Fanlore:Featured Article Archives/2023: Week 1
A Mary Sue is an original character in fanfiction, usually but not always female, who for one reason or another is deemed undesirable by fan critics.
A character may be judged a Mary Sue if she is competent in too many areas, is physically attractive, and/or is viewed as admirable by other sympathetic characters. Mary Sues are generally presumed to be idealized self-inserts rather than fully realized characters, although they may actually be intended as point-of-view characters for the reader. Many fans feel that in true Mary Sue stories, the Sue will warp canon characters, established story lines, and the very consistency of the canon's reality until they are wildly out of bounds.
In some fanfiction circles, it is considered extremely gauche, or at least very immature, for an author to create characters based on themselves (a practice that is seen as invariably resulting in the creation of a Mary Sue). In this mindset, creating a Mary Sue story is considered almost a rite of passage and/or something a fan needs to get out of their system before moving on to more "mature" creations.