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Even the description has problems! It's spelled "Andalite," you, you- *incomprehensible noise* ...I admit the last book stank, but that's no excuse to mess around with one of my favorite childhood series like this.

Also, "recently edited." What. You couldn't even edit out the glaring error in the description?

The Talent,, My story » by Go-ruden Kiba reviews
There's a new Animorph: will she prove to be more powerful then any Andilight? Will she become too powerful? Will she be strong enough and use her abilities wisely enough to defeat Visser Three? recently edited.
Animorphs - Rated: M - English - Adventure/Angst - Chapters: 5 - Words: 15,858 - Reviews: 8 - Updated: 6-12-06 - Published: 6-3-05 - Complete

I don't think it's meant to be a parody, just a different look at the whole thing.

But hey, that's juts how I see it...

Ripping off Animorphs... that just takes the cake. That series was part of my childhood, damnit!

*foams at mouth and looks for Sue on which to displace anger*

Seems to me like the Sue has her author fooled, too. The author thinks s/he's getting to spend time with his/her favorite canon, or getting to "fix" the canon so it's "better"; but the Sue only takes advantage of the author's ability to create and change worlds to insert herself into a canon.

That would explain why the PPC doesn't just kill Suethors; they're only guilty of gullibility and inexperience, not malevolent intent.

If the Sue is a natural phenomenon, a creature that's evolved to take advantage of plot holes, it makes sense that she'd be able to influence authors. Authors, after all, can create those plot holes; and bad authors are most vulnerable because they create a whole lot of plot holes and don't close them; and Sues can manipulate plot holes.

If a Sue latches onto a plot hole in a new canon, she often turned into a Canon Sue, incorporated into the canon itself.

Not to mention it seems to rip off the idea of the Tok'ra from Stargate SG-1 and the Yeerk Peace Movement from Animorphs...

Of course the ACMSES has a different definition of Sue than the PPC, but I wanted to contribute.

The Mary Sue wants to fix something. The idea is that the Sue will do anything, anything at all, to ensure that the author's ideal of a perfect version of the fandom is achieved. Usually, the ACMSES just leaves them alone and groans (unless they get out of the author's control, in which we step in).

A Sue exists to "fill the hole" in the author's perception or heart.

From what a friend has told me about the book, The Host is equally as Mary-Sueish and plotless.

...what you can attribute to laziness.

If Meyer has written better stuff, it's more believable that Twilight was more of a fetish piece for her, written with less thought put into it.

Trollers have a specific target in mind: in a forum, the target is the entire community. Well, for a book that wound up getting hugely popular that simply can't be the case. So who is left to be the target? Intellectuals?

When you get down to writing something with the sole intention of pissing off a specific group of people, I don't think it's a troll that did it - I think it's an artist.

For the record, I am a firm believer in animal sentience. Yes, even mosquitoes. Everything living has /some/ degree of self-awareness.

That bit of philosophy aside, they're still a species, whether they're sentient or not (and given that we are speaking of Sues, I'm willing to debate that point, animal sentience or no). Sues are living creatures like the rest of us, and they deserve a chance--the fact that we have rehabilitated Sues among our ranks is proof of that.

Wow, why don't I just go form the Internet Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Sues... xD

I suppose the Twilight reference was uncalled for. I can't deny it seems to have potential, but as you say, it would need a great deal of tweaking.

I realize that writers do occasionally write below their full ability. On the other hand, there are certain works that are so /bad/--cliché, Sued, boring, or just plain badly-written--that you can hardly believe they were even published. Not specifically accusing authors of being trolls, but works that you could see as having been trolls--you see what I mean? They may be serious, they may be a troll. I think I'm failing to convey what I mean...

The second book, the one of which I forgot the title, is a better example. Plot-from-a-box, flat characters, powers that are generally lame except in the case of main characters, who are overpowered.

Having thought about this for a bit, a lot of what I have seen from the Twilight series is actually a decent start at a good story. There are quite a few things that need to be tweaked and reworked, but that is true of all of us (admittedly, we don't call it good and publish it at that stage).

I am not sure I would classify it as a Troll.

Different views on vampires...I can live with that. It's overly dramatic a lot, but I can live with that as well.

The only major problem that I have seen in the whole deal is Bella. She has no redeeming qualities and, as far as I can tell, no real thought process. She does things without ever thinking about anything. If she were to be a more real character, we might not even be having this discussion.

I suppose my closing thoughts on this would be: It is possible for a good writer to write something that is sub-par, that doesn't necessarily make the literature in question a Troll.

Seen 'em? Heard of 'em? Know 'em and hate 'em?

