EDIT 3: 11/22/09 You guys are kidding me XD For goodness sakes, reaaaaad the liink here: [link] Every time I get a comment that reads "the one on the left is a Mary Sue because she has green hair and a power," I realize that they're not reading the description which contains this link: [link]
tl;dr: If 'special' traits fit in with the universe, it doesn't automatically make the character a Mary Sue. What if everyone else in Ami Machida's universe has green/blue/purple hair? What if everyone else has a cat power? Does that make her a Mary Sue? Not necessarily.
Please, spare me the time from having to point you BACK to the silly description and just take a minute to read the link. You know, the one I linked to a bunch of times up above. And the link here: [link]
EDIT 2: 10/11/09 I suppose this is long overdue, but for those of you with confusion, here is an explanation on why I perceive the one on the left as not a Mary Sue: [link] For the love of god stop whining about it D:
EDIT: 6/21/09 Okay, everyone, please chill with all the 'hay is my character a mary-sue!?11" questions. I get about 3 a day now and one thing you need to understand - I AM NOT AN AUTHORITY ON MARY SUES. This picture is a parody. Just for fun. The one on the right is obviously an extreme exaggeration of a stereotype and not the definitive definition for a Mary Sue. D:
Please full view. You won't be able to read the text if you don't.
For those of you who don't know, a Mary Sue, in a nutshell, is a fanmade character that is usually extremely beautiful, powerful, smart, talented, and in plain words, perfect in every way.
These characters tend to be quite a bother in fanfiction and role playing, since they simply can't be beat, and thus become boring.
Have any of you ever been rping, and come across a character who is like, " oh, well, that planet in the way isn't a problem *blows it up*"
Or, is like, "well, Vegeta and Goten and Trunks and Goku ALL have a crush on my character"
Yep. That's a Mary Sue.
So, for people who still don't understand, I made this little picture/diagram. Usually, Mary Sues have TONS of talents and TONS of powers, and no weaknesses.
Enjoy ^_^
-Done in Copic Markers, with the background and text done on computer -
tl;dr: If 'special' traits fit in with the universe, it doesn't automatically make the character a Mary Sue. What if everyone else in Ami Machida's universe has green/blue/purple hair? What if everyone else has a cat power? Does that make her a Mary Sue? Not necessarily.
Please, spare me the time from having to point you BACK to the silly description and just take a minute to read the link. You know, the one I linked to a bunch of times up above. And the link here: [link]
EDIT 2: 10/11/09 I suppose this is long overdue, but for those of you with confusion, here is an explanation on why I perceive the one on the left as not a Mary Sue: [link] For the love of god stop whining about it D:
EDIT: 6/21/09 Okay, everyone, please chill with all the 'hay is my character a mary-sue!?11" questions. I get about 3 a day now and one thing you need to understand - I AM NOT AN AUTHORITY ON MARY SUES. This picture is a parody. Just for fun. The one on the right is obviously an extreme exaggeration of a stereotype and not the definitive definition for a Mary Sue. D:
Please full view. You won't be able to read the text if you don't.
For those of you who don't know, a Mary Sue, in a nutshell, is a fanmade character that is usually extremely beautiful, powerful, smart, talented, and in plain words, perfect in every way.
These characters tend to be quite a bother in fanfiction and role playing, since they simply can't be beat, and thus become boring.
Have any of you ever been rping, and come across a character who is like, " oh, well, that planet in the way isn't a problem *blows it up*"
Or, is like, "well, Vegeta and Goten and Trunks and Goku ALL have a crush on my character"
Yep. That's a Mary Sue.
So, for people who still don't understand, I made this little picture/diagram. Usually, Mary Sues have TONS of talents and TONS of powers, and no weaknesses.
Enjoy ^_^
-Done in Copic Markers, with the background and text done on computer -
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Sue: Mary Sue Sunshine is a lead character. She's 17, but look like an 8-year-old. Yeah, I can do that. Come up with a lolita character like Honey Senpai from OHSHC. She's a cute little angel character, and is perfect in every way. Why, because she keeps blabbing about how perfect she is to everyone she sees. She's rather annoying. Anything you can do, she claims she can do a million times better. Her mom is Princess Peach. Her father is Whis from Dragon Ball Super. How they hooked up? Crossovers are fun. Because her father is Whis, her skin is also blue. And she can't die because she's immortal. She's got a ton of boyfriends. Can't decide who she wants to marry. It's either Trunks, Kaname, Alphonse Elric, Space Dandy, Detective Conan, Honey Senpai.... her decision-making skills about what man is the best for her is worse than both Bella Swan and Yuki Cross, combined. She's also slept around with a lot of these guys, if she were to get pregnant, she'd have a hell of a time figuring out who the father is.
