Little Witch Academia

I do think Diana has a character flaws that was displayed in this episode: arrogance and pride. It is not that obvious because she is not boastful, but she is so certain about her abilities and decisions she doesn't even consider she might be wrong, and is unwilling to listen to others. We see this here and we saw this on episode 2. Once she is set on doing something, she ignores any opinion contrary and just dive head on.

And, to Diana's credit, she is usually right. It is kinda hard to learn the lesson you might be wrong sometimes when you are, in fact, right almost always. And this episode didn't help much in that regard. Diana was pretty much in the right, as far I can tell and the closest thing Akko brought as a valid argument was "you can do both". If Akko was right, Diana could have learned that by discussing the fact further with other people, but now we will never know. Make me wish Diana had completed the ritual afterall, if only so she could learn that lesson.

I don't think Diana was brushing her off out of arrogance. She already made her decision to go through with it, knowing full well what she's sacrificing in the process, so of course she didn't appreciate Akko basically poking her and going "Hey, hey didn't you like being at school? Won't you be sad to leave it? Won't you regret it, huh? Won't you feel bad?". Because yes Akko, she knows all that and decided to do it anyway, you are not providing any new insight here, you are just pouring salt on her wounds.

And even Akko backed off when she realized what it is that Diana wanted to protect, only offering the idea of doing both, which is a very Akko solution, and we'll never know if it would work - though I think it would since it's Diana we're talking about.

It is not just Akko she brushed off, though. It was everyone. She didn't even listened to the teachers. Yes, she had "made her decision", but what if someone had a better solution? That was my point. Diana was so sure her decision was correct that she didn't allow others to suggest anything. And, in the end, Akko did come up with an idea that Diana apparently didn't consider. And it is a silly idea, to be sure, but, as you said, if anyone could pull it off, it is her.

At any rate, I stand by my claim Diana is arrogant. She is not an ass about it, but she is arrogant. And rightfully, 90% of the case, but occasionally it bites her in the ass, such as in the second episode.

And, well, it got her completely screwed over here. She cut herself off from everyone else, and so Daryl managed to incapacitate her almost effortlessly. It was only by opening up to Akko about her true motives and accepting her help that she was able to pull through.

She was caught off guard, that probably would've happened either way...

Well, in that case it was part of the ritual. Even if she was more open, she would have entered there alone.

Although, now I think about it, Diana still needed Akko to help her to get to the shrine. Another example of Diana being better off listening to people instead of deciding everything on her own. I guess the main flaw is less about arrogance and more about being a loner. She tries to do everything by herself, but sometimes it doesn't work. It is related to arrogance, as she thinks she is up to the task (which is true, most of the time), but it is also related to ter family motto of kindness, as she doesn't want to bother others. At any rate, I wish this part of her is explored more, as I don't think these episodes went deep enough.

Not so much arrogance, but necessity. She lost her parents early on after all and even as a child was likely smart enough to see through her aunt.She know she had to do everything herself if she wanted to protect her family and its history because there was no one else.

The two things aren't mutually exclusive. That might be why she started doing it, but it is not why she is doing it now. She doesn't need to do everything alone, at last not in Luna Nova. Yet, she continues to do so. I mean, part of the reason might be simply because she is not used to ask for help. But her own certainty on her capacities play a large role. This is very evident in the last couple if episodes, when Diana outright denied help when asked. She was sure her decision was final, so she didn't even entertain the idea of consulting other people who might be able to change her mind.

It didn't seem to me like anyone was offering her any alternate solutions to consider, just generic "Are you sure you want to do that?", which frankly is not surprising since Luna Nova staff is rather incompetent.

You can't say Diana brushes other people suggestions when no one is actually making any.

Yeah, the main reason Diana does everything herself is because 90% of the time that's the best option. She can't trust most of her family, and she's actually more competent than most of the Luna Nova staff, so it makes sense to try to take care of stuff herself. And honestly, in her interactions with Akko, a lot of the time Akko's involvement tends to create as many problems as it solves, so it makes sense that she'd be wary of having Akko follow her around.

For the same reasons, I can't really view arrogance as one of her character flaws. First, because she actually has a pretty accurate assessment of her own ability, and second because she really doesn't lord it over others or use that ability as an excuse to be a jerk. All things considered, she's actually surprisingly humble given that she's demonstrably one of the most competent characters in the cast. It would be incredibly easy for her to be a lot more stuck up than she actually is.

They didn't offer any alternate solution because Diana never let them. She stopped any conversation from actually happen, which is my point. Also, we don't even know if the staff knew exactly what was going on, so it is not like they could help unless Diana talked.

The line between arrogance and self confidence is so thin I am not considering it. My point is that Diana is so sure of herself she tend to not consider other people. The fact she is usually right doesn't change the fact she sometime isn't^note specifically episode 2 and the last arc. And her personality prevents her from seeking or listening to help when needed.

