Sheryl Nome: Building a better Basara?

[Keith]

Excellent, consensus that Basara is indeed the greatest character ever, now carry on.

[Killer Robot]

Sheryl starts out as a corrupt self-absorbed pop idol who doesn't understand the power of the music she sings, nor its' importance.

By the end of the series, she is a true super star idol - I think that scene in the bunker is a beautiful completion of her character arc - going from aloof super star idol to ambitious girl who wants to help other ambitious girl gain popularity to wash-out nobody, to artist who realizes that whether or not she's selling well, she must still sing - to a singer who can truly move people's hearts without the flashy stage acts.

See, that's where I have to disagree. Sheryl was taken by some, both viewers of the early episodes and characters within the series, as a corrupt and empty shell of media-created stardom, but the exploration of her character in the first half of the series was all about how that wasn't true. Her coldness toward the aerobatics team wasn't her being a spoiled diva but her worries that some unproven high school kids inserted into her show might ruin things (Note: she was right, saved only by some quick thinking on her part). Her singing wasn't a means to fame and fortune, but something that, in her own words, she couldn't not do. When Ranka made an impression on her, she gave encouragement and inspiration. When Alto treated her as a person rather than as a star, she was totally taken by it, not rejecting of him. When her homeland was attacked and possibly destroyed and Frontier went to war, she did her best to help in the ways she could: going on with her concert to keep spirits up, and pushing that documentary to raise awareness of the danger. Her claims of effort and devotion being more important than talent or luck were earnest: she was mistaken, unaware of just who had given her some pushes along, but she was never lying on the point. Not to say she was a perfect person, or that she wasn't image-conscious and media-savvy, but she wasn't a fake in it for the fame and praise themselves by any means.

Sheryl was aware of the power and importance of music, communication, and force of will perhaps more than anyone. If anything, that knowledge was the seed of her doubt and fall nearly as much as her illness itself or Grace's manipulations. When music was showing to be the thing that might save the day she was helpless, seeing Ranka as the hope of Frontier while she was ill and forgotten, able to do nothing. Note also that this was not due to Ranka's greater purity of spirit, but due to her being a Little Queen able to reach the Vajra with no assistance, and Sheryl not.

Sheryl's fall into self-doubt wasn't in realizing that she'd been fake all along, but in being told that she was fake all along: Grace's final betrayal of her was not without truth in that her career had been sponsored for an unethical purpose, but it still was in itself an attack, characterizing Sheryl as being nothing but artifice and helpless on her own, so as to get her out of the way without having to actively arrange her death. Likewise her recovery, beginning with the scene where she sings in the shelter, was not her becoming something she wasn't before, but rather her getting past that lie to realize that she was real, she was inspiring, and her ability to reach people and thrill audiences was her skill and not just clever marketing. Even if she got her career started by Grace and the conspiracy, it couldn't change that she was a natural performer and inspiration that belonged on the stage and driving her friends onward. Her friends being another point: the big thing that changed for Sheryl over the course of the series wasn't how real her fame or music was, but whether she had anyone close to her. Not only those for her to influence, but those for her to lean on as well. Such as Alto and Ranka pushing her own words back at her, about how she just can't not sing, that it's who she was.

To sum up, Sheryl became more confident and genuine as the result of her fall and recovery, but as a performer she didn't become something she really wasn't before. More, she realized that she was not and couldn't be a success on her own, owing nothing to anyone - instead she learned personal relationships are a two-way street and she has to rely on her friends as well as inspiring them. Oddly, Basara seems to push the opposite viewpoint: for him, things seem to work out when those around fall in step with him, and so seldom a bend the other way, much less him acknowledging it.

[ff95gj]

I agree with Killer Robot that Sheryl did not undergo a personality change from an empty idol into an artist with a heart.

She acted kindly to Ranka very early in the series. She just wished to encourage Ranka, who had the passion to sing, to sing. And she did love singing, and it is not just a business to her. A scene that she sang along with Ranka in the hospital reminds me that both of them enjoyed it enough to act like that.

VFTF1 mentioned that "Sheryl just happened to mix up in something bigger", and I basically agree with that. So was Minmay and Ranka; they just loved to sing, and wished to touch people or encourage people with music. So was Basara.

