A brief defense of Mia

[amielleon]

Bear with me here -- Mia, despite harkening from the Tellius Age Of Loads Of Text, has an appeal that's clearer upon Jugdral-esque levels of scrutiny. She's got her recruitment in FE9, a line in a cutscene in FE10, three sets of FE9 supports (one of which is entirely played for laughs), and one base conversation in each game. Which seems like a lot, until you realize that a lot of it overlaps the same material, and the most compelling part of her is outside of that.

So here's the thing: I think Mia is a really remarkable Female Character. And maybe this is a little unfair of me, because part of what made me realize this was seeing her speech style in the Japanese.

The very first lines you get from her are these:

・・・とと、ここにも
デイン兵がうじゃうじゃいるよ。▼
えーっと、出口は・・・って、あれ？
なんで戦いが起こってんだろ。▼

Never mind what it says (it's just about how there are soldiers everywhere and there's a fight blah blah) -- she's using the kind of casual speech normally reserved for men. That's how Mia talks -- casual, blunt, equal. Feminine speech tends to be formal (read: subservient) or "softened", and Mia will have none of that.¹ At the same time, she's not disowning her femininity: she uses the personal pronoun atashi, the only pronoun which is strictly feminine.

To be sure, matching up to the men is something consciously on her mind. After being overcompensatingly aggressive with Largo, she admits in a self-aware moment, "I've got something to prove." And why shouldn't it be? Between princesses passed over for uncles and Greil passing his art down to only one of his children, Tellius is a place where these norms are still in place, especially (I'd expect) among rough lower-class men whom she must have made her company with. Yeah, her claim to power doesn't come as naturally and elegantly as Nailah's. But I think that's part of what makes Mia endearing. Nailah scoffs at sexism and puts it beneath her concern. Mia actively engages with it. Both narratives are compelling.

But I think what really makes me believe in Mia as a good Female Character rather than an attempt at one is that she's given a story of growth normally given to men. So she's overcompensating, so she's worked hard as a woman in her position -- that's not the only story she has going for her.

In criticizing Libra, people mention (correctly) that first impressions shape a character greatly, and Libra's very recruitment decided to pull out the I'm-not-a-woman gag. Well, look at Mia's introduction and, more notably, its follow-up. She owes Greil for the help, it's true, but she makes her decision because Ike's bunch are the underdogs. Because they're standing their ground in a rough spot. Because of a warrior's honor.

Mia
Oooh! Times... Times like this... I never have any idea what I'm supposed to say. None! Uh, dam! Hold on. Yesterday...in the middle of that giant mess, you didn't give up, Boss. And I knew. That is how a true man lives! So now I have to follow you. You see?

The choice of "man" in the localization　is not incidental. (Jp: 諦めなかった大将を見て思ったんだ。▼ / これこそ男の生き様だ・・・って！) But gendered language aside, she's essentially joining because she has a lot of respect for how well Ike sticks to what a warrior should be, and out of that respect she fights for him. (This dynamic continues through RD, where all we hear about Mia is that she continues to enjoy fights with Ike because neither of them go easy on each other, and that's just how they like it.²)

Think back to Zelgius and Levail, Shihiram and Haar, and others in the series who aren't coming to me right now. Loyalty to one's superior out of admiration for their moral principles is a very masculine narrative. When you have loyal women (Selena and Vigarde, Titania and Greil, even Cecelia and Roy, and arguably little uke waifu Soren and Ike) there's just about always a personal incentive, by which I mean she's in love with him.

For what we're given, Mia isn't. Unlike the aforementioned, she never moons over Ike, can't marry him, and never expresses any particular affection toward his self. She respects his manly warrior spirit -- that's what canon gives us.

Actually, maybe this is why Ike/Mia is so unduly popular. It's dissonant to see a female character express loyalty to a guy without it somehow being romantic. Better to shove Mia back into a trope that she so wonderfully defies.

---

¹ In RD she does have a set of "polite" support lines, but it's reserved exclusively for when she's talking to royalty -- ie, it's situational, rather than part of how she usually talks to people.

² Alas, the same thing cannot be said of Mist and Titania who (per both the Japanese and English scripts) like to whine about it afterwards.

Comments

[mark_asphodel]

That's a pretty compelling defense of her character. I might not like the execution of the concept, but that definitely makes it unfair to compare her to, say, Ilyana.

[amielleon]

I'd lump her in closer to Ulki or something -- she's unfortunately got little role in the plot itself and she's quite static across the two-year gap, and in RD itself.

[mark_asphodel]

I think the part I like best is your point that Ike/Mia shippers are essentially violating her core characterization.

[amielleon]

Hahahaha.

What else is new.

[kyusil]

Interesting article. Do we call these articles? I never hated Mia (and didn't really understand that sentiment in the first place), so it's cool to see an analysis of her on a deeper level.

