(no subject)

[telophase]

I am not convinced that all Mary Sues are created in as stand-ins for the author. I feel that assuming that is making the same mistake that people make when they assume someone cosplays as a particular character because they want to be that character.

Discuss.

Comments

[kate_nepveu]

I agree with you! My current talk draft has them separated out, with the classic author stand-in being the narrowest possible definition.

[telophase]

Yeah--I'm inclined to think that in part they're more reader stand-ins than author stand-ins, especially the male ones. R. A. Salvatore's Drizzt and whatshisface, the lead character of Bleach, seem to be power fantasies purposely designed to appeal to the teenage boy. (I think I can say with assurance that Bleach is definitely purposely designed to appeal to the teenage boy!)

[trobadora]

I expect that depends both on your definition of "Mary Sue" and on your definition of "author stand-in" ... *unhelpful*

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Certainly, I tend to see this argument in people who are dismissing badly-written fic with sweeping statements more than in those discussing published works, but I'm fairly sure that I've seen some people canonically defining all Mary Sues as authorial wish-fulfilment, which makes my eye twitch for some reason. (Now if you want to argue that they're meant to be reader wish-fulfilment...then you've got my attention.)

[trobadora]

Yeah, I'm actually with you on that, but I've seen the argument that Mary Sues are always bad and don't work for the reader - that is, it's only a Mary Sue if it doesn't function as reader wish fulfilment ...