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#i don't care what anybody says she was the best pla character
epickiya722 · 2 months
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Okay, I ranted about it in my tags of another post, but I'll say it here. And I know some of you ain't gonna like it.
The amount of hate Mei Mei gets is an example of how people can't actually handle complex and/or evil female characters.
Now before anyone says anything, I'm not saying you should like Mei Mei or you shouldn't hate her. Just really think about what I'm about to say next.
Do you hate Mei Mei because of her character (how she treats people, her personality, etc,)? Or do you hate her because she's a woman?
If it's the former, think about this and see if your answer changes.
Think about all the male characters you like that are complex and/or evil and why you like them. Did your answer change? In fact, do you like a male character worse than Mei Mei?
Now, here's the thing.
It's really odd to me that people will be like "we need more complex female characters" and yet when we get those female characters, the fandom acts like they shouldn't exist.
"Oh, she's a bitch."
"She should die."
"She deserves all the pain and suffering."
And yet, male characters who are just as bad or worse easily can get people glazing the hell out of them and dropping panties. Where is that same hating ass energy? Don't you want the male character to die, too?
That's an issue. Do you see the issue?
Still using Mei Mei as an example.
I doubt, I do, that Gege intends for people to like Mei Mei. Quite the opposite. The way her scenes are written and drawn makes me feel like the mangaka wants us to feel intimidated by her in a bad way. We're supposed to feel uncomfortable by her relationship with Ui Ui. We should feel some hate towards her.
However, not because she's a woman. It's because of her character. She's not written to be a good person.
This is going to sound awkward, but if you hate Mei Mei because she makes you uncomfortable gender be damned, then you're hating her right.
You hate her now just as you would if she was a man.
I'll use Sukuna for example for comparison. He does has his fans (as does Mei Mei), but he does have his haters.
However, it's not because he's a man. People don't hate him because he's a man.
It's because he's downright damn evil. He murders, he tortures, he uses and abuses, he doesn't care who you are he'll cut you down. The only person we know Sukuna actually never wants to kill and never shown any sort of annoyance to is Uraume. People say Gege is glazing Sukuna and are mad because it seems he keeps winning, but has no one stop to think THAT'S THE POINT?!
You're supposed to be frustrated that Sukuna is still around. Gege keeps throwing Sukuna in our faces to make the audience mad. Not to troll. It's how stories work. You should feel different emotions. Especially with bad people like Sukuna.
If Gege wanted us to sympathize with Sukuna, Sukuna would have been gotten his sad backstory. But no, when there was a chance for that (fight with Hajime), we get a line of Sukuna saying he was unwanted or whatever and him just brushing it off. That right there is a sign of an explicitly evil, unsympathetic villain. (We might get a sad backstory later, you knows, but I kinda doubt it.)
Now apply all that I just said about Sukuna to Mei Mei and rethink over this.
Do you hate Mei Mei because she's a woman or because she's a bad person?
To end, can you actually handle complex female characters? Can you hate a female character who is evil or ambiguously evil and/or complex because that's how the author may intended (or she just isn't your kind of character) and not because she's female?
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