My OC is a quiz result!

[rj_anderson]

And now that I've written that subject line, I have the oddest urge to sing it to the tune of "Centerfold"... now there's a filk whose time has not come.

Anyway, thanks to lizbee for giving me the heads-up on this clever little quiz:

Which Potterverse OC Are You?

And to my great amusement, not only did I not get Maud as my result, looking back at the quiz I actually have no idea what answers I'd have to change in order to get her. So much for the people who accused Maud of being my Mary Sue...

...which reminds me of something I would just like to get off my chest. I don't mind there being an unfavorable marysues review of The Potions Master's Apprentice. It doesn't even upset me that mauralabingi, the writer of the review, thinks Maud is a Mary Sue -- that's her opinion, and she's got a right to voice it. And as I wrote in my blog when I first discovered that review, many of the comments made were actually quite clever and amusing.

What I do find irritating is that in order to make Maud sound more obviously Mary-Sueish, the review actually made a number of false claims. For instance, that the word "tousled" puts in a frequent appearance in reference to Maud's hair (which it doesn't -- in fact it doesn't appear at all); or that her eyes are described as "lambent" (which they never are). The reviewer also claims that Maud is "loved by all except homely Slytherin girls and Draco Malfoy", although Maud's isolation and friendlessness at Hogwarts is frequently emphasized in both this story and its sequel. The review goes on to say that "Maud answers more questions in class than Hermione" (when in fact she answers only one, and that only because Snape asks her directly) and "has natural abilities at magic to rival Harry's" (although she gets beaten in every single magical duel, and only her skill at Potions is considered exceptional).

All of which is to say, people, go ahead and rip on the stories if you want to, and find any legitimate flaws you like; in fact, I'd be glad to hear any criticisms you have to offer that might improve my writing in future. But don't make up things just so you can complain about them.

There, now I feel much better.

Comments

[ymfaery]

I'm not too sure how I did it, but I got Maud when I did the quiz. :D

Oh no! Does that mean I'm a Mary Sue? *gasp* *swoon*

;D ;D ;D

[taiamu.livejournal.com]

So did I. And I haven't even read the stories yet. Never even heard of them until I stumbled into your LJ. ::chuckle::

The stories are on my 'to read' list though...

Hey, mind if I friend you? I just think you have an interesting LJ. :)

Happy Holidays!

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Don't mind at all! Go right ahead.

FTR, I got Abby Loomis from "Interwoven" on the quiz. Funny thing was, I only just read that fic a couple of weeks ago...

Wish I *had* been Maud

[(Anonymous)]

Apparently I am "Claire de Chien-Loup," so now I'll have to go and read the fanfic (since I've never heard of her) just to find out who the heck I am! *grin*--Mary Anne

[ex-ajhalluk585.livejournal.com]

Getting Maud was less of a surprise, since I had only ever heard of one of the other OCs, and since that particular other character was a principal reason for me getting irritated out of following the fanfic in question I'd have hated to be her. Not, with all due respect to your creation, that I think I've got all that much in common with Mrs Snape (nee Moody)but it would certainly figure that I've got more than with that character at least.

On the topic of the unfavourable reviews, I read and agreed with your comments about them in your blog. Personally, I'd be wary of giving them any more airtime - do they really deserve it? And if they want to come along and make up stuff about Melanie's eye colour and hair (respectively "a muddy nearly-hazel when she felt optimistic about it, and merely muddy when not" and "a dog's breakfast") they are hereby invited to do so. The oubliette waits ......

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

LOL. I can guess which one you meant... and no, I can't say I'd have been keen on getting that particular quiz result either.

I think it would take some special kind of insanity for anybody to mistake Melanie for a Mary Sue. Basically the critic would have to be of the opinion that all OCs are Mary Sues regardless of personality, appearance, or function in the story. In which case that person must have a very hard time reading any kind of fanfiction...

Loved "Queer as Scent", btw.

[ex-ajhalluk585.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked QaS. As you commented, I believe, married het need not necessarily be boring.....

On the main topic, re Mary-Sue - is she all bad?

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<ljuser="lizbee">') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

Glad you liked QaS. As you commented, I believe, married het need not necessarily be boring.....

On the main topic, re <i>Mary-Sue - is she all bad?</i>
<ljuser="lizbee"> did say in that interview for zendom that when Melanie first appeared she thought "Oh no, here's Mary-Sue to act as [Draco and Neville's] relationship counsellor" and was relieved that such was not the case, so I suspect that the opinion that all OCs (at least all female ones) are OCs is sufficiently prevalent for <ljuser="lizbee"> to want to raise the issue explicitly in relation to Melanie if only to specifically dispell it. Actually, I think one of the problems is that the Mary-Sue test (you know, where you get points for relationship to existing characters, special features, getting off with key main character, etc) produces a high percentage of yes answers with regard to Maud, so perhaps the answer is how one defines one's terms: either she <i>is</i> a Mary-Sue, but the use of the term is therefore not necessarily perjorative, nor need it exclude a well-written character <i>or</i> that the test is flawed if it is intended to identify only Mary-Sues, Mary-Sues being by definition bad.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who has problems with LJ user tags. :)

Actually, I think one of the problems is that the Mary-Sue test (you know, where you get points for relationship to existing characters, special features, getting off with key main character, etc) produces a high percentage of yes answers with regard to Maud...

