Look Out! It's Mary Sue!

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Title:	Look Out! It's Mary Sue!
Creator:	by Richard Pugh (with thanks to Jessica Krucek)
Date(s):	1998
Medium:	online
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External Links:	Look Out! It's Mary Sue!
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Look Out! It's Mary Sue! is a 1998 essay by Richard Pugh.

The essay begins with a quote from someone else: "Creating original characters and putting them in a series universe is a dangerous proposition. You must be careful not to fall into the dreaded fan insult category "Mary Sue." Mary Sue is an idealized projection of the author, usually an adolescent projection, who does things better than the heroes, and wins their hearts, but often dies at the end."

Pugh wrote that he "[gleaned from an IRC session in March of 1998; The author is unknown, but I'm trying to track them down.]"

Some Topics Discussed

• types of Mary Sues
• the differences among Mary Sues, self-insertion, and original characters
• the author's sympathy for Wesley Crusher
• not all Mary Sues are female
• his own characters and why they aren't Mary Sues
• Mary Sue as a groupie

Excerpts

The opinions stated in this article belong to an opinionated son of a bitch who doesn't pretend to speak for anyone else, even though he knows that a few people agree with him.

So who is Mary Sue, and why does she have to die?

Good question. Who is Mary Sue? Or more accurately, what is Mary Sue? Mary Sue is a label given to an original character that is an unrealistic projection of the author, or someone close to the author. Mary Sues tend to be very good at everything they do, and they do everything as well as, or better than, the established characters. They show up in almost every scene, do whatever it is the author wants them to do (often to the appreciation and awe of the regular characters), then humbly vanish.

Almost everyone loves Mary Sue. The author, the regular cast, supporting characters, and perhaps even the villains. She is just so cute, helpful, and perky that they can't help but love her. But there is one person who typically hates Mary Sue: the reader. Every time she appears, many readers start grinding their teeth, cursing, fuming, and making up delicious scenarios that end the life of Mary Sue in the most gruesome ways imaginable. Mary Sues often end up dead or permanently relocated at the end of a story, but that's often not good enough. Most readers wanted her dead the minute she appeared. Or better yet, they didn't want her to appear in the first place.

Sub-species of Maryicus Susicus

There are different kinds of Mary Sue characters. All of them are ultimately annoying, but some are inherently worse than others. Here is an overview of the most common types of Mary Sue.

Little Sister: These are among the most annoying of the various Mary Sues. This is an original character who has a major secondary role. She tends to barge into every scene, steal the show, upstage everyone in sight, and is often privy to information that someone in her position shouldn't know anything about. Readers frequently gnash their teeth she shows up, and mutter "oh no, not her again." She can be harmlessly annoying, or downright maddening, depending on the writer. A common variation of the Little Sister is the Drinking Buddy.

Avenger: This is the "illegitimate" Little Sister. This is usually a dark character, hell-bent on helping the series hero through a bad spot of trouble. She is an ally, and knows way too much, like the Kid Sister. But unlike the kid sister, she's dangerous. She does the things the author wishes they could do to protect their favorite hero or heroine. This is one type of Mary Sue that is often male, but not always. This type of character often ends up dead, but only after she has saved the author's favorite character from something totally horrible, allowing her to die heroically, and giving her a permanent place in honor in the heart of the favored character.

Fixer: She is a vengeance valve for the author. There is something about the universe that the author simply can't stand, so one of these she-tanks is sent in to put things right. A very common example is the dangerous and "naughty" girl who boards the USS Enterprise with the sole intent of killing Wesley Crusher. Another example is the character who deliberately breaks the mold of the setting, not for plot design, but just for the sake of being different. While readers may agree with the motives of the Fixer, after five or six pages of her ranting and raving, readers may start saying enough already! We get the point!

Troublemaker: She's an extension of the Fixer, but she doesn't have a conscience. This is the bitch that goes around making trouble, simply because the author enjoys disrupting the universe. Furthermore, no matter how much damage she does, she always comes out on top. She can be fun to write, but she isn't fun to read. These "bad girls" tend to get very offensive, very fast.

Groupie: These were among the first Mary Sues. Female fan fiction writers who had planet sized crushes on William Shatner and/or James T. Kirk would create an original female character, loosely (or not so loosely) based on themselves, and put them into a fling with Kirk. Considering the rate Kirk went through women, this isn't difficult to accept, but the obnoxious nature of many of these characters made one think that even Jim Kirk should show some discretion once in a while. More recent versions include the amorous young Centauri girl who boards Babylon-5 and gives loveable, lonely Vir Cotto a taste of passion and love. Or the suave, sophisticated older woman who breaks through the shell of stoic Jean-Luc Picard. The Groupie is just the author projecting himself or herself into the love life of a character, and on the whole these Mary Sues are harmless. Annoying, but harmless. She is often used in erotic stories. Doctor Who fan fiction is full of these, in the form of original companions for each of the eight different versions of the Doctor. Since the Doctor has been played by eight different actors, all of which appeal to different kinds of people, new variations of the Groupie crawl out of the TARDiS on a regular basis.

