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This is where it gets tricky.
Joined: Jan 2008 Gender: Female  Posts: 17 Location: Toronto Karma: 0 |  | Deffinition of a Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu by Zoey « Thread Started on Jan 2, 2008, 11:10pm » | |
Mary-Sues
There is one thing I just have to say first off; a Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu character is my official pet hate. They are everywhere, and you honestly will not go more than two sites without finding someone with a character who has perfect hair, perfect facial features, a perfect model body; all the guys fancy/want her (or in the case of a male, all the girls are attracted to him), and to be honest, it completely irritates me. The fact that you want your character to be ‘perfect’ in the first place, and to have everybody as his or her friend. Here, I shall give you an example of a Mary-sue character.
’Jane walked out of her large, seven bedroom house on the setting of a perfect lawn The sunset always set perfectly on the perfect roof top of her house. She twirled her perfect golden brown locks around her sharp pointed, yet brightly pink painted fingernails. Her hair, shining perfectly in multi coloured tones, reached down to her elbows, yet every single strand looked heavenly. She wasn’t sure who’s house she should visit today; there was just such a choice to make seeing as she knew just about everyone on the block, and in her town as a matter of fact, and she was such good friends with everybody that finding someone to spend such a busy friend-pact schedule was task on its own. And of course, she wondered what boy would cross her path today. She got on so well with every single one of them, even those no one could even speak to, and she had her eye on a few, but who to chose? Every one of them wanted her, but like the friends, it was going to be a hard task to take one of the many thousands waiting in line’
See? That is what I personally hate about a Mary-sue. Your character cannot be friends with absolutely everybody; everyone has enemies that they have feuding wars with. No one has perfect hair, however much they may think about it, and come on. The boy thing? Just so unrealistic. Keep these things real, people, please. Because no one wants to rp with the ‘perfect’ character who maintains each of the following qualities. I shall now give run through of the qualities that possess a Mary-sue/Gary-stu.
Number one: We’re perfect, oh so perfect Right, we shall now talk about friends/enemies. Has your character got NO enemies? Is that how you decided to make them? Right from birth, were they overpowered because everyone thought they were the most beautiful and amazing thing that ever happened to the world, and some more? It is wrong, and please let me explain why. First off, your character cannot possibly be friends with everyone they meet. For one, as all kids grow older, they develop a reputation, from their friends and others who spend time around them (those who might live near or extended relatives of friends, the like), and what they become often makes another certain group hate them. Not everyone, I admit, likes to become a certain group, and often try to be friends with everyone, but come on. Somebody is going to hate your character, whether you like it or not. Being friends with everyone makes everything boring; you cannot have fights or battles with anyone because your character us on top terms with everyone, it’s really pointless. And this basically links with NO enemies. Its pathetic, no offence. So just keep it at that, and please, refrain from getting into giving your character every friend in the whole universe, and having no one who dislikes them, and having, again, every single boy/girl following in their wake, hanging off their shoulders. It does not happen, so keep it that.
Number two: What makes you so special? Special abilities, talents, the works. If your original character has a special ability, you must describe how they obtained it without getting too over the top. They cannot have got it at birth, unless it is a family trait (in which case, you will need heavy description about how the family came in possession of it, and do not get all ‘they are royal’ because that is just, bleh.), but if they acquired this new ability somehow through unnatural and unplanned events, describe them. Perhaps they drank something in a previous science class, or mixed a few chemicals and it got onto their skin. It works either way, but make it a good excuse, because really, not everyone has a special power, and giving them one too many makes things just a little too much. And as for talents, giving them the ability to sing, dance, and act is getting all this character creating business a little too perfect, don’t you think? Not everyone can sing, not everyone can dance, and not everyone can act, and no one can do all three perfectly. As for other talents, like drawing, if they can draw or whatever, explain how they learnt to draw and it will give us more of a reason to allow you to get away with it. Clean, simple, and then everyone is happy, yes?
