Reviews for Mary Sue - FictionPress.com

Reviews For: Mary Sue

Anya Tempest 2005-11-12 ch 1,	abuseHeehee...hilarious...I love snarky essays like this. I sometimes have nightmares of my characters in my story becoming Mary Sues and being flamed out the sky, but hopefully if they ever became that corrupt I'd notice and give them counseling until they recovered...
The 2nd Mrs de Winter 2005-09-02 ch 1,	abuseHi, I didn't write what is written below. I copy and pasted it from the urban dictionary. com but I thought that someone might like to read it. . . Oh, and I'm really glad that you wrote this it was funny and also educational! well, this was written by nscangal: "See Mary-Sue. A female fanfiction character who is so perfect as to be annoying. The male equivlalent is the Marty-Stu. Often abbreviated to "Sue". A Mary Sue character is usually written by a beginning author. Often, the Mary Sue is a self-insert with a few "improvements" (ex. better body, more popular, etc). The Mary Sue character is almost always beautiful, smart, etc... In short, she is the "perfect" girl. The Mary Sue usually falls in love with the author's favorite character(s) and winds up upstaging all of the other characters in the book/series/universe. There are several main types of Mary Sue: Victim!Sues: The Victim!Sue is your whiny, wimpy, pathetic female character who can't seem to do much of anything except cry and get herself into trouble that the romantic interest of the fic has to rescue her from. Warrior!Sues: The Warrior!Sue is usually loud, obnoxious and (of course) an amazing warrior. She'll usually have some tragic past that led her to become a warrior, and she'll upstage all of the Canonical characters with her mad Sueish powerz. Mage!Sue: Similar to the Warrior!Sue, the Mage!Sue has amazing stregnth in magic, or has a magical power that nobody else has. She'll usually wind up upstaging all of the magical characters of the series. Punk!Sue: Also called Noncomformist!Sue or Goth!Sue, the Punk!Sue is usually written by female beginners in the 11-15 age group. The Punk!Sue is loud, obnoxious, annoying and generally the type of person who you'd want to send off to boot camp for six months. The Punk!Sue almost always has angst coming out of her ears and isn't really a bad person, she's just oh!-so-angry at whatever tragic past the author has chosen to give her. The Punk!Sue is based on what the 11-15 year old author thinks is "cool" and wishes she could be. This includes Evil!Sues. Misfit!Sue: This includes all Sues who are supposedly geeks, nerds, misfits, etc. Usually, the Misfit!Sue doesn't start out as inhumanly beautiful, but winds up getting a makeover and finding out she had the potential to be a guy-magnet (or girl-magnet, depending on the genre) all along. Also includes the "My parents want me to do this but I want to do that and it's not fair!!one!" type of Sue. Usually, this Sue is very bookish and smart, but will find some sort of physical talent nobody expected and become a star as a result. Another thing to note is that a Sue will usually have a completely off-the-wall name, like "Viquetoria". The more wierd and pretentious the name of the character, the more likely it is that she's a Sue. Finally, Sues often have wierd, improbable or impossible bloodlines. A secret half-elf child of Elrond and a nameless human would be an example of this. A character who was Dumbledore's grandchild and Tom Riddle's daughter would be another example.The character in the HP fanfic was a complete and utter Sue. She moved across the street from Harry. She was beautiful, smart and pretty. They fell in wuv almost immediately. She threw all of the characters out of character and generally upstaged everyone. It was quite obnoxious."
Destron 2005-08-23 ch 1,	abuseIt's not so much as how Mary Sues/Gary Stus suck, it's how you use them. Original fiction or fanfiction. I've seen so many instances, especially in Japanese animation, of characters that could qualify as a Mary/Gary. Goku of Dragonball and, an even better example, Kenshiro of Fist of the North Star come to mind. They seem guilty of being skilled fighters to the extreme that nothing seems to beat them. Yet, how did their stories endure? The secret is in the telling of the story. If there is not even an effort to tell a good, interesting story, MS/GS really stands out like a bright red spot. Am I advocating the use of MS/GS? No, I'm just saying you don't use them at the expense of a good story.
