fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2716 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2716 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 044 secrets from Secret Submission Post #388.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - this is getting too obvious now, anon ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Callista secret made me wonder. I know I've loved some improbably portrayed characters in my time....

#1 for me is 'Evan Wilson' in Uhura's Song. That whole book was basically the writer going 'YAY WORLDBUILDING' and her OC was awesome to the point of improbability and yet I loved her endlessly. Maybe part of my fondness is due to having read the book as a less-cynical child, but dammit I still love 'Tailkinker' and the whole slightly-OOC book that surrounds her.

(I also have a fondness for Doc Travis' protags of his sci-fi novels--though they have an excuse because all their improbable prodigies are BASED ON HIM. "Okay, so my character is a rocket scientist and mountain-climber and a black-belt in multiple martial arts, but I left out the part where I'm a sharpshooter!)

I enjoy Evan Wilson to pieces. I also like Piper, from Dreadnought.

I love Dany in ASoIaF and she's a total Mary Sue. Jon Snow from the same series is also a Mary Sue but I hate him. Go figure.

Do canon Sues count? Do you believe in canon Sues? I do.

Emily Byrd Starr from Emily of New Moon is my favorite published Sue, hands down, no regrets, never look back. L. M. Montgomery's purple-eyed, elf-eared, hauntingly seductive poet-avatar makes grown men weep and teenage boys find a strength they didn't know they had. Oh, and sometimes she has the second sight, but only in the service of angst-heavy plot developments. Everyone is either in love with her or bitterly jealous OR BOTH. The last book in the series just veers back and forth between her suffering miserably and being proposed to by everyone in the world, including a nameless Japanese prince and an eccentric novelist whose story she mutilated for a magazine. She reaches out across space and time to save her artist boyfriend from boarding the Titanic -- but not to the captain of the Titanic, because her powers don't work that way :( :( :(

I love her to death. I love Mary Sues.

The only thing I remember about those books is a part where she's trying to decide if she's pretty, so she examines herself in the mirror, and the prose paints a picture of this absolutely beautiful young lady... and then she decides she's not pretty because her forehead is too high. But she can look pretty if her hair's done so it covers her forehead! But that doesn't mean she's pretty! Because pretty means she'd look pretty no matter how her hair was done. :(

Hah! That scene is classic LMM. Her heroines tend to be Sue Plain, all worried about their slenderness or their elf ears or some other feature that the narrator can't stop rhapsodising about while rushing to reassure us that she had A Fey Charm All Her Own despite being too pale or having "eyes too large for beauty" or some similarly Suedo-defect. And in Emily it all gets turned up to eleven.

It gave me some issues when I was younger, tbh. I was like, "If Emily and Anne aren't pretty, I must be super-extra-mega hideous :( :( :("

OMG I am getting warm heart cockles just reading this. <3 I'm hopeless, aren't I?

Wait, what? I've read Emily of New Moon (mostly because I found a copy from its second printing [in 1923!!!!] among my grandmother's things when she died, and I was like, "this is so old and so pretty! I must read it!"). I had no idea that it was the start of an entire series.

And my goodness, that all sounds so ridiculous. There's some Sue-ishness in the first book, but it's nowhere near that level!

Wow! A second printing!!!! :O Did your grandmother read it when she was young? That's really cool.

Yes! Well, a series of three, anyway. I may be slightly exaggerating the Sue-ishness because I enjoy it, but there is a lot. Emily Climbs is the sequel (Emily goes to high school!) and Emily's Quest is the final book. It's Sueriffic, but it also has a really intense, accurate portrayal of depression. And also mystical mind powers.

In the second book, the author begins to incorporate Emily's diary entries, and these are largely based on her own diary, which she was copying and editing at the time she wrote the Emily books, so there's a huge amount of self-insertion and wish fulfilment woven into the writing.

If you liked the first book, check them out! They're not as good as the first book, but I love them.

Oddly enough, I don't think that she did! Based on the notes written in the front, she was at least the third owner, and it didn't come into her possession until after my father and uncles had been born. I have no idea when or where or why she got it.

Interesting. I think I will look into reading these; the notion that she pulled from her own diary amuses the hell out of me, and at the same time, I'm intrigued by the treatment of depression. I always appreciate a story that portrays and handles it well.

So, thanks anon! Man, it's only Tuesday and I've already added three books and a collection of short stories to my reading list. :-p Fuck yeah, FS!

Edited 2014-06-11 01:44 (UTC)

Yay! Happy to spread the love around. I hope you like them!

I pretty much love Canon Sues. It's only fanfic Sues I hate.

Wesley Crusher springs to mind ;)

I love Wesley Crusher. He's so adorable!

When it comes to Mary Sues, I usually get annoyed when Bitchy/Jerk Sues are involved for me anyway.

Wesley is adorable. I never got the fan hate.

Tamora Pierce's Alanna the Lioness, and by some extent, her daughter, Aly. Apparently it's genetic.

Hm, I keep meaning to get around to reading Tamora Pierce, and never seem to do it. Can you tell me more about these characters?

Alanna is a girl who disguises herself as her twin brother in order to be trained as a knight at the fictional country's all-male knight training place. She is successful, and eventually marries a guy and has a daughter, Aly. Aly has some mage powers (a semi-common thing in the aforementioned fictional country) -- talking to animals and healing, IIRC. She is kidnapped by pirates and sold as a slave to another country where there is this big tense racist colonial situation on the verge of rebellion, and winds up helping with the revolution.

(forgive me if I messed something up, it's been a few years since I read those books).

edit: I realize this says "Mary sues," but I think Marty Stus can count as well. And part of it's cause I'm blanking on other Mary Sues and I KNOW I've read many over the years.

UHURA'S SONG IS AWESOME.

I know the whole damn series is made fun of, but goddammit I like them anyway: Robert Langdon. The latest book was a lot of fun and I LOVED the twist at the end. I didn't see it coming.

To and extent, Hermione is as well, but who cares, I love her anyway, even if she DOES get rather mean at times.

Batman. Just....Batman.

Edited 2014-06-11 21:45 (UTC)

[ SECRET POST #2716 ]

Favorite published 'Mary Sue'?

Re: Favorite published 'Mary Sue'?

Re: Favorite published 'Mary Sue'?

Re: Favorite published 'Mary Sue'?

Re: Favorite published 'Mary Sue'?

Re: Favorite published 'Mary Sue'?

Re: Favorite published 'Mary Sue'?

Re: Favorite published 'Mary Sue'?

Re: Favorite published 'Mary Sue'?

Re: Favorite published 'Mary Sue'?

Re: Favorite published 'Mary Sue'?

Re: Favorite published 'Mary Sue'?

Re: Favorite published 'Mary Sue'?

Re: Favorite published 'Mary Sue'?

Re: Favorite published 'Mary Sue'?

Re: Favorite published 'Mary Sue'?

Re: Favorite published 'Mary Sue'?

Re: Favorite published 'Mary Sue'?

Re: Favorite published 'Mary Sue'?

Re: Favorite published 'Mary Sue'?