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Upsetting people is so kewl
5:23 PM, 2008-Jul-21
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So, a friend of mine shall be graduating high school this year. Because the school formal is organized by the kids, (not the school) some of her peers have taken the opportunity to make it the worst memory of someone's life. At the school formals here, there's a tradition of handing out awards. When I was at school, we had things like most likely to become famous, most likely to become an evil overlord - fun, goofy awards. Apparently these kids have added some extra categories. Like most likely to commit suicide. Yeah. I know. The thing that bothers me is that if a person is already depressed enough to be considering suicide, then getting an "award" like that may well be enough to push them over the edge. I've been that depressed. The thing that stopped me doing anything to myself was knowing that people would miss me. It's not a big leap from "most likely to commit suicide" to "we want you to commit suicide" especially when your mind is already stressed out because you have a bazillion exams in front of you that everyone has been telling you will determine your entire future ever since you started school. The nature of duality and Mary Sue characters in Hogwarts Roleplay
7:36 PM, 2008-Jun-2
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In case you didn't know: Mary Sue is a stereotypical character who crops up in roleplay and fanfiction environments. A generic Hogwarts-style definition is that, she (or he, the term isn't gender specific) possesses incredible power for her age group, is amazingly attractive, particularly to the character that the author is most attracted to, consistently gets above average grades despite putting in little or no effort, excels at extracurricular activities, including non-wizarding activities such as hand-to-hand combat or fencing, may be related to one or more canon characters, and may be non-human (usually veela or vampire). Alternately, Mary Sue may be the inversion of these characteristics, although she usually retains her looks and heritage. In most Hogwarts roleplay environments, this type of character is at least looked down upon, if not actively discouraged. However, I submit that this practice does not produce a roleplay experience that is any more satisfying for those involved. Here's why: Those who look down on Mary Sues are seeing the range of possibilities for character creation from a binary standpoint. They see Sue/notSue and define what makes a "good" character through their own concept of what a Mary Sue is. Why is this bad? Because in this case, the Sue is being given the privileged role in the binary pair. As we know from Beauvoir, the privileged term in any binary does not just stand for the superior (or in this case, inferior) but also for the norm. Thus, when we say a character is "not a Mary Sue", we inhibit that character from showing any Sue-like traits at all. You may think that's not a bad thing, that Mary Sue characters are unrealistically inflated by their authors and oughtn't be allowed to show those traits. Now, think about Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. Both are main characters from the books that these sites are based on and both have distinct Sue-like characteristics. Again, in the real world, you probably know people who would, if they were to fill out a character application form with their own details be automatically thrown into the Mary Sue category. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with having a character who has all the characteristics outlined in the first paragraph of this entry. It is how the writer uses those characteristics that make Mary Sue so much maligned. Therefore, should we not allow characters with Sue-like traits, and instead concern ourselves with the conduct of the writer? Now, nobody knows better than I do that what happens in character shouldn't be made an out of character issue. However, as we all use our characters to create tension within the site plot, we can say that we use them as tools, and that therefore, in character conduct is an out of character issue to some extent. Having established this, what sort of conduct is at issue? Obviously, the sort of conduct that inspires alarm when characters are written with outstanding characteristics. Outstanding characteristics cause the character to stand out. When we see a Mary Sue's character application form, we don't cringe because of the character itself. We cringe because we "know" that the writer will attempt to use their character's privileged position to pull the spotlight onto themselves, and thus away from us. But, having created a non-Mary Sue, what is to stop this practice? Nothing. The absence of Mary Sue characteristics in a character outline does not stop this. Rather, it inverts it, causing the writer to create a sort of Anti Sue who is outstanding in their averageness, but nonetheless is able to function in exactly the same way within the story. We can only create a satisfying roleplay atmosphere by recognizing that we all want the spotlight of the story on our character. |
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