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

[winter]

My problem is that it's the whole point of the fic - a different approach to bringing balance to the Force, if you will, by negating Darth Bane's reforms. They're definitely not out of the blue, and all doing bidding of their (canon) masters.

It's just that if I have Dooku drawing Qui-Gon to the Dark Side - as already the third Sith - there's no logical reason for them not to spend the ten years between TPM and AOTC not training additional apprentices in order to gather strength. Dooku himself might have been too busy, but he has Qui-Gon to help out. And even if my three are just dark Force-users (the line's a thin one), I have canon precedent in the forms of Ventress and Mara Jade.

Hm. Would it help if I changed the idea from plain "rebirth of the Sith" to "defeating them from the inside and replacing them with a better Dark Jedi Order"? :S

[merentha.livejournal.com]

There are two school of thoughts with regards to the "balance of the force". It depends which one you subscribe to.

The first school interprets it as a numbers game. Anakin kills off most of the Jedi, therefore resulting in 2 vs 2, i.e., Palpatine and Anakin vs Yoda and Obi Wan. However, there is the little complication of the twins, and the ghosts of Qui Gon (and later Obi Wan and Yoda).

The second school interprets it as a kind of middle path between extremisms of the old Jedi order and the Sith, in the sense that Anakin brings balance to the force through his son, Luke. The old Jedi order discards emotions and feelings as dangerous elements that would lead to the dark side. The Sith draws power from strong (and usually dark) emotions and feelings. Luke walks the middle path by trusting his feelings and harnessing them to reach through Darth Vader to the Anakin within. Anakin destroys Palpatine, leaving Luke to perhaps rediscover a new balanced Jedi order.

The interesting thing about the second school is that much can be written in the intervening years between ROTS and ANH about how Obi Wan began to drift from the ways of the old order, and exhorting Luke (albeit as a disembodied spirit) to "Trust your feelings, Luke."

I hate Star Wars, and yet I probably sound like a uber-fangirl. :P

[winter]

Ooh, that's exactly how I see it - the second way, with Luke being neither Jedi nor Sith, really.

Of course I'm sure Sith see it differently. And since I'm trying to keep them un-Mary Sue... :)

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Would it help if I changed the idea from plain "rebirth of the Sith" to "defeating them from the inside and replacing them with a better Dark Jedi Order

I've thought that maybe Dooku was trying to force change upon the Jedi and the Republic in the movies. His motivations are only thinly described in the films, so what I've cobbled together is that hubris -- confidence that he could use the Dark Side for his goal and walk away unscathed -- was his sin and the way he was destroyed. He let the ends justify the means, which is a Jedi habit as we saw in the prequels, and since the ends he wanted were so very grand and expansive, so were the means.

Which actually sounds a bit like what you are planning, but that maybe Dooku got even more out of hand thanin the movies?

[winter]

...You. Out of my brain ;P

The one thing I'm going off on is Dooku's comment that if Qui-Gon was alive, he'd join him. Everything happens as a consequence of a certain choice Qui-Gon makes.

Anyway, I've spent today plotting the fic out in detail, and it looks like I'll be able to wrap it up in 9 chapters. Damay and Est each show up once every 3 chapters, respectively to act clueless and to kill people. Ador's around a bit more, but she's sticking to being a mostly stock Mephistophelian villain, and she mercifully fades into the background as soon as Dooku's around to mess up Anakin's brain himself. I think this is going to work :D

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Really, I don't *mean* to mindread...

I love the idea that Qui-Gon runs off with Dooku, though I think Qui-Gon will have as much effect on Dooku as Dooku has on him. He's muley and intractable, remember, and even reflexes drilled into him during his apprenticeship are not going to overcome that, not after several *decades*.

[winter]

But of course :D I'm having almost as much fun with the Dooku-Qui dynamic as with Qui-Obi and Obi-Ani. All hail Lucas for coming up with the Master/Padawan system, the best way to produce twisted emotional attatchments ever!