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Post by angryfan on Dec 11, 2014 20:35:16 GMT -5
One from a novel series that started as a preta-natural detective series and then went, um, shape-shifty-vamp-porn half way through. Anita God Damn Blake. What, a 10,000 year old vampire has a power? No biggie, she magically has a counter to it. Shape-shifting? Well, she doesn't do it, but only because she's strong enough to not "have to" like everyone else, but she'll just go ahead and run like 4 different packs or whatever. Vampire powers? She's got those without any of those shitty side-effects like sunlight or having to have blood.
Oh, her weakness is she has to have sex. A LOT of sex. All the time. And her poon is apparently made of heroine because everyone, man, woman, living, dead, were-person or whatever, falls to pieces and in love with her after hittin' it.
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Post by Hakumental on Dec 11, 2014 21:11:48 GMT -5
Gotta be honest, I don't like the idea of automatically branding characters with Mary Sue style traits as being badly written or conceived off of the bat. Just by looking at all of the popular names in this thread, I think it's possible to create compelling and sympathetic characters while still giving them those escapist traits, as crymsonfox mentioned. And there's nothing wrong with escapism so long as they still have to deal with important stakes in the story. Superman, Batman, Harry Potter, Bond, Katniss Everdeen, all good examples of people you can still root for despite them being too amazing to be real. If you combed around hard enough, I bet you could find just as many entertaining "Sues" as you could annoying ones. I agree that extraordinary characters aren't necessarily Mary Sues, and it's unfair to dismiss them as such just because they boast an impressive resume of qualities/abilities. I personally suspect a Sue is afoot, though, whenever the character's appearance coincides with every other character suddenly 1) diminishing in importance, 2) spending less time doing things and more time talking about how awesome or necessary this new character is, or 3) getting dumbed down, making stupid mistakes, and getting jobbed out while Mr./Ms. Amazing steps up to the plate. On that note:
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Post by A Platypus Rave on Dec 11, 2014 21:18:59 GMT -5
Gotta be honest, I don't like the idea of automatically branding characters with Mary Sue style traits as being badly written or conceived off of the bat. Just by looking at all of the popular names in this thread, I think it's possible to create compelling and sympathetic characters while still giving them those escapist traits, as crymsonfox mentioned. And there's nothing wrong with escapism so long as they still have to deal with important stakes in the story. Superman, Batman, Harry Potter, Bond, Katniss Everdeen, all good examples of people you can still root for despite them being too amazing to be real. If you combed around hard enough, I bet you could find just as many entertaining "Sues" as you could annoying ones. I agree that extraordinary characters aren't necessarily Mary Sues, and it's unfair to dismiss them as such just because they boast an impressive resume of qualities/abilities. I personally suspect a Sue is afoot, though, whenever the character's appearance coincides with every other character suddenly 1) diminishing in importance, 2) spending less time doing things and more time talking about how awesome or necessary this new character is, or 3) getting dumbed down, making stupid mistakes, and getting jobbed out while Mr./Ms. Amazing steps up to the plate. On that note: See also Deathstroke from Identity crisis by pretty much standing still... including this
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Mozenrath
FANatic
Foppery and Whim
Speedy Speed Boy
Posts: 121,050
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 11, 2014 21:44:12 GMT -5
Trying to keep limited power or non-powered heroes and villains relevant in a world of meta-villains requires all kinds of bullshit, sadly.
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