The Mary Sue Manual



PART I: What Is A Mary Sue Anyway?

A Mary Sue is typically very common among anime fandom. They’re found in typical literature, too, but we’ll stay focused on Anime and other fandom rather than Mary Sues that actually exist in real books.

Anyway, typical Mary Sue factors include:
1.  Beauty
The character in question is generally much prettier than already existing canon characters

2. Smarts
Example: An IQ of 250 and in High School

3. A “Big Picture” Point Of View
The character can solve little problems in a snap by looking at everything as a whole

4. Highly liked/loved by every character in the series
Everyone wants to be the character’s friend

5. Tragic Past
Speaks for itself. This isn’t entirely a mary sue factor, but it’s been overused to the point of cliché which makes it annoying to read. It's only here because it usually comes with the package

6. Unnatural Powers
This one actually depends on the series in question. If we’re talking about like…Beyblade, if the character has supernatural powers like control over an element, they are considered Mary Sue right on the spot because it's so far out of bounds

7. Relation to a canon character
This is also a very common cliche that comes with the package. Many OCs tend to be a canon's long lost sibling

8. Has No Enemies
This isn’t even humanly possible. Enough said

9. PERFECTION
...yeah.


All of the above are common factors of your typical Mary Sue.  
I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU WANT TO MAKE YOUR CHARACTER LOOK GOOD.
But YOU have to understand that PERFECTION IS A HUGE FLAW IN ITSELF There are better ways to make your character appeal to others than to make her the perfect specimen of fandom while saving yourself many a flame about your character being a Mary Sue.  Now…how 'bout we go into depth with each of these  factors.

Beauty
This one is basically very self explanatory. Your character is prettier than the pre-existing, original characters of the series. Wanting to make your character pretty is perfectly fine – and doing so is also acceptable. But when it goes to the point that all the other girls of the series get jealous of your character, that’s when it gets to be a problem.

Smarts
Hahaha. Big one here. Self explanatory, cliché, and no one wants to read about someone who has the IQ of 200-something while they’re in high school. It’s lame, cliché, and probably isn’t worth reading. People who are extremely smart for their age aren’t as interesting to read about as you probably think.

A “Big Picture” Point Of View
This one probably needs a bit more explaining. Looking at everything as a whole to figure small problems in a second. If your character is ALWAYS able to see the bigger picture, they won't be able to get caught up on the smaller things, like every human does. They won't be heartbroken when someone they thought was their "true love" leaves them because their "big picture" view of the world convinces them that someone else is out there. Or something.

Highly Loved/Liked
This is BY FAR the most common factor of a Mary Sue. This is when EVERY boy in the series falls for the character and when EVERY girl wants to be like her. This is the type of character that’s actually PAINFUL to read about. There's no depth to this sort of character, because frankly having enemies helps shape their personality.

Tragic Past
This is self explanatory, so I'll just list typical examples:
1. Mother is a prostitute
2. The character wasn’t wanted by her parents
3. The character was involved in some sort of experiment that resulted in either a screwed up life, or had the DNA of an animal
4. The character was physically abused

Now, you’re probably thinking “Why isn’t there like…the character was abandoned?”, We’ll have you know that there’s a VERY FINE LINE between cliché and Mary-sue-ness.  Emona’ll go into that later.

Unnatural Powers
As it’s been mentioned before, this depends on the series in question. More examples of dos and don’ts for the Unnatural Powers thing.

1. Yu Yu Hakusho – Pretty much acceptable, as long as the character isn't the new Toguro or something.
2. Beyblade – Believe it or not, I wouldn't suggest it.
3. InuYasha – Typically since almost everyone else in the series is supernatural, yes.
4. FullMetal Alchemist – As long as it's not the new homonculi or something, I typically consider it fine.
5. Slayers/Next/Try – You can have as many abnormal powers there without getting in trouble as long as your character isn’t stronger than Lina or something.
6. Spiral – I wouldn't try it. For obvious reasons.
7. Gundam SEED/Destiny – abnormal powers don’t mix with mecha, I gotta say.

Relation to Canon Characters
No one can come close to telling you how over used this one is. While it isn’t entirely Mary-Sueish, it's incredibly cliche and most people don't like to read it. Especially if it’s like… *insert canon char’s name here*’s long lost sister or something.
Being related to a canon character doesn’t make your OC a Mary-Sue, but it is over used to the point that’s it’s cliché enough that it annoys most of the people who read about them.

Has No Enemies
Not possible. Simple as that.

Perfection
Ahh…the perfect character. Oddly enough, also the most replusive of the Mary Sue family. Perfect Mary is typically a perfect combo of all of the above – funny how that works out, huh? Being the most sickening of all Mary Sues, What separates this one from the others is the perfection involved with the entire design and would-be development. These are the characters that have no depth whatsoever. They are beautiful, smart, skilled, graceful, and all that stuff that hardly anyone likes to read about. And because she’s just special like that and no one else can compare. So special, that all the men around her can’t help but fall in love with her.


PART II: The Fine Line Between Cliché and Mary-Sue
Has ANYONE ELSE noticed how often these two get mixed up with one another? WELL, now I shall clear up the issue. Or at least try.  

Mary Sue Factors:
1. Beauty
2. Impressive Intelligence
3. Supernatural Powers that are out of bounds for the series
4. No Enemies


Regular Cliché-ness:
1. Tragic Past (Overused to the point of being a Mary Sue ; the more tragic the worse we dive into being such)
2. Relation to a Canon Character (Also pretty damn overused)
3. Has a dramatic entrance and amazes the crowd

While Cliché is indeed, very annoying, there still is a line between that and a Mary Sue. While a Mary sue is an original character who is all around perfect and tends to steal the plotline by pushing the canon characters into the background, Cliché is just something that happens over and over and over that you get sick of very quickly. Not much of a difference, but it’s there.

