Mary Sue, Yay or Nay?
Disclaimer/AN: This is probably the only disclaimer I'm gonna write mainly because I'm lazy to do it every single time. Note that the things mentioned in this chapter are purely my own opinion. I do not intend to hurt anybody's feelings or start a fan war by mentioning some of the things I do here. Though this chapter is completely unrelated to the actual PJO fandom, I felt that this should be addressed before I discuss the characters themselves. PJO is one of the fandoms with the highest number of ship wars and fan wars and I want it duly noted that I do not in any circumstance want to start one myself. Also, if you don't like uber long rants, don't read this. If you have any queries/arguments on any of the things mentioned here, please review/PM. And if you want to see a discussion on any characters apart from those mentioned in the summary/prologue, review please! Finally, thanks to Captured Spirits, J. , LadyPercabeth and pjelephants for your favourites, follows and reviews!
I do not own Harry Potter, Twilight, House of Night, The Universal Mary Sue Litmus test or any other series/characters/websites I mention here. They all belong to their respective authors and I have the lack of profit to prove it. Also, this discussion mainly discourages the use of litmus tests against canon characters, not fan characters.
A Mary Sue is a character (male, female, or otherwise) who is given or is expected to be given unwarranted preferential treatment and unearned respect, thereby compromising the integrity and believability of the story and/or its characters.
~ springhole dot net/writing/whatisamarysue dot htm.
Okay, so before I get into the characters, I wanna address this whole issue with Mary Sues. A Mary Sue (hereafter known as Sue) or a Gary Stu (hereafter known as Stu) is essentially a character which is seemingly perfect with little to no flaws resulting in virtually no character developement. A Sue/Stu in addition, also has a tragic past and unexplained superpowers which do little to furthur the plot, superior attributes (Eg: Phenomenal beauty, superior intellect, etc) and are, as stated, given preferential treatment and unearned respect.
I'm assuming that all of us here in ffnet are most probably familiar with this term due to it's increased usage in the past few years. However, recently people have started taking this way too far. From the cropping up of litmus tests to forums and blogs slamming a particular character and/or fandom by the 'Sue-Police', this entire Sue/Stu thing has gotten out of hand. I am not here to bash the usage of the term because I myself have used it numerous times and there are several characters which I classify into the Sue category and really can't stand. But it should also be noted that the term has become a way for the Sue-Police to propagate the idea that almost every character from any popular fandom is a Sue (Try it if you don't believe me. Type [Insert Character's Name] + mary sue and google it. There's atleast one link which supports the character being a Sue). There's also apparently some 14 Sue subtypes according to a website which makes it impossible for any remotely interesting character to stay out of the Sue-Zone.
That is not to say there AREN'T characters which are so obviously Sues/Stus it's not even funny. Notable examples include Bella S(ue)wan of Twilight Saga (The most notoriously acclaimed Sue in the history of modern literature), Zoey Redbird of House of Night (Don't even get me started on her. She surpasses even Ms Swan in her Sue prowess), Clary Morgenstern of Mortal Instruments (though this one's based on a majority-opinion since I haven't actually read the books yet), James Bond, etc. But aside from the few very obvious examples, not every other famous character is a Sue - something the Sue Police evidently do not agree with.
I mean, come on! I've seen articles on how Hermione and Katniss are actually Sues. What the fuck is up with that? And most of those articles are based on some type of Sue litmus test. A Sue litmus test is comprised of a questionnaire which includes almost all/any attributes of characters and tallies up points based on what all you tick (some are worth 2 points while some have minus points which bring down your Sue score) and there's a scoring system which tells you what each level the character falls into. An example would be ever-popular universal mary sue litmus test (Google it for more information).
Most of the questions found in the test target obvious-Sue-ism but some questions do not necessarily fit just the Sue archetype. An example of this is a self-insert. A self-insert is not necessarily a Sue unless the inserted character bends the fabric of reality and goes through little to no character developement in the course of the story due to the author wanting the Sue to live out their personal fantasies (Eg: Bella Swan). But there are also self-inserts which are genuinely good characters with real flaws, who start out a certain way and develope into a more well-rounded character eventually. The thing with self-inserts is that, when written well, they have really good characterization because the author does not need to create a whole other character with its own personality and attributes which may sometimes result in an unfinished or unwholesome character. Instead, they can impart some of their own qualities into the character making it easier to create and complete.
The other thing with litmus tests are that they are meant for fan characters most of the time. So, if questions like
Is/does your character's name a name you planned on giving one of your children?
Is your character's name taken deliberately from a character from another fandom that you like?
Is your character based on you (shares your personality, ideals and beliefs) or what you wish you were like?
arise and you're doing this test to find out if a canon character is a Sue, how the hell are you supposed to know what the author was thinking when he/she created that character? Unless he/she has stated otherwise somewhere, you don't!
The other problem with these tests is the scoring. How is it determined which criterias are considered serious Sue-ffenses and therefore warrant 2 or more points, while others are minor Sue-ffenses? And how is it determined with the Anti-Sue points? It isn't a fair system because essentially, the creator of the test is the one who decides which qualities are important/unimportant. Since each person places importance on various things, how can you be so sure that the test proves right?
It kind of makes you question the credibility of these tests, doesn't it?
Another instance is when a person accuses a character of being a Sue simply because he/she dislikes the characters. Following this, they go on an extensive research of the entire fucking World-Wide-Web looking for others who might feel the same way and litmus tests that they can take which can 'prove' their claims. Many members of the Sue-police fall into this category.
