Post by ellindaer on Jan 13, 2008 7:20:39 GMT -5
First - the ever helpful Mary Sue Litmus Test
[ Which is surpisingly, and cringemakingly accurate. >.< ]
www.onlyfiction.net/marysue.html
And what is a Sue?
The perfect girl in original fiction, fanfiction, Roleplays or (occasionally) real life. Most people have Sues they keep to themselves, but some people (usually preteen girls) will let their Sues run rampant on the internets, thus becoming Suethors.
Telltale signs of a Mary Sue include eyes that change colour, hair that takes more than three words to describe, speshul magik powers (even in fanons or games where magic doesn’t exist), gigantic angel/dragon wings, ability to master anything with ease, common names with unusual spellings (i.e. Ravyn, Jennifyr, Aeris, Elizabetteth Honey Moon) a cute baby version of an imaginary creature for a pet (baby ancient dragon, baby griffon, baby unicorn, baby great cthulhu, baby goatse) and the ability to make male canon (and original) characters fall instantly in love with them.
Mary Sues are sporked by such groups as Deleterius, GAFF, the PPC, and various MSTs. Their main haunting ground is Fanfiction.net.
Some Mary Sues are also author insertions, characters the author uses to put themselves into the story. Not all Mary Sues are author insertions, though, and by some definitions not all author insertions are Sues. Although most are. If not all.
A Mary Sue is, in general, a character without realistic flaws. Not being able to play the banjo isn’t a flaw (unless your Star Wars fanfic somehow involves a space banjo duel), being honest-to-goodness shy, that is, not being coy, which is faking shyness, can be a flaw, and brooding over your Dark!Traumatic!Past is an annoyance, not a flaw.
Some generally agreed upon facets: she is always stunningly beautiful , even to the point of being physically impossible (except maybe through surgery) and often completely unaware of the fact that all the boys are falling at her feet. She is generally created for the purpose of getting with/being the True Love of the suethor's favourite canon character.
Because so many fags write Mary Sues, there are many different kinds of Sues in the world. Trying to list them all would be impossible, but here are a few of the general categories into which a Sue can fall.
Helpful!Sue
This Sue is everybody's friend, and a natural savior of the day. She heals the hero's broken leg with her expert medical prowess (because at only seventeen she already has her MD), gently coaxes the token kid's cat out of a tree with her sweet singing voice, rescues innocent goats from cruel cashmere salesmen, and gives the canon gals a friendly shoulder to cry on - before, of course, eventually stealing away their boyfriends with her bubbly personality and compassionate nature. But it's not her fault that everybody loves her! She's just written that way. Our pal Helpful!Sue is usually the antithesis of Angry! or Evil!Sue. Oftentimes writers will throw in one of those too, just to give her a nemesis, who she will either a) come out looking better than, or b) change for the better with her fairy godmother ways
Angry!Sue
Sometimes refered to as a Bitchiwitch in the Harry Potter fandom, these Sues are typically rebellious, with some sort of angsty past, and known for wearing more black than should be humanly possible, especially Gawth! and PunkRawk! Sues. Often they are Warrior!Sues, capable of killing everything in their way in order to get revenge, or just because they can. (One of the best-known examples is The Bride, in the Kill Bill films by well-known Suethor Quentin Tarantino.) Only their "true love" can ease their angry, angsty angst, although this type typically plays hard to get, generally fangirling a rebellious or angsty male.
Depressed!Sue
Depressed!Sue is filled with angst. Generally, this angst derives from some tragedy in her past (with the far-and-away winner being dead parents). She evokes the sympathy of at least one of the main characters (generally of the opposite sex) and develops a relationship based on crying about how hard it is to be an orphan. She is also fond of trivialized rape and or suicide attempts as means of provoking sympathy. Depressed!Sue will generally manifest some great power once she believes in herself.
Evil!Sue
Behold, the queen of mary-sues!An Evil!Sue is typically involved in some way with the existing villain of the fandom, whether it be as a relative, boyfriend/girlfriend, or any other relationship, but can sometimes exist by themselves or replace the canon villain. This Sue type is characterized by the stereotypical villain behavior such as sadism, long bouts of insane cackling, and attempting to kill canon characters, usually punctuated by angst-ridden soliloquies. Another common element of the Evil!Sue is some sort of mysterious and/or abusive past, but this is often shared by the other categories of Sue. The only reason it's worth mentioning is that the sordid past is often pointed to in explaining the Evil!Sue's behavior, where as with most other Sues a tragic past explains heaven'sme! all.
Canon!Sue
Canon!Sue is a corruption of a legitimate canon character within the fandom to the point that they resemble the fanfic author itself. They may acquire new powers, undergo a makeover (including the dreaded Hot Topic punk variety), become good friends with canon characters the author loves, usurp the positions of-- or become enemies with-- canon characters the author hates, or just act completely out of character in a way that makes those fags familiar with the canon scream in horror. The Canon!Sue can be used as a self-insert in and of itself or in combination with an author's original character Sue.
Babies r us! Sue
This is a common Sue. They simply hook up with one of the main character of the opposite sex and have 2d100 fugly kids.
Anti-Sue
The most standable out of all of them (or at least they would be if fanfiction writers knew how to write them correctly.) Anti-Sues are supposed to be the complete opposite of Mary-Sues, meaning that every character usually hates them, they don't hook up with anybody, hardly ever get the spotlight in the fanfic (this is rare), they're usually very ugly and weak, and have no desire to fight the bad guy, save the world, or sleep with every character. Usually Anti-Sues are created to piggy off the creators of Mary-Sues. Either that or the author finally has realized that writing a Mary Sue is annoying as heaven'sme!. Most of the time, however, Anti-Sues are just as horrendous as their Mary Sue counterparts
From the Mary Sue Dictionary.
