Welcome to Gaia! ::

So, those characters I tek-teked? Yeah. This is where they come from.

Please let me know what you think, ask any questions you have, the works. Would be much appreciated.

The premise goes something like this: I was going through the Mary Sue index on TV Tropes, and came across the Mary Sue Hunters entry. Given my new, lighter, calmer, softer regard to stuff in general (more revelation and hugs, less stabbing and exploding) my reaction was, of course, "why do we have to kill them?"

And thus was born the premise of Glass-Eyed Girls: instead of killing the heck out of Mary Sues, one woman in the world of literature ("The Pre-Written") has founded a school to teach them to be more whole, rounded, human characters through dialog with themselves, each other, and the world. (Hi, Freire!)

And so we get to the plot: enter Lillinette Morningale Serenity Moonflower, who most certainly will not have the same name by the end of this, a Mary Sue Classic with Purity Sue overtones who has been abandoned in the Unwritten, that place which is not quite inside an author's mind where only they can see the characters, because they haven't written them yet. Lillinette prepares to face her death, as her creator is in the process of abandoning her. In pops Priscilla Marbury, founder and headmistress of Marbury Finishing School for Girls. She offers Lillinette a bargain: if Lillinette will agree to attend her school, Ms. Marbury will show her how to leave the Unwritten and get back to the Pre-Written, the land where all literary characters and plots are born and spend much of their lives.

Lillinette agrees, so off we go. Priscilla takes her to the school, showing her Suetopia, the land of the Glass-Eyed Girls, where all Mary Sues are created, on the way there. Wacky Hijinks ensue whenever possible, and when those aren't around, the school fends off attacks from their two greatest enemies: Suetopia and the Mary Sue Hunters, lead by Alastair Dangraal, the Rogue Prince of Mirrors. I've no idea what happens with Suetopia, but eventually, the main characters must confront Dangraal, and defeat him, discovering that he was the Rogue Prince of Suetopia after all. Seriously, those Mary Sue hunters works? Yeah, the characters are pretty flat. And the "of Mirrors" part refers to... his eyes. And all the mirrors that surround him. That he broke. And... that would be why he cries blood all the time. Eeeeeeeugh.

In the end, our main character, now possessing a name I haven't figured out yet, but which is doubtless less hideous than the one she started out as, develops into an actually likable character, while retaining a great deal of her idealism, finally setting out for the world of the Written, where she hopes to affect the real world so that the Glass-Eyed Girls will no longer be needed. Unchararistically for me, we don't get a depressing or highly questionable ending: things aren't all happy and fixed, but the people who are willing to work to fix things aren't all dead or broken.

For all those who are wondering about the whole "glass eyed" thing? That's a reference to a Native American myth, probably Southwestern, possibly Navajo, in which Coyote tries to create people, but they don't quite get finished, and end up with glass eyes. Similarly, the Glass-Eyed Girls aren't really fully created, and lack real depth. And sometimes they have glass eyes, just for the heck of it.

You know... I really hadn't thought of this as a critique. Funny. I'd sort of thought of it as a contemplation in narrative form of why Mary Sues exist and what does and does not make a character a Mary Sue as well as a slap on the wrist to anti-Sue behavior on the internet. Yes, it's message-heavy.

No, that's not why she has Serenity Moonflower in her name.

The finished product would be a (very long) series of single-panel comics. Sort of... a step between illustrated novel and picture book. Which has it's own challenges, especially in some of the flashbacks (people don't talk enough). I have scripted six pages but seriously, nothing happens. So. Might be able to give a more in-depth plot summary and/or script later, but now... I still have things to work out. Lots of things to work out.

But... other than that... I haven't read a whole lot of Mary-Sue Reform School stuff. Didn't know it was out there. Might stick to it anyway, due to the absolutely shocking inclusion of an internal narrative and deconstructionist literary world. Which, you know, I didn't really get into.

I'm rambling, aren't I?