OSR meta.
One of the biggest things that bothers me about my fandom? The insistence by so many fans that Eva Wei is simply her mother writ small. Well, they don't exactly put it like that. But there's an overwhelming trend among some of the younger fans towards drawing older!Eva as essentially a recolored version of Maya, not to mention the ones who write her as such... and that bothers me more than it should.
Oban Star-Racers is not a series about history repeating itself, or about how your family determines who you are. It is not a series where characters' paths are predetermined despite what the villain would tell you. It is, simply put, a series about growing up, about figuring out who you are. The whole saving the galaxy thing? A really really nice backdrop for a gorgeous, gutwrenching human drama. So why on Earth do people act as though Eva is basically doomed to become her mother?
Maya Wei is something of a sex symbol. (I'd personally rate her as being just shy of Jessica Rabbit-level sex appeal... and the reason for "just shy" is the noseless art style she's drawn in.) Physically, she's everything her daughter isn't - tall, with long pink hair (shades of Utena? who knows? we know Thomas Romain has a thing for pink hair, certainly), and a downright spectacular bosom. In terms of personality, while there are similarities, she's still quite different. Maya was calm where Eva is quick to fly off the handle; she laughed off a loss where her daughter would have taken it personally and sulked.
She's also dead by the time the events of the series take place, and therefore seen only in flashbacks skewed by the memories of a man and girl who loved her. It's very probable that while we have an accurate physical depiction, we don't have a full picture of who Maya actually was. The plot never called for Don to remember any arguments early on in their marriage, or what she was like outside of racing and romance; she died when Eva was five.
I know growing up changes people, but to assume that short, skinny, hotheaded Molly could transform into the woman she's spent her entire life looking up to, the Maya Wei of her memories, is laughable. She's a likable protagonist because she isn't her mother, despite similarities in piloting styles. The story follows her journey out of her mother's shadow; we get to see her grow as a person. So why do people ignore that growth?
My gut feeling sounds like something the Girl-Wonder crowd would love, written out. The present generation of kids, the target audience for this series I so love, just plain isn't used to a female character who isn't traditionally feminine. So the target audience, confused in spite of themselves by a heroine who actually acts like a real fifteen-year-old girl with an interest in racing, tries to shape Eva into what they're used to. In doing so, they draw from the series' feminine ideal, Maya... and we have Eva, who hasn't worn a dress since she was five years old, in a recolored version of her mother's costume and acting like her memories of her.
I'd really rather not think about what kind of society creates kids who see a girl wearing a miniskirt at the end of her story and decide to throw 26 episodes of characterization away because obviously that means she's become more feminine and will start to dress (and in the cases of the fics I've seen go towards this, act) just like her mother.
TEAL DEER: Eva Wei isn't a fucking race queen imitating Maya Wei's style, OSR fandom, please stop drawing her like one.
Oban Star-Racers is not a series about history repeating itself, or about how your family determines who you are. It is not a series where characters' paths are predetermined despite what the villain would tell you. It is, simply put, a series about growing up, about figuring out who you are. The whole saving the galaxy thing? A really really nice backdrop for a gorgeous, gutwrenching human drama. So why on Earth do people act as though Eva is basically doomed to become her mother?
Maya Wei is something of a sex symbol. (I'd personally rate her as being just shy of Jessica Rabbit-level sex appeal... and the reason for "just shy" is the noseless art style she's drawn in.) Physically, she's everything her daughter isn't - tall, with long pink hair (shades of Utena? who knows? we know Thomas Romain has a thing for pink hair, certainly), and a downright spectacular bosom. In terms of personality, while there are similarities, she's still quite different. Maya was calm where Eva is quick to fly off the handle; she laughed off a loss where her daughter would have taken it personally and sulked.
She's also dead by the time the events of the series take place, and therefore seen only in flashbacks skewed by the memories of a man and girl who loved her. It's very probable that while we have an accurate physical depiction, we don't have a full picture of who Maya actually was. The plot never called for Don to remember any arguments early on in their marriage, or what she was like outside of racing and romance; she died when Eva was five.
I know growing up changes people, but to assume that short, skinny, hotheaded Molly could transform into the woman she's spent her entire life looking up to, the Maya Wei of her memories, is laughable. She's a likable protagonist because she isn't her mother, despite similarities in piloting styles. The story follows her journey out of her mother's shadow; we get to see her grow as a person. So why do people ignore that growth?
My gut feeling sounds like something the Girl-Wonder crowd would love, written out. The present generation of kids, the target audience for this series I so love, just plain isn't used to a female character who isn't traditionally feminine. So the target audience, confused in spite of themselves by a heroine who actually acts like a real fifteen-year-old girl with an interest in racing, tries to shape Eva into what they're used to. In doing so, they draw from the series' feminine ideal, Maya... and we have Eva, who hasn't worn a dress since she was five years old, in a recolored version of her mother's costume and acting like her memories of her.
I'd really rather not think about what kind of society creates kids who see a girl wearing a miniskirt at the end of her story and decide to throw 26 episodes of characterization away because obviously that means she's become more feminine and will start to dress (and in the cases of the fics I've seen go towards this, act) just like her mother.
TEAL DEER: Eva Wei isn't a fucking race queen imitating Maya Wei's style, OSR fandom, please stop drawing her like one.