Jemini
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- Jan 27, 2019
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I have seen from personal experience and heard from the critiques of others about how the term "Mary Sue" is often used just to mean "character I don't like," and that it is really not all that objective of a critique to make about a character. Also, that quite often characters it is made about have similar characters almost identical to them that are not considered to be Mary Sues.
So, I looked around and found what I think is a far more objective set of criteria on which to judge whether or not a character is a Mary Sue.
A Mary Sue is a character that...
* Is admired, loved, and adored by the majority of the rest of the cast, especially the "good guys" and the "mob characters."
* The mere fact that a character in the story dislikes them is used as a sign that character is a villain.
* The Mary Sue's opinion is always somehow objectively true. If real world logic would make the Mary Sue's opinion the wrong one, the author will ignore real world logic and substitute their own for their cannon universe in order to make the Mary Sue's opinion correct.
* Any character who disagrees with the Mary Sue for any reason at all is wrong (see above.)
* Everyone else in the cast is always talking about how clever, witty, or insightful the Mary Sue character is.
* They are better than everyone else at everything they do, even if they have never tried doing it before.
*They are automatically at the top of the power scale of the world they are in without seeming to have actually had to work for it at all. They just seem to have popped into existence able to beat everyone at literally everything.
* They are completely lacking in all character flaws, or if they do have character flaws then they are not significant flaws or otherwise what is described as a "flaw" actually seems to be more praise for the character.
(Examples of the non-significant flaws a Mary Sue may have would be that they are clumsy, have some kind of cute endearing verbal tick, or they are "too nice.")
These are the objective 8 cardinal signs of a Mary Sue. Possessing all 8 cardinal signs absolutely and automatically means they are a Mary Sue without question.
If they only lack 1 or 2 of the cardinal signs, well, they're probably still a Mary Sue but the author might be trying to pull something clever. Whether or not they fall into the Mary Sue category depends entirely on whether or not the author succeeds in whatever they were trying to pull. (Recommended only for highly talented authors.)
If they only have 1 or 2 of the cardinal signs, well, it's probably not the best thing for the characterization but it's not really enough to have them classified with the dreaded "Mary Sue" label just for those 1 or 2 things. Being "OP" (a quick way to sum up the 7th item on the list) is one that is especially forgivable if One Punch Man is any example.
So, I looked around and found what I think is a far more objective set of criteria on which to judge whether or not a character is a Mary Sue.
A Mary Sue is a character that...
* Is admired, loved, and adored by the majority of the rest of the cast, especially the "good guys" and the "mob characters."
* The mere fact that a character in the story dislikes them is used as a sign that character is a villain.
* The Mary Sue's opinion is always somehow objectively true. If real world logic would make the Mary Sue's opinion the wrong one, the author will ignore real world logic and substitute their own for their cannon universe in order to make the Mary Sue's opinion correct.
* Any character who disagrees with the Mary Sue for any reason at all is wrong (see above.)
* Everyone else in the cast is always talking about how clever, witty, or insightful the Mary Sue character is.
* They are better than everyone else at everything they do, even if they have never tried doing it before.
*They are automatically at the top of the power scale of the world they are in without seeming to have actually had to work for it at all. They just seem to have popped into existence able to beat everyone at literally everything.
* They are completely lacking in all character flaws, or if they do have character flaws then they are not significant flaws or otherwise what is described as a "flaw" actually seems to be more praise for the character.
(Examples of the non-significant flaws a Mary Sue may have would be that they are clumsy, have some kind of cute endearing verbal tick, or they are "too nice.")
These are the objective 8 cardinal signs of a Mary Sue. Possessing all 8 cardinal signs absolutely and automatically means they are a Mary Sue without question.
If they only lack 1 or 2 of the cardinal signs, well, they're probably still a Mary Sue but the author might be trying to pull something clever. Whether or not they fall into the Mary Sue category depends entirely on whether or not the author succeeds in whatever they were trying to pull. (Recommended only for highly talented authors.)
If they only have 1 or 2 of the cardinal signs, well, it's probably not the best thing for the characterization but it's not really enough to have them classified with the dreaded "Mary Sue" label just for those 1 or 2 things. Being "OP" (a quick way to sum up the 7th item on the list) is one that is especially forgivable if One Punch Man is any example.
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