Mary Sues

[taekochan]

I personally feel that the word Mary Sue is being thrown around way to often. It's one thing to call a self insertion character in fanfiction a Mary sue, but to call just about EVERY lead female character in a story a Mary sue, now that's just going to far

Comments

[cp_jacksparrow]

Y'see, that is why I personally dislike comms like the "Canon Sues" one, but that's just me.

[ringing_phone]

No character trait is Stuish/Suish in and of itself. There has to be a distorted extremity to the trait. It's not enough for the character to have a "tragic past" (especially as "tragic" is a pretty vague word), especially if they inhabit a world where it's easy to acquire one (if your character is, say, an orphan living in 1830's NYC, it'd take some seriously fine writing to make anything but a tragic past credible). It's not enough for a character to be exceptionally good at something (especially if you see them working to achieve/maintain their expertise). A character isn't a Mary Sue/Gary Stu until s/he's been laden with generic "appealing" traits that have not been thought through.

[mistress_kizuna]

I hate it when people throw terms like Mary Sue around when they really have no idea what they're talking about.

[la_vamp]

I always thought that Mary-Sues were fap off material for beginning writers. Rarely do Mary-Sues get past professional editing processes anyways, so what gives fandom. The reason the Mary-Sue argument turns me off is because people think it's an easy way to argue against a character. I think that on rare occasions there are Canon Sues, but I think most professional editors are capable of catching real Mary-Sues before they are put into publication.

Some clarification

[metaraymek]

I hate how the term is bandied about as well.

It's gotten to a point these days where you can't even create an original character without someone INSTANTLY calling them a Mary/Gary Stu at one point or another.

Besides, there are glaringly obvious Mary Sues in fiction (like this one guy from the 80's 'Teen Titans' who basically was a self-insertion of Marv Wolfram who bedded and wed Donna Troy) who are FAR more deserving of the moniker.

But there are those who aren't deserving of it either.
(Seriously, up until Walt Simonson arrived on 'Thor' in the 80's, NONE of the writers even thought to have someone else attempt to pick up Mjolnir. Then comes Beta Ray Bill and everyone's like 'ZOMG GARY STU! TRAGIC PAST AND HE STEALS AWAY THOR'S GIRL! GARY STU!' Oh PUH-LEEEEEZE!)

It's both absolutely insane and frustrating to no end.