In Defense of Relena Darlian
Oh, Relena Darlian. Despite your political inexperience and young age, you very willingly lay your life on the line to bring peace to a war-torn world, and people somehow find reason to think you should die for your braids or your pink limo. It's hard to think of a character more infamously hated by yaoi shippers, UC elitists, casual anime fans, etc alike.
My point in making this post is to say that while you don't have to like Relena's character, you still have to respect that she is a very important character to Gundam Wing.
Relena was meant to come off as a spoiled rich girl in the beginning of the series.
That's right, it's okay to think that in the beginning, she was somewhat annoying. That was the intention, because that is what she must mature from. Unfortunately, many people are unable to overcome the initial bad reaction and are blind to the character development that overturns all of that. However, if you even bother to understand why she feels the way she does, you'd see how her initial behavior is not really all that unreasonable. How many children feel some sort of resentment against their parents' jobs because their parents often are forced to spend more time working than with family? I refuse to believe that NO ONE has ever been hurt by something as simple as a mom or dad (or both) being too caught up in work to have more than a few moments of quality time. Is her father's job as a peace promoter extremely important? Yes. But he also has a wife and a daughter that also deserves his attention. It's not unforgivably selfish to want a parent to please please spend more than just a few hours before rushing off to the next assignment. This is a young woman who eventually loses her father because of his work. However, she doesn't spend the rest of the series moping around and going "oh boo-hoo, woe is me". No, she takes on his job, as well as her biological father's job, and tries to carry out their dreams as best as she can. How's that for character development?
That brings up another point that people oh so love to talk about. "All Relena can do is stalk Heero and call out his name! She's so spineless!"
When Relena first follows Heero to the dock, it is after she sees him washed up on the beach, try to blow himself up, fail, and then hijack an ambulance. He's failed to kill himself once, and he's just gone off an another possibly life-threatening mission. Relena doesn't follow him because she thinks he's oh so hot and drool-worthy, she follows him to try to dissuade him from treating himself as some expendable weapon! When the boy tells her that Heero was seen in an ambulance, her face is one of shock and horror. She tries to stop Heero out of compassion from one human being to another.
After her father's death, she tracks Heero down to the school. Why? She's just lost the seemingly untouchable rock in her life. She doesn't know why her father was taken, and with what her father told her she doesn't even really know who she is supposed to be. Relena needed support through that time, and really who wouldn't? She sees Heero, who seems to be full of determination and self-assuredness of what his mission in life is, and uses his presence as comfort and inspiration. She does not intrude on his public or private life. Rather, she is content to just know that he's there and that if he can find the strength to do what he is doing, then so can she. Later on, Relena IS able to use that time to give her strength to be Queen of the World and a figurehead for people to rally together around. What does she do when she is getting dolled up and about to give her speech as the Queen? She says to herself "Heero", like a good luck charm to remind her that she has the ability to stand up and kick ass.
In the incident where she intervenes in Heero's fight with Zechs, she does it to 1) save his life by ending his losing fight with her brother and 2) to dispel his guilt of Noventa's murder and pass on the "permission" for him to continue leading his life. In both cases, the only person to benefit is Heero. If Relena hadn't gone, Zechs would have killed him. If Heero miraculously survived, he'd continue to be too guilt-stricken to continue his work.
There are about 3 scenes given where Relena "stalks" Heero, and all three times the purpose is NOT to get some creepy high off of observing her love object. The primary motivations behind her seeking him out those three or so times are not because of any romantic attraction she may have towards him. I am not saying that she does not love him romantically, but that she reaches out to him in these instances out of compassion and empathy, not romantic love.
She also stops after she finds the inner strength she needs. Heero? He goes to her inaugural speech, disguises himself and leaves her a teddy bear, keeps close enough check on her to know she's been kidnapped before being officially announced, and becomes her bodyguard in the Odds and Evens episodes as well as the end of the Endless Waltz manga. Forget Relena, Heero's career is following her every move!
About the "constant" screaming, Relena does it a grand total of three or four times. Yep. Let's not forget that Heero just as often says her name.
