Talk:Maria-Clara de la Cruz/@comment-118.93.44.177-20120518125443

I felt like critiquing this OC profile of the Philippines. Don’t take this as bashing, I honestly want to educate people a little here. I love the Philippines, even if I’m not from there, the country fascinates me a lot and I’ve enjoyed researching it. Anyway, critique time.

Okay, just going in order of things, I dislike that this profile is more about the relationships than anything else. Sorry but I’m going to be nitpicky. Don’t get me wrong, I love the artworks I’ve seen of the Philippines and I’m been working on my own OC for the Philippines, but I felt this one needs a lot of work. It bugs me because lots of people go to this OC as the popular OC representation when there’s inaccuracies and no offense, but sue qualities. There’s too much exaggeration on just how well the Philippines gets along with other countries, particularly the coloniser countries.

I’ll accept the name, though for Philippines to directly copy the name ‘Maria Clara’ seems iffy to me. It’s like if America was directly named after a President or something. I’d like to think of the Noli me Tangere character and the Philippines OC as separate myself. But many OC creators seem to settle on this name (I didn’t for mine, but whatever) so I guess I’ll let it slide. The golden eyes seem iffy to me (brown would be more realistic) but again, I’ll let it slide. I don’t think of Filipina women as being small but curvy though. The average build of a Filipina woman is petite yes, but Asian women aren’t known for being curvy. She doesn’t have to be anorexic, but ‘curvy’ isn’t the most accurate.

Now the whole story about Philippines being mistaken for a boy just feels like a rip-off of Hungary’s story. I think Spain should be able to tell the genders of his colonies – he is not that stupid. He could have easily just asked her, or hell, he may have had to dress her up and down during colonisation days – he ought to know her gender BEFORE puberty. She always had feminine features from the very beginning, people! It’s called a ‘vagina’. I highly doubt she was that manly either in appearance or voice. Also Mexico being the one to report her gender contradicts what is later said in the profile about Spain introducing Philippines to Mexico as his ‘Little Sister’. That would mean Spain knew of her gender. So what the hell is going on there?

Moving onto the personality. There are contradictions, not going to lie. It’s inconsistent. “Whenever a country backstabs her, she starts to have extreme back pains”. Okay, when the hell does that even begin to make sense? “Oh no, I’m having back pains, someone must be backstabbing me again!” Tsundere is a poor way to describe an OC. It’s lazy and it’s cliché, not to mention extremely shallow. I’m sorry, but I’d rather see elaboration on both her sweet side and her more irritable side than just a ‘tsundere’ labelling. Also, I hate to think of the Philippines as being stereotyped like that. It’s also really cliché to put that someone’s frightening when they’re mad. Hello, that should apply to just about anyone. The profile says she’s tsundere but also happy-go-lucky. That’s quite contradictory – if it were explained how she can be both, then I’d be okay with it, but it’s not explained, so I’m not buying it. And I doubt Philippines is 100% about her economy and politics when she’s alone. Where is the implementing of her culture? What about Filipino dances and music, sports and recreational activities? There’s got to be so much more to her than that. The arachnophobia could be explained better. Are the Philippines known for having lots and lots of deadly spiders? I don’t recall so. I don’t see why spiders should be such an issue for her. It also doesn’t make much sense for her not to believe in her own country’s mythology either (the dwarf thing). I know Philippines is more Catholic than superstitious nowadays, but that part doesn’t make much sense. Now for the relationships!

Starting with China, I’m okay with some of the first part. I don’t understand why she’d develop a crush on him though. There was a lot of Chinese resentment from the Philippines during the days of Spanish colonisation and even after all of that, their relations are rather rocky. China does have some influence on Filipino culture, but I wouldn’t say they’re close. In fact, with what’s going on lately, things between them are tense. It’s going beyond the Spratly Dispute. The crush thing just seems to be a ‘shipping for the sake of shipping’ to me.

The Spain paragraph! Okay, yes, the Philippines inherited a lot of culture from Spain. However, Spain was very harsh on the Philippines during the years of colonisation. He took tributes from her, took away a lot of privileges, forced taxes... the Philippines held a lot of resentment for Spain during those years. The very novel ‘Noli me Tangere’ which translates to ‘Touch Me Not’ was practically Anti-Spain propaganda. If I was Spain and Philippines named herself Maria Clara after the character from that novel, I’d be pretty bugged, myself. It’s ironic for them to get along with that in mind, to be honest. Netherlands and Spain were fighting long before Netherlands fought for the Philippines. Hell, Netherlands only invaded the Philippines to piss Spain off to try and win the Eighty Years War. Spain wasn’t that protective of the Philippines either and pretty much left New Spain/Mexico in charge for a good amount of time. Philippines revolted against Spain several times and wanted independence, so she shouldn’t be thinking of him as a fatherly figure. I’m sorry, but no. Spain and Philippines get on better today and share a Friendship Day, but they’re not that close with one another.