I am referring, as the subject suggests, to the phenomenon of real-life trolls. Authors who, for some inexplicable reason, have published literature, some of which may be popular. Extremely popular, in one case (I think we all know what I'm referring to. No offense meant to Twilight fans; I just have a healthy dislike for sparkly vampires).

Actually, in the case of Twilight, I'm almost certain it's an RLTroll, because The Host--also by Meyer--is a good book with solid, 3d characters and a decent plot.

Fact of life: Parasitic mindcontrol alien centipedes > sparkly vampires.

That aside, has anyone else come across notable RLTs? I recall a book--forget the title--in which certain people have "Gifts", denoted for some reason by mismatched eyes. "Gifts" quite often have no distinguishable difference between normal talent. Main character--a female "Gifted" with a "Gift" for killing. Her saw-it-coming-a-mile-off boyfriend/traveling companion: another "Gifted" who can distinguish truth. Their antagonist: Psycho-king whose "gift" is to make everyone love him. Objective is stereotypical world domination.

Much angsting about "my gift is for killing boo hoo," followed by a horribly contrived "But WAIT! It's not for /killing/! It's for /survival/! The court dude I killed when I was five was actually a pedophile!"

My personal distaste for that book aside, what else have my fellow bookworms seen in their perusals of that great jungle called Literature?

I've got a similar question as Tawaki- Where can I send the info regarding the two Agents I'm hopefully going to be introducing on Saturday? I've got their basic profiles, but an e-mail address would be quite helpful. They needn't be used right away, but they're there if you need/want them.

-Pretzel

We have lots of conspiracy theories floating around the wiki, and I suppose having a "suvian parasite creature" theory that some agents hold to is ok. Doesn't make it official PPC canon, but given the craziness and paranoia of half of HQ, a suvian parasite theory seems like something that could get a following amongst some agents.

Elcalion

Let's not make things too complicated, aye?

Still, if you want to look at it seriously, the ethics are dicey. I'd make a case that extermination of a species is just as bad regardless of whether they're sentient or not.

In a non-serious, more PPCish way... I prefer to think of them as creations of Words - just like everything else in a Word World - rather than a species with biological needs. Other effects of bad writing - like hair 'floating' away from a head or a sword splitting in two because phrasing isn't clear - don't need any further explanation, so I'd rather not give the Sues any more credit than they already have.

It's a matter of choice, of course.

I know nothing about video games, being one of the three people in America under the age of thirty who has never played one. I'm totally clueless about the fandom, but I'll read it anyway-- sometimes it's fun! :D

It's great when somebody learns more about writing through the PPC. Warm fuzzy feelings all around!

Factory sues exist independently of Suethors. So it's possible for a Sue to exist independently.

Yes, I think Sues do gain some kind of power from readers. Otherwise, Legendary Badfic wouldn't be considered worse than plain old bleepfic.

Your basic PPC canon states that Mary Sues are created by authors and destroy/distort canon; when they're killed the distortions vanish. That describes things. Like Newton's law of gravitation--it describes what happens, but not the "why".

Along comes Einstein and figures out part of the "why". Newton's laws still apply in all but the most extreme of circumstances; and most engineers (barring a few specialized fields) never need to use relativity to figure out their problems. Einstein's additions to physics are like the ideas we're tossing around about the "why" of Mary Sues--impractical for most circumstances, where you just need to know the basic canon; but cool to think about, especially if you want to define the universe (or, in this case, multiverse) precisely.

Of course, there were multiple theories around the time that Einstein was figuring stuff out; and it wasn't proved by experiment for some time. It makes sense that we'd have multiple theories here, at least until one of the DMSE&R folks publishes some research on the problem. And I for one like speculating. It's fun. ('Course, I'm also the one with Elf genealogies in my head from my LotR phase...)

There are already a couple of theories about Mary Sues and the multiverse on the wiki; I'd like to have this one put up as well once everybody's got a chance to put in their ideas.

Theories are fun. And this is a good theory. I like it.

Perhaps Sues also gain some energy by being acknowledged by others? Not only the Suethor, but hapless readers of fanfiction? Reviewers and the like?

Or perhaps Sues are autonomous entities--maybe they can exist without authors, but must possess them in order to invade canon. It might not be the Suethors' faults after all. On the other hand, we still need to attack the abominable creatures that are Sue.

One of the most pleasing experiences of my life was to persuade a Suethor that her character was, in fact, a Sue, and had horribly mucked with canon besides. She took it down, and I haven't checked since, but she said she was rewriting it to improve. Small wonders, hey?

Do it! Bonus if they all use military units to do all the work for them!

I'm not a big fan of anything besides Days of Ruin but I liked this fic.