#tristeva

Meme by Min_tramcam

I've complained about this arc before, of course. Namely the fact that we were finally introduced to Cleo, Eva's stranged little sister, but instead of using this opportunity to explore Eva's character, her past, and her relationship with someone outside of the Brotherhood of the Tofu, it was all reduced to a pointless love triangle. And one done for Pinpin's sake, mind you.

(Sure, Eva was the focus of the love triangle between her, Tristepin, and Armand. But that barely lasted one episode and Eva couldn't really stand Armand either, so he never really stood a chance. Tristepin sincerely enjoyed Cleo's company at least.)

But today, what I want to discuss is both how this whole arc was unnecessarily mean-spirited to Eva and, more importantly, the birdbrained reasons that led to this conflict in the first place. Because while Pinpin may raise some valid points, the circumstances behind those points make it so Eva's own actions aren't all that unreasonable or unjustifiable either. Yet the narrative sides with Tristepin practically on all accords and forces Eva to go through a certain level of character development that isn't all that justified given the circumstances.

...only to have those supposed lessons forgotten down the line, when Evangelyne is back to being Ankama's little angel who can do no wrong. While Pinpin ultimately remains completely static in this regard because the narrative never forces him to shed this particular set of flaws.

As I said, Tristepin's reasons for being angry aren't entirely unreasonable.

On the one hand, one of Eva's recurring flaws is that she can look down on others, especially Iops, because she's a Cra and they're known for being prideful. With Tristepin taking the brunt of her disrespect. She often treats him like a complete idiot who will only mess up and openly calls him such to his face. Something that came back to bite her, alongside Yugo and Amalia, back at the Dragon-Pig's dungeon. And, on the other hand, it can be quite hurtful to find out your significant other has family they've never even told you about, which is what happened with Cleo.

I must admit that I don't exactly see much fault in Evangelyne not talking about Cleophée in the first place, and I'll explain why later. So, first, let's focus on her treatment of Pinpin.

I've actually admitted time and time again that Evangelyne did indeed need to be called out on her tendency to treat Tristepin like a moron and grow out of it. No healthy, stable relationship will ever last if both partners don't treat each other with respect. This applies to both romantic and platonic relationships, of course, because no relationship will ever be healthy if one of the people involved is constantly looked down on by the other.

Cra or no Cra, Eva absolutely deserved to be called out on this character flaw of hers. Even if Tristeva's couple archetype is essentially "Smart, Beautiful Girl x Goofy, Kinda Dumb Boy", this kind of relationship development was mandatory.

The problem, however, comes with the timing and context behind their fight.

Because in the context leading to their argument, Eva was 100% justified in being frustrated with Pinpin for his recklessness and impulsiveness.

Remember? The reason she and Amalia chewed him out in the first place is because he impulsively attacked the Cra patrol sent to find them, even when Evangelyne noticed who they were and warned Tristepin against attacking them. But, if my memory doesn't fail me, he ignored her and ended up injuring two of them.

(Though I will admit Yugo helped him).

This isn't Evangelyne being nitpicky or judgemental or racist towards Iops or anything of the sort. This is Evangelyne being reasonably angry with her boyfriend for making a massive blunder that could have been prevented if only he'd stayed put and listened.

Yet the narrative chooses this precise instance to eventually lead to Pinpin snapping at Evangelyne for always treating him like an idiot and hiding her sister's existence from him. Leading to several episodes' worth of forced conflict and unfair consequences for Eva. With even Rubilax siding with Pinpin over it.

As I said, treating Tristepin with more respect is objectively a good lesson for Eva and a great chance to give her some character development. But the fact that they chose an instance when she was honestly in the right to be angry and frustrated over her boyfriend's lack of foresight makes everything feel forced. Especially when The Dragon-Pig would have been a much more fitting episode for that to happen.

After all, the entire plot revolved around everyone underestimating Pinpin until he proves them wrong. That is an objectively sound plot to revolve this kind of arc around. What happened in The Council of Twelve, on the other hand... Isn't.

Especially because it ends up amounting to nothing.

Tristepin only gets dumber and more comical the more time passes, and Eva's "promotion" to his wife and mother of his children means she gets to keep her temper and frustration over her husband's stupity intact. Only this time, it's actually framed as a useful tool to keep her growing family in check.

And now to play devil's advocate. Because, as I said, I can't really fault Evangelyne for not telling him about Cleo. 

Of course, I understand Pinpin's own hurt. Finding out your significant other has close relatives they never told you about can be quite a shock. It can even make you feel like they never told you because they don't trust you all that much in the first place. 

But the thing is, more often than not, if you don't speak about your stranged family members, it's usually precisely because you guys are stranged from each other! Either you barely interact with them so you don't even remember they exist half of the time, or you're still hurt over whatever happened and actively try to avoid thinking about it as much as possible. 

I sure as Hell won't tell complete strangers or even people I know my sordid family details completely unprompted. So I don't see why Eva should just because she was dating Tristepin. 

Not to mention, how long had they been together by that point, anyway? A couple of months at most? Between that and the fact that, retroactively speaking, those two weren't all that close for most of season 1, yeah, I can kinda see why Eva wouldn't bring up the fact that she has a little sister she doesn't get along with in any of their dates. 

I mean, how many times did Amalia mention Armand before he was formally introduced back in season 1? If my memory doesn't fail me, she talked about him twice. And both times she was talking exclusively to Eva, the only person who knew of her family history. So it shouldn't be that big a deal that no one other than Amalia knew about Cleophée in return.

But seriously, I can't get over the weird timing in all this.

Firstly, because having their argument be kickstarted by something like what happened during The Dragon-Pig would make much more sense considering that was Eva's mess, not Pinpin's. But also, the fact that something like that would make Pinpin emotionally regress like he did???

Babe, the season's very first arc was all about Eva going on a solo mission to find, rescue, and bring you back when literally everyone else thought you were dead and she just wasn't taking your loss well. She loved you so much she refused to let you go and make peace with your death.

Why are you doubting her now over objectively less important things?

The way it's structured, it doesn't make much sense that Pinpin would doubt her like that. If it weren't for Tristepin's death being a major deal back in season 1, maybe they should have had their argument early on in the season, make Eva realise her own problematic behaviour then, and have her solo mission for her man's sake be what helps them make amends. Of course, this would change the overall plot a bit too much, so there'd need to be other adjustments.

I'm just brainstorming, don't mind me.

Anyway, in case it wasn't obvious enough, I have a serious bone to pick with the love triangle arc and the reasons behind it.

It doesn't provide any real exploration of either Eva or Cleo's characters and their relationship.

The way it was kickstarted makes the entire thing feel too forced.

And, for all the times Eva is treated in and out of universe as this paragon of virtue, this is the one time the narrative turned against her when it honestly shouldn't have.

Believe it or not, I don't hate Tristeva. At all. Sure, they aren't my Wakfu OTP or my blorbos, but I enjoy watching them, especially Eva.

I just think it's worth pointing out that, for all the favouritism geared towards Eva Ankama is guilty of, if they gotta screw her over in favour of Pinpin, they will screw her over. Waifu priviledges be damned.