There is a fascinating discussion right now on Quora on Mary Sue/Gary Stu characters. People argue in favor and against the possibility of writing a well-crafted, enjoyable character like that.
For anyone not familiar with the Mary Sue term (Gary Stu or Lary Stu are the male equivalents), Wikipedia explains what it is all about.
Who is Mary Sue?
The term “Mary Sue” comes from the name of a character created by Paula Smith in 1973 for her parody story “A Trekkie’s Tale.” The story starred Lieutenant Mary Sue (“the youngest Lieutenant in the fleet — only fifteen and a half years old”) and satirized unrealistic characters in Star Trek fan fiction. The complete story reads:
“Gee, golly, gosh, gloriosky,” thought Mary Sue as she stepped on the bridge of the Enterprise. “Here I am, the youngest lieutenant in the fleet – only fifteen and a half years old.”
Captain Kirk came up to her. “Oh, Lieutenant, I love you madly. Will you come to bed with me?”
“Captain! I am not that kind of girl!”
“You’re right, and I respect you for it. Here, take over the ship for a minute while I go get some coffee for us.”
Mr. Spock came onto the bridge. “What are you doing in the command seat, Lieutenant?”
“The Captain told me to.”
“Flawlessly logical. I admire your mind.”
Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy and Mr. Scott beamed down with Lt. Mary Sue to Rigel XXXVII. They were attacked by green androids and thrown into prison. In a moment of weakness Lt. Mary Sue revealed to Mr. Spock that she, too, was half Vulcan. Recovering quickly, she sprung the lock with her hairpin and they all got away back to the ship.
But back on board, Dr. McCoy and Lt. Mary Sue found out that the men who had beamed down were seriously stricken by the jumping cold robbies, Mary Sue less so. While the four officers languished in Sick Bay, Lt. Mary Sue ran the ship, and ran it so well she received the Nobel Peace Prize, the Vulcan Order of Gallantry, and the Tralfamadorian Order of Good Guyhood.
However the disease finally got to her and she fell fatally ill. In the Sick Bay, as she breathed her last, she was surrounded by Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Mr. Scott, all weeping unashamedly at the loss of her beautiful youth and youthful beauty, intelligence, capability, and all around niceness. Even to this day her birthday is a national holiday of the Enterprise.
The Mary Sue test
So, does your novel have a Mary Sue in it? Here is a small test, courtesy of DailyWritingTips:
- Is your character an idealized version of you? (Be honest!)
- Are they popular with pretty much everyone?
- Are they a bit “too good to be true”?
- Do they have a surprising range of skills / expertise?
- Have they advanced a long way in their career despite being very young?
If you answered Yes to all of those, you likely have a Mary Sue, and should ask:
- Does the character have any real flaws? (“Clumsy” or “poor at math” are not flaws.)
- Do they ever fail at anything, in a significant way, in your story?
- Do they change in some way (for better or for worse) during the course of the story?
Now to the question at hand.
Is it possible to have a well crafted, enjoyable Mary Sue or Gary Stu?
Enter Westley
Chris O’Leary’s answer in Quora proved to me beyond doubt that yes, it is. But only under very specific circumstances, like children’s books. Or…
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you:
Westley, from the Princess Bride.
An idealized form of the author, living in the story, Westley is immediately popular with everyone he meets, is way too good to be true, has an inconceivable range of skills and expertise, is very young, but is the most famous and feared pirate in the world, has no flaws to speak of, never fails at anything, and does not change at all throughout the story.
BOOM. The Dread Pirate Gary Stu. AND a GREAT character whom everyone LOVES.
What do you think? Can we have a Mary Sue without ruining our entire novel?
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The first thing that needs to be done is dropping the ‘marty stu’ label. Mary Sue is not actually a gendered trope, even if it is commonly interpreted as such by people who want to dismiss a character (or more often: a writer) out of hand.
Mary Sue also is not necessarily a self-insert. The original Mary Sue was, but that was not what made the character a style error.
What really defines a Mary Sue is that the story revolves around the character beyond what can be expected for a hero of the story. The Mary Sue is the only real thing in the story universe. Everything else is just a prop to highlight the character.
What makes discussing Mary Sue’s so problematic is that usually it is assumed to apply to any female central character in a story. In other words, any story with a female heroic protagonist is almost automatically labeled as a Mary Sue, and since no author wants to be branded with that dreaded label, it makes it needlessly hard to write a story about heroic women.
Consider how Rey in the Star Wars sequel trilogy was almost instantly called a Mary Sue the moment it became known that trilogy would have a female lead, and how the minutest detail was twisted into proving her ‘sue-ness’. This resulted in the writers struggling with how to portray her as a heroic character, something for which male characters would not be scrutinised to such degree. Certainly in the first movie Rey was a distaff Luke Skywalker. In the second movie two thirds of the attention was given to traditional male heroes, and in the third movie she was mostly reduced to a McGuffin that the two antagonists fought over. And in none of the three movies the audience blinked once about the male heroes, but the female one was presumed to be a Mary Sue even though she mirrored or imitated the male heroes in the same story.
So, yes, Mary Sue is a form of poor writing style. And she or he can still be an enjoyable character in an enjoyable story. Probably not, but heroes can be perfect and charismatic and be the driving force in good stories. After all, those two qualities also describe a paragon. Nobody considers calling heroes like Superman a Mary Sue, but there are pretty much no stories about female paragons (* Wonder Woman I think comes closest) because those heroes would immediately be slapped down as a Mary Sue.
The poorly understood and badly applied label of Mary Sue cuts of entire genres and themes for female protagonists.
Thanks for the excellent comment, Marian! You’re right, heroines have often been dismissed as Mary Sues, although I like to think things are changing on that front.
My blog is mostly about human weakness, moments of doubt and struggles between conflicting desires. But i believe it is possible to have a character everyone likes who has no fraility…Superman, Batman–they are mostly unfailing heroes. Even Frodo is a good person through and through even if he is not a fighter, he is the most loved character of the Lord of Rings. The tricky part is how to make it realistic. Bella from Twilight is a loved by all person too…
I can see Superman but not Batman. Too much darkness there. Bella, on the other hand… Mary Sue lol
This post made me smile when I think about my characters, Nicholas. They are all highly flawed and generally have attributes that make them unpopular with their peers because they are to well educated and to smart among other annoying characteristics like being nosy. Is there a name for that kind of character?
Mrs. Marple? lol