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View Full Version : [Setting Idea] The Most Noble League of Mary Sues (Or: Violating Canon for Good!)



Leliel
2014-11-04, 02:48 PM
[Sparked by thinking too much about fanfic, and the strange thing that happens when it's actually liked, or even good;]

"Yeah, it hurts. I know. Sorry, but reintegrating people isn't something you can do with anesthesia. You need their unaltered thought patterns for that."

"Anyway, you're probably wondering who I am, why I'm dressed so strange, and so on. Well kid, let me put it this way; I'd be wondering the same thing, if you were the one being fished out of the Fabric and sewn back together, literally. And the thing is, a lot of people in your world likely think the same thing about you, if they remember you. If."

"See kid, and this is going to be unbelievable at first, but-you ain't as real as everyone else in your world. They were written-yes, I said written-long before you were. You, kid, were an invader sent by an interloping god, and your entire life story was your beachhead."

"That doesn't mean you ain't real, or bad because of the way you came in to the picture. Not at all. I mean, sure, other invaders are bad, meant more to satisfy the fantasies of the gods that made them than anything, but you? I think your maker had better things in mind for you. Maybe you were meant to make things a little easier for everyone, maybe you were part of an interesting new twist on your world, maybe you were wish-fulfillment, but examined critically. A lot of other gods, who normally hate invaders, spare their anger for gods like you."

"Many gods. Not all."

"Some gods-they're a bit too touchy about the Fabric other gods weave to amuse themselves and others. Any change is bad, anything that doesn't fit their idea of what the Fabric is. There's nothing wrong with that, except a lot of gods are real hypocrites about the whole thing-there was this Gemini, this clone with a spin, of Hamlet, made by this one god who literally forbids any interlopers in his Fabric and casts curses against other interloper gods. Lot crappier story too; we didn't bother reintegrating anyone from that Thread."

"And the thing is, some Fabrics need to be changed. See this machine hood? Yeah, in my native Fabric, it's the only way to keep sane and safe from these marauding evil spirits that grant me completely necessary powers; I don't think any native-born of that fabric would mind if I made said power a little safer for everyone. Some Fabrics just aren't well-made; there's this one where people ride dragons, but they keep on ending up in other Fabrics because there's so many plot holes they fly and walk through, entire world's on the verge of collapsing. Could desperately use some reweaving to be more internally consistent, save a hell of a lot of people."

"So that's what we, the Guild of Exiled Wordneedles (because we exist under the Wordweavers as their tools, get it?), do. We go into canons that could stand to be made a little more bearable or more stable, we insert ourselves stealthily, and we put on such a good show of it that we win gods to our side to protect us from the enraged sporks of less tolerant gods. Of course, that means we can't break the setting too much-yonder that way lies the dark illogic of the Twister Gods who cannot separate their creations from their ego, and their creations reflect poorly on them. We fight them too, when they threaten to make the Fabrics worse, either by darkening them, poking holes in them to let their invaders greater leeway, or just as likely both."

"So, how about it? We prove you aren't just a pathetic shadow of a Fabric-born?"

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So yeah. This is a setting where you play as Original Fanfic Characters (do not steal) who have been unjustly (usually, redemption's probably a common motive for them) critiqued through MST and flaming into nonexistence, but fished out and put back together by the Guild. The object is to enter faulty or excessively dark canons and rewrite (reweave) them to be a bit less silly (I consider excessive darkness to fall under "silly" a lot), impressing the gods (ie, the reviewers) and earning protection from critical gods (many of whom, as mentioned, are hypocrites-did ya catch the Orson Scott Card reference?) in the process. With a side business in stopping the Original Characters who generally do not impress the gods, and ruin canons because of it.

Any other thoughts and comments?

GorinichSerpant
2014-11-04, 11:21 PM
Intriguing, if a bit confusing.

If I understand this correctly, an example of this might be if I make fan-fiction of Harry Potter, where the main character is let's say a muggle who was brought up by engineers or scientists and thus try to apply scientific principals to his study. And for whatever reason this fan-fic is hated by all. Then this character, let's call him Bob, is found by this guild and they send him to a poorly written book, where Bob has to make everything make sense. Meanwhile I'm writing another fan-fic that chronicles these events and have to worry about the critics. Did I get the idea?

Leliel
2014-11-05, 01:26 AM
Something like that, yes. One part of the setting is humor about the concept of playing a living fanficition character who is at least partially aware of that fact.

The Glyphstone
2014-11-05, 01:29 AM
What is the Guild's policy regarding katanas?

Forrestfire
2014-11-05, 02:38 AM
Katanacoat McNinjason here to represent. He's basically the superior mary sue.

Eldan
2014-11-05, 08:37 AM
I was just thinking that

As an Authyr, I would not want foreign characters to come into my superior star wars/warhammer/D&d crossover canon.

Anyway, if you're wondering what we were all talking about, there was a famous thread a while ago, written by a player. His DM had a similar idea, except he realized it in the worst possible way. There was a Katana-wielding, godlike copy of the DM going around different worlds, conquering them and adding them to his perfect mind-control police state. He was the good guy.

Leliel
2014-11-05, 02:47 PM
I was just thinking that

As an Authyr, I would not want foreign characters to come into my superior star wars/warhammer/D&d crossover canon.

Anyway, if you're wondering what we were all talking about, there was a famous thread a while ago, written by a player. His DM had a similar idea, except he realized it in the worst possible way. There was a Katana-wielding, godlike copy of the DM going around different worlds, conquering them and adding them to his perfect mind-control police state. He was the good guy.

Oh yes. I know that.

The idea was also born from Chief Circle done halfway right, mostly because the Guild isn't the kind of people who listen to him. More than that, since he's been empowered by the Fabric so much, that also means Marty is incredibly vulnerable to Fabric-based manipulations (and in his setting, it's in fact the only way things can ever be done, ever, due to the wonky skill systems).

Basically, if you have a katana and do not come from a Japanese-esque culture, the Guild's predominant policy is to seriously consider impaling you on said katana for being the reason most gods are incredibly suspicious of them.

Metahuman1
2014-11-07, 05:32 PM
I have an idea for an AoT fanficiton fix. Dr. Jeager had a written recipe for the crap he gave Eren, and a written recipe for a heavy duty Sedative he gave him a large does of before shooting him up with shifter titan Serum, and he used it on himself first, THEN on Eren and then Mikasa and Armin and Armin's grandad.

Thus, Dr. Jeager doesn't die needlessly. And by the time five years have gone by, he's had time to get wise to the Titan Shifters in the Military's Ranks. So they fish them out not long before Trost was attacked and so the attack didn't go off and the wall wasn't breached. Though there was a big shifter fight there dealing with the infiltrating Titans. And then they shot up the Survey Corps members with this combo so that they'd be able to help them have a quick overthrow of the government and then take back the area in between the first wall and the second wall, and and from there, start thinning out the Titans and expanding humanity.

Basically making it cool but with out the hopeless grimdarkness contortions and contrivances to keep it in hopeless grimdarkness.

Honest Tiefling
2014-11-07, 05:41 PM
Maybe a punishment is that you get pushed into a work with a crazy fandom. One with very demanding fans that demand blood. So something like Game of Thrones, but written much more poorly.

GorinichSerpant
2014-11-08, 12:54 AM
Maybe a punishment is that you get pushed into a work with a crazy fandom. One with very demanding fans that demand blood. So something like Game of Thrones, but written much more poorly.

Homestuck is another option, if the mind-boggle Hussie created doesn't get to you, then the nonsense produced by the fandom will.