Mary Sues! *Shakes fist*

[Alterego-X]

The term Mary Sue means to many things to too many people and thus is meaningless.

This.

For example, I would say that identifying POPULAR Mary Sues, like Bella Swan, is an inherent contradiction.

While she fits the most simplified definition in that she is an overtly perfect heroine, she doesn't fit the original PURPOSE of the Mary Sue tag in fanfiction communities, that was a way to warn amateour writers that they are going off on a tangent with blatant self-insertions that's petty wish fulfillments would bore everyone else.

That obviously doesn't apply to Twilight, or to any of the franchises listed above, since they already have huge fanbases that don't consider them too boring.

Most of those are not really writer avatars, but audience avatars, that is a completely different thing. If you start bludgeoning general escapist characters with the term "Mary Sue" just for being too perfect, you are no longer complaining about bad writing, just forcing your random literary theories, about how protagnists should act, on others.

 

[Won Sul]

Aigis from Persona 3. I really don't understand why she's such a popular character with the fan base, although I guess a little pandering goes a long way.

 

[Meatspinner]

Every goddam character you play in video games... well almost everybody. Bioware being the worst offender.
You are the effing messiah in a world filled with sycophants that can't function with out your greatness. Those who don't become villains

 

[Dragoon]

Going to go with the ultimate Mary sue. The one that puts all others to shame (yes, even Bella swan)

Spoiler: yes, I went there....

"Ebony "Enoby" Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way"

Not even sure if it counts due to how blatantly obvious it is, but I figured I would post it nontheless.....

Enjoy!

But her name's not Mary-Sue it's Enoby! Get it right posers

Yeah I have to agree with this, so much of a Mary-Sue it's unbelievable.

 

[TIMESWORDSMAN]

I don't get it. That Pikachu that should be level 100 by now lost to a water-type Panpour at the first gym in the newest season.

Yeah, and Ash is still ten. Even though if you count every episode as one day, not even taking into account stated times and dates in the show, he should be twelve. He has somehow spent more time being ten than is theoretically possible, even within the confines of the show.
Hell, even the other characters have aged. Misty is two years older, so is Gary. Brock seems to be getting younger, so that's even weirder.
Pikachu is the least perplexing part of the whole show.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

Harry Potter. Survives deadly encounters again and again, finally revealed as "The Chosen One" (seriously Rowling?). It's not too bad though, at least they acknowledge that he wouldn't be anywhere without his friends or teachers.

The Matthew Ward afflicted Ultramarines and Grey Knights. Before him, they were either respectable everyman marines or just the elite chaos hunters, but now each one is pretty much jesus.

There's a lot of Mary Sue-ing in 40k I reckon. Ciaphas Cain also springs to mind, for some reason him being within reaching distance of two World Eaters and not getting his puny human face smooshed to a pulp strikes me as ridiculous.

Also no badmouthing the Grey Knights, the Ordo Malleus is really fucking twitchy. Sneeze in the vague direction of Titan and you're declared Extremis Diabolus by teatime.

Ciaphas doesn't count as his exploits are both humourours and meant to represent Imperial Propoganda.

CIAPHAS CAIN: HERO OF THE IMPERIUM

Beat me to it. Cain is a parody of heroes, and is intentionally made as such.

The term Mary Sue means to many things to too many people and thus is meaningless.

It's more defined than the usual buzzword, but I agree that it has lost some of it's meaning along the way.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Gwen Cooper.

Need I say more?

 

[White-Death]

Lets see,I'm still in secondary school, so I have access to a fine gallery of Young adult fiction Mary sue stories.

I'mma go with my two favorites.

James Choke from the CHERUB series,which is about training schildrens to become government agents though vigorous training,which is the authors only excuse for being god like.
He can easily overpower any professionally trained adult soldier,ranging from elite mercanaries to special forces soldiers with almost zero effort in poorly written fight scenes and again, the only excuse is That he was put though tough and abusive training.
The best part? he is only twelve years old when he starts kicking ass and succeeding in everything he does.
His sister is even worse, she is so succesful and popular and attractive and loyal and the most vomit inducing definition of a mary sue.
She is given the most elite rank after 1 year of service,which most agents spend their entire childhoods training for.
Steer clear from the CHERUB series.
Please.

Next is Eragon from the Inheritance series.....
I Don't know where to start,for those who read the books, you already know and regret it.
For those of you who didnt read the books,be glad you dont know.
Have a I didnt read Eragon party,you deserve it.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

Jesus. He's probably the most famous Mary Sue. Sure he died, but he died because he was too good for mere mortals.

I've never seen a more complete misunderstanding of how Christianity works in my whole life. That's quite an achievement.

OT: Batman is a good example. A Mary Sue can work if the writer knows what they're dealing with.

Okay, let me change that. Sure he died, but he died for the sins of everyone else. He didn't just die, something a lot of Mary Sues have. Also I didnt mean to offend, it's just Jesus does have a lot of the features of a Mary Sue. You can't really deny that.

 

[Casual Shinji]

You know, I'm going to be controversial here and say Marty McFly. I've only watched the first film - and don't get me wrong, I really liked it - but just stop and think about it for a second. He doesn't have a single character flaw.

It's very apparent in the first film that Marty becomes kind of bumbling and awkward as soon as he's confronted with something he has no understanding of. The whole scene where the time machine gets revealed, it's Doc Brown who comes across as knowledgeable and self assured, and Marty who is all deer in the headlights.

OT: Billy Peltzer from the Gremlins movies.

 

[Kiardras]

Going to go with the ultimate Mary sue. The one that puts all others to shame (yes, even Bella swan)

Spoiler: yes, I went there....

