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my favorite minor piece of trivia is that Lani's scheme briefly brought the book's score from like 1.35 to 1.99 All her machinations and she couldn't even break subpar
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Feb 28, 2018 14:48
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Mel Mudkiper posted:my favorite minor piece of trivia is that Lani's scheme briefly brought the book's score from like 1.35 to 1.99 I mean she can only pay so much to spam fake reviews. These Fiverr jobs cost money!
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Feb 28, 2018 15:22
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You would think she could afford more after the thousands of totally real con sales she had of her book
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Feb 28, 2018 15:38
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I wonder how much money she's sunk into this venture. She can't be making a profit, and that service she used to fake book sales costs tens of thousands of dollars. I fret about spending $250 at a time on a purchase for my film. This woman is throwing away enough money to get a mortgage on a house and seeing nothing but laughter.
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Feb 28, 2018 17:29
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chitoryu12 posted:I wonder how much money she's sunk into this venture. She can't be making a profit, and that service she used to fake book sales costs tens of thousands of dollars. Self-delusion plus a financial source - even if that source is credit cards, loans, duped relatives/friends. And frankly the fact she’s white plays into it on a systemic/social level (not trying to derail, delusional folk are everywhere, but these book scandals seem to be largely caused by white women). But it comes down to delusion so strong there will be enablers until the bitter end. I’m reminded of a two-part season-ending of Hoarders where the subject has success as a realtor but lived in a practical mansion chock-full of failed business ventures. This was to a point of being evicted, she refused to leave for over a year, and during the episode she was screaming at the last friendly person in her life as they attempted to overload a pickup truck with random junk how none of this was her fault. A clever entertainment manager - even if they disagreed with valid criticism - could turn this around into panels where they talked about “wow, here’s what NOT to do” and recover some funds, but Sarem will likely never be so self-aware to even accept that possibility.
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Feb 28, 2018 17:43
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its also not debt if you go into the red thousands of dollars to get your book made into a hit film its an investment
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Feb 28, 2018 17:48
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chitoryu12 posted:I just discovered Fakespot, a website that determines how many book reviews are legit. I just ran the analysis, and it got a D. fakespot is not great. If someone doesn't review multiple books, it flags a fake. Also the algorithm is a magickal black box.
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Feb 28, 2018 22:03
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chitoryu12 posted:When Lani's schemes backfire, they backfire. Much like her ~*~muh-gick~*~
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Feb 28, 2018 22:35
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One thing that Jenny Trout brought up in her sporking is how often Zade works in the books to tear down other women and paint herself as "Not like those other girls." But if you look at Lani Sarem's Twitter, you'll see quite a different spread of retweets: https://twitter.com/NikkiReed_I_Am/status/972005167955456000 https://twitter.com/women_direct/status/971936913035857920 https://twitter.com/KennyOrtegaBlog/status/971923526985773056 https://twitter.com/ladygaga/status/971860362466181120 https://twitter.com/Mastercard/status/971768992326090752 These are just some of the tweets Lani has on her stream. She seemingly retweets any feminist tweet she comes across, especially on International Women's Day. One would think that she's a die-hard feminist with incredible respect toward women, but Zade (as a blatant author avatar) shows that it couldn't be any further from the truth. Virtually all other women who aren't "alternative" like Lil or Dela are depicted as boring caricatures with no interest in anything but shopping, makeup, and catty gossip. Obviously none of this stops Zade from engaging in retail therapy, playing with thousands of dollars of makeup, or catty gossip. It's okay though because she's different. Lani comes off overall as someone who grew up deprived of success in many fields, whether due to her looks or lack of talent. The way she treats any girl in the book who conforms to Western standards of beauty and feminine behavior is with an air of disgust, even if she herself wants to do the exact same thing and have the same success. So she takes a sour grapes approach, decrying all the things she wants as being for boring normal girls and she's different. For all her feminist tweeting, she works hard to tear down any women who she views as blocking her own success. You can also see this with Angie Thomas. Lani grew more and more irritated with the success of The Hate U Give, especially after her attempt to push it off the #1 spot on the bestseller list failed within a day. I think she feels like success is deserved and that she's owed the success Angie could earn on her own merits, because she's Not Like Those Other Girls. Angie and her agent openly mocking her with #handbookforcocktails only reinforced her persecution complex and feeling that she's only kept down by other people (rather than her own brain). Hence her devolving to attacking Angie, and now asking people to fake 1-star reviews for Angie's book.
