User blog:Corbierr/Character Analysis- Nina



Sorry I didn't do this last week, but I'm refreshed and ready to blog!

This time- NINA MARTIN.



Season One- Coming to England to be a normal protagonist
Nina in season one is a little hard to talk about, and let me explain why. Not only did she hardly have any character development, her personality was average and standard for a protagonist. Let me explain.

She was the classic fish-out-of-water character in the beginning, the classic character archetype that many, many stories use as an easy way to make us symapthize and identify with the protagonist. These characters are often needed to make us understand the world in the story, as they are just starting to understand it too. It's a good tool to use, but it should be necessary. This does not make Nina a bad character at all and takes nothing away from her character, let me make that clear. But usually in this situations, the craziness has already begun when the protagonist joins, making the learning part needed. Nina's situation happened because of the fact she arrived, which means that there was craziness, but there was nothing to learn about the plot or problem, partly because it was a freaking mystery, partly because the entire problem she had to deal with at first was just "Joy is gone, Patricia blames her". There was nothing to learn, exactly. Which isn't always a bad thing, after all, we can still sympathize and understand her because she's new and confused and curious and so are we, in terms of coming into the show. But in situations where the character's sudden new life does not actually have a huge problem that neither they nor the audience knew about beforehand, it should be balanced by making the protagonist unique and engaging.

Nina was not unique and engaging. Again, not that she was poorly written. But she was the standard protagonist- she was kind, she had her appropriotely tragic backstory with her parents being dead (a pretty standard trope in general for protagonists especially), she was the fish-out-of-water, and she had a bunch of new friends with interesting personalities to balance her out and develop her. Again, these protagonists can be useful in certain stories. But at some point, they need to change and show more personality, or risk getting over-shadowed by the secondary characters who have become more interesting. Not that Nina wasn't likable or sympathetic or first, but she wasn't as complex as, say, Patricia or Amber, who showed layers of depth in short time in the first few episodes. She just wasn't exciting or deep, which is okay, you know, but "okay" still leaves room for improvement.

Soon we do get small glimpses of a new personality- she loves adventure, she's pretty forgiving, and she doesn't mind rebelling and being secretive. These are good. These round her out and reveal more about Nina as a person, and make her more likable and active as a protagonist. However, she still ended up being overshadowed by other characters, who had a more defined personality. Yet, more defined does not always mean better. It could just be one very strong character trait that dominates the character- Mara's smarts and Amber's blondeness, anyone? Obviously I'm not saying that they weren't well written or complex- they had their hidden depths and out of character moments. But honestly, Nina's more subtle mix of traits makes her a bit more realstic than someone like Fabian was- someone who is a likable and interesting character, but is practically defined by being the shy geeky one. We love him for those same reasons, but again, in the first season that's pretty much all we was in terms of a character. Nina may not have had a distinct personality, but she at least ''wasn't defined by anything other than being the protagonist. ''She was just a girl, and that worked well to fulfill the purpose of her character in the story.

But I'd like to say that just being the protagonist should not be a defining trait. It's not as if Nina went around saying "I'm the star" but even in the first season, where characters were more equal, just the standard heroine traits she had made her stand out as being the obvious protagonist. Being the protagonist should just be incidental of a character's situation, not the factor that her personality is based on. Now, am I just being too hard on her? It's possible... all I'm saying is that they used the quick, easy ways to set her up as the protagonist and kept those standard traits throughout the entire story without doing much with them. She was little more than the standard heroine in this season, and while her personality may have been a bit more realistic and subtle than her fellow characters, it should still be a genuine personality and not just given to her because they need a someone who can make an easy, obvious protagonist. You get it?

I'm just saying I wish that in this season, she was fleshed out more as a person. I wish she had more true personality and broke out of the standard mode. Because yes, being the standard hero is a good way for such a character to start out, but as those traits are simple and boring, these sort of characters really need development in order to hold the interest of the audience, or else people will ask "why can't X be the hero insead? They are so much cooler!"

Nina did not get development in season one, and thus, she was a character who had the potential to become genuinely fleshed out and unique in this season if they had continued showing more and more character traits until the audience knew who she truly was or until she developed.

