A long boring character study of Meryl.
Hello, I'm new to the community, but I'm going to spare the rambling introduction and speak on a subject dear to my heart: Trigun.
More specifically, Meryl.
There seem to be two different major perceptions of Meryl in the Trigun fandom, and neither of them are all that positive. It tends to range from "She's a bitch" to "She's a whiny spineless damsel who acts like she's on top but isn't". Cutting straight to the chase, a lot of this stems from All-Female-Characters-Are-Annoying-itis, since Meryl is relatively harmless and while she is emotionally attached to Vash, there is no indication that anything will happen between them.
Now, for those of you unfamiliar with Trigun (although I doubt you'll be reading this too avidly), Meryl is an uptight office lady who doesn't take any guff and is VERY stubborn. She also is able to kick varying amounts of ass with her cape of gunnage that would probably be terribly heavy in real life. Meryl thrives on order and regulations, for the most part, and while she is considerably estranged from her family, it's pretty clear that being a part of the social order is what makes her feel worthy. Nevertheless, while she can be hard-headed and tough on others (though she's extremely tough on herself, too), she's got a gooshy center that is activated several times in the series, mostly by the main character who she possibly develops a crush on.
So of course, in fanfic she suddenly becomes the overbearing fire-bitch who is clingy and screeches every two minutes and is not nearly as important as the Too-Pure-For-This-World BoyLove going on between Vash and Wolfwood. Hell, sometimes she's even the homophobe who tries to break them up. There are many yaoi fanfics created solely for the reason of Vash crushing Meryl's feelings because she's just SO annoying and he's really in love with Wolfwood.
Oh, and she also has a small chest. This has become a rich little bit of fanon - lines showing up in fanfic anywhere from "a temper as large as her chest was small" to "her chest, although it was flat as an ironing board".
Um. Actually, most of the time we don't even see her chest due to the cloak/jacket thing she's wearing, and when we DO see it (episode 16, was it?)... she's got quite the rack for such a small lady. Not that this should be the real issue, but it's just a small bit of ridiculousness to put the icing on the 7-layer Idiocy Cake.
I'll admit that in the first few episodes, Meryl's inability to accept that Vash is THE Vash wears a bit thin, especially as a source of humor. But think about it this way - was there any reason for her to accept that he was THE Vash? Honestly, I'm wondering why more people in the show didn't refuse to believe it. After all, Vash is a young-looking guy - if the July incident was something like 20 or 30 years ago, with the way he looks, wouldn't that make him something like 4 when it had actually happened? I suppose not many of them got close enough to get that good of a look at him, but anyway - at that point, Vash was still acting like a big blonde buffoon, not like anyone seriously formidable and scaaaaary like Vash the Stampede was supposed to be. A vicious mankiller doesn't quite coincide with the image of a loveable goofball, and he even acted like most of what he did was pure luck, in those first few crises. And when she finally accepts who Vash is, it's the first time we see him being really serious - doesn't that make sense, given the circumstances?
Regardless, even in other areas Meryl shows a great deal of tenacity and bravery. She kept following Vash even after all of the business with Legato started, and that took some guts. She's vulnerable, and her feelings are easily hurt - she sometimes overcompensates for this by acting like she REALLY doesn't care - but she DEALS. She bounces back, and she keeps trying. I honestly don't know why that's ridicule-worthy. I don't.
As far as the other half of the fandom equation goes, a lot of the hatred comes from her (non)relationship with Vash, as well. She may love him - but hell, look at how indecisive she is, specifically with emotional matters. She wouldn't force anything like that on him, much less be bitchy and domineering and making him cater to her every whim. And he may care about her - but I'm not sure it's love. I have a whole rant on Vash that's a nuclear explosion in itself, but that's not really important here, other than I don't know if he'd act on his feelings either, even if he did feel likewise.
All in all, she's just a girl who's not necessarily sweet and tender, but she's human, by golly. She's not a perfect housewife or a man-hating Amazon, she's just a stubborn, practical-minded high-strung woman, who, despite her many shortcomings, manages to be loyal and emotional and sympathetic in spite of them. Is that really something that makes her deserve being described as "likes to whine and not do anything and yell at Vashie-poo" on every fangirl webpage with character information ever made?