(Okay, okay. The sue I came up with is really just crap I threw together. I wouldn't have any interest in this character and no anime to put her in really. My non-sue characters are children of two canon character couples from the anime I put them in, and I've had a long time developing both Saito and Megumi, along with both of their families. Saito has a sister, Sakura. Megumi has a brother, Yoshi, and a baby sister, Kaya. And I've got the couple with an adopted baby boy, Tenshi, who lost his mother right due to childbirth complications and the poor living conditions she was in, a shabby apartment where she had him. Sakura is a newly-hired shinigami for Spirit World who helped the mom and gave the baby to her brother because he really had no other place to go. Saito and Megumi adopted the orphan and became his parents.)
(How do u think my hair is pink?....that rhymes)
And wow,
The 'Hobbies' section alone is overkill!!!
Methinks this effectively explains what is and is *not* a Mary Sue. ^w^
A "Normal" OC has flaws and personality traits besides "amazing at everything they do", like the character on the left up there.
If you write a character with traits from both, like for example a shy boy with red hair and unknown powers because of his heritage that has a tendency to run from his problems... He is likely a protagonist. I am not saying it always has to be, but it is a possibility (see: Anime)
And to give credit where credit is due, I got my information from this video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v
Of course, a Mary Sue, or Marty Stu, is just too PERFECT to exist, even in a fictional universe.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue
I've been watching Star Trek: TNG. Ow! Wesley Crusher? No offense to the actor, who was just doing his job. But, really, Gene? Really?
It's incredible Captain Picard can put up with him.
Personally I think creating/placing a Mary Sue in the story you want is great as a tutorial for RP or writing - can't tell you how many character sheets my old tabletop went through. We all do it. Just... no one else actually wants to read about your flawless stand-in. So they're great for practice and should never be published.
Another game that has an major thing about being fragile which is another thing most gamers who go into RP/Story writting for the first time forget about, anyway the game I'd pick for this is the Monster Hunter games. There is no level there, no small number with the words "Power Rating" on it. You're just a fragile human who takes on beasts that can be 10 times their own size but how do they do that when they can't tank the damage that the massive ass monsters can deal to your character? Simple your character gets stronger by making stronger weapons and armor but in Monster Hunter games going for the best defence is not the best thing due to armor skills. Sometimes having an boost to attack is better then having a higher defence besides each monster has a visual animation of the attack they are gonna do, giving you time to avoid the incoming damage. I mean sure high defence helps if you mess up avoiding an attack, but as I said you're not meant to be able to tank damage in Monster Hunter as if your an D&D Great Fighter.
So yeah bottom line is... most Mary Sues (and what ever the name is for the male counterpart) are usually made from a gamer's set of mind where the hero is meant to be untouchable and only gets hit if we the player fuck it up, which since there is no "person with a controller, controlling the hero aka their character in an RP/Story" they rarely if at all get hit or lose a fight. I too am guilty of this in the past... but now days with a lot of games factoring "Respawing" into the game's lore like it's part of Destiny's lore that as long as a Guardian's Ghosts remains alive, it's Guardian can never truly die for good. We can depending on certain factors allow our characters to die as they will just "respawn" providing it fits the lore.
Although she can die, but she does resurrect within two days and she can get hurt real bad...
If you ask why I say left side: SHE IS BASED ON MYSELF IN A LITTLE MISS FORM WITH EPIC POWERS BASED ON TALENT AND EMOTION!!
The problem is the definition of "Mary-Sue" has some variations, and generally it can be just any female character people find annoying for certain faults that are too unlikable. For example, a strong female character is well liked by some but hated by others who are anti-feminist. The other issue is, in avoiding a mary-due you THEN fall into the trap at times of creating a one-note or single persona 2D character who is often a stereotype.
Obviously, most Mary-Sue's have clear common traits agrees on, like in the My Little Pony fandom a "Alicorn" OC is hated because its seen as lazy, an attempt to make a "all powerful" character with little effort.. Possibly to also give them a position of authority. Those who do avoid the obious trait of going for an Alicorn, instead often go for a unicorn or Pegasus instead and both can fall into the same traps, especially the unicorns as they are MLP's magic users. Very few OCs are "Earth Ponies" despite them having a number of magical traits too, simply because their viewed as "mundane" or boring, even though the Earth Ponies are known for their incredible acts of physical strength and being one with nature, being the only one of 3 races who can do farming successfully on a long period as Pegasi and Unicorns lack the stamina and endurance to work for hours in laborious jobs.
I think it's for more important to have a well-rounded character with a versatile personality. And to communicate with your roleplay partners before you make the use of great powers, especially things like possession and curses.
For example, in my world there are ancient vampires called Higher Vampire ( Witcher 3 equivalent. Think Unseen Elder.) They can devastate entire towns if they wish. But being exposed to sun, salt or silver boils their bodies from the inside out. They can't be near creatures like Unicorns either because they are too pure.
And while your 'non sue' character might be less annoying to roleplay with, she is still a very cliché and flat character that I have seen portrayed many times before. There is nothing there that makes me feel that she has any real personality or presence to her. So while she may not be a mary sue, she is not a very interesting character that I would want to roleplay with.
The left one is simple, not too overpowered and has decent features. I would recommend the left one.
BTW good example and drawing! :3
Or at least it definitely seems like it.