User blog:Corbierr/Character Analysis- Mara



'Sorry I didn't post it yesterday! But you know the drill, so let's dive in!'

Season 1- Boring nerd does not deserve funny title
If you can't tell by my oh-so clever title, Season 1 Mara left very little impression on me. She wasn't a bad character, exactly...just, well, I could not manage to find an interest in her.

I should explain.

I won't go through different "parts" of the season this time, ecause Mara's "plot' was practically only Mickra and nothing else. Yeah, yeah, she had her arc with Amber and her thing with Jerome...but seriously, those things were just done to "inhance" Mickra. It was exhausting to watch. Unlike other characters who at least had genuine importance to the storyline, Mara was completely confined to her subplot and thus in the end her actions were virtually pointless. As in, much of what she did had little-to-no-effect on anything in general. Thing is, a great majority of her actions weren't important, as her entire plotline boiled down to "wants to date Mick". All the drama that happened was just done to try and keep people interested whenever it seemed she and Mick would be happy, ''because as we all know happy people cannot exist in fiction unless they are going to die or be broken in some way. Until the end, it is something to avoid at all costs. /sarcasm ''Anyways, it was practically a season two quality romance an entire year early!

So no, I will not discuss Mara's "plot", partially because it was tiring enough without disecting it, partially because of my no-romance discussing policy.

Instead, let's look at her oh-so complex characterization.

You see, Mara was a nerd. She liked an athelete. ''Brilliance! ''Okay, I am being a little harsh. Truth is, she was not a poor character, just a boring one. Like many others, she was a character in desperate need of development that never came. She was also a character that needed a lot more to do! In a show with many possible plots and relationships to exploit, Mara was severly neglected by only getting romantic drama and nothing else.

Because, let's face it people. Mara was not a bad character. Most of the time, she was genuinely nice and smart, and for all of her flaws, well... she was one of the few to ever struggle with legitimate guilt and have to genuinely work for her relationship with Mick (you know, whenever it was her who screwed up). Used to full potential, she could have been fantastic. At the very least, her friendship with people like Fabian, Alfie, and Nina could have expanded and she could have stopped being more oblivious than a pile of rocks, and maybe get a bit suspicious about Sibuna (but will not take it to the extremes Jerome did).

In general, she was OK personality wise, but plotwise, she was given the raw deal.

Maybe that's why things changed a bit in...

Season 2- The natural evolution of the human geek
If season one was pretty much a flat constant for her in terms of personality, plot and development, season 2 was the rollercoaster that ended it.

In the beginning, she was pretty much season 1 Mara. But things would soon change, starting with Mick getting the boot. This forced her to develop! When it was happening, even she seemed to subconsiously know things needed to change because she did her best to make Mick go to the sports school despite not wanting him to go. And when he was gone, she was now free to take on new plots!

...Of course, the plot she chose was more romance. But this one...this one actually made me want to watch. Not because I shipped Jara (well I kind of did back then) but because...idk, the emotions! Rather than just superfacial and on/off, their relationship actually did seem to matter and it did make me care about both Mara and Jerome. Mara, in fact, was stellar during the scenes with Jerome. Without Mick around to constantly steal her attention, she was able to be the genuinely kind and smart and caring Mara we didn't see much of in the first season. There was a few moments where she returned to her season 1 jealousy state- but that was all to enhance her subtle development. I genuinely started to become interested in her, and not just annoyed.

...Though maybe it was too subtle of a development? Truth is, the only way to really tell that she had developed was the end where she gained feelings for Jerome, and even then, that may not be development at all...HEY, HAVE THEY BEEN USING ROMANCE TO HIDE THE FACT THAT SHE DIDN'T ACTUALLY DEVELOP? I think they did! Oh my god, those bastards- I WILL KILL THEM ALL

...-cough- Anyways, even despite the questionable amount of development Mara recieved, her character was really well done this season...and she was certainly given a lot to do!

