Is Nabu an Overrated Character?

Subject: Is Nabu an Overrated Character? Mon Oct 03, 2016 5:03 am

First topic message reminder :

I'm scared to say this, but I'm starting to feel like Nabu's an overrated character. I've been looking back at seasons three and four lately. He was basically a gender-bent clone of Aisha with a nicer personality, and his relationship with her had no development or depth. I doubt everyone would be so emotionally attached to him if he hadn't died.

Can anyone really defend him as a character? How was he not overrated?

Subject: Re: Is Nabu an Overrated Character? Mon Oct 03, 2016 8:49 pm

zerowing21 wrote:: They used the concept of the arranged marriage it as a catalyst to get Nabu to try and stalk Aisha to get to know her somewhat, but they rushed it. What you said would have made a lot more sense with joining early on and slowly moving along with Aisha, instead of stalkery shady deal and then talking to her and have some kind of odd relationship blossom after both their parents show up and admit they were wrong.

That situation was strange, too. It's like they were trying to say arranged marriages are wrong because, as Nabu's mom said, "You can't compel two people to love each other." Yet at the same time, he and Aisha accepted it, so their parents got what they wanted. So are arranged marriages okay if they work out, or are they not okay at all?

I think the arranged marriage plot was part of Aisha's character development, too. She had always rebelled against her parents' decisions, but she learned they had her best interest at heart. I don't know if letting them make the biggest decision of her life for her was the best way to teach her that lesson, though. It seems contradictory to her character to give up that much freedom, regardless of who it's for.

zerowing21 wrote:: He took combat lessons from his body guards on the island he lived on, but that was I think said in season 3.

That's true, but I think it was attached to the same conversation about how he grew up with no friends. I remember Bloom saying afterward, "Just like Aisha." He wasn't exactly like her, but he had fewer unique characteristics than the other boyfriends.

For example, Timmy's a nerd who loves to tinker with technology, is good at strategizing, and isn't very social -- just like Tecna. But they're still different characters. Timmy has brownish red hair and glasses, he's clumsy and self-conscious, he's more in touch with his emotions than she is (supposedly because of a different upbringing), and we know based on season six that he's not from Zenith. Plus in the comics, Rainbow called her a princess for a while, but he wasn't a prince.

Rainbow could have done that with Nabu, too. Why did he have to be from Andros? He was a prince in the comics, which didn't even make sense because he was from Andros. How could have been a prince without being Aisha's brother or a merman? Also, he didn't have to have the same background, same favorite song, same hair color, etc. They could have varied more about him like with the other guys.

zerowing21 wrote:: That does make sense and would explain why he didn't show up til the very end of lost kingdom.

What you said earlier might explain it, too. He could have been shoehorned in at last minute just so she'd have a boyfriend. Still with all the similarities between them, it just seems sloppy.

RP Moderator Posts : 9973

Rainbow does give mixed messages about it. They brought up arranged marriages in magical adventure since Bloom's parents had one and they learned to love each other years before the marriage took place. They treated it like it wasn't such a bad thing. While in season 3 it was.

As for Aisha, that lesson could have been taught some other way, without going down this path for the same type of development. She could have had that lesson by having Valtor do something to her when she was home and her realizing that when her parents tried to defend her or something.

They probably had him be a Prince of a small island that wasn't controlled by main royal family. He might have had the title, but was probably from some other noble house with that title for some reason. But having him from some other water type world, would have worked out just as well too. In the end, they wanted to give her someone she could easily get on with and have stuff in common to make it easier for her to connect with him. I think having someone so vastly different would have been the way to go. I mean, look at what they've done with Nex and her. They're like polar opposites and they still work.

Very true, the shoehorned argument does work for his place in the movie. And it is sloppy, they could have done to work this stuff out.

________________________________________________________________
The Avatar was done by Chrissie.

"But perhaps victory is in the simpler things that you've long forgotten—things that require a smaller, more honest soul." Professor Ozpin, RWBY

Subject: Re: Is Nabu an Overrated Character? Mon Oct 03, 2016 9:12 pm

Well, here's my opinion on this

Sometimes, people can connect with a character so much that they feel like they're a part of them and they make the show they're a part of feel like it's not the same without them.

And when something happens to that character, preferably bad, some people can't face it that they're gone and refuse to let them go.

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Is Nabu an Overrated Character? - Page 2 Drrt5p10

Spoiler:

Subject: Re: Is Nabu an Overrated Character? Mon Oct 03, 2016 9:55 pm

zerowing21 wrote:: Rainbow does give mixed messages about it. They brought up arranged marriages in magical adventure since Bloom's parents had one and they learned to love each other years before the marriage took place. They treated it like it wasn't such a bad thing. While in season 3 it was.

I didn't remember that Oritel and Marion had an arranged marriage. But like you said, it was treated like something bad -- and old-fashioned -- in season three. Even in Magical Adventure, it was treated that way. Oritel was trying to force Bloom to marry someone other than Sky. And let's not get started on the never-ending Bloom-Sky-Diaspro love triangle.

zerowing21 wrote:: They probably had him be a Prince of a small island that wasn't controlled by main royal family. He might have had the title, but was probably from some other noble house with that title for some reason. But having him from some other water type world, would have worked out just as well too.

He wasn't a prince in the show, though -- just in the comics. Seems like they didn't even decide on that before they introduced him. But yeah, making him from another world would have made it less confusing.

zerowing21 wrote:: In the end, they wanted to give her someone she could easily get on with and have stuff in common to make it easier for her to connect with him. I think having someone so vastly different would have been the way to go. I mean, look at what they've done with Nex and her. They're like polar opposites and they still work.

