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windfalcon — Mary Sue - How to Tell
Published: 2004-02-25 08:27:37 +0000 UTC; Views: 431757; Favourites: 7000; Downloads: 44656
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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
You trolling, bud? Or have you run out of claims?
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Im not trolling I just don't have the energy to argue with deviantart netizens
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Lol, no he's not. Mary Sue's rarely if ever lose and don't have to do anything to get stronger. Goku's lost plenty of times and constantly trains to get stronger.
Want a Mary Sue look up Erza from FT. She's lost like 4 times out of all of her fights. She wins even when her senses are sealed and she couldn't scratch the opponent before. Destroyed a meteorite with all her bones broken, etc,etc. She's horrible.
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Oh please do tell how he is.
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Again prove it. You just saying he is doesn't make it so. State your claims, the fact that you can't pretty much shows you have no argument whatsoever. I doubt you've even watched DB. He's not one at all.
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Again prove it. You're making a statement yet offering nothing to back up your claim. The fact is he isn't.
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Again prove it. You saying he is means nothing. Tye fact you can only repeat your statement shows that you can't
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My statement is the Truth
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Lol, yet you have nothing to back up your statement. Also it's 100% false.
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Bo it hasn't lol. Please show me where it has been proven.
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Lol, that's not proof at all. Sorry but he's not. He trains hard and he's also not the strongest. Not to mention he struggles during his fights, and he doesn't always win. So no he's not a mary sue
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Sure sure again you offer no proof
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No surprise a kid would have so little to say.
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Only in your sick deluded head. Take it from someone more experienced in life: you need serious help. For the sack of you and your loved ones.
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I Need Serious Help Just Because I Claimed An Anime Character Is A Mary Sue
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Erza isn't a Mary Sue. She's lost/almost lost/almost died in plenty of battles in the more recent seasons, she isn't good at everything, she trains to fight, and she has weaknesses. Even though she's powerful, she isn't a Mary Sue. Also, believe it or not, the reason she always wins is because that's how most stories end. The good guy wins. Natsu always wins, Lucy always wins, Gray always wins, BUT IT'S BECAUSE THEY ARE THE MAIN CHARACTERS. MOST OF THE TIME LOSING A BATTLE IN FT MEANS THAT YOU DIE. THEY AREN'T GOING TO KILL THE MAIN CHARACTERS!
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Keyword Almost, she always pulls some BS that allows her to win even if she couldn't do anything to the enemy before.
Erza Vs Minerva and Kagura. Losing to Kagura badly, gets a broken ankle. Minerva doesn't get hurt at all. Erza gets beat around by Minerva. Erza pulls out armor that's never been seen before and OHKO's Minerva. Even though Erza had no magic.
Erza has never trained at all. When they had the chance to train Mashima used it as a fanservice moment, then used that stupid excuse for Second Origin. Erza has no weaknesses lol.
Erza vs Kyouka. Can't do anything to Kyouka at all. Erza gets kidnapped, Then physically and mentally tortured the pain is multiplied, She gets whipped beat up and even electrocuted all multiplied, She gets out no mental damage whatsoever, She fights Kyouka evenly when Kyouka was at full power despite all Erza went through, They fight for awhile Erza is visibly tired, Erza fights Neo Minerva at the GMG’s Erza and Minerva were practically even, Erza was shown goofing off and relaxing after the GMG’s Minerva was powering up, Erza is somehow an equal match for this powered up Minerva despite her previous fight with Kyouka, Minerva has an OOC breakdown and gives up, Erza fights Kyouka again, Kyouka has been resting, Erza has been fighting, Kyouka and Erza are equal somehow, They're both visibly tired, Kyouka abosrbs Sayla's powers,Erza who is battle weary fights Kyouka (Sayla absorbed) on equal footing, Kyouka transforms, knocks the shit out of Erza breaks her armor, Kyouka rips off Saint Seiya almost word for word and ability, Seals all her senses increases her pain beats the shit out of her, Kyouka is at full health, Erza is practically dead,
Does Minerva stand up and save her? No not at all, Erza being blind somehow finds her sword, without any senses she is able to talk, do a flip, find her enemy, land a few flips, and other things that are not possible at all with the senses sealed:
Glare, Know where up and down are and percieve gravity with all her senses blocked, Breathe without being able to feel her lungs, Look directly into people's eyes while blinded, Stand up without being able to feel where to place her legs, Know whether or not she is holding her sword, Know the the location of an enemy in relation to herself at all times, Strike harder, faster and more accurately than she would have with her other senses intact, Dodge successfully, Somersault, LAND a somersault, Bear maximum pain with minimum pain tolerance without going insane
Then remember before Erza could not land a hit on this Kyouka at all, in her robes with all that mentioned above OHKO's Kyouka who was at full power and before Erza couldn't scratch her. The only explination given for this "It's Erza" Then Erza gets up and is able to do a full recovery, in fact her wounds have disapeared and she seems to be healed. Like she never fought.
That's the definition of a Mary Sue
.Let's look at Alvarez she fights Ajeel is seriously injured gets hit by Jupiter Cannon, Wendy is only able to half heal her. Fights with Neinhart gets the shit beat out of her again, then goes on to fight Irene. Irene is toying with Wendy and Erza the entire time. They can do nothing to harm her even with Wendy multiplying their strength several times. Irene allows herself to get wounded in the head, randomly decides to switch bodies with Wendy, Wendy forces her out, this weakens Irene (Which was just a cheap way to get Irene weakened) Irene transforms hits ERza and breaks all of her bones except her arm. Irene summons a meteorite. Erza somehow launches herself in the air with an armor we've never seen before (Erza's armor abilities give her the excuse to have an asspull handy at anytime) she's somehow able to swing a sword depsite her body wouldn't be able to. Not to mention she didn't go swinging wildly off course like she should have then she destroys the meteorite without having any energy. Falls back to earth and is able to land at exactly the right spot to slash Irene. Of course Wendy just happened to wake up at the right exact moment to randomy transfer DS magic that has never been brought up before as being possible, not to mention she said she was out of magic.