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Mar 12, 2018 17:12
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chitoryu12 posted:Hence her devolving to attacking Angie, and now asking people to fake 1-star reviews for Angie's book. Wait...what? When did this happen?
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Mar 12, 2018 17:27
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Proteus Jones posted:Wait...what? When did this happen? Lisa Hendricks (who was included in the thanks section at the end of the book) not only gave Handbook a 5-star review during the Goodreads and Amazon flood, she gave a 1-star review to The Hate U Give as "depressing". There may have been more, but it's hard to correlate.
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Mar 12, 2018 17:58
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chitoryu12 posted:These are just some of the tweets Lani has on her stream. She seemingly retweets any feminist tweet she comes across, especially on International Women's Day. One would think that she's a die-hard feminist with incredible respect toward women, but Zade (as a blatant author avatar) shows that it couldn't be any further from the truth. Virtually all other women who aren't "alternative" like Lil or Dela are depicted as boring caricatures with no interest in anything but shopping, makeup, and catty gossip. Obviously none of this stops Zade from engaging in retail therapy, playing with thousands of dollars of makeup, or catty gossip. It's okay though because she's different. Its a common thing for selfish people to co-opt the language of empowerment to act as a method of self-celebration
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Mar 12, 2018 18:02
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Since I had so much trouble with the Furlites, I decided to tackle a bit bigger of a fish.
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Mar 13, 2018 00:53
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In the comment section for Jenny Trout's latest update, I brought up the moral ramifications of that homunculus of her father that Zade created for a magic show and we accidentally created a better spin-off:quote:I got the feeling it was more just a puppet. A really advanced puppet that could at least mime a guitar solo (I don’t know what the instrumental equivalent to lip syncing is), but just a puppet programmed to do it’s moves. Though that does beg the question, did it just vanish when Zade passed out? It’s never mentioned again, so either yes, or it’s now wandering Las Vegas, playing guitar and not taking the money people toss to it. quote:OH GOD *dies* Now I want to read about that. It sounds great! What if some kind soul thought the simulacrum was a mentally disabled teenage runaway in need of help and they took it in, only to be flabbergasted by its lack of functions, then they thought maybe it was a robot from the future and went searching for help on the internet? And of course, the magic community would take note. Hands down, one of the best spin-offs.
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Mar 14, 2018 17:28
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Congratulation, now you're responsible for Handbook fanfiction. Here's your complementary rope.
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Mar 15, 2018 13:26
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So is the sequal out yet? I can't wait to find out what happens with...the mysterious...cliffhanger...or...something... Okay I admit I forgot how the book ended because it was so forgettable.
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Mar 15, 2018 14:31
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anilEhilated posted:Congratulation, now you're responsible for Handbook fanfiction. Here's your complementary rope. We've now got the idea that a new construct is created with every performance, so there's dozens or hundreds of childlike mute clones of Charles wandering Las Vegas. And all of them are slightly different, like one can sing but can't play guitar and another can play guitar but can't sing, or there's the evil one that just assaults people with his guitar and robs them.
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Mar 15, 2018 16:27
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Yeah, well, Prestige is a pretty obvious thing to rip off here.
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Mar 15, 2018 17:57
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Mar 21, 2018 13:30
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 Oh no.
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Mar 23, 2018 03:43
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chitoryu12 posted:
 I also love that she has a “Public” twitter, which implies a “Private” because people are big poopie mean-heads to her.
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Mar 23, 2018 04:11
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Proteus Jones posted:
Unless it's a bigger secret, her personal Facebook is completely unguarded and open to anyone who searches her name.
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Mar 23, 2018 04:16
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Oh hey there's....a Twitter for Zade? https://twitter.com/themagigirl/status/843847046683545600 Every single tweet is repping Lani, Thomas Ian Nichols, or Handbook.
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Apr 12, 2018 21:51
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Will someone who has Twitter check who her 21 followers are, I need to know
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Apr 12, 2018 21:59
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legendof posted:Will someone who has Twitter check who her 21 followers are, I need to know She's following 21 people and only has 4 publicly visible followers. Two of those are Lani's main account and the official Handbook for Mortals Twitter. One is a Russian spam account. So....one real follower.
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Apr 12, 2018 22:02
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 There. She follows herself. Meh.