Nabu may have been a trial run for Aisha. Before she met him, she thought guys weren't worth it, but this relationship proved her wrong. Maybe it needed to be an easy relationship. If they hadn't gotten along well and had broken up instead, she may have decided she was right about guys and given up on love.

It makes sense for her and Nex to be opposites because of the "life and death" thing. He has a few things in common with her (confident, fearless, athletic, competitive, etc.), as well as some facial similarities I've noticed, but he's still his own character. We don't know much about him yet, but I'd be surprised if he's from Andros (though it's not impossible) or if he's a prince.

zerowing21 wrote:: Very true, the shoehorned argument does work for his place in the movie.

It doesn't explain the comics, though. Apparently, Nabu's debut comic was released during the first run of season three. Yet he didn't appear again until almost a year later when he showed up in two comics in a row. Then he disappeared again for almost two years, and by the time Roxy debuted in the comics, he was already dead. It feels like Rainbow deliberately omitted him.

aisha238 wrote:: Sometimes, people can connect with a character so much that they feel like they're a part of them and they make the show they're a part of feel like it's not the same without them.

And when something happens to that character, preferably bad, some people can't face it that they're gone and refuse to let them go.

That's true, but I think his death had something to do with that, too. Rainbow wanted it to be an emotional moment, so during season four, they made him and his relationship with Aisha seem even more appealing so we'd develop that connection. They made us believe the two of them were gonna live happily ever after, and that's one reason why his death hurt so much.

I know that was intentional. It's an easy technique for writing an emotional character death. But because Rainbow took the fanbase on such an emotional roller coaster, some people haven't recovered. Their attachment to Nabu is so strong, they can't even analyze him the same way as the other characters because they've put him up on a pedestal.

RP Moderator Posts : 9973

If I recall, the entire convo of Oritel and Marion's arranged marriage comes in the first like 20 minutes, just before Sky breaks things off with Bloom. They don't view it as a bad thing, while the younger characters do since they want to be able to chose who they want. Yeah, that entire thing between those three does not need to be touched on.

ik he wasn't, but for the comics they could have tried keep things the same between the two.

A trial run sounds plausible to me with Nabu, but the way it was forced, didn't seem like a very good run to me.

I would think for Nex, we'd hear if he was a prince by now from the others or even from Thoren in season 6.

Plus they normally say where the main characters are from for the guys. Heck even Timmy is known to be from Magix. Maybe we'll learn more in another season or in the comics with Nex.

Hmm, that does sound rather odd that they left him out in the comics so much. That might be more evidence that he was just a throwaway type character that was only meant to drive development.

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The Avatar was done by Chrissie.

"But perhaps victory is in the simpler things that you've long forgotten—things that require a smaller, more honest soul." Professor Ozpin, RWBY

Subject: Re: Is Nabu an Overrated Character? Wed Oct 05, 2016 3:29 pm

zerowing21 wrote:: I think having someone so vastly different would have been the way to go. I mean, look at what they've done with Nex and her. They're like polar opposites and they still work.

I've been thinking about this. Rainbow put a lot more thought into her and Nex. They're opposites, but it seems to be more of a Yin Yang idea: opposites that complement each other.

It's not just their personalities or the "life and death" thing with their names. It's their character designs, too. Aisha has dark skin, and Nex has light skin. Aisha has brown hair and blue eyes, and Nex has blue hair and brown eyes. Aisha has long, curly hair, and Nex has short, spiky hair.

Even their elements complement each other. Aisha's a water fairy, and Nex's weapon controls the wind. Wind and water interact in a lot of ways in real life: waves, weather, even inside our bodies (we need water and air to live). Plus, Aisha's birthday (June 15) is Global Wind Day, which might be another reason Rainbow picked that element for Nex.

They put a lot more effort and symbolism into these two.

RP Moderator Posts : 9973

I can see the point of rainbow putting the effort into contrasting the two and Nex does come off as more flushed out than Nabu and he was around quiet a bit longer and was introduced early on in season 6 and joined the group right after that. Even if Nabu had the same life and death motif going, Nex is more his own person than nabu ever was.

I don't think Rainbow really through about their element weapons with contrasting the winx's powers at all, but if they did, they must have put alot of thinking into it.

________________________________________________________________
The Avatar was done by Chrissie.

"But perhaps victory is in the simpler things that you've long forgotten—things that require a smaller, more honest soul." Professor Ozpin, RWBY

Subject: Re: Is Nabu an Overrated Character? Wed Oct 05, 2016 6:35 pm

zerowing21 wrote:: Even if Nabu had the same life and death motif going, Nex is more his own person than nabu ever was.

Wait, how did Nabu represent "death?" From everything I've read, his motif was probably supposed to be "wisdom," since he shared his name with the Mesopotamian god of wisdom.

RP Moderator Posts : 9973

I don't recall where I found it, but in some mythos from one of the cultures in the area The god nabu represented death as well. Maybe I'm confusing things, so I could very well be wrong.

Yeah, I'll admit, probably found some weird information or just read something wrong on something else. I apologize for the wrong information and please just ignore that part of my post. Now I feel dumb.

________________________________________________________________
The Avatar was done by Chrissie.

"But perhaps victory is in the simpler things that you've long forgotten—things that require a smaller, more honest soul." Professor Ozpin, RWBY

» Is Nabu Really Back...?
» When will the fanbase get over Nabu?
» What happened to Nabu?
» Need Nabu BACK
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