Ranting and Raving · 5:43pm Jan 23rd, 2013
Words, words, words, words, words okay here's the deal: I've got a fire in my belly and an urge to talk somewhere about it. This is a discussion about Mary Sues, fanfictions, and some of my thoughts on both. Feel free to add your own opinions in the comments section.
I was having a discussion with a friend of mine about fanfictions. We had a disagreement about the nature of a particular character model that my friend believed entered into Mary Sue territory. Granted, the specific example in question was rather overpowered, did some things that were fairly hard to believe (especially from an outside perspective/someone that has not read the story), and had a great many personality quirks. I had to concede those points away, because... well, they're true.
HOWEVER! That's not quite the end of it, I feel, and after some thought, I managed to come up with a few key things to remember:
- The character did not start out as such, but instead as a character that easily had the capacity to be related to, very down-to-earth. This character had quirks, but it also had (and still has) passions, ideals, faults, and emotions.
- The character did some pretty wild stuff, but it was all entirely context-appropriate; nothing was so far outside the realm of belief that it would in any way detract from the plot line, nor did it end up causing hitches in its own cohesive flow.
- At the point in the story in which the character becomes "overpowered" (in quotes for emphasis, not sarcasm), the conflicts that the character and his/her companions face from then onward escalate appropriately; things that would have been more difficult to accomplish earlier on were now easier, true, yet a massive laundry list of emerging difficulties were presented thereafter.
I suppose I may very well just be making noise right now. One of the main elements of our initial disagreement was that I enjoyed the story that this character hails from (which is probably pretty obvious) and my friend enjoys a similar story, which is how the topic arose. That said, I am trying to be as objective as I can without relying too much on my enjoyment of said fanfiction to back up my claims because that would be silly, and incredibly unproductive.
My takeaway point is two-fold:
1. Character development happens. A character might go from Average Joe to Terminator over the course of a story, but that doesn't necessarily make it bad. Even a story that begins with the most atrociously overpowered OC in the entire world might not be a bad one! Execution of the tale, how it's told, the depth of the character... these things still matter a great deal, at least to me. Good storytelling is a valuable concept, and I like to think that if I go into every new story with a grain of salt (as opposed to, say, a whole pile of it simply because I don't like a character concept), then I can look forward to being surprised by those precious gems of tales that I would otherwise be limited from approaching.
2. Don't judge a book by its cover. Crack it open, read it, see for yourself if it's a story you will like.
I am biased toward this story and the character from it, so I want to hear from everyone else. Are my points valid, or did I completely miss the mark?
Warmest Regards,
FearlessXIII
LFP is still happening school is devouring all of my time what am I doing
You sir, I like you
Honestly, I agree with pretty much everything you're saying.
The key word is "execution." You could have the biggest Mary Sue in the world, and they'd still be a likable character if you do it right. After all, one could easily make the argument that Twilight Sparkle is a MS, but that doesn't make her a bad character. It's all about execution.
*cough*Blackjack*cough*
You know my feelings on the matter