I personally find this to be one of the most stupidest things ever. I mean, I can definitely understand that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But going through so much trouble just to prove that you are right in disliking a particular character because he/she is a Sue, that's just pathetic. There isn't anything wrong with announcing your opinion on the net since it's basically your right to freedom of speech. But it becomes a problem when it turns into character bashing or a way of bullying that forces others into adopting your own ideology.
So before you go accusing characters of being a Sue, ask yourself if you are seeing it objectively or if you simply disagree with/dislike the character's personality/traits/beliefs just because. And do NOT use litmus tests as a reference.
What about these obvious Sues then? How are they so 'obvious' ?
Well, I would've thought that was obvious! Haha! Ignore the lame joke. But seriously, if you are an experienced reader who has been reading for a long time, you would be able to spot it quite easily. It might be a problem if you're a newbie (which is why it is crucial that young readers are introduced to good works of literature instead of just anything that happens to be kicking up a storm in pop culture) in which case, you might experience some difficulties.
[Skip the following 2 paragraphs if you don't feel like listening to me rant about my reading history]
I started PS/SS of the Potter series at the age of 8/9 after falling in love with the series at the tender age of 4 and following the movies incessantly. But while I loved reading the books, I couldn't go farther than CoS mainly due to the fact that the books came to a close in 2007 - when I finished CoS - with spoilers flying left, right and center in its wake and I really didn't want to spoil my reading experience while that was going on. So instead, I waited for it to die down and delved into other books.
The very first book series I ever FINISHED, (finished NOT read) was The Twilight Saga. Yep, TTS, that's right. And while I never really was a reader who admired Bella and swooned over Edward (I was Team Jacob. And in some ways, I still think that Jacob was maybe one of the handful of characters in that series with any kind of depth to him. Well, until Meyer totally fucked him up by making him a pedo who falls in love with a newbornSue), I did love the storyline and the paranormal element. I was all kinds of obsessed with the series until I finally got the guts to go ahead and finish books 3-7 of the Potter Series in 2009.
I came across Twilight because of peer pressure. I was in 5th grade and all my friends could ever talk about was Twilight which they kept encouraging me to read as well. I obviously didn't want to be left out so I went ahead and read it. And as a young reader, it appealed to me as it would, I expect, to any prepubescent girl who adored romance. I think the romance aspect probably did cloud my judgement majorly in regard to TTS . Because at that age, atleast where I was concerned, I couldn't distinguish between well-written books and badly written books targeted at preteen girls. I wasn't old enough or an experienced enough reader to be able to tell the difference. It was only after I went back to Potter that I learned the difference between them. And therein ended my brief affair with Thee Twilight Saga.
I don't want to disregard the entire series by calling it the 'worst piece of garbage I've ever read' or something along those lines because honestly, 1) eventhough I've grown to dislike the series with the fiery passion of a thousand suns, some of the elements and some of the characters could've had potential - if only they'd been written a little differently and 2) I've read worse (coughHouseofNightcough).
Every reader, I think, goes through a phase where one book changes their entire perspective on books and reading as a whole. It can either be an eye-opener or...whatever's the opposite of an eye-opener I guess. In my case, it definitely was an eye-opener and after over 8 years of reading, I've learned to identify what's badly-written and poorly-developed. But even after all this, I can't for sure, put a stamp on all the characters I deem 'obvious' Sues (though I have named a few here) and tell people this is how they are and this is why they should be disliked. Because in the end, reading is all about perspective and a Sue in my eyes, might not necessarily be one in another person's eyes.
So in the end is there something such as a Sue?
In the sense that every character, even the most well-developed, is a Sue in somebody's eyes, yes. But there never could be a Universal Sue whom every reader agrees on. If that were the case, the book/fanfiction/character wouldn't even have readers and fans, it wouldn't be enough well-known to be criticised. There's nothing to be done to generalise the classification of a Mary Sue/Gary Stu. But what we could do, is be a little more respectful and open-minded when conveying our opinions to people whose opinions differ from us.
So many wars on the internet are caused by this. Both parties - the accusers and the fans - are at fault here.
I do not know how many people might read this, if any at all, but the following is something I wish to tell everyone.
To the accusers:
Before we stamp a label on something and put it out there, we should be clear on our judgements and personal feelings. Make sure you have a valid defence should the situation arise. Opinions (and this includes character bashing) are meant to be expressed and there's nothing wrong with that. But don't go picking a fight with a person who obviously disagrees with you in the attempt to 'convert' them to your way of thinking. You hate this character so much? Fine. You wanna bash the fuck outta it? Fine, go on ahead. But don't do it in a situation where it is obvious the other person isn't going to agree with you. That's just asking for it. If you intend on starting a discussion with someone like that, make it a reasonable one instead of resorting to petty name-calling and insulting their intelligence and/or sanity.
To those fans who are no better than the accusers:
Seeing someone bash our beloved characters is never easy. But please for fuck's sake, stop going over to hate-sites/forums/blogs and arguing with the people there! They're called hate-sites for a reason; hate means intense dislike. If you need a place to express your opinions, then they do too. So please, don't try to make them think like you. That makes you no better than the haters who go around starting fan wars. And again, don't resort to name calling/insults, etc. It's childish and pathetic.
But in the end of it all, the best thing to put an end to these wars is to stay out of each other's way. That is the only thing which will allow us to co-exist peacefully. And now that this extremely long rant is over, on with the actual discussions on PJO!
