CLOSED - Rate Cross Characters 18: Macha

[ZeaLitY]

Evaluate Macha based on her character design, combat usefulness, and Tilt factor -- which can mean anything, from how much she strikes you as cool to how important she is to the plot.

http://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/Macha.html

[ZeaLitY]

Design: She's some Guldovian's lame mom. She's drawn to be homely, laborious, and borderline blackface minstrel. None of these suggests any kind of experience or taste for battle or adventure.

Combat: Notice how her techs are named after household chores? They're just as useful.

Tilt:

Why wouldCHA talk like this?

Escorting young adventurers to Termina is no reason to join them. D, D, D, D, D.

Macha:
   Why can't we all just be
   happy for once?
   If only we could all hold
   hands and live together
   in peace and harmony?
   Why can't people
   understand this...?

MAGUS LAUGHS AT THIS

[nightmare975]

Damn Zeality, you beat me to the tilt.

Eh, not much to say about her, she just screams "D" material.

Final Grade: D

[Radical_Dreamer]

Design: She wouldn't be interesting as an npc.

Combat: No real use.

Tilt: Another one of the join for no reason characters.

D

[maggiekarp]

Design: I thought her in-game sprite was adorable, and she reminds me a lot of my mom. Definitely an unconventional design in a world of anorexic, scantily-clad teens.

Combat: Not so great here. Didn't use her that much.

Tilt: I liked her as a character and a non-annoying option to choose instead of Korcha, but she would be much better off as an NPC. I liked her attitude.

Overall: B

[CelestialPhantasm]

Well, I'm sorry I missed the other characters.  I'm a moderator over at the chronoshock.com forums. (RadicalDreamer, though I changed my name once to Celestial Phantasm)

Character design- Jamaican-styled maternal figure... okay.

Battle skill- She's similar to Leena but with a smaller emphasis on magic and a greater emphasis on physical attack... which makes her less specialized, I suppose.  not a bad fighter, though.

Tilt- Maybe it's kind of silly that she joins, but she gives Serge and co. support in a time of crisis and confusion.  A likeable character.

Grade: C

[Romana]

Design: Yawn.

Combat: Never used her, never want to.

Tilt: Go to hell, won'tCHA?

Final Grade: D

[V_Translanka]

Character Design - She's a fat, black, islander woman and she looks it...it even shows her hauling a basket of clothes...how quaint...>_>

Combat Usefulness - Another one who uses kitchen utensils as weapons...*groan*...Almost all of her techs show how she stays at home and deals with all the menial tasks like washing clothes and washing dishes...yup, they made a fat, black, maid character...

Tilt Factor - Aside from the possible racism, she's pretty much just another lame character who joins up...She's also part of the CHA family...and her only saving grace is that she tells off Korcha for being a douche...AND she's the one in the series who points out that Serge doesn't say he won't help Kid, but that he's just not sure what to do. For that, I'll bump her grade, because too many people out there are all, "What happens if I choose not to save Kid?".

Final Grade - C

EDIT: Aw, the poll was closed...V_V

[Kyronea]

Poll may be closed, but I'm writing this anyway.

Character Design: I want to throttle whichever designer on the Chrono Cross team thought this woman up. She literally screams "racist depiction of black women by foreign power." It would disgust me more if she had been designed by an American, Canadian, or someone else from around the region of the world the stereotype is based upon, but it's still bad coming from Japan.

Combat Usefulness: Kitchen utensil ahoy! One thing that bugged me about Chrono Cross was how they would create a whole bunch of unique weapon ideas and then just give them to groups of characters. I love the IDEA of using kitchen utensils--even though it's ridiculous from an actual combat standpoint--but it loses the flavour and originality when used by many people.

And of course her techniques are also, again, aimed at the racist depiction...urge to educate against such stupid stereotypes rising...

Tilt: As nightmare said "Why wouldCHA want to talk like this?" It's a stupid, stupid idea to try to "individualize" speaking habits. Sure, individualizing speaking habits is a necessity to keep characters interesting, but it just goes so freaking overboard because they have far too many characters...

Anyway, she at least insults Korcha, and that was funny. And she's understanding of Serge, so she shows at least some compassion, so like V man, I'll bump her up for that.

Final Grade: C