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Post by Kingpin on Jan 8, 2006 0:01:31 GMT -4
I was much amused when a similar topic in the less then impressive Power Ranger fics was posted here... and I figured, would it be worth trying it here? If it doesn't work, it can be banished... but it could be worth having an odd chuckle, if you know a particularily bad story. Submitted for the approval by the midnight Society (I loved that show in it's initial run ), I present my fist Z lister, one Amarin Rose. Amarin posted the intriguingly titled fic "A Pair of Not So Normal Teens" on fanfiction.net, and as soon as I read it, I could see a problem. Firstly, character... Ms Amarin Marks is an... 'interesting character', to say the least... firstly and importantly, she shares the name of the author... not a good sign. Hair: Black, braided and waist length. Eyes: Green (With gold glasses that feature 'unusual' (Her words) square lenses) Build: 'Deceptively' small. Amarin is new to New York from Los Angeles, and new to this class, and yet in the first five minutes she seems to gel rather well with the XGBs. Morely, she happens to take a lot of classes with Eduardo, take Track on a running track that happens to be pretty much next to his chem building, ride a motor cycle and also live in a building a street away from Eduardo's (Apparantly he has an apartment building by 2005) Furthermore, she seems to openly accept the reality and science of ghosts, which is odd for someone who is taking a parapsychology class which shouldn't actually be outright teaching ghosts, but more the science of parapsychology. Chronology: This story (After a fashion of reading), appears to be set in 2005. Firstly I ask the question, why are the XGBs still studying a class after 8 years? Surely they'd have learnt it by now... and usually, don't College classes only last around 4 years in length? And also, apparantly the Ghostbusters closed down in 1985 after capturing all the ghosts... What? Moving on... character. Firstly, there's no real dynamics between the XGBs, they all seem almost the same... but, interestingly, Eduardo is a mechanic and wants to become a teacher... despite mixing positive with negative when working on the Proton Guns and not usually showing any real interest in teaching... or academics. Story: There really is no plot to it, half of it is mostly Amarin and Eduardo meeting up, talking and so on... the rest of the XGBs and the Ghostbusters seem to be a small background element... In essence, it's a Mary Sue which lacks even plot and a basic understanding of the premise... the characterisation is way off, the chronology is out of whack and the understanding of New York is null. What's worse, is once I submitted my review, I remembered the username... 'Amarin Rose', had written a fic which paired Egon and Peter in a seemingly openly gay relationship, I called her on this (Maybe a little over the top at the time) and it got removed, we sorta became enemies after that, but she vanished into relative obscurity over at Adult Fanfic.net, where another well known Mary Sue frequents. So, a Mary Sue with no real plot, or am I making it a bit personal?
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Post by Fritz on Jan 8, 2006 10:40:39 GMT -4
Sounds like it.
I'm thinking of a couple of really bizzare numbers that ended up in my review box at GBN....
One where sudden crossovers with Power Rangers, Pokemon, and several other things were thrown in fast and furious, with absolutely no point. They barely bothered to work anything about Ghostbusters in until the very end. Anyone who would criticize Cliff Roswell's Marvel and Hellboy crossovers would probably shut up after reading this thing. I think it was called "Spirit of 1776" and since while it was strange, it didn't violate any rules, I approved it...but I'm not gonna go find out.
"An Unexpected Romance" or something like that. A Janine/Venkman story...part one got posted on GBN. Part 2 ended up getting assigned to Chris Spade, and he PMed me to say it made him uncomfortable and queasy at how badly out of character everyone was--and he wasn't even a particularlly strong E/J fan.
I had the misfortune of stumbling onto some awful Ray/Egon story...I think it was on Tobin's Archive but, again, it's the kind of thing I'm not going to go back and look for.
I dunno...I guess other than one obvious Mary Sue writer we all know, I can't think of much of anything else at the moment. I admit for the most part I've gotten away from prowling around looking for random stories...I pretty much stick to the ones posted here and at GBOmnibus, because I know most of those are going to not suck.