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Apr 13, 2018 08:19
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Just read through the thread, and something that struck me: Seeing as how she thanks Eddie Izzard for his help and friendship, the cross-dressing English "aunt" is undoubtedly a role she wrote specifically for him.
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Apr 13, 2018 17:05
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Since I did this for Monster Hunter International, let's run Zade through the TV Tropes list of Mary Sue traits. Like we did with Owen Zastava Pitt, we'll remove anything that's only relevant to fanfics. 1. "What personality? The typical Mary Sue doesn't have one, because she isn't meant to be a character; rather, she's an entity by which the author makes cool stuff happen." I'll say yes. Zade has virtually no personality of her own to describe her, entirely defined by her talents and love triangle. Even though she's an author avatar, the story never goes far enough from a generic love triangle plot for that to matter. 2. What little personality a Mary Sue has isn't as important as how other characters react to it. No matter how shy or socially awkward Mary Sue is supposed to be, other characters will be inexplicably drawn to her. All of her ideas are brilliant, all of her jokes are funny, and all of her advice is spot-on. People will trust her implicitly, even more than their families, significant others, or closest friends. Anyone who doesn't react to her this way is usually portrayed as evil or stupid. She doesn't have to do anything to deserve this treatment; she's an impossibly good person because the author says she is. Yep. The only people who don't fawn over Zade from day one are portrayed as assholes (Zeb gets some embarrassingly obvious telegraphing as evil, which is either foreshadowing for a later book or a bad attempt at a red herring). 3. She's extremely persuasive; everyone finds her opinions to be better than their own, regardless of the actual content of her supposedly awesome arguments. I'll say this one isn't present, since Zade rarely gets an opportunity to express opinions. The plot just kinda happens around her. 4. She's a Friend to All Living Things and All-Loving Hero. Although the other characters are nowhere near as awesome as she is, she will forgive them for all their imperfections. And she's willing to risk her own safety to save another person, even people she just met. Zade saves Sophie from drowning without a second thought and later tries to be the bigger woman and make up with her. 5. She's incorruptible — so much so that she may be unaware of the concept of temptation. I'll say no, since the book never really has enough plot outside a love triangle to cover this. 6. She has a Dark and Troubled Past, which she deals with in two ways: either she turns up the Wangst (and thus gets lots of attention), or she remains unreasonably cheerful and optimistic in spite of it and becomes a full-on Genki Girl. There is no middle ground here. I'll say no. Growing up in a small town as a weird fortune teller girl isn't exactly "dark and troubled". 7. She may be flawed, but these are all Informed Flaws. This usually happens when the author is actively avoiding these common traits but doesn't know how to do this realistically. This usually leads to "flaws" that never actually hinder the character or make her look bad. If it's something that makes her Darker and Edgier, like substance abuse or nymphomania, we never see any of the drawbacks of it. If she's a klutz, that just makes her a Cute Clumsy Girl. And sometimes she will even complain about her awesome power or stunning beauty or special place in the world, for no reason other than author realizing that the character can't look too perfect — except she usually forgets to write in circumstances that would actually cause someone to react that way. Zade has effectively zero flaws apart from minor clumsiness, and everyone unconditionally loves her from the beginning except for Sophie, Zeb, and Mac at first. 8. And occasionally she'll be a complete rear end in a top hat, even when she's supposed to be all of the above. She shows up, takes over the show, and reacts to any questioning of her horrendous safety practices or special treatment with anger. 9. Her skills will generally be inexplicable and poorly defined. Many of them may play no role in the plot, not even as a Required Secondary Power; they're introduced solely to make the character seem even more awesome. The "dyslexia lets me read and write backwards just like I do forwards" is not only hilariously wrong, it never comes up again. 10. She will always be better than the canon characters, regardless of what canon has established they can do or whether it makes any sense. Her powers will often be similar to those of the existing characters, only with all the downsides and limitations removed. If the characters need a new skill, she'll often already have it. And if she does need to learn it, she'll pick it up in no time. The finale hints that she's secretly a super powerful witch and the powers she displays from Chapter 1 onward are immense. 11. She has a perfect singing voice. She may also be extremely proficient at a musical instrument (often one which would be highly improbable for her to know how to play, like a medieval French princess playing the didgeridoo). And in a Song Fic, she'll even compose her own lyrics and songs (which the author has conveniently ripped off from the Internet). I don't think this happened. 