Rant of Epic Proportion
I'm just blowing off some steam here.
Yu-Gi-Oh! has lately encountered a new breed of Mary Sue characters, whose sole purpose in life is NOT to be better than the rest of the cast or to get together with the author’s favorite guy. No, the new brand of Mary Sues exists so that the author can affect the universe in a way that allows for her favorite pairings to happen, usually said pairings are slash/yaoi/shounen-ai/malexmale. We are talking about relationship-fixer!Sues. These are not always a bad addition to a story. Sometimes the author can create an interesting character that adds more entertainment to a story. Sometimes not.
A general type of Fixer Sue does usually have a connection to canon characters. She (most often ‘she’, as she represents the author and quite many yaoi authors are female) is usually either Seto Kaiba’s long lost sister/cousin/half-sister/childhood fried/BFF or the reincarnation Yami’s/Atemu’s younger sister from ancient Egypt, Princess Nefer-don’t-mess-with-me-titi. Fixer Sues are cool and almost always have a tomboy nature. The purpose of this is most likely to make her seem like she’s ‘one of the boys’ or simply to make her cool.
Fixer Sues have a tendency towards behaviour usually connected to Complete Jerks, except they are not considered jerks because the author controls the universe and therefore people’s reactions the Sues. Fixer Sues are often equipped with an attitude problem the size of one of Egypt’s pyramids, as the author wants to depict her character as a strong and independent female. Apparently the only way to do this is to have their character shooting sometimes witty and sometimes just plain mean remarks at and about the characters that are either not in the author’s favorite list or are not part of her plans to fill her fic with a great deal of the most common YGO slash pairings. So, in other words, the cool attitude is the attitude commonly seen in school bullies. A Fixer Sue can outsmart even Kaiba with her funny comebacks and can best even the master street fighter Jounouchi (Joey Wheeler) in a physical battle. And both of these feats require minimal effort on her part.
So Fixer Sue’s have attitude. They also show this in the way they dress. Now, Fixer Sues are in no way exceptionally beautiful or have strange somehow-natural highlights in their hair. No, Fixer Sues are regular looking girls with dyed highlights. And let’s not forget her outfits. Every Fixer Sue has either a tomboy outfit to further make her fit in among the males or then she has otherwise “cool” clothes and accessories.
Oh, yes, accessories. Fixer Sues are often accompanied by a Magical Accessory from Ancient Egypt, much like her sister species. Only, this is VERY rarely a Millenium Item. Fixer Sues don’t carry tacky Millenium Bracelets that appear out of nowhere into the continuity. They carry simple Magical Bracelets, or sometimes Earrings, that allow them to read minds and find out who likes who or to manipulate their chances so that they always get lucky and their plans always work. Also, this Magical Item often includes the spirit of Atemu’s long lost sister, who makes the Sue’s attitude problems look like minor tantrums.
The best way to see the worst of a Fixer Sue is to read a scene in which she’s is together with the author’s most hated character/characters. You think she treats the comic relief characters and unpaired characters badly? That is nothing compared to the trashing she gives to those characters who DARE be in the way of her ship in canon. A Fixer Sue can treat the female cast, usually just Anzu Mazaki (Téa Gardner), worse than dirt and no one will oppose her. Everyone will cheer her on, because “Anzu is such a b*tch and a wh*re anyway”. The characters MIGHT be otherwise completely in character, but when it comes to Anzu, Out Of Character behaviour runs amok. The gang will suddenly lose all of their affection for Anzu and Anzu will lose all traces of her own humanity. That, or then Anzu is replaced by some evil presence that everyone knows is not really Anzu. The latter one is of course simply speculation on my part.
Fixer Sue’s have so-called “good intentions” from the point of view of the people who read the fics they appear in. Yaoi fans appreciate it when their favorite pairings are made happen. I appreciate it when my favorite pairings are made happen. But I do not appreciate it when my canon is messed with in such a deforming manner when the fic is not even supposed to be an Alternative Universe fic. Nor do I like watching the characters’ personalities get mutilated, even momentarily, without there being a good reason for their abnormal behaviour.
So, people, I beg of you, PLEASE, be considerate when you write. Be REASONABLE if you intend to write a longer fic. I can forgive a lot for shorter fics because they do not give much room for building up the situations and plots. But, if your fic stretches on for chapter after chapter with Anzu running around doing things only a psycho murderer would do, I am not going to be very lenient. I am going to deem your fic a lot worse than what it actually is, simply because you couldn’t write the established canon characters objectively. If you need a dangerous, jealous killer, create your own character for it. Over and out.
