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LilyWinterwood — Mary Sue Meme
Published: 2013-05-26 04:57:59 +0000 UTC; Views: 9683; Favourites: 71; Downloads: 7
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Description
Mary Sue: a term whose meaning is often debated in different writing circles on the internet.Personally, I go by the PPC explanation that a Sue is a character that achieves her (or his, Gary Stus exist too - just read any bad slash fanfic where one of the characters is suddenly effeminate, or perhaps a bad OC fic in a video game continuum where said OC is overpowerful, automatically trusted, and turns one of the female characters in the game into a raging bitch just so he'd have an excuse to kill her ) goals in a story with significantly less effort than most protagonists in her shoes would, often with huge breaks in canon and logic, hyperspeshul powers, or implausible connections to Canon characters. Instead of changing as a result of the plot, the Sue makes the plot change to suit her.
Mary Sue =/= self-insert =/= vicarious wish fulfilment =/= feminine power fantasy =/= empowering to women.
Mary Sue = result of negative self image = beginning writing = annoying as hell.
Thanks for listening to my rambles. A different variant of the meme can be found on the PPC wiki.
Legolas Thranduillion belongs to J.R.R. Tolkien
Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger belong to J.K. Rowling
The Tenth Doctor belongs to BBC and Russell T. Davies
BBC!Sherlock Holmes and John Watson belong to BBC and the Mofftisson
Ebony 'Enoby' Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way belongs to Tara Gilesbie (even if she's been elf'd here)
Ensign Sue belongs to Clare Moseley and Interrobang Studios
Sparklypoo Sue belongs to Pirate Monkey
The Protectors of the Plot Continuum belongs to the PPC Board
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Comments: 12
Which female character was it? (The one who got killed, I mean).
Also, I think the PPC's definition of a Mary Sue is mostly valid, save for the idea of succeeding in goals with less effort. To me, that just denotes inherent talent/power, or at worst means the character is "overpowered". But to me, just as being a Mary Sue is different from being a self-insert or wish fulfillment, so too should it be different from a character merely being "overpowered".
Also, I think there's a difference between symptoms and the disease. Say, for example, that a character has an implausible connection to a Canon Character, but is otherwise deeply flawed, fallible, and doesn't strongly interfere with the main narrative by way of being a secondary character and not the main hero. Can that character really be called a Sue, or just a decent character who's one main problem is an implausible connection the main hero?
Likewise, a character can (again), be "overpowered", but still flawed and fallible as a person and also interesting in their own right. Same goes for a self-insert type character. On the other hand, if a character is a self-insert AND overpowered AND has an implausible connection to a Canon character, then the accusation of Mary Sue has greater legitimacy. But any one of those things by itself to me isn't sufficient.
One final thing: you may not consider "feminine power fantasy" or a character who is empowering to women to automatically be a Mary Sue, but there is a case to be made that many recent examples of those things sort of are Mary Sues (or at least come close to it):
toysoldier.wordpress.com/2015/…
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I see this on Google all the time and it only has 6 comments
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Since I didn't comment on it on the wiki...
I love it, and I like how you used multiple fandoms and variations on her appearance to show that Sues come in many different forms. And how true it is...
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I needed to make a rubber stamp that says APPROVED on it just so I can stamp this one hundred times.
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