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windfalcon — Mary Sue - How to Tell
Published: 2004-02-25 08:27:37 +0000 UTC; Views: 430618; Favourites: 7007; Downloads: 44654
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EDIT 3: 11/22/09 You guys are kidding me XD For goodness sakes, reaaaaad the liink here: [link] Every time I get a comment that reads "the one on the left is a Mary Sue because she has green hair and a power," I realize that they're not reading the description which contains this link: [link]tl;dr: If 'special' traits fit in with the universe, it doesn't automatically make the character a Mary Sue. What if everyone else in Ami Machida's universe has green/blue/purple hair? What if everyone else has a cat power? Does that make her a Mary Sue? Not necessarily.
Please, spare me the time from having to point you BACK to the silly description and just take a minute to read the link. You know, the one I linked to a bunch of times up above. And the link here: [link]
EDIT 2: 10/11/09 I suppose this is long overdue, but for those of you with confusion, here is an explanation on why I perceive the one on the left as not a Mary Sue: [link] For the love of god stop whining about it D:
EDIT: 6/21/09 Okay, everyone, please chill with all the 'hay is my character a mary-sue!?11" questions. I get about 3 a day now and one thing you need to understand - I AM NOT AN AUTHORITY ON MARY SUES. This picture is a parody. Just for fun. The one on the right is obviously an extreme exaggeration of a stereotype and not the definitive definition for a Mary Sue. D:
Please full view. You won't be able to read the text if you don't.
For those of you who don't know, a Mary Sue, in a nutshell, is a fanmade character that is usually extremely beautiful, powerful, smart, talented, and in plain words, perfect in every way.
These characters tend to be quite a bother in fanfiction and role playing, since they simply can't be beat, and thus become boring.
Have any of you ever been rping, and come across a character who is like, " oh, well, that planet in the way isn't a problem *blows it up*"
Or, is like, "well, Vegeta and Goten and Trunks and Goku ALL have a crush on my character"
Yep. That's a Mary Sue.
So, for people who still don't understand, I made this little picture/diagram. Usually, Mary Sues have TONS of talents and TONS of powers, and no weaknesses.
Enjoy ^_^
-Done in Copic Markers, with the background and text done on computer -
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Comments: 4629
She is not royalty and also she is based on me she has to get braces too
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it all depends on the story of her character, i always prioritize the flaws to build my character.
i'll tell you one of my ocs
name: josmil
story: a pirate that has encountered a mermaid, they built a relationship and became lovers until enemy pirates from a different country attacked and kidnapped them, she told him to eat her to give him powers to survive. this gave him unlimited memory and eternal youth
flaws: he is still human and can be damaged normally, eating her gave him a traumatic effect that will never go away
see? make the bio only on the important parts like story, personality, flaws, and species. don't make the species or abilities too powerful and make the flaws impactful because the flaws is what affects all characters
i just love criticism, you can criticize mine if you have any.
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Not all mary sues look like that
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Non-sue: Lead female character of mine is Megumi Urameshi. Her father is Yusuke Urameshi and her mom is Keiko. (I love YYH a lot and continue the series in manga form) Right now, she's 17, going to be 18 in September. She's a spirit detective like her father is, and acquired all the psychic powers and the temple from Genkai, who passed them onto Megumi just before passing away due to old age. Not to be alone and feeling like a hermit, she's living with her boyfriend, 16-year-old fox demon Saito Minamino, whose parents are Shizuru and Kurama. They attend high school, going into their senior year. G.P.A is A+ for both, although the only place that Megumi passes a B or C in is chorus. She can carry a tune along with the radio, but that's about it. Singing was never her top priority in life. She can't fly. Second reason Saito lives with her is because he can transform into a large silver fox, just like his father can, and flies, carrying her on his back. I'm not limiting spirit powers on these two because of the world the anime comes from. Super-ceding your parents, or seeing if you can be more powerful than your father or your sensei is all part of those worlds. But anyways, these two lovers are just for each other. I'm planning to marry them.
