Writing Meta and pimpage

[winter]

First of all, two points of interest. One: guede_mazaka wrote a bijou Sin City/Constantine crossover. Go and bother her to write some more. Two: temve, quite apart from being a very good writer, makes customized Qui-Gon figures that had me in stitches. Go and marvel.

But it’s not all fun and games in Beth’s head today...


The curse of Mary Sue

Any fanfiction reader worth their salt knows the basic way to tell Mary Sues from legitimate original characters (OCs). They’re perfect and have the same – or better – powers as the main characters. They are or become best friends, relatives or romantic interests of the main characters. The story revolves around them.

The case in point: Will to Act (working title), also known as the Darth Qui-Gon fic. And the fact it now has a cast of three original characters, all of them Sith and (ex)apprentices to either Qui-Gon or Dooku, and all of them at some moments driving the story forward. One’s even female – if she weren’t African-Corellian, a manipulative bitch and asexual, I’d have no hopes of escaping the Mary Sue bashers.

The problem is that they’re all needed. Will to Act is a large-scale retelling of AOTC and follows its dual narrative structure, so Qui-Gon has to take care of Obi-Wan’s quest. Dooku’s too busy on Geonosis to go chasing after Anakin and Padmé. And if there’s no-one to interfere there, that plotline will take its AOTC shape, which will be boring. Then there’s a large plothole in the end that needs a Sith Infiltrator to plug it up. This means at least two OCs are needed, plus a third for Obi-Wan’s emotional reasons.

Beyond that, each of the OCs serves as a foil for a canon character. Ador is a counterpoint for Anakin and Padmé, the one who puts strange and dangerous thoughts in their heads. Damay lets Qui-Gon and later also Padmé shine: he asks them questions and gives them opportunities to articulate their own thoughts. Est... okay, Est is a pain in the arse, but a cute one. And he’s got a total of three scenes so far, in one of which he gets Dooku to open up, which alone is worth keeping him.

My question: is this too much? I’m not afraid of original characters, but out of an eight-strong main cast three are OCs. I’m wondering if it’s worth it to get creatively invested in something people will dismiss as weak origific or Sith Mary Sues.

(Even though the Qui-Gon|Obi-Wan|Anakin dynamic I’ve got set up is absolutely delicious. With lots of manly touching, natch. Am thinking of pawning Padmé off on Ador and pushing these three into bed together.)

Comments

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Original characters who are *villians* should be interesting, while original characters who help the hero should just not be allowed to steal the spotlight.

Let Padme shine. She was still gutsy and sharp in AotC, even if Lucas can't write dialogue to save his life. I know that people like to slash Obi-Wan/Anakin, but really, Anakin has been fixated on her since he was *nine*; if he's going to be chasing Obi-Wan, it will be in addition to chasing Padme, not instead of chasing Padme.

[winter]

The problem is, I don't know if they count as villains. Sure, they're on the Dark Side, but their objective is to make Obi-Wan and Anakin join them. I've had a lot of fun devising a twisted dynamic between all the Sith, with Qui-Gon at the centre, and it's going to be a rope-walking act not to drown the reader in that.

Padme'll definitely get to shine. The way it's going, that side of the story is hers far more than Anakin's, and it's again through her that Anakin's tempted by the Dark Side. I want to explore something I saw hinted at in AOTC - the fact that she's tired of serving the public, that she might want to have a normal life, but she still has her duty.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

This is Star Wars so if they are on the Dark Side, be definition they are villians -- perhaps *redeemable* villians, but villians.

Yes, I'd certainly like to see a Padme who actually confronts herself about the pull between her dreams (family, a quiet life) and what she sees as her duties.

[winter]

I'm afraid the way I'm going with this fic, no-one's walking away unmarred. Except the permanently dead ones. Maybe.

I'm still not sure where exactly Padme is going here, but it's going to be very fun writing her, that's for sure.