Um, I haven't written any trope pages, but I do contribute where I feel I've got something to say.
Most recently I've been watching the Real Women Never Wear Dresses page; I added the bit about part of Valkyria Chronicles fandom having a more moderate viewpoint than the... shall we say, extremely biased retelling of the negative opinion described in the article, which was likely written by one particular troper who disagreed with another and took it to another trope page to complain.
I think the Real Women Wear Dresses trope is true enough on its own, but because it's such a subjective trope, it demonizes people who find underlying meaning in the treatment of women, especially in Japanese media, where women's roles are still much more strictly defined than in other parts of the world. A female character whose only strengths are internal and emotional, in a story where the focus is on the characters who actually do things, does come across as weak. We look at these women and girls doing things that we disdain or that don't make sense— I'm sorry, Princess, but you're supposed to be fighting the Big Bad and sieging his castle today, would it really be so much trouble for you to wear armor and flats and carry a shield instead of a full length ball gown, pumps, and a parasol?— and we're being told "It's okay to be active and strong as long as you don't look the part". For those of us who do appeciate strong feminine influence, we don't need more examples of the type of femininity that is strong enough to endure the pain of living (If you're familiar with the Squaresoft "Three Females Rule", usually two of the three will posess this trait; the youngest one with no love interest will be too jovial to suffer much) but not strong enough to make it through life without a man.
We don't disdain the feminine, we disdain the stereotype, the 'lowering' of a woman because she adheres to the feminine values that make her a desirable mate; characters who look feminine (from the Real Women Never Wear Dresses page example, Tohsaka Rin and Saber of Stay Night) can still be cool, but not if their femininity is some kind of padding, as though being too strong and cool will somehow make her undesireable, if not to the audience, then to her love interest, damanging her chances at a happy romance— which is, of course, the most important thing. Alicia from Valkyria Chronicles suffers from this in particular; in the beginning of the game, she's very level-headed, focused on her goals (being a baker and protecting Gallia), and entirely self-sufficient. I don't know how she manages to not be a legend on the battlefield even before she awakens to her powers, because when I played, she had pinpoint accuracy with a rifle and I could count on her to kill at least one enemy per round, movement permitting.
She's already a skilled soldier and much more of a pragmatist than Welkin, so why do we see her losing her mind at the idea of being strong enough to blow up tanks? At face value, the shock of it would justify a lot of her conflict, but this is a girl who has more confirmed kills than the rest of Squad 7 combined, possibly minus the Edelweiss and a line of Shocktroopers guarding a bottleneck. None of what she's afraid of ever even has a chance of happening— no one comes to take her away from Squad 7, she never even comes close to losing her personality or her morals, she never goes berserk and kills her friends (unless you attack her in the one mission where she's in full-on flaming Valkyrie mode, in which case you obviously aren't her friend— looking at you, Faldio). She's only afraid of those things happening.. but why? Because of Selvaria's example?
Alicia never stops to ask herself if she feels like she's losing anything by being a Valkyria. She looks outward for answers, and the player gets to watch as her confidence dissolves like sugar in a teacup; she goes from being the Girl With The Gun to ...a confused, scared teenage girl who never stops to just think for herself, or if she does, it doesn't yield anything. We watch as the plot breaks her bones, shoots her, and traumatizes her, and for what? So that Welkin has a reason to protect her (because obviously she's not girlfriend material if she doesn't need to be protected). She finally decides to kill herself (and in the process, destroy a battleship and kill all of her friends— yeah, that's something she'd do) because she's so emotionally distraught over the imaginary consequences of her new super-powers... and then Welkin hugs her and tells her it's going to be okay because he'll take care of her.
Would it really have been so terrible if she'd simply decided that the risks weren't worth the gains and chosen to set aside her power, rationally and sensibly, instead of letting Welkin kiss it all better? No. Of course not. It's a romance story, and there's no romance in mature relationships between intelligent young adults who approach their situation with practicality and consideration for affection and partnership. There's no drama when a man loves a woman for who and what she is, if she's also okay with who and what she is. Somebody needs to have a problem with her.
Obviously Welkin can't confess his love to a stable warrior-woman who fights for her homeland today with the expectation that she'll be able to pursue her dream tomorrow; he has to wait until she's suicidal and needs him, because if she doesn't need him, why would he want her? Welkin never faces any emotional instability that Alicia has to snap him out of. He never needs her to heal his wounds (in the plot, anyway; Welkin is a bit of a weiner on the field) or convince him to be a teacher or work with animals instead of pursuing a military career. It's the typical double standare for JRPG relationships: she has to need him, he has to want her, and until those conditions are met, no romance can happen. It's not okay to love someone just because you love them, there has to be a drastic imbalance of emotional need between the two. This is why Shiro and Saber don't work out— she doesn't need him (and he's a sexist idiot, but that's another argument).
It's that powerlessness that we hate, the conforming to a stereotype of passivity that allows for a girl to be as big as she wants, as long as she isn't bigger than her boyfriend. Of course we get sick of seeing female characters questing after boys and pretty dresses and makeup and jewelry— none of those things are important. The boys are out saving the world or fighting the empire or piloting giant robots, and we like them because they're interesting and do cool stuff. Of course we don't care about the flirtatious, frilly types who live and breathe for falling in love— don't they have anything better to do in the world they live in?— and usually only accomplish anything by dying for someone else— is your life so meaningless that getting stabbed/shot/beheaded is more productive than you actually doing anything?— and the ones that do actively go out and solve problems actively, how are we supposed to take it seriously when the boys throw fire, grow in size, stomp on monsters, and swing huge swords, the girl that we're supposed to identify with throws hearts and flowers and fashion accessories?
Why is there a page devoted to hating on this viewpoint? And why am I too afraid of being utterly lambasted to take this to a discussion page where someone might actually read it?
