If a girl is best girl, why does she lose...

if a girl is best girl, why does she lose? Doesn't winning mean that she is the best girl after much scrutiny and decision making by the MC?

ergo; you cannot be best girl if you lose.

You're implying the decision making process of an MC is an entirely rational procedure. It isn't.

because taste is subjective and as such there is never best girl

Emilia is simply prettier. Remember how your your first teenage crush was based on look alone and you didn't care about her bitchy personality? Same thing here

I feel that this is a fallacy, best girl is simply a measure of a girl with more positive traits than negative traits. based on the sum of those traits, the one with the most positive outcome of a given line up of girls is automatically the superior choice compared to someone with more inferior features.

IE: If your girl is spiteful, quick to anger, has no regard for others and other negative personality profiles, she would be a clearly worse choice than one who had all the similar traits and one positive like being loyal or able to cook or such.

It's just a question of values

but emilia isnt a bitch, we just dont know anything about her outside of her possibly being a witch

Because Ballsa is an irresponsible faggot who doesn't want to deal with a qt Rom waifu.

I think Emilia-taaaaaan who he's only talked to a handful of times but fixated entirely upon for no reason in particular besides, "because her pet ferret has fluffy fur jesus christ it's so soft"

Yeah but all girls usually have good and bad traits. If girl has only negative traits then she wouldn't be in race for best waifu. (if you exclude masochists that may like those bad traits)

All girls have good and bad traits and how much value a trait is give is purely subjective.

given*

if you want to be logical about it, then we must have a clear set of metrics in which we all agree to assess a girl with, so that we can place an imaginary "reasonable person" that uses these metrics in the position of the MC (and possibly from a 3rd party omniscient perspective in the case where MC does not get to see all sides to ascertain if she really is best girl. This is so as to rule out cases whereby MCs are clearly illogical or very clearly and reasonably, have "shit taste".

>best girl is simply a measure of a girl with more positive traits than negative traits
Ever thought that some people might value one particular trait higher than other people?
I mean, what is a positive trait to begin with?

Rem and Subaru are perfect for each other because they're both shit

Personality disorders aren't 'endearing traits' though. That's like claiming to love a girl because she has a mental illness.

No, they are clear flaws which only serve to burn out and ultimately ruin a relationship.

I believe that we can subjectively divide these into 'evergreen goods' (loyalty and skills required to be a functional human being etc) and 'secondary goods' (traits which can only exist in the presence of a fault, like being able to overcome your weakness or fear and show courage).

>if a girl is best girl, why does she lose?
Writer decided another girl is end, most often because she's the main heroine.
>Doesn't winning mean that she is the best girl after much scrutiny and decision making by the MC?
It isn't based on reason but feelings. It's overt in the case of Re:Zero. MC knows Rem is a 10, he was going to run off with her, but his heart says Emilia. Nothing has been weighed and considered, it's just feelings.

Exactly, best girl is obviously Emilia

A truly positive trait is something with no downside which benefits all those around her as well as the girl herself. Something like good manners and an even temper.

A sub-positive trait is one which must co exist with a negative trait to exist like courage or faith. These can only be experienced when a girl 'grows' as a character and thereby ads to her appeal.

In Rem's case, she had that jealousy around her sister but internalized it for the sake of her sibling. Had she harped on and on about how she was 'never the best' and 'it wasnt fair' it would make her insufferable. But because she was able to endure and show that degree of functional filter to maintain a good relationship with her sister, its an overall positive trait.

The MC might err about the quality of a girl we, the viewer, recognize to be the best girl.

Sources of error may be incomplete information or a flawed decision-making process on the side of the MC.

if thats the case, then only the MC's opinion matters. Ours does not.

Why?

Okay, so Girl A has the truly positive trait "can make cookies really well." But now I hate cookies, and do not care about that at all. I'd rather choose Girl B who can make pancakes really well.
A different user might choose A though because he likes cookies and hates pancakes.
And this subjective component is how best girl can lose, assuming you determine "best girl" by counting "positive traits" like an autist. Also, feelings.

because the decision is all relative to the MC's point of view. like a person wearing sunglasses at all times would believe the world is in a constant state of 'afternoon' or 'darkness', the measure for quality would be based on the one standard. It appears 'flawed' to us because are not wearing the glasses ourselves but he is.

Who is to say that we are not the ones who are flawed simply because we are not wearing the glasses? Simply being the majority does not necessarily make us right either.

GOD DAMN I WANNA SUCK ON THOSE SWEET ELF TITTIES

You raise a good point about the fluidity of appeal towards positive traits values which may affect the combined score. This is a dynamic thing after all.

However, that shift from girl A to girl B would surely be made on the loss of that positive trait preference only if their scores were very similar to begin with. If girl A was good at making cookies and you hated them after a period of time, but girl B was good at making pancakes and her appeal therefore went up for you, you would still weigh the option of girl A's summative qualities and girl B's summative qualities which may still not be able to balance the choice.

Feelings are also dynamic but an average should be able to be achieved over a prolonged period of time.

I see how this could call the judgement of the viewer into question, especially in cases with unreliable narrators like the Monogatari series, but I don't see how this raises the MC's judgement over ours. Furthermore, usually, the viewer has the role of an observer that is fed reliable information by the narrator.

You could also just as well claim that truth is relative to the outside viewer's point of view. That we cannot interact with that universe doesn't matter.

>However, that shift from girl A to girl B would surely be made on the loss of that positive trait preference only if their scores were very similar to begin with.
Not necessarily.
Maybe he just REALLY hates cookies or REALLY loves pancakes, negating whatever combined score the rest of the traits has.

Good thread lads.

well that is also a possibility, but just because we don't understand this 'love' for pancakes to the same extent as the MC does, doesnt mean that he's wrong.

Therefore, there may be something we're not seeing in the decision made by the MC, blinded by our own preference for cookies over pancakes.