Female characters: Losing characterization after being in a relationship?
I’ve seen one Twitter post talking about how they believe that whenever we do get a official fairy tail couple confirmed the female character ends up having her characterization erased and revolves around the man they ended up with and domestic servitude. Adding on that Hiro Mashima is not good at writing romance. I think the examples they used were with Edolas Erza, Levy and Kinana.
I think it’s fair to not like the way Erza Knightwalker has been characterized in 100 year quest since she was shown wearing a maid outfit and being shown to only think of Mystogan. Especially with how she was compared to her old self where she was similar to Earthland Erza on being depicted as a strong fighter. We don’t get to see a lot with Knightwalker and Mystogen as it is in 100 year quest but the few “comedy” moments they have to go off of but I think the way she ended up might be Hiro Mashima just not knowing what to do with her character after her story concluded in Edolas. But out of the characters that were listed the backlash for the way she was written makes the most sense to argue for or care for since a lot of people fell for her badass self back when Edolas was happening and were hoping she was still the same person when she came back into the story.
From my own perspective tho I feel like the writing with Knightwalker was probably written to be a joke and not taken seriously (which was why I kind of glossed over it since it just seemed like a gag joke) since it was something Lucy Ashley told Erza of the “oh you might not want to go into the main city” thing.
With Levy (I guess this might just be me fawning and loving every Gajevy moment we get because they are finally happy together and are just so wholesome) but I think with her situation in particular it’s understandable why she isn’t playing a active role since she is pregnant now so Hiro Mashima probably didn’t think of giving her any battle oriented role. But I am a big advocate of wanting her to have her own backstory and at least helping the main cast through her intellect like how she did in the og series. I wouldn’t go as far as to act like her supporting Gajeel and playing that pregnant lover role are inherently super detrimental or anything like that but more so on just having her interact with more of the guild members the way she use to like Lucy who is her best friend.
Out of all the female characters here tho I would say that the Levy criticisms are hard to understand besides just wanting more for her character. She if anything probably has one of the more realistic explanations for only being in that supportive non active role due to her circumstances of focusing on her pregnancy and honestly as much as I would love more from her character I’m also content with the stuff we do get of her.
I’m mainly a anime watcher (as far as 100 year quest goes) but I did see the panel of Kinana being introduced a Erik’s fiancé (which congrats to them like I’m really happy for the both of them) and the caption read something along the lines of Kinana coming to see Erik to clean the place up and do the laundry which this one isn’t a good look no matter how you look at it. But I would like to add with Kinana specifically she was never shown to have much characterization to go off of. She is apart of the side cast that barely get focus as it is (her literal debut was her just working at the bar side of the guild serving drinks) so it didn’t surprise me that she wasn’t going to do anything outside of that support role (which is unfortunate).
It would help if Hiro Mashima maybe writes some side stories of characters like Kinana who rarely get focus as it is and maybe explore more of how strong Kinana is with her poison magic? Explore more of who her closest connections in the guild are? Reveal her backstory and other aspects of that nature. If we learn more about Kinana as a character I feel that would lessen the issues surrounding the concern of having her feel reduced to loving her partner.
To put it all together I wouldn’t say Hiro Mashima is bad at writing romance the way some people are trying to paint this whole thing because we have seen how beautifully developed the main three ships are (excluding Nalu on this one for the obvious reason that they aren’t getting much romantic development to work with for now). The main factor is just writing on what happens to the said female characters after they have started engaging in a romantic relationship.
