Why yes, I did just spend my Saturday evening writing an essay on Mary Sues

[privatemaladict]

I first came across the term “Mary Sue” when writing my Harry Potter fanfic, The Greatest Kind of Magic. My beta reader at the time defined it as “A character who is boring, clichéd and perfect in every way.” Of course, as I delved further into the world of fanfiction, I realised that definition didn’t quite cover it. A Mary Sue is a self-insert. A

Comments

[septemberrains]

A very interesting essay. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Bella Swann is most definitely a Mary Sue. I mostly agree with you about Meredith Grey but I think the only thing which makes her not a true Mary Sue is that she was not the exceptionally brilliant surgeon in the show (that being the awesome Christina Yang) nor the most awful. But the fact that she was so insanely whiny - oops, sorry 'dark and twisty' - almost put me off watching the show.

This was my main problem with the Ginny-is-a-Sue argument - at the end of the day, we don’t really know enough about Ginny to see what her flaws might be.I hadn't really thought about this before but you're absolutely right. I think this is why the Ginny/Harry hook-up grates for me. I don't dislike Ginny but we just don't see enough of her to get a real sense of who she is as a person and why Harry would be attracted to her, though I think JKR doesn't really help this by not giving Harry much opportunity to reflect on his feelings towards her. Percy, Fred and George get far more

[privatemaladict]

I specifically didn't go into all the things I hated about Fifty Shades of Vomit because that would be an etire essay in itself, and this one was just about Mary Sues. But yes, unlike Harry/Ginny, where the relationship springs up with fairly minimal lead-up, Ana/Christian is the subject of the entire book... and it still makes absolutely no sense.

I also think Ana (and Bella Swan, for than matter) has a very obvious Mary Sue "tell" - the fact that for no reason whatsoever, she is extremely clumsy. This is the sort of thing bad writers think constitutes a flaw - never mind that the level of clumsiness described would generally suggest an underlying neurological disorder.

[septemberrains]

...never mind that the level of clumsiness described would generally suggest an underlying neurological disorder.

Bwahahaha! So true!

[valis2]

I really love this simple definition of a Sue That is really the upshot of it all; Sues are very nearly caricatures, a set of attributes that the author thinks makes the character amazing

[privatemaladict]

Mind if I share a link to this?

Not at all! Essays like this are meant for discussion.

The other thing that fascinates me is how many movies and popular entertainment things involve Sues and Stus.

I think a vast number of action characters are labelled Sues, when in fact, their "Sueness" makes perfect sense in the context of the story they're in. I haven't seen The Chronicles of Riddick, so I can't comment on that, but my example of The Doctor easily fits. By a classic definition of Stu, he ticks just about every box. But when you stop to think about it, The Doctor warping the world around him is kind of the point of the whole thing. Plus, at least in the new series (I can't comment on the old), there's a constant tension about the extent to which he should use his powers, he occasionally fails to save the day in a most spectacular manner, and the collateral damage both from his actions and from his personal interctions with people is often rather devastating, both for the Doctor and for those around him

[hutchynstarsk]

Hi! I enjoyed reading your essay (found through link from Valis2!).

I don't really write female characters much lately (not saying that's a good thing), but I do approve of any post that questions our definitions of Mary Sue. :) It seems like it's often used as a pejorative term to look down on someone else's characters, and frankly, almost always on female characters.

So, yay you for thinking and talking about this! :)

[privatemaladict]

Of course, Mary Sues are not exclusively female - I mainly used the term "Sue" here because constantly writing "Mary Sue/Gary Stu" feels rather awkward! I think the term does get bandied around more towards female characters though - I suppose that stems from the fanfiction world, where more of the writers and consumers are female.

[chocolate_limes]

Har! I am also here via valis2's recommendation, and a grand recommendation it is too