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= Mary Sue Page Redux =

This article discusses the term Mary Sue as understood by the PPC.

A Mary Sue is an unintentionally flat fictional character. It achieves its goals with minimal effort, out of proportion to what the audience would expect given the setting(s), culture(s), and other natives of the universe it inhabits, and the plot serves it rather than itself serving the plot. It is almost always the central focus of its story. It is recognizable by a marked disconnect between what the narrative says about it versus what the narrative shows about it.

Mary Sue characters are most strongly associated with fanfiction, though they can be found in original fiction as well.

Female characters of this type are the most common in fanfiction due to female fanfic authors being more numerous than male. However, "Mary Sue" can refer to any character fitting the definition, regardless of gender, and "Mary Sue," "she," and "her" are often used as blanket nouns in PPC writings.

The name "Mary Sue" was spelled without a hyphen in the original parody story by Paula Smith, but it is sometimes hyphenated (Mary-Sue). Mary Sue characters are also referred to as "Sues" for short.

Expanding the Definition
We of the PPC are attempting a fairly unique thing in that we're seeking to define "Mary Sue" not in terms of what it does or its relationship to its author, but rather in terms of how it is written. Thus, a few words of explanation are in order.

Flat vs. Dynamic
Mary Sues are flat characters in the literary sense that they do not develop meaningfully over the course of the story&mdash;the opposite of dynamic or round. It's important to note that Sues are unintentionally flat. It's perfectly fine to intentionally design a one-note character to enter, play their part, and exit, but if the main character&mdash;the one who has to engage the readers and carry them through the story&mdash;never develops, that's a sign of poor characterization and story-telling.

Character development has nothing to do with how cool, mysterious, badass, righteous, or tragic a character is supposed to be; rather, it requires that the character be challenged in a way that forces it to change something essential about itself in order to overcome the obstacle. Just a few examples are letting go of a deeply ingrained bias or fear, learning to trust others, resisting a temptation that has seduced them in the past, or accepting the fate they've been fighting. Whatever form the character's development takes, the point is that by the time they arrive at the end of their story, they are not the same person they were at the beginning, and they've done the work to show for it.

Mary Sue characters never develop in a significant way. This is not because they aren't meant to be dynamic, but because the challenges they face are not sufficient to make them change and grow in order to overcome them. When a Mary Sue faces a problem, either it overcomes the obstacle easily with the powers or abilities it already possesses or ones that it suddenly gains for the purpose, or the obstacle is removed from its path by an outside force, or the obstacle itself changes to allow the Sue to come out on top.

To take just one example, many female Sues encounter societal gender bias from male characters in their stories. Gender bias is a big deal, something that real women struggle with every day and may never be able to escape, not because there is anything wrong with them, but because bias is bigger and more complicated than any one person. In Sue stories, instead of this being something that forces the character to struggle and work extra-hard to achieve her goals, a Sue will instantly remove the obstacle by humiliating a token biased man verbally, in combat, or both. The biased character is thus played off as an oafish, backward idiot, while the Sue is played up as so obviously superior that only an idiot would doubt her prowess.

As noble as the sentiment behind it may be, instantly removing or negating an obstacle, especially something as big and complex as gender bias, does not make for a dynamic character. The Mary Sue in all three cases has learned nothing she didn't already know and gained nothing she didn't already have. Instead, the narrative establishes in one fell swoop that she is right and powerful and people who doubt her are wrong and weak, and she doesn't have to so much as break a sweat to prove it.

The fact that the narrative will arrange matters to suit the Mary Sue character is also problematic because it almost always results in contradictions with previously established rules, conventions, characterizations, and other aspects of the fictional world. For instance, to continue our example of gender bias, an otherwise noble and well-spoken character may be forced to assume a prejudice he has not previously displayed, just to give Sue someone to instantly show up and prove wrong. Also, the Mary Sue succeeding so easily means that it can behave in any way imaginable and get away with it, even if another character behaving in this way under the same circumstances would face serious consequences&mdash;being disrespectful to that otherwise noble and well-spoken character should result in reprimands at the very least, but instead the Mary Sue will be praised for her boldness and the other character will be shunned. So, because Mary Sues are not required to change to progress through the plot, they are prone to unrealistic behavior and to forcing the world and other characters in the story to behave unrealistically to accommodate them.

