Thread by @witch_queenof

#muvluv
Tamase Miki and the Core of Muv-Luv

This is the beginning of a long essay intending to analyse the character Tamase Miki from the Muv-Luv Series.

At the very beginning of Muv-Luv, Tamase Miki is introduced as a character with no immediately complex-seeming personality. In her initial moments, she merely serves for comedic purposes, lightening the mood of many scenes and resolving many conflicts through her sheer-

otherworldliness. However, possibly deductable through the fact that Muv-Luv Alternative, the final entry of the main Muv-Luv Trilogy, is one of the highest rated Visual Novels of all time, a much deeper-going exploration of Tama's character is slowly and discontinuously being-

teased at during the events of Muv-Luv Extra. And its first full, throughout exploration is first presented with the route dedicated to Tama that comes from Muv-Luv Extra.

A deeper, significantly more thought-provoking character-narrative regarding Tamase Miki very much in particular is first hinted at during Muv-Luv Extra's earlier story-segments.
<<If you're too afraid of someone's anger or hatred to take the risk, you'll never gain the return-

of genuine trust.>>, are the words Yuuko speaks to Tama, during the time Yuuko suggests a cooking tournament that will allow one of the girls to do whatever they wish to Takeru on Sunday. This short conversation, more-so than all other interactions early on in Extra, can be-

seen as the first event to strongly suggest a future profound narrative concerning Tama's character in particular, and serves as the first steppingstone towards who Tama ends up becoming at her core as a human being.
Tama in Extra—was a person that was disjoint from the people-

surrounding her, out of fear of being rejected and consequently being hurt. Someone that never tries to accomplish her goals with all her strength, to be able to blame her potential loss on her less-than-complete commitment, rather than her current full abilities; something that-

hinders her from polishing her skills and being able to grow as a person. Deep down, Tama is aware of this fact herself, which is why she is constantly filled with regret of her past actions, yet another aspect of her that hinders her personal growth. She always regrets her past-

behaviour, yet, out of her lack of bravery, she never tries to improve herself through her mistakes.
This is why her relationship with Takeru later on in the first entry of the trilogy is so important—he teaches her that potential failure is not a reason for giving up before-

even trying; that failure is okay, even important, as long as she never gives up and always tries to get closer to her ultimate goal in her next try, no matter how slight that improvement may seem. To live life to the fullest, in order to never regret your actions although they-

were obvious mistakes, while constantly maturing as a person and as a user of skills.

Unlimited Tama parallels these aspects of her strongly, though one major aspect of her character is much more touched upon, due to the increasingly serious narrative Unlimited tells—Tama's self-hatred through her mistakes.
As mentioned before, Tama is, on a certain level-

aware of her behaviour, and likewise possesses the knowledge on how to overcome her regrets—yet she is still unable to use this formerly gained knowledge to its full extend, out of her lack of bravery.
This is because she has been continuously surrounded by people she judges as-

excellent throughout her entire life, starting with her father and being followed up by her friends, particularly the ones closest to her, the ones she spends the most amount of time thinking about. And because of her recognition of said excellence the people surrounding her-

possess, she admires them and views them as incredible human beings. On the other hand, she sees her own self as immensely inferior. This is because, unlike with the people surrounding her, Tama is forced to continuously witness the failures she reaches in her own life, leaving-

her to believe that, no matter how hard she continues to try, she will forever be unable to be on the same level of greatness as her peers. It is because, in herself, there are so many—such a countless amount—of flaws that she is forced to take notice of whenever she interacts-

with others, whenever she thinks, and whenever she tries to achieve something—meanwhile, other people are so great, so lacking in major flaws that she cannot help but feel overwhelmed by their excellence. She thinks this way because, fundamentally, she isn't in an emotionally-

deep relationship with any of the people surrounding her—she never has been—and is therefore unable to properly examine and understand the deeper existences—the core of their beings—and complex inner thoughts of any of the people surrounding her.
Followingly, Tama views her own-

efforts as futile, thinking that, no matter how hard she tries, she is never going to achieve anything resembling the excellence of her peers.
<<I'm not good enough anyway. Why even bother trying?>>
However, due to her inherent lack of deep human connection, she fails to-

recognize that -everyone- surrounding her suffers from some kind of—oftentimes immense—personal problem, making her believe that she is the only one not worthy of recognition. Not worthy of attention, not worthy of any kind of admiration, and not worthy of love.
Therefore, she-

is not able to take pride in her actions and genuinely love herself, since she cannot— -must not- —use her current abilities to their full potential, never creating her first -whole- self—something that encapsulates her entire being—as a result.

The definition of pride is as follows: <Pride is justified, rational self-love from having reached personal excellence; it is the singular reward and expression of attained success.>
If one chooses to never put all their current abilities into what they desire to achieve, they-

can potentially feel regret.
And Tama, as someone who views her own efforts as futile and is therefore unable to put her full strength into living, is unable to partake in the feeling of pride.
Self-hatred, serving as a misapplication of self-love, <occurs when individuals-

value expectations or standards beyond the capacity of their body, or love others before loving themselves. Hence, their ability to act in service to these standards becomes a gauge for their personal value. However, this is unsustainable because such as standard is beyond human-

capacity—humans are not omnipotent and do not have the omniscient knowledge that would be required to always meet such impossible standards. It means that one cannot ever transcend the limitations of their body or act altruistically enough within this framework, so regret is-

inevitable, thereby furthering their self-hatred, which can only form a guilty complex. Only once a person recognizes this mistake can they stop hating themselves.>
Self-hatred was born inside of Tama through her inability to properly connect with others on a deeper level-

leaving her to think that she lacks behind in terms of greatness in comparison to her peers. Followingly, she is unable to fully commit to the things she personally wishes to achieve, with her being left instead in a state of constant inability to accept herself for who she is.-

Because of this, she is incapable of moving on in order to continuously become a better person throughout her entire life.
Because of Tama's incomplete commitment—never showing the world her whole self and never filling her perceived world outside of her own mind with her-

genuine, lie-lacking self—she is unable to find true pride in her actions and choices, creating an untrue—or rather, non-existent—legacy of her true existence.
To elaborate on this—the outer world is everything that influences humans outside of yourself, including other humans-

themselves. Consequently, the perceived world is every part of the outer world that is recognized by an individual. Therefore, through properly interacting with the perceived world in order to achieve personal happiness and followingly striving to be the best person you can be-

at the current moment, one is able to achieve a feeling of pride.
However, since Tama refuses to fully commit to the things the personally wishes to achieve—as mentioned and explained earlier—she is unable to properly interact with her perceived world and can't achieve genuine-

happiness as a result.
Instead of presenting her true self, rid of lies to the outer world—showing the ones closest to her that this is who she truly is—Tama hides it from others, creating a false image of who she actually is as an individual inside the minds of her peers.

Tama only uses the absolutely required strength to achieve her missions whenever another person demands her skills from her. For example, when her squad-mates requested from her to show Takeru—who at this point had only been a member of their squad for a very short amount of-

time—her marksmanships-skills, she uses all the required skill to accomplish this mission sufficiently. In the Unlimited/Alternative World, this creates a slight, mostly just potential, contradiction—Tama doesn't want to use her abilities to their current highest limits, yet-

due to the squad's and her commander's requests, she desperately needs to achieve her mission at all cost in order to not disappoint and upset the people surrounding her. She supresses her stage-fright for a narrow period of time in order to achieve the positive emotions, the-

happiness of the demanding people surrounding her—which, on a subconscious level, upsets her and causes her anxiety, because, during these moments, she is unable to excuse herself through her inability to perform in front of other people. Unlike her father, who accepted all-

parts of Tama, flawed or not, hoping for an unconditional support from other people in such a world as the Alternative-World is naïve and will never be fulfilled. Through this, she becomes scared that, over time, she will have to continuously perform to her full ability with an-

ever-higher chance of losing. Being fully accepted and waited for despite your constant failure, like how Tama's father acted in such a peaceful world that is the Extra-World, is not possible in an unforgiving, death-consumed world such as the Alternative-World.

