How Mary Sue is this?!

[denshi]

My friend seems to be the master of creating Mary Sues. After I discovered what a Mary Sue is, I looked back on it, and I can't name a single original character that he's created that isn't a Mary Sue!

The last original female protagonist for one of his stories was probably the biggest Mary Sue that I've seen him make, and this was well after I informed him of what a Mary Sue is. This character's mother died when giving birth to her, her father beat on her, she's secretly beautiful but she thinks that she's ugly, she has a flawless personality (because he thinks that she has to be that way or else the story would be boring), and she's rescued from her abusive father by the male protagonist, who is a Gary Stu (he was an orphan and some sort of "chosen one", which is what all his male protagonists are, or occasionally the female protagonist, or both of them [You get the idea]), and they instantly love each other and get married or whatever.

I mean, is that not one of the most hackneyed plots you've ever heard? And the worst part is that he doesn't care! I shudder to think of what would happen if he wrote a fic based in the Ava-verse...

This is just my rant, but it happens all too often. I just needed to let off some steam...

[aden]

It's just so easy to stray down the Sue path...

Then again, Mary Sues do not a bad story make. 'A Tale of Two Cities' is full of idealized characters, but still the story itself was solid. So many characters have been made throughout history that it's pretty much impossible to make anything entirely original. No matter how uniquely you combine appearance, personality, and background traits, some on will always say, "Ooh! Just like that guy from [insert story/show here]!"

So basically, being a little bit of a Sue isn't bad, but when you combine too many of those cliches in one character is when it gets ridiculous.

[jialingjin]

yup. That's a sue.
Scary part? Your friend is a guy.(wtf!?)

[denshi]

I know it's scary...he's loved that sort of girly stuff as long as i've known him. Plus, he thinks that he's some profound writer/poet/artist all of a sudden, when I constantly inform him of the fatal flaws in his works...

[daxia]

denshi said:

I know it's scary...he's loved that sort of girly stuff as long as i've known him. Plus, he thinks that he's some profound writer/poet/artist all of a sudden, when I constantly inform him of the fatal flaws in his works...

Sounds like a friend of mine, though he's slowly willing to change his Gary Stu ways. We managed to make his characters pretty round, all-considering what we had to work with.

[sao]

Everyone wants to play and write about characters that are at least a little bit special and unique.

I think what you should try to do is show him other ways to be unique about his characters.

Remind him that a Cinderella complex isn't always necessary and that there are other ways to be hurt in life, if you need a character that's emotionally troubled.

Um, I dunno. Chosen ones are a very dangerous sort of thing. Back when I was like eleven and just getting into RPing I had a chosen one. I retconned it so that the idea of a chosen one was more of a political tool than anything and she happened to be one of the people the title was thrust upon.

Buuuuut I digress. If all else fails with your friend, groan and shake your head and offer to proofread for grammar and spelling.