Part 4: “Actors on a Stage”
By Bane Keldare
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If I somehow turn this into a rant, I don’t mean to. But this is a subject that’s rather touchy in and of itself. In a fandom of any kind, a person writes stories in order to place their favorite characters where they want. They write to put Sonic here, and to put Shadow there, and to tell a story that they have in their mind.
But that could include their own characters as well.
Fan characters.
Fan characters, for those of you completely new to the idea of fanfiction and fan art, are characters a person makes up for their stories or pictures. They’re characters that are added in that don’t belong in the continuity of the series they’re writing fanfiction for. They’re fake characters, in a fake world.
I know when you put it that way, it doesn’t make it sound like a big deal. Well this column isn’t just for my own satisfaction. This is also for other people who are interested, other people who may not know where or why their stories have gone awry. Some people actually don’t know why their stories aren’t liked, when it could be something easily fixed. So I’m focusing on the fan characters today.
Now, many of them are done well, with just a few problems in execution. I don’t like most fan characters because there are clichés that they all fall in. The Sonic-loving fan-girls are a big one. You know, the author makes a girl character, which is usually a self insert, who completely turns Sonic’s mind upside down and open up to the ideas of love. It’s a good, touching idea. I like the premise of love in fiction…but fan-girls are getting really, really getting old. It’s like Anime…it’s getting EVERYWHERE.
But there are some quite famous examples of bad fan characters. The first being…
Mary-Sue.
Yeah. You know her. She’s that girl who’s so cool that Sonic instantly fell in love with her. She’s the girl who has these badass weapons, is perfect in martial arts, and lets not forget that she’s either just as fast, or is faster than the blue blur himself! I mean, everyone on the planet’s existence is there just to acknowledge her existence as a superior being! Did I mention she’s rich? Did I also mention she’s a sorceress with every spell imaginable? Oh yeah, she’s also immortal. That’s right…she can’t die. Perfect for Shadow, eh? An immortal girl who’s more powerful than he is? She doesn’t even need the Chaos Emeralds for Chaos Control! How about that?
Yeah. Can you just feel the hatred and sarcasm oozing out of the monitor right now? That’s from me…sorry if I messed up your keyboard. I’d pay for it but I’m pretty poor right now.
Anyway, this kind of character isn’t around anymore. Want to know why? Because her kind has been identified. Every serious fanfic writer knows Mary-Sue’s name, and not because she’s perfect. She’s annoying. She’s aggravating. And most of all, she takes away any plot a story has, and spins it around the vortex of Mary-Sue. Whenever she’s angry, the bad guy will die. When she’s sad, Sonic will spring up with a flower, or Shadow will give her a kiss, just to make everything go away. When she’s happy, everything is rainbows and lollipops.
Damn…was that your mouse? Sorry…it’s got sarcasm juice in it now. Oops.
How do I sum up Mary-Sue in one word?
Insipid.
Oh look it up, people! Just kidding. Now for the next one, we have…
Anti-Mary-Sue. (AMS)
You’ve probably seen her around, too, except she hates Sonic. She hates anything good. She’s the most badass villain on the planet, and makes Robotnik look like a puppy. She doesn’t need Robotropolis; she’s got a floating, gothic castle. Oh yeah! It floats over a black hole, too! How does she manage that? Well it just so happens that she’s so powerful she can bend the laws of physics. Yep. Her castle’s floating over a point of super-gravity by her will alone. She’s also immortal, so Sonic probably can’t do anything to rid Mobius of her. She’s so powerful that Sonic, the most persistent hedgehog on the planet, has given up trying, and has turned to the dark side.
My god…Here. This glass-cleaner ought to get that sarcasm off the screen.
Needless to say, Mary-Sue and AMS should have a battle all their own. It would probably become the biggest trailer-park brawl…one so big it’d make Jim-bob go out and finish college!
Ouch, that was mean. But it’s true. If MS and AMS had a brawl, Mobius wouldn’t survive. In fact, the universe would collapse upon itself. It’s like matter and anti-matter coexisting…the only result is a big BOOM.
But people have written these kinds of characters before! They put them in, and they got offended when people told them what they were doing wrong. There have been people who got offended when artists refused to draw them pics, or whenever they’re banned from a message-board RPG because they’re too powerful. That’s right, their characters are sacred, and anything against them is offensive.
…Right, and Britney Spears is a good role model for kids.
Ok…I’m now going to cover any cleaning expenses for that one. The sarcasm is just spewing from my head right now. Sorry…here’s a towel.
Now those two are the most extreme examples of bad fan-characters. Most of the characters I find I don’t like are very close to these examples, really. Most writers are good at making sure that they don’t fall into Mary-Sue traps.
Now, in the sense of an overall story, sometimes characters like this are vital, but usually the stories are something else. They drift away from Sonic fiction and become Mary-Sue-Is-A-Goddess fiction. Sonic becomes a background character, in fact EVERYBODY does.
