Mary Sue or Marty-StuSee Mary-Sue. A female Fanfictioncharacter who is so perfect as to be annoying. The male equivlalent is the Marty-Stu. Often abbreviated to "Sue". A Mary Sue character is usually written by a beginning author. Often, the Mary Sue is a self-insert with a few "improvements" (ex. better body, more popular, etc). The Mary Sue character is almost always beautiful, smart, etc... In short, she is the "perfect" girl. The Mary Sue usually falls in love with the author's favorite character(s) and winds up upstaging all of the other characters in the book/series/universe. There are several main types of Mary Sue:
Victim!Sues: The Victim!Sue is your whiny, wimpy, pathetic female character who can't seem to do much of anything except cry and get herself into trouble that the romantic interest of the fic has to rescue her from.
Warrior!Sues: The Warrior!Sue is usually loud, obnoxious and (of course) an amazing warrior. She'll usually have some tragic past that led her to become a warrior, and she'll upstage all of theCanonicalcharacters with her mad Sueish powers.
Mage!Sue: Similar to the Warrior!Sue, the Mage!Sue has amazing stregnth in magic, or has a magical power that nobody else has. She'll usually wind up upstaging all of the magical characters of the series.
Punk!Sue: Also called Noncomformist!Sue or Goth!Sue, the Punk!Sue is usually written by female beginners in the 11-15 age group. The Punk!Sue is loud, obnoxious, annoying and generally the type of person who you'd want to send off to boot camp for six months. The Punk!Sue almost always has angst coming out of her ears and isn't really a bad person, she's just oh!-so-angry at whatever tragic past the author has chosen to give her. The Punk!Sue is based on what the 11-15 year old author thinks is "cool" and wishes she could be. This includes Evil!Sues.
Misfit!Sue: This includes all Sues who are supposedly geeks, nerds, misfits, etc. Usually, the Misfit!Sue doesn't start out as inhumanly beautiful, but winds up getting a makeover and finding out she had the potential to be a guy-magnet (or girl-magnet, depending on the genre) all along. Also includes the "My parents want me to do this but I want to do that and it's not fair!one!" type of Sue. Usually, this Sue is very bookish and smart, but will find some sort of physical talent nobody expected and become a star as a result.
Another thing to note is that a Sue will usually have a completely off-the-wall name, like "Viquetoria". The more wierd and pretentious the name of the character, the more likely it is that she's a Sue.
Finally, Sues often have wierd, improbable or impossible bloodlines. A secret half-elf child of Elrond and a nameless human would be an example of this. A character who was Dumbledore's grandchild and Tom Riddle's daughter would be another character in the HP fanfic was a complete and utter Sue. She moved across the street from Harry. She was beautiful, smart and pretty. They fell in wuv almost immediately. She threw all of the characters out of character and generally upstaged everyone. It was quite obnoxious.Self SueThe most common type of Mary Sue is a character based an the author's idealization of themself. Furthermore, because the author is imagining a preferred version of themself, and because faults are overlooked in favor of optimization, a Mary Sue tends to have only superficial resemblance to the author, sharing similar likes/dislikes and a similar spirituality (when applicable), but objectifying things such as worldview and relationships. This type of Mary Sue is more common simply because it's easier to write and is more appealing to the author. This Mary Sue is found in fanfics and original fiction alike. Yes, Mary Sues abound even in professional writing.
The other type of Mary Sue is a character intended to be an ideal match for another, appearing almost exclusively in fanfics. In this case, "ideal match" means that the character's positive traits are exaggerated to render impossible any competition for the love interest. Arguably more pernicious than the "self-idealization" type, the "ideal match" type by its very nature prevents compelling character or plot development, which the "self-ideal" Mary Sue may be able to avoid.Mary Sue or Gary StuA Mary Sue or Gary Stu (male form) is often either a perfect or almost perfect character. They often appear in fan fictions and are sometimes based on the author themselves.
If the Mary Sue or Gary Stu is based on the author, they normally have qualities that the author wishes they had.
For example, they wish to be more popular or better looking.
When a Mary Sue or Gary Stu is written into a fan fiction, it will often cause canon (original) characters to become OOC (out of character). They often have terrible, grief-filled pasts and 'need' a certain canon character to understand them or they have a past that is the exact same or very similar to a canon character's.
