by SMCshimmer
1 2 3 4 5 6
PLOT: Rich girl Emily Rhapsody wants Darien Shields all for herself. When she finds out that Serena Tsukino is dating him, she schemes to steal him by spreading vicious rumors about her...
NEW CHARACTERS:Emily Rhapsody, Faith Harper, Sakura Abe, Amelia, Ko Matsui, Mr. Yamasaki, Rein Machida
LENGTH: 8276 words
RATING: PG-13
COMMENTS: When it comes to fandom in general - any fandom, not just this one - there are two types of Sues and Stus. The first type is the better known - the perfect original character, who is better than the canonical characters in every way, shape or form, and who becomes the focus of the story due to the thin premise of the story being about canon - but in reality, its about the authors themselves, inserted into the story. Sailor Gossip is not one of those stories.
Emily Rhapsody's story is the other, lesser known but just as distasteful (if not moreso) type of Sue - the revenge Sue. In this type of story, the author takes an insert based on someone in real life and turns them into a horrible, evil, irredeemable snot who would trample over corpses to get what they want. Usually, the person being written about is someone the author hates in real life, a person whom the author wants to villify, to get back at, but can't in the normal way. What makes the revenge Sue story all the more gratifying to the author is that the chance their real life target will see it is slim - very slim if its written in a canon or fandom the target doesn't know anything abourt.
Several clues point to this story being a revenge Sue story, despite the author not explicitly saying it is, a rare exception to the rule. For example, the name of Emily's best friend - Faith Harper - seems just a little too real in a story peppered with Serena Tsukinos and Ko Matsuis. There are very few redeeming qualities regarding Emily herself - she's rich but she buys reject bags, she's weak, she's snobby, she spreads distasteful rumors and clearly delights in them. She also is intended to "get hers" in the end, as a "poor little rich girl" with an alcoholic daddy and a mom who ran out on her, as if this is supposed to justify her actions - or perhaps it is a way to pooh-pooh her problems, in comparison to the ones she causes. The nerds and geeks are afraid of her, and Darien throws up at the mention of her.
But what really points to this being a revenge Sue more than anything is not so much how she is described, but who describes her. Most of the venom doesn't come from just any one character, but from the narrator - who is supposed to be somewhat impartial. But it is the narrator who tells us that Emily is the school whore. It is the narrator who tells us that Emily is a "girly girl" who is pathetic when she is forced to face a real challenge. It is the narrator who tells us that Emily is obssessed with her make-up, abuses her friends and tells us specifically the smelly lotion she wears. And it is the narrator, who, for the link to the story from the author's page, promises that "what goes around comes around".
There are, of course, other things in this story, such as inconsistent canon references (Lita's parents being dead, as far as can be discerned even in the English version, for example, or "Ken" Tsukino not recognizing Darien). But the revenge Sue is what makes this story what it is. The author had better hope their target never sees this story. And if, by some chance, this isn't a revenge Sue....well, the author definitely fooled me.
Sailor Moon and related characters are copyrighted ©1991-2006 Naoko Takeuchi.
