To the two people for whom this is repetitive, I’m sorry.
I realize everyone is entitled to their precious opinions, and I don’t expect this to change anything - but at the same time, I’m sick of seeing this crap floating around and I get to air my grievances, too.
Soul is a character who’s grown so much and risked so much and shown such intense loyalty and changed so much and people reduce him to a couple of stupid comments he made out of emotional confusion when he was even younger than he is at the end of the series.
Soul gave everything he physically, psychologically, emotionally could to Maka, devoted himself to her vision for the world, stood by her whether she was breaking the rules or being targeted. And though he’d crank about the little chores sometimes, he clearly fell into his role with her naturally and was glad to do it. And then people decide he has some kind of misogynistic problem with her because of a couple of those same stupid, fleeting comments.
I’ve also seen people mention the Black Blood a couple of times. They seem to hold Soul responsible for what he did under the influence of the Black Blood, when it’s literally a foreign substance that will give you superpowers while it exploits your insecurities to hijack your mind. People who are overtaken by Black Blood are not themselves. It’s not just another substance that lowers your inhibitions - it changes you. People have fallen irretrievably to far less intimate madness, and meanwhile, Soul pulled himself out of the Black Blood through the power of his own insight. I could write an entire post about this, but I think it’s satisfactory to say for now that it’s ridiculously unfair to suggest that little episode shows some kind of innate malice.
Generally, when people are making snide comments about Soul’s fans, they like to imply that our investment is somehow silly or shallow, that we’re just sitting here fetishizing white hair and pianos. That’s wrong. Soul is a character who represents, among other things, the human ability to climb out of doubt, and who emphasizes the importance of connections to others (pretty literally, by the end of the series, with the spider web powers).
He’s also kind of scary on the outside - unnatural appearance, appetite for human souls, surly demeanor - but actually demonstrates intense loyalty, concern, and the strong desire to be ‘good.’ Given that the universe can be a cold and frightening place sometimes, does it not make sense that people would want to latch onto a character with those qualities - prickly on the outside, soft on the inside? It’s nice to believe that not everything that looks scary really is.
While we’re at it, I’ve also seen the SoMa relationship described as “unhealthy” or “abusive.” Which is nonsense.
is mutually beneficial, that they’ve helped each other grow into more mature, stronger, better people.
That’s literally the opposite of an abusive relationship.
The slapstick humor (Maka chops) and boob jokes are generally seen as the offenders, some evidence that there’s fundamentally an unforgivable flaw in the relationship. But these kinds of humor are practically omnipresent in shonen manga - they are, by definition, throwaway gags, unimportant and harmless to the characters in a way that the audience is assumed to know is not possible in reality (that’s basically the point of cartoons).
Man, it really is a depressing world when a few throwaway Bad Things can just make every good thing and every good pattern in a relationship null and fucking void.
It’s not that violent humor or boob jokes aren’t disturbing to many people for legitimate reasons. They are. And it makes sense to talk about that. But being sanctimonious and moralistic about what a bad character or bad relationship or stupid fandom it is? That’s just ridiculous.
It’s whatever. I just needed this to not be bottled up.
