Macross Frontier Character Discussion - Ranka Lee

[forgottendiary]

Originally Posted by stormy001_M1A2

Ranka is a mixed bag for me. She has her good qualities but she is naive beyond belief, jeopardizing everyone.

If she sings Aimo to make aliens and humans do kumbaya around campfire in reconciliation understanding of coexistence/peace in ep 25, I gonna puke big time.

Doing Ranka fans a favour here:

Relax, she's just a young girl in love you know?

[stormy001_M1A2]

I do like Ranka Lee for certain parts of her, just that I feel it is totally anti climatic if she sings Aimo to conclude the war.

For me, Sheryl and Ranka are great heroines but there will be no drama if they don't have flaws, yes?

[monir]

Originally Posted by stormy001_M1A2

If she sings Aimo to make aliens and humans do kumbaya around campfire in reconciliation understanding of coexistence/peace in ep 25, I gonna puke big time.

Lol... Make sure you keep a barf-bag handy. I think that's exactly what will happen. She will play the role of the mediator..... if someone can defeat the lovely Grace.

I can't be too tough on her. The reason I say that is because it's her guilty conscience which has helped her sustain enough trauma to repress her childhood memories where her song attracted a boat-load of Vajraa that are responsible for the death of her parents along with many. The poor girl will be plagued by her memories once again now that she remembers her involvement (directly or indirectly. Grace, the hawty, should tell us in the next episode).

[justinstrife]

Originally Posted by Tak

*Taking a breather from the shipping wars*

You know, when a snafu of epic proportions (such as this one) is committed, one needs to think of the responsibilities as a result of one's poor judgment. Thus, while Ranka's goals may be noble, her execution was by far the most awful and definitely one without careful planning.

In the real world, something like this is usually deemed for capital punishment, and although I do not believe Ranka deserve such outcome, to suggest that she should somehow be happy in the aftermath is not exactly, in my opinion, justified.

At the end, will she be able to redeem her mistakes? That remains to be seen.

- Tak

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

[Paul Hausser]

Originally Posted by justinstrife

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

And unfortunately, die kleine Maid had great intentions - thus her Hell is already a harsh one.

[Elazul]

Well, even if she ends up redeeming herself, and doing something like curing Sheryl, or saving the humanity and all, I doubt that she will regain my sympathy. After watching episode 23 and seeing her being put on the role of a damsel in distress again I totally gave up my hopes for her.

Also, I still can’t understand why people keep creating excuses to lessen her wrong decisions. Everyone is responsible for their own actions, if you do something wrong, you must bear the consequences.

[Von Himmel]

Eventhough she was hypnotized ? Macross is a strange universe, where songs >>>> All. She probably just sing and make everyone idolize her again.

. . .Well, if she somehow managed to be the one who brings peace at the final episode, all of her action might be forgiven. At least for some people and not everyone in the Froniter. And then that's when her friends are going to help her, right ?

[sagitis]

Well I believe a simple damming fact or Ranka is " she decided to face her tragic memory" but she failed to realize what great burden she might be facing (which there a certain hint in her memory telling her something about it). And she forgot the people who did cared about her not in term of a weapon against Vjara,but as a human.

I do not know what kind of drug Grace might have gave it to her, but episode 24 can be concluded that she did not learn, a single lesson when she first met Alto. Well anyway it better to have flawed anime character to creat drama then none.

[kilroy0097]

Originally Posted by sagitis

I do not know what kind of drug Grace might have gave it to her, but episode 24 can be concluded that she did not learn, a single lesson when she first met Alto. Well anyway it better to have flawed anime character to creat drama then none.

She was in a hypnotic dream state for the entire episode 24. At what point did you view Ranka as having free will to think about anything other than the words Grace and Brera were telling her? Also the part of the episode where Alto broke into the fold space imagery and saw what Ranka was seeing, right before Brera chased him out, tells you that she certain was not seeing the same thing as everyone else on the outside.

