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Mary Sue

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Red hair that looked like liquid fire cascaded gently down her back to her waist; the lighting hitting it making it seem alive. Her hair and grown considerably it was now just bellow her ass. Her long dark red hair cascaded down her body as she let her dress fall to the ground. Her fiery emerald eye’s linked with his as she licked her lips, staring into he’s big brown orbs.

—Description of Dita-Sue


Contents

[edit] Definition

A Mary Sue is a pet character that the author exempts from realism and/or rules that otherwise govern a fictional world. The more that the author exalts this "darling" at the expense of the rest of the story, the more of a Mary Sue the character becomes. Mary Sue is impervious to failure and resistant to all in-story attempts at criticism and humiliation; any attempt at an external critique usually provokes an authorial temper tantrum. With a preference for style over substance, attitude over empathy, and romantic relationships above all others, the Mary Sue is nevertheless a popular character type due to her function as cheap wish-fulfillment.

The Mary Sues (or Sues) that the PPC deals with are all in fanfiction, but unfortunately, they also abound in print. (See Canon Sue.) The term originated in fandom, where the female Sue is omnipresent, but there are male varieties as well. Mary Sue's XY counterpart1 is called Gary Stu, Marty Stu, or Marty Sam; all of these are synonymous plays on the feminine blanket term.


1 = Please note that the term "masculine counterpart" is intentionally avoided here, as it would be a misnomer in many cases.


[edit] Etymology

In 1973, Star Trek fan Paula Smith wrote the parody "A Trekkie's Tale," starring a flawless character named Lieutenant Mary-Sue. The term became popular in Star Trek fandom to refer to author-inserts of this variety, and later spread to fandom in general.


[edit] Sues in Fanfiction

A fanfic containing (and therefore starring) a Mary Sue is known as a Sue-Fic or Suefic.

Because of Mary Sue's inability to share the spotlight or follow the rules of a given universe, her appearance in fanfiction inevitably warrants PPC intervention. Mary Sue's most common crimes against canon are:

[edit] Why hate Mary Sue?

"I really LIKE feel-good stories. I feel that they are a very necessary thing to have in a world as depressing and unfair as this one can be. That's part of the reason why I almost exclusively read high fantasy or science fiction - I want to escape from my dreary reality for just a little while and be allowed to believe in heroes and villains.

HOWEVER

I don't like Mary-Sues, either. Why? Because she's not a hero. She usually doesn't have one single thing going for her that makes me respect and adore her, the way that the author OBVIOUSLY expects me to do. I don't find these supposedly perfect people who get all good things without so much as struggling for it interesting. I never got anything for free, why should they?

A reward, or a victory, is so much sweeter when you've fought for it - I know this from my own, personal experience - and THAT'S the sort of feel-good entertainment that I want! I want to see the long struggle. I want to be inside the character's head as he's overcoming all his difficulties... at the end of the book, I want to cry with happiness. I want to feel that all that hard work, all that suffering and struggling, PAID OFF!

Mary-Sue has too easy a time - as much as I might LIKE to identify with her, I can't. I want my heroes to EARN their feel-good, like I've done, because that's an INFINITELY greater feeling than just getting everything for free... like Mary Sue does.

Also, when I read fanfiction, I do it because I want to read about my favourite character from the show/book, interacting with the other characters from the show/book, because I liked the show/book and the characters therein. If Mary-Sue pops up and hogs all the spotlight, pulling all my favourite characters OOC, I WILL dislike it, and I WILL whine about it."

—GAFFer


[edit] Sub-concepts of Mary Sue

There are many different varieties of Mary Sues, all with different strategies for getting control of the story. They can be divided up both by fandom and by Sue-type. Recently, many have been classified and organized. (Note: All classifications listed below are may not apply to every single Sue of the same type. It depends on the sporker or the PPC-er to determine the classification.)

[edit] Description!Sues

'Sues are commonly described using the convention Description!Sue, e.g. Evil!Sue or Emo!Sue. This is an easy way to categorize the different varieties.

The original type of 'Sue is sometimes described as Bubbly!Sue (Puella perfecta). She is very social, helpful, kind, and caring. The canon characters are won over by how perfect she is in every way. At some point, she usually reveals some tragic past.

