How Blue Eye Samurai Fixes The Strong Female Protagonist Problem

I went into the blueeye samurai embittered I was coming hot off of the reveal of wish and was almost watching the show out of spite to make a look how far Disney has fallen and what they could be making instead type of video I didn't realize how ironic that mindset was going into the show though I knew the show was good going into it I knew it was receiving glowing reviews across the web but I still wasn't ready for the emotions elicited during the runtime or the feeling that I have having seen the first season and just letting it sit with me for a while I feel like there is a lot to talk about when it comes to the bluey Samurai and originally I just wanted to make one video on this show and move on with my life but that would do this show too much of a disservice instead I'm going to break it down into three smaller videos that you can watch or rewatch at your leisure each taking a deep deep dive into an aspect of the show that moved me writing a compelling female protagonist Reviving the samurai Western and the rise of creativity over marketability the strong female protagonist a topic that might be one of the hottest button topics of modern Cinema the blueeye samurai succeeds where so many have failed crafting not only one but two protagonists that do incredible things but are also well-written characters a common scapegoat in defense for the strong female protagonist archetype is that certain people just don't like seeing women in films but I would like to offer a different perspective I don't think audiences hate strong women I think audiences hate poor writing and can smell the sacran odor of pandering from a mile away Ray the Marvels Wonder Woman specifically the 1984 version and oceans 8 all of these characters felt like they relied on a gimmick of look at me I'm a girl but not like the other girls or boys for that matter I kick butt and do what I want to and the only thing holding me back is the limitations placed on me by Society it's a good thing to have women in more roles in cinema it's a good thing to have strong female characters to inspire people the problem arises when those characters are only one note there is no Struggle No suffering no learning no growth and no attachment to any of these characters as a result a skilled painter uses all of their brushes and paints to create a work of beauty and Intrigue that captures something beyond what would be the equival equalent to the sum of its parts for a writer the same principle applies unique writing traits are wonderful but if your writing doesn't go beyond one trait your character will be consumed by it Mizu is a woman and a badass and an orphan and a bastard child of the illegal Union of mixed races and a swordsmith and a Samurai and a horrible bitter person assumed by a rage for Revenge that deep down also has the capacity for empathy even though they never allow themselves to think that they matter to anyone so therefore no one must matter to them you see what I'm starting to get out here we are introduced to Mizu as a dead ringer for Clint Eastwood as funny as that sounds cold calculating unfeeling the only thing mattering is Revenge by any means or amount of lives necessary Mizu is not a good person at all they chop off the fingers of a man to get information leave Ringo tied to a tree in the middle of the Wilderness she leaves a woman and daughter to freeze outside of the city walls and mes Andor kills 20 plus Dojo students and that's just episode one in fact Mizu is introduced as nonhuman displaying almost no traits of human empathy emotion kindness or remorse but you kind of understand why because Mizu struggles and has suffered the most out of any recent character that I can think of and that's saying something we get a tragic backstory of a child forced to hide their identity in a world that calls them demon simply for being born of a mixed race the only any one willing to take Mizu in is a blind swordsmith who accepts her because he cannot see her shame also he can't see that she's a woman but side tangent she grew up hiding her identity all aspects of it Forest to kill her true identity in order to kill all four men who could potentially be her father and brought about this living hell she learns wisdom from The Sword father as well as studying sword playay from all of the men who came to purchase legendary swords from the master smith eventually she feels as though she's both perfected herself and her craft forging out all impurities she makes herself a sword from the meteorite that first brought her and the Smith together she leaves as an instrument of pure Revenge she is completely free to wander and find her revenge but she has no power or authority due to her being mixed blood and a woman so she hides both on the other side of the story we have mizu's foil aemi aemi is a princess born into a noble family with proper breeding education in all of the Power and things that she could wish for except for her Freedom her life is still decided by the men around her she's trapped in the confines of the decisions made by others for her decisions like what kind of life she will have the life she doesn't want is controlled by her father marrying her off in a political Alliance even the life she wants to have is dictated by tigan she runs away to find him to try to have some control over her future and ends up running into Mizu and the brothel sequence is where the lines begin to blur and goals begin to shift for the first time Mizu is shown to wrestle and deal with the consequences of her Path of Revenge first having to commit an unspeakable act that leaves her shaken and me horrified and secondly turning her back on those who saw her as a friend at this point we start to question why are we even rooting for this person in the first place why is this person so horrid what caused this person to be created and that's when we see the most horrific part of mizu's life because there was a time