Things the Sues Have Ruined for You

I gave one of my characters hazel eyes. Someone I dated had hazel eyes, I thought it was a pretty colour, and I just wanted to, dammit.

But I've seen so many Sues with hazel eyes that it almost makes me feel a little guilty for giving my character hazel eyes, even though I don't think I've ever mentioned the colour of his eyes in any of my writing, because I just don't think it's that important.

I see a lot of people in real life with hazel eyes; I work as a cashier, and I see a lot of people in a day. It's not that uncommon a colour, so why do I feel so dirty?

Is there anything Sues and badfic have ruined for you? Stuff you'd like to do with your own original characters, but are afraid to have associated with Sues? Appearance, backstory, plot-wise?

Everything could work given proper treatment, yet why do we feel so guilty for wanting to put talking dragons in our fantasy epic, or give our character highlighted hair, or dead parents?

Not really. I mean, I guess I might be a little wary certain tropes because they're typical of sues, but that's oveshadowed by the part of me that likes a challenge.

Also, I have hazel eyes (I think), and they're not all that pretty, so...

Sues do not have hazel eyes so much as they have ~color changing~ eyes. I have hazel eyes myself and while there is some amount of people interpreting the color differently when my surrounding are different and stuff (we did a fair amount of drawing each other in HS and I was always sort of surprized how many people colored my eyes bright blue or green when to me they look like a brownish grey) but they do not shift color dramatically the way they often do in fiction. I guess the notion that they do is too romantic for certain types of writers to give up on.

I guess I always want to describe the clothing my charas are wearing top to bottom because I just find that sort of thing fun. I think that is less not wanting my charas to be sueish and more trying not to be a bad writer though...

Oh, but I do feel stupid playing elves in RPs and stuff. Playing them in videos games is not as bad, but it still makes me feel a bit silly.

Draco Malfoy. Any interest I might have ever had in that character is as dead as Voldemort after reading so many leather pants stories.

Also, I loved Tommy and Kim from Power Rangers as a couple (when they hooked up when I was eight, they were totally my OTP) but after so many crappy fics about them, my love for them is as dead as Zordon. There are five plots for Tommy/Kim and the fanbrats keep recycling them.

I've never got the whole Draco/Harry slash thing, I mean, there's no base for it. they HATE each other, period.

But one thing that's got me, is how the fuck I can't look through a single page of M rated Naruto Stories, without running into -gasp- Naruto/Sasuke Slash. For nearly THIRTY pages of search.

Reidmar wrote:

I've never got the whole Draco/Harry slash thing, I mean, there's no base for it. they HATE each other, period.

But one thing that's got me, is how the fuck I can't look through a single page of M rated Naruto Stories, without running into -gasp- Naruto/Sasuke Slash. For nearly THIRTY pages of search.

They hate each other, so that must mean they're secretly hot for secret butt fun with each other! It all makes sense!
Only it doesn't.

I hate the Sues that are thrust into a Fandom, and take all the focus from the canon. Sometimes, these Sues have talents or abilities that have no relevance or place in the canon at all.
Like that God of War fic I was Snarking: The Sue chewed more scenery that herd of cattle on a pasture! She could have been thrust into the middle of standard Greek Mythology rather than God of War canon and you wouldn't notice the difference!

I once made a character glow. It made sense in the story. It did not make anyone fall in love with him. This was years before Twilight.

After seeing so many sparkly Suesl I will never do that again.

Harry Potter in its entirety.

Almost the Avengers movie franchise, but then I remember that there is more to Avengers than the movie (like that first Ultimates book and the recent cartoon), so I seek solace in characters that everyone hates because they're too complicated to really understand. Like Hank Pym. (He's also major fet fuel, but that's neither here nor there.)

The moment the Goblin King showed up in The Hobbit. The whole time, I was thinking about his two foot, warty cock. The fact that the character was wearing next to nothing just made it worse.

Celebrian has a lot to answer for.

TheIan wrote:

secret butt fun

Is it sad that I know what you're referencing?

For me, it's pretty the "What if there had been a girl in so-and-so gang/group that was mostly comprised of boys" plot (Such as Stand By Me, Sandlot, Outsiders, Newsies, etc.)

I admit, it could be an interesting idea to explore how the story would have been effected if there had been a female in the group, but I rarely ever seen it done well for a few reasons:

1. The authors try too hard to make their character look like they're tough shit in their introduction or establishing scene, only to turn around and have them acting like weepy clinging little waifs halfway through the beginning chapters.