Urgh. That was really... long. It's late where I am, so this is probably all rambly n' stuff, but... yeah.
More specifically, Meryl.
There seem to be two different major perceptions of Meryl in the Trigun fandom, and neither of them are all that positive. It tends to range from "She's a bitch" to "She's a whiny spineless damsel who acts like she's on top but isn't". Cutting straight to the chase, a lot of this stems from All-Female-Characters-Are-Annoying-itis, since Meryl is relatively harmless and while she is emotionally attached to Vash, there is no indication that anything will happen between them.
Now, for those of you unfamiliar with Trigun (although I doubt you'll be reading this too avidly), Meryl is an uptight office lady who doesn't take any guff and is VERY stubborn. She also is able to kick varying amounts of ass with her cape of gunnage that would probably be terribly heavy in real life. Meryl thrives on order and regulations, for the most part, and while she is considerably estranged from her family, it's pretty clear that being a part of the social order is what makes her feel worthy. Nevertheless, while she can be hard-headed and tough on others (though she's extremely tough on herself, too), she's got a gooshy center that is activated several times in the series, mostly by the main character who she possibly develops a crush on.
So of course, in fanfic she suddenly becomes the overbearing fire-bitch who is clingy and screeches every two minutes and is not nearly as important as the Too-Pure-For-This-World BoyLove going on between Vash and Wolfwood. Hell, sometimes she's even the homophobe who tries to break them up. There are many yaoi fanfics created solely for the reason of Vash crushing Meryl's feelings because she's just SO annoying and he's really in love with Wolfwood.
Oh, and she also has a small chest. This has become a rich little bit of fanon - lines showing up in fanfic anywhere from "a temper as large as her chest was small" to "her chest, although it was flat as an ironing board".
Um. Actually, most of the time we don't even see her chest due to the cloak/jacket thing she's wearing, and when we DO see it (episode 16, was it?)... she's got quite the rack for such a small lady. Not that this should be the real issue, but it's just a small bit of ridiculousness to put the icing on the 7-layer Idiocy Cake.
I'll admit that in the first few episodes, Meryl's inability to accept that Vash is THE Vash wears a bit thin, especially as a source of humor. But think about it this way - was there any reason for her to accept that he was THE Vash? Honestly, I'm wondering why more people in the show didn't refuse to believe it. After all, Vash is a young-looking guy - if the July incident was something like 20 or 30 years ago, with the way he looks, wouldn't that make him something like 4 when it had actually happened? I suppose not many of them got close enough to get that good of a look at him, but anyway - at that point, Vash was still acting like a big blonde buffoon, not like anyone seriously formidable and scaaaaary like Vash the Stampede was supposed to be. A vicious mankiller doesn't quite coincide with the image of a loveable goofball, and he even acted like most of what he did was pure luck, in those first few crises. And when she finally accepts who Vash is, it's the first time we see him being really serious - doesn't that make sense, given the circumstances?
Regardless, even in other areas Meryl shows a great deal of tenacity and bravery. She kept following Vash even after all of the business with Legato started, and that took some guts. She's vulnerable, and her feelings are easily hurt - she sometimes overcompensates for this by acting like she REALLY doesn't care - but she DEALS. She bounces back, and she keeps trying. I honestly don't know why that's ridicule-worthy. I don't.
As far as the other half of the fandom equation goes, a lot of the hatred comes from her (non)relationship with Vash, as well. She may love him - but hell, look at how indecisive she is, specifically with emotional matters. She wouldn't force anything like that on him, much less be bitchy and domineering and making him cater to her every whim. And he may care about her - but I'm not sure it's love. I have a whole rant on Vash that's a nuclear explosion in itself, but that's not really important here, other than I don't know if he'd act on his feelings either, even if he did feel likewise.
All in all, she's just a girl who's not necessarily sweet and tender, but she's human, by golly. She's not a perfect housewife or a man-hating Amazon, she's just a stubborn, practical-minded high-strung woman, who, despite her many shortcomings, manages to be loyal and emotional and sympathetic in spite of them. Is that really something that makes her deserve being described as "likes to whine and not do anything and yell at Vashie-poo" on every fangirl webpage with character information ever made?
Urgh. That was really... long. It's late where I am, so this is probably all rambly n' stuff, but... yeah.