12. She doesn't have normal sex; she has the most mind-blowingly divine sex ever. Interestingly, she's often also a virgin at the start of the story. (Which often has little to no bearing on the plot, or her role in the story, and sometimes is used to set her apart from "all those other girls" in the story.) Her lack of experience never diminishes the quality of the sex; nor does anatomical impossibility (which usually betrays the author's lack of experience). I think we're all better off that Lani Sarem didn't write self-insert sex scenes. 13. She speaks several languages fluently. Most of these languages are totally unrelated and just what the author thinks sounds cool; they range from Romance languages like French or Italian to Japanese to Lakota (many Sues are of American Indian admixture, but never more than half). Sometimes the author will put the character in a situation where it would make sense to know multiple languages (like making her a diplomat or a translator); most of the time, they won't. Not present. 14. Her skills will often be unrealistic within the story's setting. She can be a master of a martial art that she should have no way of learning or which doesn't exist. She can use magic or telepathy in a universe that's like reality otherwise. Her physical abilities will be absurd; she can run like the wind without breaking a sweat or ever having trained for it. Apart from being one of only three magic users in the entire first book, she's the most powerful of them all and everyone who does know magic reacts in awes to her. 15. She has excellent fashion sense. Usually, this happens without her even trying; she's just naturally beautiful and whatever she wears will always be awesome and stylish. Even if she's meant to be a rough-and-tumble Tomboy type who doesn't care about that sort of thing, the characters will always praise her Unkempt Beauty and perhaps even admire that she's also low-maintenance. Her outfits are described as pretty Walmart chic, but everyone thinks she's gorgeous no matter what. 16. And with all this, don't expect the Green-Eyed Monster to show up. Envy appears in the Mary Sue's life only as a means of angst; it's not there to show the downsides of being awesome at everything. Anybody who does get jealous of her is deliberately set up as stupid or evil (and often in the way of the author's preferred ship). The people who are jealous of her are right to be, as she's secretly using nepotism to take over their show and push out the headliner. They're never once painted as being correct in this. 17. She's So Beautiful, It's a Curse™. Being attractive doesn't make a Mary Sue in and of itself (who wants to be ugly?), but when the author tries to play it as so strong as to be a disadvantage, that's a sign you're dealing with a Sue. The other characters will constantly bring up how beautiful she is (even if the readers have no reason to believe it themselves). I'll say yes. Even though there's no "it's a curse" at play, virtually every male character who isn't her dad either hits on her or talks at length about how hot she is as she walks past. And I'd definitely say the readers have no reason to believe it themselves, since her status as a self-insert means we know exactly what she looks like... 18. She will be described in Purple Prose and in incredible detail. Multiple paragraphs. 19. Not coincidentally, the color purple is also popular, partly because it helps her stand out and partly because it stands for particularly exotic traits (see Graceful Ladies Like Purple, Purple Is Powerful, and Supernatural Is Purple). Purple is included in her hair colors at the beginning. 20. She will have unusual hair, especially relative to canon characters' hair. This usually means a unique hair color or a funky hairstyle; Rapunzel Hair is also common. The worst offenders have unusual highlights, often natural but in a color not found in nature. It's essentially taking Anime Hair and using it everywhere. The infamous description of her lists all the colors she's in at the beginning of the book. 21. She will also have unusual eyes. No Mary Sue has brown eyes, regardless of her race. Often, it's a color not found in nature, like violet or gold. She might have Mismatched Eyes to get more unusual colors in. And if she has inconsistently colored eyes that's almost an instant Mary Sue indicator. Not present. I don't think her eye color is mentioned. 22. She is often very underweight; if height and weight figures are given, expect them to violate physics unless she's made of Styrofoam. Furthermore, she often does physical activity like sword fighting or hand-to-hand combat that are much harder when you're that thin. This seems almost entirely because the author thinks a supermodel would look more attractive than an MMA fighter, who could more realistically undertake these tasks. Scarily, Mary Sue may even consider herself overweight (or at least Hollywood Pudgy). Despite this, she will almost always be very amply endowed in one particular area, regardless of how biologically rare that would be. Not present. She shares Lani Sarem's completely average body, but with far more slobbering over her from the men in her life. 23. She is almost never depicted as putting any effort into maintaining her impossibly "perfect" body. She never has to diet or exercise to stay in fighting shape. She never has to use cosmetic products to maintain her beauty; the most she may get is an Adrenaline Make Over. Not a perfect body, so I'll say no. 24. She will never look ugly, no matter what she's been through; the worst she'll ever be reduced to is Unkempt Beauty. If she is ever somehow injured or scarred, the scar will always look cool and serve more as a decoration than anything else. Every male character who could possibly be attracted to her obsesses over her any time she passes by. 25. All of her outfits are impractically fancy. They're usually very revealing, have tons of gems and other extraneous details, and include fishnets or Frills of Justice. If she's supposed to wear a uniform, it will be a Non-Uniform Uniform if she wears one at all. Surprisingly not present. She's such a strict self-insert that she shares Lani's very boring fashion sense. 