Character Discussion/Appreciation: Shidou Hikaru

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.....I'm staring at my above replies to this thread going *SIGH* SELF YOU LOVE HIKARU TOO YOU JUST GET DISTRACTED BY OTHER PEOPLE AND FORGET IT SOMETIMES. I think - I think because I have a thing about characters who tie themselves in knots, and because I... tie myself in knots a lot... I forget how damn STRONG Hikaru is in her sense-of-self, in her honest enjoyment of things, her enthusiasm?

and... and I really really want the really really long fic in which Hikaru works through the guilt which I still think HAS to be there with Lantis, and builds something with him, and with Eagle - and with Geo to some undecided extent - where they all wind up having the support they need from each other!

Okay, so I started writing after I read this topic and it turned into a HUGE MONSTER. I really like Hikaru, and mostly, I like the possibilities left open by the end of the manga, so here's my sort of analysis on her (and this might seem unbelievable, but it's still very incomplete, haha). Oh, yes, this is based on the manga, since I watched the anime once when I was like 12...

IT'S AWESOME please feel free to flail ALL DAY about her! I love this~~~ Hikaru as a pillar of enthusiasm and of - motion, really, I guess? Someone who doesn't let people Sit Still And Do Nothing, just by making people want to act or - something - all the knights are like that to some degree, but Hikaru is the most open about it, maybe? She's a catalyst for others to act, because she DOES.

After the first part, she doesn't hare into things headlong, because she's so much more aware of the consequences now - all the knights going to talk to the others makes me MEEP because of course they now want to understand people's motivations! But she/they are very clear that they are NOT going to back down and get out of the way, either, they are fighting for their own reasons, and - I am being incoherent. XD

And then she had that wild and childish imagination about heroes and adventure that was completely crashed after the end of the first part. This is where the growing up truly begins, once her worldview is shattered and she finally realizes how everyone has more dimension than she?d originally give them. But she?s still a child trying to make sense of this all, and it?s not easy. By her (very sporadic, sadly) conversations with Umi and Fuu you can get a sense of a really great friendship forming not only around the fact that they suffered a trauma together, but how they deal with it, change with it, grow and, most of all, share what they think. Hikaru also seems to create a sort of family like feel with the people around her, and I think it is very important to her to have people to look up to and to trust.  Alone, I do believe she?d have trouble keeping herself together (I sort of hypothesized about this on a cracky fanfiction XD).

In the end, I think she?ll mature very slowly, but surely, into a great woman. She?s a very open minded person who likes to experience new things. I think her charisma will make her sort of evolve into a really charming young woman (and dotted with a small amount of malice it will turn to be a killer charm, especially since she can be really badass).

I love this. Because, yes, that friendship/love and support between the knights is SO AWESOME. And - yes. Hikaru with a killer charm would be an AMAZING person~

BASICALLY A LOT OF YES now I have feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeels dammit. XDDDD

[shinomu]

I am sooooooooo glad I could evoke all those ~~~feeels!!! I'm really high with giddiness of your response right now!!!

I think Hikaru needs more love and deserves to be treated well, not just as a one dimentional character.

I want so bad  fics in which she's able to actually grow!! I wish I had a better grasp of English to write all the stuff I think about...

TBH I would've written more, but it was only my lunch time. XD

[shinomu]

I just needed to take note one of my newest headcanons: Hikaru is a vegetarian. I shall give more thought about that later, just felt like posting this right now.

[suzanami]

I just needed to take note one of my newest headcanons: Hikaru is a vegetarian. I shall give more thought about that later, just felt like posting this right now.

I always meant to reply to this but obviously never did but I really like this!  people go veg* for different reasons but I can imagine Hikaru just cannot stand the idea of eating animals (a common reason).  she really understands animals better than most people so that makes a lot of sense.

I wanted to revive these character appreciation threads with some love for our girls so here's some LJ icons I made of Hikaru a thousand years ago. obviously you can use them if you like but mostly I'm sharing for the pretties.

