Hey Hamliet! Love Your Metas! In An Earlier Meta, You'd Called Mikasa "the Thematic Core" Of The Series.

Hey Hamliet! Love your metas! In an earlier meta, you'd called Mikasa "the thematic core" of the series. Could you please elaborate on what you meant by that?

Hi! 

So, all decent stories have themes, but some stories have a thesis stated at the beginning and some state it at the end; some are interested in answers and some in questions.

Sometimes, there’s a specific character who embodies the main theme in everything they do. Not all stories have a thematic core character, and frankly many stories should not, because it can be very, very hard to challenge this character if they embody the story’s core principle. This character tends to be either a protagonist or the wise mentor archetype, also. I’ll talk about two characters whom I think embody this well, and one character whom I think does not: Tenma (Monster), Mikasa (SnK), and Deku (BNHA). 

Now, to be clear, Monster, BNHA, SnK are extremely different stories: Monster is a seinen crime drama, SnK is pessimistic and deeply psychological and philosophical; BNHA is optimistic and about superheroes. But stories don’t have to be deeply psychological nor pessimistic to unpack their main themes in well-done ways: Harry Potter is a great example of this. The closest a character comes to embodying the themes of the story (grief and love and choice) is Dumbledore, and he’s unpacked in the final story to the extent a hopeful children’s story should.

What is Monster’s thesis? All lives have value. 

What is SnK’s thesis? The world is cruel, but the world is also beautiful.

What is BNHA’s? A hero saves.

I think it’s impossible to argue that Tenma, Mikasa, and Deku don’t embody these messages in every moment of their arcs. The thing is, while most stories aren’t deconstructions, you still have to explore and unpack and challenge the character to make the theme stand out, to convince the reader of your theme. 

Monster story opens with Tenma literally being challenged on this very principle. The hospital’s top neurosurgeon, Tenma chooses to save a famous singer over a poor immigrant despite the immigrant coming to the hospital first and is confronted by the immigrant’s devastated family. Tenma then makes the opposite choice and saves a little boy over a mayor because the boy arrived first, even though the hospital orders him to prioritize the mayor. Thus, the very first chapter gives Tenma a consequence for not following his theme, and he corrects it--but this doesn’t result in a simple “everyone matters, duh.” Because that boy he saves grows up to be a serial killer, and Tenma becomes determined to stop him--even if it costs him his life and morality. Tenma himself wonders and even at times throws away his belief that all lives have value, wondering if Johan has forfeited his right to live because if they don’t execute Johan, will he ever stop? 

However, by the end of the story, Tenma goes through such a journey to understand Johan that he does indeed come to believe Johan’s life has equal value despite his crimes, and proves it by saving Johan’s life yet again in order to also save the person who tried to kill Johan (and who would then potentially lose his life in punishment). The story truly unpacks what this theme means, and why people believe it or don’t, and does so without condemning those who don’t agree. 

Mikasa is also challenged constantly. She finds moments of beauty in the middle of cruelty, like Eren wrapping the scarf around her. That moment motivates her because it showed her there was still connection, humanity, warmth, and kindness. Even when she’s relegated to the background, Mikasa is constantly challenged on her belief in cruelty and beauty and even loses sight of it at times because she puts too much of her hope/belief in beauty on one person. In the end she expands it to absolutely everyone, the entire world, including Eren. She refuses to deny her love for him, refuses to forget him as he requests, but also refuses to sacrifice the world for him. 

Do you notice a common thread between Tenma and Mikasa? It’s that your convictions matter so much as you are able to hold yourself to them, even when it costs you. Even to go back to Harry Potter, Dumbledore loses a lot of respect for his past actions, and Harry has to die. The themes are unpacked because their statements, the themes they embody, are not magical elixirs that fix their worlds. 

So, Deku. He embodies heroes save, and I don’t doubt he will succeed. But... he’s had this perspective from the first chapter and it’s not really been unpacked--the closest it came is during the War Arc, when Deku vowed to never forgive Shigaraki after he almost killed Gran Torino. But then Gran Torino is... fine. So it would be far more compelling writing if Shigaraki had actually killed Gran Torino or kills All Might because then Deku has actually something to lose; he would have something personal that he’d have to surrender to stand for this theme, to reinforce the theme. It’s easy to spout about saving everyone, but what about when that person is a murderer not just of randos, but of someone you adored? This would unlock layers of complexity in Deku that we just have never seen. Now, it's possible BNHA will unpack this more towards the end (I think it will, and I do think Deku will feel like he can’t save at some point) but it's honestly too little too late to save Deku’s writing on the whole for me. 

