Reflection and Analysis

Sirius the Jaeger - Yuliy/Ryouko (3/18/2019)

Someone told me they don't understand why the pairing between Yuliy and Ryouko isn't popular, but I get it.

She's unfortunately not a well-liked character in fandom, but her haters say:

- She's annoying.

- She's useless.

- They don't like her type of character.

- She's a stalker.

- She's a Mary Sue.

They never though go into why they think these things, but what they say about her character says more about them than it does her character.

She's apparently annoying.

Why do they think she's annoying? I think the fact she gets in the way of their preferred shipping choice.

The most popular heterosexual pairing in the fandom is to pair Yuliy up with an OC. If the author only writes stories which feature an OC there is a high chance, they are self-inserting, but Ryouko is a threat because she is in fact not an ideal. She is in effect a truly plain character and not just some girl whining about being a Plain Jane. Not once does she ever complain about being normal compared to the rest of the characters, but girls self-inserting themselves would rather be an amazing Jaeger who can kick vampire butt yet completely ignore the fact as a Jaeger they would be prejudiced against Yuliy because of his Sirius blood, whereas Ryouko doesn't have that influence.

Then you have those who think het is boring. The phrase "het is boring" is typically used by slash fangirls to hide the fact they've a shipping fetish which involves gay men, but also hide the fact they think slash is a form of rebellion. They also lie to themselves about being supportive of LGBT despite not being LGBT themselves, but in reality they use the LGBT agenda as shipping agenda. They don't want to admit either they pick their pairings based on how hot the characters look with each other rather than whether they have any chemistry romantically. They don't want to admit they're construing friendship between two men and even brotherly affection as having some kind of romantic connotations.

She's apparently useless.

Most, if not all of her hate stems from shipping and the fact she is in the way of getting paired with Yuliy. Some of the hate comes from perceiving her normalness among the abnormal as being useless. It doesn't matter to them that she tries being useful only to fail because of her own limitations. It doesn't matter that her character is highly realistic for her age and time frame, because they of course want something more.

They want a Mary Sue.

In effect, they wanted her to be a Mary Sue, what they claim her to actually be. They want her to do something which is outside of her current capabilities, but also outside what is expected of a female of the time. No, expecting her to break from the social conventions of the time overnight is not pro-feminism, but ignores the historical strives women have fought for in order to become recognized as strong individuals. She's far from being a Mary Sue, but is instead ordinary.

In some ways this is a reflection of internal misogamy brought about by a society which constantly tells girls they're not pretty enough, or smart enough, or good enough. That someone whose not the prettiest girl or even the strongest girl stands a chance with someone as amazing as Yuliy completely floors them, but here is where she was useful. She wasn't afraid of who Yuliy was and accepted him for who he was. She didn't discriminate based on him being a best like Philip did or any female Jaeger of similar age would. She also stands the potential to grow into a strong woman who can support him as well if the series were to continue, meaning she'd no longer be "useless".

She's not a stalker.

Except she's not. Neither is Hinta from Naruto for that matter, though I do agree that how Hinata got with Naruto was wrong. The definition of a stalker is, "a person who harasses or persecutes someone with unwanted and obsessive attention." While it is true that Hinata does watch Naruto from a distance and this can be seen as obsessive, simply watching is not actually giving the person attention. In Hinata's case she's a very shy female who is unable to approach her crush. Nothing more, nothing less. In Ryouko's case her attention is not obsessive. In fact, she's openly in denial of her feelings for Yuliy, but her main focus isn't getting together with him. Instead, it is in helping him.

The kicker here is I've found some of those who label Ryouko and Hinta as stalkers tend to ship Juvia from the Fairy Tail series with Grey despite the fact she is a stalker. Apparently the key element to identifying a stalker is the watching from a distance without the person knowing when it is not. This completely ignores the "unwanted and obsessive attention" part and the fact Grey was majorly turned off regarding these elements. A few claim her "stalker" behavior stopped, but in reality it didn't

So...

Ryouko's not a bad character, but a lot of the hate is unwarranted if not an outright misunderstanding of her character.