Edit: 10/3/10. Sections split for a more comprehensive test and the grading changed so it's not just arbitrary. Separate sections mean you can see exactly where your OC is weak, and also apply it to minor OC's and non-anime universe. The achievable/relevant score is based on the fact that some questions may be logically inconsistent with one another (you cannot have started with a out-of-region starter and a Pikachu and if you did, you should probably stop now) and some questions are bad enough on their own, that the fact you don't meet the specification of the sub-clause doesn't make it any less problematic.
So I was looking at the Mary Sue Litmus test to test a couple of characters against and it occurred to me that there isn't really a Litmus test for OT's, so this is me attempting to create one. I'm not sure that FanFiction is the right forum for it, but I couldn't be bothered with all the formatting efforts required for posting it on my website, so this is where it's going.
WARNING: This is mostly just my opinion and even if you score high on it, doesn't mean your character is hopeless. It's mostly just a few things to watch out for while your writing, but even the most Mary Sue-esque characters can be well developed by the right writer. At the same time, it's a convenient list if you want to ever spoof OT's. Check out Wikipedia if you're not sure what a Mary Sue is - I think there's even a link to an almost infamous Harry Potter story featuring one of the worst Mary Sue's ever - worth a read if you want a bit of a laugh. Never worked out whether it was serious or just a really good joke.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Pokemon or the Mary Sue Litmus Test.
Character
Is your character named after you (any part and including pseudonyms)?
Is your character's name an unusual spelling of a common name? (e.g. Jessyca)
Is your character's name a noun or adjective not normally used as a name, or include unnecessary punctuation?
Is the name related to some aspect of the environment?
a. Is this related to a type preference? You may minus one point at this stage if they are a gym leader as this is consistent with conventional naming practices in the anime universe.
b. Will this be highly significant in the future? (e.g. is this because of a prophecy)
Did you choose this name because it correlated to their personality?
Does your character's have a nickname or pseudonym? (Nicknames does not include simple shortenings of names, but rather names that have no relationship to their actual name e.g. 'Dark Fire' or 'Hawk' or 'Bob' for Lisa)
a. Does the nickname relate to the type of Pokémon they train so that anybody will know in an instant what sort of Pokémon they like to train?
Is your character's name foreign, even though the character isn't?
Does your character own an official Pokémon League hat?
a. Which they acquired by sending in a million cards of some sort?
b. Whose acquisition was never adequately explained?
Do they dress like a female version of Ash Ketchum or some other sort of adaption of Ash's clothing?
a. Have you ever described them thusly (e.g. he was dressed in an outfit similar to Ash Ketchum at the start of the (insert name here) League only way cooler and trendier)?
Is your character highly attractive without having to work at it?
Are your character's eyes somehow extraordinary beyond the realms of cannon (odd hair and eye colour do seem to naturally occur in the Pokémon universe so I'm talking lightning bolts and the like), or receive excessive description?
a. Do their eyes change colour in order to reflect their emotions?
b. Drastically so? (e.g red to green as opposed to blue to green)
Do you spend an inordinate amount of time on the physical description of your character relative to other characters?
Is the character fashion plate? (e.g. do they exemplify a particular style?)
Does the character dress in a manner you find particularly attractive?
a. In spite of the impracticalities regarding battling and/or traveling on a Pokémon journey? (e.g. their outfit has nowhere to keep Pokéballs or they insist on wearing stilettos to transverse Kanto)
Does your character have a clone or identical twin?
a. If they are the clone, does their existence somehow transpire from the battle between Mew and Mewtwo in the first Pokémon movie?
b. Are they the twin of a cannon character for whom they are constantly mistaken for?
i. In spite of being of the opposite gender?
ii. Are they the carbon copy (twin or clone) of Ash?
Is extraordinarily intelligent or inordinately dumb?
a. Are they skilled in an area unrelated to Pokémon but which becomes an incredibly useful skill in the future? (e.g. being really good at Math and thereby getting everybody out of some terrible jam – and you thought Math would never be useful)
a. Are the characters indifferent to their mental ability or inability unless it is needed for some plot purpose? (e.g. only remembering that Bob is really smart when you need a brilliant plan)
Is your character rich or well-to-do, without having to win a lot of battles or the like?
