#maplequeen612

Answer courtesy of @smolkitsuneposts

Hi there, my dude. Ah, the Mary Sue... There's MANY different subtypes, but I suppose you mean the kind that everyone likes and thinks about too much? "Past Actions" is a bit vague, too, but you'll want to show her internal struggles and what drives her to help others. "Why is she going out of her way to help me?" Does she do anything for herself? Or is she too ashamed? Does she believe that she deserves help after whatever she did in the past? Her past actions will be at the back of her mind. Is there something that still affects you to this day? 

Think about it this way:I was mean to this one kid way way back in elementary school. I still feel bad about it, and I try to make sure that I'm not unreasonable to anyone else. She may forsake her own work to assist someone else, and may ultimately fail because of it. Or maybe she gives a homeless person her paycheck and suffers as a result. Hope this helps

Addons by the borb since u sent it to this blog and i should contribute something lmao-

A lot of people who struggle with self-deprecation do try and ‘make up for it’ by being overly kind to other people. ‘I’m such an awful person who doesn’t deserve any kindness but if i Do Enough maybe i will Be Better’

This kind of over empathy works a lot like a form of emotional self harm- by wrapping oneself in the problems of others, there’s no spoons left over for the person to work on their own issues. When your character is really wrapped up in ~plot~, and all these stressful things are happening, She’ll probably be Even More Helpful Than Usual, even though her own life is falling apart. I’d throw in some flavour text about all the unwashed dishes in the sink, or all the clothes on the floor, how greasy her hair is, how she isn’t doing makeup even though she normally does ect ect, even as she provides stellar emotional labour for everyone else around her.

She might also have a ritual of some kind centered around her guilt- whenever she does a fun activity, she needs to ‘make up for it’ by doing ‘x’ in return

a ~mary sue~ like character doesn’t exist if you flesh them out my friend. Give her a personality, give her a fatal flaw, and she’ll be a lovely character

Hii!

the common problem with making a queer villain is that a lot of villains tend to be queercoded. the reason for this is traits the society thinks are undesirable on people are often attributed to villains to make them seem more ‘unlike’ the heros or ‘normal people’. That’s why villainous characters are often badly scarred or disabled (such as having cybernetic enhancements- anakin skywalker became more disabled the eviler her got), female villains are often sexually provocative unlike the good, pure, heroic girls, and male villains are more ‘’flamboyant’’ in their speech and manner of dress, such as hades from disneys hercules. Aromantic villains are also a favorite- harry potter subscribes hardcore to the ‘love’ thing being Superior, and it’s stated numerous times that voldemort can not love and is thus less than human for it

But what’s wrong with this? Well, it’s that these traits are seen as undesirable and ‘other’, furthering the villainous nature of the character. there’s no reason your villian can’t be nb!! You know who’s a good canon nonbinary villain who’s not portrayed in a stereotypical manner? Envy, from fullmetal alchemist! You just need to separate the nbness from the villainy. Make sure your heros respect the villains pronouns and identity, and cal people out if they don’t. By making it a completely normal and accepted thing among the heros and greater population, it removes the nbness as a strange or potentially villainous aspect of their character. It’d also be neat if one of the main or more heroic characters was nb as well.

Second part: I have an OC who was locked up in the void as punishment for loving someone considered evil (having xe's voice taken away and tortured), and then released from xe's prison and expected to help save those who locked xe up, How might xe act?

Part one- I’d kiss normal goodbye. I’ve got a pretty good post on isolation here with add ons from stimits, and there’s loose posts in my ‘upsetting content’ and ‘torture cw’ tags (as well as just floating im really bad at tagging) that deal with Void like situations and the mental effects of such a thing.

I’d definitely say he would not be able to pretend to be ‘Normal’ at all, especially if he was in the void for centuries. It’s likely he would have to entirely relearn person hood and social skills- after centuries in a void there wouldn’t be very much left of him.

Part 2

Lucky for you I also have posts on vocal torture and the effects of it here and here

So, post being torture xe’s expected to save the people who tortured xir? ... I would say xe wouldn’t, or that xe would do a very poor job of it. Not only owuld xe be deal with the physical and mental aftereffects of torture, being expected to help the people who hurt xir would likely compound on xir mental suffering and make it much much worse. 

Xir mental and physical suffering would make xir a very poor rescuer for people xe knew and loved, let alone the people who tortured xir you know? The only way I can see xir going to rescue xir torturers is if xe get’s something out of it, like freedom, immunity from past and future crimes, or xir voice back, medical treatment ect.

Also just a head up. If your character 2 uses ‘xe’ pronouns, you muddled the tense just a bit. I have a post on pronouns here that might be helpful.

If I haven’t answered it, it hasn’t sent! I’m working on all new questions today!

And i’d love to check out your writing!!! Is there a link you can send me? Or do you need my email address?