schmevil | (no subject)

I have been fannish for as long as I can recall. My first fandom was Star Trek. When I was in grade school my friends and I would play Star Trek during recess. We did other stuff to, playing house, skipping, hopscotch and what have you, but Star Trek was one of the games that all of us, boy and girl could all get behind.

We all had one or two roles that we stuck with. My best friend (we’re bff even today) always played Dr. Crusher, and another close friend (who I still hang out with regularly) played Wesley. Let me tell you, they were the most ridiculous appearing and most dysfunctional play-family I have ever had the pleasure to encounter. Our other friends Big Michael and Little Michael played, respectively, Worf and Data. I always played Tasha Yar.

I still remember how upset I was when she was killed by that oil slick punkass.

I don’t remember how old I was when I wrote my first fanfic, but it was Spock/OFC and I wrote it in my head while watching ToS in my older brother J’s brand new apartment. It was the first time he was living alone and without a roommate, and he’d invited us over, I suppose to inspect his new space. Make sure it was up to our standards. The things I remember most vividly are his wicked leather beanbag chair and his (at the time) state of the art tv.

While my parents and J discussed rent, utilities and the economics of KD, my brother G and I watched Star Trek. It was the episode where Spock goes under cover as a Romulan and has a flirtation with that badass Romulan commander. As much as I understood that as a Vulcan, logic was essential to him, and he was uninterested in overt displays of emotion, that episode gave me ideas.

I decided that Spock needed a girl.

The Romulan commander was great, they were almost perfect for each other, but it could never work out, what with his being in Star Fleet and her being a Romulan officer. They might end up having to kill each other!

No, what Spock needed was a girl who had all the brilliance and passion of a Romulan, but none of the political issues. What he needed, I decided, was someone interesting. Someone compelling, beautiful and unique!

I can’t remember her name but she had purple eyes, was a deadly hand-to-hand combatant and was a Vulcan from the time before logic, who was trapped in Spock’s time after an unfortunate accident involving solar flairs and the Enterprise’s warp drives. At first, she and Spock wouldn’t get along – they were from two different world’s… er … time’s, after all, but they couldn’t deny their connection for long. Not with Spock’s Pon Farr fast approaching!

Then it faded to black because sex grossed me right the fuck out, back then. And thus was born my first Mary Sue.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh, memories.

My first fanfic writing also contained a Mary Sue, and was very wish fulfillment oriented.

But I think that you can't REALLY call yourself a fan without having a shameful Mary Sue past. Because, as is evident in your description, Mary Sue is created out of love and a desire to Make Things Right where canon went wrong, and what's more fannish than that?

You know, there are surprising number of tolerable Suefics out there. I still have fond memories of a Highlander Suefic about a middle aged lady named Sadie who had violet eyes and a mysterious connection to nearly every canon character. One of the first fics I read, way back when. It sounds dreadful but the author wrote it with so much charm that it was actually pretty tolerable for a good long while. Though I wonder if it would hold up to a rereading.

Because, as is evident in your description, Mary Sue is created out of love and a desire to Make Things Right where canon went wrong, and what's more fannish than that?

The road to hell. *g* But you're right.

Is there anyone's first fanfic that DOESN'T have a Mary Sue, even a MS dressed up as a canon character? I think it's a rite of passage. Like learning to tie your shoes.

(I didn't write sex for my first MS because I was eleven and just not thinking like that, but can I just say how glad I am that I was eleven long before the internet came about?)

I don't think you ever really get over the Mary Sue impulse. I mean, as much as people hate, hate, hate Mary Sues and say they'd never, ever write one, when you're alone in your head, watching your show (or whatever), you really do want to get in their and be part of the action.

I didn't write sex for my first MS because I was eleven and just not thinking like that, but can I just say how glad I am that I was eleven long before the internet came about?
I still don't write sex scenes. *g*