This is the reason why she breaks down during Unlimited's 7th chapter—It came from the Sky. Her mission, for the first time, requires her to consciously perform to her full ability, due to its incredibly destructive nature.
Takeru, once again, teaches her that, unless she-

tries to fulfill her desires with all her might, no matter how scary it may seem, she will forever regret her past inability to fully commit.
This is something Takeru later on, during the last moments of Unlimited's narrative—his speech before the ending-credits appear—likewise-

applies wholly to himself.
Through Takeru's existence and his consequent support, she is able to build up enough bravery and acceptance of her failures to be able to gradually become a greater person every day. Due to this event, Takeru becomes her personal pillar of-

strength—something to fight for, something to give all her abilities for, something that makes it worth to constantly improve her skills.
Without Tama's acceptance of her failures, she would have forever lived with regret deeply rooted in her soul. But, through the help of-

Takeru—someone she couldn't help but present her genuine feelings in front of—she finally begins to accept her failures, moves on from them, and continuously strives to become a greater human being. And this, in turn, is going to leave her with a stronger and stronger feeling of-

pride and accomplishment the more time passes.

Tamase Genjousai, at the end of Unlimited's 7th chapter, wholly respects his own daughter and, for the first time, begins to fully acknowledge her independence as a human being. In this deep, complex father-daughter relationship that has been established between them, no words-

are of necessity—already through the other's demeanours and current situation are they able to understand each other, paralleling Yuuhi and Meiya's sister-sister relationship; and so, he recognizes her willingness to perform to her maximum potential at all times from now on-

likewise striving for her desires with all her might.

The strongest focus of this essay will certainly remain on, as one can easily notice, Tama's connection towards Takeru, the man she loves. However, in this analysis, being close to merely re-establishing their two-person relationship through my own words would do a great-

disserve to all the numerous and incredibly rich characters similarly surrounding Tama and her personal character-arc who, though not to such an enormous amount of time as Takeru, oftentimes deeply interact with her and help influencing her character more than Takeru could ever-

achieve alone.
Because, truly, Tama's interactions with all her long-time friends outside of simply Takeru—the friends she has formed a group with since before the beginning of Muv-Luv's first narrative—reveal yet another one of the most important elements taking part in-

creating what makes Tama—Tama.

Kei Ayamine, Chizuru Sakaki, Sumika Kagami, Mikoto Yoroi, and, to a lesser extent—due to her shorter time of presence in her life—Meiya Mitsurugi. Marimo Jinguuji and Yuuko Kouzuki can, likewise to a lesser extent, be included on this list.
Outside of her love-interest, these-

are the people Tama spent, even before the start of Extra's narrative, months, years of her life with, ever growing closer to fully understanding -them-. However, that really is the end of it—she merely tries to understand them. Other people trying to understand, trying to find-

out more about Tama's true, unabridged self leaves Tama to fall into indirect refusal towards the person approaching her and anxiety were that person to nevertheless try to express themselves about wanting to see Tama's true self.
This is because self-hatred oftentimes induces-

inside a person's mind—among other thoughts—the assumption that, in general, other people should not pay attention to them because they believe they do not deserve their attention and care—no matter if stranger or friend.
This also applies to Tama during the earlier segments of-

all three entries in the main Muv-Luv Trilogy.