Also, obligatory FE6 comment, but I wouldn't be so quick to lump Roy and Cecilia in as primarily (or hell, even necessarily) romantic... the overwhelming vibe I get from their interactions is that the developers slapped an ending on there at the last minute for lulz. If anything, the balance of personal loyalty goes the other direction from how you had it-- Roy still sees Cecilia as his superior. When Cecilia saves Roy in Ostia, she says it's because it's the most advantageous move for Etruria. Roy's endeavor to rescue Cecilia takes him a lot further out of the way and appears driven mainly by concern (although there probably weren't too many other options, either).

[amielleon]

I would like Roy and Cecilia's interactions so much if that marriage option didn't exist. :/ But then he rescues her (ie, she's in trouble/vulnerable and he's her savior) and then he can marry her and... blah. It bothers me. something something feminism.

[kyusil]

I just chalk it up to developer idiocy and ignore the fact that it exists, honestly. Their dynamic is wonderful aside from the ending, which just seems incredibly OOC for both of them-- and it's not like FE endings have a history of being, uhm, terribly accurate. I wouldn't want a silly thing like that to taint either character for me-- don't throw away the whole apple for one spot, you know?

[amielleon]

Well, you may have a point there -- FE6's marriages were harkening back to FE4's free-for-all in a sense. Still, the rescuing happens either way. Despite Cecilia being Roy's sensei and all, by the time you get her in-game you get this sense of the pupil surpassing the teacher and I very much feel like Roy is dominant thereon.

[kyusil]

Their supports would come second to Cecilia's recruitment either way, and she ends those by telling him they're equals. I don't get a sense of dominance (from Roy in any sense, tbh, he's very deferential) so much as Cecilia just dropping out of the plot (FE6 frankly sucks at character integration into the main script... hence Lilina in 4 chapters and Merlinus in, uhm, all of them).

[raphiael]

Not gonna lie - I was mildly annoyed by Mia when I played. It was really the rabid slobbering fandom around her that made me want nothing to do with the character. So it's less "I hate Mia" and more "I hate most people who vocally 'love' Mia."

Also I agree on Cecilia - that struck me as less "and then she falls in love with Roy" and more a thing I could see being a political move.

[kyusil]

Ah, yeah. Makes sense. I tend to feel a little more sorry for those characters, but that might stem from some of my favorites being consistently maligned by fandom. Maybe the answer here is for somebody to write a solid Ike-Mia friendship piece to show fandom it can be done. :B

that struck me as less "and then she falls in love with Roy" and more a thing I could see being a political move.

Which pretty much sums up my thoughts on all but like, 2 of Roy's paired endings. Roy/Cecilia is a little more egregious-- aside from the age thing-- because (like Lilina) she's got more political influence than he does, all things considered, so he should end up in Etruria in that case-- especially since so much of Cecilia's motivation revolves around restoring her country.

/hijacking a Tellius thread to talk about FE6, oops. how very typical. OTL

[amielleon]

(no please continue)

[kyusil]

(<3)

(maybe I will finish one of my 9 million metas someday)

[raphiael]

If I like a character to begin with, the fandom usually doesn't sway me. If anything, annoying fandom around something I like will make me post about it more - see: Eirika, Lyon. But if I don't like something, it goes the other way, usually. Things I like and then dislike tend to be based mostly on the things themselves and realizations about them.

Yeah, I agree. Pherae's kind of a dinky little march in the grand scheme of things, but I guess Cecilia's heritage isn't really touched on. She's a general, he's a general; outside Etruria being a juggernaut, they could in theory be on equal footing.

...But now I really want a post-FE6 "AU" with Roy dealing with Life In Etruria, hhhhhhhh good.

[kyusil]

After writing that support set I am 150% down for Roy/Clarine fic.

is it bad that about half the FE6 pairings I like are crack

[rosage]

Interesting analysis. I always liked that the PoR base convo provided Mia's reason for following Ike, and that it had to do with respect for him as a leader/person, though I didn't catch the masculine undertones. There was never enough else there for me to care much about her, but I guess I'm mostly neutral on her overall.

(I never liked, however, that Titania is canonly stated as complaining that Ike doesn't go easy on her. I mean, c'mon, this is Titania we're talking about. Though, remembering her devotion Greil started with being turned on by his battle skills during training makes me think that if both Titania and Greil were younger they'd be more similar what fandom seems to think Ike/Mia is than Ike/Mia itself, so your explanation for it being shipped makes sense (and is a shame)).

((...Battle smang-based devotion is now making me think of Almedha and then my brain supplied Almedha/Titania and wow I'm sorry I'm sleep-deprived.))

[amielleon]

((Your sleep-deprived brain comes up with some scary yuris.))

[rosage]

((One time being awake and on skype at 1 am made me apply the Titania-being-into-smangsparring logic to actually writing and posting Titania/Nailah smangspar fic so
yeah.
Titania/Almedha adds an amusing dimension to Titania's trying to mommy Soren, though :P))