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Post by EGBFan on Jan 8, 2006 11:25:08 GMT -4
I'm just not going to read it. I don't read stories that I know would make me angry. Sorry if that sounds a bit smug, but it works for me. That way I can stay on my soapbox proclaiming, "It is a basic human right for everyone to write whatever the hell they want - I don't have to read it." Unless it's good for a laugh. Is it good for a laugh, Ben?
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CJ
Doberman
Doom Patrol...Yeah you heard right
Posts: 99
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Post by CJ on Jan 8, 2006 11:32:24 GMT -4
I remember one fic I read a while ago, it was also a Slash between Egon and Peter. I forget the title, but I remember it was centered around Egon recovering from a major battle and Peter bringing him some Portebello mushrooms.
I'm an open-minded individual, but with the OOC elements and all the snuggling going on even I felt a bit uncomfortable after reading it. Dirty even that I felt the need to wash my eyes.
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Post by Kingpin on Jan 8, 2006 14:29:30 GMT -4
Unless it's good for a laugh. Is it good for a laugh, Ben? I severely doubt it, it was kinda gutwrenching and, like 'two teens', seem to show little to no actual plot. Mind you, she's cast adult to slash relationships on damn near everything, even Stargate isn't safe from her.
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Post by Silent Seraphim on Jan 8, 2006 15:24:32 GMT -4
So, a Mary Sue with no real plot, or am I making it a bit personal? Well, let’s see… Summary states pairing as Eduardo/Amarin. Check. Over-enthusiastic description of new character. Check. Author’s favourite character’s attention focuses instantly on the new character. Check. New character dominates the story. Check. Other characters instantly amazed/impressed by new character. Check. Very little in the way of storyline. Check. Character’s canon girlfriend/love interest gets instantly forgotten: Check. Yep, she’s a Mary-Sue alright. I love that the story’s entitled ‘ Not Such a Normal Teen’, and yet they all seem incredibly normal to me. Go to class, meet with guys, go to class, meet with guys, go to class… Where are the ghosts? Where’s the drama? Where’s the story? As for other z-list stories, I’ve read a few squicky slash stories and one particular E/J story which I wish I’d never set eyes on, and from an E/J shipper that’s really saying something. There ought to be some sort of prize for being able to do that. Oh, yeah! I remember that one! As far as I recall, she-who-shan’t-be-named absolutely loved that story because it reinforced her ridiculous theory that Janine was basically a slut who’d screw anything with a pulse. I’m quite glad that part two never got to see the light of day. I think the ‘Worst Mary-Sue in GB’ award probably goes to Clara Hamilton. There have been a couple of other Mary-Sues in GB fandom, but this one really takes the biscuit. Not only are the stories Egon/Clara centric to the exclusion of everyone else, but the veiled anti-Janine sentiment laced through it makes it doubly distasteful. Now, if Amarin Rose decides to write a few more Eduardo/Amarin stories and bash the character of Kylie, I think Clara might have some competition on her hands. May the battle of the Mary-Sues commence! God help us all.
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Post by ECTO-1 on Jan 9, 2006 11:50:18 GMT -4
Oh yeah, this is encouraging to foray into the fanfic reading thing....
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Post by Silent Seraphim on Jan 9, 2006 15:35:01 GMT -4
Oh yeah, this is encouraging to foray into the fanfic reading thing.... What can I say? There’s always going to be goodfic, badfic, and downright uglyfic. It could be a lot worse. On the whole, I think we’ve been quite lucky. There’s not really that much in the way of GB badfic out there, at least not that I’ve come across. Maybe we should do an A-list to balance things out a bit? I could list loads of great stories I've read…
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Post by Kingpin on Jan 9, 2006 16:03:57 GMT -4
Oh yeah, this is encouraging to foray into the fanfic reading thing.... What can I say? There’s always going to be goodfic, badfic, and downright uglyfic. It could be a lot worse. On the whole, I think we’ve been quite lucky. There’s not really that much in the way of GB badfic out there, at least not that I’ve come across. Maybe we should do an A-list to balance things out a bit? I could list loads of great stories I've read… It does allow us to compile a 'franchise worst' of fanfic writers who should never have had the idea to pen a story. SS: Yeah, it'd be good to showcase the good but lesser known fics out there.
