On the conundrum of Mary Sue and her brother Gary Stu
So, I've been watching trends in RP and writing for a lot of years, now, and the thing that comes up over and over again is the dreaded Mary Sue. First, let me do a quick history: the name comes from Trek fandom, as with so many standard fandom tropes, specifically from Lieutenant Mary Sue, "the youngest Lieutenant in the fleet - only fifteen and a half years old", of Paula Smith's 1973 'A Trekkie's Tale', which was NOT a serious story. It was a parody of all things wrong with Trek-fic.
Now, let me get something straight -- a Mary Sue is not a self-insert. SIs are exactly that -- they're the author writing themselves into the story, which can be a little pretentious, and shouldn't be attempted by folks who can't separate IC and OOC. A Mary Sue is essentially ... well, let me quote Menagerie, 1976:
Mary Sue stories-the adventures of the youngest and smartest ever person to graduate from the academy and ever get a commission at such a tender age. Usually characterized by unprecedented skill in everything from art to zoology, including karate and arm-wrestling. This character can also be found burrowing her way into the good graces/heart/mind of one of the Big Three [Kirk, Spock, and McCoy], if not all three at once. She saves the day by her wit and ability, and, if we are lucky, has the good grace to die at the end, being grieved by the entire ship.
While that's a pretty Trekkie description, it sums up the trend nicely. Mary Sues are generally the best and brightest at nearly everything, and cannot imagine not getting into the pants of your canon's hotties.
Now, here's where it gets fun... One or two 'Sue traits does not a Mary Sue make. Hell, half a litmus test's worth won't, if those traits are canon-appropriate. If you've got a lass with green skin and blue hair, who's the superhero protector of a city, and you're in a place where her species just looks like that, and her world has superheroes who protect cities, well... That's actually kind of normal. And this is the thing that a lot of people forget, especially in pan-fandom games. Yes, that character is more of a giant badass than yours, and in flashy colours, too. But, the canon that character originates in is like that, and you're playing a character from a modern urban canon. There's no comparison. Sure, you can have lots of lulzy fun with that, if you two meet IC, but going OOC to complain about the 'Sue-tastic evil of the other character is ... dumb.
Also on the list of not-so-'Suey are the arrogant twats -- characters who say they can do everything, and then get proven wrong. They're just annoying, and fucking with their heads can be good IC fun, for both you and their players. Ice is a great example, actually, with about half of his adventures going 'Yeah, I can totally do that. Probably with my eyes closed, even. [...] OH MY FUCK WHAT THE SHITCOCKING FUCK IS THIS SHIT I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS. D: ' He can do almost anything, but he does it all ... in the most half-assed possible way, because when you can do anything, you don't have time to study it that much, and a lot of it is guessing. It makes for a character that a good GM can torture the shit out of.
And on to the other side of the coin, there, the Anti-Sue. These characters are the worst of everything. They're evil and ugly and mean. And, sure, there's always a place for a good villain. Game needs a little Neutral Evil to stay interesting. But, the weird thing about Anti-Sues is that the players mostly portray them as still being heroic and fawned over, even as in the next sentence they explain the character has no friends, because he's a dick. These are a giant pile of WTF.
Somewhere between the two, there's the player who's trying to hard not to have a 'Sue, that the character is still way too badass and magical for canon, but has a tragic past and is permanently scarred by it. I facepalm. I really do. And for fucksake, man, I write Arkady, and I still facepalm. This one is way too common. I've had to get on several players' shit about it in apps for this slowly-dying HP game I run. Yes, you can play a Pureblood wizard. No, you can't have been yet another abused child who ran away from home to join up with Voldemort. Just no. We've got our share of deranged and abusive family dynamics with Lucius and Severus. Take a hint from the Lestranges, instead. The brothers hate each other, but the family's pretty solid and relatively normal, considering there are like fifteen of them living on or near that sheep farm, and not all of them are even human. Don't offset your epic awesome with epic drama. Offset it with simple things -- stupid quirks. Frank's an American Technomancer, smuggling magically enhanced electronics into England, under the nose of the Ministry of Magic. He's a genius at what he does. He's also an old drunk cowboy who chews tobacco and spits on the floor, and he's got little interest in the traditional applications of magic. He's really only vaguely likeable, but he's good at his job.
And yeah, some stories need someone totally over the top. But if you're in an RPG, it's best to either leave those to the GM or clear them with the GM, before you start, just to be sure you're not fucking up the storyline or something. And if you're writing a story, consider the role of that character in it. Is it a superhero story? A story of a nation ravaged by war, until an angel comes down and leads them to great victory? Where's the conflict? Who does your character piss off? No-one? That's a problem. Everyone pisses off someone, otherwise you're only pissing off the audience -- unless that's your character's superpower --specifically preventing other characters from being angry-- and you can play that for the epic lulz, as long as you do it well.
