![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Kvothe is not a Mary Sue
Dec. 18th, 2016 02:58 amvia http://ift.tt/2hLuF25:
bookcub:
So I was talking to @frei-rancken about Kvothe and whether or not he was a Mary Sue and if he had flaws or not. And here’s the super long (and late) version of my response.
So a Mary Sue is a perfect character. They don’t have any flaws and they never make mistakes. Which I suppose seems like Kvothe at first glance. But he’s not.
Let’s examine the evidence:
He’s homeless and starving for three years after his parents die.
He gets whipped for showing up a teacher
Then kicked out of the library. Sorry BANNED.
One of the teachers who likes him, told him to leave school.
Flaws:
Arrogant - Do I need to explain this one? He talks about how smart he is and how talented, he is and how perfect he is while constantly making mistakes left and right.
Impulsive – He jumped off a building to impress a teacher. (So many other examples, but this is the best one)
Selfish – Seriously, Sim and Will deserve a better bff than Kvothe. Doesn’t even write to them when he goes away.
Reckless – He took a candle (fire) into a library, filled with flamable books (and then banned from it)
Wrathful – He’s a mass murderer. The fake Edema Ruh troupe comes to mind, when he killed them all. I realize part of the reason behind this was punishment for kidnaping and raping the girls, but part of it was for impersonating his people.
Righteous – How many times does Kvothe see someone do a thing an thinks he can do better? How many times does Sim have to remind him that he doesn’t know alchemy?
Elusive/Secretive – His friends, his best friends, know very little about him (but like, same with them. We know very little about Sim and Wil when you think about it.) The time that comes to mind is when Sim asks him if he’s Edema Ruh, his ethnicity which he doesn’t shut up in his internal monologue
Mass murderer – Let’s not forget the time he also killed another group of bandits.
And here is the most important part: Kote. The broken man who remains after Kvothe lived. Who is so ashamed of his past and his existence that he is barely living.
bookcub:
So I was talking to @frei-rancken about Kvothe and whether or not he was a Mary Sue and if he had flaws or not. And here’s the super long (and late) version of my response.
So a Mary Sue is a perfect character. They don’t have any flaws and they never make mistakes. Which I suppose seems like Kvothe at first glance. But he’s not.
Let’s examine the evidence:
He’s homeless and starving for three years after his parents die.
He gets whipped for showing up a teacher
Then kicked out of the library. Sorry BANNED.
One of the teachers who likes him, told him to leave school.
Flaws:
Arrogant - Do I need to explain this one? He talks about how smart he is and how talented, he is and how perfect he is while constantly making mistakes left and right.
Impulsive – He jumped off a building to impress a teacher. (So many other examples, but this is the best one)
Selfish – Seriously, Sim and Will deserve a better bff than Kvothe. Doesn’t even write to them when he goes away.
Reckless – He took a candle (fire) into a library, filled with flamable books (and then banned from it)
Wrathful – He’s a mass murderer. The fake Edema Ruh troupe comes to mind, when he killed them all. I realize part of the reason behind this was punishment for kidnaping and raping the girls, but part of it was for impersonating his people.
Righteous – How many times does Kvothe see someone do a thing an thinks he can do better? How many times does Sim have to remind him that he doesn’t know alchemy?
Elusive/Secretive – His friends, his best friends, know very little about him (but like, same with them. We know very little about Sim and Wil when you think about it.) The time that comes to mind is when Sim asks him if he’s Edema Ruh, his ethnicity which he doesn’t shut up in his internal monologue
Mass murderer – Let’s not forget the time he also killed another group of bandits.
And here is the most important part: Kote. The broken man who remains after Kvothe lived. Who is so ashamed of his past and his existence that he is barely living.
