First thing. What is a Mary-sue?
A Mary-sue is a flawless perfectionist with everything a character wants. Except for the readers. Sure, not every reader hates a Mary-sue, but a lot do. A writer needs to consider their readers, and not only themselves of their characters, but everything. Hence why the job of a writer is really hard. A Mary-sue, is perfect, beautiful, skillful at everything, has nothing wrong about her, and everyone falls for her, and those who don't are jealous of her.
Gary-stu is the male name of a Mary-sue, something people will say is her 'brother'. Let's say twins of opposite gender. He's a guy, but with the same things as Princess Mary on the Prairie. Perfect.
Some (Meaning most from my experience) people really, really hate these. Why? They are unreal, perfect is not something that is accomplishable! Unique is. Unusual, "different", weird, a freak, but not perfect. Every character needs a flaw. I mean all.
Characters:
A plot makes the story, and the characters make the story visible. With no characters, there is no story, no plot to play. A Mary-sue may be perfect, but she does everything that will make the reader throw the book at the wall. They will put it down, and stop reading. A perfect character destroys what could have been a great story. Flaws, likings, dislikes, looks, and all those things makes a character, one without one of them is called lack in character development. For me, characters are a huge part of the story. They need to be interesting, (Or at least most) and believable for the characters to "come to life" and therefor, Mary-sue is out of the question.
And you know what? A Mary-sue will make everything obvious in the story. Let's say this one character got in trouble, he's going to die maybe, oh wait. No he won't. Miss Perfect, is perfect, right? She has the powers, the looks, everything, and so she saves the day. They would not get worried over the character at all, they would expect it to be saved, and why? Because they know that Mary-'Cupid' will save the day. That's a ruin of suspense! Complete ruin!
Mary-Sues
The most common of Mary-sues, is the perfect, stunningly-beautiful-no-one-can-resist-her, skillful, flawless character. But there are more.
There is then one, that can be ugly, fat, or so imperfect she's full of nothing but flaws, yet everyone can see through this and again, everyone likes her. (There was more to it, but I'm shortening this all.)
There's three more, I believe (like the oh-so-horrible-past, but somehow the "lady" can overcome it all!), but I'm running out of time! Search it up and you'll see what I mean.
A Mary-sue is basically what I've explained so far, and are... heads-in-clouds innocent angel that has no idea she's "leading" all of these guys on, maybe clumsy, childish in a cute way, and thinks her beauty is a curse. She has unusual eyes that are out-of-this-world and... just, completely different. But oh wait, her different isn't bad! The word she loves most, perfect.
...Eh, I think I'm getting bored so I'm kicking jokes in x.x. Apologies!
If there is a race that your character is, that... let's say, enables having orange eyes, and your character has orange eyes, then that isn't a sign of Mary-sue, because that is the set of the race. Only, don't make that race perfect too...
That would be a godawful horde of Mary-sues and her male cousins!
I don't hate Mary-sues, I have nothing against them. If some authors want to fantasize about themselves in a better form, that is fine with me. It does not bother me. But this is more of a warning to any author who might have the Curse of Mary. You might lose half of your readers that have picked up your book because of her... Unless the plot is amazingly original and all of the other characters are likeable, and the story does not evolve around her constantly, by then I think they might put up with her a bit, but still hate her. And I mean hate her. Rant, rave, and have a mental party if anything happens to her. Like death.
I don't like using this girl as an explanation, but she's pretty much the only one I know so far.
Bella Swan.
Sound familiar?
Yea, I bet she does, or at least to most of you viewers. If you do know her, you know the way she's not pretty, but boring, yet has blood that smells like flowers, and everyone loves her. She's a bit clumsy, always needs to be saved, and everyone still loves her. She's stronger than those who have been a vampire longer, (I don't know if this is entirely true, heard it in a rant. I have not read the series) and... no excuse for her immunity to mind-reading, her sweet fragrance. Nothing. I mean if she was some... reincarnation of... Cupid (x.x) that would be... well, would make sense at least, right? (Not much since it's a story of vampires, but it would answer why she has everything) Alright, so, Belly (Bella) has a few flaws right? Well they all flow with the story, and doesn't even do anything. It doesn't really cause any fights does it? Nope, her Puppy (Or Mr.Furry if you prefer) and Mr.Sparkles still love her to no end.