Is your character the sole heir to a large fortune?
Is your character unusually accomplished for his/her age?
a. Is this because they are the protégé of one (or more) of the following:
i. Professor Oak
ii. A member of the Elite Four
iii. A Pokémon Master
iv. Giovanni
v. Ash Ketchum (usually a future Ash, because if Hoenn taught us anything, it is that Ash makes for a crappy mentor)
Is your character fluent in some kind of Poketongue?
a. Are they able to understand perfectly Pokémon other than their own or those they have spent a lot of time with? (Excluding Psychic Pokémon)
b. Are they able to communicate with a Pokémon better than its own trainer?
c. Is this a Pokémon otherwise known to be anti-social but takes to them immediately?
Does your character collect things you consider intellectual or cultured?
Is/was your character ever any of the following:
a. A rocket grunt.
b. A gym leader.
c. A frontier brain.
d. A member of the Elite Four.
e. A member of Team Aqua/Magma.
f. A Pokémon Ranger.
Does your character play a musical instrument or have an amazing singing voice?
Does your character practice martial arts or is a highly skilled fighter?
Does your character ever 'just know things' without any sort of Psychic lineage?
If your character is a Psychic, do they hail from somewhere other than Saffron or Mossdeep?
a. Is your character related to Sabrina?
b. Is your character her long lost sister?
Does your character share any of your major quirks or habits?
Does your character have a specified accent?
Does your character have some kind of handicap that does not hinder them significantly?
Does your character have some kind of addiction or significant personality flaw? (e.g. a histrionic personality type or a philanderer) Extra points if the addiction or flaw makes him/her sexy.
Does your character have a physical flaw that does not detract away from their beauty?
Does your character have any significant markings?
Is your character a Nurse Joy or Officer Jenny with no interest in medicine or law enforcement respectively?
a. If you character is a Nurse Joy, does she own a Pokémon other than chancey?
b. Is your Nurse Joy or Officer Jenny 'shiny'?
Does your character have little or no empathy for other people?
Is your character astonishingly good at something that is not their profession? (e.g. being an incredible co-ordinator although they practice awesomely as a trainer)
Is your character exceptionally skilled/knowledge in some respect with regard to Pokémon?
a. Are they widely known for this skill?
b. Does your character surpass some cannon character previously known for their skill in this area? (e.g. surpassing Professor Elm in knowledge of Pokémon breeding)
Is your character from Pallet Town?
Is your character the champion of a Pokémon League?
a. More than one league?
b. A league outside of their region?
c. Champion at only ten years of age?
Did your character begin their journey at an age other than ten? Extra point if they were less than ten.
Is your character a vampire?
a. Is it Edward Cullen?
b. Do you ever adequately explain what the male lead from Twilight is doing in the freakin' Pokémon world?
Does your character settle all disputes with his/her fists?
Total: 70. Achievable/relevant total: approx. 44
FAIL: 40+ Credit: 30-39 Distinction: 16-29 High Distinction: 4-15
If you scored less than 4 you may want to check your answers, for it is likely that at least 4 of 70 will be relevant to even a well written OC as we all fall into these sort of traps. You should not get a 0 in this section, and a very low score may mean you have the opposite problem, that is, a lack of any sort of character development to measure him on.
If your OC is not the protagonist or antagonist, you may still need to be concerned if it is at the high end of D. It is much easier to get a low score for non-protagonist OC's so bare it in mind.
Relationships
Are one or more characters attracted to him/her?
a. Minus one point if the character is Brock.
b. Plus two points if the character is Ash.
c. Do characters fall in love with them in spite of sexual preference or a pre-existing relationships?
Is your character related to one or more cannon characters?
a. Is this character a gym leader?
b. Is this character Ash? Extra point if the character is a sibling.
c. Is your character the lovechild of two cannon characters raised by two cannon characters, only one of which is their parent, after the other died in a horrific accident? (If your character is the lovechild of Ash and Misty raised by Misty and Gary/Brock/Tracey/Rudy after Ash and Pikachu died in a horrific accident during their return from finally conquering the Pokémon league you should probably stop now and burn everything you've already written – but that's only a matter of opinion)
Does your character have an angsty past or childhood?
a. Does he/she angst about this during the story without any encouragement from an interested party?
