Mary-Sue, my ass!
Some asshat on the ComicGenesis webboard accused Kanira Baxter of being a Mary-Sue, which, frankly, I took exception to. Actually, he didn't just say she was a Mary-Sue, he said she was an OBVIOUS Mary-Sue/.
At most, Kanira's something of a self-insertion character, but by no means is she a damned Mary-Sue. Yes, there'z some wish fulfillment there, but much of it is more tied to the universe than to the character of Kanira; heck, a large part of why I'm making Kanira Baxter in the first place is because nobody is making the kind of fiction I want to see...I'm not sure if it's possible for a setting to be a Mary-Sue, but maybe. Heh.
Anyway, I went and took a couple of the Mary-Sue tests out there and got REALLY low scores on all of 'em. On one, Kanira got a 9 out of a possible 50+. On another, 22 out of 71+. On another, 18 out of 71+. On all of these tests, the maximum is actually a threshold beyond which a character is irredeemable and not actually the highest number of points you can get.
Kanira ain't no Mary-Sue.
Though in the course of doing this, I was actually fascinated to see some of the questions they ask. I've never really read much fan-fic or originally fiction written by other complete nerdbags like myself...mostly because the vast majority is crap. But it makes me wonder about the kind of material they're churning out!
The tests seem to imply, for one thing, that the vast majority of Mary-Sues are either in Fantasy or anime-inspired genres; precious few of the questions seemed Sci-Fi specific. For example, there were TONS of questions about magical powers, having animal-like traits, wielding swords, that kind of thing...and almost none about spaceships, robots, cybernetics, etc.
And so many of the questions were about romance, too; has your character ever fallen in love, lost a lover tragically, had everyone fall in love with your character, had rivals over romance, etc. (Hell, I haven't even decided yet just how much--if any--romance will be part of Kanira Baxter; I'm not averse to the characters finding romance at some point, but it's not in the works!)
Not to mention stuff about ancestry and parents; is your character an orphan, are their parents special in some way, is the character the last of an extinct race, is the character estranged from their parents, etc... We've met Kanira's parents, they're fairly nice people who are largely unremarkable and with whom Kanira has no more than the normal amount of tension a person might feel for their parents...
To be a Mary-Sue, a character clearly has to be special beyond belief, if these tests are to be believed. And it makes me wonder just what kind of wankery is out there, just what people are writing that makes tests like these necessary...! *raised eyebrow*
Seriously, go look for yourselves if you don't believe me! It's...a little scary, actually.
http://www.springhole.net/quizzes/marysue.htm
http://www.ponylandpress.com/ms-test.html
http://www.katfeete.net/writing/marysue.html
At most, Kanira's something of a self-insertion character, but by no means is she a damned Mary-Sue. Yes, there'z some wish fulfillment there, but much of it is more tied to the universe than to the character of Kanira; heck, a large part of why I'm making Kanira Baxter in the first place is because nobody is making the kind of fiction I want to see...I'm not sure if it's possible for a setting to be a Mary-Sue, but maybe. Heh.
Anyway, I went and took a couple of the Mary-Sue tests out there and got REALLY low scores on all of 'em. On one, Kanira got a 9 out of a possible 50+. On another, 22 out of 71+. On another, 18 out of 71+. On all of these tests, the maximum is actually a threshold beyond which a character is irredeemable and not actually the highest number of points you can get.
Kanira ain't no Mary-Sue.
Though in the course of doing this, I was actually fascinated to see some of the questions they ask. I've never really read much fan-fic or originally fiction written by other complete nerdbags like myself...mostly because the vast majority is crap. But it makes me wonder about the kind of material they're churning out!
The tests seem to imply, for one thing, that the vast majority of Mary-Sues are either in Fantasy or anime-inspired genres; precious few of the questions seemed Sci-Fi specific. For example, there were TONS of questions about magical powers, having animal-like traits, wielding swords, that kind of thing...and almost none about spaceships, robots, cybernetics, etc.
And so many of the questions were about romance, too; has your character ever fallen in love, lost a lover tragically, had everyone fall in love with your character, had rivals over romance, etc. (Hell, I haven't even decided yet just how much--if any--romance will be part of Kanira Baxter; I'm not averse to the characters finding romance at some point, but it's not in the works!)
Not to mention stuff about ancestry and parents; is your character an orphan, are their parents special in some way, is the character the last of an extinct race, is the character estranged from their parents, etc... We've met Kanira's parents, they're fairly nice people who are largely unremarkable and with whom Kanira has no more than the normal amount of tension a person might feel for their parents...
To be a Mary-Sue, a character clearly has to be special beyond belief, if these tests are to be believed. And it makes me wonder just what kind of wankery is out there, just what people are writing that makes tests like these necessary...! *raised eyebrow*
Seriously, go look for yourselves if you don't believe me! It's...a little scary, actually.
http://www.springhole.net/quizzes/marysue.htm
http://www.ponylandpress.com/ms-test.html
http://www.katfeete.net/writing/marysue.html