soul eater episode 33 gender analysis thread

Maka is the only female meister on the team. the fact that she is also the weakest of the 3 in terms of raw power is not a coincidence, its a clear & direct parallel to how women have to work 2x as hard as men to get the same results.

unsurprisingly, maka is also a huge workaholic to the point it becomes detrimental. maka has a better work ethic than dtk AND black star combined. black stars energy isnt put into getting the job done, he wants attention and clout. likewise dtk doesnt even *have* to go to

the dwma. he has another path he could be following, putting his energy into becoming a full fledged grim reaper like lord death. but he chose to go to the dwma to help maka, black star, soul, and tsubaki in the fight against stein but also b/c hes not very concerned w/ upping

his power level. he wants to make liz & patty both into death scythes, and quickly. hence why he asked for a big mission to get all the souls he needed in one go in episode 3. maka is the only one out of the three who wants to fight for justice & good. thsi is reflected in her

grigori soul. with all that established, in episode 33 stein assigns the main cast into one group. they try to resonate, but black star is holding them all back. literally, stein even fucking admits that black star wont accept maka's leadership. maka gets frustrated, b/c, again,

she is very genuinely invested in beating arachnophobia. i love black star but his main flaw is that hes selfish as fuck and it holds others back (in episode 2 it was even pointed out that his attitude is unfair to tsubaki) and that is on full display in this episode. but when

maka gets frustrated and asks that black star be swapped w/ someone else, stein tells maka that the failure is her own fault. maka has always had a temper problem, yes, but is her anger here unjustified? no. maka is a moral & goal oriented person and black star is objectively

standing in the way of that. this hit close to home for so many girls who much like maka in this episode, were frustrated with a boys selfishness but were told to deal with it or gtfo. its always girls who must capitulate and compromise, never boys. whether steins reprimanding

of maka was fueled by the madness or not is irrelevant. and maybe maka asking that blackstar be swapped out instead of her was self centered. is it any worse than blackstar intentionally sabotaging the resonance b/c for once he couldnt be the center of attention? no. not even on

the same level. furthermore, the fact that maka is the one who must humble herself makes the situation even worse. the most apologetic blackstar is in the episode is when tsubaki wacks him over the head and says he deserved that. throughout the episode he is intentionally

antagonistic to maka (not soul, though, interestingly enough), a dynamic which parallels irl dynamics between women and men that occur every single day. again, its always girls who must apologize and humble themselves. whats more is that this is the first time in the series where

maka is truly 100% and completely pushed to her emotional limit. its another girl who comes to her rescue to comfort her (tsubaki) which also speaks volumes. yet AGAIN its girls who must apologize and capitulate. throughout the anime we see time and time again where tsubaki takes

responsibility for blackstars fuckups. at least maka is rewarded for putting up with all this, with stein making her the team captain at the end. maka's biggest flaw is also revealed to us in this episode in plain language. she's JEALOUS. but this flaw was plain to see even

before this episode. and at the end of the episode, she asks blackstar to punch her so they can be even. yet again, its girls who must apologize and capitulate. maka takes the punch on stride and is shown smiling instead of crying, proving yet again that she is more concerned

with justice and morality than anything else. though to be fair, by the end of the episode blackstar is framed as somewhat of a jackass. dont take this thread as blackstar character hate...b/c i dont hate him. i love this idiot, actually. anyway stan maka.