The "Heero, come and kill me!" scene
The explanation for this strange scene comes from the cut Episode Zero. The manga itself has the scene: Relena approaches Heero, and offers her life in return for his promise to never kill another person afterward. No, Relena isn't some psycho obsessed stalker; she just wants to in some way be able to stop all of the senseless killing going on. Sure takes the piss out of that argument, don't it?
Relena's supposed hypocrisy for trying to shoot Une
When Relena tries to shoot Une (it is debatable whether or not she was aiming for the rose), it is right after Une killed her father. Relena has not yet accepted the pacifistic ideals; she still went by the name "Relena Darlian", not "Relena Peacecraft". She was still too angry about her father's death to listen to how such actions only further fuel suffering. The Relena that shot Une was not the later Relena.
The second time Relena is given the chance to shoot Une, she turns it down. Now, she is not blinded by grief and anger. Now, she can and already has forgiven Une for her actions, because she wants to follow what she espouses and move past violence.
Her idealism about total pacifism
Some people just are irritated by Relena's idealism about total pacifism. "Total pacifism can never work, and she's an idiot to even think about it." However, these ideals are not truly Relena's own. Relena is not the only person to support the idea, nor is she the one to actually come up with it. When Relena first enters the world of politics, she tries to adopt the total pacifism rule of the Peacecraft family, her own father, and many others such as Noventa, Quatre's father, and the original Heero Yuy. She sticks to the precedent set before her even though she is not yet sure she completely believes in it, because it is at least a place to start.
Relena later on does realize how she must be able to adapt those ideals to be able to actually implement them. This is not hypocrisy nor weakness in character. This is called compromise, finding a practical balance, something that all politicians must do in order to achieve their goals. It is after she adapts them that they truly become ideals that she can truly and completely believe in. Just as Relena must mature emotionally, she must also mature mentally.
Her idealism itself is also not a character flaw. Some people just hate the optimistic character who won't give up no matter what. Hating Relena for that is the surest sign of not understanding how important she is to the plot. During her time as Queen of the World, Relena is a figurehead. She is the public face of not allowing war to defeat hopes and dreams, and she must be optimistic and idealistic to be able to inspire others like Heero to keep on living. People in time of war can't afford to be cynical, because it would crush their souls and wipe out their willpower. Only people who are spoiled in comfort and peace are able to look around and spit on everything they see and still grow old in relative comfort. A lofty and almost impossible mission like world peace requires a stubborn refusal to declare total defeat, and that's why Relena's idealism works in her favor. Making her more "realistic" won't improve her character; instead it would make her less capable of bearing the weight of helping to run a peaceful world.
Note: The following claims are from a recent discussion I had with someone about Relena.
"She is the person chosen to be the face of pacifism is really the one person incapable of truly understanding sacrifice, war, and the horrors which follow it."
If you only bother to look at her relationship with Heero, you'd realize how blatantly ridiculous this is. She understands sacrifice, war, and the horrors which follows it, because she understands Heero. She sees all that he does, and knows that's it's disgusting and just plain wrong for war to drive people to this. This is a young woman who saw her father assassinated because he stood for peace. You're still saying she doesn't understand sacrifice and horror? She knows more about it than the high class people orchestrating it.
"She inherits everything, and feels she should inherit Heero. Just because. It is this sense of undeserved sense of accomplishment that she totes around and expects everyone to adhere to her every whim."
Relena never asked to inherit her fathers' political positions. She knows the personal cost of helping other people, and at first she can only see it as a hateful thing. Also, where do you get that she feels she should inherit Heero? She gives Heero the ultimate freedom to do what he feels he should, up to and including assassinating her if he thinks she is only bringing a false peace. And she thinks she should inherit Heero. Right. Any and all of her actions that were for his sake were not done out of romantic love, as I've said before. She did it because she cared for him as another human being, as a person who has been taught that human life is the most precious thing and also the most fragile thing. Relena and Heero's relationship is a subtle one based on mutual respect and understanding, a "blink and you'll miss it" relationship (that is, by Western "shout your love from the rooftops!" standards) that may or may not blossom into a full romance. They each put the other on a pedestal, but in reality they're equals. If Relena felt that she should inherit Heero, she would see him as only an object. That is clearly not the case.