Sue: Mary Sue Sunshine is a lead character. She's 17, but look like an 8-year-old. Yeah, I can do that. Come up with a lolita character like Honey Senpai from OHSHC. She's a cute little angel character, and is perfect in every way. Why, because she keeps blabbing about how perfect she is to everyone she sees. She's rather annoying. Anything you can do, she claims she can do a million times better. Her mom is Princess Peach. Her father is Whis from Dragon Ball Super. How they hooked up? Crossovers are fun. Because her father is Whis, her skin is also blue. And she can't die because she's immortal. She's got a ton of boyfriends. Can't decide who she wants to marry. It's either Trunks, Kaname, Alphonse Elric, Space Dandy, Detective Conan, Honey Senpai.... her decision-making skills about what man is the best for her is worse than both Bella Swan and Yuki Cross, combined. She's also slept around with a lot of these guys, if she were to get pregnant, she'd have a hell of a time figuring out who the father is.
(Okay, okay. The sue I came up with is really just crap I threw together. I wouldn't have any interest in this character and no anime to put her in really. My non-sue characters are children of two canon character couples from the anime I put them in, and I've had a long time developing both Saito and Megumi, along with both of their families. Saito has a sister, Sakura. Megumi has a brother, Yoshi, and a baby sister, Kaya. And I've got the couple with an adopted baby boy, Tenshi, who lost his mother right due to childbirth complications and the poor living conditions she was in, a shabby apartment where she had him. Sakura is a newly-hired shinigami for Spirit World who helped the mom and gave the baby to her brother because he really had no other place to go. Saito and Megumi adopted the orphan and became his parents.)
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HAIR DYE. THAT’S WHY SHE CAN HAVE GREEN HAIR.
(How do u think my hair is pink?....that rhymes)
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The left character, eh......The right one is amazingly ridiculous and has good material to work off of
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I'd like to see the Mary Sue take on Jiren from DBS. Jiren is almost a stu himself. Actually, a lot of the Z-Fighters fail to pass the Mary Sue test. The worst ones to fail the test are indeed Goku and Majin Buu.
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Mary Sue's dont always look really weird and powerful and stuff. LOOK AT ERZA SCARLET'S TITANIA ARMOUR IT MAKES HER LOOK LIKE A GOODESS AND NO ONE INSTANTLY SAYS "Oh thats a Mary Sue" They say she looks cool. A mary sue is just to overpowered. Ami Machida couldve swapped her bio with Jasmyne and got rid of the pet things and it wouldve worked. Again, a Mary Sue is JUST an overpowered character. Not someone with beautiful clothing, crowns, jewels and everything. The looks mean nothing.
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Well,looks are only half the deal,Like if you saw an image that was an alicorn with literary 20 horns,Two sets of wings,It had neon pink for a coat,It had huge lips,Rainbow eyes and a a rainbow mane with a cutie mark that said everything,what would you think?
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I read the whole thing of the right one's bio,
And wow,
The 'Hobbies' section alone is overkill!!!
Methinks this effectively explains what is and is *not* a Mary Sue. ^w^
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her dad is vegeta ok wow I wouldn't be surprised if she has the power to go ssj blue actually I wouldn't be surprised if she mastered ultra instinct the moment she was born lmao
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Wait, wait, wait. That Mary-Sue's father is VEGETA??? And her mother isn't Bulma. Oof. I can't wait to tell Bulma.
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This is awesome! So true! I hate seeing Mary-Sue characters, in like, roleplays or stuff. It's really funny. Great job!
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Same! I have worked on my characters from the past and realized how awful they are with this.
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I have lots of characters some have traits from both categories and theyre all different from each other so yeah I guess my characters are uh in between. I dunno.
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If it is both then it is not a Mary Sue. Probably just the main character in something.
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Couldn't have said it better myself
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I'm honestly more confused. XD
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Well, generally speaking, Mary Sue is the literal focal point of the story, the thing the whole universe revolves around. They are good at everything with no flaws.
