| lady_of_the_ring |
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| luthienkenobi |
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| lady_of_the_ring |
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| pv |
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| j_mercuryuk |
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| Faramirs_first_kiss |
 RE: Mary Sue Who?
on: January 22, 2005 01:51
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A Mary-Sue is almost always created unwittingly - the author will usually genuinely not think their character falls under this category. Most of her traits were concieved using the formula 'hey, wouldn't it be cool if she was/did/had ...' and people truly think they are creating a totally individual character. Which they would be, if there was only one of her, but their isn't. She is easily recognisable by her common traits:
Name - it's long, and beautiful, and elvish. It's either a description of her traits or the author's name in elvish, and it's often completely impossible to pronounce.
Beauty - she's always beautiful, absolutely always. Unless she's comely, attractive, gorgeous or similar things. Men like to look at her, but generally never have impure thoughts about her because there's only one person she wants to think of her in that way.
A canon lover - it's Aragorn, Legolas, Frodo, Boromir or whoever the author happens to find attractive. They're madly and blindly in love with her, though sometimes they try to deny it.
Nobility - though she might not know about it at first. A lot of the time she starts off as just a simple peasant or, worse, a girl from the real world, who is whisked off into a fantabulous adventure with the Fellowship or a few members thereof and at some point along the way discovers she is the daughter of Elrond or Aragorn or someone, sent away for safekeeping.
'Cool' eye and/or hair colour - common colours include purple, silver, gold, red, pure white and pure black. It's absolutely amazing how many people think they're being original when they choose one of these six colours.
Skill - she's a fighter and she's strong, though other than a few delicately placed scars it doesn't show. She usually doesn't like fighting, but finds it sadly necessary. She's more skilled than Aragorn and stronger than Boromir without a hint of muscle spoiling her perfect slim frame.
Powerful - she's magical. Almost always. Whether it's a subtle magic that just makes her endearing to everyone or a completely non-canon power, it's there. Common ones are the ability to heal (goes nicely with her dislike for fighting) and the ability to shapeshift, as well as seeing the future or at least premonitions. Sometimes she has wings, which as far as I'm concerned would get her burned on sight anywhere in Middle-earth.
Animals - all adore her. Sometimes they can speak to her, or at least they 'seem almost as if they understand her'. She might have a 'cool' animal as a pet, a Meara or a pegasus or a griffin. They're often beautiful and nearly always have special powers, or are the best at something.
Elven - or half-elven, or maia, or half-maia. She generally has pointy ears, at any rate. And it's from her mystical side that her fantastic powers spring. Unless it's...
Magical items - this is usually a weapon or a piece of jewellery, magic in the sense that no Tolkien weapons are magical, except possibly blue-glowing. It was given to her by someone wildly fantastic, probably Elrond, Gandalf or Aragorn, though she may not remember it. It might be the only memory she has of her...
Dark and haunted past - as a kiddo, Mary-Sue was oppressed in some way, even if this only means that she was forced to live below her status of elven princess. Her family might very well be dead, and she could be out for revenge, which could be why she has trained hard to be able to swing a sword better than anyone else in Middle-earth. Alternatively, she might have amnesia and be unable to remember anything that happened to her beyond a few key events. The author usually doesn't know about it either.
All in all, she's wonderful and perfect and everything that young female fanfic writers would love to be.
~~~~
The problem is, being Mary-Sue Aware doesn't necessarily mean you can avoid writing her. There are a lot of Rohirric Mary-Sues popping up at the moment who could, at first glance, be normal characters. I'll give you an example of a non-typical Mary-Sue: one I shamefully wrote myself when I joined CoE. She lived in the north and was, surprisingly, the exact age I myself longed to be.
Name: Eruviluiel Elei - Eruviluiel being an approximate translation of my own name (altered so I liked the sound of it more), Elei meaning 'dreams' or something similarly cliché.
Beauty: here is the place where she was most obviously not a Mary-Sue, since she was plain and had a nose that was too large and eyebrows that were bushy and dark, and I was so impressed with myself for creating a non-beautiful char. Later I realised I had just created a Middle-earth me. Also, her hair was cut short, which is a definite no-no for girls.