Again, where is the evidence that she totes around an undeserved sense of accomplishment, and that she expects everyone to adhere to her every whim? Her giving Heero consent to kill her if she is doing wrong for peace disproves your second point. Relena is young and inexperienced. She knows that not everything she does will be perfect, and she counts on the people closest to her to correct her. She even gives doubt about her own abilities, when she asks Noin something to the effect of how can she lead when those closest don't agree with her. She knows that they think she is making a mistake, and she finds it difficult to continue with it because she trusts their judgment. If she really did "expect everyone to adhere to her every whim", she'd be throwing a tantrum and saying "How dare they not agree with me! I know best!".
Never does Relena tote around an undeserved sense of accomplishment. First of all, she does not rub it in people's faces. She expresses her admiration and awe for Heero's actions, and genuinely denies his reply that he can't match up to her. They are one another's inspiration, yet neither think that they themselves are worthy of that position.
Secondly, what do you mean that she does not deserve to feel accomplished? At a very young age, she helped to end a violent war. At a very young age, she had to take on the mantle of Peacecraft and later Queen of the World to help finally bring peace to people. She could have run away from all of that because honestly, no teenager is ready for that and Relena does make mistakes. However, Relena knew that as both a Peacecraft and a Darlian, she had the power to finally do what's right. She has too strong a sense of right and wrong to give up that responsibility. If you call that a sense of entitlement and undeserved accomplishment, you need to seriously reassess your motivations for misreading her character so drastically.
"Relena is so perfect and everyone just loves her!"
If there was ONE thing you were supposed to take from her character development, it was just how imperfect Relena is. In the beginning, she is a poor little rich girl but by the end of the series she's matured wonderfully through painful grief and sacrifice. She is not a political expert, and knows it. She would rather surrender than let her country be beaten to a pulp because of her inexperience in such delicate maneuvers. Political skill is something you gain from decades of wheedling and compromising, and nowhere does Relena claim to be an expert or even an especially talented politician from the get go.
As with the supposed worship that she receives, that's an exaggeration. Yes, Treize and Zechs do praise her. However, they don't imply that she's genderswapped Christ reborn to deliver all of mankind from this evil, sinful, warring world. The leaders of Romefeller clearly think very little of her in expecting that she'll be an obedient puppet. The attempted revolt of Endless Waltz is further proof that no, there are people who don't worship her and her goals.
I don't think I need to fully explain once more how Heero's initial reaction to her crowning is the definitive evidence that not everyone supports Relena, and that she is completely okay with that.
The "Are you high?" reasons to bash her
-"She likes pink. She has a pink limo."
A lot of females like pink. Pink is a wonderful color. Half of the varsity girls' water polo team at school is obsessed with pink. Girl's water polo, by the way, is notoriously more vicious than boy's water polo and it's considered lucky to get out of a match with only a few bruises. You tread the whole time you're not sprinting to wrestle with another girl for the ball. The girls have been gouged, kicked, punched, held underwater, had bones broken, etc. Did I mention they absolutely love love love the color pink?
Also, her parents gave her the limo as a gift. They chose the color of the limo, not her. Her parents don't have the time to drop her off at school, and as the daughter of a very prominent politician she can't just take the bus or taxi. There's such things as holding people hostage and ransoming, ya know?
-"I hate her braids."
I don't know, you guys. When this gets pulled out, I have to wonder exactly how desperate you are to want to hate Relena. I'll just say this: styling with braids like that has been really popular lately.
Phew! Now that that's done, who else is intrigued to see Evil!Lena make her official appearance? The next chapter of Frozen Teardrops comes in about a week. I'm not sure whether to squee in joy of Relena possibly being more "traditionally" bad-ass and pummeling Heero, or whether to be horrified of her possibly being derailed into what haters make her out to be.
