literature

What Makes a Mary Sue a Mary Sue

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jochannon's avatar
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Literature Text

A while ago, I made a Mary Sue/Gary Stu test for people to put their OCs through. Well, it got really popular. And a while ago, I got to thinking about what makes a Mary Sue a Mary Sue.

The test measures how many 'features' your OC has: relations, powers, their appearance, where they come from, enemies, etc. At the end of the test there is a disclaimer that a character may have many such features and still not be a mary Cue.

You see, when a single character has many features, they bend the story around themselves, until the story for the sake of the OC, and not the other way around. And that is a Mary Sue.

Now, the test is based on an estimation of how many features a character can have before they start bending the story, but it is possible for a single character to have so many features that they would normally qualify as a Mary Sue, but the writer may also give the other characters in the story more features than characters normally have, so the would-be Mary Sue is unable to bend the story, because the other characters resist the bending.
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Amatelaseu's avatar
Is the test up? I would love to try it! <3