marycrawford | H:tLJ Ebay stuff

Salmoneus' alleged costume from the H:tLJ episode 'If I Had A Hammer' is being sold on Ebay here. The same seller is also selling a severed head prop from Xena and a robe allegedly worn by Autolycus.

[Side note #1: wow, there's clearly a bigger market for Xena props than for H:tLJ ones. Cannot believe that anyone would bid on this.]

[Side note #2: While browsing for more H:tLJ stuff, I was amused when I clicked on a lot described as a 'Hercules War Club' and found this.]

I also found a H:tLJ fanzine called 'Serenity' by Denyse Bridger for sale. I've never heard of the fanzine or the author, not that that means anything, but the plot description does set off my Mary Sue alarm: "contains wonderful four part story of the rivalry among Hercules and his brothers, Ares God of War and King Iphicles, over a beautiful woman whose singing voice can soothe even a War God's turbulent soul." Um, yeah. OTOH, the portrait of Ares on the title page is gorgeous.

Oh, and someone is selling the Young Hercules movie on VHS for $0.01 here.

Disclaimer: I've done no business with any of these sellers. Use caution and common sense on Ebay and indeed everywhere else.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

but the plot description does set off my Mary Sue alarm: "contains wonderful four part story of the rivalry among Hercules and his brothers, Ares God of War and King Iphicles, over a beautiful woman whose singing voice can soothe even a War God's turbulent soul."

*snicker*

And she probably has "raven tresses" and "eyes the color of new leaves in springtime" too...

Snerk. Either that, or she's a feisty redhead.

I feel bad for poor Iolaus, though. How come he doesn't get to play with the ~~hydra~~ hottie?

I should write a story about a redhead Iolaus dates that turns into a hydra...she's perfect in every way, except for the hydra thing.

Or the 'love' interest could have mousy brown hair, be near-sighted, and buck-toothed...

I so hate Mary Sues. Except for my cousin, Mary Sue. Really, that's her name. :)

See, my problem is I really do have deep red hair (okay, it's hennaed, but my own color is pretty damn nice as well), and green eyes, and everytime someone slams Mary Sues for being easy on the eyes I feel a little twinge...

I have copper highlights when I stay out in the sun, but the eyes are light/medium brown. I feel no twinges...lol
There's a big difference in reality and myth here. It all depends on the writing, but the feisty redhead bit is a classic standard.

Ah, gotcha. This reminds me of the discussion I kept having with a writer friend of mine - his heroines always used to be gorgeous buxom feisty redheads. I'd tell him to give it a rest, and he'd say "But why? Look at X!" (X being a gorgeous buxom redhead of our acquaintance.)
Well, it's not as if I thought gorgeous redheads didn't exist. But I do feel that it's lazy to try and create an interesting character by way of long, loving descriptions of their unusual yet stunning beauty. Redheads are unusual, so is really long hair or eyes that change colors - and Mary Sues tend to have at least one of these traits.
But as Barbara says, it's all in the writing.

Just as gorgeous fictional chicks are often victims of lazy writing, I think Mary Sues are often the victim of lazy criticism. I have a similar problem that I do with the whole wuss criticism: At some point it stops being a criticism of the writing, and starts being a criticism of the characteristic. With the buxom redhead I doubt the problem would be solved if you did a search and replace and changed scarlet tresses to mousy melkboerenhondehaar (translations: milkman's dog's hair, don't you just love Dutch?). My first rule of beta holds true: don't look at what your beta says should be different, but at what she is reacting too. And I wish I could put into words what it is that makes the whole thing so Ack! for a reader (I made Lance the viewpoint character because I didn't want to have to deal with the adjective problem, in part because we share said, emerald/liquid jade/color-of-new-spring-leaves eye color), but I can see something beautiful in most people. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, where does it leave us if we describe everybody as plain? Or at least not exceeding some sort of acceptable upper range of cute. It makes me uncomfortable.

So yeah, it is all in the writing. Wish I could put my finger on what it is though, so criticism wouldn't have to be the disdainful sniff of 'she's too pretty' so often.

I think it boils down to the whole package. I'm going to use Anya as an example. In Amazon Women, we listen to Iolaus describe her as this beautiful woman whom he could sit all day just staring at. The kicker is that she can't cook, sew, and animals run away from her. You get the beauty that besots a man, but you have the quirks that make her human, likeable, and sympathetic.

In writing, you can have the beautiful or handsome character, but pages should not be spent describing them, nor should every character instantly fall in love/like the character or wax poetical on their attributes. I've written with people who thought their character was perfect and EVERYONE should like her or him. Sorry, life's not like that. I have my pretty characters, but I give them things that make them less than perfect and believeable. I also have my homely character that everyone seems to like for different reasons. Go figure.
I wrote him in protest of the standard beautiful/handsome vampire who is misunderstood. I have another with a receding hairline and who's mousy in appearance.

Also, what's with all the young heroines/heros of books? Since I prefer fantasy novels, I read a lot that seem inundated with them. When I was young, sure, I liked the 18-20 year old hero, but now I want to see over 30, thank you. One of my favorites has the heroine as 50. How cool is that?

Barbara, who is not 50, but sees it in her future soon enough.

H:tLJ Ebay stuff

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject