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windfalcon β Mary Sue - How to Tell
Published: 2004-02-25 08:27:37 +0000 UTC; Views: 430624; 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
Is that face a response to the:
Guns/Incest/N-word part
or the:
College kid liberal part?
(Neither are remotely serious in case you were disturbed, just playing into the stereotypes.)
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, he said, scrambling to pretend that he didn't make a mistake because he hasn't mastered english yet
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dude, i didn't READ your post
that is how this started
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that's exactly what happened actually
also i didn't expect to but DID activate you in that other thread, so i have that going for me too.Β but now that you've revealed your true colors of being an incestual bigot i hope you've sufficiently discredited yourself more than you already had
i got a shoot really early tomorrow so i gotta go, but make sure you take half a xanax, okay babe? you shouldn't go to bed all keyed up. <3
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To be fair, "Mary Sue" is relative to the setting. For example, a character who is a literal god whose powers are far and away above the comprehension of mortals is probably a Mary Sue... ...but if you're writing a Greek mythology-esque story about gods and their interactions, then a character being a god isn't just reasonable, it's to be expected.
It's less about avoiding certain character archetypes and more about making sure the character fits into the setting in a reasonable and believable way.
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this was submitted in 2004 and now im seeing it on front page.Β
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I like the drawings and I sooo agree with you, OC's need to be believable and easy to reason with and understand. Or else it just is boring!Β
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or you could just let people have fun creating characters and not try to police their creativity or fun
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I have an op charater.Β
Some ocs are just that good. I would say its a story type thing. I think people having ocs for no reason and milling charater designs the way they do is a real problem. Sure a few is good. Maby 5 max. But when your doing nothing or not being expressive and just making adopts that all have minor differences or look like stuff from other anime etc and ruining themes by running it into the ground you make it hard for most non Japanese manga artists to work without fear that they will be ripped off and there uniqe idea is then worthless. Β
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Conversely, you could let people critique artwork and writing on a public forum without getting butthurt.Β Β―\_(γ)_/Β―
Both are valid imo
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That is a great picture. I think it gets the point across really well. It is clear that the one on the left is NOT a Mary Sue, despite the commentators. There can be some subjectivity in defining a Mary Sue. I know of two characters that are called Mary Sue, but I don't think they are.
One is Rey from the new Star Wars trilogy. She has several skills, such as driving space ships, using the force and fighting enemies. However she shows enough weakness to avoid being a Mary Sue. In episode VII, she had difficulty holding and using a light saber. In episode VIII, she had difficulty getting along with Luke, and she didn't have a good understanding of the force. I am suspicious that there may be sexism. Luke had an impressive set of abilities in the original trilogy. Yet people accepted him. When Rey has a similar set of abilities, she gets so much backlash. It is probably because she is a woman. There seems to be a double standard. Sexism may be why Mary Sues are more prominent than Gary Stus. The patriarchy puts woman down, and sets the bar lower for strength. Characters of both genders can have strength and powers. I think there should be equal opportunity for that. If a female character is strong and powerful, she goes much further up the standard level. She is much further than a male character with the same strength and power. This difference may make a female seem overpowered, even though she is not. So a sexist bias may make one more likely to label Mary Sues than Gary Stus.
The strangest Mary Sue is Bella Swan from Twilight. The only thing she has going for her is popularity. That is probably why she is called a Mary Sue. Bella is the most popular girl in school, at least when she was the new girl. There are several boys that like her. Edward and Jacob are the only two that get serious. Vampires and werewolves are nemesis of each other. Yet Bella is well like by both of them. Still overall Bella is not a Mary Sue. She is whatever the opposite is. A Mary Sue is unappealing because she is too strong. Bella is unappealing because she is too weak. Bella has a lot of weaknesses. At least to me, this disqualifies her from being a Mary Sue. Bella constantly gets her butt kicked. Partially it is because she is just human. Partially it is because she is weak by human standards, even woman standards. Bella doesn't take an initiative in things either. She often lets other people, like Edward, make decisions for her. Without spoiling too much, Bella does get much stronger towards the end of the series. She showed an extraordinary self-control for the circumstance. I am glad that happened. Bella still doesn't become a Mary Sue. She has finally found one thing she is good at. She was so bad at many other things. She also is not overpowered compared to the other supernatural characters.
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I dont even think the real mary-sues exist anymore,if you try to find one you will only get joke mary-sues,
I searched and only found 2 mary-sue,it wasnt even that actual,it was from 2013
So,i think mary sues are extinted??????
And even if someone made a mary sue,it could still be probably a kid,let the kids do what they want with their imagination
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That's because this is a non-issue, completely irrelevant image from 2004 that DA dug up because it had a lot of arguments. And because people keep arguing and acting like it's still a relevant topic it'll stay up.
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or we can let young kids be self indulgent and not tear them and their creativity apart lol?
a concept???????????
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People are free to criticize what they want, young kids aren't allowed on DA first of all, and it's generally the same age group criticizing each other. (No adults give much of a shit about animu fandoms.)
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I mean youre not wrong...
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Okay no one is throwing this into there fucking faces
This is for people who wanna improve
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i mean the whole 'mary sue' culture is thrown into their faces but sure! you right !Β
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thank you ..... <3Β
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me and the point of this tutorial
Β I wouldn't call the anime nekochan on left, a definition of "well-thought" character
actually it's just basic boring anti sue oc without script
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ok well thank you for explaining yourself instead of just saying some unhelpful and destructive comment
the artist likely didn't want to put MONTHS of thought / story into some random character just to show an example of what is a balanced character vs what is over the top. in this case, it's mostly based on traits and appearance
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What if there was a mary sue that secretly hated her life and being perfect and just wanted to be something like a potato farmer and nothing else.Β
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Like Kim Ung-Yong, man with highest IQ in the world, learned to read, write and speak in multiple languages by the time he was 6.
They put him in NASA and shit and all he wanted to do was live an average life, after that he was ridiculed as a failed genius for not contributing more.
The ultimate Mary Sue subversion story
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Also a good mary sue story: One Punch Man.Β
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wow that actually doesn't sound half bad
I approve
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Pretty much the plot of One Punch Man
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Not really, Saitama wanted a strong opponent not to be normal.
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Both of them are mary sues and clumsly is the most common weakness and why the heck does she have cat ears
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i wouldn't call the character on the left a mary sue, just INCREDIBLY bland.
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dude read stuff before ya comment rrrrrrrr >:v
(dont take this comment too seriously)
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well lets see
she mastered everything in practically 5 minutes with no training
whereas luke spent his whole life to learn how to levitate an object
not to mention, the resistance trusted her within 10 minutes with all the sensitive info
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Because she has skills and abilities above the original source material's characters without any background, experience or training to explain it.
According to Yohgert
Β Β she knows everything recorded in the Jedi texts without having ever read them, etc.etc.
Classic Mary Sue
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Literally all of her abilities and skills are explained through the visuals. She's good at using a lightsaber because she's clearly skilled in other staff weapons, and it would logically not be too difficult to pick up the lightsaber after years of learning staff moves.Β
Her ability to fly the Falcon is due to her having an intense interest in old ship parts - her introduction is literally her climbing around inside of an old warship. She clearly has a deep knowledge of these things.Β
And lets talk about Luke then. If Rey's a Mary Sue, then so is Luke.Β
He can control the force in the first movie to destroy the Death Star on his second attempt, without any formal training too. He can also fly without anyΒ explanation of how he learned how to.
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