But, the point I'm making here is that just because a character's got purple eyes and a great singing voice, it doesn't automatically make them 'Sue-tastic. It'll make me way more cautious until I know the player a little better, sure, but a few interesting traits are what make characters fun. They're what makes them memorable. Too many, though, and you've crossed the line.
Now, let me get something straight -- a Mary Sue is not a self-insert. SIs are exactly that -- they're the author writing themselves into the story, which can be a little pretentious, and shouldn't be attempted by folks who can't separate IC and OOC. A Mary Sue is essentially ... well, let me quote Menagerie, 1976:
Mary Sue stories-the adventures of the youngest and smartest ever person to graduate from the academy and ever get a commission at such a tender age. Usually characterized by unprecedented skill in everything from art to zoology, including karate and arm-wrestling. This character can also be found burrowing her way into the good graces/heart/mind of one of the Big Three [Kirk, Spock, and McCoy], if not all three at once. She saves the day by her wit and ability, and, if we are lucky, has the good grace to die at the end, being grieved by the entire ship.
While that's a pretty Trekkie description, it sums up the trend nicely. Mary Sues are generally the best and brightest at nearly everything, and cannot imagine not getting into the pants of your canon's hotties.
Now, here's where it gets fun... One or two 'Sue traits does not a Mary Sue make. Hell, half a litmus test's worth won't, if those traits are canon-appropriate. If you've got a lass with green skin and blue hair, who's the superhero protector of a city, and you're in a place where her species just looks like that, and her world has superheroes who protect cities, well... That's actually kind of normal. And this is the thing that a lot of people forget, especially in pan-fandom games. Yes, that character is more of a giant badass than yours, and in flashy colours, too. But, the canon that character originates in is like that, and you're playing a character from a modern urban canon. There's no comparison. Sure, you can have lots of lulzy fun with that, if you two meet IC, but going OOC to complain about the 'Sue-tastic evil of the other character is ... dumb.
Also on the list of not-so-'Suey are the arrogant twats -- characters who say they can do everything, and then get proven wrong. They're just annoying, and fucking with their heads can be good IC fun, for both you and their players. Ice is a great example, actually, with about half of his adventures going 'Yeah, I can totally do that. Probably with my eyes closed, even. [...] OH MY FUCK WHAT THE SHITCOCKING FUCK IS THIS SHIT I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS. D: ' He can do almost anything, but he does it all ... in the most half-assed possible way, because when you can do anything, you don't have time to study it that much, and a lot of it is guessing. It makes for a character that a good GM can torture the shit out of.
And on to the other side of the coin, there, the Anti-Sue. These characters are the worst of everything. They're evil and ugly and mean. And, sure, there's always a place for a good villain. Game needs a little Neutral Evil to stay interesting. But, the weird thing about Anti-Sues is that the players mostly portray them as still being heroic and fawned over, even as in the next sentence they explain the character has no friends, because he's a dick. These are a giant pile of WTF.
Somewhere between the two, there's the player who's trying to hard not to have a 'Sue, that the character is still way too badass and magical for canon, but has a tragic past and is permanently scarred by it. I facepalm. I really do. And for fucksake, man, I write Arkady, and I still facepalm. This one is way too common. I've had to get on several players' shit about it in apps for this slowly-dying HP game I run. Yes, you can play a Pureblood wizard. No, you can't have been yet another abused child who ran away from home to join up with Voldemort. Just no. We've got our share of deranged and abusive family dynamics with Lucius and Severus. Take a hint from the Lestranges, instead. The brothers hate each other, but the family's pretty solid and relatively normal, considering there are like fifteen of them living on or near that sheep farm, and not all of them are even human. Don't offset your epic awesome with epic drama. Offset it with simple things -- stupid quirks. Frank's an American Technomancer, smuggling magically enhanced electronics into England, under the nose of the Ministry of Magic. He's a genius at what he does. He's also an old drunk cowboy who chews tobacco and spits on the floor, and he's got little interest in the traditional applications of magic. He's really only vaguely likeable, but he's good at his job.
And yeah, some stories need someone totally over the top. But if you're in an RPG, it's best to either leave those to the GM or clear them with the GM, before you start, just to be sure you're not fucking up the storyline or something. And if you're writing a story, consider the role of that character in it. Is it a superhero story? A story of a nation ravaged by war, until an angel comes down and leads them to great victory? Where's the conflict? Who does your character piss off? No-one? That's a problem. Everyone pisses off someone, otherwise you're only pissing off the audience -- unless that's your character's superpower --specifically preventing other characters from being angry-- and you can play that for the epic lulz, as long as you do it well.
But, the point I'm making here is that just because a character's got purple eyes and a great singing voice, it doesn't automatically make them 'Sue-tastic. It'll make me way more cautious until I know the player a little better, sure, but a few interesting traits are what make characters fun. They're what makes them memorable. Too many, though, and you've crossed the line.