Yu-Gi-Oh! has lately encountered a new breed of Mary Sue characters, whose sole purpose in life is NOT to be better than the rest of the cast or to get together with the author’s favorite guy. No, the new brand of Mary Sues exists so that the author can affect the universe in a way that allows for her favorite pairings to happen, usually said pairings are slash/yaoi/shounen-ai/malexmale. We are talking about relationship-fixer!Sues. These are not always a bad addition to a story. Sometimes the author can create an interesting character that adds more entertainment to a story. Sometimes not.
A general type of Fixer Sue does usually have a connection to canon characters. She (most often ‘she’, as she represents the author and quite many yaoi authors are female) is usually either Seto Kaiba’s long lost sister/cousin/half-sister/childhood fried/BFF or the reincarnation Yami’s/Atemu’s younger sister from ancient Egypt, Princess Nefer-don’t-mess-with-me-titi. Fixer Sues are cool and almost always have a tomboy nature. The purpose of this is most likely to make her seem like she’s ‘one of the boys’ or simply to make her cool.
Fixer Sues have a tendency towards behaviour usually connected to Complete Jerks, except they are not considered jerks because the author controls the universe and therefore people’s reactions the Sues. Fixer Sues are often equipped with an attitude problem the size of one of Egypt’s pyramids, as the author wants to depict her character as a strong and independent female. Apparently the only way to do this is to have their character shooting sometimes witty and sometimes just plain mean remarks at and about the characters that are either not in the author’s favorite list or are not part of her plans to fill her fic with a great deal of the most common YGO slash pairings. So, in other words, the cool attitude is the attitude commonly seen in school bullies. A Fixer Sue can outsmart even Kaiba with her funny comebacks and can best even the master street fighter Jounouchi (Joey Wheeler) in a physical battle. And both of these feats require minimal effort on her part.
So Fixer Sue’s have attitude. They also show this in the way they dress. Now, Fixer Sues are in no way exceptionally beautiful or have strange somehow-natural highlights in their hair. No, Fixer Sues are regular looking girls with dyed highlights. And let’s not forget her outfits. Every Fixer Sue has either a tomboy outfit to further make her fit in among the males or then she has otherwise “cool” clothes and accessories.
Oh, yes, accessories. Fixer Sues are often accompanied by a Magical Accessory from Ancient Egypt, much like her sister species. Only, this is VERY rarely a Millenium Item. Fixer Sues don’t carry tacky Millenium Bracelets that appear out of nowhere into the continuity. They carry simple Magical Bracelets, or sometimes Earrings, that allow them to read minds and find out who likes who or to manipulate their chances so that they always get lucky and their plans always work. Also, this Magical Item often includes the spirit of Atemu’s long lost sister, who makes the Sue’s attitude problems look like minor tantrums.
The best way to see the worst of a Fixer Sue is to read a scene in which she’s is together with the author’s most hated character/characters. You think she treats the comic relief characters and unpaired characters badly? That is nothing compared to the trashing she gives to those characters who DARE be in the way of her ship in canon. A Fixer Sue can treat the female cast, usually just Anzu Mazaki (Téa Gardner), worse than dirt and no one will oppose her. Everyone will cheer her on, because “Anzu is such a b*tch and a wh*re anyway”. The characters MIGHT be otherwise completely in character, but when it comes to Anzu, Out Of Character behaviour runs amok. The gang will suddenly lose all of their affection for Anzu and Anzu will lose all traces of her own humanity. That, or then Anzu is replaced by some evil presence that everyone knows is not really Anzu. The latter one is of course simply speculation on my part.
Fixer Sue’s have so-called “good intentions” from the point of view of the people who read the fics they appear in. Yaoi fans appreciate it when their favorite pairings are made happen. I appreciate it when my favorite pairings are made happen. But I do not appreciate it when my canon is messed with in such a deforming manner when the fic is not even supposed to be an Alternative Universe fic. Nor do I like watching the characters’ personalities get mutilated, even momentarily, without there being a good reason for their abnormal behaviour.
So, people, I beg of you, PLEASE, be considerate when you write. Be REASONABLE if you intend to write a longer fic. I can forgive a lot for shorter fics because they do not give much room for building up the situations and plots. But, if your fic stretches on for chapter after chapter with Anzu running around doing things only a psycho murderer would do, I am not going to be very lenient. I am going to deem your fic a lot worse than what it actually is, simply because you couldn’t write the established canon characters objectively. If you need a dangerous, jealous killer, create your own character for it. Over and out.