In the Extra-World, she viewed her friends as a group that allowed her to experience casual fun, but nothing more. Not because she lacked love for her individual friends, but rather, because she lacked the ability to accept mutual understanding between her and her loved ones.-

At the time, her self-hatred was too strong for this kind of relationship.
In a way, she originally saw her friends—her favourite thing in the world—as a way to distance herself from her deep inner world and instead give all her time to others, making her marksmanship-training-

and closeness to her father the only things that remind her of her own struggles; however, she avoids dealing with them fully—trying lighten the pain temporarily—by never fully committing herself to her own goals.
Said goals were bestowed upon her by her legacy, not to forget-

and so she is able to mentally place most of the responsibility upon her own father, due to the fact that Tama never actually completely chose this path for herself. It certainly does pain her—telling herself that she is not good enough to make her father proud. However, through-

merely writing her incomplete commitment off as <I'm not good enough anyway…>, she is able to continuously ignore her personal issues for the moment, instead filling her world once again with others—particularly her closest friends.
And so she lessens the pain as much as-

possible: <<Me and my friends together… it's my favourite thing>>; <<I wasn't good enough, plain and simple>>; <<My father's legacy… I'm just not cut out to fulfill his hopes and dreams…>>

Possibly the strongest aspect of what defines Tama as a unique individual is her incredibly deep care for the people she loves; numerous times throughout the story we witness her desperately trying to resolve conflict and tension between her friends, in times failing and in-

times succeeding. No matter what, Tama tries to bring the people around her pure happiness, even if they are obviously in immense pain or sorrow; she hates seeing her friends carry negative emotions so much that she is unable to even accept conflicting mindsets. One might say-

she pulls the care she should inflict upon herself away from her and instead places it on the people surrounding her. She despises the appearance of negativity inside her friends so much that the suppression of these feelings is something that must absolutely be achieved. -

However, through this suppression that she provokes, Tama is merely building up the pressure and tension inside the involved person's mind—because, as Tama perfectly proves herself through her story, <just try not to worry about it> eventually leads to a greater downfall than-

anything could have originally led to. Tama's existence, due to her incredibly hidden true self, serves as a kind of pressure which forces her friends to fall back into their normal behaviours; however, because of this outer side—the side she presents in front of other-

people—that ignores the true self, genuine trust and understanding is never established, tying this all back to Yuuko's quote I mentioned in the first segment of this analysis.

Following this, we arrive at Tama's character-design.

Her character-design represents her desire to bring happiness and absurdity to her group of friends; she hates seeing people's sadness, always trying to cheer them up as much as she possibly can, as was explained by this analysis in the previous segment. Therefore, Tama holding-

the lone property of this design displays her attempt to remove her friends from reality, instead making them focus on absurd fun and out-of-place enjoyment instead of dealing with their issues head-on. Likewise, it expresses her own wish to rather exist as a purely joy-filled-

being with no personal issues and struggles whatsoever, merely focusing on the people around her. She doesn't deserve happiness, she doesn't deserve to struggle, she doesn't deserve to take—so she believes in loneliness, in singularity.

In Muv-Luv Unlimited, her care for her loved ones and her inner absolute rule that, no matter what, she must not hurt these people and let negative emotions befall them, is shown in full force once again during the ending-deciding Christmas-festival Takeru and the others-

organized.
When one chooses to follow Tama's route, she first desperately tries to reject Takeru's confession brought forth through his realization of his romantic interest in her created by Tama's Christmas present. However, during this initial rejection, she doesn't merely-

refuse Takeru's love because of her self-hatred and consequent belief that she isn't worthy of his affection; instead, she also simultaneously tries to re-direct his love onto one of the other girls surrounding him, still trying to focus on bringing—at least one of-

them—incredible happiness instead of herself.

Her heart—it was aching, wishing, hoping, frightened, remaining with selfish desire, no matter how much she wished for this desire to disappear.

Her heart—was human.

Though she desperately tried to do nothing but bring everyone around her happiness, the human condition rarely allows such kinds of scenarios.