One new variety of 'Sues is the group of Emo!Sues (Mulier doluta), Goth!Sues (Diabola gothica), etc. While it has always been common for the 'Sue to be something of a rebel, these take it to a whole new level. They generally wear stereotypical goth make-up and clothing--or, some have remarked, like a twelve-year-old's idea of goth--and have pale skin and black hair. Emo!Sues, as their name suggests, attract a mate by angsting almost non-stop throughout the story. She always has some sort of tragic past. Other common traits of these 'Sues are cutting and drug use. The future mate usually starts out feeling sorry for the 'Sue.

Evil!Sues (Diabola insolentis) are often the close relatives of the main antagonist in the fandom. She often has pale skin, black hair, and black or red eyes, and dresses in dark red or black. Part of the way through the story she meets her future mate, she learns the error of her ways, and he redeems her through his love.

Warrior!Sues (Miles medimundi) are peerless fighters and bristle at the suggestion that they might need help from anyone. They frequently make their first appearance in the story when their future mate is about to be killed by bad guys. A mysterious cloaked and hooded character rides up, kills the bad guys, and then, to the other characters' astonishment, reveals herself to be a woman. In other words, she's a really horrible rip-off of Eowyn. This type of 'Sue also often means that there is at least one Designated Misogynistic Bastard, often Gandalf or Aragorn in Arda Suefics. He questions the 'Sue's ability to come along, often making comments about how women are only good for making babies, and then is dramatically proven wrong.

Grrl!Sues (Muliercula insolentis) are über-feminists, sometimes downright misandrist. They are out to prove that a woman is at least as good as a man, and nearly every male is a Designated Misogynistic Bastard. Of course, they fall for the one who isn't. Quite often they manufacture misogyny in not only the characters but the whole society of the continuum, claiming oppression and abuse in order to angst and/or throw hissyfits, which, for example, requires one to ignore that two of the Hogwarts founders were women, or that the very first official Patrol General of the Long Patrol was a female.

It isn't uncommon for one 'Sue have characteristics from different categories. For example, they may swing wildly between angst and bubbly joy.

[edit] Possession!Sues

Possession!Sues (Regula fictus), also called Canon!Sues, are created when a Suethor takes a canon character and gives them Sue-ish characteristics. This process is often referred to as 'Sueing' (or 'sueing', but the lower case can cause confusion with lawsuit "suing"), for example: "She Sued Hermione." Different fandoms have characters that are commonly Sued: Harry Potter and Hermione Granger are common victims in the Harry Potter Fandom, as is Legolas in the Tolkien Fandom. Sue!Hermione is given sleek hair and overall beautiful looks--often in a "summer make-over"--or she'll turn out to have been under a spell to mask her true beauty. Legolas is given perfectly blue eyes and golden hair, as well as a tragic past, usually in the form of an Evil!Thranduil fanfic.

This is especially common in slash badfics--the typist doesn't want to create a new character, so he or she just makes one of the canons perfect. Sue!Hermione and Stu!Harry often show up together in badfic written by Harry/Hermione shippers. (Of course, this isn't to say that all Harry/Hermione shippers write badfic--at least one Boarder is a shipper.

[edit] Common 'Sues in Different Fandoms

Especially large fandoms, like Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings, have certain types of 'Sues that are very common in them. Harry Potter often has an exchange student (Discipulus translatus noxious), usually from the USA, who arrives and falls in love with one of the students; another common one is the Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher (Magus supervacanea) who falls in love with another teacher. The Tolkien Fandom is plagued with 'Sues who "fell into Middle-earth from our world," often as the result of a car crash. The most common type, however, is the Tenth Walker (Miles vagus numeroconfracta), who joins the Company of the Ring. Strangely enough, a significant amount of The Lord of the Rings "fell into Middle-earth" Sues seem to be from Australia. Whether this is because they have an excuse to be a stereotypical Aussie (loud and blunt) or because Australia isn't America is unknown. In Percy Jackson and the Olympians fandom, the Sue is usually a daughter of one of the Big Three (Zeus, Poseidon, Hades) who falls for one of the main characters (often Percy or Luke). If she's a daughter of Hades, expect her to be an emo teen girl with a tragic past. And if she isn't a child of one of the Big Three, she'll probably be Annabeth's long-lost twin sister, Luke's daughter, etc.

[edit] Gary Stu

The male version of a Mary Sue is sometimes called a Gary Stu or a Marty Sam (Diabolus cupidus). He is often tall, dark, and handsome, and spends much of the story brooding. The main exception to this is when he is created to be the perfect mate of the main Mary Sue; then he can be however complements the main 'Sue the best.

[edit] Litmus tests

Various tests have been written where authors can test their original characters on their Sueness.

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