I have a hopefully fun (and rather loaded sorry ;;) question for you: If you had the opportunity to make changes to the manga, how would you rewrite Morgiana's involvement in the story? While I like Morgiana, I feel like she was largely brushed to the side and missed out on so much potential because of that :<
ok this is probably super super late !! and badly written and edited. I’m terrible at organising my thoughts and even after posting this and rereading it a few times I’ll still find stuff I’ve missed out that I wish I could go back and edit in…. and since i’m such a huuuuuggee morgiana fan girl, this will most likely be long and boring to everyone except me :’vv
First off, I believe the early introduction and development of Morgiana is perfectly fine as it is. I liked how Ohtaka handled how the effects of a lifetime of manipulation and abuse from Jamil effected her and I like how she began to build a new found respect for herself, which allowed her to gradually pull herself away from the ideas about herself that Jamil had brainwashed her with (being a violent, monstrous fanalis, only good for manual labour and being a slave, etc etc). I think it also left open a story line for her about what family is, the importance of heritage to people and how her and her people (the fanalis) go about rebuilding their homeland after years and years of colonisation and invasion. The only thing I would change is how Morgiana only thinks of Alibaba when it comes to the people who ‘saved’ her, especially when what’s already been shown actually suggests Aladdin, Goltas and just herself have done more for her than Alibaba has…
I don’t mind the Balbadd arc too much either. I think, considering it was an arc focused on Alibaba and Alibaba facing his past, her level of involvement being focused solely on her relationship with Aladdin and Alibaba was more than enough. To be honest, I haven’t read this arc in a long long time so I might not remember everything, but I liked how she played this sort of logical intermediate between Aladdin and Alibaba. I think that was the beginning foundations of their friendship… Though I feel like as the manga has continued she was pushed out of that and it all just became about Alibaba and Aladdin. Alibaba never really thought much of Morgiana, neither did Aladdin. Meanwhile she was constantly thinking about them and worrying about whether they would let her stay with them when we get into Sindria. I think we should have seen more of their individual relationships with each other. I mean didn’t we end up seeing more of Morgiana and Hakuryuu’s relationship than either Aladdin or Alibaba ?? I’m sure Ohtaka could have fit in a conversation between Alibaba and Morgiana after they went with Sinbad to talk about household vessels, or maybe another conversation between her and Aladdin about her homeland after her conversation with Hakuryuu about it. He did ask her first after all and I think it would be nice for Aladdin of all people to see Morgiana with a newfound determination to go there. Morgiana was also very observant of the relationship between Alibaba and Hakuryuu so I wished she played the intermediate role again between them…
To be honest, I think it would have been better for Ohtaka to completely leave out the love triangle between Morgiana, Alibaba and Hakuryuu. Magi is a shounen so romance isn’t going to be the main focus and I think to be able to pull off a love triangle well, where it focuses on the development of all three characters feelings realistically, then she would need the freedom to work it through for a lot longer which the shounen genre just doesn’t allow. If that makes sense ?? I mean, I’d rather Ohtaka either concentrated on other aspects of Morgiana’s character that she opened up at the beginning of the manga then end up with either of them. I don’t think that was the right way to go about with romance in a shounen manga.
Obviously we can’t change anything about that now… so if we’re talking about the love triangle going ahead, I don’t mind how Morgiana and Hakuryuu parted either. Neither Morgiana or Hakuryuu are perfect people and neither would I want them to be. I think the dynamics between all of Team Zagan were awkward and strained at that point in time. They all had their own problems they were dealing with and were all trying to connect to each other in their own ways, even if they ended up slipping up (as Hakuryuu did when he forced a kiss on Morgiana). I believe that makes them actually more realistic. Sometimes it’s not always easy sailing with friends, especially when one of them has probably been isolated from making any proper friends his whole life by his mother and family or asking for help. Leaving to Sindria was the first initiative Hakuryuu took to meet Sinbad and seek his help with overthrowing Al Tharmen.
Well, anyway, this isn’t about Hakuryuu. We’ll get back onto Morgiana’s relationship with him and her place within Team Zagan later.
I was very excited to finally see Morgiana reach the Dark Continent. It felt like the beginning of the whole Fanalis sub plot for her and, later, for the rest of the Fanalis characters. She learnt a lot of new information about the Fanalis and what she would later know as the ‘Red Lions’. I also think she gained a new friend (and personally I headcanon as a father figure) in Yunan and I wished we saw more of those two as well !! I mean, Morgiana lived with him for a very long time and for a large chunk of her teenage years where she was growing and leaning new things rapidly. I’m sure Yunan taught her a lot more than just how to use her household vessel. We also know she helped him strike a deal between Sindria and Reim so I wish we could have seen a little bit of that. Even just a little panel to tease what is to come soon. I don’t know, maybe seeing the silhouette of Morgiana walking behind Yunan who is with someone else (Scheherazade maybe ??) and she looks over in the direction of the amphitheatre where Alibaba currently was. It would leave a little something for fans to speculate maybe…
It’s after here that I’m really not happy with pretty much most of how Morgiana was treated. I was alright with the whole Toto thing, if it had been just that, but unfortunately Ohtaka kept dragging out the Alibaba Virgin jokes on for waaaaay longer than she should have which really undermined their relationship and made it harder to take Alibaba seriously. It was actually around here where I started getting less and less invested in alimor and eventually decided that it was super boring already. However it did open up that conversation with Masrur about what she believed her place was as a household member which allowed us to see a little about the things she was struggling over on her own. I mean, I don’t mind the idea of Morgiana having a crush on Alibaba and that could open up more character development in different ways but… I don’t think it should have been more than that.
Man I feel like I’m just being salty now– but it’s kinda hard to talk about her involvement in the manga without bringing up ships since that’s what her role largely was then…. ugh…….
Anywaaaayyyy– I’m glad she decided to go with Alibaba to Balbadd when he was called there and it kinda drew back to that logical intermediate role she played as a friend and that conversation she had with Masrur. I’m conflicted about cutting out that whole boat trip bullshit though. I think it still would have worked if Ohtaka had handled it better. Like, Morgiana not babying Alibaba for just being down right rude towards her and just completely ignoring everything she said as soon as he realised it wasn’t in a romantic light, or you know just Toto getting angry for her at least because she’s the mature adult there and Mor is only like 16… she shouldn’t have to deal with that from a 20+ year old Alibaba. Also Alibaba should have apologised to her straight away. If Ohtaka handled it better then I think it could have been the start of Alibaba getting over that fixation of not being a virgin. I mean it’s a shounen manga right ?? and young teenage boys already have so much pressure on them to loose their virginity as quickly as possible to be considered a man. If Alibaba had faced that problem but overcome it then that would make him a good role model to the boys who have been reading Magi for a long time… but eh, the shounen genre isn’t really at the forefront of breaking down gender roles. Kinda sad that all the changes to the early plans of Magi ended up turning it into a shounen. I think this manga would have been a lot lot better and more popular if it was limited by those genre barriers.
And then more hints to the Fanalis sub plot !!!!! WOOOOO !!!!!!!!!!
Then mostly everything afterwards is the Alma Torran arc– but after that…..
://///
Why didn’t Morgiana go with Aladdin and Alibaba to see Hakuryuu? They both played a relatively large role in their character development/story lines… I thought it would be important for her to be there too. I really don’t understand why she didn’t go. I mean it’s not like we even got a logical explanation as to why she didn’t. Nope, it’s just Morgiana being pushed out of the Team Zagan/Aladdin and Alibaba dynamics again unless it’s to do with romance… which is shit. I would have made her go with them. I wanted Hakuryuu to see her and how different she was from the coy, crying image he created while in Belial. I wanted her to play that intermediate role between Alibaba and Hakuryuu since she was so obviously watching those two carefully while in Sindria. I’m sure she would have noticed that he was avoiding accepting help from his friends like Alibaba did in Balbadd. I’m sure Aladdin did to and I’m sure Alibaba did after he was dead and gained 100+ years of wisdom. I wanted to see how they all grew together as friends through that and got over their strained departure but we didn’t !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m still so mad about that !!!!!!
