There’s nothing worse than roleplaying with a Mary/Gary Sue type character. Now you may wonder what that means. You’re in luck! This whole post will explain what a Mary Sue is and how to fall into the trap of creating one. So, go look at your character and run it up against these descriptions. If your character shares one or more of these things it’s likely you have a Mary Sue and should probably go ahead and start reworking your character. You can also take this handy, dandy quiz.
Alright, so let’s get into it.
- 1 ) Your character is too perfect
They lack realistic or logical flaws. Oh, and if they do have a flaw it really doesn’t hurt them in anyway. For example, a character that is really stubborn. It’s very likely that this will never actually hinder them in any situation. This isn't possible in real live and thus isn't possible in this guild.
2 ) You made your character based off of yourself
Characters like this are normally always idolized versions of themselves. They’re better, faster, stronger, and more attractive. Basically, the creator is putting themselves into the story without any flaws, quirks.
3 ) Your character has no limits
You’ve stacked them with so many powers and skills because you want them to be a badass. Normally these are people who want to be the main focus of a story. For example, you cannot have a power where you are never wrong. That's not a thing. Particularly if said character has abilities that do not exist within the boundaries of the story’s world. Often these characters are technically legitimate, but are very, "Look at how unique and cool I am!"
4 ) Your character is cliche
You've made a vampire that burns in the sunlight and has been alive for 1500 years. Their parents were killed by hunters and now they're always brooding. So, the character has qualities or characteristics that are overused by people trying to have a powerful/perfect/cool character
Phew! I'm not done yet. Here are a few more things to avoid when making your characters. All credit to this wording goes to tvtropes.
- Mary Sue as Clichéd character
Draven, orphaned and abused since childhood, discovers he is the Chosen One destined to overthrow The Empire with a new power unique to him, and even within his own family, he is special. And he wields a katana in a setting when they are not East Asian. Watch as suddenly, he is declared a Mary Sue simply for his background.
Mary Sue as Idealized Character
The interpretation that Mary Sue is a character that is idealized to a fault. A very influential interpretation, this one tends to get applied to most discussions. This theory posits that a Mary Sue is an unrealistically capable and virtuous character, one who simply lacks flaws and is depicted in an overly positive light. This tends to draw the most debate, as this model of character is extremely common, and also a lot more accepted than people give it credit for.
However, both this interpretation and a shift of society as a whole towards cynicism has led to many people trying to mask their otherwise idealized characters with either total non-flaws (e.g. being So Beautiful, It's A Curse and other Cursed with Awesome details), flaws by proxy (e.g. Dark and Troubled Past), or flaws that simply don't play any role in the plot at all (e.g. making a character an alcoholic, but never showing them as impeded by it). Often, this leads to a particular extreme where people start treating flaws themselves as Character Development and create a character that simply has no merits outside of being able to do the most basic biological functions (Anti-Sue).
● Is either brave and cheerful (despite her past—not unheard of in real life, but with Sues it tends to come across as Angst? What Angst?), or unnecessarily mopey and depressed.
● Her "major flaws" will be stubbornness and a bad temper. These will only ever help her, never hurt her — because she's always right, so whatever cause she dedicates herself to with such stubbornness will be a good cause, and whoever she loses her temper with will deserve it.
● If she has any flaws intentionally written in by the creator, expect them to be Informed or not really flaws to begin with. Bonus points if they're genuine flaws that would actually be pretty awesome were it not for their drawbacks (e.g. substance abuse, nymphomania, etc.), and of course the drawbacks will never be shown.
● Clumsiness is not a flaw. It is a potentially cute character trait and if it is implemented heavily enough into a character to be a flaw, the character devolves into Plucky Comic Relief and if they are the protagonist, the story risks becoming pure slapstick.
● I Just Want to Be Normal: Being super awesome is a curse. Now in a franchise like X-Men, a character can find their awesomeness a curse, but at the very least it's because mutants are feared and their powers can cause them serious problems. Mary Sue claims she wishes she was normal even when there's no actual downside to her powers.
● Inexplicable and/or poorly-defined abilities in general, especially if they play no factor in the plot after their introduction and are only there to make the character seem even more awesome.
● Regardless of what skill level the characters have established, she might just simply be better than them, often in ways that do not make sense. Not to mention that if she isn't already skilled at something, she'll pick it up in a fraction of the time required - if she even needs to learn them at all.
● Magical powers similar to what the other characters have, only with the limitations removed.
● Speaks several languages fluently. This can vary depending on the setting, of course. A modern-day diplomat is expected to know at least one or two other languages, but a 14-year-old peasant girl in Medieval Europe shouldn't speak Japanese and Hindi fluently. It's much worse if it includes animals.
● The most common second languages are probably Romance languages (because they sound awesome), Japanese (for the otaku) and Lakota (many Suesnote are of American Indian admixture, but never more than half).
● Skilled in a type of martial arts in a setting or with a backstory that doesn't allow for it. Not regularly skilled either; she could kick the a** of the resident ninja of her choice.
● Absurd natural athletic ability - she can run like the wind without ever having worked on her running, and has impossibly high acrobatic skills.
● All skills and traits unusual for setting can pretty easily fall into this, since young authors usually forget to portray all consequences of picking a certain trade. For example, a medieval peasant girl will have no problems becoming a respected genius scholar.
● She is often around the age the author is, or just looks that way despite being Really 700 Years Old so that she can be wise and leaderly. This doesn't have to be bad but when you start seeing hardened military officers that are 16...
● Sympathetic Sue has an unusually Dark and Troubled Past to the excess, but other subtypes often have them too, just to emphasize how brave and special she is to live through it. This past is never really a point in the story, just dropped casually into the conversation to get attention. Alternatively it's written badly owing to not doing much research. How much she Wangsts about it is usually out of proportion with how bad it really is.
● She will often have a tragic family life. Coming from an abusive background is quite common.
● In darker fics, her backstory often involves rape.
● In these kinds of stories, the past is where any and all potentially interesting aspects of the Sue's adventure remain trapped. By making all the hardships and struggle over and done with at the start, she has no more room left to grow as a character. Ideally, a backstory should help explain things like a character's motive and/or how they acquired certain skills or items. A good author puts a relatively ordinary person into an extraordinary world and sees them steadily go through and react to all this pain and conflict over the course of the plot and develop into a stronger person bit by bit. A Mary Sue author skips that, with their character starting out as a badass and ending up as the exact same badass.
● May have some overly long, complicated, usually Meaningful Name that relates to her abilities or personality - whether this is usual in canon or not.
● Maybe they have a generic Japanese name like Hikari or Sakura. Bonus points if it's a decidedly non-Japanese setting.
● The author takes personal offense at any criticism of the character or story, no matter how well-meaning or justified it is. Bonus points for an overblown ego behind it.
Alright, that about does it. So when you're making your characters please take this information into account. We will not approve characters that are "perfect" or ripped off from other characters that have already been created.
TL;DR: Follow these rules. c:
