Mary Sue or Anti-Sue?

Let's say you were given two books and were told that you had to read one of them cover to cover. You read the first three chapters of each and groan.

The main character of one is clearly a Mary Sue. She is smart, strong, brave, witty, and beautiful beyond compare. She gets everything in the story handed to her on a silver platter and can make anyone fall in love with her just by winking at them, even villains.

The main character of the other is clearly an Anti-Sue. He is a psychopathic jerk who hits people because he feels like it and abuses animals. He swears at anyone to tries to start a conversation with him and is a malicious hacker who destroys people's websites and covers their facebook pages with hardcore porn.

Ignore plots and writing styles for now. Just focus on the characters.

I'm conducting this poll for my as-of-now-unfinished website on writing.

I'd say, the Anti-Sue. It's a close match, but I think I prefer all flaws over no flaws.

I said Mary-Sue. I don't think I could survive reading about an MC who is completely heartless, evil, and rude. To read a book I have to at least like the MC to some extent-- and although I could never really love a Mary Sue, it's better than reading about a character who has no moral whatsoever.

Definitely the anti-sue - they're more interesting, and if the author does it well, the reader can get to like any character. It's all about how people look at the flaws.

Flawless characters just really, really annoy me. They're not really characters if they have no flaws.

So, its between A Clockwork Orange and, say, Twilight...

I'll sure have to think long and hard about this one...

I don't think either of these extremes is necessarily healthy for a character, but, as has been said, I tend to prefer flaws to no flaws. And the Anti-Sue approach has been done less often than the Mary-Sue approach. In my opinion, there are more opportunities for the writer to go deeper into a character with an Anti-Sue than with a Mary-Sue, but even Anti-Sue's make flat characters if there is no deeper exploration beyond their general meanness.

Anti Sue I'd have to say. Either would be good as a parody though. If not, both would be terrible.

Oh and by the way, I'd love to see your website when it's done. PM me the address.

Anti-Sue.

Anti-Sue! But I am a little bias...you see I love villians, they're my favorite characters... Captain Hook, Darth Vader, Damen Salvatore, and Lestat Lioncourt are all ten-million times better than their respective heroes. And mary-sues are REALLY boring and annoying.