Subject: Oh the horror!
Author:
Posted on: 2008-06-27 19:17:00 UTC
The main character in one of my favorite books just turned into a Sue. And it wasn't even because of fanfic, the author himself did it. Will horrors never cease?
Excuse me while I spork my eyes out.
I know some canons which have Canon Sues. They're not always too badly written, and I've grown quite fond of some.
*ducks and runs for cover from the rabid anti-Sueists*
And just as a note, if you can post to an ongoing discussion rather than making a new post, that's usually appreciated, as there may be something further down that's getting shunted off the Board.
The book is Skulduggery Pleasant. It's actually quite good and I don't mind the Sue too much, it just startled me that the author would do that after he developed some pretty amazing characters. And I completely agree about some of the canon Sues. Daine from the Tamora Pierce books has some pretty Sueish tendencies, but she's gotten a lot better.
And I meant to post it to an ongoing discussion, but I'm having some difficulty with the board technology (which sounds kind of pathetic, but I'm absolutely awful when it comes to anything to do with technology, or the internet).
Helen
I agree Daine has some Sueish traits, but the biggest Sue from the TP universes has to be Aly. I read the Trickster set for the first time a few years ago, thinking the whole time about what a Sue she is.
Oh, and plotting to spork her a few times too, but that was pre-PPC for me.
Alanna may be the one with violet eyes and a telepathic cat, but at least she generally has to work for everything and has her moments of humiliation. Aly is much worse.
Kel was by far the best protagonist in the Tortall books, and Neal is awesome.
I liked Numair, though. I think that characters who are incredibly powerful need some weakness, a common one being that they can do really big, flashy stuff, but can't do anything small.
Possibly because I'm so fond of Tortall-verse magic, four whole books without one of the things I liked best were hard. Then again, I appear to have very little judgement on this kind of thing. I'll nose out of the discussion, but that's my two cents. (Take them, and, here, have a grain of salt.)
C -$0.02 and a grain of salt
Kel is the best. Alanna might be my favorite just because she introduced me to Tamora Pierce. And Aly definitely has some pretty strong Sue traits. Oddly enough, she never bugged me the way Daine did. I mean, daughter of two gods (granted her mom wasn't one in the beginning) as well as being the most powerful Wildmage. It was the backstory angst that really drove me nuts.
I love Neal. I think the Kel series was probably the most awesome.
Aly didn't bug me as much as Daine did, either. Daine just bugged me alot.
Well, I dunno, but everything about Aly bugged me. I mean, beautiful, excellent hand-to-hand combatant, speaks with Gods, you name it, she can pretty much do it. I mean, sure, with her parents being the Lioness and George, maybe, but she shouldn't inherit all of her parent's particular gifts.She didn't have The Gift though, which is a mixed blessing.
I liked Daine, actually. I suppose I sorta forgave her 'Sue tendancies when TP made the interaction with animals interesting. It's not often you see a story where they go in-depth about the 'Can Dos' and 'Can't Dos' about the magic, particularly something like Wild Magic.
But Kel is, hands down, my favourite Tortall Character. Will I get sporked if I say that Tortall, in particular, the time period that it is in 'Lady Knight' is gonna be in my crossover fanfic?
*Hides under a Convenient Towel, just in case*
You definitely have valid points about Aly.
I think it wasn't so much the magical aspect of Daine that bugged me (the animals were awesome after all), but the angst in her past. There was something about it that didn't, for me anyway, ring true. I don't know.
My absolute very favorite Tortall character would have to be Faithful, because not only was he kind of magical, he was snarky, too.
Whole-heartedly agree with you. XD
And I just spelled my name wrong. Oh dear.