[ Which is surpisingly, and cringemakingly accurate. >.< ]
www.onlyfiction.net/marysue.html
And what is a Sue?
The perfect girl in original fiction, fanfiction, Roleplays or (occasionally) real life. Most people have Sues they keep to themselves, but some people (usually preteen girls) will let their Sues run rampant on the internets, thus becoming Suethors.
Telltale signs of a Mary Sue include eyes that change colour, hair that takes more than three words to describe, speshul magik powers (even in fanons or games where magic doesn’t exist), gigantic angel/dragon wings, ability to master anything with ease, common names with unusual spellings (i.e. Ravyn, Jennifyr, Aeris, Elizabetteth Honey Moon) a cute baby version of an imaginary creature for a pet (baby ancient dragon, baby griffon, baby unicorn, baby great cthulhu, baby goatse) and the ability to make male canon (and original) characters fall instantly in love with them.
Mary Sues are sporked by such groups as Deleterius, GAFF, the PPC, and various MSTs. Their main haunting ground is Fanfiction.net.
Some Mary Sues are also author insertions, characters the author uses to put themselves into the story. Not all Mary Sues are author insertions, though, and by some definitions not all author insertions are Sues. Although most are. If not all.
A Mary Sue is, in general, a character without realistic flaws. Not being able to play the banjo isn’t a flaw (unless your Star Wars fanfic somehow involves a space banjo duel), being honest-to-goodness shy, that is, not being coy, which is faking shyness, can be a flaw, and brooding over your Dark!Traumatic!Past is an annoyance, not a flaw.
Some generally agreed upon facets: she is always stunningly beautiful , even to the point of being physically impossible (except maybe through surgery) and often completely unaware of the fact that all the boys are falling at her feet. She is generally created for the purpose of getting with/being the True Love of the suethor's favourite canon character.
Because so many fags write Mary Sues, there are many different kinds of Sues in the world. Trying to list them all would be impossible, but here are a few of the general categories into which a Sue can fall.
Helpful!Sue
This Sue is everybody's friend, and a natural savior of the day. She heals the hero's broken leg with her expert medical prowess (because at only seventeen she already has her MD), gently coaxes the token kid's cat out of a tree with her sweet singing voice, rescues innocent goats from cruel cashmere salesmen, and gives the canon gals a friendly shoulder to cry on - before, of course, eventually stealing away their boyfriends with her bubbly personality and compassionate nature. But it's not her fault that everybody loves her! She's just written that way. Our pal Helpful!Sue is usually the antithesis of Angry! or Evil!Sue. Oftentimes writers will throw in one of those too, just to give her a nemesis, who she will either a) come out looking better than, or b) change for the better with her fairy godmother ways
Angry!Sue
Sometimes refered to as a Bitchiwitch in the Harry Potter fandom, these Sues are typically rebellious, with some sort of angsty past, and known for wearing more black than should be humanly possible, especially Gawth! and PunkRawk! Sues. Often they are Warrior!Sues, capable of killing everything in their way in order to get revenge, or just because they can. (One of the best-known examples is The Bride, in the Kill Bill films by well-known Suethor Quentin Tarantino.) Only their "true love" can ease their angry, angsty angst, although this type typically plays hard to get, generally fangirling a rebellious or angsty male.
Depressed!Sue
Depressed!Sue is filled with angst. Generally, this angst derives from some tragedy in her past (with the far-and-away winner being dead parents). She evokes the sympathy of at least one of the main characters (generally of the opposite sex) and develops a relationship based on crying about how hard it is to be an orphan. She is also fond of trivialized rape and or suicide attempts as means of provoking sympathy. Depressed!Sue will generally manifest some great power once she believes in herself.
Evil!Sue
Behold, the queen of mary-sues!An Evil!Sue is typically involved in some way with the existing villain of the fandom, whether it be as a relative, boyfriend/girlfriend, or any other relationship, but can sometimes exist by themselves or replace the canon villain. This Sue type is characterized by the stereotypical villain behavior such as sadism, long bouts of insane cackling, and attempting to kill canon characters, usually punctuated by angst-ridden soliloquies. Another common element of the Evil!Sue is some sort of mysterious and/or abusive past, but this is often shared by the other categories of Sue. The only reason it's worth mentioning is that the sordid past is often pointed to in explaining the Evil!Sue's behavior, where as with most other Sues a tragic past explains heaven'sme! all.
Canon!Sue
Canon!Sue is a corruption of a legitimate canon character within the fandom to the point that they resemble the fanfic author itself. They may acquire new powers, undergo a makeover (including the dreaded Hot Topic punk variety), become good friends with canon characters the author loves, usurp the positions of-- or become enemies with-- canon characters the author hates, or just act completely out of character in a way that makes those fags familiar with the canon scream in horror. The Canon!Sue can be used as a self-insert in and of itself or in combination with an author's original character Sue.
Babies r us! Sue
This is a common Sue. They simply hook up with one of the main character of the opposite sex and have 2d100 fugly kids.
Anti-Sue
The most standable out of all of them (or at least they would be if fanfiction writers knew how to write them correctly.) Anti-Sues are supposed to be the complete opposite of Mary-Sues, meaning that every character usually hates them, they don't hook up with anybody, hardly ever get the spotlight in the fanfic (this is rare), they're usually very ugly and weak, and have no desire to fight the bad guy, save the world, or sleep with every character. Usually Anti-Sues are created to piggy off the creators of Mary-Sues. Either that or the author finally has realized that writing a Mary Sue is annoying as heaven'sme!. Most of the time, however, Anti-Sues are just as horrendous as their Mary Sue counterparts
From the Mary Sue Dictionary.
