I acknowledge the popularity of and evidence for Knight Alvin and Knight Papyrus. But let’s put them aside for a few moments.
ALTFull lengthy of the theory will be kept below the cut, as it gets quite long, but have a quick banner.
Finally figured out why the inciting incident of Chainsaw Man felt so familiar. Was reminding me of Toto! The Wonderful Adventure. Anyone else remember that manga?
as someone who is starting a new uni at 23 but is blending in perfectly with the 18-year-olds i'm curious and i need to ask
feel free to reblog and tell me in the tags what age do you get mistaken for, and do you find that to be a bad or a good thing :))
Thinking about how I would write an adult Scooby-Doo series, because I think it can be done.
The first thing I’d do is make the characters actually be adults. Still young, but adults, in the mid to late 20s range. Mystery Inc. is a private detective type business that they run together. In this universe, the supernatural/ghosts/etc are real, but not necessarily common, so when they take on a case, the culprit might be a person disguised as a monster, or it might actually be a real ghost. The stakes can be higher; sometimes a bad guy is legitimately trying to kill them. Sometimes the mystery they’re trying to solve is a murder. Sometimes they actually get hurt on their cases.
Fred: the core of Fred’s character should be that he’s incredibly kind. Like, give a stranger the shirt off his back kind. The “Fred can’t talk to potential clients because he might take a case for free and we need to eat” kind. He’s an honest and good person and sometimes gets himself into trouble because he assumes other people are too. While he’s not very good at reading people or noticing ulterior motives, he’s brilliant when it comes to mechanical or engineering type stuff, so he’s the one who keeps the mystery machine running, builds their gadgets, and of course, designs the traps.
Daphne: she comes from old money, and her parents absolutely despise her life choices, to the point where they haven’t officially disowned her, but they have basically cut her off, so she doesn’t actually have access to any family money. Growing up wealthy has granted her a variety of skills, including speaking multiple languages, horseback riding, and fencing. She’s very into fashion and jewelry (even if she can’t afford it anymore) and has extensive knowledge of both that can occasionally provide a vital clue in a case. And even though her parents have cut her off, Daphne still has a wide network of contacts she can ask for favors sometimes, because she’s personable, and people tend to like her. Daphne is also very emotionally intelligent, and is usually the one who can spot when someone is lying to them.
Side note - I ship Fred and Daphne, so I think I would start them off as an established couple for this universe. Dating, engaged, married, I don’t care. They are stupidly in love, ride or die for each other. There’s no will they, won’t they, no worries about cheating. They are in a healthy, happy, loving relationship, and no one (not even Daphne’s disapproving parents) are going to mess that up for them.
Velma: she is the forensics nerd who sometimes gets super excited about the wrong thing at the wrong time (”He was mummified in seconds? That’s so cool!” “Velma! His wife is standing right there!” “Oh. Sorry.”). She’s not purposely insensitive, she just gets laser focused on her work and forgets to filter herself sometimes. She’s also the one who can get so fixated on solving whatever mystery they’re working on, she’s willing to bend or maybe break laws. Is breaking and entering really so bad? Not if it gets them answers.
Shaggy: he is still the comic relief, but he’s the comic relief by being the only person in the group that actually has common sense. He manages the business’s finances, he’s the only one who knows how to cook, and the others tease him for being a coward sometimes, but Shaggy maintains that if a ghost with an axe is coming for you, running is the only sensible option. He should also have a range of random knowledge that sounds useless, but sometimes saves the day (ex ventriloquism, origami, the history of spoons, etc).
Scooby: as this is a universe where supernatural creatures exist, Scooby is an ancient eldritch type being that took a shine to Shaggy when he was a kid, and took the form of a talking dog to befriend and hang out with him. Aside from the talking dog bit and not aging, he never uses his powers in a way that anyone notices. The audience is not told upfront that Scooby is an ancient eldritch being; it should slowly be hinted at throughout the series so the audience put it together, but the characters never realize it. Scooby genuinely considers Shaggy to be his best friend, and cares about the rest of the gang too.
you know there actually is a meaningful difference between 'men's' and 'women's' deodorant beyond the selection of scents. 'mens' plays better with pit hair and doesn't pill up in it and 'womens' tends to have a more powdery finish to help prevent chafing. so really the two genders are actually hairy and bald.
realizing this was such a paradigm shift for me and i have to wonder what other "uselessly" gendered products are like this, where they actually are different in a way that would be useful to consumers but some marketing department decided instead of just saying what the difference is, to prescribe which you need based on the most arbitrary metric, so nebulous that what it even means varies from person to person. as if they think you're too dumb to look at "anti-chafing powder formula" and "lightweight gel formula" and decide for yourself which one would work best.