Mary Sues and Gary Stus are mostly found in new writers or written in fan fictions by more exprerienced writers for fun.
They also tend to have either very common or extremely strange and exotic names or, if they are made for fun, will sometimes have the name Mary Sue or Gary Sue had a horribly tragic past.
When she was only a baby, her parents had been murdered by Voldemort because they had been trying to protect her.
However, when Voldemort tried to kill her it backfired and left her with only a scar.More infoHave you ever seen a character and thought that he/she was too perfect? Well such characters are known as Mary-Sues. A Mary-Sue is a character that is ultimately perfect in every way. These characters are often frowned upon in many role-playing sites, and other communities. What are some of the ways you can tell a Mary-Sue from a normal character? Let's start off by listing a few basic things found within a Mary-Sue character.
Tragic Pasts
A perfect character generally has a tragic past. This means that the character's family is not among the living, or that something terrible happened to them as a child. A tragic past does not always mean the character is a Mary-Sue, but can be a big factor at times. Tragic pasts are used to create sympathy for the character as well. Avoid tragic backgrounds if you want your character to stand out.
No Flaws
Another way to spot a Mary-Sue is that they have no flaws. No flaws mean that their personality is completely intact, and that there is absolutely nothing wrong with them. Adding flaws to a character makes them unique and less likely to be called a Sue. Even simple things like a character being clumsy counts as a flaw.
Over Powered
One of the more obvious ways to spot a Mary-Sue is by their abilities. An over powered character is one that has no weaknesses, and defeats other characters with ease. These characters also have more than one special power, and continue to gain more. An over powered character is not a fun one to interact with. Having a God-like character is frowned upon highly, and is seen as unfair.
Keeping these three things in mind, you can identify a Mary-Sue. Even if a person's character comes off as a Mary-Sue, you should not judge them too harshly. Most people create characters on a whim and don't consider these things. They don't realize they have created a character that is frowned upon, and are often attacked for it. When creating a character keep in mind that they should not have a tragic past, they should have flaws, and that they should have limited powers. As long as you know these things, you can avoid making a character people will dislike.
People's Definations (Not Mine by the ways I just saw it as other's opinions on mary sues)
How do you define "Mary Sue"?
To me, a Mary Sue is a character that sucks the life out of a story by forcing it to be focused on her. All of the characters' personalities change to fit her character developement. She often has unbelievable powers, romance with a main character, and a very tragic past. Why does she do this? Because she's the author's version of herself, living out the author's fantasies.
I think the official definition isn't so much the lack of life in the story (I very much agree with you on that) but the perfection and the overshadowing and dwarfing of the canon characters. Any 'Sue author would argue that her character isn't a version of herself; I don't think we really need include that because all characters are, in the end, derivatives of ourselves.
My personal definition would be any character that ends up with a fairy tale ending or a Joan of Arc ending because, inevitably, the author chooses one and all the other traits ensue. The fandom has become too fast and loose with the Mary Sue label. Many original female characters don't quite fit either of our definitions or any of the "textbook" ones and are merely obnoxious.
I define a Mary-Sue as any female OC who takes away from the real characters. When I read a fanfic, I want to be reading about Aragorn or Gimli or whoever, and not some girl of the writer's invention.
One dinfintion of a MS (and one I think I'm agreeing more with) is when the author has thought "Wouldn't it be cool if..."
I think most traits of a MS start off like this.
I would define a Mary-Sue as a character that breaks the natural laws of the world, i.e. flying, magical powers, figures that would be a biological impossibility etc. If they manage to stay within the laws of physics, biology, and chemistry while staying within the realm of canon (Note: I did NOT specify book- or movie-canon) it should probably not be a Sue.
I define a Mary-Sue as any female OC who takes away from the real characters.
I would disagree with part of this definition because Tolkien did not give us many female characters in the stories. I actually sometimes wonder whether the elves made a practice of female infanticide because there are so few females in their population. Therefore, we, as authors, have to fill in the gender gap in order to make the world believeable. The part about "taking away from the real characters" is valid, but people wonder what life was like for the "average Jane" in Gondor, the Shire, etc. Therefore, we write their stories.
