BSV Forum - General - Off-Topic

Mary Sue the ultimate test

Nov 22 2009 01:06 am   #1Spikez_tart
Go here and laugh yourself silly - I gave Buffy a 126.  (Tara would probably be off the charts.)   :)

http://www.springhole.net/quizzes/marysue.htm
If we want her to be exactly she'll never be exactly I know the only really real Buffy is really Buffy and she's gone' who?
Nov 22 2009 09:33 pm   #2Mattt 
Wow,

I just did the test on a character I created for a story I did in another fandom. She got 44 and her character was SUPPOSED to be a bit of a Mary Sue!

And that little test didn't even take into account how rules are flipped around and other characters in the Jossverse are err... shall we say "tweaked" in order to make Buffy and co. look better.

E.g. Anya, a 1,000 year old who made her living by manipulating people to make wishes, suddenly turning into a complete moron that can't even understand why she's sad after Joyce dies and who needs Xander to tell her what is and is not "appropriate" for her to say and do, and then there's the bathroom scene in Seeing Red as a way to absolve Buffy of how she beat and used Spike ALL season - see Is Buffy Guilty of Sexual Assault discussion but just read through the entire thing b/c there was a bit of misunderstanding at what exactly I was saying in my first few posts.
Nov 22 2009 09:47 pm   #3nmcil

Took a look at the test - just for interest from reader only - while I don't usually mind, but you can always tell when a writer does the "insert myself here" in light parts of a story.  Of course, many writers also use horrible personal experiences when exploring very dark themes, but that is a very different thing. 

” Recent evolutionary models have demonstrated what politicians have long known: the best way to get people to collaborate and to think like a group is to identify an enemy and charge that “they” threaten “us.”

Michael Tomasello is co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
Nov 22 2009 10:28 pm   #4Spikez_tart
Well, writers are pretty much inserting themselves all the time, at least I am. :)
If we want her to be exactly she'll never be exactly I know the only really real Buffy is really Buffy and she's gone' who?
Nov 23 2009 07:26 am   #5nmcil

"Well, writers are pretty much inserting themselves all the time, at least I am. :)"

But there is a difference from using your experience from life for analysis of the themes you are exploring in your story and how some writers draw on how they would like the character to act to suit the personal likes and desires.  I don't mean to suggest that it is necessarily a bad thing, sometimes it works to great effect, just that it makes for a very different treatment and quality.

Of course you have to understand that I am not a writer - so my understanding of what writers draw on is totally limited. 

” Recent evolutionary models have demonstrated what politicians have long known: the best way to get people to collaborate and to think like a group is to identify an enemy and charge that “they” threaten “us.”

Michael Tomasello is co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
Nov 24 2009 04:44 pm   #6Purrfect 
Someone should REALLY try this with Bella Swan from the Twilight books.. Lol...
Nov 24 2009 04:55 pm   #7Spikez_tart
Purr - or any other character in those fool books.  They're all a bunch of marysues.
If we want her to be exactly she'll never be exactly I know the only really real Buffy is really Buffy and she's gone' who?
Nov 24 2009 08:08 pm   #8nmcil
as my huband always tells me about artists that I think are too comercial - "all the way to the bank."  -  this lead, if true, just got an $500 million dollor tv offer.
” Recent evolutionary models have demonstrated what politicians have long known: the best way to get people to collaborate and to think like a group is to identify an enemy and charge that “they” threaten “us.”

Michael Tomasello is co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
Nov 24 2009 11:39 pm   #9Spikez_tart
Sniff - nobody appreciates a true artist.  Till their dead that is.
If we want her to be exactly she'll never be exactly I know the only really real Buffy is really Buffy and she's gone' who?
Nov 25 2009 01:55 am   #10nmcil
you'll be happy to know that our fav vamp got a nice notice with a pastel painting I did of him in my "dreamscape studies" -
” Recent evolutionary models have demonstrated what politicians have long known: the best way to get people to collaborate and to think like a group is to identify an enemy and charge that “they” threaten “us.”

Michael Tomasello is co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
Nov 26 2009 09:25 am   #11Nobodys Girl 
"Someone should REALLY try this with Bella Swan from the twilight books.."

Ok I did Bella Swan. She got a 53 and Edward Cullen got a 67