Mary Sue and Family
Celena Salyers
Mary Sues have long been a staple of fan fiction, however, not all original fanfic
characters [OFC] are Mary Sues.
An original character is any character the writer creates and inserts in a fanfic
that was never a part of canon to begin with. Mary Sue and her counterpart,
Gary Stu, are original characters that take over a
story at the sacrifice of the canon characters.
Most readers and writers define Mary Sue as a female with special attributes
such as overt friendliness, helpfulness, beautiful, heroic, witty, clever, charming,
and they get all the best dialogue lines. Sometimes she has physical talents such as
singing, karate, or even masseuse [the better to enchant the hero with].
Everyone in the story likes Mary Sue, and how could they not since she's so
helpful... But Mary Sue has an evil twin. In fact she has a whole family, but
let's address the lesser known twin first.
I don't know if this evil breed of Sues' has a name, so I'll just dub her Mad Mary (though Jessie Sue was considered for the outlaw, Jesse James). Unlike her more loving counterpart, her theme is anger.
Mad Mary Sue is one tough chic. She'll have a tough name that makes it clear
she's not to be messed with. She's usually an orphan or runaway from horrible circumstances,
lives or has lived on the streets, been in a gang, killed people, and still manages
to have a great singing voice. She and her brother in crime can usually be found
by other characters in subways, abandoned buildings, alleys, and sewer pipes.
Mad Mary still doles out advice to other canon characters, but not before
fighting with one of them first, either physically or verbally. She demands respect,
threatens people, spits acid, and won't hesitate to take on anyone.
After stomping out her territory in the characters lives and within the story,
she grudgingly begins to help them. There will be continuous conflict between
Mad Mary and at least one or two other characters, usually of the moral variety.
Mad Mary plays bad cop to any heroic morality, by employing gun jumping and rash
decision making tactics. In fact, any plot the story started with flies out the window
as Mad Mary takes over, and inserts her own brand of conflict.
When tightly reigned in, the Mad Marys' can be an interesting original character. Set on the loose, they'll stomp a story to pieces.
The one thing everyone in the Sue family seems to have in common is that of giving advice.
A lesser known, but often used member of the Sue family, is Yenti [companion] Sue.
Yenti Sue comes in the guise of lost family members and old friends and tends
to be a more subtle character than either of the two above. If not subtle, then more
tolerable as her appearance is usually short lived.
Her use is equivilent to the information dump that often plagues stories,
in that her role is that of advice dump. She's known the character for years, and
even though she might not have seen them in just as long, she can 'see' that the love
interests 'belong together', or she can pin-point just what is troubling a person
and solve it in a few sage words of wisdom.
A take on the short term Yenti Sue, is Vanessa Sue and Bar-fly Stu. This is the stranger who
gives advice, usually after the troubled main character has taken to drinking in
a bar, the patron beside them takes on a philisophical tone that reveals the
world to the character. Bar-fly Stu doesn't have to be related to alchohol
as he can also be found on park benches, buses, and in any other public place.
Not the same as a main character observing an OFC and making their own judgements and realizations without outside help.
Vanessa Sue on the other hand has the role of tempting seductress. Her job is to
look beautiful, seduce the character, and then convince them
that they really don't want her and should go back to their true love.
Not to be confused with an OFC whom the main character sleeps with; the main character comes to their own senses without help.
Vanessa and the Bar-fly are used when the writer can't think of another way to get the character to change, when all that's really needed is for the character to figure it out for themselves.
Whether or not Mary Sues are bad is still debatable. Some will call any OFC a Mary Sue, while
others make exceptions and call them Mary Sues if they heavily match the general criteria.
And still others respond to gut reaction and call any noncanon character they don't like Mary Sue.
There is a need for original characters. There has to be interaction between other
characters at times, or there
wouldn't be a story. We bring into our stories scientists and doctors, civilians and military, all
to help further the story where needed. Without them, our stories would exist in a vacuum.
When our original characters solve all the problems and have the wittiest quips,
when they act like jerks and still smell like a rose, and when they outshine the canon characters,
then they've outgrown their purpose.
We as the writers have to draw the line and decide how important our original character is
to the story. Are they there to further the story, or are they the star of the story?
Disclaimer: Most people agree that any characters, including canon, can carry some degree of Mary Sue-ism due to the nature of writing 'what you know'. Mileage on your Mary Sue may vary.
|
