[4Tran]

Originally Posted by Death Header

Man what is up with the discussion board here in this thread? It's completely different from Ranka's (I thought I expected more disccusion and not constant praise all round).

Well, you've gotten a lot of response to this comment, but I think that the key difference is that the characters are viewed in very different ways. While Sheryl and Ranka are key characters in the same show, their roles (and their levels of maturity, etc.) are quite different.

Originally Posted by Death Header

But that's the problem. I haven't seen a single discussion about Sheryl's character flaw compared to Ranka's. If Sheryl didn't have a character flaw, I could categorize her as a "mary-sueish" type of character, but hey, the people that are in the Sheryl thread might bash me if I start a discussion about this type of thing (and I'll probably be neg-repped too.)

I don't want to get into what Sheryl qualifies as, but I would like to touch upon this a bit. While I'm familiar with the origin of the term "Mary Sue", I'm not sure why people attach so much importance to it. By itself, a character with either no appreciable flaws or an overabundance of abilities can still be interesting and well-conceived (and perhaps even realistic). While characters with flaws have the potential to be more flavorful, this isn't automatically true. I can see how it's easier to just add up the Mary Sueness of a character, it seems awfully lazy to use it as the prime (or even sole) factor in labelling that character poorly written.

Originally Posted by Yot-chan

Why does everything have to be phrased in terms of Sheryl OR Ranka? I love both of 'em.

I sort of agree, I like them both as well. Though I have to admit that I like Sheryl a lot more than Ranka; just as I liked Misa more than Minmay despite liking them both. Ditto for Gamlin over Basara.

Originally Posted by BetoJR

While discussions and comparisons can be fun, sometimes, I find the levels these have reached in this sub-forum to be way beyond what they should be. Now, even newer posters have it in them to drop in the discussions and complain about whatever, without paying mind to the previous history of the board (not entirely without reason, even if the more recent discussions haven't reached the level of nastiness from the older ones).

Yeah. People really should lighten up a bit - we're just discussing fictional characters here, and not stuff like which fictional mecha will kick the other's butt.

Originally Posted by BetoJR

And I also find it terribly boring that most people cannot discuss one character without mentioning the other. As if Sheryl wasn't awesome enough all by herself...

Exactly. There should be plenty to discuss about a character without constantly bringing up another character. Heck, I could go on and on just writing about all the different ways Sheryl is my favorite anime character of the last few years.