[moonsea]

I had a strong urge to write something about her because she's my favorite knight.I loved her even before I started to watch the anime or read the manga (i'm serious)
I just don't like her being so ambitious,and I think I'm jealous of her relationship with her dog XD

I tend to ship hikaru/lantis but I like hikaru/lantis/eagle love triangle too.Especially I like to read fanfics about h/l/e

[suzanami]

I actually really love how divided we are on Hikaru here! (we all tend to agree for the most part on most characters)  and this thread has done well to let people air their opinions on either side but we're always good about respecting each other's preferences.  I just love how on this forum, both sides can express just how they feel, we don't have to censor ourselves, but we're gracious to accept others' opinions.  and how many people rose to Hikaru's defense here!

I've loosened up about Hikaru in the last few years (I originally posted to this topic seven years ago) though dinosauram's analysis still stands for me (I still take a lot of issue with the treatment of her character in MKR2 but think she's flawless in the manga, so).  mostly I've lightened up on her relationship with Lantis.  I still .. don't.. quite get it, but I can appreciate it leagues more than I did for many years.

kind of like Umi/Clef since joining this forum.

I feel a bit bad because I have trouble writing her well enough to carry a scene.  currently in WWD there's like a dozen tender friendship scenes between Umi and Fuu, but only one between Hikaru and Fuu.  and when I'm not sure what to do about Hikaru in a scene with the three Knights together, I usher her out before I do Umi.  something I want to try and tweak a little going back over it.  I "get" Fuu's relationship with Umi better than hers with Hikaru. :x  it's a learning process, if I wrote more fic I'd be better at her :0

[suzanami]

it's after midnight where I am but I forgot to post here:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HIKARU

[shinomu]

Aw, re-reading the topic, it's a very nice discussion overall! And suz, I love the icons! I shall steal one! <3

I do believe there are characters we get attached to, to a point we actually grow with them and recreate them anew. That's one of the beauties of fiction! So of course on the other hand, there are characters we just don't get - and really struggle with. It's quite normal, isn't it? No one should feel bad about that!

The biggest point of diversion, I think, is the difference between anime!hikaru and manga!hikaru. Because that's exactly what Jam said, her being flaunted as special versus her just being so. Which is why I really can't get very into season 2 at all (I did try, with some random episodes and all!). Since MKR was the first manga I read, I really do stick to that canon, so I can't really argue with people's view on anime!hikaru (cause she's such a bore and I also think her character has been butchered from the start).

I'm quite relieved with my post tho (you know when you look back on your stuff and think -how could I? oof, I'm glad it didn't feel like it). I think it still remains my opinion - with some added things, specially around Eagle and Lantis, I was thinking about elaborating this at some point, we'll see. XD

There was also one thing that kept bugging me - I read the manga translated to brazilian portuguese, and I can't really find the passage Umi and Fuu fully declare Hikaru as their little sister - I was shocked when I finally found that dialoge in one of the scans online what, a decade later?! So I kept wondering how translation goes for this. Because while I do believe Umi and Fuu may see her as a little sister figure in the begining, I think after what happened with Emeraude changed their relationship altogether. They grew to be sort of friends with a mission and caring about each other in the first part, but after? That's were the friendship was really cemented - they'd never abandon each other, because they knew what they went through and learned to draw strenght from that. And I do believe the three of them learned together. So while I see Umi and Fuu becoming closer (even in a romantic way), I feel that they'd never leave Hikaru out of things, in the sort of way big sisters would do if they thought the little one wouldn't understand or something (which, although I adore the relationship between Hikaru and her brothers, I do picture Kakeru and Masaru trying to protect her from the world or something, and that stemming from a feeling that they are the one who should shield their little sister, and the paralell with Umi and Fuu as the big sisters wouldn't work for me here - they protect each other, there wouldn't be a power imbalance because they are protected as much as they protect?). Uh, I got carried away! XD

[Somariel]

There was also one thing that kept bugging me - I read the manga translated to brazilian portuguese, and I can't really find the passage Umi and Fuu fully declare Hikaru as their little sister - I was shocked when I finally found that dialoge in one of the scans online what, a decade later?! So I kept wondering how translation goes for this.