If I recall right, she got something around 127 in a Mary-sue test that someone did for her. They added in: "No joke.".
I believe that, aye. Highly believable, now, I need to shut up about Belly because this is not a Twilight rant! But, that is pretty much a not-pretty but not-ugly, only average-Mary-sue which would still be perfect.
Gary-stu is the exact same. They are rarely in books, FanFics, or RPs though. Probably because no-one can picture them as flawless ! (No offense XD. Flaws are good anyways so keep it to yourself . Well, depends on the flaw. Of course, the flaw isn't good to the character nor the other characters. I'm just saying in real life to them.) All you have to do is see all the "she's" and "hers" I said in here as "he's" and things.
Question that might be on your mind...
Do you have Mary-sue's curse?
The answer.
Well... That's partly for you and others to decide. Mostly you, but also the readers. It's hard for an author to see their flaws in writing. Every author loves every single character they made, it's really hard to hate your own character, so, you think: "She's perfect, so?" and that makes you think there is nothing wrong, and so, you don't think the readers will hate them. Unless it's really obvious, like a psycho path character. You probably wouldn't doubt that he/she'd be hated, but you would still love that character. If not love, but you wouldn't hate them. If you did, you wouldn't of had made them, or probably have everything horrible done to it and then kill it. (Yea, "it". XD. I don't want to keep saying he/she, her/him)
There are tests for a Mary-sue, and I can give you the links I want, or, you can have a live, "personal" test, me XD. I detect them very well.... (But everyone has different views on a Mary-sue)
Now, I have absolutely nothing against a Mary-sue, and I honestly don't see why others do, but I think I see that it's reasonable. It's like this....
You finally find a book you want to read. You love books.
One major problem.
Mary just drew on it with enchanted markers of pink ink.
And then you'll hear them throw your book, mhm.
I'll assure you though, a lot of people will accuse you of a Mary-sue! Sometimes the character is nowhere near one, yet she is called one! Sometimes, every female character is taken as one. Mine has been too, when really she's quite evened out. Your character can have one Mary-sue quality, and bam, the attacks start. So, being an author who knows what critique, or comment to ignore, is always something good...
I... don't think this was helpful at all, (and probably confusing.) but... I was so bored, and wanted to do something while I wait to get out of this darn hospital, and now my battery is at 3% (Laptop) so needa go xD. Though, I am not an expert in this, so you don't have to take everything as truth, maybe just consideration. And, those who love Twilight, that wasn't really an insult XD!
Author Notes:
I think my grammar's a little off, but... oh well... Had fun writing this to say the least xD.
Suggestion though...
Don't overload them with flaws to try and keep Mary's curse off of you xD. I think the readers will then just go: "This character is so useless! It's so darn annoying, he/she should just die!"
Let's say this.... Example-
Pretty: (Okay, she/he can be pretty, but let's say he/she hates attention and it draws her into some major problems.)
Smart: (Can be smart, but got glasses 'cause they read books. Maybe even blind, because they forgot to take their contacts out if you prefer contacts over glasses, when they sleep xD)
Sweet: (Very nice, but too submissive that anyone can walk over her/him.)
Funny: (Funny, buuut, makes offensive jokes sometimes. Or maybe even ruins a mood because she/he always has to joke.)
I think that pretty much evens it all out... enough at least.
Sister's Note: Meaning SaturnTears talking! My sis made this, so I don't claim it as mine! Only this account
(<<<--That laughing face is creepy. Oh, and I didn't know where to post this is... So... if anyone removes it, I understand XD.)
I was just offering it as another example. Again, apologies to Nancy Drew-lovers.
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