26. She may possess an animal-like physical trait, like wings, tails, or cat ears, but otherwise appear human, especially in a world where such traits are rare or nonexistent. Sometimes she will believe this makes her look ugly, but every other character will insist the exact opposite. Not present. 27. If she's an actual animal or other non-human species, expect strange and unnatural fur colors (purple or otherwise). Color combinations will tend to clash horrifically, as if the author just threw together what she thought was cool and gave no thought to how it would actually look. She may also still have humanlike hair and Non-Mammalian Mammaries. Not present. 28. Some Sues appear on roleplay sites that encourage "faceclaims" — the author can use a picture of a real celebrity to represent what the character looks like. A Sue will almost always have someone extraordinarily pretty as a faceclaim, like a Victoria's Secret model. If the character is a teenager, her faceclaim will be in her late 20s. And if she's an Emo Sue, her faceclaim will almost always be Amy Lee. Not present. She looks like Lani. 29. She has exotic weaponry in a setting where she shouldn't have access to it. Usually, no one questions why she's allowed to carry it, and nobody finds her intimidating. Bonus points if there is no explanation for where she keeps it. No weapons are mentioned in the book. 30. f she has her own transport, it will always be cool and expensive. She may have access to a Humongous Mecha in a universe that lacks them, or only hands them out on a case-by-case basis. She may even have her own Time Machine, which could be lifted wholesale out of a different canon. Has two expensive motorcycles. 31. The web exists everywhere for her, even on other planets, medieval fantasy worlds, or prehistoric Earth — she can whip out her laptop anywhere and have access to both our normal internet and the local internet of whatever world she lives in. And she can use it to hack toasters and the Pentagon. Additional Sue points if her laptop displays an unnaturally long battery life, so she can use it even when she's been adventuring in the wilderness for several days Not present. 32. She will often have a music player, usually an iPod. It's mostly used to let the Sue and other character listen to songs the author likes. The songs and bands need not exist when and where the story takes place. Sues have even been known to take these devices to less advanced people, only for them to be more impressed with the music than the device itself. I'll say this one is present. While it misses the more severe aspects of this trait, all of the named music and bands appear to be Lani's personal music taste. 33. If she has a pet, it will be exotic or fantastic. Wolves are very popular, as are big cats, despite these being undomesticated and illegal to own in most countries. Unicorns and dragons are common as well. If most characters canonically have a pet or familiar, she might have a menagerie. These animals will rarely be mentioned after their initial appearance, and the story will never bother explaining how she cares for them. Not present,. 34. Mary Sue is often designed to hook up with another character, often as a form of Wish Fulfillment. This isn't that bad in and of itself, but Mary Sue accomplishes this without any sense of realism. She just grabs her lover's attention straight away, and their relationship will never face any obstacles or tension; it's straight to true love right away. Translating this to original fiction instead of fan fiction, I'll say yes. Nothing about her is really appealing in terms of personality (make your own judgement on Lani's looks), but somehow Mac and Jackson both immediately fall in love with her. Jackson doesn't even get the honor of being unsure of it, starting with flirting from their first meeting. 35. Her love interest will often be with someone else in canon. This is not a problem for Mary Sue, whose author can get rid of the other girl in many ways, including killing her off, derailing her into a hateful person and thus easy to break up with, or even letting her step aside or sacrifice herself just so that he can be with Mary Sue. Not present. 36. Most characters give her more heed than they normally would. The good guys never stop praising her. The bad guys never stop belittling her (and thus making themselves look bad). They talk about her when she's not present. At least one will confess to being secretly in love with her (if more than one does, they may fight each other over her). The villains will obsess over her, to the point of destroying themselves in their jealousy or opening themselves up to redemption and the realization that she was good all along (usually by having sex with her). Zade is the most perfect person to ever live in this universe. Everyone loves her to the point where even Sophie and Zeb come around by the end, she becomes the headlining act in the biggest Vegas magic act entirely through being the boss's daughter, and the villains are out to steal her super awesome powers. 