"Ebony "Enoby" Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way"

Not even sure if it counts due to how blatantly obvious it is, but I figured I would post it nontheless.....

Enjoy!

I hate you. That link has actually given me cancer. I am going to die from what I have read there. I'm actually dying.


Gotta second Anita Blake. The books weren't too bad at the start, but the character got so mary-sue as they went on I had to give up. And the sex! Don't get me wrong, a bit of sex in a book is no bad thing, but when every second chapter is the main character fucking anything that moves, its just bad.

 

[KhaoticOne]

Hmm before searching this up let me see if my assumptions of Mary Sues are at least on the right track. Please correct any mistakes I may assume.

Mary Sues are in essence perfection (within context of said series). They excel at a specific (or all) action(s) with little to no explanation of how they were able to do achieve it. Throughout the series/game/novel/etc., they overcome most adversaries with relative ease or knows the perfect things to do at the perfect moment. Overall they show little to no growth as a character and typically win in the most Bull**** of ways on a daily basis.

Off the top of my head Sasuke from Naruto fits this bill for me. In Naruto he does show growth and was alright (in small dosage), however in Shippuden his adversaries might as well raise the white flag. He wins in the most BS of ways and his fights never held any tension since well, hes gonna beat them and not lose anything of real value. I don't know if the manga rectify this (on like ch.560?) but I hate every moment this guy is on screen. Its like hes bad because the show needs some anti-hero/antagonist crap, not out of any real genuine motivation.

A more traditional view of Mary Sue is also Brian Hawke (Hajime no Ippo) before his lost he fits the bill in practically every retrospect.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

Hmm before searching this up let me see if my assumptions of Mary Sues are at least on the right track. Please correct any mistakes I may assume.

Mary Sues are in essence perfection (within context of said series). They excel at a specific (or all) action(s) with little to no explanation of how they were able to do achieve it. Throughout the series/game/novel/etc., they overcome most adversaries with relative ease or knows the perfect things to do at the perfect moment. Overall they show little to no growth as a character and typically win in the most Bull**** of ways on a daily basis.

Off the top of my head Sasuke from Naruto fits this bill for me. In Naruto he does show growth and was alright (in small dosage), however in Shippuden his adversaries might as well raise the white flag. He wins in the most BS of ways and his fights never held any tension since well, hes gonna beat them and not lose anything of real value. I don't know if the manga rectify this (on like ch.560?) but I hate every moment this guy is on screen. Its like hes bad because the show needs some anti-hero/antagonist crap, not out of any real genuine motivation.

A more traditional view of Mary Sue is also Brian Hawke (Hajime no Ippo) before his lost he fits the bill in practically every retrospect.

Sasukes getting a little better now though, I mean he's definately gotten more interesting.

Although he still has eyehaxx, but everyone seems to be getting those

 

[The Funslinger]

Does Bella Fucking Swan count?

Why did it take so long for this to come up?

Probably because despite being supposedly so incredible that people go off swooning for her, she's the most god damn useless individual ever to live.

You can just tell the author made her to make idiotic teenage girls feel like they're special. And probably make herself feel better as well.

OT: Despite the fact I still love the character, probably Sharpe, of the Sharpe books and TV series.

Also, Max Payne, who I dislike.

 

[Sillyrian]

I won't post my whole rant on it as it's quite long, but River Song from Dr Who is the biggest Mary Sue I can think of.

For having knowledge above and beyond the main character, appearing and disappearing at will, and basically everything in the last 2 seasons has been about her.

Amy Pond is a pretty bad one as well.

 

[Froggy Slayer]

Lets see,I'm still in secondary school, so I have access to a fine gallery of Young adult fiction Mary sue stories.

James Choke from the CHERUB series,which is about training schildrens to become government agents though vigorous training,which is the authors only excuse for being god like.
He can easily overpower any professionally trained adult soldier,ranging from elite mercanaries to special forces soldiers with almost zero effort in poorly written fight scenes and again, the only excuse is That he was put though tough and abusive training.
The best part? he is only twelve years old when he starts kicking ass and succeeding in everything he does.
His sister is even worse, she is so succesful and popular and attractive and loyal and the most vomit inducing definition of a mary sue.
She is given the most elite rank after 1 year of service,which most agents spend their entire childhoods training for.
Steer clear from the CHERUB series.
Please.

Oh christ. I don't know why people liked that book so much. When I was a kid, I didn't want to here about kids being SUPER GOOD AND POWERFUL BECAUSE THEY HAD TRAINING AND SHIT. No. These are bad guys that they're facing. Guys who have guns.

 

[Vanitas likes Bubbles]

Every goddam character you play in video games... well almost everybody. Bioware being the worst offender.
You are the effing messiah in a world filled with sycophants that can't function with out your greatness. Those who don't become villains

As much as I love Bioware and their games, I have to agree with this statement. Shepard, the Grey Warden and the Bhaalspawn are all massive Mary Sues, they have no incentive to kill the main villain other than because they are the bad guys (except the Bhaalspawn). While the villains are the most well written characters in my opinion. Sarevok, Saren and even Loghain are more likeable and in depth than the main character is.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Hey guys

Whats going on in this thread

You just won all the Internets.

Ever since Matt Ward took over the Games Workshop games. Yeah it's already been said, but it hasn't been said enough. It needs to be said more.

On the subject of Doctor Who, River and Amy.

 

[Zetatrain]

Hmm, well let's see here...does Sherlock Holmes count? The only actual flaw I seem to remember him having was a drug addiction, but other than that he was pretty much perfect. Not that it spoiled my enjoyment of Sherlock Holmes stories.