Sunday, May 10, 2009

An OC Does Not a Mary-Sue Make...

Okay, so this is an age-old rant for me. I can't count the reviews I've gotten where all that is written is "Mary-Sue." Now, because they are often anonymous and only say that, I can only infer that they mean to say "She's a Mary-Sue because she's an OC (original character)." How wrong is this? Seriously?

Let me define Mary-Sue, roughly. A Mary-Sue (male counterpart: Gary-Stu) is someone who is so incredibly perfect and everyone loves her or she's so deliberately anti-whatever that she stands out in a crowd. Now, I'll admit, I've got a couple of characters I'm still writing for that are, admittedly, Sues. I accept that. Really, I do. The stories they're in were started fairly early into my fanfiction career when I was still too much of a fangirl. However, the one review that I got (I've removed it because of its stupidity...again, all it said was "Mary-Sue" and was anonymous) that spawned this rant was on a story that the character couldn't be further from a Sue. She's inexperienced, so you actually get to see her acquire any strength that she has through training. She doesn't win every fight. She's fifteen, so I've kept her at that exact emotional level (and I'm 23, so I've got a good prospective on this, having been there and done that). I'm 16, not including the Prologue which featured the character's mother, chapters into this story when I received this review. Do you want to know how far this idiot read? Three chapters...including the prologue. Do you want to know what has happened by chapter 2 (which is where he stopped)? She found a book. That's...it. In the prologue, I reveal the mother's past which led to the situation that the main character finds herself in (that is, with no experience). In chapter one, the main character finds a book in a place where her mother told her not to go (kids do this, you know!). And in chapter three, I'm with canon characters!!! How the hell do you get Mary-Sue from this? You don't even know anything yet!

Sigh. Anyway, this is my rant on Suedom...thanks for reading! Gotta go finish packing and eating!

1 comment:

  1. I really hate idiots like that. I know the character you're talking about and you can be reassured that she's not a sue. Take the Sue test. She passes with flying colors, I promise. That's probably that same idiot who tried to spam you before. Yes, I know you won't get this comment until a week or two :) But still...

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