(no subject)
In a conversation yesterday with the lovely Emi (♥), we were discussing which Hogwarts houses the boys from Free! belong to. (This idea sprung out from the fact that I had just finished reading a wonderful professional quidditch au on the bus ride to school.) Most were pretty straightforward to sort: Nagisa, Gou and Sosuke in Slytherin, Niitori and Makoto in Hufflepuff, the Mikoshibas in Gryffindor. The surprising ones (to me at least) were the two main characters of the show: Haru and Rin. Both of us came to a consensus that Rin was a Gryff and Haru, a Ravenclaw.
This strikes me as interesting for two reasons: first, that a Gryffindor is (technically?) an antagonist, when they are typically viewed as stereotypically "good" characters, bristling with energy and daring to dream, and secondly, that a Ravenclaw is a protagonist of a series.
As a Ravenclaw myself, I can't help but feel slightly proud of this achievement. Ravenclaws tend to be stereotyped as boring, academically-inclined nerds1, and therefore are pretty unlikely candidates for a main characters of a show. Most main characters are Gryffindors (Captain America, Harry Potter, Eren Yaegar), who throughout the span of the story bravely overcome all adversity and go on to achieve their dreams. There are also a fair number of Slytherins who are main characters (Skye from Agents of SHIELD, Light Yagami) use their cunning skills to achieve what they want. Even Hufflepuffs (Tsuna I guess...?) have their time in the sun, who pull through their ordeal with sheer hard work.
Ravenclaws... are difficult to write as protagonists. One of the main reasons I think is probably because we are, by nature, individualistic at heart. We have our own interests and goals and don't always share them actively with others, for we understand that few others would understand the kind of enthusiasm we have for our specific interests. Haru, for instance, doesn't actively talk about swimming to everyone he meets, although he is obviously intensely interested in it. We are also tend to be pretty bad at communicating in general, another reason why we don't always talk about our interests, and why others very rarely understand our obsession with particular ideas or concepts. On the extreme end, we can be protrayed as selfish or self-serving. In fact, it can be said that Ravenclaws are the most likely to run away if their friend got into trouble2. Most people find this surprising, because people think that Ravenclaws are the most "by the book" and therefore likely to help said friend, which I don't think it's necessarily true.
This idea is built upon a fundamentally flawed conception of Ravenclaws as "good students". This isn't necessarily true. Even if you were to assume that Ravenclaws are all good in their academics, there is a difference between a rule-abiding student and a student who gets good grades, although they are usually correlated (see also: Hermione Granger).
But not all Ravenclaws perform well on exams. To me, there are two important elements of achieving good grades: hard work and interest (and I guess aptitude, but one could argue that with enough hard work and interest one could transcend their so-called limits). Ravenclaws who perform well in exams are likely to be those who are engaged the subject matter they are learning. (You could also say that their interest enables them to put in the hard work needed to excel.) Ravenclaws whose interest lie outside of school (like Haru) might not perform that well in school, since their are likely to invest their time and energy into the areas they are most interested in (swimming).
Ultimately what marks a Ravenclaw (to me at least) is a particular interest in a thing. It does not matter what the thing is. It could be maths, it could be the study of magical creatures, it could be swimming. We do the things we like because we like them, and it makes us satisfied. That is as simple as it gets.
This is the main reason for Haru's breakdown in Episode 9 of Free! ES. Throughout the series, Haru's motivation to swim is very clear: he likes swimming, he likes his friends, and he likes to swim with his friends. But suddenly everyone is watching his race and telling him how great he is and how he should join the professional swimming circuit. And now Haru is just... confused. If he were to go pro, then he's have to constantly train to improve his timings. But he doesn't care about his timings! Haru doesn't want the burden of everyone watching him dragging him down. He just wants to swim for himself, and his friends. But I think there is a small part of Haru who wants to swim pro because he knows that he will be able to swim for a career. But he is conflicted because the idea also goes against his ideals.
This is the main source of conflict for both Haru in Free! and arguably for a lot of Ravenclaws: whether or not of their lofty ideals and pragmatic interests can coexist without compromising either one of them. As someone who took a while to warm up to Haru's quirkiness (I found him extremely one-dimensional as a character in season 1), it's amazing that I've become so involved in Haru's journey of finding out just what exactly he swims for.
Perhaps I shouldn't be all that surprised. Because ultimately, Haru's story is also my own.
1 Here I find it prudent to add that basically all the other houses aside from Gryffindor suffer from all sorts of weird stereotypes. Slytherins are somehow seen as "naturally evil", and Hufflepuffs are simply the leftovers from the other houses. I call bullshit.
2 I could not find a proper source for this statement, but I remember reading something to this effect a long time ago. My researching skills are unfortunately a little rusty :c I do believe this is a common view, though.