37. She's a perfect judge of character, and she'll be right about everyone. If everyone suspects an ally is really a backstabber, she'll be the only one to trust him. If everyone believes the villain is really a good guy, she'll be the one to suspect him. I'll say yes. Her internal monologues are so unnecessarily long and detailed whenever she meets someone that she clearly has the author's knowledge of everyone. She's never wrong about someone apart from a few token "Oh wow Sophie can sing and is occasionally a decent person" moments. 38. She will get special treatment in-universe; anything the canon characters would have to fight for or earn, she just gets automatically. The classic example is the 16-year-old American Harry Potter "exchange student" who goes to Hogwarts, is immediately given a spot on the Quidditch team, and doesn't have to wear the uniform. Through the power of nepotism and real magic, becomes the headlining act in a Vegas magic show that all the techies just have to allow to violate every OSHA and union regulation imaginable to keep her secret. 39. Mary Sue is always a single-person Spotlight-Stealing Squad. The entire story hinges on her existence; if you removed her, there would be no story. All other elements of the story are designed to show off how awesome she is and cannot function independently. The ending telegraphs that she's the Chosen One and all of the non-magic plot is about a love triangle. 40. She is not bound by the rules of the universe, whatever the setting may be. Nobody will ever comment on the impossibility of what she does; they'll just assume she's that talented. The tech guys in Spellman's magic act just go along with her refusal to tell anyone how her tricks are done and handle everything by herself. 41. Her backstory is often self-contradictory, as the author piles on more and more awesome things without any regard for how they could all happen. Most continuity issues are Hand Waved or Voodoo Sharked. Not present, since there's not enough backstory to matter. 42. Mary Sue is The Chosen One, even if the setting already has one. There are many ways she can accomplish this: she can be a Sailor Earth type who "shares" the position with the canon hero; she may be vaguely "destined to help the destined one fulfill their destiny" (i.e. do all the work except the final blow so that the prophecy is still technically correct); or the canon hero may be revealed to be a Fake Ultimate Hero all along. Yup. If the fight in the parking garage didn't say it, Aunt Aldyth basically says it out loud in the epilogue. 43. She is often around the same age as the author, usually around 16. This often becomes an Improbable Age as Mary Sue starts taking command of everyone and everything around her. Not quite present enough. Lani is 35, but Zade is supposed to be I think 28 or so. 44. She is usually the same ethnicity as the author; if not, she's whatever the author wishes she could be (often a Magical Native American), or both. It often involves a Foreign Culture Fetish and leads to Unfortunate Implications. "Gypsy soul" from someone who's a non-practicing Jew. 45. Most Sues have an unusually Dark and Troubled Past. It's often used to create a Sympathetic Sue, but any type of Sue can have one. Such backstories never actually factor into the story; they're just casually dropped into the narrative to draw attention to the character and let her Wangst (usually out of proportion to how bad it really is). Nothing dark and troubled so far. 46. Relatedly, she will often have a tragic family life. This could involve Parental Abandonment or orphanhood, and whichever parental figures she has are often abusive, putting her squarely into Cinderella Circumstances. Not enough to count, and her parents get back together. 47. She might be a Blithe Spirit who easily reforms an entire group of people of its negative qualities. This is often accomplished through The Power of Love, The Power of Rock, or (to paraphrase Lisa Simpson) being "rebellious... in a conformist sort of way". I'll say no, but only because she doesn't reform an entire group. She reforms a few individuals like Mac and Sophie, though. 48. She's Too Good for This Sinful Earth and will perform a Heroic Sacrifice to prove it. The story will often go out of its way to ensure that she doesn't leave an ugly corpse, either by a method involving no external physical damage or just not leaving a body to be recovered. Half the time, it doesn't take anyway. Nope. The story isn't interesting enough to have her sacrifice a thing. 49. She might turn out to secretly be a Half-Human Hybrid, giving her cause to angst. As explained above, though, this will never mean that she looks ugly; the most that will happen is that she's a Little Bit Beastly, and rarely will the non-human part be an "ugly" race like orcs or trolls. Nope. 50. She can redeem the villain through her overwhelming goodness and purity. More often than not, though, she does it by having sex with him. As explained above, she will often be a virgin when this happens (implying that she's sacrificing a Virgin Power to redeem the villain), but this never prevents sex with her from being the most awesome sex ever. It's often never written as particularly awesome, though. Nope, unless the next book has her gently caress the weird magician girl from the parking garage. 51. She's a princess. This basically gives her a position of high importance and opulence but little actual responsibility. It's often combined with a Rags to Royalty or Changeling Fantasy element where she only discovers her royalty during the story (and it makes up for her angsty Dark and Troubled Past). Not yet at least. 