User blog comment:Nyxoda/lizzie pucket/@comment-25766357-20141207075456/@comment-3114880-20141211091726

Some of my early fanfics featured some blatant Gary Stus. What kind of duelist in yugioh ALWAYS gets opponents playing right into his hands all the time? My G Gundam OC caught Allenby on the rebound unintentionally and just ran with it. My DBZ OC was able to keep up with Omega Shenron upon his introduction. There was even a Bleach OC in there who had an encounter with Arturo Plateado, trained with the Vizards despite not being one, and wound up being thrown into Aizen's empty seat quickly to spearhead an assault on Hueco Mundo.

I didn't have too much feedback regarding the early fanfics, which meant I had to figure out what I was doing wrong on my own. I had to work my way through character balance by looking around at what others were doing right and what I disliked seeing other people pulling in terms of character balance.

Just look at how far I've come since then. in my Rising Vanguards story over on DA, I've got a character named Kensuke Yamakawa who is indeed a strong cardfighter and the leader of his team, but he has weaknesses that can be unintentionally or intentionally exploited, such as a tendency to be distracted by fanservice. And despite his strength, I still couldn't let him beat someone like Kai or Ren, ending a string of chapters paralleling a certain season by having him lose to a canon character. And as far as his teammates go, I also went out of my way to make sure they didn't fall TOO far behind, going to the point where he occasionally prepares to step up only to realize the team already won anyway.

Like learning to ride a bike, you're going to fall a few times before you finally get the hang of it, but once you do, it practically becomes second nature.