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Dear forum,

Is there a nice way to tell your friend that their character is a Mary Sue?

My friend has this...glaringly obvious Mary Sue of a character. I've tried to understand the character but the more I try the more confused I become and the more frustrate she gets. Other people have expressed similar confusion, misunderstanding, or outright distaste for the character, and each time she gets offended. Any time I or anyone else tries to make a suggestion she takes it as some personal attack against her. She says she's tried to fix the problem but is never happy with the results. I want her to be happy but what she has now seems to be causing a lot of animosity between her and other Gaians.

How do I talk to her about this without hurting her feelings? Or should I just leave it alone and tell her to ignore what other people say even if it alienates her from the people and players?

Any advice?

Note: From what I understand she's one of those Supah Speshul Sues! Feels her character needs to be the sexiest, most powerful character in the room, or else she isn't interesting enough.

From what I learned in my LIT-115 class, what is today called a "Mary-Sue" is properly/originally known as a static character.
The definition in my textbook described static characters as poorly or under-developed characters that provide nothing useful to the plot or meet cliches and over-used themes.
It isn't the exact term of Mary-Sue, but it's the closest term I know of that is considered, as far as I have seen in getting my creative writing associates is concerned.

I know this topic was made a while ago, but I'd like to give my two cents on this matter since I struggle with this topic as well.

The thing is: when the author wants to improve, you as the critic cannot sugar coat everything. Tell this person how it is. If she doesn't listen, let her cool off and tell her that if she wants to get better, she needs to know what is wrong and how to change it.

Are there any specifics on how the character is a flat-out Sue? After all, someone could have the Mary Sue traits and not be that type of character. One of my favorite video game characters has a lot of the traits but he's not a Stu, because he's not warping the plot around himself and making everything go his way.

Mary Sue isn't about the character or their abilities, remember. It's about the plot and other characters, as well as their reactions.