fact: Elise is a masochist.

[minviendha]

I am. I am such a masochist. I see a canon_sues report for Wheel of Time, and what do I do? Ignore it? Pass it by? No. I click on it. And read. And read. And read the comments bashing Wheel of Time. And get mad. And madder. ARGH.

Where, I ask, do people get off labeling characters as Sues? Especially characters from Wheel of Time? I mean, sure, I can understand people not liking the series, but (excepting Elayne) how are Rand or Faile sues? Sure, Rand's got the whole Savior of the WORLDDDD going for him, but he's full of flaw-holes. And bashing Jordan...I mean, I haven't read A Song of Ice and Fire, but I don't think that Wheel of Time is that bad.

URGH. I think this probably makes me a rabid fangirl. Well, so be it. At least I'm not a jerk.

*sticks tongue out*

Comments

[zorpisuttle.livejournal.com]

...Rand and Faile?

Can you give me the link to that post? Because I am intensely curious as to what on earth could induce them to label those two as Sues.

I agree with the community that authorial self-inserts do happen- I saw a post about Jubal from Stranger in a Strange Land and went, "Oh, good, so I'm not the only person to see him as a blatant self-insert. Also, yeah, the three young secretaries smacks of wish-fufillment." but I might not be quite as quick to call "Sue!" as they are. I think often the context is not considered properly, especially when one tries to apply the Mary Sue Litmus Test to canon characters. If they're a main character, they're probably going to score high, just because they're the main character and thus the plot is affected by them.

[minviendha.livejournal.com]

Oh, certainly. I mean, look no farther than Sara Douglass, who is my current authorial pet peeve.

Rand: http://community.livejournal.com/canon_sues/18348.html#cutid1

Faile:
http://community.livejournal.com/canon_sues/5380.html#cutid1

[zorpisuttle.livejournal.com]

I think the Rand one is marred by the fact that the person accusing him of Sue-ness only read till book 5- Rand is far from perfect in the later books. (And if Rand's a self-insert, I would be really quite worried about Robert Jordan's mental health, you know? That kind of abuse on an avatar of yourself makes no sense unless you have a death-wish.)

Actually, same with the Faile one- the person hasn't read the later books, and thus doesn't know that Faile has some fairly major flaws. There's the whole "You must conform to my culture, but I'm not actually going to tell you what my culture wants you to do, I'm just going to sulk about it" thing, and her Stockholm Syndrome-thing with Roran. Faile's no angel (I still don't hate her, though.)