. The director was correct in this scene.

Edit add: BTW Do I really need to keep pointing out that Ranka is an unstable character who has periods of mental instability? Why is it hard to believe that such a character would have issues under severe emotional stress like this one?

For some examples of the episode and actual script go here.

[Teletha]

Bottom line after my long post. Ranka's source for singing is gone. Ranka believes her ability to sing is gone. It takes Sheryl to convince her to try to sing. Singing backfires and Ranka probably now thinks that her power is fracked. All in all I think all the negative scorn against her for not succeeding or trying in that extended scene is bias and based upon the emotional state of the viewers and not what is actually going on with the characters.

Do I think Ranka is wrong to pin all her hopes and dreams of singing on the love of a single person? Yes, it's a poor reason to continue a singing career. Do I think she is a naive and immature not to mention prepubescent looking 16 year old? Absolutely. Do I think she acted inappropriately in the scene knowing what the viewers know about her? No, I think she acted exactly the way her character should have acted. The director was correct in this scene.

Nobody said the director wasn't right. Just because that is how she acts doesn't mean she's excused for acting like that. It's expected by now for Ranka to rely too much on Alto, we see it's not a good thing for her to do. My problems with her go a lot further back then just this one episode. It's her whole being and character progression and that is just how Ranka is. That is the problem here. The scorn I feel is from the scene and the scenes leading up to her break down there.

Again you do a lot of assuming and analysis and try to act as if you are right and everyone else is biased and seeing it wrong. While you are rationally explaining why she's doing it, that doesn't change what people feel about what happened.

[indr0008]

yup2, that is ranka, i know that, she behaves exactly like her character depicts her, and that is why i hate her, as simple as that

[aneeshadc]

Originally Posted by kilroy0097

Here comes a possible fire bomb. *dons fire suit*

What was Ranka's frame of mind when she sang to quell the Vajra before in the series?

The first example of this, Sheryl asks Ranka (implies) to sing with her. Together they save Alto in the mouth of that Vajra cruiser. This first time she probably wasn't aware she did anything because she didn't know about the situation or the results of it.

I can't remember if there is an example between the first and second times I referring to here in this thread.

The second example she is sent out on a test run to see if her song does anything in a controlled environment. She succeeds in this though it's not entirely clear what her emotional state is. She seems to want to do it to help the people of Frontier but I'm sure she is also doing it to partial because of Alto.

Then we have the scene when she asks Alto if it's right for her to use the song as a weapon. Alto says it's ok so that alleviates her initial concern for it because now she is singing for Alto and not so much the people of Frontier.

The third use she goes out there on her own because she knows that the fleet is having issues with the Vajra (weapons not effective). She does that probably because she wants to save Alto. That is when she first feels the major pain in her chest when all the Vajra are killed in that mega Frontier beam weapon blast. I do believe after feeling that pain she probably has reinforced doubts on singing again as a weapon. She just doesn't tell anyone about it.

The fourth attempt is in episode 20. She figures out finally that her entire reason for singing, at this time, is for Alto and convinces herself that she is going to tell Alto her feelings for him. So the reason for her to sing is Alto. Her hopes are pinned on Alto loving her. Then in her mind at the hanger on top of the building her reason for singing dies. Her hope of Alto loving her dashed. She has convinced herself that her ONLY reason for singing is Alto. Please try and understand that. She herself BELIEVES that Alto is her ONLY reason for singing. Hence without Alto she CAN'T sing.

So when Alto asks and begs her to sing to save the people, instead of telling Alto that she can't sing because Alto broke her heart, she says she can't sing because she doesn't want to be a weapon, which is a secondary reason. She probably does that because she doesn't have the courage to tell Alto the truth and never has. So now she has two reasons why she can't sing. One because her power to sing comes from Alto's love for her (which is in her head) and the second one is because she doesn't want to go through the pain of singing as a weapon again because the last time she did that it hurt physically.

Sheryl slaps her and brings her back to reality and says she understands that Ranka sings from her heart, implying that Ranka sings for the love she thought she had from Alto or feels for Alto. However then Sheryl says that Ranka is a professional and needs to sing regardless of what her heart tells her. She needs to try. Because Sheryl asks her this and because Ranka respects Sheryl as a singer she listens to her and reluctantly says, ok. That's when she tried to sing.