I know it feels like an understatement but you sometimes make more progress by pointing out that conservatives are fucking rude. going out of your way to call someone the wrong name because you don't like them? rude. childish. this isn't fucking kindergarten, Carl. she said her name is Jennifer. Everybody knows her as Jennifer. You are the one making things confusing. Grow up.
"misgendering is violence": invites discourse over the TraNs DeBatE, puts people on the defensive, opens you up to accusations of liberal snowflakery, comes off as a hypothetical thought exercise
"Who the fuck is Jason? I don't know a Jason. Oh her? You mean Jen? You mean fucking Jen? That's Jen, dipshit." : crystal clear. you're making shit more difficult for everyone because you're a rude manchild.
me: so what job experience do you guys bring to the team
guard one: well, we have a lot of experience with breakdancing—
guard two: no we absolutely do not. but we did guard these two doors for a bit
guard one: i killed jfk
guard two: he didn’t
me: guard two, if I asked guard one if he killed jfk, what would he say?
guard two: he’d say he didn’t
me: got it. now I’d like to ask you about some—
me:
me: wait what
The various Star Treks are an excellent object lesson in the truth of a worldbuilding principle. Namely, that worldbuilding can't provide the resolution to your plot, so you have to have some relatable emotional element driving the story.
What I mean is, there are a bunch of Star Trek episodes (I'm mostly thinking TNG) where there's some fascinating sci-fi problem. And these nerds, being nerds, try to figure out what's going on. And after an interesting beginning of watching these characters react to this sci-fi problem that's upending their lives, we settle in for at least twenty minutes of utter boredom as these guys sling technobabble at each other to find the solution. And it absolutely kills the story.
When the thing causing the problem is made-up, the solution can be equally made-up, and it kills all tension. "Oh no, he has Smeeble's Disease! How do we cure it?" Well, I don't much care, because all I have to do is sit back until we hit the 90% mark of the story and someone shouts "Of course! Firken's Principle!" Since neither of those things exist, I had no way of guessing where this was going or caring when it went there.
The two ways to solve this problem are:
sometimes i think about the history of coffee culture in islam and how it spread like it’s so funny
I think, even in adult media, it’s untrue that Mary Sues are Always Bad And Cringey Forever. It’s just a matter of understanding how to properly make use of them.
I know it’s kid’s media, but consider Mary Poppins. A very popular and well-beloved character, who has an entire musical number about how she’s ‘practically perfect’. In the stage musical, there’s an entire musical number about how everyone loves Mary to the point where she’s so amazing she makes a normal park into a major wonderland just by being there. And yet, as I said, an incredibly popular and well-loved character.
I think the biggest reason this works is that the other characters are not a backdrop to hype up how great she is. They do do that sometimes. But they also have their own individual admirable traits, flaws, worries, dreams and ambitions. Again, in the stage musical I’d say that the whole family is given even more fleshed-out and well-developed arcs, with stuff like Mr Banks’ abusive childhood nanny being introduced, Mr Banks’ short scene with Bert, and Mrs Banks’ 'Being Mrs Banks’ song and reprise. The story treats the other characters sympathetically, and allows them to have their own lives, or take some time coming around to Mary. It also works because Mary is a living embodiment of the themes of the story. She’s there to teach a lesson, and does exactly that.
So, to make a Mary Sue work…mostly, just remember to make other characters have interesting powers or live interesting lives, too.
That said. The most important role of the Mary Sue is to be self-indulgent. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. It’s not something that appeals to everyone, but I feel like the people who most often create Mary Sues. Are the ones who are going through a really rough time and just kinda need it. And it’s rude to stomp all over the fun someone’s having–especially if they’re a kid. Some writers need to learn how to write for themselves and their own enjoyment rather than an audience’s approval, especially when they’re just starting out. And some readers need to understand how to recognize when a story isn’t for them and quietly move on.
