When writing couples, I like to use the Kiss Rule:
If they have to kiss for you to know they’re in love, you’re not writing a romance right.
damn tho
Yes.
Characters that have little to no chemistry when they’re together, and the writer not developing them so that their interactions show that they fall for each other (rather than simply telling us, i.e. the kiss) is one of my biggest pet peeves ever. Like, I get it, you the writer want them to kiss, because in you’re mind, they’re already there, but the audience isn’t there with you. It’s your responsibility to take them on a journey to discover each other, and you owe it to yourself to make that journey exciting so that that kiss has some kind of payoff.
I’m a sucker for romance and I loathe basically any Nicholas Sparks work but jesus even he has this shit down, and he’s the most predictable romance author I’ve ever seen!
tl;dr – You owe it to yourself to be better than Nicholas Sparks.
So why can’t we normally be in stories like cis straight people are?
You know full well, why.
B/c
when we are, when those characters are, we get lengthy screeds about
Death of the Author, how those characters Don’t Actually Count, how they
Aren’t Good Enough, or we get a wild accusation that the author
secretly hates lgbt people. All of which are arguments you, in fact,
have made. Mostly about Dumbledore, but that’s beside the point.
You know full well why these characters can’t just normally be, in fiction.
It’s
b/c of people like you who expect every story to be politically charged
statement in favor of diversity and inclusivity. It’s b/c of people
like you who think “this story lacks in lgbt representation” counts as
actual valid criticism. It’s b/c of people like you who get so wrapped
up in the Assumed Straight By Default discussion that you end up
concocting some fantasy about how the only people who like Dumbledore
are homophobes who hate openly gay people. It’s b/c of shit like this.
B/c
when marginalized people write from their own fucked up, problematic
experiences, people like you descend upon them like vultures, picking
their work apart to find and discuss every morally disagreeable thing
under the thin veil of ~criticism~. Then, after the author has long
since fled the creative sphere due to the harassment received, you
bemoan the lack of marginalized creators, and then place the blame
solely at the feed of w/e convenient social structure you desire. B/c
you make this shit worse for us, and then act like you’re doing us a
favor by trying to manipulate everyone into adopting your personal
preference regarding lgbt representation.
We can’t just be in stories, b/c it’s never fucking good enough for you.
And
you will move those goal posts as soon as anybody makes any effort to
meet you halfway, b/c as far as you’re concerned you are right, and they
are wrong. B/c you’re so far up your own ass, that you’ve lost the
ability to empathize with other people. B/c I’m literally saying the
exact same shit I said over a year ago, and you dismissed it then,
you’ll dismiss it now, and by god you’ll dismiss it the next time it
comes up.
This rant brought to you by Star Wars: The Force Awakens (featuring Rey, the lady scavenger-pilot-mechanic-Jedi of my heart) and also years of simmering resentment.
I think the most depressing thing about the Mary Sue phenomenon is that it arose from a largely-female based fandom and is thus a really unpleasant reminder of how much sexism women internalize
and internalized any kind of -ism is just about as depressing as it gets
…I’ve absolutely never felt this way? Seriously, have you guys read some of the fic that’s out there? And have you ever heard the term ‘Gary Stu’? Mary Sues are obviously going to be a prominent phenomenon because of the number of young, inexperienced female fanfiction authors, who haven’t learned to write balanced characters (which I would argue is largely because of their lack of representation in ORIGINAL CANON DAMMIT), but there are also plenty of Gary Stus out there (cringe), and there are good number of well-written, balanced OCs as well.
From what I’ve seen, Mary Sues and Gary Stus are usually OCs who have bad writing (bad characterization, introduction, and such) who take a dangerous amount of attention away from already-known characters, or are fantasy-based (as in, for example, a ‘popular girl’ fantasy or a ‘male power’ fantasy) self-inserts who often destabilize any kind of plot or previously known characterization of canon characters. (Which is not to say you can’t have a fic with an OC main character, be they male or female; just don’t make them dull or predictable. Give them choices – hard ones! Let them be problematic at times! Let them experience love, betrayal, conflict, difficulty! Nothing is ever easy, for a good protagonist, and good protagonists can rarely make it on their own.)
Additionally – last I knew (correct me if I’m wrong) ‘Mary Sue’ and ‘Gary Stu’ were supposed to be fanfiction terms? Obviously you wouldn’t use them for canon; that’s not what they’re meant for. You can have overpowered, unbalanced protagonists in canon writing, but that’s just plain bad writing or bad characterization.
So, no, Rey isn’t a Mary Sue, and anyone who says so is a) misusing the term, in my opinion, and b) entitled to their own opinion, but should compare Rey to Luke in ANH and re-evaluate their statement.
I can’t believe we’ve gotten to the point where this many people think the term “Mary Sue” is misogynistic.
Despite the fact that “Gary Stu” exists.
Despite the fact it has everything to do with writing quality and character building and nothing to do with gender.
You people are reaching too far and too hard to find something that just isn’t there.
The term “Mary Sue” originating from a female-based fandom does not confirm “internalized misogyny”, it destroys your fucking argument by showing that the term was and continues to be a critique on poor writing, and that it has absolutely nothing to do with shaming female characters. It was started because there was a slew of poorly written, special snowflake characters that made most fanfiction uninteresting at best and cringe-worthy at worst. There are OP male characters, there are OP female characters. The Fanfic community has called out both using “Mary Sue” and “Gary Stu”
Maybe you guys should learn to take some fucking criticism.
OP is a moron. Not only is there a male term for Mary Sue but it absolutely can be used to critique a female character because there are actual connnotations for the term.
Namely, it is about an insert character that seems to excel at things they should either not be capable of or otherwise better at something than established characters who should be better than them.
The OP can’t handle the fact that some people have legitimate gripes over a female character. If they weren’t legitimate she’d have sat down and actually punched holes in them, not used the mythic ‘misogyny’ catch all retort.
im so goddamn tired of the idea that a romantic/couple-based story can’t be interesting without internalized drama. im so goddamn tired of shows that finally get their main will-they-won’t-they couple together only to break them up again four minutes later because they don’t know how to write interesting drama that doesn’t involve putting the characters at odd with each other as opposed to facing oncoming problems together from their newly united or strengthened relationship. im so goddamn tired of falling back on the same unimaginative bullshit for lack of actual interesting plot development. im so goddamn tired of writers not trying.
PiraticOctopus 