So there was no learning or realization or anything really in Episode 24. Are you talking about episode 22 or 23?

[glyph]

Originally Posted by Flyvedelta

Eventhough she was hypnotized ? Macross is a strange universe, where songs >>>> All. She probably just sing and make everyone idolize her again.

. . .Well, if she somehow managed to be the one who brings peace at the final episode, all of her action might be forgiven. At least for some people and not everyone in the Froniter. And then that's when her friends are going to help her, right ?

Well, you don't become a hero for solving problems you caused in the first place (even if inadvertently). That's just setting things right.

I suspect she won't be remembered as a overhyped legendary savior like Basara or Minmay, not after that lightshow and all the propaganda of her betraying humanity, but a more controversial figure. The Jane Fonda of the Macross Universe?

[musouka]

As I was skimming through episode three recently, something interesting hit me. The moment when Ranka has her flashback and starts screaming and crying was ten times as emotional as anything in these last few episodes regarding her.

I love watching Ranka in the early episodes. She's incredibly sympathetic; so much attention is placed on the nuances of her gestures and feelings as she struggles with her self confidence issues and burgeoning crush on Alto. Just a nervous glance and you understood exactly what she was thinking.

I miss feeling that way about Ranka, because as it is now, I really don't have a clue what's driving her.

In large part, I think it's the fault of episode 21. She makes monumental decisions in that episode, and we're not privy to any of her thought process. The girl that once broke down at the thought of her brother being killed has no discernible reaction to the destruction of her home and loved ones. Had I gotten a feeling that she blamed herself for the slaughter, or that seeing the ruins of the city which once sparkled so beautifully had made her determined, like Alto, to risk anything and everything to protect it...that would be one thing.

It's like that small scene of Sheryl looking at all the memorial candles after hearing Leon's request. That's all it takes; I don't need to see and hear Sheryl expounding endlessly on the choice she made and why she made it. That sort of care used to be taken with Ranka too, but the only insight we really got on her thought process in that episode was her pain at being used, and her feelings of love towards Alto.

The issue with that is that both of those feelings are fundamentally self centered. That's fine when it's expressed as a character flaw, but the show itself isn't clear on whether we're supposed to laud Ranka for her decisions or if she's still in the stage of growing up.

Not only that, but her attempt with the Vajra in episode 23 was so anti-climatic that it seemed like her journey was merely plot-induced instead of anything that called to her emotionally. The writers can have her say lines about "wanting to stop the fighting", but they won't resonate emotionally unless we get a glimpse of what the fighting has cost her emotionally. We see Sheryl break down in tears and reach out to Alto over the pain of her choice--that serves to draw the viewers in and share in her pathos. It also makes the moments where she is strong even better, because we have a clear idea of what that strength is costing her.

When Ranka says "It was all my fault" in this episode, the emotion is completely gone in comparison to episode three. Even comatose, I want to see a flicker, a tear, a tiny spark deep down that shows she's fighting against this manipulation. That she felt it when Alto blew up right in front of her holographic face. A small sign, that helping kill those desperate people on the Frontier was just as hard for her to witness as it was for Alto.

Instead, she's just a drone. But she's felt like that long before episode 24.

[wolfboy]

Yeah, I don't know what the hell they're doing with her character. This series started off great building up a potentially interesting triangle up to about episode 10 or so. I was waiting for that triangle to develop further and all I got is this retarded lopsided triangle with one really short side. What's the point of having the focus on a love triangle where only one of the pairs would make a good ending?

And now that you got me skimming through early stuff, the difference in quality and cinematography is like night and day.

[Urei]

musouka

I get your point. Ranka was a person who had a lot of burden placed upon her right from the very start. Lack of memory of her earlier life and the painful flash backs of the sealed events. Her life wasn't better in my opinion. We got to see how she acted when Ozma brought her on Frontier. We also saw her character when she was a little girl. There is no point with comparing those two as we can clearly see how traumatic was the event for her. My point is that all of this, even if it was a foggy memory made an everlasting impression on her. Ranka was dependant on Ozma and everything in her world centered around him and the life she led.