There is a missing ingredient in the mix. Without the ingredient she doesn't think she can sing. Sheryl says try and sing anyways. She does and it horribly backfires. Does she know why it doesn't work? Probably not. I really don't think has any clue of why it backfires. All she knows is that she didn't want to sing, Sheryl convinced her to sing and she tried and it failed. Luca makes the issue a tangent issue thinking that it must be because of a lack of power. So he suggests using the Sound Amplifiers to make it work this time. No one knows, except for Grace, why her song didn't work. Grace is the only one to discover the negative emotional state of -7.3. Everyone else is left in the dark at this time. Now she sees Micheal die. I wonder what her emotional state is now. Will it finally work? Will she suddenly gain her composure? I really don't know.

Bottom line after my long post. Ranka's source for singing is gone. Ranka believes her ability to sing is gone. It takes Sheryl to convince her to try to sing. Singing backfires and Ranka probably now thinks that her power is fracked. All in all I think all the negative scorn against her for not succeeding or trying in that extended scene is bias and based upon the emotional state of the viewers and not what is actually going on with the characters.

Do I think Ranka is wrong to pin all her hopes and dreams of singing on the love of a single person? Yes, it's a poor reason to continue a singing career. Do I think she is a naive and immature not to mention prepubescent looking 16 year old? Absolutely. Do I think she acted inappropriately in the scene knowing what the viewers know about her? No, I think she acted exactly the way her character should have acted. The director was correct in this scene.

Edit add: BTW Do I really need to keep pointing out that Ranka is an unstable character who has periods of mental instability? Why is it hard to believe that such a character would have issues under severe emotional stress like this one?

For some examples of the episode and actual script go here.

I completely agree with you BUT WHILE YOUR POST EXPLAINS HER ACTIONS THEY DO NOT EXCUSE HER INITIAL REFUSAL TO SING !

No matter hw u look at it, that refusal to sing for the sake of the dying people was still selfish & self absorbed. Everything else explains & excuses her beaviour but that initial refusal where all she could think about was her own pain when everyone around her was going to die & she knew she could do something to prevent it. Even if she felt singing as a tool was wrong, she knew that at that moment singing was the only thing she could to save people's lives.

Alto may be the missing ingredient, but who made him a mandatory ingredient, it was ranka herself. Loving someone isnt about expecting him to love u in return, that is a selfish love. When she feels he doesnt love her, she cant sing ,even for him just because she believes he doesnt love her, so an alto who doesnt love her isnt worth saving? Is that hw much her love is worth?

I am sure she didnt have time to think this through, but that is clearly the impression she gave when she stated that she couldnt sing anymore. Ignoring that, there were people in pain outside who needed her singing & she couldnt deliver until sheryl slapped some sense into her. The point isnt that her singing later made things worse, The point is that she selfishly put her own personal pain above everyone's lives at a very crucial time even if it was only for a few minutes.

Oh & this is coming from someone who actually likes her & is disappointed in her atm. Not to say I am not biased( unlike u I admit it), I could be, cos Sheryl is my fav character but just to let u know liking her & excusing her behaviour just because is something I dont do, not even for Sheryl.

[Wildstar]

Dudes, get this through your skulls... Ranka felt wrong about singing. She knew it felt wrong.

Turns out, her feelings going negative or positive determine whether the song is beneficial or harmful.

Ranka has an internal spedometer and we need to measure the speed, she is able to say "80mph" and a lot of people here seem to be still obsessing over the color of the paint job on the car.

She felt wrong about singing, feeling wrong would make a negative reaction... she had all the information necessary to make a decision and she initially made the correct one. Only Grace, who was able to measure Ranka's internal state, had close to the same quality of information as Ranka. I mean, what will make you happy, if Ranka QUANTIFIES it? "I feel wrong -7.3" ???


...anyway, considering the way the singing works, there was no way Ranka could be the good guy in Episode 20. She could stick to her guns and not sing - the outcome would have been much less disasterous, but everyone here and in the show would be disgusted by her "selfishness" even as she did the right thing. ...or she can sing and be "responsible" for how bad things got.... she actually got the worst of both worlds by initially refusing and then going ahead.