utsukushiihane:

“just a drawing”

okay, let’s make sure we’re on the same page here.

a character who is “just a drawing” is not a character. no, no - stop, and listen to me. a drawing is just a drawing. a drawing of a girl who has no name, no story, and no personality is just a drawing (and to be perfectly honest, that drawing would be pretty boring because even things that are “just a drawing” have life in them, if they’re any good. the artist had an idea, some inspiration, to create that girl. maybe she doesn’t have a name, or a full back story, but she, in that moment captured, has life.)

but we’re not talking about a single still image of a 2D girl, here, anyway.

we’re talking about a girl who has been given a name, a personality, and a backstory by her creator. she has likes and dislikes; she has friends and family. she has her own sense of fashion, and her own style of speech. through the progress of the story told, we’re allowed to see a small slice of her life, as seen through the eyes of the narrator. 

she is expressed through words and art, but her existence can affect those of us in the real world who watch her. we want to be like her; we want to be friends with her.

some people might get angry at her for being “too perfect” - that’s what the cry of “mary sue!” means, right? she’s too perfect - make her broken, make her unlikeable like me. make her more “real.”

I think a good portion of people who watch and enjoy shows with “too perfect” 2D characters like them because they want an ideal to aspire to. they want to feel like something better is possible. they want to believe that not everything has to be so broken to be worth anything. they want hope. 

I won’t disagree that fiction frequently strips away facets of characters or events that might be unpleasant, if they took place in reality. but what fiction does is condense information that’s important to the story, and if most of what is seen is positive, then the missing blanks tend to be filled in with additional positive traits that have never been touched upon, thus making a character “too perfect.” if the flaws aren’t relevant to the story, they’re not discussed. 

the problem with screaming “mary sue” is that it just sounds like “I’ll never be that good, I give up! stop showing me something I can’t become!” why are you angry about it? why do you care if it doesn’t strike a nerve in you? if you’re already awesome, you’re better than her, it doesn’t matter. you won’t cry foul. 

belittling someone’s opinions by saying “it’s just ________” is low-level, unimaginative verbal combat. obviously it’s important to them, and saying you don’t think it should be doesn’t take the argument anywhere except to exemplify that you’re kind of a jerk.　

(via loveslight)