Tenth Walker

Tropes and genres
Synonym(s)	Mary Sue
Related tropes/genres	Legomance
See also	The Lord of the Rings
Related articles on Fanlore.

A once-common trope of Lord of the Rings fanfic in which a Mary Sue (usually a teenaged girl from our universe portalled into Middle-Earth, but sometimes Elrond's other daughter or an Elf princess of vague lineage) joins the Fellowship on their quest to destroy the Ring. The name of the trope refers to how this Sue is the newly added member to the nine walkers of the Fellowship of the Ring. An interesting thing to note is that the reason why there's nine walkers was to counter the nine riders, or Nazgul. Unforgettably mocked by Kielle in Nine Men and A Little Lady.

According to the Protectors of the Plot Continuum:

These fics tend to follow a distinct set of rules. For example, the Mary Sue almost always falls in love with at least one member of the Fellowship. It also is common for badfics, if they include the movieverse scene where the Fellowship swears to help Frodo, to have the Mary Sue swear last and include a list of all of her abilities in the oath.

Marta comments on the genre in an essay on Tolkien AUs:

Then there are stories that actually break canon. They either aren't consistent with what Tolkien wrote, or you would expect something about them to be mentioned in the canon if the factoid had been true. A really good example of this type of story is a Tenth Walker story. I know a lot of people look down on Tenth Walker stories, but some have been done really well (Juno's Lothiriel jumps to mind).

Examples

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

• Lothíriel by JunoMagic (2004–5); recommended as a positive example by Marta