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Post by SuperStantzio on Jan 9, 2006 17:36:48 GMT -4
So, a Mary Sue with no real plot, or am I making it a bit personal? Well, let’s see… Summary states pairing as Eduardo/Amarin. Check. Over-enthusiastic description of new character. Check. Author’s favourite character’s attention focuses instantly on the new character. Check. New character dominates the story. Check. Other characters instantly amazed/impressed by new character. Check. Very little in the way of storyline. Check. Character’s canon girlfriend/love interest gets instantly forgotten: Check. Yep, she’s a Mary-Sue alright. I love that the story’s entitled ‘ Not Such a Normal Teen’, and yet they all seem incredibly normal to me. Go to class, meet with guys, go to class, meet with guys, go to class… Where are the ghosts? Where’s the drama? Where’s the story? As for other z-list stories, I’ve read a few squicky slash stories and one particular E/J story which I wish I’d never set eyes on, and from an E/J shipper that’s really saying something. There ought to be some sort of prize for being able to do that. Oh, yeah! I remember that one! As far as I recall, she-who-shan’t-be-named absolutely loved that story because it reinforced her ridiculous theory that Janine was basically a slut who’d screw anything with a pulse. I’m quite glad that part two never got to see the light of day. I think the ‘Worst Mary-Sue in GB’ award probably goes to Clara Hamilton. There have been a couple of other Mary-Sues in GB fandom, but this one really takes the biscuit. Not only are the stories Egon/Clara centric to the exclusion of everyone else, but the veiled anti-Janine sentiment laced through it makes it doubly distasteful. Now, if Amarin Rose decides to write a few more Eduardo/Amarin stories and bash the character of Kylie, I think Clara might have some competition on her hands. May the battle of the Mary-Sues commence! God help us all. Yes that is so true. And I also didn't like that story with Janine/Peter and I really don't think that pairing would've worked anyway and I'm also really glad that part 2 didn't put. I really detest Mary-Sues
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The Joker
Doberman
The Smoker, The Midnight Toker
Posts: 95
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Post by The Joker on Jan 9, 2006 19:07:43 GMT -4
Gawd, a dose of Clara Hamilton and somehow Egon/Peter slash loses its sting...at least with the E/P stuff you don't get the venomous agenda-driven undertones.
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Post by ECTO-1 on Jan 9, 2006 19:39:00 GMT -4
Yeah, let's do that. Let's compile a list on both sides of the spectrum, writers and titles.
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Post by SuperStantzio on Mar 7, 2006 14:40:52 GMT -4
I went to fanfiction net and I read this story called, What a new Ghostbuster! By teenfox. And it has new ghostbuster who has been hired called Erica Linder and Ray and Peter both fall for her and I read this story and to me I think it's a mary sue in my opinion. well at least she doesn't share the same name as the author. As Erica was described as being very beautiful and attracts both the affections of Ray and Peter. What do you all think and here's the link to the story as well and she goes on the bust with the guys. www.fanfiction.net/s/2818876/1/
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Post by Silent Seraphim on Mar 7, 2006 16:22:48 GMT -4
I went to fanfiction net and I read this story called, What a new Ghostbuster! By teenfox. And it has new ghostbuster who has been hired called Erica Linder and Ray and Peter both fall for her and I read this story and to me I think it's a mary sue in my opinion. well at least she doesn't share the same name as the author. As Erica was described as being very beautiful and attracts both the affections of Ray and Peter. What do you all think and here's the link to the story as well and she goes on the bust with the guys. www.fanfiction.net/s/2818876/1/ I tend to agree. It's bad enough when one of the ghostbusters falls madly in love with the 'new girl', but two?! I noticed that the person reviewing their story seems quite familiar, too. www.fanfiction.net/r/2818876/0/1/How very ironic.
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Post by SuperStantzio on Mar 7, 2006 16:28:53 GMT -4
Yes it's redicloius. After I read it, I didn't like at all. It's so mary-sue. This story had really turned me off.
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