EDIT: In case some people don't know about/want more information about Frozen Teardrop, I've started to collect summaries and trivia from the AS forum. So far I have the prologue and chapter summaries here.
My point in making this post is to say that while you don't have to like Relena's character, you still have to respect that she is a very important character to Gundam Wing.
Relena was meant to come off as a spoiled rich girl in the beginning of the series.
That's right, it's okay to think that in the beginning, she was somewhat annoying. That was the intention, because that is what she must mature from. Unfortunately, many people are unable to overcome the initial bad reaction and are blind to the character development that overturns all of that. However, if you even bother to understand why she feels the way she does, you'd see how her initial behavior is not really all that unreasonable. How many children feel some sort of resentment against their parents' jobs because their parents often are forced to spend more time working than with family? I refuse to believe that NO ONE has ever been hurt by something as simple as a mom or dad (or both) being too caught up in work to have more than a few moments of quality time. Is her father's job as a peace promoter extremely important? Yes. But he also has a wife and a daughter that also deserves his attention. It's not unforgivably selfish to want a parent to please please spend more than just a few hours before rushing off to the next assignment. This is a young woman who eventually loses her father because of his work. However, she doesn't spend the rest of the series moping around and going "oh boo-hoo, woe is me". No, she takes on his job, as well as her biological father's job, and tries to carry out their dreams as best as she can. How's that for character development?
That brings up another point that people oh so love to talk about. "All Relena can do is stalk Heero and call out his name! She's so spineless!"
When Relena first follows Heero to the dock, it is after she sees him washed up on the beach, try to blow himself up, fail, and then hijack an ambulance. He's failed to kill himself once, and he's just gone off an another possibly life-threatening mission. Relena doesn't follow him because she thinks he's oh so hot and drool-worthy, she follows him to try to dissuade him from treating himself as some expendable weapon! When the boy tells her that Heero was seen in an ambulance, her face is one of shock and horror. She tries to stop Heero out of compassion from one human being to another.
After her father's death, she tracks Heero down to the school. Why? She's just lost the seemingly untouchable rock in her life. She doesn't know why her father was taken, and with what her father told her she doesn't even really know who she is supposed to be. Relena needed support through that time, and really who wouldn't? She sees Heero, who seems to be full of determination and self-assuredness of what his mission in life is, and uses his presence as comfort and inspiration. She does not intrude on his public or private life. Rather, she is content to just know that he's there and that if he can find the strength to do what he is doing, then so can she. Later on, Relena IS able to use that time to give her strength to be Queen of the World and a figurehead for people to rally together around. What does she do when she is getting dolled up and about to give her speech as the Queen? She says to herself "Heero", like a good luck charm to remind her that she has the ability to stand up and kick ass.
In the incident where she intervenes in Heero's fight with Zechs, she does it to 1) save his life by ending his losing fight with her brother and 2) to dispel his guilt of Noventa's murder and pass on the "permission" for him to continue leading his life. In both cases, the only person to benefit is Heero. If Relena hadn't gone, Zechs would have killed him. If Heero miraculously survived, he'd continue to be too guilt-stricken to continue his work.
There are about 3 scenes given where Relena "stalks" Heero, and all three times the purpose is NOT to get some creepy high off of observing her love object. The primary motivations behind her seeking him out those three or so times are not because of any romantic attraction she may have towards him. I am not saying that she does not love him romantically, but that she reaches out to him in these instances out of compassion and empathy, not romantic love.
She also stops after she finds the inner strength she needs. Heero? He goes to her inaugural speech, disguises himself and leaves her a teddy bear, keeps close enough check on her to know she's been kidnapped before being officially announced, and becomes her bodyguard in the Odds and Evens episodes as well as the end of the Endless Waltz manga. Forget Relena, Heero's career is following her every move!
About the "constant" screaming, Relena does it a grand total of three or four times. Yep. Let's not forget that Heero just as often says her name.
