Hot Topics: Mary Sues

Mary Sue.

You’ve probably met her before, or it you haven’t, you’ve read her name written between curses of annoyance on forums, or seen some unfortunate author accused of writing one. Maybe you know what it means, or maybe you don’t. But in the wide world of the internet there are definitions for it everywhere. There are good and bad explanations which is the source of some uncertainty. So I thought I would take a stab at clearing up the confusion as to what exactly a Mary Sue is, and what it means for your story.

So what is a Mary Sue?

At her essence Mary Sue is two things: an unbalanced character and a character who bends the story to her benefit. (You can have a Mary Sue that unbalanced, but doesn't bend the story. This character's placement as Mary Sues can be argued, this is most because they can actually work within the story).

As an unbalanced character she doesn’t read as real and lacks the complexity of a real person. She is often one dimensional and almost always exaggerated in some way or other.

As character that bends the story, her presences changes the logical progression of events. If you think of your story as a solar system, Mary Sue is the black hole that abruptly springs up. Everything in your world seems to bend and orbit around the gravity of her. Nothing can escape her influence. Everyone loves or hates her passionately, but no one is apathetic to her. Rules get bent for her, the logic of the story is forgotten for Mary Sue. She becomes the axis of the story. This effect can be seen easily in fanfiction, but is also a phenomenon found in origin fiction as well.

But why do these obviously poorly written characters exist?

They exist because the authors don't want they characters to feel pain, they don't want them to suffer. They make a character that can never make mistake and make sure they never give the character real conflict, creating a loop hole for escape. The author normally just loves their character too much and wants everyone to like them, the reader and the other characters in the story included. This shows in two ways, either the character is perfect and/or the world responds to them like they are perfect.

But to really understand Mary Sue and what it looks like, I'm going to have to take a closer look. To better explain these themes I’ll be going over her two main types and subtypes within those groups. The types are separate by how each aspect of Mary Suedom plays out in their character and story. Within these post I’ll be going over the two themes of Mary Sue, so keep an eye out for these elements.

Note: anyone familiar with the types of Sues will notice that I’m not going by internet groups, but pulling together main themes most often found in Sues.