Tama is also just a person. She cannot only indulge in emotions benefiting the people she loves. She cannot completely dismiss her personal wishes and personal likes and dislikes that will not bring other people—so she thinks—further improvement and joy. People find sadness in-

life. People can get hurt through life. People—can find happiness through overcoming these negative, at times forever-lingering aspects of life. People can find happiness by not merely ignoring the negative facts of the outer world and their likewise negative inner emotions;-

instead, they, despite its frightening nature and potential following ache, fight against their obstacles in life. If they cannot fight it, they improve themselves in order to further their personal greatness. If they strive for victory with all their might, they can pride-

themselves in their efforts, finding true, lasting joy in life.

To follow up on Tama's just mentioned desperate struggle to avoid bringing others nothing but short, surreal-feeling joy—though Tama desperately wished for it not to be so, she was not able to fully avoid conflict with others.

In the Extra-World, due to Meiya's arrival and following romantic pursuit of her, so she claims, future husband, Tama was forced to confront her feelings towards Takeru, them being drawn to the forefront of her mind whenever Meiya's existence takes presence inside her mind.-

Feelings of jealously are evoked inside her because of how freely Meiya can act upon her wishes—something she herself is unable to do. Her now fully realized desire to be Takeru's lover despite the reality that multiple other people—not to mention them being her own-

friends—bear the same wish increases her own self-hatred immensely. Even though Tama—so she thinks—wants to be a purely superficial existence to the outer world—at best not even possessing a complex inner world—she is now forced to confront her own feelings and personal-

desires which do not actively benefit all the people around her, but rather, hurt these people because of her own wishes conflicting with the ones of others. The arrival of Meiya in the Extra-World is the reason for her even more excessive self-hatred during Extra's narrative.-

Partially, this too applies to the world of Unlimited and Alternative—however, these issues nevertheless remain most striking in the world of Extra.

And to follow up on Meiya's dynamic with Tama—while Meiya's role in society as the heir to the extremely wealthy and influential Mitsurugi family requires her to put the life of her people first and her own personal desires second—something that consequently has been engraved in-

her mind since the day she was born through private education—Tama's position as the daughter of a family filled with excellent marksmanship does not necessarily require excessive sacrifice of the self in order to fulfill her duties as the heir.

Despite this, both Tama and Meiya sacrifice their own selves oftentimes for the benefit of others—both see it as necessary, for Meiya as the heir and for Tama in order to avoid personal introspection. Meiya views her obligation as a part of her purpose in life, striving for ever-

higher and higher highs to continuously achieve personal excellence in multiple subjects. On the other hand, Tama is unable to find true lasting joy through her marksmanship-training due to her inability to love herself and accept her failures, her inability to move on from them-

and her inability to continuously learn new things in the process.

Due to Muv-Luv Alternative's particularly long and grand narrative in comparison to its two predecessor entries, the story's original group of characters—including Tama herself—are able to—and forced to do so—meet numerous characters, each of them holding different-

circumstances and personalities that influence their peers.
Out of all of Muv-Luv Alternative's unique characters existing outside of her original group of friends whom Tama comes across during her journey, Isumi Michiru is most likely the person that set Tama's mind the most-

onto another, more fulfilling path.

Both in the second and third entries of the main trilogy and its numerous spin-offs, Muv-Luv's narrative in the Alternative-World heavily focuses on the legacy of human beings and the deeds they accomplished that carve themselves into the heart of the living, with Tama being no-

exception to this theme. For, really, there is no guarantee that anyone of these people—the people inhabiting and fighting for the Alternative-World—will live to witness the dawn of the next day.

And so, the concept of legacy is countless times more emphasised when talking about Tama's decision of opening up to other people about herself and beginning to face her personal struggles and desires—achieving victory over these struggles and desires most likely influencing her-

outer self in the following future.

Because who would they remember were Tama to find death in this war-consumed world?
The person who always brought joy and absurdity to them? The person who absolutely hated it when someone showed negative emotions? The person who always displayed excellent marksmanship skills-

in training and battle?
However, this was never who Tama, at her core, truly was.