A "Normal" OC has flaws and personality traits besides "amazing at everything they do", like the character on the left up there.
If you write a character with traits from both, like for example a shy boy with red hair and unknown powers because of his heritage that has a tendency to run from his problems... He is likely a protagonist. I am not saying it always has to be, but it is a possibility (see: Anime)
And to give credit where credit is due, I got my information from this video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v
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Okay, my characters, there's like a thousand of em. But everyone I try to give them good and bad points. And I give them weird colored hair because of anime. XD
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I'm a working on character who is a Mary Sue parody and another character who is a Gary Stu parody I don't know what it is but I really love the idea of depicting a Mary Sue and a Gary Stu type being brutally beaten into the ground and then being made fun of by the real main Protagonists
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This was too funny. -very cool.
Of course, a Mary Sue, or Marty Stu, is just too PERFECT to exist, even in a fictional universe.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue
I've been watching Star Trek: TNG. Ow! Wesley Crusher? No offense to the actor, who was just doing his job. But, really, Gene? Really?
It's incredible Captain Picard can put up with him.
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Sad to admit I use to be infected with the Mary Sue Syndrome when I first started out rping. Luckily, now that I not only have more experience/ written my own stories, I am far from any characters of mine being a Mary Sue. Awesome art. Love the parody.
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The parody is great!
Personally I think creating/placing a Mary Sue in the story you want is great as a tutorial for RP or writing - can't tell you how many character sheets my old tabletop went through. We all do it. Just... no one else actually wants to read about your flawless stand-in. So they're great for practice and should never be published.
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I think that all of us are guilty of this at one point... but the major offenders of this here? As I said in reply to another comment on this picture... Video Gamers. Going right from Video Games to RPing/Story writing means your first OC/Character will be 90% this as you're so used to seeing the hero walk away from the final boss fight without a single scratch physically or mentally which is a common thing with games now days but there are a few games I could list from past that are able to really shatter that "The main heroes are unkillable" way of thinking... namely Mass Effect 2. Sure Shep dies at the start of the game and gets revived making you think you only have a health and shield/barrier bar for gameplay reasons... but then if you somehow fucked up so bad during the final parts of the game you get the shocking twist off Shep falling to his/her death at the very end of Mass Effect 2, even when he/she should be "immortal" because they was brought back from the dead.
Another game that has an major thing about being fragile which is another thing most gamers who go into RP/Story writting for the first time forget about, anyway the game I'd pick for this is the Monster Hunter games. There is no level there, no small number with the words "Power Rating" on it. You're just a fragile human who takes on beasts that can be 10 times their own size but how do they do that when they can't tank the damage that the massive ass monsters can deal to your character? Simple your character gets stronger by making stronger weapons and armor but in Monster Hunter games going for the best defence is not the best thing due to armor skills. Sometimes having an boost to attack is better then having a higher defence besides each monster has a visual animation of the attack they are gonna do, giving you time to avoid the incoming damage. I mean sure high defence helps if you mess up avoiding an attack, but as I said you're not meant to be able to tank damage in Monster Hunter as if your an D&D Great Fighter.
So yeah bottom line is... most Mary Sues (and what ever the name is for the male counterpart) are usually made from a gamer's set of mind where the hero is meant to be untouchable and only gets hit if we the player fuck it up, which since there is no "person with a controller, controlling the hero aka their character in an RP/Story" they rarely if at all get hit or lose a fight. I too am guilty of this in the past... but now days with a lot of games factoring "Respawing" into the game's lore like it's part of Destiny's lore that as long as a Guardian's Ghosts remains alive, it's Guardian can never truly die for good. We can depending on certain factors allow our characters to die as they will just "respawn" providing it fits the lore.
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Someone above said "Gary Stu" so that's what I'm gonna roll with.
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So in this definition of a Mary sue basically if you can say they are god then calm down a bit (lol)
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It's an exaggeration, but it gets the point across.