She's a Mary Sue, FT suffers from horrible writing. All the charcters have their BS moments but Erza is by far the worst.
To be fair Natsu is just as much of a Gary Stu as Erza. Why FT is so boring and predictable.
Every arc of FT
Natsu/Lucy: HI WE'RE FAIRY TAIL AND WE'RE HAPPY YAY!!!
Bad Guy: MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I AM STR0NGER THAN ALL OF YOU!
*Fairy Tail gets their ass handed to them*
Natsu/Lucy: OH NO! LET'S DEFEAT THEM WITH FRIENDSHIP!
Bad Guy: OH SHIT, NOT THE FRIENDSHIP!!!
Natsu: NAKAMA PUNCH!!!
*Bad guy gets his ass handed to him in an instant*
Bad Guy: OH NO! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! THE SUPER POWER OF NAKAMA PUNCH IS TOO STRONG!
Natsu/Lucy: YAY!
Lol, Lucy has lost plenty of times, Gray has lost a few times to but won most of them.
I suggest you read Berserk, Attack on Titan, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Dragon Ball, Naruto, Yu Yu Hakusho, Shaman King, Bleach, One Piece, Gundam, Hoshin Engi, Neon Genesis Evangelion, etc, etc, etc. Sure some of them bring back their characters but hey at least they die and prove you can't win all the time.
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when you kill a main character, it really makes the series interesting
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Your last point is the biggest problem with FT. No matter what happens, all main characters will be brought back somehow. That is boring
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Do people actually ship Vegeta with Sailor Moon? I mean, it wouldn't even be disappointing because that would require that I expected better of people, but one of them is happily married with two children and the other is part of a textbook fairy-tale romance plot. Really, I know you were trying to come up with the stupidest possible things for each field of the questionnaire, but you may have overdone it a bit...
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I like how the unicorn looks absolutely pissed at her.
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Rummor has it, it invaded city of Dundee just to calm dow the nerves.
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why is this popular again lmao
edit: this was made in 2004 calm down
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I think deviantart is starting to do what youtube has been doing for the last year or so - pulling up old submissions onto the front page and making them popular again. Which is why you get people saying stuff like "why was this recommended" and such
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Yep the one to the right is definitely an Mary Sue
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These are simply two extreme ends of the other, I get a character that pops out of nowhere is immediately related to someone with no backstory, escapes consequence within the story's own logic etc sounds jarring, but at the same time giving someone whose flaws revolve round entirely on dependence is as every much a Mary Sue trait.
Not to mention you'd be setting up a rather uninteresting character, by giving them mundane flaws with no reasoning.
Despite their abilities, your not making someone a believable or a genuinely conflicted character if the reason WHY she 'cries too much' 'bad at maths' or 'is clumsy' is non-existant. Was there obstacles in her life? does she have differing view to those that say she does all those things? The lack of story behind the flaws and interests and yet were to 'relate' to them is what also creates a mary sue/gary stu etc.
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True, true. Mob (from Mob Psycho 100) is quite overpowered, but everything is explained in such a way that it makes sense and feels right.
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What If The Flaws Are Just Not Glaring,Though? Like A Cyberpunk Killbot That Was Designed To Be The Perfect Killer,Was Sent On A Undercover Mission Into A Rebel Camp (In A Future Where Only The Absurdly Rich Live Decent Lives While The Rest Are Forced Onto The Street),But Her AI (Given To Her So She Could Improvise In Combat When Needed) Soon Allowed Her To Learn About Not Only The Injustices In The World But Realize All The Horrible Things She Has Done For Her Masters,So She Goes Back To The Company That Created Her,Killed Everyone In It,And Reprogramed Every Robot (The Company Being For Military Robotics) To Take Over The World With Her As Queen? She's Clearly Not "Normal". She's A Killbot. But Her Flaws Are Far Less Glaring Then "Is Clumsy" And "Can't Dance",Since Her's Is More More Psychological: She Was Built To Kill But Her Perfection In Her Design,IS A Imperfection Since She Started By Killing Without Question But Diverged So Far From Her Own Design That She Saw It Fit To RULE Humanity,Since She Deemed Humans Unable To Rule Over Themselves. In Body She Is Perfect,But In Mind She Is Flawed. Do You Still Count This As A "Mary Sue"?
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Why Must You Capitalise Each Word? Like, no hate or whatever, but when I read it, it feels like I'm riding a car and I'm hitting brakes all the time.
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To Piss Off The Jack Asses Above You. Seems To Be Working Pretty Well,Too.
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It's really hard to read what you're even saying if you capitalize every word. It's not necessary or useful in any language, so consider...not doing that
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Good,I Like Making You Work For It. Now Consider Minding Your Own Business. No One Is Forcing You To Read It,Now Are They?
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If you want to ignore grammar like an unreasonable imbecile go ahead. It's not like I read what you said up there. Waste of time. All it does makes you look like you're a 12 year old. Don't expect anyone to ever take you serious.
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Aw,That Means So Much Coming From A Random Nobody On The Internet. You Have Too High Opinion Of Yourself,Kiddo.
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