Yeah, that conversation about the girls being sisters was completely an invention of the English language translations. According to the translations available on Definitely Not Tokyo, that scene was originally where the girls established the honorifics they would use with each other from then on. (I'm assuming here that you're talking about that scene at the end of the first volume that happens between their defeat of the monster and the arrival of Ferio.)

[shinomu]

There was also one thing that kept bugging me - I read the manga translated to brazilian portuguese, and I can't really find the passage Umi and Fuu fully declare Hikaru as their little sister - I was shocked when I finally found that dialoge in one of the scans online what, a decade later?! So I kept wondering how translation goes for this.

Yeah, that conversation about the girls being sisters was completely an invention of the English language translations. According to the translations available on Definitely Not Tokyo, that scene was originally where the girls established the honorifics they would use with each other from then on. (I'm assuming here that you're talking about that scene at the end of the first volume that happens between their defeat of the monster and the arrival of Ferio.)

Oof, thank you! This is exactly how it's translated in my language, they discussing the honorifics. I'm relieved! XD

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Having looked at this scene, it's also the scene where Umi goes UM, WHAT'S YOUR NAME? at Hikaru and Fuu, because apparently it was a hectic day and she FORGOT. Even though they introduced themselves to each other, then Clef, then Presea!

Fuu remembers Umi's full name even though they only used family names right at the beginning. XD

But yes - no talk of sisterhood, just 'hey Fuu, we're all 'fated-to-be-in-this-together', you can use just our names!' vs 'ah, but this IS how I refer to those I'm close to! ' and then the 'you're an amazingly 'simple-hearted/rustic/straightforward' girl, aren't you, Hikaru?' line.

But I checked - not once do any of them use each other's names until they've had that conversation. XDD It's all things like 'you two' and 'hey, standing up's dangerous!' without names anywhere. So Umi might have a little excuse - it's been a busy afternoon. Neither of the others seem to mind that she's blatantly forgotten and asks them both what their name is. BUT REALLY XDD

[shinomu]

Having looked at this scene, it's also the scene where Umi goes UM, WHAT'S YOUR NAME? at Hikaru and Fuu, because apparently it was a hectic day and she FORGOT. Even though they introduced themselves to each other, then Clef, then Presea!

Fuu remembers Umi's full name even though they only used family names right at the beginning. XD

But yes - no talk of sisterhood, just 'hey Fuu, we're all 'fated-to-be-in-this-together', you can use just our names!' vs 'ah, but this IS how I refer to those I'm close to! ' and then the 'you're an amazingly 'simple-hearted/rustic/straightforward' girl, aren't you, Hikaru?' line.

But I checked - not once do any of them use each other's names until they've had that conversation. XDD It's all things like 'you two' and 'hey, standing up's dangerous!' without names anywhere. So Umi might have a little excuse - it's been a busy afternoon. Neither of the others seem to mind that she's blatantly forgotten and asks them both what their name is. BUT REALLY XDD

OH, UMI. That's why I love her anyway. XDD
I also checked my versions (they've recently revamped the manga and we have pretty new editions with new translations) and both go as you said! I was bothered because I was so sure it was a cute moment of getting to know a bit more of their personalities... I was shocked by the little sister thing. Well, that's settle then, I'm very happy and relieved. XD

[Somariel]

Happy Birthday, Hikaru!

[suzanami]

HAPPY HIKARU WEEK 2017
http://fuckyeahrayearth.tumblr.com/post/162002115561/

THIS THREAD HAS SLEPT FOR SO LONG

[Ruben77]

HAPPY HIKARU WEEK 2017
http://fuckyeahrayearth.tumblr.com/post/162002115561/

THIS THREAD HAS SLEPT FOR SO LONG

I just mentioned FYR in my Facebook MKR fanpage. 
Wish that attracts even more attention to your site.
Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/MagicKnightRayearthCLAMP/posts/10155586525889171