The "Heero, come and kill me!" scene
The explanation for this strange scene comes from the cut Episode Zero. The manga itself has the scene: Relena approaches Heero, and offers her life in return for his promise to never kill another person afterward. No, Relena isn't some psycho obsessed stalker; she just wants to in some way be able to stop all of the senseless killing going on. Sure takes the piss out of that argument, don't it?
Relena's supposed hypocrisy for trying to shoot Une
When Relena tries to shoot Une (it is debatable whether or not she was aiming for the rose), it is right after Une killed her father. Relena has not yet accepted the pacifistic ideals; she still went by the name "Relena Darlian", not "Relena Peacecraft". She was still too angry about her father's death to listen to how such actions only further fuel suffering. The Relena that shot Une was not the later Relena.
The second time Relena is given the chance to shoot Une, she turns it down. Now, she is not blinded by grief and anger. Now, she can and already has forgiven Une for her actions, because she wants to follow what she espouses and move past violence.
Her idealism about total pacifism
Some people just are irritated by Relena's idealism about total pacifism. "Total pacifism can never work, and she's an idiot to even think about it." However, these ideals are not truly Relena's own. Relena is not the only person to support the idea, nor is she the one to actually come up with it. When Relena first enters the world of politics, she tries to adopt the total pacifism rule of the Peacecraft family, her own father, and many others such as Noventa, Quatre's father, and the original Heero Yuy. She sticks to the precedent set before her even though she is not yet sure she completely believes in it, because it is at least a place to start.
Relena later on does realize how she must be able to adapt those ideals to be able to actually implement them. This is not hypocrisy nor weakness in character. This is called compromise, finding a practical balance, something that all politicians must do in order to achieve their goals. It is after she adapts them that they truly become ideals that she can truly and completely believe in. Just as Relena must mature emotionally, she must also mature mentally.
Her idealism itself is also not a character flaw. Some people just hate the optimistic character who won't give up no matter what. Hating Relena for that is the surest sign of not understanding how important she is to the plot. During her time as Queen of the World, Relena is a figurehead. She is the public face of not allowing war to defeat hopes and dreams, and she must be optimistic and idealistic to be able to inspire others like Heero to keep on living. People in time of war can't afford to be cynical, because it would crush their souls and wipe out their willpower. Only people who are spoiled in comfort and peace are able to look around and spit on everything they see and still grow old in relative comfort. A lofty and almost impossible mission like world peace requires a stubborn refusal to declare total defeat, and that's why Relena's idealism works in her favor. Making her more "realistic" won't improve her character; instead it would make her less capable of bearing the weight of helping to run a peaceful world.
Note: The following claims are from a recent discussion I had with someone about Relena.
"She is the person chosen to be the face of pacifism is really the one person incapable of truly understanding sacrifice, war, and the horrors which follow it."
If you only bother to look at her relationship with Heero, you'd realize how blatantly ridiculous this is. She understands sacrifice, war, and the horrors which follows it, because she understands Heero. She sees all that he does, and knows that's it's disgusting and just plain wrong for war to drive people to this. This is a young woman who saw her father assassinated because he stood for peace. You're still saying she doesn't understand sacrifice and horror? She knows more about it than the high class people orchestrating it.
"She inherits everything, and feels she should inherit Heero. Just because. It is this sense of undeserved sense of accomplishment that she totes around and expects everyone to adhere to her every whim."
Relena never asked to inherit her fathers' political positions. She knows the personal cost of helping other people, and at first she can only see it as a hateful thing. Also, where do you get that she feels she should inherit Heero? She gives Heero the ultimate freedom to do what he feels he should, up to and including assassinating her if he thinks she is only bringing a false peace. And she thinks she should inherit Heero. Right. Any and all of her actions that were for his sake were not done out of romantic love, as I've said before. She did it because she cared for him as another human being, as a person who has been taught that human life is the most precious thing and also the most fragile thing. Relena and Heero's relationship is a subtle one based on mutual respect and understanding, a "blink and you'll miss it" relationship (that is, by Western "shout your love from the rooftops!" standards) that may or may not blossom into a full romance. They each put the other on a pedestal, but in reality they're equals. If Relena felt that she should inherit Heero, she would see him as only an object. That is clearly not the case.
