Recently on the alt.fan.bgcrisis newsgroup a poster suggested that my fanfic Bubblegum Cross fit into a sub-category of self-insertion fanfiction he called "White Knight" fanfics. According to this poster, "WK" fics are typically dominated by a male lead character based on the author, with amazing powers he doesn't possess in real life, an uncanny ability to deal with problems that the main characters have difficulty with, and who is accepted by the other characters with little resistance.

Well... I asked the poster to define how my story fits into the WK category but I got no response. So I thought about his charge and decided to take a closer look at the male lead character "Blackie" in BG Cross to see if he actually fit the White Knight role.

1. MALE LEAD CHARACTER BASED ON THE AUTHOR - From the moment I began writing BG Cross I had already made the conscious choice to avoid putting myself directly into the story or using myself as an obvious blueprint for the character of Blackie. Many authors before me had already pursued the self-insertion route, some with better results than others, so there just didn't seem to be room for one more. And it wasn't something I felt compelled to do anyway. I figured it would be more interesting for *this* story to create an original character that could be a vehicle for revealing answers to many of the "lost secrets" of Bubblegum Crisis, primarily the question of why Sylia's data unit had the number 2 on it.
   
   

   And quite simply I wanted to create an original character to develop my writing skill. So Blackie Stingray was born. But as any writer will tell you, a good place to start is to "write what you know", and to build the foundation for my original character from scratch I chose to write into the character a few details about what I knew of myself, such as the fact that I played guitar in a band at one time. But that's about as obvious as the personal facets get. The other details that I wrote in to the character were things that no one but myself would ever recognize, like feelings, emotions and motivations concerning relationships and other intangible things.

   On the surface we couldn't be more different. Blackie's hair is jet black, while mine is dirty blonde. Blackie is six foot two with a muscular build while I am five foot ten and average build. Blackie is shy in social situations while I am generally outgoing. I found it much more interesting to work on the internal elements of Blackie because those are the elements that always endeared the characters of my favorite stories to me. How do they think and feel? So, while there is a sliver of truth in the idea that the male lead character is based upon the author, Blackie is based very loosely on myself, not based wholly and obviously on the author, as many self-insertion fanfics are.
   
   

2. AMAZING POWERS THE AUTHOR DOESN'T POSSESS IN REAL LIFE - Okay, I will grant that Blackie has "amazing powers", and that I definitely do not possess those same powers, but this is because he is a cyborg. He is not entirely human, and therefore can do things that most humans cannot do by his very nature. But to those readers who have followed the story with even the least amount of concern for details, it should be apparent that Blackie is not so empowered as to be perfect. For the same reason that he is able to do things that most humans cannot, he is also flawed because of "what" he is and when he was created, and this flaw is slowly becoming more important to the outcome of the story. And it will soon become apparent that any super powers that Blackie might possess won't be enough to get him out of the troublesome events of the next section of the story. He will have to rely on humans to help him with that.
   
   
   
   
3. UNCANNY ABILITY TO DEAL WITH PROBLEMS THAT THE MAIN CHARACTERS HAVE DIFFICULTY WITH - Blackie has helped the Knight Sabers out of a jam - once. But the Knight Sabers were clearly in over their heads and out of practice. And the help that Blackie provided was only enough to allow the Knight Sabers to briefly even the odds. And their enemy escaped. As mentioned above though, Blackie is about to find himself in a jam that he can't escape, and only the Knight Sabers will be able to help him against the very same enemy that nearly defeated them the first time.
   
   
4. ACCEPTED BY THE MAIN CHARACTERS WITH LITTLE RESISTANCE - When Blackie first meets Priss he doesn't know she is a member of the Knight Sabers. And he doesn't try to make contact with her first. She tries to make contact with him. Why? Because he plays guitar. And despite her efforts he still turns her away... at first. It's only after Priss gets into a fight that the two even come close to communicating let alone accepting each other. And 19 chapters later the two still haven't kissed! And as for being accepted by the other characters, Blackie has had an uphill climb all the way, even though he is a relative of two of the characters and is well-known to Dr. Raven. Will he be accepted into the Knight Sabers organization? Sylia didn't want anything to do with him at first, but even as she considers the idea, Priss is totally against it, while Nene and Linna aren't sure what to think. Sorry, no instant friends in this story. You have to earn friendship in real life, and so will Blackie Stingray.
   
   
   

There are other factors that determine whether a character is a "White Knight" or not, but these are the most important, and yet I feel that Blackie Stingray doesn't seem to be accepted as unconditionally as "author-inspired" characters that have come before or after him. In fact I see him more as a "Black Knight", a character that isn't accepted very readily and has to cross many bridges to earn any kind of respect or trust from the main characters. What will happen to Blackie Stingray that might help him earn that respect and/or trust? You'll just have to read the rest of the story to find out :)

I'd like to know what you think about this response. Feel free to E-Mail me.

Well that's enough rambling for a while. Keep your stick on the ice, and I'll see ya sometime again after the hockey playoffs with a report on my trip to Anime Central 2000

Andy - March 19th 2000