The more I read in this thread, the more I get clear about one thing: I don't really hate Basara (he is just a reckless jerk who loved singing; we have a lot of reckless jerks and singers in the Macross universe), I hate M7's story settings. The magical world of music. Humanoid that flies around freely in space (without any life-supporting eq, of course). Sucking of human spirit energy. Music expelling monsters (and the bigger the speaker the more powerful it is). It's more like a Sailor Moon style story to me.

Yeah I don't know better than the producers (they can say Sailor Moon is Minmay's personal friend and declare it canon), but I can voice my opinion, right?

[VFTF1]

I'm not going to quarrel with Killer Robot over sequence of events - because obviously he is correct.

I think what it ends up being is a matter of motive. See - I obviously agree with the sequence of events you've laid out - but we differ a bit on interpretation.

I think that it was her encounter with Alto, then Ranka, then the whole gang from the high school - that made her into a better person and led to all those great things you noted.

She tells Alto in Episode 6 about how she hated Galaxy and was all alone there. Why do you think she decides to enroll in high school? Why does a super star idol decide to go hang out with regular high school kids?

She's obviously lonely and alone - and this in large part contributed to her being so cold in the beginning.

I agree - the impression that she is fake and aloof is not correct - and I agree that it's an impression I had when I watched Frontier first. But - that doesn't mean she was really a warm loving person inside either. I just interpretted her being cold as a sign of the "diva/super star corrupt idol" thing - but it turns out that actually, it was the result of her being an orphan and being brought up alone on Galaxy - with no friends or anything.

I mean - do we EVER see Sheryl talking on the phone or texting or recollecting about ANYBODY on Galaxy? Nope. In fact, her whole life she's pretty much spent going from one Macross fleet to another singing. She doesn't have friends. She has Grace.

Her life changes for the better when she comes to Frontier. It is the one colony that makes an impression on her (episode 5) and the people there also move her heart.

So - I think you're right in much of what you say - particularly about how you interpret her coming to terms with Grace's betrayal. But a lot of what gave her the strength to come to terms and carry on was - in my view - her coming to know Ranka, Alto, Ozma - and everyone else on Frontier.

It was her first real family and they were the ones who warmed her up IMO.

Pete

[Killer Robot]

I'm not going to quarrel with Killer Robot over sequence of events - because obviously he is correct.

I think what it ends up being is a matter of motive. See - I obviously agree with the sequence of events you've laid out - but we differ a bit on interpretation.

I think that it was her encounter with Alto, then Ranka, then the whole gang from the high school - that made her into a better person and led to all those great things you noted.

She tells Alto in Episode 6 about how she hated Galaxy and was all alone there. Why do you think she decides to enroll in high school? Why does a super star idol decide to go hang out with regular high school kids?

She's obviously lonely and alone - and this in large part contributed to her being so cold in the beginning.

I agree - the impression that she is fake and aloof is not correct - and I agree that it's an impression I had when I watched Frontier first. But - that doesn't mean she was really a warm loving person inside either. I just interpretted her being cold as a sign of the "diva/super star corrupt idol" thing - but it turns out that actually, it was the result of her being an orphan and being brought up alone on Galaxy - with no friends or anything.

I mean - do we EVER see Sheryl talking on the phone or texting or recollecting about ANYBODY on Galaxy? Nope. In fact, her whole life she's pretty much spent going from one Macross fleet to another singing. She doesn't have friends. She has Grace.

Her life changes for the better when she comes to Frontier. It is the one colony that makes an impression on her (episode 5) and the people there also move her heart.

So - I think you're right in much of what you say - particularly about how you interpret her coming to terms with Grace's betrayal. But a lot of what gave her the strength to come to terms and carry on was - in my view - her coming to know Ranka, Alto, Ozma - and everyone else on Frontier.

It was her first real family and they were the ones who warmed her up IMO.

Pete

Now there I totally agree. Sheryl cared for Galaxy as her home, but it didn't really mean anything to her beyond that. No family, no friends, and the only person that had been a constant in her life turned out to be a lie. Like Basara she came from pretty much nowhere, but she found a far less supportive figure in her youth. Finding friends were the big changes for her. Alto for the taste of romance she had dreamed of but never had, Ranka for a little sister figure and eventually as a peer, and the other four as well in their own ways. Having those, and learning to accept and rely upon them, she found the part that she'd been missing, and became a stronger person for it. She was a strong person even from the start, but she learned that no one is strong enough to stand entirely alone, and embracing that is what saved her.