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What could have made a series better.

Once more, my uncle brought up the subject of marriage. His reasons for wanting me to get married were the same as those he gave the previous year. But this time, he had someone in mind for me, which made the matter all the more embarassing. The person that he suggested as a suitable bride was his own daughter, my cousin. "It will be a convenient arrangement for both parties," he said. "Your father, before he died, seemed to be of the same opinion." I could myself see the convenience of such a union; and I could easily believe that my father had been in agreement with my uncle. but the idea of marrying my cousin had never crossed my mind before, and had my uncle not pointed out the advantages of the marriage, they would certainly have never occurred to me. I was therefore surprised; yet I had to admit to myself the reasonableness of my uncle's wishes. Perhaps I am a thoughtless sort of person. At any rate, I believe that the main source of my reluctance to marry my cousin lay in my complete indifference to her. As a child I had frequently gone to play at my uncle's home in town. I remember that I often spent the night there. My cousin and I were therefore childhood friends. You know of course that a brother does not fall in love with his sister. I may be simply repeating what has always been known, but I do believe that for love to grow, there must first be the impact of novelty. Between two people who have always known each other, that necessary stimulus can never be felt. Like the first whiff of burning incense, or like the taste of one's first cup of saké, there is in love that moment when all its power is felt. Theree may be fondness, but not love, between two people who have come to know each other well without ever having grasped the moment. No matter how hard I tried, I could not bring myself to want my cousin for a wife.

Ah... *sigh*

That's what I get for necroposting. I foolishly assumed that anyone reading this thread might take the time to read all of it before posting, the way it says to, in the sticky at the top of the forum list.

Instead, we get two users posting in a way that might be relevant to the thread title, and to the first few posts, but which completely ignores the several pages of succeeding discussion. Way to go, guys. Didn't read the thread at all, just posted.

I grant you that the title is "What could have made a series better", but the current of discussion has long since turned from that general topic, to the more specific subtopic of whether incest themes in anime are necessary, and in what way they should be handled.

This happens sometimes with discussions, as they move along -- they become specific and leave generality behind. This is the reason for the rule that you should read the thread before posting. Not just the title, not just the first post. The whole damn thing.

There'd have been nothing wrong with turning the current of discussion back to the general topic, if you'd given any indication that you'd bothered to read the other posts. But you obviously did not. Lazy kids, it's only a few pages long.

- abunai

As you can plainly see, what Soseki is describing is the Westermarck Effect. Moreover, as cousin-marriages are fairly common in Japan (though less now than previously), for reasons (as in this case) of inheritance conservation, this passage also exemplifies the probably most common objection to the practice, namely lack of attraction due to overfamiliarity.

- abunai

Perhaps abunai should revive this thread instead.

Zalis116 wrote:

Efan wrote: This topic is about what YOU think could have made a series better. It can be anything you want; removal of a certain character, change in the plot etc etc. I think Elfen Lied could have been a much better series if they changed the fact that spoiler[Kouta and Yuka are cousins], maybe if they changed it to they were old childhood friends, it would have made the series alot more heart warming rather than sickening. I want to hear your thoughts on what would have made any series better. Hasn't this facet of Elfen Lied been covered before? Where's dormcat when we need him? Wherever he is, I'll provide his words for everyone's benefit here: Dormcat wrote: Like what I've said before, Japanese is one of the few developed nations which allow marriage between first cousins (sharing same grandparents), while most developed nations only allow marriage between second cousins (sharing same great grandparents). The ratio of married first cousins is 1.8% among all married couples in Japan; none of developed countries in the report I saw has the ratio higher than 1% (IIRC, less than 0.5%, to be more exact). Therefore, Kohta + Yuuka = spoiler[not incest, not taboo, not in Japan anyway.] I imagine ADV could have tweaked this in the dub if they really wanted to, but I think those days of shameless censorship are behind us. Besides, there are plenty of more sickening things to be found in Elfen Lied.

*Shocked*
Well, I guess that makes sense considering it's normal (is it?) in Japan, but it still seems a bit strang too me. (But hey, what do I know, I'm just a stupid westerner ^^).

Thus, Efan, stay away from it--she appears before him, in one scene, wearing an apron.

And when I say that, I mean 'and nothing else'.

Will probably think of more later, but for now...

Fullmetal Alchemist - spoiler[The revelation about our world being on the other side of the Gate could have been handled better, I thought. For virtually every other major revelation, the series did a great job of dropping hints and clues to allow viewers to piece stuff together. But, I felt at least, that the truth about the Gate and alchemy was just dumped on viewers haphazardly in the last couple of episodes. It think that sort of revelation needed to be built up better, with more hints in the preceding episodes before bringing it in as a concept to end the series. Also, for me, Ed's side-trip to our world during the climax of the series interrupted the 'flow' of the series ending and didn't mesh seamlessly enough. I liked the actual substance of the truth of the Gate, but the execution could have been handled better, IMO.]

Amasa wrote:

Perhaps abunai should revive this thread instead.

Hmm, well, you'll notice I did make reference to that thread, in my post -- remarking that my post was equally germane to it. One revived ancient thread at a time is more than enough, I think.

- abunai