2. We're told she's "one of the gang", yet the guys are always portrayed as being overly protective of her, almost to disturbing levels. Like, to the point where they don't give a damn about their own families, or the close buddies they had for years, or anyone else on the planet. Really. Even the half of them that aren't nauseatingly in love with her. (I notice that some Sue types are portrayed as being a bit resentful of this, because hello she can take care of herself, thank you very much.)

3. She always ends up falling in love with one of the guys (Chris Chambers, Benny Rodriguez, Sodapop Curtis, Dallas Winston, Spot Colon, etc.) I mean, you would figure if she was really "one of the gang", after a while of seeing them doing guy things, she would be like, "Okay. I am so not going to date them!!"

Also, "Male Canon Character and OC are best friends, who have known each other their whole lives, and they discover they are falling in love with each other, and the other doesn't know" plot.

I hate that, too. You'd think the Westermarck Effect would apply from time to time in that sort of setup, but that one never makes any kind of appearance in Sueland.

Another: The changing of characters' ages purely for the author's convenience, usually kid characters. Sometimes, it could work if the author wants to see how the characters could have changed over the years (If canon doesn't do it already), but most of the time, it's because the author ships two characters or wants to pair up one of the characters with their OC, but are uncomfortable with one or both parties being underage.

So, as to not feel like a pedophile, they age the characters up, 15 through 18 being the average, so the characters can have a real romantic relationship (meaning makeout sessions, drama/angst breakups makeups, and sex). The thing is, you CAN write kid characters having a relationship without any of the above. Just play up how innocent the whole relationship is.

You said it, King Bee. High school stuff is common in the South Park fandom, because people want to write about character relationships. Don't know how many relationships of 16-year-olds involve gang-bangs while doing acid, but it is South Park. I prefer to read about the kid characters being kid characters, but I have seen the high school thing done well. I have even encountered high school group sex done shockingly well, not just shockingly.



Something that Sues genuinely have ruined for me is unusual names. My parents were apparently eating a big bag of Böring when they named me, as I have a stunningly generic name.
However, when I hear kids being called things like: "Ayrikah" (pronounced "Erica"), "Regency", and "Raven", I can only assume that their parents are/were badfic writers. And yes, those are children I have honestly encountered.

Changing ages has always felt a little awkward, but so that I could actually write about Shadow raping Cream the Rabbit savagely without throwing up, I HAD to age that six-year-old girl a little. So I tacked five years onto everybody's ages and said "It's happening in five years, bitches. And that is because Shadow spent five years being tortured into insanity. Deal with it."

Yes, Cream was still 11, but he's kind of supposed to look like a monstrous psychopathic crazy-ass rapist in that fic.

But doing it with just one character? Tacking a few years onto just ONE guy or gall so that they're legal for a deep and very sexual relationship for the purpose of a one-shot? That's messed up, because in canon they're not. And it's not the same, but it still makes the slightly saner and more rational agers look bad.

Harley Quinn hyenaholic wrote:

I HAD to age that six-year-old girl a little.

Harley just absolutely HAD to, guys.

Yeah, it just wasn't right to have a crazed 50+ immortal rape a 6 year old. He had to do it to an 11 year old instead.

So, what's with the whole rape thing for you? Is it that you enjoy writing it because you can be more descriptive and graphic with words that relate to violence/suffering? Or is this a cry for help? Or somebody else's cry for help?

Violence sells. Sex sells.

Do the math.

Step 1: Write about Violence.

Step 2: Write about Sex.

Step 3: Discover that both together = rape.

Step 4: Wallpaper my mansion with $50 bills.

I'm sorry you feel that way

HERETIC!

You're just sorry I thought of it first.

For real, it kind of sucks that you feel that way. Hope you have a better 2014.

Baths.

Jenna in 'My Inner Life' ruined baths for me.

"Oh, I've had such a hard day being so beautiful and daydreaming of pumping out a bunch of sons for my future husband--let me just walk into my wooden, medieval gypsy caravan, and RUN A BATH."

A hot bath, too. Wagons are so up for the hot bath.

Slave stories.

I like slave stories. They're like rape stories, only longer. They don't have to have a happy ending.

Then along comes a Sue and wins her master's heart.