aims80 2005-07-14 ch 1,	abuseThank you. I had no idea what a Mary Sue was and it was so bugging me.
Liz 2005-07-13 ch 1, anon.	abuse"We all know about them, that character that everyone dreads" First, you assume too much. Everyone dreads the Sues? Overall, you have not said anything that has not been said before and in a better manner. In fact, I dare say that your essay shows ignorance. How? You automatically assume that Sue equals bad when it does not. Take Dalamar Nightson's story "A Tale of Two Worlds" (I'll note that it is my opinion and you might not even like the fandom), he admits that it is a Sue story, yet it is one of my favorite Dragonlance fan stories I have read. What makes Sue stories bad is that many of the writers' skills suck and they have a desire to make their Sue or self-insert seem important, therefore, they make them powerful. Tkae out the numbers, they lower the quality of your essay. A person should be able to determine that yuo're talking about skills from the paragraph thesis. Also, you have yet to say something that someone else hasn't said better.
Rach 2005-07-12 ch 1, anon.	abuseHI!. well this is one of the clearest guides to what a Mary Sue I've ever read on this site. I've read the guide and I have a feeling that some of my charaters may be a Mary Sue but I want a second opinon so I'm going to give a brief summary of who the supect is. (this is a charater from a touched by an angel fan fic I'm writing)the charater is a small brown haired blue eyed 14 year old called Rosie who comes from an abusive home where her parents threw her baby brother down the stairs seven years before. but despite that she tries to help others out like she helps out Andrew (he's the angel of death) who's just had a rough assignment by lisitening to him and he ends up helping her in some way. and in the end Andrew and his other friends decide to have her on their team. so what do you think? Mary Sue or not?. anyway please update soon see ya
Formerly 2005-07-11 ch 1,	abuseDamn, you people are just crawling out of the woodwork. Let me copy and paste another review I gave to a similar essay: "The problem with Mary Sues is not their existence: it is the fact that statistically, they are preferred by poor authors. A Mary Sue is a way to escape the world by placing oneself in a story and fixing all possible flaws--the Mary Sue, even if it has very little to do with yourself, is always to some degree either a self-insert or what you wish to be. When an author writes SOLELY for this purpose, his or her writing is generally poor, because the author is not focusing on quality, merely on self-gratification. However, this makes it quite possible for a Mary Sue to be well written. Can you qualify a Mary Sue? What if the author is conscious of the fact that it is a Mary Sue, and makes it clear in a well-written story, but does not "fix" it? Will that be a poor piece of writing just because there is a Mary Sue in it? No. Taste and skill are all that matter in writing--plot is irrelevant. Condemning a story--no, an entire subgenre--intrinsically, is the equivalent of condemning all stories that use the word "**." Actually, it all depends on how it is used. The same with a Mary Sue."
Radyn 2005-07-11 ch 1,	abuseI honestly don't see why you would care.
Zeda, Zeda 2005-07-11 ch 1,	abuseI don't even have words to describe how funny this is. However, it is also sad because so many people do write this way. Both humor and tragedy, I love it!
alligater20 2005-07-11 ch 1,	abuseI'm not quite sure what your itent with this was, perhaps simply to serve as a guide. But anyhow, it was very well written overall, however some spots I just wanted to skip over. I hope this serves as a good slap in the face for all the authors of all those overly cliched stories that litter fictionpress. Good work =)
White Tea and Ginger 2005-07-11 ch 1,	abuseHaha...that was hilarious. Good work.
Acunne Tolygnes 2005-07-11 ch 1,	abuseCan't Mary Sue's be useful in some instances? Also, it's fun to start off with a Mary Sue, put her through hell, and see what you come out with. Nice essay, very detailed and explanitory.

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