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

[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.