52. She almost never does anything wrong. In the rare instance that she does, it's usually (a) a way for the author to disclaim her being a Mary Sue by introducing a single imperfection (that has no bearing on anything anyway) and (b) designed to show her smarts by making her feel instant remorse, and she'll be Easily Forgiven anyway. Yeah, Zade is pretty much infallible. She doesn't make any mistakes that aren't very minor and at least partially someone else's fault. 53. She will often suffer from Special Snowflake Syndrome; i.e., she has a trait or backstory that sets her apart from her group or race. The Chosen One magician who's secretly the most powerful ever, in addition to being the only legitimate magic-user in a Vegas magic show. 54. A Meaningful Name that relates to her abilities or personality in some way, usually highly complimentary (e.g. Bella, Divinity). I don't think so. She's not a storyteller, much like Lani. 55. An unusually spelled common name, especially if a "Y" is substituted for a vowel ("Krystal", "Syndi"). Not a common name. 56. References to gemstones, flowers, celestial bodies, or pretty colors (e.g. Violet, Sapphire). Nope. 57. With Emo-Sues, something spooky, mystical, or related to darkness (e.g. Raven, Trinity). Not present. 58. A foreign name, particularly a Japanese name. The author will often really like the language and point out what the name means ("I'm Sakura Hinode! That's Japanese for 'cherry blossom sunrise'!") — and not always correctly. If it's combined with an unusual Western name (e.g. Hikari Rose Nightshade, Sapphire Morimoto), that's almost a dead giveaway that the character is a Mary Sue. Yep. "Scheherazade" is a Persian name from an Arabic book of stories. 59. And, of course, sharing at least one name with the author. The author may also name her after what she really wishes she were called. Not present. 60. Mary Sue is introduced with an incredibly detailed description of her every physical feature. It reads as though the author has a very fixed idea of exactly what her character looks like and considers it vitally important that the reader shares this image of the character. The worst cases will do this repeatedly and even have appendices on every little detail. Yep! 61. She is described in hopelessly Purple Prose, often with very fetishized language, while no other character (canon or otherwise) gets it. I'll say no, since Mac and Jackson both get the same treatment. 62. She will be described with the most positive adjectives the author can think of. Often, she'll cover all her bases and describe her as "[Adjective A], yet [Adjective B, which contrasts with Adjective A]". The author may even resort to making up words to describe her. No made-up words, but she gets some unusual flowery language like "sweet and kind but rough around the edges and "slender but not skinny". 63. Passages that don't concern her will be written minimalistically, as though the author is writing them out of obligation and only wants to write the bits she wants to obsess over. This leads to pressing concerns of the actual story not being mentioned in favor of the characters obsessing over Mary Sue; important plot points may even occur off-screen, no matter how impactful they may be. Extremely present! The most egregious is probably when the big red carpet premier is glossed over in about two sentences to try and get on with the chapter-long description of the big magic act and dramatic incident that occurs during it. It's probably part of her sloppy transfer from a screenplay to a book, where only things that she thought were important for her vision were actually included. 64. The story is often told entirely from Mary Sue's point of view, often in First-Person Perspective. This allows the narrative to never stray from her. I'll put this down as a yes, since it goes along with the below line. Even the part where Zade is unconscious is done almost entirely in first person through an unusual and difficult-to-follow reading of pulled memories instead of a proper shift to third person. 65. If Mary Sue is not on screen, the characters will be talking about her anyway, giving them a chance to speak "honestly" about her. If they like her, they sing her praises; if not, they will gripe about her and thus be portrayed as evil and jealous. Hoo boy, yes. The shifts to third person exclusively deal with people's thoughts on Zade, almost all of which are people singing her praises or being worried about her. I think the only one that doesn't is a flashback to how Dela and Charles met. 66. She will never be an Escapist Character, though a few authors familiar with both sues and escapist characters may claim otherwise. Despite all the common traits listed here a sue, by definition, is always specific enough to be appealing to author over audience. The escapist character on the other hand is vague enough for the reader to imagine themselves in their position. Yep. Whereas Bella Swan and Anastasia Steele are so generic as to be templates for a female reader, Zade is very plainly an author avatar for Lani. 67. The author uses the character to promote his or her own opinions, often by pitting her against a Straw Character who will never be right no matter what he does. I think I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and say no. While we can safely say that Zade would probably share every one of Lani's opinions as an author avatar, the story isn't deep enough for her to express any of them. It's so wrapped up in its love triangle that even the magic aspects often get put on the back burner. 