A canon lover: no. At least I spared everyone that, although it's possibly only because she didn't exist long enough to find one.
Nobility: I wasn't sure at first. I was definitely toying with the idea of making her an unknowing noble, to find out later in her life, and I decided that this would be a suitably cool thing to do.
Eye/hair colour: these were pretty normal, though as mentioned before her hair style was Sueishly tomboyish.
Skill: she wasn't overly skilled, but she certainly had a skill that no girl should have had - rangering. I never said she was an actual Ranger because I realised that was out of bounds, but I cleverly circumvented this boundary by creating a nickname for her that basically meant 'little Ranger'. I also said she was more of an escort than a Ranger, but these little 'side categories' do not excuse my behaviour in any way. She could handle a sword well enough to stay alive, which is too well for any girl, though of course she preferred not to fight if she could avoid it.
Powerful: thank goodness, no. The one line I never crossed, nor had any intention of crossing, was magic.
Animals: she had a pet rat who could scout for her and come to her call. I thought it was okay because a rat was unique, but oh how wrong I was.
Elven: n-no, but of Dunedan descent, which is just as bad.
Magical items: well, yes and no. She had an item given to her by Elrond which, though beautiful, was not magic - a tinderbox. Also it was given to her during the course of a thread and not at some point in her history. Though I seem to recall she had some sort of pendant reminding her of her...
Dark and haunted past: Her (noble) parents died when she was a baby, in a carriage accident, and she was saved by local peasants. She was brought up by them and, though her past wasn't particularly haunted, it was very unfulfilling for a girl of her potential.
If you aren't sickened yet, you should be. I thought that, since she wasn't beautiful or magical she couldn't possibly be a Mary-Sue, but in fact all she was was an unromantic, ugly Mary-Sue. Though my intentions were good, I committed just as heinous a crime as Willow Evenstar, the half-elf-half-hobbit with purple eyes and red hair down to her thighs who can shapeshift into a unicorn or grow butterfly wings on demand and was given Hadhafang by her half-sister when Arwen realised that she was by far the greater fighter and needed it to slay the balrog who killed her hobbit mother.
You need to watch out for your character doing anything that she shouldn't do. For female characters, this means anything other than cooking, cleaning, having children, caring for children, sewing and possibly playing a musical instrument or writing wishy-washy poetry if she's upper class. I'm sorry, I know it's sexist, but that's the way it goes. Can't escape it. You're a lot better off writing a male, and provided his loved ones weren't brutally killed, he isn't the best swordsman/bowman in the world, he isn't related to a canon character and he isn't loved by everyone then you're probably safe. The reason most Mary-Sues are girls is because most fanfic writers are girls, and they all seem to have the same aspirations to write terrible self-insertion fanfic.
In conclusion: beware 'wouldn't it be cool if'. The answer is no, it wouldn't. Or at least, not to anyone else. Write this character, by all means, but do not try and share it with anyone. Nine-year-old girls would think she was amazing, but you'd be sowing the seeds of Sueish destruction in their innocent minds too. It wouldn't be cool if.
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| Milliecake |
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| j_mercuryuk |
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| Ireth_Telrunya |
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| j_mercuryuk |
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| Faramirs_first_kiss |
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| Aragorns-Estel |
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| Faramirs_first_kiss |
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| Aisheeya |
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| Morwinyoniel |
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| j_mercuryuk |
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| Steorra |
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| Milliecake |
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| Milliecake |
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| Morwinyoniel |
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| Faramirs_first_kiss |
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| j_mercuryuk |
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| lady_of_the_ring |
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| lady_of_the_ring |
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| Morwinyoniel |
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| j_mercuryuk |
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| Mistah_Finderáva |
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| Nienquia |
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| Aralinn |
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| Faramirs_first_kiss |
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| pv |
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| Faramirs_first_kiss |
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| Milliecake |
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| j_mercuryuk |
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| Morwinyoniel |
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Author
I also put off writing anymore of my own, definitely non MS story, because it would simply get lost amongst these two or three chapter MS stories that the author then gives up on because of low reviews 
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