Although, none of those extra things mattered. It didn't matter that she had done the Vera article because the expulsion was immediately taken away, the ghost article didn't matter because that was dropped... nothing really mattered except what she did with Jerome! That does bug me, because no matter how good the Jara scenes may have been, there was so much wasted potential! But it makes me more annoyed than usual, because she came extremely close to Sibuna twice and still wasn't given the chance to actually find out anything or the chance to truly do anything other than help out Jerome...which was excellent and heartwarming, but NOT enough especially considering that she didn't actually escape the rut.

So, I this "rollercoaster" turned out to have been a full small hills and back to...almost static, just with a different result...

Okay, over all, she was by far at her best this season. She missed out on a lot of amazing opportunities and may or may not have developed, but I'll be damned if I lie about not loving her this season. She may not have been as exciting as some other characters, but to be honest, I'd take static-and-kind Mara over jealous-and-underused Patricia (for example) because at least her character wasn't severly damaged.

That was saved for...

Season 3- A heartbroken heartbreaker of doom
I can already hear the screams of fury.

I'm warning you, this might just be me raging and rambling and not actually analyzing. Beware.

Let's start at the beginning...

Mara was normal Mara. Seriously, she remained static, what else do I need to say? But after what happens, you'll wish she remained static... So she broke up with Jerome over...the fregetable bar thing I guess, and despite him being genuinely sorry, she did not take him back. HMMM, Mara, this sounds hypocritical. You worked just as hard to get Mick to even look at you and you did something much worse, you should not be so harsh on Jerome for having flaws! And she forgave Mick a lot faster, too.. so yeah.

So she and Joytricia formed the sisterhood around this time and she also began her relationship with Willow. TBH, I found the Marillow scenes to be funny and realistic. They would have been butting heads at first in real life as well!...but seriously, when did the two of them actually become ''friends? ''They were arguing, and then they suddenly like each-other, and...wtf? The writers couldn't have even been bothered to write a scene where they actually BECOME friends?

FUCK YOU WRITERS.

-Deep breath-

...ANYWAYS. Then she found of Jerome was cheating on her. Alright...yeah...the revenge operation began with the Anubis Sisterhood which for some reason no longer included KT and Patricia but we won't get into that. First, I was totally on Team Mara with this! Jerome deserved to be given some revenge for what he did to Mara and Willow, and the revenge was completely hilarious!

Too bad it soon diverged into...bad territory, when she decided on Operation Jerome and...I don't really need to explain what happened, right? Mara got more and more desperate and determined to destroy Jerome, far off the mark where he already was suffering from these tricks. The problem was not that she wanted her venegence, it was just the SCALE of the vegence...and...yeah, it was awful...but I do have some sympathies for her. Being cheated on is awful, and with the whole Joy thing...it really must have been another twist of the knife. But like with Nina, sympathetic does not equal good. She still did horrible things...

But unlike with Joy or Jerome, NOBODY CALLED HER OUT ON IT! SHE WAS JUST...POOF! REDEEMED! AUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

....

So yeah, that's season 3....

TOR, maybe deserves a mention. She was one of the few characters who was not ruined in the movie- in fact, I dare say she was better. Not perfect, but...SHE STOPPED BEING OBLIVIOUS AND ACTUALLY DID STUFF. That's good enough for me by season 3 standards...

Consensus / What I'd have done
Overall, Mara had genuine potential in all seasons. She had good parts in all the seasons. The issue here was simply that she never escaped the romance drama to the point where they had to ruin her personality to make it happen!

Season one, I'd have let her do more than have Mickra drama. Maybe even get suspicious of Sibuna! And I'd have expanded her friendships. Season 2, her romance with Jerome would have been the same, but she'd have actually have ended up learning about Sibuna, and maybe even helped out. Season 3...hmm...she'd have treated Jerome a bit more nicely in the beginning- actually forgiving him at least- and she'd have at the very least gotten called out on her treatment of Jerome and Joy. She would have EARNED her redemption.

'''Did you like it? What are your thoughts?'''

Vote on who should be next!

Who? Alfie Amber Eddie KT Willow Mick