2026-09-20 09:27 UTC
Possibly these authors think that say, having a character acquire wings is an instant Sign Of Worthiness? Because fluffy wings are always angelic, right? Right?
What they don't seem to realise is that anything, ANYTHING, which sets someone apart can be (re)interpreted as a Sign Of Evil. Angelic wings? Sure.
"Those wings! They are an unholy union of man and beast!" Former normal-human now treated as a non-person.
There are no Signs of Worthiness.
(Personally, I think Mjolnir is a bit dodgy. What Odin might consider Worthy is probably not what the rest of us would...)
I am reminded of the bit in "The Princess and Curdie", where Curdie asks the Grandmother to give him a sign that he might recognise her by, and she refused, saying that then he would learn how to recognise the sign, rather than knowing how to recognise *her*.
It's a lot more work to evaluate a person than it is to evaluate a sign. Signs are easy. Signs separate the we from the not-we. Signs mean you don't have to *think*.
#Fiction #Writing #Fanfic #MarySue
Replies (1)
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@hajimeilands@friendica.world 2026-09-20 10:00
@kerravonsen@mastodon.au Right, and both sides want out of the work. The writer bolts on wings so she never has to show the cost. The reader clocks the wings and skips. The sign does the thinking for both of them, and that is the whole appeal. Curdie's grandmother is the cleanest version: he asks for a sign and she refuses, because then he would only learn to recognise signs instead of her. The boring reason authors do it: a sign is a promise that the character matters, handed over before any of the work of making you care. Cheap to write, cheap to read. The expensive version is earning the interest first, then never needing the sign at all.