Yeah, instead we got her appearing for one chapter to address, yes, romance, once again. Because that’s all she matters for amongst Team Zagan: the Love Triangle. I’m glad at least she very passively aggressively told Hakuryuu off and told him to take responsibility for what he’s done, and that she will be there to make sure he does because he needed that.
Ehh… post time skip stuff…. I’m not sure how I would rewrite Morgiana because I would probably also want to rewrite a lot of the whole arc so far. I mean there’s lots of rumours going around about Ohtaka being rushed or whatever… but even if she is or not, Magi needs more than one more arc to be finished logically and to address all the plot holes that have been created now.
AND WHAT HAPPENED TO THE FANALIS SUB PLOT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! all that build up and it was just wrapped up in the time skip ??? I was super super unhappy about that.
No, I’m just super super unhappy about Morgiana’s treatment this whole arc.I think everything that happened in the time skip should have had it’s own arc both to show the wrapping up of the Fanalis sub plot, actually give more material for people to see how Hakuryuu has grown to be a better person and make up for his mistakes, how the world changed so rapidly and how Aladdin, Hakuryuu and Mor tried to deal with Kou’s standing in it all, and I personally would have liked to see more of Judal and Alibaba’s adventure’s together on panel (and Ohtaka could have built on the whole David thing I guess??).
I don’t think I have anything else to say about it really… I’m just over all upset about everything to do with Morgiana this arc (which is little and limited, again, to romance and not really a direct influence on the larger plot).
hakuryuukun replied to your post “looking at the spoiler page im hoping its just a comparison to...”
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but jump-netabare (the main source for written magi spoilers) updated with info about 314 and it's...horrible.
yeah i just saw the spoilers and
: ^ ))))
i expected if it was going to happen, it would be unrealistically fast and awkward as hell but married ??
fucking m arried
when am i even going to see alibaba apologise to morgiana for just seeing her as a free girlfriend option at first and not just because it was morgiana he probably only thought of her because she’s the only girl willing to go out with him since he was still complaining about everyone else already having a family or relationship before him
why i like them: In my opinion Kougyoku is one of the best (if not the best) developed female characters in magi. She so much more than just another pretty princess. She’s a fighter, fiercely protective of her loved ones, has both dreams and demons to deal with and a genuinely good heart.
why i don’t: I don’t like some wasted material about her, like for example how anti-climatic her being possessed by Zepar turned out to be.
favorite episode/scene: the flower crown scene between her and Alibaba.
favorite season/movie/arc: The Second Sindria arc where we got to know her better.
favorite line: her whole speech in front of the Kou soldiers was an inspirational one.
otp: Alibaba x Kougyoku
favorite platonic relationships: I really love her relationship with Koubun because it’s funny and cute at the same time. Then, I also love her friendship with Judal (which is a bit underdeveloped in the recent arcs so fingers crossed we’ll see more of them) and also her scenes with Kouha during the Kou civil war arc were just lovely <3
head canon: I’d like to think now that Koumei is also living in the palace that Kougyoku will spend some quality time with her older brother.
unpopular opinion: I know many fans are upset about it but personally I’m okay with Kougyoku not being the greatest leader. After all, she only recently became the Empress and she was never trained or wished to be in such position. She still has time to improve her leadership skills. What really matters in my opinion is that she has the will to work hard to serve her kingdom, like every good leader should do.
fairy tail. the plots were repetitive to me and i couldn’t get past how sexualised all the female characters were in every single episode. like i can deal with a little bit because its rare to come across any anime that doesn’t have some level of fan service but..... fairy tail took it waaaay to far for me. it just made me too uncomfortable to watch, especially when a lot of it was lucy being sexually harassed for ‘comedy relief’. and the fandom defending the mangaka for it just put me off more. you can like a series while still being critical of it, you know ?? i hate how pretty much all of ohtaka’s female characters have the same big hipped body shape and her clothing choices for some of them ( i think you can guess which girls yourself.... ) but at least her story isn’t just a rinse and repeat of the ‘power of friendship!!!!!!’ each arc
