This is a static copy of In the Rose Garden, which existed as the center of the western Utena fandom for years. Enjoy. :)
Laughter is truly the best medicine for curing, um, not laughing. Thanks for the link.
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Glad to be of service.
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ShatteredMirror wrote: And I think that banning MSTs was the single worst thing that the administrators of FFN could have done, and that's including banning the NC-17 rated stuff.
Amen Amen and I say it again. I miss MSTs. I miss NC-17s. I can't believe they made this rule.
As to Mary-Sue's (defined by me as self-inserts) I've got to admit they are a bane of mine; I loathe it when I'm reading a fanfic and I suddenly realize that the new character is a self-insert, or Xena starts talking like she's a 13 year old fangirl. *grumble* Or "Danido the new warlord in town" takes Xena on the back of her horse. Because he's so hot and so bad that there's no way she can resist him. Ick. Eugh. *throws up in corner*
At the same time, I should admit that a handful of times have existed where a fanfic has been so well-written that I kept reading it even though there was a Mary-Sue (I never start if I know there's going to be one...so I appreciate honesty on the writer's part!), and it was actually good. These Mary-Sue's were non-starry and took a second place to the canon characters. *gasp*
So my overall opinion is that if anyone is gonna Mary-Sue they should be upfront about it, and especially especially especially actually admit it to themselves. There is nothing worse than the Mary-Sue who won't admit they are Mary-Sue. "No no! I'm Mary-Jane. I'm much better than Mary-Sue. Everybody has fallen in love with me. Everybody worships my worshipfulness...I am the most amazing human being on the face of all universes and I want you to worship me! WORSHIP ME NAO!"
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Eh... I have one character that scores very high on any "Mary Sue litmus test" but I think he's still a fantastic character. So I'm borderline on Mary Sues because sometimes all the cliche things you can tack onto a character really work for them.
As for FFN, I agree. I left shortly after the NC-17 and MST bans.
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