Forums / About Writing /
What is a Mary Sue?

Mary Sue, from my understanding, is a character that is labeled to almost be flawless. Great looks, smart, sort of popular... goals aren't really mentioned... the character is just there and loved by everyone basically.

Basically a 'too good to be true/not that realistic' character would be considered 'Mary Sue'. I think. This is only from my understanding of the term, so I may be wrong.

I probably will be corrected on this by someone.

Via Wikipedia

"Mary Sue, sometimes shortened simply to Sue, is a pejorative term used to describe a fictional character who plays a major role in the plot and is particularly characterized by overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, and primarily functioning as wish-fulfillment fantasies for their authors or readers."

I've personally never known, so this is interesting. There's more to the article too, if you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_sue

This may help:

The Universal Mary Sue Litmus Test
http://www.springhole.net/quizzes/marysue.htm

The term actually originated from Star Trek fan fiction with a character called Mary Sue who was an OC inserted into the fanfic to steal the main canon character's heart.

Though that Wiki article is interesting, the above link provides a way for people to test their own characters against a set of questions designed to identify the possible 'Mary Sue'-ness of a character.

Mary Sues happen in regular original fiction as self inserts or characters meant to fulfil certain dreams and fantasies of authors. The genre most likely to be riddled with Mary Sues is erotica. Mary Sues more frequently occur in fan fiction - much to the annoyances of fans who prefer canon characters and pairings.

Got an easier test:

http://www.katfeete.net/writing/marysue.html

Same principle, just shorter and easier and way cool results.