rexcaliburechoes

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A word in defense of Ms. Sue

So I'm about to date myself- I'm a 90s kid (whichever Gen that is, Z I think) and I had the fun experience of being a preteen sprout on the internet at exactly the time when "MARY SUE" was a huge accusation you could find just about everywhere.

And my childhood OCs were based on things like Sailor Moon. They were vibrant, they were colorful, they had eight million accessories and wings and sparkles and cat ears, because I loved all those things.

Personality wise they were dynamic and colorful and zany and had their fingers in every possible pie of 'cool' I could contrive, because I was an insecure little weirdo who looked at the world with wide, begging eyes, "PLEASE like me, find me interesting, I'll be anything you want!"

But obviously, people didn't want mary sues. Mary sues were 'crappy', bad writing, bad art. So I did what a lot of people did, and I suspect continue to do- as I refined my art and writing, I also started ruthlessly chopping traits off my characters. That's too much color, that's too many traits. Be less, be less, be LESS!

And none of this addressed the actual qualities at the core of it. Which is... people love colorful characters. Where do you think every 'mary sue' creator learned it from? They saw characters who were the scientist wizard princess of space covered in glitter and frills with eight lovers and seventy hobbies. People have joked, 'batman is a mary sue', and I'll say, sure, but rather than the takeaway being 'batman is a man' (I have seen PLENTY of Accursed, Derided Mary Sues that are men), it's that batman has been written well. (and badly, but he's batman, he can take it on the chin)

At the core of it, mary sues exist as a reflection of vulnerability and of amateur writing, in some mix. Every single character is a bid for our attention and guess what? That's not a bad thing! In fact, I think the most egregiously frustrating characters are ones that aren't conscious of this- that take up so much space but are very afraid to actively make a bid for why they deserve it. Main characters that are passive to a fault, traitless voids that nonetheless the whole plot pours into. Is misogyny inevitably part of this tangle? Yes, and so is just about every other form of bigotry under the sun- any socially oppressed trait is going to be one where people perceive that person as "deserving less".

At the end of the day though, you have to write characters that matter. If you write them passive, if you write them inconsequential, you have to narratively sell that those traits matter, carry some weight. Every single character is a bid for attention. A 'mary sue' is just what we call a bid for attention that doesn't reach us- which can be petty and subjective just as often as it is evidence of character work.

You don't have to cut the sparkles off Mary, and you might be left with a worse character if you do. If 'well written characters' (and THAT is a descriptor we'll never be able to objectively qualify for so many reasons) tend to have less going on, it's usually because you're doubling down and focusing harder on a few traits, which crowd out the others a bit. The point isn't the less, the point is to fit all of it into a piece. Pop the hood of the last character you enjoyed and odds are good there's more than you think in there- it just won't seem as 'cluttered' and that's just a matter of mechanical refinement in writing, art, and conceptualization.

And if you feel in despair that you've committed the cardinal sin of writing a mary sue... doctor jupiter's diagnosis is that you've done what countless people have done since the dawn of time and will keep doing:

You just wanted someone to notice.

And hey- I notice. And I love her hair.

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Part 2: What were you doing at the devil's sacrament

Part 1, 2, 3

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also pls tag the first game you remember playing

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I'm fascinated by how the formatting of different social media sites affect how text is read.

For instance, a line break on Tumblr indicates a new idea.

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it will pass but like can i at least get an eta

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Collecting books is great until you have to move all of them at once and realize that every one of the little bastards weigh about as much as a brick and collectively have the mass of a neutron star

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🐺

...

Have you ever heard how foxes sound!? 📣🦊

I headcanon that Commander Wolffe and Commander Fox do this since they were tubies 🫠 Wolffe knows exactly how to get his brother to let off some steam! And Fox would never admit, but no matter how stressed he is, he plays along because it's one of the rare chances to get Wolffe chuckling! 🤩

I had this idea for quite a long time, but today I was so happy to stumble over it in this gorgeous piece of Wolffe and Fox tubies by @catawampuscorner! Your honor ✨ I had time and so that's it! 😂 Thank you for the inspiration to realize it! 🫶

Taglist: @eclec-tech @lonewolflupe @bixlasagna @returnofthepineapple @sunshinesdaydream @covert1ntrovert @general-ida-raven @vrycurious @dystopicjumpsuit @chaicilatte @groguandthebadbatch @justanotherdikutsimp @ladylucksrogue @spaceyjessa

Stay FOXed 🦊: @ghostymarni @thora-sniper @feral-ferrule @nika6q @foxwithadarkside

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me and the 20 other kid icarus fans after tomorrow's direct

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i finished it despite my soul being crushed yesterday

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quick color

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Alm +10

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Doodled Jotunheimr Brave Alm to get back in the flow of things. I haven’t drawn him in two or so years…! I love Alm so much, he’s my favorite lord besides Edelgard.