This is also for me why I find the Dabi/Shouto conflict more compelling even if Shigaraki is by far the best written character in the manga: because there are direct personal stakes not just for the characters but for the audience (since we know the characters affected), whereas Deku and Shigaraki’s conflict is currently symbolic and hypothetical. Shigaraki is a mass murderer, but not of anyone Deku knows. He hurt Gran Torino, but GT seems to be recovering just fine. He endangered the lives of Deku’s friends, sure, but they’re all fine. There are no long-lasting consequences to anything Shigaraki has done that actually affect Deku’s daily life, nor our perception. 

Also think of the criticism of villain stans in BNHA--that they don’t care about the randos who have been killed and who we’ve like, never seen a panel of. If the characters experience the pain of that loss, it makes the manga’s message that much more resonant and empathetic, rather than preachy. Monster did this with Tenma: he lost so much along his journey, and SnK did this with Mikasa: she lost Eren. It’s just more like... cold preaching in BNHA. That said, the good thing about BNHA, and the reason I follow and like it, is that it does seem to know what it wants to say even if it is messy about it. When a story has no idea what it wants to say, woof. 

For you what makes a book good in terms of character, plot, etc ?

In terms of what I technically think is good or in terms of like, what I enjoy? Because sometimes those overlap and sometimes those don't lol.

Basically if you think of stories like a braid, in which each element (themes, plot, worldbuilding, characters, prose) is its own strand: the tighter they braid together, the better the technical quality. If braided with great complexity and tightly woven, it tends to be very impressive; however, the stories that last the longest and stand the test of time are the ones that are woven the tightest regardless of complexity. It's why simple fairy tales last across cultures and time while exceedingly complex tales can fall apart if key strands don't last well depending on factors such as the environment, the type of hair, whether they're secured tightly enough (aka ended well), etc. I love a complex story, but give me a simple one that nails its themes and characters over one that loses sight of itself and dissolves into a tangle you'll need peanut butter to get out.

i love when a character has something terrible happen to them and as a result they see themself as, essentially if not literally, a ghost. and so that means they only can (and have to) do what ghosts do, ie get revenge and then cease to exist. easy as that. but then halfway through this ghost vengeance they realize hey actually i might still be a human person. with human needs. that’s incredibly inconvenient, considering how much i’ve invested in this whole ghost thing

Relationships that have real king/lionheart energy, that whole “I have sworn myself wholly to you, I am your sword arm, I am your dog” to someone else’s “you are the one person in this world I can rely on, and I am both bolstered and burdened by your absolute faith in me” vibe, but it’s in circumstances that are like. so low stakes. Manger of a movie theater/the one usher who doesn’t smoke weed at work.

people who don't know anything about academics: man y'all are stuffy and boring what's up with that? actual academics: *too busy fist-fighting each other over the beryllium problem or the existence of a dentistry profession in ancient egypt to reply*

I just reada really good fic but halfway through I realized "oh shit this is really familiar.... didn't I write something like this once?" And as I kept reading I kept predicting what happened next and the further I went the more convinced I was that they'd ripped off my story-

like, copied the ENTIRE plot and re-written it, just better than I had? The characters were more fleshed-out than mine were, and the POV was more interesting, and the pace made more sense- but it was MY STORY?

So close to the end I was like "holy shit.. do I message them? Ask if my story inspired theirs? Should I be angry? Flattered?" Cause their tags and description didn't mention me AT ALL, which, sure, it's fanfiction to begin with, but if you're using my work than at least credit me as inspo, right? Just to be courteous?

But I get to the end of the final chapter, and it's not finished, and I'm kind of disappointed cause I never finished my story and I was really immersed in their version now and had been looking forwards to seeing how they tied up my loose ends- so I scroll to the bottom to leave a comment, and.

It's MY URL.

IT WAS MY STORY THE WHOLE TIME.

THE ONE *I WROTE*.

In *2013*.

And FORGOT ABOUT

BECAUSE I WAS SO INSECURE ABOUT MY SLOPPY, SHALLOW, AMETEUR WRITING

And I'm just sitting here now staring into space thinking about every shitty story I've ever written now like

IT WAS ALL GOOD?

IT WAS GOOD THIS WHOLE DAMN TIME??

I'M A GOOD WRITER?????