Re: Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu What Are They? How Can They Be Avoided
Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 4:43 pm
Sorry for the double, but here's that post from AthenaPrime over on the KOTOR site, that taught me sooo very much. Just swap out all of the SW's terminology and the character name...
AthenaPrime wrote:It's not that difficult to de-sue a character. Even Revan, somewhat canonically uber-powerful. It all depends on what you choose to focus your story on.
You let them fail.
The basics of story is conflict. A character who completes everything without breaking a sweat, or maybe just through breaking a nail, is no character anyone will care about. We all keep watching Britney self-destruct because we don't know how she'll get out of it. We don't know if she'll get out of it or what state she'll be in if she does.
So you let Revan fail. On something s/he really cares about. The lightsaber frotzes, the blaster jams, the bad guys are just that prepared. How she loses can speak volumes more about her skill, personality, and relationships with other characters than how she wins.
You give Revan a personality. S/he may be able to kick lightsabered ass, but hasn't she ever made a bad decision? Give her consequences for her actions. Shooting some Sith secretary should guilt her just a little--especially if that secretary was pathetically easy to mow down. What makes Revan happy? What makes Revan sad? What does Revan most want out of life and will die if Revan does not get? For character flaws, it's great if Revan has one short leg, a paunch, or a persistently runny nose, but it won't matter squat if those things don't play an important role in the story. They aren't really handicaps or flaws if they don't actually slow him down.
You give the opponents motivations. Even and especially in non-combat situations, everybody has a motive, and those motives are selfish in many respects. The charming children and sympathetic widow are focused primarily on their own survival, not in making Revan feel good for charity.
It doesn't matter if the Sith Lord's a crybaby or not. People cry. You can make easy justification for a Darth Crybaby that would make a great character. Just because Anakin was a melodramatic emo-kid doesn't mean a kickass Sith assassin might not shed tears. People are quirky that way. Who's really more interesting--the coldblooded remorseless killer, or the coldblooded remorseless killer who sheds tears for every victim and has a soft spot for kittens, gizkas, and orphan twi'leks, and a thing for the color orange?