February 12, 2019
What's the Difference Between Writing a Story With an Awesome, Strong Female Lead and Writing A Bitter, Mary Sue Fan Fic?
I'll just leave these here to 'start a conversation'...
Discuss....
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
05:49 PM
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Posted by: Clayton Barnett at Tue Feb 12 20:18:16 2019 (ug1Mc)
2
Lets take a look at how Leia is introduced. In the first movie, Leia is introduced as a Princess and a Senator. From this it's established that she knows how to lead and organize people, is likely charismatic and is likely well spoken. On the Tantive IV we find her waiting in ambush for Stormtroopers with a pistol and succeeds in shooting one before being captured. From this we learn that she is a good shot and is not willing to let events passively overtake her, but will take charge. Also, she sends R2 and 3PO to Tatooine to find Kenobi, which hints at her ability to think quickly on her feet and improvise.
Okay, so what do we see her do? We see her take charge in her own rescue, which, while impressive within the stereotypes of storytelling at the time of the movie, is well in line with the traits from her introduction. We see her shoot numerous stormtroopers, but it was already established that she knew how to shoot. We see her lead people at various points in the movie, as she would have been trained to do to hold the positions she did. She improvises and thinks on her feet to kill Jaba, which again hearkens back to skills and traits there from when we were introduced to the character. She does operate on a movie-style special forces mission in ROTJ, however given that she was on the run with rebels operating as irregulars for several years at that point, the skills she shows are not unreasonable for her to have learned.
What does she not do? She doesn't out-pilot the professional pilot. We never even see her pilot in the movies. She doesn't out force-power the (sort of) trained force user, again she doesn't even show those skills in the original trilogy. She also is not perfect in every way. We see her almost botch her relationship with Han because she was narrow-focused on her duties and neglecting his personal feelings.
Also, Leia pays a huge price in that she witnesses the massacre of her adoptive family and the people she knew, loved, and swore to protect as a result of her actions. She also pays by getting captured multiple times and tortured/turned into a fetish object. So she earns what she gets.
Basically, Leia is well written because everything logically flows from her initial introduction or there is a logical reason for her to have acquired those skills/abilities and time to have acquired it. The things she does get, she pays a visible price for.
Okay, so what do we see her do? We see her take charge in her own rescue, which, while impressive within the stereotypes of storytelling at the time of the movie, is well in line with the traits from her introduction. We see her shoot numerous stormtroopers, but it was already established that she knew how to shoot. We see her lead people at various points in the movie, as she would have been trained to do to hold the positions she did. She improvises and thinks on her feet to kill Jaba, which again hearkens back to skills and traits there from when we were introduced to the character. She does operate on a movie-style special forces mission in ROTJ, however given that she was on the run with rebels operating as irregulars for several years at that point, the skills she shows are not unreasonable for her to have learned.
What does she not do? She doesn't out-pilot the professional pilot. We never even see her pilot in the movies. She doesn't out force-power the (sort of) trained force user, again she doesn't even show those skills in the original trilogy. She also is not perfect in every way. We see her almost botch her relationship with Han because she was narrow-focused on her duties and neglecting his personal feelings.
Also, Leia pays a huge price in that she witnesses the massacre of her adoptive family and the people she knew, loved, and swore to protect as a result of her actions. She also pays by getting captured multiple times and tortured/turned into a fetish object. So she earns what she gets.
Basically, Leia is well written because everything logically flows from her initial introduction or there is a logical reason for her to have acquired those skills/abilities and time to have acquired it. The things she does get, she pays a visible price for.
Posted by: stargazera5 at Tue Feb 12 23:13:16 2019 (bz2EX)
3
I can't argue with anything you said StargazerA5. You nailed it.
However, in my haste I was far too laconic. I was going for more of a 'compare and contrast' thing in this post.
However, in my haste I was far too laconic. I was going for more of a 'compare and contrast' thing in this post.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Wed Feb 13 21:48:40 2019 (gxCG3)
4
Speaking of stories with females - I do not recommend anyone watch Egao no Daika unless they have intense desire to die of boredom. The series has now officially gone past the half-way mark of the cour without doing any major plot advancement. It also is very boring.
Posted by: cxt217 at Fri Feb 15 21:31:07 2019 (LMsTt)
5
Eh, I did intend it to be a comparison to Kathleen Kennedy's self-insertion/Mary Sue fanfic, though didn't spell out how that 'fic's first two parts failed as others have done so better than I. I did hint at it my 'What Leia did not do' paragraph, though.
Posted by: stargazera5 at Mon Feb 18 16:15:34 2019 (bz2EX)
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