Okay, Mexico’s turn! To be honest, I’m not as bugged about this paragraph. The countries do share good relations, not just throughout history but even in modern times. So yeah, I’ll let that paragraph slide.

America’s turn! ...Hooboy. American culture is present in the Philippines, but not that much. Philippines’ culture is a huge blend and sorry, America isn’t that influential. I hate the America idolisation characterisation of the Philippines. I love the idea of them being good friends nowadays, but I don’t think Philippines idolises America that much. America actually cockblocked Philippines’ independence for a long time. Hey, remember 1898? That was when Philippines declared independence originally, but America did not recognise it. In fact, American politicians refused to discuss the future of American-Philippine relations because they weren’t planning to view Philippines as independent. There was the Philippine-American War and America committed war crimes throughout that. Look up genocides on Wikipedia. America committed genocide on the Philippines in 1906. Why doesn’t it mention the Philippines being angry over that? Shooting one soldier < A FREAKING GENOCIDE. If anything, Philippines should have felt very bitter during the earlier days of knowing America. Even after America won the war, a law was implemented that if any Filipinos advocated for Philippines independence that they would get the death penalty. America even captured the Philippines’ leader at the time to force Philippines into surrendering. He did not ‘feel sorry for her’, he manipulated her quite badly. They took over half a century to finally grant Philippines her independence. Their relations may have improved from then on, but I feel it must have been quite uneasy. I don’t think Philippines should have a crush on America at all in all honesty. For Philippines to want to be together with America would completely miss the point of what Philippines had been trying to accomplish for let’s face it, CENTURIES. I support them being good friends in modern times, but trust me, their relations aren’t all that fantastic.

Australia’s turn! Okay the kiss thing is shipping fodder and shouldn’t be there. Sure, put it in your fanfics, but please don’t put it in a bio, please... Aside from that, I’m not complaining too much. Australia and Philippines do have good relations on the whole, yeah.

Japan’s turn! He did not offer Philippines with gifts, trust me. BATAAN DEATH MARCH. Go and look it up. Japan treated Philippines horribly during World War Two. They got on fairly well prior to the war, but this occupation killed their relationship for quite a long time. I don’t like the ‘Taiwan being jealous of her’ thing either. It trails into the Sue zone. I do agree that Japan and Philippines were uneasy after the war and have been slowly patching things up over time, yes. Philippines shouldn’t really be that much of an ‘otaku’ though. It’s a fairly shallow character trait to mention and the Philippines aren’t exactly known for producing tons of their own anime and so on. She can be an anime fan, sure, but not enough to be labelled an ‘otaku’.

England’s turn! Okay, Philippines as a nation should be able to remember perfectly well what England had done during his occupation of /Manila/. Philippines revolted against England too and England only left because of a treaty. And Spain wasn’t exactly as protective as he could have been during those couple of years too, just by the way. That quote doesn’t even begin to make sense either. Philippines was just fine allying herself with America during both World Wars, really. America even liberated her from Japan alongside Australia and Mexico. England didn’t exactly help out there, so why would she say she should have allied herself with him?

Canada’s turn! This paragraph seems okay to me, though I don’t see why America would be jealous of the two hanging out. There’s nothing in America and Philippines history and relations to suggest why they would be. I’m sensing shipper bias slipping in here, though it could just be me.

North Italy’s turn! Um, Philippines and North Italy are right across the world from each other. They did not grow up together. Italy and Philippines aren’t that close. Just because Philippines is Catholic doesn’t mean she’s close to Italy. They aren’t close enough for Italy to think of her as a ‘sorella’, I’m sorry, they’re not.

South Italy’s turn, oh joy. Again, they did not grow up under Spain’s house. The point of New Spain ruling over Philippines was because she was so far away from where Spain was. He did not take Philippines back to his house to go be BFFs with Romano and any other Spanish colonies. So they don’t have a reason to be so familiar with one another in history. Spain did not treat Philippines like a princess either, go see the Spain paragraph for more information on that. Again, I disagree with Romano being jealous of the Philippines. He was always jealous of his brother; it hasn’t been stated that he’s been particularly jealous of anyone else. ‘Sleeping on her chest feels like sleeping on soft pillows’ is just a WTF to me to be honest. And that final sentence just screams shipper fodder. Why would he find her having an attitude like Spain’s attractive? It’s never been stated in canon that he found Spain’s attitude attractive.

Look, all in all, I like the overall design of the Philippines that I see in artworks. I love Filipino culture dearly too. I love developing my own Philippines OC. I just find it really sad when I see people saying that Philippines OCs and Mary Sues are basically the same thing. Trust me, I’ve seen people say that. I’m not saying this OC is outright horrible and should be scrapped. I’m saying it needs a lot of revamping, particularly in the relationships department. It’s this exact depiction of her relationships with other countries that can rub people the wrong way. It’s too cheery, a lot of it doesn’t make sense... Please, whoever’s reading this and has a Philippines OC, please learn from it! I support having pride in your country, but please, do your research and don't make her a relationship sue!