A Mary-Sue is a female OC that is created by a writer, who tries so hard to create a character that people will love, care and feel sorry for, that it gets the complete opposite effect.
She has to have a miserable life. Orphaned or at least motherless, battered, raped and bullied. Yet, she has to be incredible intelligent, wise and talanted. Despite any chance of doing any schoolwork.
She have to be absolutly stunning. So beautiful that everyone falls in love with her and birds sings her awake in the morning. She have to be more gorgeous than all the other people of the world combined. Everything bad that happens to her is because of other peoples obsession/envy of her total perfection.
She must be very determined and stubborn. And she must always be right. This is very important!
But most of all she has to be kind. So goodhearted that she have an aura of gold around her. That´s why she sparkles so much.
The ultimate Mary-Sue is an incredible beautiful girl. She have to be 16 years old. That is a perfect age. The ultimate Mary-Sue have not only lost one or both of her parents, but also at least one, two or three brothers. She must be a witness to their gruesome murders, or in the car when it was crashing, holding her youngest brother until he dies.
Point is; she must suffer. Loads.
The ultimate Mary-Sue dont get murdered because the murderers cant kill such a beautiful girl, or her family gets killed because the killer wants her for himself. And she has to get very mistreated after her familys death.
She often tells us this in a very vulnerable moment. Or she doesnt talk about it herself. The story is told by a second person, just when some characters needs to know that they treated her completely unfair and there is a reason for her to be the way she is. The best moment for it is when she is unconcious or seriously hurt after rescuing all the maincharacters.
Often, she is referred to as "the young girl" or "that poor girl", and everyone must feel completly horrible after they have been told about her secret and analyse her until we get rabies.
The same ultimate secret is repeated thoughout the story, incase anyone missed that we must feel very sorry for her.
If she dies or not remains to be seen. Popular deaths is sacrificing herself. Or die in childbed, after having a daughter. Or a boy and a girl and only the girl survives. The pity must go on. The most important thing is that the whole world must know about this. And mourn her for the rest of their lifes.
Or the writers love her to much to kill her, even though everyone else is holding their thumbs.
Now that I am done with other's definitions of a Mary Sue here is mine.
A Mary Sue is a female character created by most fanfiction writers and even well known popular authors. Mary Sue's are character's with perfect traists. For starters personality. Sometimes Mary Sue's are very naive, innocent and always happy. Some other Mary Sues are miserable, sad, and seeking revenge.
Moving on there is the body. Usually Mary Sue's have a well developed body for there age, having a large chest at age 12 and having many curves in the right places.
The past is a very important thing for telling if an OC is a Mary Sue or not. Mind you, it is not the only thing. Making and OC have a happy past won't automatcally make your OC not a sue. But most Mary Sue's have sad past, usually involving the OC's parent's die or get murdered at a young age, sometimes the entire family. Or the author has the parents be abusive to their OC, beating them daily, locking them in a dark room, starving them, ect. Sometimes if the parent dies at a young age they are sent to an abusive aunt and/or uncle. Their past usually effects them in bad way's that make cannon characters feel sorry for their OC.
Usually the Mary Sue has more than more love interest. There are many way's the cannon characters will fall for the Mary Sue. At times (Most of the time) there is love at first sight. The love interests usually cause cannon characters to be out of character, and/or fight over the Mary Sue. Sometimes every boy in the show, book, or game will fall for the OC.
The next thing in a Mary Sue is their powers. A Mary Sue can usually best any character in a fight. Usually when the Mary Sue isn't strong and powerful, it's so that she can be protected by everyone.
Sometimes the Mary Sue is related to someone very important in the universe. For example-
Naruto: She might be related to Naruto or Sasuke, which is impossible. Naruto doesn't have a sister, that is still alive or would be alive. The only one's left in the Uchiha clan is Sasuke (Status: Alive), Itachi (Status: Deseased), and Tobi or Obito. She might be related to one of the Hokages, usually the first hokage. It's not impossible, but it puts them on the Sue line.
A Mary Sue usually has no flaws. A good way to find flaws is to look up negitive character traits on google.
Also Mary Sues have more of an important role than any of the other cannon characters. Which should never happen, but a Mary Sue does.