Is the character a Pokémon/human hybrid? (No point here if a large number of characters in your universe are hybrids)
Is your character rivals with a cannon character?
a. Is it Ash? (Extra point if your character is considered Ash's original rival)
b. Is it Gary?
they a romantic rival?
Does your character remain in a committed relationship for almost the entire story?
a. In spite of their love interest being absent for almost the entire story?
b. In spite of numerous advances from various characters (other than Brock)?
c. Is the love interest a cannon character?
Has everyone significant heard of your character?
Do all the cannon character immediately like your character?
a. Are the only characters that don't like your character the bad guys?
b. Do they also end up liking them in the end?
Is your character ever blamed for something they didn't do?
a. Do the cannon characters band together to prove his/her innocence?
b. Were they blamed for something done by a cannon character? (Extra points if it was Ash's fault)
Does your character reform a villainous character?
a. Was it Giovanni?
b. Was it Team Aqua/Magma?
c. Was it Jesse, James and Meowth?
d. Was it Mewtwo?
e. Was it Paul?
Do they fall in reciprocated love with a cannon character?
Alternatively, do they fall in love with a character fandom? (Two points)
Does your character effect a change in their love interest to make them a more compatible partner? (e.g. they are able to make Ash smarter, Misty nicer, Brock less of a flirt)
Is your character nursed back to health by their love interest?
a. Is this the event, which causes your character to fall in love with them?
Does your character ever risk their life for another character?
a. Other than their love interest or close Pokémon companion?
b. Does the character die anyway?
Does your character die in their beloved arms or vice versa? Extra point if they die simultaneously.
Total: 42. Achievable/relevant total: approx. 28
FAIL: 25+ Credit: 14-24 Distinction: 9-13 High Distinction: 1-8
Again, I do not think you should be able to get a 0 in the section, but prove me wrong.
Pokémon Training
Is your character an exceptionally good trainer with very little effort?
Does your character constantly flaunt their skills in the face of type trumps and level, capturing/defeating many Pokémon despite obvious disadvantages?
a. Does this happen almost every time they encounter a Pokémon?
b. With no adequate explanation of how this happened?
Does your character have a remarkable amount of Pokémon acquired through means other than battle?
Are Pokémon instinctively drawn to your character?
Does your character have more than one of the same species of Pokémon?
a. More than ten?
b. Are they intentionally collecting this particular species?
c. Have they ever won a Pokémon battle using three different Pokémon of this species with surprisingly different results each round?
d. Does each individual Pokémon of this species collected have some unique skill not exhibited by other Pokémon of their species? (e.g. say they're collecting Marril's, each one has a different unique skill presumably inherited from their father, such as one may know flamethrower, another psychic attacks, and so on)
e. Add two points if your character accidentally caught thirty Tauros in a safari zone because they kept getting in front of his/her safari balls – it's already been done.
Does your character own any of the following Pokémon:
a. Mew.
b. Lucario.
c. Ho-oh (Ten points for this one).
d. Arceus (Ten points).
e. A super-powerful Pikachu (only half a point if your character has this Pikachu because she/he is the child of Ash Ketchum – don't want to be pointing this twice).
f. An Abra (or one of its evolved forms) when they themselves have no psychic ability.
g. Any legendary not already mentioned
h. An evolution of Evee that you invented for the purpose of your story. Or an Evee that never evolves. (No point if universe based on original 150/before addition of 'happiness' evolutions)
i. A Pokémon that you made up or a hybrid of two or more Pokémon.
k. An evolved form of a Pokémon that was already said to be at its final stage of evolution.
l. A Pokémon previously owned by a canon character. (e.g. your character is now the proud owner of one of Ash's released Pokémon)
m. A 'shiny' Pokémon. Add ten points if all their Pokémon are shiny.
Do any of your character's Pokémon have significant markings?
For which no adequate explanation is offered?
Which are the result of genetic experimentation?
Which are themselves a source of significant power?
Did your character begin their journey with a Pokémon other than one of the three starter Pokémon of their region?
Was it a Pokémon from another region?
Was it a Pikachu?