Yet, 10% of the time it isn't, and Diana seems to not consider it. The fact she has reason to be arrogant doesn't mean it is not a character flaw.

To be clear, I am not hating on Diana or anything. She is far from a bad person and it is great she is not your generic boastful bully despite being so amazing at basically everything. Still, she has flaws I find interesting to analyze.

edited 24th May '17 8:21:02 AM by Heatth

Diana is no more arrogant than she has the right to.

But I don't think it's actually arrogance. She doesn't place any significant importance on herself, nor does she try to show off any of her legitimate skills and knowledge. If anything, it's stubbornness coupled with a bit of laziness in fair assumptions rather than exhausting all potential options and opinions.

I mean, you can call it another thing. I made sure to define what I meant in my original post precisely to avoid this type of discussion. Guess it was useless.

My point is that it is a character flaw that was introduced in her first real appearance (in the tv series) and have come back to hurt her in her character focus arc (though a wish it was more explored). It seems a consistent flaw in her characterization and one she could overcome.

If being reasonable and pick most optimal solution of problem is flaw. Yes she is guilty.

Sure optimal solution is not necessary best, but it also doesn't need rely on divine help, chance or sudden heart change.

Honestly there was no better choice to save her family name than leave academy and became head. And that's still hold even result is better due unpredictable events.

edited 24th May '17 9:34:47 AM by Tenzen12

Really, the only time Diana has been arrogant was in episode 2, when she tried to revive the Jennifer Memorial Tree, didn't recognise the parasitic growths on it and almost obliterated a species of rare magical butterflies. Then it was Akko who saved the tree and butterflies both, but her who took the credit for it. Somewhat reluctantly, true, but still.

Making a mistake is not arrogance.

Her not listening was arrogance though...

edited 24th May '17 3:30:04 PM by randomness4

Not listening idiots is not arrogance, but common sense.

Of course, Atsuko is more of a clown than an idiot though.

She's both... She were both. Fortunately she gradually getting better.

For me at least, the difference between confidence (which Diana has) and arrogance (which she doesn't have nearly as much of) is the sense of smug superiority and lording that over other people, even in situations where it makes no logical sense to do so. Diana is confident in her abilities as a witch, but she doesn't go out of her way to turn that into a "look how awesome I am!" sort of thing or use it as an excuse to put others down. She does consider herself superior to Akko, but that's only in regard to her magical abilities, which actually are clearly superior to Akko's. Diana may consider herself a better witch, but she doesn't necessarily consider herself a better person for it.

There's also the fact that the vast majority of her anger and frustration with Akko is due to the fact that ''she believes that Akko can be better." If she were truly arrogant she'd be trying to grind Akko down further, not get her to improve herself.

TL;DR basically look at the difference between how Diana treats Akko and how Hanna and Barbara treat her.

edited 24th May '17 8:18:21 PM by JapaneseTeeth

meanwhile: the next ep preview was posted this morning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikvPjEfUynw

After learning Chariot climbed to the top of the Wagandia Tree in Arcturus forest to unlock the 6th Word, Akko is keen to go in spite of Ursula's warning that its too dangerous to go - the tree is about to Bloom. So Croix offers to take her to the tree.

edited 26th May '17 5:39:46 AM by ScrewySqrl

I don't care all that much about shipping, so finding interesting discussion about ep. 20 was quite difficult, because of all those delusional Akko x Diana fans invading everywhere.

Anyway, I still like the show and discussing it with other fans, but it's testing my patience with the weird pacing it has, with nice episodes that however don't advance the plot, and bad episodes that advance it in the worst manner possible. I still liked this two-parter, but as many of you I think it could be done as a single episode. Especially since some moments were quite cheesy such as Akko and Andrew overhearing Daryl's plot or Diana's evil relatives instantly becoming "good" after having been saved. Though it was nice to see that kid Andrew already had his personal harem, as Frank said before

I think this two-parter was supposed to make Diana more sympathetic and relatable, but it didn't really work, to me at least: knowing that she lost the magic ability because of her mother's trauma makes her even more of The Ace since she had to re-learn everything in even less time. And the discover that she comes from a family of compassionate magic healers comes too late in the story to cancel her image of stuck-up arrogant child prodigy. Let's see how her friendship with Akko develops in the few remaining episodes...

Also, she basically left a huge manor in the hands of a bunch of muggles and three obviously evil witches that can teleport and summon giant snakes. What could possibly go wrong?

I miss Akko's upbeat cheer at the end of the preview, that only she can do!

That said, Jacketless!Croix is DAMN HOT!

Yeah, the pacing has been really weird. Like the show can't make up its mind whether it wants to be an ongoing story or a slice of life thing. I mean, I know there are shows that have started as standalone episodes before picking up an ongoing plot, but for goodness sake we're almost at the end of the series. If an overarching plot is going to kick in, it should've done so a few episodes earlier.