Matchmaker: This is an extension of the Groupie. She's the original character who is introduced into a story to put two major characters together. Once the desired relationship is achieved, this girl vanishes into thin air, in true Mary Sue fashion. She won't leave until her two "clients" consummate their relationship. A bed scene is absolutely required. The author wants so much to see these two characters together, than any other resolution is unacceptable. Star Trek fan fiction is infested with these, especially from the Jean-Luc/Beverly and Will/Deanna camps.

Teenybopper: This is the ultimate evolution (or devolution) of Mary Sue. She is perhaps the most common Mary Sue there is, and generally the most annoying. She is the helpful, perky, charming, and nearly perfect teenager who bounces around the set doing wonderful things. At the same time, she is shy and self-effacing. Elements of the Groupie often appear in these monsters; if female, she tends to win the heart of a leading male character, even if he's old enough to be her father! In the process of doing all this, she makes the rest of the cast look like undereducated dorks, and the rest of the cast never realizes that. The teenybopper never does anything wrong, never makes mistakes, and is basically the adult idealization of what a teenager should be like. Which is, of course, about as far from the truth as metaphysically possible. The most famous example of the Teenybopper Mary Sue is Wesley Eugene Crusher from Star Trek: the Next Generation.

Mary Sue in a Suit: Also called the Thin Disguise, these are easy to spot. This isn't so much a type of Mary Sue as a means of delivering other types, thus making her annoying on two levels. An established character is given characteristics that aren't in keeping with the source material, and remains a canon character in name only. The character becomes a tried and true Mary Sue; the author masquerading as an established character. I've been told that Sliders fan fiction has a sizeable infestation of these.

Clown: In general, she is the least annoying, because she isn't meant to be taken seriously. In fact, she is almost always meant to be taken as a joke, parody, or satire. Or, she is added to a serious story for the purpose of comic relief. While she may be good at every thing she does, she is largely a means for the author to deliver jokes and commentaries, and generally doesn't disrupt the actions of the other characters. Depending on the nature of the story, this can be fine, so long as the joker doesn't start making wise cracks every three lines. If the story is openly a parody or satire, then the whole cast may fall into this category. In that case, they aren't really Mary Sues, because all the rules change in Satire.

There are also two types of author projection characters that are mistaken for Mary Sues, and while they can be equally annoying, they aren't disastrous to the story. Modeling a character after yourself can work if you keep your personal flaws in place (I know that's difficult, but it's necessary). All original characters are a projection of the author, or part of the author's world. But so long as these characters are kept in perspective, you can avoid accusations of Mary Sue-ness. The other type is the character who isn't an active participant in the story, but is the "every man" watching, describing, and commenting on the action around her. These can also work, and can be used very effectively. These are also not Mary Sues, because one of the necessary traits of a Mary Sue is her constant effect on the story. A third person observer isn't likely to do that, and can in fact help to draw the reader into the action.

Why the Sexist title?!?

I've been referring to the Mary Sues as females, but Mary Sue certainly doesn't have to be female. It's just that the first Mary Sue's were female. Specifically, companions to the illustrious James T. Kirk. The blatantly sexist and offensive label has endured, and so far no one has come up with a better one. But when someone does, I'm going to change this document accordingly.

The male counterpart, sometimes called Marty Sam, can also be found, often springing from the pens of male writers. Marty Sam often has several chips on his shoulder and a really bad attitude, but he always comes out on top. For example, he's the handsome young Private who tells Commander Ivanova that she's about to make a grave mistake, and intervenes to stop her from her disastrous course of action. If he lives, he gets all kinds of praise, which can include getting a night of wild passion with the ice cold commander (who was openly bisexual and old enough to have been his babysitter, but that's moot.) If he ends up dead, he gets a posthumous medal of honor and becomes some kind of martyr; a legend in his own time. Sure, bad things can happen to Marty Sam from time to time, but as with his twin sister, Mary Sue, it is a cold day in hell when an author is going to let anything permanently endanger his beloved character. Even if it means making the rest of the cast look like a bunch of fools.