Hm. When I first took the Mary Sue Litmus Test (HP version), Maud scored 12. I took it again just now, giving Maud a point for everything that could possibly be said might relate to her (including some things I really don't think do relate), and got 17. That makes her "borderline... can go either way depending on the author's skill" at worst, according to the score key. Which test did you take?

I think what probably rings people's bells, though, is that some of the points Maud does score are for characteristics usually regarded as notorious: Durmstrang exchange student, Snape likes her, the story is told from her POV, etc. Of course, when I wrote the story I had no idea that Durmstrang exchange students were overdone. (I'm not even sure they were overdone at that point, actually, though they've certainly become so since.)

All of which is to say that Mary Sue seems to be in the eye of the beholder, and what sets off alarms for some readers doesn't necessarily bother others. For my part, I can't stand HP fics where the OCs have beautiful and/or trendy first names, especially when coupled with merely ordinary or (worse) equally fancy last names; it wreaks havoc with my suspension of disbelief, because JKR just doesn't do that. So if somebody writes a Snapefic where the heroine's name is "Shaylana Andrani" or "Brittany Hamilton-Smith", they're going to have to work exceptionally hard to get me not to scream and throw my monitor across the room. Whereas other readers, I know, can assimilate such names with barely a blink, but will balk when told that Shaylana or Brittany is exceptionally good at Charms and has captured the heart of Sirius Black, or whatever...

[ex-ajhalluk585.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't have the URL for the litmus test handy, so I can't redo it unless you would be so good as to supply it, but I was more inclined to put Maud closer to the danger zone and to accept that her presence there meant that the test was not by any means definitive about whether it really did identify Mary-Sues or whether Mary-Sues are bad. I'm prepared to believe, of course, that I did weight the results subconsciously because of what I saw as key elements(and, bearing in mind that unfair as it is, it's the date when people read a fic that leads them to decide if ideas ring the wrong sorts of bells or not). And just to show I'm playing fair, and using your friend's classification in the absence of litmus test, I'll show you what I got for Emily Longbottomon the same weighting(ok, she's canonical, but not so you'd notice):

Story Or Series Title: Lust Over Pendle
Fandom: Harry Potter
Culprit: AJ Hall
Full Name (plus titles if any): Emily Longbottom
Full Species(es): Witch. Animaga. Matriarch. Interfering Hag.
Hair Color (include adjectives): Silver. Formerly, Four feet long
Eye Color (include adjectives): Glittering. Beady. Dark. Compelling. Ferocious.
Unusual Markings/Colorations: described as "saurian" or "batlike"
Special Possessions (if any): her own house-elf. Her determination. Her strength of character, which can bulldoze through solid rock. A personal fortune greater than the Malfoys'and considerably more securely invested.
Annoying Origin: back in the mists of time. Given her current degree of annoyingness, however, one can assume was spectacularly annoying if anyone cared enough to think about it.
Annoying Connections To Canon Characters: Is one. Neville Longbottom's grandmother.
Annoying absence of connection to OC: Would have been Draco's great-grandmother had she accepted Charlie Device's proposal of marriage back in 1926. This would, of course, have rendered whole of LoP (to say nothing of Neville, Narcissa and Draco in their current incarnations) non-existent.
Annoying Special Abilities: Occult engineer. Industrial spy. Animaga. Beater. Better Quidditch record than either Harry or Draco. Potions genius. Entrepreneur.
Other Annoying Traits: too numerous to mention.
Annoying love-life: includes "Frank", "Mr Longbottom" and, we presume, "Eugene". Obviously something of a goer in her day, despite assumed straitlaced nature in current incarnation.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

LOL!!! Point taken, but still, any person who accuses Emily Longbottom of being a Mary Sue also needs to have their head examined. And I would be exceedingly surprised if anybody ever did. Not only because she's so well written, but I think that once an OC has reached a Certain Age, they're automatically exempt from such accusations anyway...

[ex-ajhalluk585.livejournal.com]

Well, of course no-one has, but there certainly isn't anything in the litmus test that would prevent it - no question like "is she 103" for example.

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

That would have been me... and my prejudice against OCs comes from Star Trek fandom, where from the tender young age of 15, I was told that OCs Are To Be Avoided At All Costs, No One Cares About Your Beautiful Young Ensign And Why Don't You Learn To Write Properly Before Playing With
The Big Kids.

This is something I'm only just growing out of ...

Of course, my OC seems to be Voldemort's goddaughter, not to mention the offspring of my two favourite Death Eaters. In fact, she's the Mary Suiest Mary Sue I've come across in a while.