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Yea but you know you made the ultimate Mary sue of they can be described as god. Sorry I'm just joking around but I do understand what you are talking about : )
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This is why I take pride in the very human flaws of the characters I write. For me, it's the flaws that make my characters so enjoyable to write. Whether it's paranoia from being raised in the military, reluctance to fight due to murdering people in the line of duty in war as a child, or even so skilled in one type of combat that they've neglected other aspects of their training.
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Wow... My Little Miss persona, Little Miss Swag is mostly the girl on the left side..
Although she can die, but she does resurrect within two days and she can get hurt real bad...
If you ask why I say left side: SHE IS BASED ON MYSELF IN A LITTLE MISS FORM WITH EPIC POWERS BASED ON TALENT AND EMOTION!!
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In some aspects, even the one on the left could be under the right circumstances a "Mary-Sue".
The problem is the definition of "Mary-Sue" has some variations, and generally it can be just any female character people find annoying for certain faults that are too unlikable. For example, a strong female character is well liked by some but hated by others who are anti-feminist. The other issue is, in avoiding a mary-due you THEN fall into the trap at times of creating a one-note or single persona 2D character who is often a stereotype.
Obviously, most Mary-Sue's have clear common traits agrees on, like in the My Little Pony fandom a "Alicorn" OC is hated because its seen as lazy, an attempt to make a "all powerful" character with little effort.. Possibly to also give them a position of authority. Those who do avoid the obious trait of going for an Alicorn, instead often go for a unicorn or Pegasus instead and both can fall into the same traps, especially the unicorns as they are MLP's magic users. Very few OCs are "Earth Ponies" despite them having a number of magical traits too, simply because their viewed as "mundane" or boring, even though the Earth Ponies are known for their incredible acts of physical strength and being one with nature, being the only one of 3 races who can do farming successfully on a long period as Pegasi and Unicorns lack the stamina and endurance to work for hours in laborious jobs.
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Honestly I like that the Mary Sue example has "special" colored hair that isn't rainbow
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The parents of the mary sue made me laugh xD
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It's obvious and predictable that Mary Sue/Gary Stu are being overrated powered with no apparent reasons.
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Haha, pretty clever. Also, Prince Vegeta is what killed it XD
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it honestly depends on what the world is like that they're in. like, if it's considered more normal or mainstream to not be entirely human. if it's just a normal world and the character is SUPER OP, then yes, that character is definitely a mary-sue. if a character doesn't have a weakness nor a way to be defeated then that's just poor and extremely boring writing.
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This is from 2004? I feel so old...
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Usually there's a distinction in High-fantasy worlds where it's possible to be extremely powerful and being beautiful is no issue because of magic. I've no problem with it as long as it's balanced out with fair weaknesses and there's no power-playing. I've got characters that are beings as powerful as dragons, or teleporting unicorns, or mages that can communicate with evil deities and cast curses upon villages - but they are all balanced out and their powers fit within the lore of the universe. For example, there's a powerful association of benevolent mages in the world called the Circle of Magi that watches for evil uses of magic and will cast down mages that are getting too close to messing with the world's state.
I think it's for more important to have a well-rounded character with a versatile personality. And to communicate with your roleplay partners before you make the use of great powers, especially things like possession and curses.
For example, in my world there are ancient vampires called Higher Vampire ( Witcher 3 equivalent. Think Unseen Elder.) They can devastate entire towns if they wish. But being exposed to sun, salt or silver boils their bodies from the inside out. They can't be near creatures like Unicorns either because they are too pure.
And while your 'non sue' character might be less annoying to roleplay with, she is still a very cliché and flat character that I have seen portrayed many times before. There is nothing there that makes me feel that she has any real personality or presence to her. So while she may not be a mary sue, she is not a very interesting character that I would want to roleplay with.
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Dang, the one on the right looks like she's a goddess. Everything about the right one looks like a Mary Sue for sure. How can you miss it?
The left one is simple, not too overpowered and has decent features. I would recommend the left one.
BTW good example and drawing! :3
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A classic, I remember this one.
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