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Many things bother me about Heores lately. This is just one of them, but it's the only one I feel compelled to write about, at least for now. This isn’t as well developed as I would like, but I’m too tired to make it more coherent.
I’ve been in a funk the last couple of days, so it’s taken me a while to articulate exactly why I hate Yaeko’s character so much, but I think I finally have it. And the reason isn’t only because she messed with the Hiro /Ando ship (though that might be enough). In Season 1, Hiro fell for Charlie, a development that I didn’t mind at all. But Charlie, unlike Yaeko, was likable for several reasons. The most important of these: she’s an actual character.
Through the course of only two episodes, Charlie managed to have more character development than Yaeko has had in five. Though this limited time didn’t allow the writers to reveal much information about Charlie, there are certain details that establish her as a distinguishable character. Through her conversations with Hiro and Ando and her interactions with her friends, we gain a good idea as to her personality and some of her interests. We grow to care about her (and are therefore saddened by her death), not just because the story demands it, but because of the subtleties and the nuance the writers have given her. She’s a perfect example of a well worked secondary character. She has only a limited role to play in the story: to give Hiro a more somber perspective of the reality of his mission and the limits of his powers. But because of the way she’s portrayed, the audience doesn’t think of her as merely a plot device, but as an actual person.
Yaeko, on the other hand, is nothing but plot device. There has been no attempts by the writers to give her any depth at all. Like other people have mentioned, she’s a stereotype of the spunky heroine who does nothing other than rush into danger and fall in love. In the rather long list of examples of bad writing that Season 2 has accumulated so far, she’s one of the top ones. She’s a secondary character that exists to fulfill only one particular purpose in the story. But unlike with Charlie, there’s no attempt to make her anything more than that. Her reason for existing couldn’t be clearer if you tattooed “lust object” on her forehead. She officially joins the ranks of the plethora of utterly forgettable female characters that are thrown into the mix to provide the obligatory het romance, which has no justification other than a perceived need TV writers seem to have to show a man and a woman snogging. This same move can be seen with Claire/West and Peter/Caitlin. I really like het pairings when they’re well worked and believable, but unfortunately, these are far from that.
The latest episode made it quite clear that Yaeko is there so that Hiro and Kensei, the two male characters of the storyline, come into conflict with each other. That’s it. I marvel that the team that showed such a good grasp at characterization can’t manage to make her look better than a Mary Sue. Now don’t get me wrong. I love to watch the male characters interact; I wouldn’t be a slasher otherwise. But I am so tired of seeing female characters used as little more than decoration instead of being developed into well rounded characters with a real stake in the story.
I’ve been in a funk the last couple of days, so it’s taken me a while to articulate exactly why I hate Yaeko’s character so much, but I think I finally have it. And the reason isn’t only because she messed with the Hiro /Ando ship (though that might be enough). In Season 1, Hiro fell for Charlie, a development that I didn’t mind at all. But Charlie, unlike Yaeko, was likable for several reasons. The most important of these: she’s an actual character.
Through the course of only two episodes, Charlie managed to have more character development than Yaeko has had in five. Though this limited time didn’t allow the writers to reveal much information about Charlie, there are certain details that establish her as a distinguishable character. Through her conversations with Hiro and Ando and her interactions with her friends, we gain a good idea as to her personality and some of her interests. We grow to care about her (and are therefore saddened by her death), not just because the story demands it, but because of the subtleties and the nuance the writers have given her. She’s a perfect example of a well worked secondary character. She has only a limited role to play in the story: to give Hiro a more somber perspective of the reality of his mission and the limits of his powers. But because of the way she’s portrayed, the audience doesn’t think of her as merely a plot device, but as an actual person.
Yaeko, on the other hand, is nothing but plot device. There has been no attempts by the writers to give her any depth at all. Like other people have mentioned, she’s a stereotype of the spunky heroine who does nothing other than rush into danger and fall in love. In the rather long list of examples of bad writing that Season 2 has accumulated so far, she’s one of the top ones. She’s a secondary character that exists to fulfill only one particular purpose in the story. But unlike with Charlie, there’s no attempt to make her anything more than that. Her reason for existing couldn’t be clearer if you tattooed “lust object” on her forehead. She officially joins the ranks of the plethora of utterly forgettable female characters that are thrown into the mix to provide the obligatory het romance, which has no justification other than a perceived need TV writers seem to have to show a man and a woman snogging. This same move can be seen with Claire/West and Peter/Caitlin. I really like het pairings when they’re well worked and believable, but unfortunately, these are far from that.
The latest episode made it quite clear that Yaeko is there so that Hiro and Kensei, the two male characters of the storyline, come into conflict with each other. That’s it. I marvel that the team that showed such a good grasp at characterization can’t manage to make her look better than a Mary Sue. Now don’t get me wrong. I love to watch the male characters interact; I wouldn’t be a slasher otherwise. But I am so tired of seeing female characters used as little more than decoration instead of being developed into well rounded characters with a real stake in the story.
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From:
no subject
Also, I'd like to add that Yaeko? Is a fucking Mary Sue. First of all, the only "princesses" in Japan are the direct descendants of the imperial family. Which I HIGHLY doubt a swordsmith's daughter would be (since swordsmiths would land in either the artisan or merchant class, and to be a princess, the swordsmith would have had to not be a swordsmith, but the emperor or his brother).
Not only that, but women of her era fought with nagatana (sp), NOT with katana or murasame. Her ability to wield a katana/murasame makes her a Sue as a result, since women of her time were actually trained with nagatana (and were experts at using them) and not in fighting with a longer sword.