Show vs. Tell
As mentioned above, Mary Sues are not meant to be flat. They're meant to be all sorts of things, but above all, they are meant to be the epitome of an interesting character, and they are often loaded down with descriptions, abilities, secrets, special artifacts, and other attributes meant to intrigue and dazzle other characters and the readers. The problem is that attributes alone do not make an interesting character&mdash;the character's words, actions, choices, and development over time makes an interesting character. If a character's attributes don't mesh well with its behavior&mdash;and especially if its attributes contribute to its lack of growth&mdash;that results in a striking disconnect that readers may recognize as a sign of a Mary Sue.

"Show, don't tell" is perhaps the greatest maxim of successful fiction writers in modern times. It reflects the belief that a story should fully immerse the readers, making them see the places, feel the emotions, know the characters as though they were real. It's one thing to tell someone Niagara Falls is really, really big. It's quite another to take them there in person so that they can feel the power of three thousand tons of water crashing down every second onto the black boulders below, sending clouds of cold spray into the faces of summer tourists leaning over a guard rail high above.

By the same token, it's one thing to tell us a character is powerful, or kind, or cruel. It's quite another to show us their confident bearing and authoritative speech; or their never-failing consideration for other people's needs; or their cold, casual dispensation of pain. It's one thing to tell us a character is plain, or tragic, or heroic. It's quite another to show us how they get left behind while other characters advance by dint of their looks; or how the character's past still forces it to act in ways that aren't necessarily good for it years later; or how they sacrifice their own self-interest to come to the aid of others for no reason other than that it's the right thing to do.

Telling has its place in a narrative, but showing is far more powerful, so if the two disagree, what's shown always overrules what's told. If we're told a character is a powerful warrior trained in swordsmanship by the greatest master in the land, but her enemies are written as weak, enervated, and foolish, we're only shown that the she is more powerful than weaklings and fools. If we're told a character is plain, but other characters consistently praise his good looks, we're shown either that the character doesn't know what he looks like or else the characters falling for him are somewhat delusional. If we're told a character is a master of lore, ancient and wise, but all they talk about is pop psychology and how much they want to sleep with another character, we're shown that they're about as learned and deep as the average modern-day person who gets their information from daytime television.

A Mary Sue character is one that gets through its story by dint of what's told about it rather than what's shown. It may behave in a manner completely unacceptable for its time and place, but because it is immune to change, the other characters and conventions of the world will simply bend around it, allowing it to progress through the plot without regard for the damage it is doing along the way. This results in a character that is poorly realized, flat, and ultimately unsympathetic, despite the narrative's best efforts to tell the readers otherwise. In the PPC, we call the resulting disconnect "speshulness."

Mary Sue Traits
This section is intended as a sort of spotter's guide to Mary Sues. The traits discussed here are symptoms, though, not the disease, and any individual one can be written in a way that works.

Primary Traits
These traits are commonly present in or around Mary Sue characters because they reduce narrative conflict and contribute to the ease of the character's journey through the story.


 * Mary Sue does not react to its situation in a way that makes narrative or psychological sense. To use an example well known to PPCers, the "girl who falls into Middle-earth" written as a Sue has no trouble adapting to this new world. She can communicate with all the characters, despite the fact that they speak Westron instead of English; she realizes where she is almost immediately and is excited, rarely stopping to worry about how she's going to get home, or the fact that Middle-earth doesn't have plumbing or other modern sanitary measures, or that she may not have the raw practical skills necessary to survive in a pre-modern setting, etc.; and she almost always joins the Fellowship of the Ring as a "Tenth Walker," regardless of the immense dangers involved and her aforementioned lack of survival skills. Rather, she goes on her way more like a tourist than a participant in the events of the story.