Did the Pokémon hate them at first, but they soon became friends after your character risked his/her life to save it? (It's been done)
Total: 58. Relevant/achievable total: approx. 30
FAIL: 20+ Credit: 14-19 Distinction: 8-13 High Distinction: 0-7
The pass rate on this one is much lower than the others, largely because this is the Pokémon fandom and so that's what matters. This is also, because of the high values on some of the problems. Any trainer with a Ho-oh or a team stocked with shiny Pokémon is questionable, even if that is the only flaw you have.
Plot
Was your character ever the sole survivor of some great tragedy?
Of which Ash was somehow responsible?
Did it have something to do with a legendary?
Did your character survive on account of intervention by a legendary?
Is your character out for revenge against those responsible? Extra point if they've got the wrong person. Extra extra point if they think the one who saved them was responsible for the event.
Was your character banished or estranged from their family?
Does your character have amnesia? Extra point if their only link to their past is a strange trinket with which they will never part.
Was your character ever abducted?
By someone other than Team Rocket?
Was your character ever forced into a life of crime?
By someone other than Team Rocket?
Did your character ever suffer from physical, emotional or sexual abuse?
Does your character feel guilty about something that happened in their past?
Despite overwhelming evidence that it wasn't their fault?
Is your character constantly followed around by a band of charming villains that introduce themselves in a four-stanza rhyme?
Add two points if it is Jesse, James and Meowth.
Add one point if it is their off spring.
Does your character make routine use of actual forms of transport to get from city to city? (e.g. do they travel by car for most of their Pokémon journey)
Does your character have magic?
Do other characters in the story have magic? (Minus one point if it is a magical universe)
Is your character the last practitioner of an ancient magical art passed down through generations?
Is your character a secret agent?
A double agent?
A renegade agent?
A vigilante?
Has your character ever saved the world?
Multiple times?
In a situation which was previously attributed to Ash or another canon character?
Has your characters life been significantly altered by an otherwise innocuous event in the canon? (e.g. he/she only became a Pokémon trainer after seeing a strange boy and girl battle each other for a totadile near a stream)
Is your character being hunted by some organization?
Other than Team Rocket?
Does your character possess any of the following skills (a – e not applicable if your character is Psychic):
Teleportation
Telepathy
Telekinesis
Pyrokinesis
Prophecy
Healing
Invisibility
Shapeshifting
Superhuman strength
Invulnerability
Time Travel
Interdimensional travel
Flight
If your character is Psychic, do you consider them to be more powerful than even Sabrina but without all the nasty repercussions of cutting out part of your soul to attain such power?
Have you ever used the above to describe your character?
Total: 50. Achievable/relevant total: approx. 30
FAIL: 24+ Credit: 17-23 Distinction: 9-16 High Distinction: 1-8
I tested this version on my own minor OT, and it seemed to work. The scores for Character, Pokémon Training and Plot were all HD, as I expected and high end D for Relationship, which is what I expected of him as that was his weak point. This, I say to indicate the improvement of this formulation. Under the previous test, Jason would have got a 27 – within the safety zone, but the separation shows that while well-rounded in some respects, the character has some eyebrow raising features in the relationship department that I need to be wary of.
Grading:
High Distinction: You're pretty safe. We're looking at a pretty well developed OT here. Give yourself a pat on the back.
Distinction: We're starting to move into cringe worthy territory here. You might want to think about removing some of your shinys and cutting back on the accomplishments. You still may have a good OT here, but beware that people are probably going to roll their eyes when you start describing your characters tormented past for the fourth time in unnecessary detail. We get it, they're a tortured soul, but we don't need the monologue.
Credit: You should be very concerned. If it looks like a Mary Sue and acts like a Mary Sue and talks like a Mary Sue, it's probably a Mary Sue. Do not fear – it can still be saved . . . maybe. You're going to have to be willing to change a lot of things about your character if you don't want them dubbed a Mary Sue. This is a pass, of sorts, so while your character is acceptable to some degree, you're going to have to question whether this is the sort of character and story you would want to read if you were not the writer, or whether you're better off putting it to bed.
FAIL: I'm sorry to say this, but it might be time for you to start all over. Your character is just too perfect. Even Ash couldn't get away with half the stuff your character has done and he's like the main character.