Mary Sue and Cliché are VERY close together and tend to get mixed up. Number 3 on the Cliché list can be considered either Mary Sue OR Cliché. It depends exactly on how she appears and stuff.

It’s my personal opinion that having a tragic past and being related to a canon character is on the border between the two. Having a tragic past , to me, is INCREDIBLY cliché, but not quite a Mary-Sue factor all in itself. It’s the result of the tragic past that makes the character a Mary-Sue. The more tragic it is, the deeper it goes into a Mary-Sue.

Being related to a canon character is just incredibly overused to the point that it’s Mary-Sueish. Nothing more to say there.



Part III: How To Avoid Mary-Sue

The “All-About-Me” Mary Sue
Summary: The character pushes the actual story and pre-existing characters into the background. This usually comes from the fact that the main bad guy is after her and then she goes emo and on her guard all the time so every part of the story involves her somehow. That isn’t fandom, people.
How to Avoid Her:  Plot is the most important part of any piece of literature (except for PWPs). Without a good plot, a story is not attention catching - despite of what characters are in it.

The Perfectionist Mary Sue
Summary:  She’s perfect. She’s pretty. She’s smart. She’s graceful. She’s skilled. She’s famous. Enough said.

How to Avoid Her: Keep in mind this one little thing – You’re only human. No matter how pretty you may want your character to be, or how related to a canon character, they are not perfect. Add flaws. Flaws add depth to a character, which is a good thing, believe me. It makes them seem more realistic, and if they're realistic your readers are more likely to be able to relate to them, and thus possibly become more interested.
You aren’t the only one who wants to have a character that is 100% original. You’ll usually find a similar character out there somewhere. At this point in fandom, most characters lose originality right after you name them.

The Pity-Party Mary Sue
This goes especially for you people who think that making the character act like they don’t need people in their lives is a flaw. In the end that is also a huge cliché/Mary Sue border. The pity-party Mary-sue is the very common one that usually leads an extremely painful life. No friends, the parents hate her, and no one is interested in her. Kinda surprising that this is also a Mary-sue to some of you people, ne?

How to Avoid Her:
A fairly common thing that associates this type of Mary Sue is something like abuse and even rape. Those two things don’t make any points in a plotline nor do they make substantial points in character development. This is especially so when they don’t show any signs of caring about what happened. Try considering what kind of impact that would make on the people who have actually been abused and/or raped before you decide to give your character some sort of tragic past.

Part IV : Overall Techniques To Appealing, non-Mary Sue Characters
All I can really say to this one is that try to avoid most (not all) of the above. EVERY CHARACTER is a Mary Sue to some degree and there’s no denying it. But to stay lower on the Mary Sue Scale, here’s some advice:
1. Give your character FLAWS. Emphasis on the plural form. No. Not the type of cliché where the character believes they don’t need people in their lives. Flaws like…clumsiness, some sort of phobia, unluckiness, and balance it out with good characteristics like kindness, fair grades, and a half decent life.
2. Give your character enemies. Not necessarily an arch foe but give them someone they dislike who ACTUALLY DISLIKES THEM BACK.
3. Give them weak points in subjects to avoid the impressively smart thing.
4. Avoid love at first sight. For clear reasons I'd hope.

Part V: Examples Of Mary Sues
1. Tohru Honda (Fruits Basket) -She has no enemies except for that Yuki Fanclub, but she is either completely oblivious or doesn't dislike them back. Every boy in the series loves her one way or another, yadda yadda yadda.
2. Lacus Clyne (Gundam SEED/Destiny) – Too lady-like even for being raised well, she’s both a coordinator and a pop star (so to speak). Her only enemy? Fllay. But does Lacus dislike Fllay? No I don't think so.
3. Kagome Higurashi (Inuyasha) – Sorry to all of your hardcore Inuyasha fans and Kagome fans. But if you take a good look at her character, Kagome is the Mary-Sue of IY.  She has three after her. Inuyasha, Hojo, and Kouga. But at the very least, compared to Tohru, Kagome isn’t that bad since she DOES have a flaw here and there.
4. Shizuka Jonouchi(YuGiOh) –  Also known as Serenity in the dub. In any case, I actually kind of like her. A good example of how a (borderline in this case) Mary Sue can also be a likeable character….to some. Shizuka…is like Tohru except for she was practically blind for the first two (?) seasons.

Now, all of the above are actually fairly well known AND liked. There’s nothing wrong with liking a Mary Sue character – it’s the character itself that tends to be repulsive, not the person who made the character nor the people who like it.

For All Of You Mary-Sue Bashers
All I have to say to you is…TONE IT DOWN. Pointing out the Mary Sue and providing tips to improve the character? That's fine. That's very nice of you.
However, something like this:

OMFG! YOUR OC IS SUCH A MARY SUE SHE’S PAINFUL TO READ ABOUT. SHE’S SUCH A BITCH AND I BET NO ONE LIKE HER. You suck if you made a character that’s a mary-sue without knowing what one even is. REWRITE THIS GODDAMN STORY

Or crap like that. That isn’t called for. At all.Have you ever considered that it was the author’s first story or character? You people have no right to flame. Because the usual reason someone flames someone, is that they’re jealous. Now how would that make you appear to other people, if you're flaming a Mary Sue?


Anyway, I will be happy to look at your character and let you know whether or not they seem Mary-Sueish. Although you can probably get something from this.
This manual was originally made for beginner writers, so they could think twice while making a character. This wasn’t meant to offend anyone.