Arianna Swann

[potcsues]

This fic only has one chapter so far and yet it's already off to quite an asspicious beginning. And no, that wasn't a typo.

TITLE: Where You Wouldn't Dare To Look Sadly, I dare to look in the Pit of Voles every day, sweetie. Try again.
CULPRIT: Andciritien
SUMMARY: "Our Mr Turner always has looked for love in the wrong places...but could this be

Comments

[mylla]

Our Mr Turner always has looked for love in the wrong places...

Mmm, I got that vibe from Will. Always looking, looking for his true love. He'd wander out onto the street and just check out the passing girls, in the hopes that one of them would be his love. He'd hang around bars at night. He'd certainly not, you know, fall in love with a childhood friend and proceed to love her without hope of his love being requited for the next 8 years. No.

Gah! Suethors!!

I have been driven to use multiple exclamation marks!

The most annoying thing about this Sue is that the author grossly mischaracterizes Elizabeth, just so that she can steal Elizabeth's actual personality and give it to the Sue and thus make Will attracted to her. It's just 52 different flavors of wrong.I suspect - and I can't remember if I've voiced this theory before or not - that the reason the Suethors hate Elizabeth is because she really leaves no room for Mary Sues. Anything they can do (all that beauty, guts, adventurous streak, willingness to follow her heart

[araeph]

They do write about Elizabeth.

http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=1685736

(R-rated)

http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=1655277

Oh, sorry, were you referring to writing about her in a positive, mature manner? Can't help you out there.

And, on a totally unrelated note, "Lizzeh" e-mailed one of the PPC boarders asking her to be a beta so that she can revamp her deleted fic. Vemi said she had too many other projects. I volunteered to take on the task.

I'm feeling really, realling masochistic today.

[mylla]

I hate you. That is NOT what I meant. :p

Well, the gen fics write about her properly. Hence why I generally read only gen when I'm looking for stuff I might enjoy. *sends evil glares in the direction of fanfic (yes, all fanfic. I'm in a goodfic drought and feeling bitter about it)*

And hey, Lizzeh wants to improve? This is a good thing! Of course, I can't imagine that anything other than "scrap the Sue and do something completely different" will help, but I'm sure you can be creative. :D

[araeph]

The gen fics? *inquisitive*

And, yeah, I don't know what will happen with Lizzeh. I suspect if I show her my litmus test, I'll frighten her away. Hmmm...how to take it easy on a Suethor...

Ah, heck, I'll improvise. *rubs hands together and cackles*

I don't know if you've read these before, but they're pretty nifty, in my humble opinion:

Fic about how Jack stole Ana's boat
http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=1497375
Why Gibbs became a pirate...heh.
http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=1454484
The ultimate torture for Sues--being ignored.
http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=1457261
Cool fic, IC Jack so far; a female OC that probably won't be a romance (not under the Romance heading, and she doesn't show Sueishness)Reply

[mylla]

The gen fics? *inquisitive*

Well, fics that aren't written with the purpose of focussing on a pairing.

Obviously they are perfectly capable of bashing Elizabeth too. I was generalising, and actually simply referring to everything I've read and liked. :p

And hey, thank you! I'm always really happy for recommendations from someone whose work I like! (Anything that means someone else has done the work of trudging through the stuff that burns your eyeballs.)

Have read the fourth one, and was impressed at the non-Sueishness. (It's nice to know it's possible for an OFC not to be a Sue.) And I've read the third one as well, seem to remember nearly falling off my chair laughing. I'll follow up the others. :)

[kijou]

Well, at least she's nice about it. That's what I'd do if I got a bad review. Besides, maybe with a little help she could be a good writer.

[usagivindaloo]

I suspect - and I can't remember if I've voiced this theory before or not - that the reason the Suethors hate Elizabeth is because she really leaves no room for Mary Sues. Anything they can do (all that beauty, guts, adventurous streak, willingness to follow her heart rather than society, even the damsel in distress at the same time), Elizabeth can already do better. *smirks* She's like the ultimate in Sue repellant!

The scary thing is, wouldn't that theory make Elizabeth herself a Mary Sue?

o_O

I don't like to think about Miss Swann that way. Let's just forget I said that, shall we? ^_^

PS. I don't think Elizabeth is a Mary Sue, but would be hard pressed to tell you exactly why not (after all, as you said, the Sues share a lot of traits with her). Any ideas?

[mylla]

*puts aside her work*

Heh, I had that thought lurking around in my mind too. :p Let me take a shot at getting rid of it.

So I know the official definition of a Mary Sue differs depending on who you talk to. But as far as I'm concerned, the things that define a Mary Sue for me are:

1. Hijacking the story (especially seen in those fics that actually rewrite the movie, but also counting the ones that hijack other characters)
2. Being ridiculously two-dimensional and/or cliched.
3. Author intent - self-insertion (I don't think this is relevant when we're talking about the movie itself)

Elizabeth by definition cannot commit the first one of these offences, since she's canon. She's necessary to the story, so it's not like her presence is unjustified, and at the same time the story's not geared around her. (Will's actions are, but no one else gives her more attention than she calls for. Am I making sense?)

And as for being cliched, I don't think she is. Well, here's an example. She fulfills the cliche of the damsel in distress,

[usagivindaloo]

Hey, I think your theories are awesome. I suppose the only thing one can notice is that, if a fanfic writer wrote a character with the same spunk, character, etc as Elizabeth, we would likely classify that OC as a Mary Sue

[kijou]

You forgot to mention that he even gives Jack a head start in the end.

[cuileann]

There's a NorringtonSue somewhere out there I bet. It'd hard to find since Norrington fans are smarter than the average PotC fangrrl, and can write properly. So even if you did find one, it'd be very hard to call.

[mylla]

There's only one in the archives here I think, and that was Lizzeh the other day, who didn't really seem to care who was in love with her. :D

I'm feeling particularly masochistic at the moment too, and was going to do some hunting around for a Sue for Norrington, because there must be some. You have just reminded me of that resolve. :p

*goes hunting*

[megaera_1]

Fool! Your eyes will melt. Do you really want that?

'Cos then you won't be able to read goodfic, watch the second and third POTC movies, or view this or any other Sue bashing LJ ever again.

Is it really worth it?

[mylla]

I'm touched by your concern, but don't worry, I'm not planning on looking too closely. I shall squint at them to see how bad they look, then palm them off to potcsues. :p

Generous, no?

[megaera_1]

Very.

A medal, I say. A MEDAL!!