in her life when fear and hatred was replaced by Love episode 5 will break you delving into a period of mizu's life where an arranged marriage actually leads to a loving tender relationship watching Mizu learn to let go of of the rage and the hatred learning to trust someone for the first time in her life only to be betrayed once again as her husband and mother literally fight to the death behind her she kills the survivor without so much as looking back after these flashbacks we as the audience understand how broken Mizu is how little of her soul is left intact and her actions are a result of her life of trauma she has decided to reject all aspects that don't serve her purpose especially her femininity and her mixed blood since she wouldn't be able to carry out her purpose if people knew that she was a woman born from a white father and her hiding this allows her to have the freedom she needs to seek her revenge and this this runs directly opposite to aemi taking her life into her own hands being brave standing with Ringo and saving Mizu but ultimately she's still at the mercy of others when Mizu ignores her please for help this ends up causing Ringo to leave and Mizu to begin to question herself and have doubts only when she's an inch from Death does she begin to snap out of it and realize is what she's done and what she's continuing to do thinking back on Ringo's wordss to her she chooses to save tyan instead of blindly attempting to kill Fowler and probably getting herself killed in the process what I appreciate about the first season of blueeyed Samurai is that the characters grow and change over the course of the season but in realistic and unhurried ways tigan starts the season by being an arrogant brat and ends the season by being slightly less of an arrogant brat but come on he has been fed this mindset his entire life it's not going to change in the course of a few days however he begins to learn how to let go of his pride when they return to kohama he has memories of his childhood memories of how he treated Mizu he puts down the Rock and he begins to change he doesn't outright rush to Mizu and profess his undying apologies to her he just starts to see and treat her differently Mizu grows from a path of pure hatred tempered by her past and experiences to starting to understand the words of the sword father Mizu begins to accept the help of others and her herself in a scene that brought me to tears she accepts a gift from Ringo by trusting him to write on her back telling him she can't do this alone anymore and wordlessly accepts the long tongues from The Sword father culminating in Mizu humbling herself for the first time by gifting the meteorite back to him and asking him to forge a sword for her only if she returns running alongside this as almost sort of a parallel but also the opposite we see a sequence where aemi begins to take charge of her life by embracing her femininity she uses the fact that she's female to have sway over the shogun's son to gain more power and influence things that she once said she didn't care for aemi looks to further her freedoms while staying inside the confines of a male dominated Society with the aim of changing things from the inside and little by little aemi makes choices that lead her down the same path as her father aemi becomes Strong by using the people around her for her new goals and uses her femininity to begin to wield that power Mizu is strong because she Embraces her mixed blood alongside her femininity as well as accepting the people around her for the first time she accepts the things that she once thought to be impure using these aspects to become both a better killer and a better tool for Revenge but something else is planted in there alongside the rage and revenge and we see it change Mizu she confesses her mistake to tigan who runs off to go save a kemi owing up to her guilt and taking responsibility for her Mistake by not stepping in to stop them from taking her and in the castle Siege Mizu first seized to everybody else's safety before going after Fowler a weakness that the mizui met in episode one would never dream of committing but because of all of these imperfections Mizu finally succeeds Mizu is a strong character not because of some arbit AR deox mcha or Mary Sue syndrome Mizu is a strong character because of her perseverance she suffers struggles has had a horrendous life and overcomes It All We empathize with her journey and celebrate her accomplishments and growth and I think the most impressive thing about all of this is the writer still managed to weave in a message about acceptance without it feeling trite hamfisted and pandering like that message so often usually is walking away from season 1 the thing that I will remember about Mizu and her story Through This brilliant first season is [Music] this true Purity is brittle and never what it appears to be to be Flawless is against nature our impurities are what grant us [Music] strength special shout out to furp for adding on an extra 10 minutes to this video and if this video is late you know who to blame but in all seriousness uh there'll be a link to the Discord down below where you can join the community Community there it's been great fun to see the community grow and now they're organizing watch parties over there and I'm trying to figure out how to stream over there also I stream on Twitch consistently I stream on Twitch sometimes I stream there'll be a link to that down below as well as the patreon which if you want to support the channel that's a way that people can do so I know it's been a while since I've been able to put out a video and I just want to say thank you for sticking with the channel

Channel: Flying Walrus

Views: 779,333

Keywords: blue eye samurai, blue eye samurai review, mizu, female protagonist, strong female protagonist, blue eye samurai reaction, blue eye samurai explained

Id: 9rjs_8ionO4

Length: 15min 31sec (931 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 10 2023