Transformers

[eldargal]

Basically the misogynist fanboys in the fandom have declared that being a jet etc. is a 'mary sue' trait that is a huge issue and somehow damages Windblades integrity as a character, while ignoring the fact that jets have always been one of the most common altmodes. It's just another stupid thing they use to try and attack Windblade without just yelling 'I'm sexist'.

[Mr Mystery]

Ah fair enough.

And 'Mary Sue'? I know I've asked this before, but it hasn't stuck!

[eldargal]

Calling a female character a 'mary sue' basically implies that it is too good to be true. Good at everything and with a narrative importance out of proportion to the actual quality of the character. It is really just a way of de-legitimising female characters by attaching all these negative connotations to them.

So, there’s this girl. She’s tragically orphaned and richer than anyone on the planet. Every guy she meets falls in love with her, but in between torrid romances she rejects them all because she dedicated to what is Pure and Good. She has genius level intellect, Olympic-athelete level athletic ability and incredible good looks. She is consumed by terrible angst, but this only makes guys want her more. She has no superhuman abilities, yet she is more competent than her superhuman friends and defeats superhumans with ease. She has unshakably loyal friends and allies, despite the fact she treats them pretty badly. They fear and respect her, and defer to her orders. Everyone is obsessed with her, even her enemies are attracted to her. She can plan ahead for anything and she’s generally right with any conclusion she makes. People who defy her are inevitably wrong.

God, what a Mary Sue.

I just described Batman.

Wish fulfillment characters have been around since the beginning of time. The good guys tend to win, get the girl and have everything fall into place for them. It’s only when women started doing it that it became a problem.

TV Tropes on the origin of Mary Sue:

The prototypical Mary Sue is an original female character in a fanfic who obviously serves as an idealized version of the author mainly for the purpose of Wish Fulfillment.

Notice the strange emphasis on female here. TV Tropes goes on to say that is took a long time for the male counterpart “Marty Stu” to be used. “Most fanfic writers are girls” is given as the reason. So when women dominate a genre, that means people are on close watch, ready to scorn any wish fulfillment they may engage in. This term could only originate if the default was female.

[URL="http://ladyloveandjustice.tumblr.com/post/13913540194/mary-sue-what-are-you-or-why-the-concept-of-sue-is"]Rest of the essay[/URL].

Windblade was labelled as a mary sue by fans before we knew anything of her character at all, like literally all we knew was what she looked like and people were labeling her a mary sue.

[Mr Mystery]

OIC.

How childish of them. And I mean I know we're talking about a cartoon and toys, so it's all inherently quite childish - but being childish about something already childish - that's like tosspot cubed in terms of being a goon.

[ursvamp]

Hrgm. To be honest this is the first time I have seen Mary Sue be used as strictly female. I've always seen it used as a gender neutral term. But I guess different parts of the world (and internet) that I'm familiar with to have their own view and/or customs.

As Mystery says; "How childish", yeah, sums up my own thought pretty spot on.

And, like Eldar says, a character being a mary sue doesn't make or mean that that character is necessarily uninteresting or bad and doesn't mean that the story/ies told abouth hir can't be interesting.

(For instance Morpheus from Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics is sometimes pointed out as an example of a Mary Sue-character, and that is a great tale.)

[Mr Mystery]

So how did they want Windblade presented? Demure and in a bikini and that? All feak and weeble so they could complain she's not a good warrior etc and should get back to baking stuff?

[eldargal]

They didn't want her at all.

[Mr Mystery]

Lame.

[eldargal]

Some photos of the Robots on Disguise cartoon toy range:

Strongarm, newest of the fembots:



Optimus Prime obviously:



[URL="http://adam16bit.tumblr.com/post/99544743670/transformers-robots-in-disguise-warriors"]Others here,[/URL] I only really care about Strongarm.

[Mr Mystery]

Strongarm is cool. Prime, not so much.

Call me an old Duffer, but there's really only one Prime, and that's the original, innit.