In general, I did find her to be likable and sympathetic this season, but also not deeply engaging and she desperately needed a stronger personality, because the other characters really overshadowed her in my opinion this season.

Maybe that's why she developed a temper in...

Season 2- The Chosen Sue
Nina in season 2 swapped out her boring, simplistic traits for a much more defined personality...and the ability to be basically a minor Mary Sue. I'll explain as we go along.

In the beginning, she was practically the same person, but a bit more...confident, and she actually knew the school now. She was just eager to be home. So at this point, she was okay. Happy, confident, calm...not bad. She no longer had to deal with being new or being bullied, her life was fine and she was fine.

Too bad it didn't last. Not the life part, I mean, because that would be boring. I mean the happy, calm confidence. Because in the beginning, the very beginning I should say, she was actually pretty good. Still not exciting, but she had matured like everyone else and it showed when she walked in and was ready for a second year at Anubis. Had she kept her personality like this and had she been given real development, she could have become one of the better characters of the season. But this is when we discovered that stress makes her tempermental, and very quickly the mystery started...and her snappy-ness did as well.

The beginning of the mystery, she was...in transition. She wasn't out of control yet, but she was getting there. She was starting to get snappy and overly jealous with Fabian, and I guess it was the stress of the new mystery, but it's weird. Last season, she snapped at him, I don't know, just one time? And that was over the locket, and she apologized when it was done. When she got stressed in season one, she just became depressed and worried. Of course that mystery did not involve her potential death, so I guess the stress would be worse this time. But if someone is willing to help you during this time, normally someone would be appropriately worried for them, but also extremely grateful. Nina was worried about Fabian, and later Amber and then even later Patricia and Alfie. I appreciate them showing her being panicked about him possibly being cursed. But instead of being happy she had someone to help her, she was just upset about it, and her jealousy really started to surface for the first time too. Season 1, she got jealous but she just got...again, depressed and afraid, but she was actually willing to let Fabicia happen if Fabian wanted it. This time, she couldn't even see Jabian talking without getting pissed off. At least Patricia's jealousy was established beforehand, but Nina's just came out of nowehere, and I know it was for Fabina drama. My point is, Nina had suddenly developed a temper and jealousy issues that had barely existed before, which yeah they are reasonable flaws, but they weren't being balanced with her virtues. She was either jealous, or freaking out about things and getting angry at Fabian.

Now some may say, "But you said it yourself! She was too stressed, and stress can make you angry!" I won't deny that's true. It's realistic. But it was constant. We didn't get a break from her sudden temper in the begining of this season, with the exception of few scenes. Oh, did I say beginning of the season? I meant majority of the season.

Around this time I'd usually be getting into development, but here's the thing. Nina missed out on development again. So let's continue.

The entire season, mostly in the middle when Alfie and Patricia had fully become in the group, Nina's personality, er... went to the same sort of rollercoaster Joy's did. Sometimes she was nice and honestly showed care and respect for her friends, other times she got unreasonably mad at them... but unlike Joy, Nina's inconsistancies happened within the same few seconds of each-other upon occasion. I suppose the writers were attempting to make a true and consistant personality for her, but they messed up. We're supposed to see it as her just being so stressed it causes her to constantly snap at people even if she's not truly angry at them, but you know what really would have made this work? For someone to call her out on it. It'd probably have to be Patricia (Fabian and Amber are too loyal and too forgiving of her temper, and Alfie would be too scared) who just bluntly tell her that Sibuna are trying to help her, and she hasn't even thanked them, just pushed them around or complain about how they'll get hurt, instead of actually acknowledging and thanking them for at least being willing to sacrifice themselves.

I'm not saying it was wrong for her to be concerned about the safety of her friends. That is a noble, and heroic, trait to have. The issue is the fact that they used this to basically excuse the fact that, otherwise, she was being, in Haley's words, a bitch. We know she was scared about them getting hurt, but that should not justify being angry at them and getting away with it. Maybe once or twice, I can understand. But every single time, it starts to get beyond the point where I'm not sure anyone can say that what she did was justified. It can be excused every so often if it's under extreme circumstances- but she got angry over them for random slights, like for the cursed-with-amnesia Fabian not remembering Sarah, as if that was actually his fault. And again, this all could have been tolerable if someone had told her to stop, and she actually learned to relax and not be so jealous and angry at her friends half the time and "normal" the other half. I guess it's a realistic flaw, but the way it was portrayed was not realistic.