Again, where is the evidence that she totes around an undeserved sense of accomplishment, and that she expects everyone to adhere to her every whim? Her giving Heero consent to kill her if she is doing wrong for peace disproves your second point. Relena is young and inexperienced. She knows that not everything she does will be perfect, and she counts on the people closest to her to correct her. She even gives doubt about her own abilities, when she asks Noin something to the effect of how can she lead when those closest don't agree with her. She knows that they think she is making a mistake, and she finds it difficult to continue with it because she trusts their judgment. If she really did "expect everyone to adhere to her every whim", she'd be throwing a tantrum and saying "How dare they not agree with me! I know best!".
Never does Relena tote around an undeserved sense of accomplishment. First of all, she does not rub it in people's faces. She expresses her admiration and awe for Heero's actions, and genuinely denies his reply that he can't match up to her. They are one another's inspiration, yet neither think that they themselves are worthy of that position.
Secondly, what do you mean that she does not deserve to feel accomplished? At a very young age, she helped to end a violent war. At a very young age, she had to take on the mantle of Peacecraft and later Queen of the World to help finally bring peace to people. She could have run away from all of that because honestly, no teenager is ready for that and Relena does make mistakes. However, Relena knew that as both a Peacecraft and a Darlian, she had the power to finally do what's right. She has too strong a sense of right and wrong to give up that responsibility. If you call that a sense of entitlement and undeserved accomplishment, you need to seriously reassess your motivations for misreading her character so drastically.
"Relena is so perfect and everyone just loves her!"
If there was ONE thing you were supposed to take from her character development, it was just how imperfect Relena is. In the beginning, she is a poor little rich girl but by the end of the series she's matured wonderfully through painful grief and sacrifice. She is not a political expert, and knows it. She would rather surrender than let her country be beaten to a pulp because of her inexperience in such delicate maneuvers. Political skill is something you gain from decades of wheedling and compromising, and nowhere does Relena claim to be an expert or even an especially talented politician from the get go.
As with the supposed worship that she receives, that's an exaggeration. Yes, Treize and Zechs do praise her. However, they don't imply that she's genderswapped Christ reborn to deliver all of mankind from this evil, sinful, warring world. The leaders of Romefeller clearly think very little of her in expecting that she'll be an obedient puppet. The attempted revolt of Endless Waltz is further proof that no, there are people who don't worship her and her goals.
I don't think I need to fully explain once more how Heero's initial reaction to her crowning is the definitive evidence that not everyone supports Relena, and that she is completely okay with that.
The "Are you high?" reasons to bash her
-"She likes pink. She has a pink limo."
A lot of females like pink. Pink is a wonderful color. Half of the varsity girls' water polo team at school is obsessed with pink. Girl's water polo, by the way, is notoriously more vicious than boy's water polo and it's considered lucky to get out of a match with only a few bruises. You tread the whole time you're not sprinting to wrestle with another girl for the ball. The girls have been gouged, kicked, punched, held underwater, had bones broken, etc. Did I mention they absolutely love love love the color pink?
Also, her parents gave her the limo as a gift. They chose the color of the limo, not her. Her parents don't have the time to drop her off at school, and as the daughter of a very prominent politician she can't just take the bus or taxi. There's such things as holding people hostage and ransoming, ya know?
-"I hate her braids."
I don't know, you guys. When this gets pulled out, I have to wonder exactly how desperate you are to want to hate Relena. I'll just say this: styling with braids like that has been really popular lately.
Phew! Now that that's done, who else is intrigued to see Evil!Lena make her official appearance? The next chapter of Frozen Teardrops comes in about a week. I'm not sure whether to squee in joy of Relena possibly being more "traditionally" bad-ass and pummeling Heero, or whether to be horrified of her possibly being derailed into what haters make her out to be.
EDIT: In case some people don't know about/want more information about Frozen Teardrop, I've started to collect summaries and trivia from the AS forum. So far I have the prologue and chapter summaries here.