68. The author takes personal offense at any criticism of the character or story, no matter how well-meaning or justified it is. Bonus points for displaying an overblown ego in the process. As has been documented here, Lani has a history of online brawling with even random Twitter people who criticize the story or her cheating business practices. 69. The author has a massive gallery of art exclusively of the character. It's not always an indicator of a Mary Sue; some artists experiment with a character design to invoke Art Evolution, respond to requests to show what she looks like, or just like to draw her. But if the artist has clearly just built a shrine to Mary Sue with over a hundred illustrations, that's a red flag. I think this one is a no, since any art gallery would just be selfies. 70. A masculine-sounding or gender-blending name, occasionally with feminized spelling (e.g. Micki, Harrie). Yep. "Zade" is usually a masculine name. So out of 70 traits that I used, I've put down 37 as a yes. That gives us 52.85%, likely only kept down by the shallowness of the plot keeping any of the more interesting scenarios (like sacrifice, fighting, and Zade having actual opinions on how things should go) from occurring. If she writes more books that go further into an overarching magical conflict, I'm sure we'd see it go up.
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May 5, 2018 17:56
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That's a hell of a lot of beating around the bush to say that the author unreasonably favors the character and uses them for wish-fulfillment. Of course, beating around the bush is the entire reason that TV Tropes exists.
Sham bam bamina! fucked around with this message at 18:52 on May 5, 2018 |
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May 5, 2018 18:43
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chitoryu12 posted:13. She speaks several languages fluently. Most of these languages are totally unrelated and just what the author thinks sounds cool; they range from Romance languages like French or Italian to Japanese to Lakota (many Sues are of American Indian admixture, but never more than half). Sometimes the author will put the character in a situation where it would make sense to know multiple languages (like making her a diplomat or a translator); most of the time, they won't. Not present. What about that poorly translated Bosnian her mother teaches to Mac? We don't see Zade use that language (I don't think she uses any sort of verbal spell at all, her magic just works by willpower) but I'd say it sort of counts. And regarding the "troubled past" thing, she talks in the first chapter about the townspeople thinking her magic came from the Devil and the other kids consequently not wanting to be friends with her. But the neighbors love her anyway because she's so kind and sweet! SerialKilldeer fucked around with this message at 01:00 on May 6, 2018 |
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May 6, 2018 00:57
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SerialKilldeer posted:What about that poorly translated Bosnian her mother teaches to Mac? We don't see Zade use that language (I don't think she uses any sort of verbal spell at all, her magic just works by willpower) but I'd say it sort of counts. Yeah, I didn’t count a dark and troubled past because it seems like she actually led a decent (if boring) life. Also I gave her the benefit of the doubt on the Bosnian as being a spell, so presumably no fluency is required.
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May 6, 2018 02:32
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That is a LOT of loving words to describe a hack writers terrible self insert
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May 6, 2018 04:08
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TV Tropes
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May 6, 2018 05:10
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Does having a potential, infinite amount of homunculus as pets count as having exotic pets? 
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May 6, 2018 05:40
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 Do you think it’s just the same dozen copies that get shuffled from signing to signing?
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May 13, 2018 21:04
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jaclynhyde posted:
As a lame musical artist who's been schlepping some of the same CDs around for ages since 1) I'm lame and 2) no one buys physical media anymore, I guarantee it.
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May 13, 2018 22:45
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How did she get set up in a Barnes & Noble?
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May 13, 2018 23:19
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Sham bam bamina! posted:How did she get set up in a Barnes & Noble? Ones a spiraling failure desperately masquerading at success and the other one writes lovely books
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May 13, 2018 23:34
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I come bearing a gift http://jennytrout.com/?p=12149
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Jun 11, 2018 16:29
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| # ? May 15, 2024 01:07 |
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Happy Landfill posted:I come bearing a gift Oh poo poo.
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Jun 11, 2018 16:30
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