Number three: I like the colourful clothes she wears Into clothes now, and this is important. If your ‘perfect’ character is poor, but manages to get along because she has the mind and determination of a lion pouncing its prey, then that is just really pathetic, and you would not see them wondering around in the latest designer clothing, or going to a party with the perfect black silver sequined dress (no offence, but I am not a fan of sequins). Plus, there is really no point in going on about something unless there is a point to mention it, like so, (this character is not so much based on Mary-sue, but it does have some qualities in there – sorry, but it is paining me to write these posts),
‘As Alice sat perched on the edge of the brown wooden chair, she fiddled with a silver chained crimson rock embedded stone necklace, which hung loosely down her chest. Her hair was scruffy and hanging pointlessly over her eyes, much like her best friends had theirs, but she was leaning forward, so it was worse. The subject was boring her, the same teacher droned on, and had been doing so for the best part of an hour, or more, and it was extremely irritating and not to mention boring, why, she was almost falling asleep, and that was saying something coming from a top a-star student. Once again, she had gone with her minds descision that morning, as always, and worn the brand new deep denim blue skinny jeans, with – in her personal opinion (which everyone followed, anyway, so it didn’t really matter) – a very cool and perfectly stitched band top’
Um, okay, what’s with the ‘silver chained crimson rock embedded stone necklace’ malarkey? What is the point in mentioning something like that, when clearly, you haven’t gone on to describe who gave it to her, and why she was bothering to wear it in the first place, as it must be special to her, something that ‘perfect’. And the clothes please people. Sure, nice clothes. What the hell are you doing describing them in that much detail? To be honest, no one cares! Please, just keep away from that kind of thing. No one likes someone who tries to flirt with everyone wearing short cut tops or low trimmed dresses; or even things like that, which certainly would not attract the big hard-touch guys.
Number four: Names! Here we must decide on what to call your character. Names like ‘Arabella’ wouldn’t come from an ordinary family now, would they? If you want an example of poor families naming their children, and then rich families, and slightly well off, then I suggest you watch ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, or at least take time to look at the names. Also, you have to make sure that the names you are choosing fit in with their personality. A character with the name Desdemona would not be a kind, caring yet silent and shy person, because it just doesn’t fit in with the name! Likewise, a name like ‘Snow’ would not be used for some person who’s so showing off about their appearance and popular with everyone [again, Mary-sue traits here people]. Because a name like Snow, to me, reflects a personality that is calm, quite, and friendly with those who are her friends, and perhaps even shy. And, try to give your character’s name meanings.
Number five: You have everything you want This step is just on your character being able to get away with everything, from wearing completely rebellious outfits in school [ie, low cut tops and skirts, or for boys, low jeans and completely unnecessary tops], wearing piercings in unnecessary places, being late for class, forgetting your homework for the twelfth time in a row, squirting ink at the strange person in front of you, being in trouble with the law and still getting away with it, and some more. Because, if you allow your character to get away with all of these, then that is indeed getting all too ‘perfect’. I am honestly certain that your teacher, or even school, would not allow you to wear all these really stupid outfits, or have piercings over their face/body. It wouldn’t happen, sorry guys. Sure, if your character isn’t in school, no one’s going to give a second thought to what someone else is wearing, but you would get the odd look from people, and that means you’re character cannot be friendly with everyone because not everyone with like the certain style (as I explained earlier). And no one, I repeat, no one can get away with avoiding being in trouble with the law. Trust me, this is a stupid attempt at making your character so well known with people that even the police say ‘oh, that’s fine. We know you’. It won’t happen.
Okay, I think I have droned on long enough. Hopefully you get the idea about what I hate, and also what many admins will not tolerate on their site for too long [unless they haven’t noticed]. If your character possesses any one of the qualities above then please, either stop that certain ‘special ness’ that makes them like that, or stop playing them all together. People do get annoyed with it, whether they mention it so or not, so I suggest that before you get people ignoring you, or just generally getting annoyed with your character, that you flick through this list and see if the character you have created is a Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu. Thanks for reading this guys, as it will help you in the future. And also, sorry if any of the names of your characters on this site are on here, they are just names I like and have found on various coming-up-with names sites.
© Zoey
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