2008-09-08 "So Awesome!"

[NickDanger]

Greybeard wrote:
It is therefore quite plausible that Misa's reaction to death is not unlike that of the typical 5-year-old. I'm frankly not exactly sure what that is, despite having had a much-loved relative die when I was about that age and having had my father die when my oldest son, his grandson, was about 6. However, I suspect that there is a strong element, not of denial, but of complete inability to comprehend. It wouldn't be quite the same with a 1400-year-old intellect (even one severely stunted emotionally by exactly the babying that Misa has been complaining about) superposed on it, but who knows what it would actually be?

As you say , it is a little hard to picture a 1400 year-old intellect not being more mature, but 2 other possible explanations have come to mind.

One has to do with the fact that when one experiences a tragedy, it often takes a certain amount of time for our minds to process it before the reality of it sets in. Because of the scale of an elf's lifetime, their reactions may take more even more time, and so the devastation simply may not have had time to become real in Misa's mind.

The other unknown is Misa's religious beliefs. For all we know, she may belong to a sect that believes elves are truly immortal and that death is just a passage to another level of existence. One with a truly unshakable belief in such a system may be unaffected by deaths, even such unexpected ones.

This death is meaningless. To us true believers, time is just an illusion, albeit a stubborn one. - Albert Einstein

[Sareth]

One other option (one which seems less likely on the part of Misa, but which still may be an option to consider) is simple weariness. When you've lived into the quadruapl digits, there may be this sense that everyone has been there, done that, and thus death is almost a welcome release. Rather than being this horrible shock, this terrible premature end that cut off so much, instead, well... really, they won't be missing much. Misa still seems to be caught up in this belief that there are still things to see and experience, there is still wonder. But most of the elves, I suspect, are old an weary of spirit, regardless of their physical condition. Death may well be a relief to them.

[RubberBandMan]

Also: Age is nothing but a number.

Sara is more mature then Misa. But why? Because Sara has seen her brother do bad things to try and help her, has been thrown to the whims of fate, stuck in an orphanage and then trained to be an order-following killing machine in a way that seems built more on improving the teachers ego then the students self-confidence.

Misa? All that has happened to her is being looked down on, not taken seriously by other elves, and staying in the same place for 1400 years. Its your experiences that cause you to mature, its just that most people have experiences as they get older, but Misa seems to just keep having the same one over and over. Sarine really is not that much older then Misa compared to other elves most likely, but look how much world-weary she is.

Interesting question, who is more mature, Misa or Meji? Meji has shown some interesting self-awareness before, and when paired with Ian is a rather sound voice of reason. But at the same time, she has the same lack of understanding that Misa has of the world and what its likely to do to you if you let it.

I think recent events have put Meji is a much more enlightened place, being almost killed for being a half-elf and having her father basicly try and kill her quietly are likely to have done some good for her, in the long term at least.

[mindstalk]

Also keep in mind that we're trying to psychoanalyze Misa -- and hordes of other elves -- based on like 5 accumulated minutes of displayed interaction. She pounced on Sarine, they chatted for a bit -- for a while maybe, but we only got a few pages. She showed up for rumors, ran an errand, called Sara out to fight. The end.

And that's *really detailed* for a non-Sarine elf.

[RubberBandMan]

I think its the most detail that a random 'NPC' has gotten. She's gotten more screen time then Chris, who was just there for a few jokes and to show what other characters (Meji, Sara, and recently Ian.). She's show character interaction to show her character, not another aspect of the current ones.

I think she is going to be a Character that is going to show up more often, like Anita, but so far we really have not figured out her core reason for being. Anita wants to take over the world, Ian not having a reason for anything is his reason, and so on. Hence, she's fair game for all sorts of questions about her.

So far, the only word-of-poe we've gotten on her is that she is not Sarines sister. Lets see if we can figure out some more stuff before she croaks it.

[Boss Out of Town]

Ian not having a reason for anything is his reason, and so on...

Huh? Trying to save his sister from lingering death and his people from extermination aren't sufficient motivation?

[Forrest]

Misa is significant to the story just in her basic character description: she was the last Elf ever born. Whatever the problem is with Elves, she was the last one to dodge it.

[RubberBandMan]

Ian not having a reason for anything is his reason, and so on...

Huh? Trying to save his sister from lingering death and his people from extermination aren't sufficient motivation?

I meant that his reason, which was his sister, got burned to death in a house fire and now he's dicking around without a reason to really do anything. The elves may of been in the back of his mind to kill them, but for the most part he's only gone crazy-kill em all when its easy for him to do so.

I mean, Meji has a reason, being a half-elf who's been dragged into this story as much as she's poked the plot with a stick, Sarine is our elf perspective and Jon and Sara both add to the story and show other character viewpoints. So far, Misa has only been in the story when she's put her nose into it. It could of easily been another elf meeting Sarine when she first returned, and a different friend who knew Sarine came back with smelly humans, and so on.

The fact that we've seen so much of her and haven't found how she's going to matter to the plot when they leave the elf city is interesting.