Specific Examples:

These obnoxious twins aren't restricted to fan fiction. The most notorious case in recent history wasn't from fan fiction, but from a commercially published source. That character was Wesley Eugene Crusher, from Star Trek: the Next Generation. Wesley wasn't totally without flaws, but his flaws were constantly overlooked. There were times during the course of ST:TNG when, by all rights, young Mister Crusher should have been locked into a prison cell and left to rot. At one point, his actions contributed to the death of a Starfleet cadet. But, he got off with a proverbial slap on the wrist. He should have been expelled from the academy, and sent to do hard time! Many Star Trek fans have wanted to kill Wesley at some point. But, there was no way that Roddenberry was going to let something bad happen to him, because Wesley Crusher was an idealization of Gene Roddenberry! It was said, at the time, that Wesley was supposed to be different from everyone else, and he was portrayed that way. That's how he was supposed to appear, but how he really did appear was as an obnoxious prick with an oblivious mother and an even more oblivious Captain.

Honorable mention should go to Kes, from Star Trek: Voyager. At least two of the male characters were fighting for her affections, everyone on the ship loved her, including the holographic doctor who wasn't supposed to love anyone, and the senior officers were constantly in awe of her skills. Granted, she was nice to look at, and who wouldn't want to wake up to that silky, bedroom voice? Beyond that, she was about as interesting as listening to Al Gore read a telephone book.

On a personal side, I admit that I couldn't help but relate to the alienated teenager of Wesley Crusher, having once been one of those myself, but that only partially makes up for how annoying he was. I once considered writing a fan fiction that would remove his "Marty Sam"-ness, but I scrapped it. It would have been more trouble than it was worth.

Jack Ryan, from Tom Clancy's novels, has been called a Mary Sue. I'll have to trust the masses on that one, because I can't stand reading Tom Clancy. I think his stuff is, as best, highly derivative and predictable. Someone should take that guys word processor and put it out of its misery. But some people like him, Mary Sue or not, so I'll let that one go.

Drawing the Line:

Not every original character is a Mary Sue. There is a common myth that every original character, especially female ones, are automatically Mary Sue characters. This is simply not true, and if you believe that, then go hit yourself over the head with a blunt instrument. A lot of fan writers, including myself, like to use an established universe, but for whatever reason they want to use their own original characters. Sometimes these characters are more compelling, complex and interesting than their source material colleagues. This is fine, and if you can do it, then do it! There is more to the Babylon-5 universe, for example, than the dozen or so people who work at Command and Control. Diversity is good. Original characters are good! They are your friends! But you must be careful.

Mary Sue starts when an original character fails to be sympathetic or convincing. To be a Mary Sue, she must have extraordinary skills and knowledge that someone in her position shouldn't have. Mary Sue never learns from her mistakes, because she never makes mistakes! She never has to learn. She knows everything she needs to know from the onset, and she always gets things right the first time.

But even these traits don't make a Mary Sue. For example, I know of one original character who has an uncanny ability to absorb and process knowledge. She can even use special psionic powers to change the world around her. But, she isn't fully aware of the possible consequences of her actions, and she's come close to making some real blunders along the way. This isn't a Mary Sue, because there are things she doesn't understand, and she doesn't instinctively know how to handle everything that comes her way. She stumbles from time to time, like the rest of us.

Some universes are more accepting of original characters than others. Science Fiction, for some reason, isn't very accepting of original characters. Any original character is automatically named a Mary Sue, weather she is on not. This may stem from the fact that the first Mary Sue characters came from science fiction settings. Wherever it came from, I implore anyone reading this to give original characters the benefit of the doubt when you start reading about them. They may be more interesting that you think.

George Lucas is supposed to have confessed that Luke Skywalker was his "Marty Sam" for quite some time. In the first movie he was a bit obnoxious, with several of the Marty Sam characteristics. He was after all, a cocky, naive kid with a little too much luck. But, over the following two films, Luke grew out of his "Marty Sam"-ness, as it was found that his extreme good luck wasn't luck at all, but part of an ability that became as much a curse as a blessing. When this kind of thing happens, the character is no longer a Mary Sue. Luke learned from his mistakes, and as he matured his perceptions changed.

If you create original characters, you may find yourself creating a Mary Sue without realizing it. It's a common mistake for beginning writers, but most people outgrow it. The easiest pitfall is to model a character after yourself, then remove the flaws that all of us have. This character then proceeds to upstage everyone else, to the point of making them superfluous. There are some dead give-away traits of Mary Sue's. If she never makes a mistake, always makes friends, and it allowed to get away with some pretty outlandish stuff, then you may have a Mary Sue. Take another look and proceed with caution. If you find yourself having problems, you may have to give your story a make over. If you can yell your story without the Mary Sue, then you're in luck. If your story depends on the Mary Sue, then you have a big problem. Understand that the only solution may be scrapping the story.

The best thing to do with a Mary Sue (male or female) is to not create her in the first place. If you find yourself creating a Mary Sue (or Marty Sam), re-work your story. Redesign or even drop the character. Mary Sues are a magnet for hate mail, and no one likes that.

This concludes my rant on Mary Sue. Now you know who she is, and why she has to die.