Now, am I guilty of this? Have I made any Mary-Sues? Well not to that extreme. I create characters and tend to lean them to the central part of the story. Some people don’t like that entirely, and think that Sonic fiction is SONIC fiction, regardless. Now, granted, my characters are never overpowered…I hate overpowering my own characters.
So I got this question from NetRaptor herself:
“Many writers have trouble balancing their fan-characters. How do you find ways to balance yours?”
Well, NR, it’s quite simple. I make that balance a necessity. You see, for every power, there’s an anti-power, so to speak. This character can shoot a fireball, but it’s very draining. Sonic runs fast, but what happens if he trips at that high speed? Doesn’t anyone consider just how far he’d fly if he tripped at that rate of speed?
Let’s look at Derek, for an example of my balanced character. I made Derek out to be an uninformed, reluctant hero. He just now found out about the world outside, that Robotnik was evil, and he met Sonic. He’s been completely in the dark about the world around him, and he doesn’t even know that much about himself. At least, he knows he’s alive, but he doesn’t quite know what he is, besides an Overlander.
Now, he showed a power that was unknown about. He managed to deflect three laser shots that were fired at him. I know, where’s the downside of this? First of all, he didn’t know he had this ability. Second, he fell unconscious after he did it. That kind of power was taxing on his body, and the fatigue wore him down because of it. His mind couldn’t stay afloat after finishing the action.
And the reluctant hero remark? That’s just because in my stories, he’s the protagonist. However, he’s not out to save the world, to end the evil of Robotropolis. No. He’s looking for Shadow, who he knows was a good friend back when he was young. Shadow was the one who woke him up, so Derek is now searching for him. He’s not out to heal the planet…he’s looking for a lost friend. It’s that simple premise that could easily turn into a grand, epic story. People always try to make a world-ending fic, and the hero’s gotta find some way or some item in order to stop it.
Now, my story could LEAD to a world-threatening disaster, but Derek’s cause would still remain the same: find Shadow. Emotionally, he’s tied to Shadow in the way that he’s now tied to Sonic. He wants to be with Shadow, and now he probably couldn’t dream of a life without Sonic. It is these emotional ties that could be a weakness or a strength of Derek, depending on the situation. He has fear…he’s afraid of what’s happening to Shadow, he’s afraid of losing him. He’ll search, along the way picking up clues and answers, until he finds him. That’s how Derek is progressing right now.
Now, for Bane. Bane was, I admit, a self-insert of sorts. I created his character idea a long time ago, and I felt like using it here. I was originally going to use Tails, but I decided not to. I don’t know why, I just did. Bane showed up as a katana-wielding fighter who, as of yet, hasn’t had any major defeats.
But his weaknesses? He’s got them, all right. First of all, Bane has quite a few doubts about himself, and his relationship with Sonic. Sure, he’s Sonic’s brother in my fic, but it’s not like they grew up together. Bane hadn’t seen Sonic in years, and just now decided to show himself. He was nervous, and he was scared. Yeah, that tough warrior was scared.
Also, as I do with most weapon-using badasses, Bane is completely dependent on his weapons. He has a katana, and two revolvers, that’s it. He has no special skills, he doesn’t have his brother’s speed, and he doesn’t have any magic to him at all. He’s just good at using swords. Now look into our own society. Who among our society is dependent on their weapons…that it is the only thing that describes who they are?
Army privates, grunts, goons, gang members, need I go on?
There aren’t any anime-cool-badass people in our world, and we know it. It’s why the anime characters are so cooooool, because we don’t have any in real life. This is what I’m trying to reflect in Bane. Sure, he’s good with a sword, but just how much does he know about computers? Could he write a book or paint a picture if he wanted to? No. In fact, if Robotnik fell, what would Bane do then? All he knows are his weapons.
Bane’s existence in the fic is central to the theme, however. The relationship Derek has with Shadow is vaguely familiar to what Bane felt when he thought about finding Sonic…except Derek has a bit more conviction. He’s scared that Shadow could turn him away, like Bane was, but Derek’s also scared that if he doesn’t look for Shadow, he’d lose him forever. These two characters have weaknesses.
Weakness is important in any character, regardless of story. Also, keep in mind that emotional and psychological weaknesses are the MOST POWERFUL. A physical handicap can be overlooked, but when a character has an internal struggle with himself, when they fight entire wars with their emotions, do they become complete, balanced characters.
And as for love interests, please, please, please, DEVELOP a love interest if you’re going to have a character fall in love with Sonic. Every time I see a girl swoon over the hedgehog, I think of Amy Rose…and I don’t really like Amy that much. But if Sonic looks back at her and just falls for her, then I’m going to gag. Now, close friendships are a given. Derek and Sonic have one because, well, Sonic feels a responsibility toward Derek. But if Derek were a girl, and Sonic just FELL for her, kicking Sally out of the loop, then I’d expect myself to have a damn good reason.
I think that’s enough of my ramblings for now. Take care!
End Transmission. – April 5, 2004.