As time passed she met a lot of people and regained her memory little by little. She also shifted her attention to other things. Her world cased to be as small as before. Along with it more emotions surfaced and most of those were, as you pointed out, self centered. Be it love for Alto or her will to sing. She developed with her increasing world and shifted from her old way of behaving. The emotional and somewhat unstable child expanded her will and found new things to satisfy her. I'm saying that her development lead from being overwhelmed with emotions to having other things to care about. Most of those were about her.

Not only that, Ozma was her way of letting others decide her own path at first. Ranka found new people who took up that role and acted on their words. I'm positive the initial thought to go in a certain direction comes from her but she never shows any strength to actually move.

In the end she faced the collapse of that world she relied on. As much as I agree with you that she should show more emotions in some parts I somewhat understand why she does not. I see her as Minmay who goes from town to town and witnesses the poverty of people and at the same time still has problems with her own will and motivation. I simply see Ranka as someone who can't afford to shed tears right now because she simply does not have right frame of mind. She's a doll because her own lack of will. She's still a child.

[MaiHikari]

^^ Ranka should still be overflowing with emotions of guilt as that was what's used to control her. But we don't see this guilt shown except for the monotonic "watashi no sei da". And even if she did really believe that the enemy was attacking, I would expect some guilt or sympathy, like what she has shown to the vajra when she was singing against them. We see her as a drone and that was all there was to it. No internal struggle or an even an attempt to break herself free. Once again, Alto need to run to her to save her. I would have like to see at least an attempt to save herself. Real change and development need to come from within. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that will come in ep 25.

And I agree with musouka. Artistic direction for Ranka's character seemed quite inconsistent and I'm even inching to say flawed. It failed to gain some sympathy from the viewers for the internal struggle she should have been going through.

[k'2]

she was inside a shell all the time without any thougt but sadness and the world was like a maze to her...... and she's crybaby till now and her brain is so small and still inexp. ithink she was just living her life until she saw alto ....

but the bad thing about her that she has a shallow personality and she so naghuty (sry for bad english spelling)

[stormy001_M1A2]

Shallow? I don't think so. She has innate kindness and innocence that is wonderful and deeply resonant with good things with humanity. It is for a good reason she is seen as Angel of Hope because she literally brings that for beleaguered 25th Colonial Fleet. If Sheryl is sexy, glamorous girl that appeals to our normal senses, Ranka is deep invoking character hence her recent development is heartbreaking since her naivety led to her being manipulated to large extent. However for her to fully grow into someone that matured and "complete" so to speak, she has to go through painful recollection which unfortunately malignant Grace is there to tap into for her own exploitation.

It is easy to hate Ranka for her childishness but we often forget that innate good comes from childlike vision of reality and dream which has to be guided with maturity to be something sublime. Unfortunately for Ranka, she is in enemy's turf beyond her beloved Alto to save her from clutches of evil manipulation.

That's how I see it.

[justinstrife]

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Even child-like ones.

[stormy001_M1A2]

Amen to that, but still some naive looking, child dreams tampered with matured guidance have produced some of best things in humanity. History has shown that, people like Albert Schweitzer, Martin Luther King and Gandhi is here to remind us that humanity has great capacity for goodness.

The path of goodness is also paved with kind heart which can be seen as childish. Afterall, it takes a heart of child to see the world in less cynical eyes.

[Shadow Kira01]

Ranka Lee surely reminds me of someone...

Spoiler:

For some reason, Ranka Lee's song leading the Vajra invasion on her planet is somewhat the similar to Xenosaga III, where Uzuki Shion was the one who summoned the Gnosis and caused an Gnosis invasion.

[Wesley84]

Maybe, but at least Shion compensated by creating the Greatest-Doll-Ever (not counting the Rozen Maidens).

As for Ranka herself, she ended up wanting to do something, gave up half way through, had to be saved, and repeated the cycle.