Never mind her ability to understand the nonstandard Japanese Kensei is using and overlook his being a gaijin, AND her ability to somehow understand and accept Hiro's modern Japanese.
I could go on forever, but this makes anyone who knows ANYTHING about Japanese history want to headdesk. Someone fired their betas.
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I am so jealous of your knowledge of Japanese history. My college only has one class on Asia and I haven't had time yet to learn much on my own. I'd probably be screaming about that do if I could spot the anachronisms. I have that problem with the Pirates movies, which I love, but seriously, the writers don't seem to know the first thing about the time period. They did their research on the internet, for god's sake.
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WORD.
Even TV Guide "we never met a love interest we hated" has called out some of the more glaring stuff, and honestly, seeing the less-glaring-to-anyone-but-me stuff is worse. Heroes is even worse than PotC in that regard since, really, you could find out a lot of Japanese history information on the internet (due to the internet population being, in general, much more interested in Japan than in the 17th century Caribbean). Even fucking WIKIPEDIA would have helped them avoid some of the worse errors.
Maybe it's just me, but I have a distinct feeling that Masi Oka's input into the character isn't there this season. . .
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I wonder how much these professional writers are getting paid for this mediocre stuff. Whatever it is, it's completely undeserved.
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The only thing worse is Peter getting laid. And not just laid, but driving home what a 'manly stud' he seems to be. Urgh.
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Peter's storyline is another one that bothers me enormously. I'm really hoping that we move on to much better stuff fast, because it's driving me crazy.
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I like Peter. But the boy is not so bad-ass, and shouldn't be SO IMPORTANT. Hiro, Claire and Peter are all turning out disappointing this season. SIGHS, it's just all been so OOC.
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The writers took a wonderful opportunity with the Kensei stories and completely wasted it. What's worse, though, is that they've dragged down Hiro's character with the shoddy story telling. He is completely unconcerned about the present, despite the fact that when he last saw Peter, Peter was glowing ominiously and near a melt down. We've seen no evidence of culture shock or homesickness outside of the one liners about Ando in the first episode or so. He's lost much of his enthusiasm and has become a petulant mooner who is so blinded by love (for a woman he really only knows as an ARCHETYPE)that he doesn't have a care about his friendship with Kensei or the freaking SPACE/TIME CONTINUUM.
It would have been more fitting and in character, I think, for Hiro to immediately fess up to what he did. Instead, he acted like nothing happened until he was called out on it. I *hate* people like that, and it bothers me to no end that Hiro's going that way. Over a SUE.
The 'two guys become enemies over the love of a woman' thing is tired and cliche. Yaeko makes things even worse. She has no history, no backstory, no personality. The writers have failed to make us care about her, and worse, they've failed to show us why Hiro *and* Kensei care about her. I have a fanwanked theory that Hiro is merely projecting his love for Charlie onto the person he grew up thinking of as the 'perfect woman.' He doesn't really love Yaeko, he loves the *idea* of her. I think the same could be said of Kensei, as he didn't really show any interest in her until Hiro said he should.
I....went off on a tangent. ;P Sorry about that.
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The collecting scrolls thing also struck me as pointless. I think they're using it to waste time while they advance their other storylines, most of which are, unfortunately, also lame. I don't understand why White Beard's threat to kill her was such a big deal. I mean, she's got an unkillable bodyguard! They should have just taken her father and be done with it.
Considering that the Kensei story is a legend, one would expect to find major discrepancies between it and the reality. They've only shown one: that Yaeko isn't really a princess. Of course, people shouldn't be able to come back from the dead either, but that's not the point.
Hiro should be experiencing a major case of culture shock no matter how much Japanese history he happens to know. And shouldn't people notice that he sounds very strange? The language must have changed quite a bit in over 300 years. Even for a network tv show, it's too unrealistic.
I really don't understand why Hiro and Kensei are so enthralled by her. I like your theory that Hiro is infatuated by the idea of the mythological princess. There really is nothing else to fall in love with. And it's just impossible to believe that Kensei, who until this moment didn't give a shit about her, is suddenly in love because some guy from the future told him that it was meant to be. It's all just so stupid.
From: (Anonymous)
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At first I don't really know why I'm kinda sick of Yaeko, she's just disturbing and... what, not clear?
But you, you, my good friend, has explained it all!
You know, if only David Anders didn't play that role and Hiro wasn't there, I would've hated that part of the story. They just seem like nonsense. Like a fairytale. I mean, WHITE BEARD (even the name freaks me out of how lame it is). Scrolls. Princesses. Dragons. wtf dragons? SWORD SMITH'S DAUGHTER? OH GOD. And it became a legend? It'll be more understandable if it were just a mere fairytale in Heroes. It was sooo cliched. But no it wasn't. That's why it sucks.
Yaeko is like a puppet to me O_o or something, I don't know. She just ran around, being rescued, yada yada yada. And I agree with you, she ain't a real person!! Oh man, I love reading your comments xD I hear she's appearing in season 3... No way.
~13 year old kid from Asia
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holy carp
*grins* Was that an accident or on purpose?
Yes, it would have been much better if they'd kept it as a fairytale. The story worked well in the first season where it could be interpreted as something merely symbolic, but then they had to equate it to reality, which makes absolutely no sense.
She is a puppet. She's a cardboard cutout with no personality and no other purpose than to be a walking cliché.
I've heard that, too. It pisses me off so much. There's no way they can make it work. Haven't these people learned anything?!