 * Other characters in the story do not react to Mary Sue as they would normally&mdash;canon characters become out of character.
 * Characters instantly like Mary Sue, even in circumstances that should make them suspicious. For instance, a fifteen-year-old breaks into Cheyenne Mountain, hacks the Air Force's website and steals data, assaults base guards, and employs blackmail in order to join SG-1. Colonel Samantha Carter decides that they can treat him like an adult due to his IQ and understands that all he wants to do is help. He is allowed to join.
 * Characters instantly dislike Mary Sue for spurious reasons that don't fit their personalities. A frequently encountered example of this in Lord of the Rings fanfiction is the Designated Misogynistic Bastard: despite no indication in The Lord of the Rings that he dislikes women, Boromir (or Gimli, or Aragorn) puts Mary Sue down because "girls aren't strong enough for this." This should create plot tension, but Mary Sue overcomes the token obstacle easily, either winning the DMB over or causing the others to shun him, and the story proceeds.


 * Previously established rules and conventions of the world are warped or ignored to accommodate the Mary Sue, including but not limited to societal norms, biology, geography, and timelines. The Sue may be the only good person in an evil race, or be forced into an arranged marriage in a society that normally marries for love. It may exhibit physical features not known in its species, whether because it is somehow unique or because the species itself has been altered to allow for it. It may cross great distances in an impossible time frame, and yet suffer no consequences from hard travel; or it may cause events to take place at the wrong time to allow it to be present for them or otherwise affected by them. However it may be, this warping allows the Sue's story to advance by presenting too-easy conflicts that otherwise wouldn't exist and/or removing obstacles that would normally be insurmountable, contributing to the character's lack of development.

Secondary Traits
These traits are commonly found in Mary Sues because they're easy ways for the narrative to tell the readers how awesome the character is. When these traits are not backed up by good characterization and story-telling, and instead help the character progress through the story too easily, they result in the particular disconnect between show and tell that marks a Sue.


 * Extreme physical beauty. Female Sues especially are often described as having "perfect" or "supermodel" features, reflecting not real beauty, but the impossible feminine ideal invented by fashion ads. Other Sues, and Stus in particular, may be described as being unnaturally buff, with a physique and agility normally only attainable in tandem by anime characters. If a Sue has a physical flaw, it tends to be something like a birthmark: visible, and a talking point when the Sue feels like drawing attention to it, but otherwise having no impact on her daily life. Other characters may even see this "flaw" as a unique decoration to be admired.
 * May be accompanied by florid over-description.


 * Extreme prowess. Many Sues have some kind of talent that far outstrips anyone else with a similar ability, if indeed anyone else possesses it. An Elven Sue may be a better archer than Legolas; an X-Men Sue may have the combined powers of Wolverine, Cyclops, and Professor X; a Harry Potter Sue may be able to perform wandless magic in year three. Often, this is a talent the Mary Sue was born with; it didn't have to spend years perfecting it like anyone else in the world would. This also includes the many, many Sues observed to have fantastic singing voices, able to enchant anyone with any song, no matter how out of place it might be.


 * A terrible past. Something happened in the character's past that is supposed to make other characters (and the audience) sympathize with it in the present. Comes in two flavors in a Sue story:
 * Actually terrible, but trivialized due to mishandling: her parents died and she's living with mean foster parents... who don't understand her taste in manga; or, she's the only surviving member of her race... so she must mate with Legolas. In cases like this, the tragedy does not affect the character's behavior in the way it should.
 * Not actually terrible: she's cursed with beauty, or he's a nerd and no one recognizes his genius, or she's a princess running away from the horrible oppression of the royal lifestyle. In these cases, the character treats the "tragedy" as more serious than it really is and uses it as an excuse to seek sympathy.


 * Related to the canon characters. It's Arwen's sister, or Snape's niece, or Jack O'Neill's daughter, even if the character in question has a well-documented family tree or no family whatsoever in canon.


 * Romances a canon character. Not all, but certainly a large number of the Sues observed by the PPC have had the goal of a relationship with a canon character. Whatever else may happen in the story, it's a good bet that it'll be kissing somebody before the end, even if it has to break up a canon romance or change the target's personality or sexual preference to do it.