What did she like, more than anything else? Why did she hate conflict this much? What did she desire? What kept her going in this death-consumed, frightening world?
And so, this is another large reason for why she begins to express herself about what feelings she genuinely-

possesses.

Tama and her friends in the Extra-World, frankly, do not face any life-threatening troubles in life. Therefore, the concept of true legacy and memory does take more-so a backseat than in Muv-Luv's war-themed entries. The Extra-World focuses much more on the immediate deep-

emotional connections one can form through opening up to others and letting the people you feel genuine trust for see your true, unabridged self. How it can potentially help you find your way out of personal struggles and find lasting meaning and happiness. While in the-

Alternative-World, people are forced to decide whether they want to create a unique legacy for themselves through showing people their emotionally complex mind while simultaneously creating deep emotional bonds with others, or if they want to merely serve the world as a-

properly working component, dealing with their personal struggles only by themselves or, as an alternative, not possess personal struggles in the first place and offer up their whole self to the outside world. Both—all of them—certainly can create a lasting legacy, however-

depending on the person in question, the choice can vary deeply.

So—this is something Tama is asked—does she really want to leave this world knowing that no one ever truly saw her for who she really is?

So, Tama chooses

—Because she wants to be here,

Because it's alright to be here—

<<No.>>

Because Isumi Michiru told her with conviction: <<Your care for your friends is a wonderful trait. However, give them a chance to make them see who you, at your core, really are. You don't have to be so strongly empathetic that you end up being profoundly uncomfortable with-

anyone giving you attention or sympathy. It will make you feel much better—I promise.>>

Until the very end of her life, Tama's incredible care for the ones she loves remains as an integral part of her identity. However, just as Michiru said during her final moments, this is not necessarily a bad trait—so long as she doesn't forget to recognize her own personal-

struggles and negative thoughts as something deserving of attention—both from herself and from the ones she loves—and so long as she isn't too afraid to engage with her own self. Likewise, so long as she isn't using her care for others as a way to distance herself from her own-

personal struggles, there is no issue with it.
There is no issue with taking immense care of others if it brings Tama genuine happiness. However, in the beginning of all worlds, she was never truly able to grasp this happiness. Only through the mutual understanding between-

herself and her loved ones was she finally able to grasp it.

In the Alternative-World, Tama learned to be brave enough to open up to her friends. As a result, she found meaning and happiness in her life.
In contrast, in the world of Extra, she began merely by opening up to Takeru, leaving the creation of deep emotional bonds with any of-

her other close friends to a yet undetermined time.

Tama tried to focus all her attention, all her care on the outer world—the world outside of her inner world. However, because of her refusal to perform to her maximum potential, utilizing all her currently obtained skills, she was—particularly in the Alternative-World, due to-

its constant state of war—many times unable to provide people with as much care and support as possible.
But, once she began to love and accept herself, she was able to begin striving for improvement of her skills and the path she walks in life. Likewise, she began to provide-

completely new kinds of and greater happiness to the people she carries feelings of love for.

Just like so many other parts of Muv-Luv's narrative, Tama's character-arc is a journey of learning to forgive yourself for your mistakes and to love yourself. A journey that explores how this is part of the ultimate path to happiness in life.

For, looking at Muv-Luv's narrative, love, care, and thought seem to always lead to a happy outcome.

Addendum:
In the Alternative-World, Yuuhi Mitsurugi is known throughout Japan and seen as a pillar of hope—she is used by many as a great ideal, something you should strive to be in this world. Therefore, unlike in the Extra-World, sacrifice of the self in order to provide-

help to others is seen as something incredibly noble and heroic—or rather, ordinary—which consequently influenced Tama greatly—for it gave her yet another reason to ignore care for herself and instead focus solely on others. This makes her genuine romantic pursuit of Takeru even-

more impressive—even though sacrifice of the self is something fundamentally engraved inside her heart, she still decided to follow her desires only for once in order to accomplish something she herself personally desires in the world. Her courage in this moment is truly-

impressive.