Quote:
Originally Posted by Alhazred
That is not what counts as her 'development' because that is indeed pretty thin on the ground; it is, however, a minimally sufficient rebuttal to your constant harping that Mirage never shows effort to become a better pilot as compared to Hayate and Freyja's shining examples of struggle and triumph. She doesn't just mope and feel sorry for herself while other characters strive to better themselves, as you have repeatedly claimed. She just doesn't get any screen time to show to showcase her efforts. So yes, she hasn't made a mark for herself in the story thus far, but it's not the character's fault for lack of trying.
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I'm not blaming the character, I'm blaming her
abysmal writing: that's why I stated she's poorly characterized. I came to the show predisposed to love Mirage, dislike Freyja and be indifferent to Hayate and the show made me love Freyja, think Mirage's presence superfluous and Hayate became from my most disliked character to one of my favorite in the course of the first 5 episodes. A single short, throw away scene which is so unmemorable cannot really successfully cast Mirage as a "hard worker with lots of determination" when they put far more stretched and focused scenes for her co-protagonists, and using their POVs (Mirage scene was a cutscene of something Chuck said to just salt how underused she is). The scenes when she broods, on the other hand, are more empathized than that one which is the lingering impression her character presents. Her other screen time is about her failures and Hayate.
I'm not sure what they'll do with her if Kawamori believes she has no skill in piloting because of some ridiculous genetic excuse. What's the point of all this then? The hard working and determination angle does not work so well when it was never something they made emphasis on this. And now, a few second scene isn't "emphasis." I think the worst decision they could have done with her character is making her a fellow pilot if they wanted Hayate to be a special ace kind of character because that means she cannot match or overshadow him, if she does, she'll be killed (like Messer). Freyja didn't have this issue because her storyline served as parallel which complemented Hayate's, while Mirage floating around without any direction so far and that's
bad writing.
(There's the follow your heart's content storyarc that could salvage this but I'm no longer optimistic about how they'll develop it).
It's not just about her personal growth: They didn't even let her showcase other bonds or deepen other relationships besides Hayate's. The scenes she had with Kaname were just exposition of Kaname to her. While Freyja had Mikumo (and her people) and Hayate had Messer (and Delta Squad in general).
Secondly, what also hurts her is that Delta is intesily a plot-ridden show (Frontier was more character-focused one, IMO) and she doesn't really contribute so far to the main plot like her co protagonist future Keith's rival and Freyja. So this hurts whatever storyarc she might have.