Escaflowne Least favorite character?

So... we've got a favorite characters thread, a favorite pairings thread... but no threads where we can complain about who we loathe the most? How fair is that? XD

I don't know what it is about the series, but it seems to have a lot of "love 'em or hate 'em" characters - and in many cases, if you like one character, you're almost guaranteed to dislike another (Dilandau fans hate Van, Allen fans hate Dryden, Hitomi fans hate Merle...).

Personally... When I was first introduced to the series, I really hated Hitomi. XD She struck me as whiny and irritating, her swooning over Allen bothered me, and I wanted her to go away and give me more screentime with the Zaibach characters. But... I grew out of that. I realized that a lot of the reason I disliked her was because of the fandom itself - it seemed that no one was neutral about her, and so I needed to "choose a side." I'm certainly not a big fan of Hitomi, so I had been siding with the people who were hoping she'd take a long walk off a short cliff. Once I figured out the reason I disliked her, and after meeting a Hitomi fan who was very intelligent and realistic in her portrayal of the character through roleplay, I actually decided that Hitomi's not so bad.

Millerna... I definitely don't like Millerna. XD It's not that she doesn't have her good qualities - it's just that they show up really, really late in the series, when she's starting to mature. By that point, most people have already been so biased against her that any amount of good behavior on Millerna's part still can't salvage her image. I just... eh. I wish she'd grown up a few episodes sooner.

Celena Schezar - I have a serious problem with her. ^^; I know, I know - you're either wondering how I can hate a character who barely has any screentime, or you're assuming I have issues with her because Dilandau is my favorite character. Actually... the reason I don't like Celena is because of what the fandom turns her into. In the series, she's almost a non-character - we don't KNOW what kind of person she is, whether she's like Dilandau or has retained anything from him, nothing. And this makes her an open door for Mary Sues. The amount of bad fanfiction and the number of horrible roleplayers I've seen who choose Celena as a vessel for what is essentially their own original character is staggering. The lack of canon information about the poor girl means that people can and will do whatever they want with her. She's also very popular... which I really don't understand, because, HELLO, she has maybe two minutes of screentime that don't involve her acting like a zombie and trying to eat snails.

 

Actually, I viewed Celena as being very childlike, although that is mostly due to the snail scene (I swear, kids will try to eat anything). I haven't encountered too many Mary Sue-possessed Celenas, but I don't read a whole lot of Escaflowne fanfiction. Your view of Celena is very interesting.

Anyway, getting back on topic, my least favorite character is Allen. I will admit that my initial dislike of him arose from my desire to see Hitomi with Van, but that wore off after a while. What really fueled my dislike for him was his attitude towards women. I know that he had the trauma of losing both his sister and his mother at a young age, but he is just a little bit too protective. His comment to Hitomi about the birdcage put me in a rage for about an hour. Also, his initial presentation as the "perfect, noble warrior" annoyed me as well. I hate that kind of character. Poor thing never had a chance with me.

(Sorry if none of this makes sense. I only slept for about two hours last night. :dizzy2: )

 

I take that view as well. I think Celena's still mentally five or six years old - wherever she was when the Madoushi created Dilandau. She certainly doesn't do anything in the series to imply that she retained anything from Dilandau - not memories, not skills, not temperament. Although, about the snail scene... Up until the supposedly final regression at the end of the series, I don't think we were even really seeing Celena. A five-year-old knows better than to eat a snail. It's toddlers who do that kind of thing. I don't think Celena had really come back to herself in that scene. That was more like... an absence of self, like the body was just an empty shell that neither Celena nor Dilandau were really in control of; maybe Celena was in shock.

But you'd be amazed at how many fans just totally ignore all of that in their interpretations of her. -_- If I see one more "Celena has all of Dilandau's skills and NONE of his flaws!" fic, I'll scream. I really will. If people insist on integrating them, they should damned well do it believably and stop making Celena so perfect.

Oddly, it's that stuff that actually convinced me to like Allen. XD I loathed him early in the series - he was way, way too perfect at first, and it was just obnoxious. But then, as time goes on, that veneer starts to peel off... and you see that Allen is really pretty screwed up. I liked that. It made him real for me - his sexist behavior, his overprotectiveness, that business with Marlene, his inability to stop looking for his sister (sure, it paid of, but that was the exception to the rule - and it led to some pretty messed up attempts at relationships along the way, heh), it all made Allen feel like a real person to me. I'd probably hate him if I met him in real life, but that doesn't matter. As a fictional character, I think he's wonderful because he's so flawed.