Agenda Storytelling

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(Edited)

All stories have some kind of meta-text. Sometimes, the story is a rigid allegory where the author's intent is dictated by the underlying subject matter. Sometimes, the lack of connection with anything is the meta-text.

There are also literary camps, like those who adhere to "death of the author," that intend to completely divorce the author's intent.

I tend to lean towards a blend of the two: a) What did the author intend? and b) What did the audience receive?

Lately, media production seems to lean towards the iconoclastic. You thought you knew your heroes? Well, now your heroes are an empty shell of their former selves, replaced with even more empty shells. Where your heroes used to have a narrative arc, instead, they start out perfect.

There's a place for perfect characters, if you understand the genre. For example, Mary Poppins is "practically perfect in every way." But the narrative arc isn't really about Mary Poppins, as such.

Having said that, I assert that Mary Poppins is not a Mary Sue.

What is a Mary Sue?

First of all, what is a Mary Sue, anyway?

The term "Mary Sue" comes from the name of a character created by Paula Smith in 1973 for her parody story "A Trekkie's Tale" published in her fanzine Menagerie #2. The story starred Lieutenant Mary Sue ("the youngest Lieutenant in the fleet — only fifteen and a half years old"), and satirized unrealistic characters in Star Trek fan fiction.

Source: Wikipedia

I see the Mary Sue archetype having the following traits:

  • No faults
  • Expert in everything, relative to experience
  • Should not be upstaged
  • Able to bend the rules of the setting

In my opinion, Mary Poppins falls short of this definition because she has experience that informs her expertise. Mary Poppins' intent is to be upstaged. I would assert that Mary Poppins doesn't even bend the rules of the setting because she's not the only one who can alter reality (i.e. do magic), in the story. She just happens to be better at it.

Modern Iconoclasm

There is this notion that in order to make room for new, "better balanced" heroes, the old heroes must be torn down and trashed. Can you imagine reading a sequel to Tom Sawyer where the new hero must stamp out the old Tom Sawyer in order to replace him?

But often, that's what we have. And it's a result of extending and prolonging IP (Intellectual Property) beyond the author's original intent.



Headcanon

In a nutshell, headcanon is the accepted and received story, apart from the original author or additional authors of a particular IP, that survives the official canon of that IP. It is the natural result of "death of the author," when the author goes off the rails.

A great example of this is "Han Shot First." The headcanon of many fans was that Han shot first, so when Lucas fiddled with it, many fans just didn't accept this.

Here are many of the changes so far:

My headcanon is that Han Shot First, it doesn't matter what you change or if you add "Maclunkey." But at least Lucas wasn't trying to tear down Han Solo. If anything, Lucas' intent was the opposite, and that's at least admirable.

What Agenda?

All this to say, if the new media has gone off the rails, it's best to just let them do that. If you don't like it, just don't watch it. This includes avoiding ... alternative methods of getting media. Don't even let them blame pirated downloads for undercutting their revenue. If the new stuff is bad, just rewatch your old DVDs. You're not missing anything.


. . . and by the way, in my headcanon, Luke only drinks blue milk.



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This is quite possibly the strange post I've seen you make.

Where did you come up with this stuff?

it's honestly quite good though. I don't know about a Mary Sue being able to actually bend the rules of her environment if that is what you're getting at...

You're definitely right though. In today's world there is no emphasis on character development. We are given fully completed artificial and incredibly unrealistic characters that were supposed to take at face value. There is no suspension of disbelief because everything is unbelievable.

I'll tell you what I am watching the current version of card sharks right now and I'm so frustrated with it because I love the old version and this new version has everything that is wrong with America in it. It's fully PC. It's all about making you love the contestants and making you feel like they are incredible. They are supposed to be pawns in a ruthless game. The old card sharks new this

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Busy decided that's the extent of my comment. I'm guessing you don't care for the new Witcher series. That guy is as marysue as it gets

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I don't know about a Mary Sue being able to actually bend the rules of her environment if that is what you're getting at...

Sometimes it could just be the character being unusually lucky. Or maybe just having all of the Jedi within her. Having some unearned super power. It's not always a deal-breaker. But if you stack all of them, it gets unbelievable.

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Hello c-squared!

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Of course Mary Poppins isn't a Mary Sue. In many Whovian headcannon she is a Time Lady from the planet Gallifrey.

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Yeah, that actually makes sense. That also explains how she has access to hammerspace.

image.png

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Gasp! 😯 and I was expecting Captain Marvel, Dr Who, Rae Skywalker to defeat the entire Empire without breaking a fingernail!

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