10 Ways to Un-Sue Your Sue

[dwg.livejournal.com]

limyaael writes fantasy rants about...well, everything. She brings up some thought-provoking things along the way, and the latest rant about "ten ways of making all-powerful, unique protagonists tolerable" has me giggling like crazy because I keep thinking about how this relates to Merita

In particular, point 6:

Limit the number of encomiums they receive. An encomium is a formal expression of praise. It may be as blatant as a character dwelling rapturously on the protagonist’s beauty for four pages (why, hello yet again, Elizabeth Haydon’s Rhapsody), or as “subtle” as the protagonist overhearing a conversation in which the people involved talk about how good and brave and darling she is. This is exactly what it sounds like, a chance to exalt the protagonist to the heavens without fearing that she will sound conceited for thinking about her own good qualities.

How many do you get?

One allowed a book. Two if the other characters are thinking to themselves out of the protagonist’s direct hearing, and never actually tell her how wonderful they think she is.

Yes, that’s an arbitrary number. I’m feeling arbitrary today.

I understand that, sometimes, there really is no other way to get the information about this character across to the audience, and if you’ve got a really self-depreciating or depressed narrator, their own self-esteem is skewed. But the best way to get around this is—ready for it?--show the reader your narrator’s good qualities, and flaws, in action, rather than having other characters whisper about how much they wish they were as beautiful as she is, or as smart, or as brave. At least, if you show us this hero acting like a hero, then we’ll be readier to believe in the encomiums than we will if you just have someone start babbling out of the blue.

I'm doubly amused because I finally found my copy of Danse Macabre in the re-shuffling of the study and was flipping through both the Augustine and Requiem Monologues of Why Anita Is So Damned Great.

Comments

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I also like the one about limiting the number of roles - honestly, how in the hell Anita manages to be the sparkly sex goddess of everything and still pays the bills baffles me. Unless she's actually charging her boytoys per ride - goodness knows, half of them are strippers and we know that Nathaniel is an ex-pro - and this whole, "I need an emotional bond with someone before I can have sex with them," is just bullshit.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Not to mention, all the superpowers that she gains with every orgasm she "borrows" from other characters - that whole thing where Anita can use the power of a vampire that uses the power against her first? HOLY DEUS EX MACHINA, BATMAN! And omfg, it's just so convenient that she can raise whatever superpower needed to defeat whatever she's against due to her metaphysicaly ties with everything.

Doubly so considering that it doesn't work both ways and that none of the people she's bound to share either her powers, or those of people she's tied to. She's simply That Speshul.

[nimnix.livejournal.com]

You know, if she wrote with any depth and thought, JC would probably have discovered that he inherited a form of necromancy, which would most likely have given him the ability to create his own line. Since he already discovered this fact, it would be great foreshadowing. (Maybe in a Real Book someday.) Imagine him able to break other masters' ties to their vampires.

Of course he wouldn't tell Anita any of this, because he is a master manipulator. Richard would probably find his ties to the munin even stronger, possibly allowing him to do things Raina only dreamed of.

But then, I'm reading from the Book That Could Have Been, not the pr0n version. In this book, JC is playing an extremely deep game, binding Anita to him, controlling who she has access to, being the Machiavellian nightmare he was meant to be. Maybe this is why I keep reading. She hasn't completely destroyed the possibility of a plot. She just has major pacing issues. (Sorry, I have these fits of delusion and... it's not pretty.)

[dwg.livejournal.com]

No, no...I think I suffer from the same problem. You and I probably live in the same world.

[nimnix.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting world, a safe haven from the nightmare that is Merita-Sue. Though I think in reality-land, they refer to this world as "medication" and "support groups".

[delphinapterus.livejournal.com]

Unless she's actually charging her boytoys per ride This image has me giggling madly. I'm seeing one of those coin operated kids-rides.

Anita makes "emotional connections" just by looking.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Coin-operated girl? *sings Dresden Dolls*

[randomsome1.livejournal.com]

Don't make me question where they'd put the coins! XD

[ravenclaw-devi.livejournal.com]

Thank you ever so much for the mental image! :p

[melaniedavidson.livejournal.com]

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*shudder*