This unrealistically portrayed flaw is just one of the few things that make Nina seem like a Mary Sue in this season. In the first season, the Chosen One thing was just...building the cup. Now she's like...super mega important because apparently being the Chosen One is a much bigger deal than they made it seem. As her role expanded from being a normal girl to being a magical girl of purity and light, (never mind her anger issues she developed) she transformed into an honest Sue. Now I know people figured this out long ago, but I want to elaborate. It's not just that she's the main character and the Chosen One, but that helps. It's a combination of things. It's the fact that her only true flaw this season is her temper, that doesn't actually hinder her and nobody calls her out on it. (I consider her jealousy an extension of her temper and that doesn't do anything big to her either, she just gets angry and...nothing else happens.) It's the fact that they pile on the shit to just make her as sympathetic as possible (but to be completely fair, I must say that she really was going through a horrible situation and despite her negative personality, I have to sympathize with her because she really didn't deserve what she got. I'm just saying that they did their darndest to make her seem like the world was out to get her, which it sort of was, but all that struggle to make her so sympathetic is a common sue trait so... it's not bad itself, it's just part of the combo, you know?). It's the fact that she has been portrayed as being often in the right even despite her flaws. It's the fact that the whole world now seems to revolve around her being the Chosen One now, and the fact that she was portrayed as being like the most pure of heart in the House and again, that's in ignorance of her flaws. 'So yes people, Nina is'' a Mary Sue. I tried it out on the litmus test myself, and she got a whopping score of 35. That's not good. '''

Then we can get to the end of the season. I appreciate this ending for her. After she got trapped in a hole and was able to talk to VRS, she actually chilled out and seemed to mature. Maybe it was just all the time she spent down there, alone and thinking and having to trust her friends more than ever. She had all the reason to be stressed out...but she magically managed to be calm again. Now, yes, this was out of nowhere, which annoys me as always, but it does sort of make some sense, if you just think of the fact that she was alone for at least two days and really probably had nothing else to do but think about things. So... random, but understandable! And it made me like her for the finale, because in the end, she was being genuinely selfless, showed real gratitude for her friends and their help, and they did end up portraying her like the character they wanted her to look like the entire time. Too bad they couldn't have just made her act like this earlier, because it doesn't lessen what she acted like.

Am I talking too much about her bad attitude? Maybe, but what else can I say about her? Seriously, in season 2 the most memorable thing about her character is her temper and her relationship with Fabian. And I don't like getting into the romance in these blogs, so temper it has to be. She does other things and yeah, she can honestly be sympathetic at times with all she's going through. But if they can't make her act likable for long periods of time, that's the most important thing. For much of this, Nina just kept being unlikable for a lot of people.

Overall, season 2 Nina had potential, but they just put too much focus on her flaws and Fabina, which really dragged her down. She could have been a sympathetic and relatable heroine, but there was no balance between her flaws and virtues. That's what the problem was. Just a bit of development, and that could have been fixed... but the true development never came.

Consensus / What I'd have done
My consensus on Nina is that she could have been a great protagonist for the show, but they just failed on her personality aspect. She was't awful, like some say, compared to others. But she did get on my nerves and there were no chances they let her have to fix her temper in season 2, and then she was magically better in the end. Season 1, she was just kind of boring.

I'd have kept the beginning of season 1 the same, but I'd have continued revealing personality traits until she was fleshed out and interesting as a character. Season 2, again would have started the same, but she'd have been told what she was doing wrong, she'd have developed, and the show would not have just portrayed her as being rarely in the wrong. They'd have portrayed her as a regular person with flaws and virtues like the rest of the characters.

Third season? I'd rather not get into this...yet...maybe in the future, in a separate blog.

---

'''Thanks for reading, everyone! You know the drill...so leave your comment below! And who should be next?

Amber Mara Alfie Mick Eddie Willow KT