The Mary-Sue Litmus Test

Oh, come now. You know you all want the most Mary-Sue-tastic thing you can possibly create...

There's even an easy-to-follow guide for it! http://glittercandy.deviantart.com/art/Mary-Sue-Tutorial-48101443

(Yes. It's making fun of Mary-Sues. Laugh.)

Nothing wrong with a good character.

Rythmear wrote:

Nothing wrong with a good character.

I know, right?

I mean, my character has ben accused of being a mary sue, but come on.

He's an author insert. That doesn't count.

Sometimes cliche is a necessary arrangement.

Rythmear wrote:

I only just noticed I'm not the only one with an Alucard picture lol

No you aren't ^^

Please avoid to complain the result of the test.
It just a tool which help you to create a character.
You can follow it or not, after all it's your character, you decide if you need to redo something about him/her not the others.

*Beams and buffs her nails*

Kat got a 4!

*grins*

She must be a dreadfully boring person - all the cool stuff gives you additions.

Quote :

She must be a dreadfully boring person - all the cool stuff gives you additions.

By that logic, Umbrella Man must also be boring, since he didn't score a Sue.

Granted, if Umbrella Man were a Mary Sue, it'd actually be extremely interesting, when you consider that 'Mary sue' refers strictly to female characters. The proper male term is "Gary Stu'.

GREGOLE wrote:

Granted, if Umbrella Man were a Mary Sue, it'd actually be extremely interesting, when you consider that 'Mary sue' refers strictly to female characters. The proper male term is "Gary Stu'.

Strange. I thought they were called "Marty Stus".

I guess they have many names.

But seriously, you get penalized by if they have the same name you do? Yeesh. That's very uncool to put on a test.

And to make to 20 points' worth, no less. These people hate author inserts.

Pendragon wrote:

And to make to 20 points' worth, no less. These people hate author inserts.

I quote from this link http://firefox.org/news/articles/651/1/The-Original-Mary-Sue-Litmus-Test/Page1.html :

"That's a lot of points for the first question. Aren't there any exceptions?

Maybe. Stop! Don't immediately assume your story is that exception, because if you had to ask, it's not. But maybe it could be. If your character really and truly is you, with all your awkwardness and shyness, and every good and bad trait you honestly know you possess, with your own neither entirely happy nor terribly tragic childhood, and with your own massive unlikelihood of meeting, much less befriending, the canon characters, then maybe. If your self-insertion character is not in any way idealized, or made more angst-ridden so that canon characters who've already led tough lives can still sympathize, then it's possible the character won't be badly cliched and flamed to a crisp by reviewers. But don't count on it. "

I think it explains better.

gwadahunter2222 wrote:

Maybe. Stop! Don't immediately assume your story is that exception, because if you had to ask, it's not. But maybe it could be. If your character really and truly is you, with all your awkwardness and shyness, and every good and bad trait you honestly know you possess, with your own neither entirely happy nor terribly tragic childhood, and with your own massive unlikelihood of meeting, much less befriending, the canon characters, then maybe. If your self-insertion character is not in any way idealized, or made more angst-ridden so that canon characters who've already led tough lives can still sympathize, then it's possible the character won't be badly cliched and flamed to a crisp by reviewers. But don't count on it. "

I think it explains better.

That certainly explains alot. My character has some problems, but he isn't angst ridden. The readers could relate to him. I know I do.

Thanks for that little tidbit.

Rythmear wrote:

She must be a dreadfully boring person - all the cool stuff gives you additions.

*grins* Not necissarily love, it means that she doesn't follow many of the conventions listed *giggles*

It doesn't mean that she's boring Muahahaha

Rythmear wrote:

She must be a dreadfully boring person - all the cool stuff gives you additions.

Not really... the thing with Sues/Stus is that they're absurdly unbalanced, to the point where they can do no wrong because they have superpowers/have all the right connections/are just plain awesome. Your character can have superpowers, as long as they have their Kryptonite, as well. You can have the right connections, as long as we believe that you could have them and have earned them. You can be awesome, as long as you have some flaw or weakness that allows us to sympathize with the character.

Pendragon wrote:

That certainly explains alot. My character has some problems, but he isn't angst ridden. The readers could relate to him. I know I do.

Thanks for that little tidbit.

As I said previously this test is just a tool, in the end it's "YOU" who decide how your story will evolve. And read the article it will help you to understand the test.

gwadahunter2222 wrote:

As I said previouslythis test is just a tool, in the end it's "YOU" who decide how your story will evolve. And read the article it will help you to understand the test.

Actually, I did read the article. I just forgot that little passage. Seeing it alone made me focus on it more.

But I think I will take another look. It's worth it.

Actually, the reason Umbrella Man scored so low is that none of the things apply to him since his personality isn't fixed. He differs internally depending on where he is and who he absorbed.

I like this test its funny it gives a good idea of what you don't want to do. Then again most of the questions are general idea I try to avoid. Another good way to help yourseld out check a book call How NOT to draw manga http://www.amazon.com/How-Draw-Manga-Supersize-Special/dp/1932453601. It wallks you through the basic rehase and remix of all anime and manga characters that get used over and over again. It helped me step my game up as a writer. Though i can't say how well it helps artist.

21pts / Border-Line Sue. Pretty good for a character of mine. Best character for a fantasy setting had something like 16, worst (Who I scrapped a couple months ago anyways for the 16) was something like a 46.

By the way this test doesn't count minimally if your it's a part-parodic character.
You raise points up even if it's made that way on purpose to be fun
_____________________

What? you've got waffles? Great! -smile-

May rock be with you.

Heh, Kailer scored a 25. I'm pleased with the outcome though ^^

Oskaija wrote:

Heh, Kailer scored a 25. I'm pleased with the outcome though ^^

Heh, without any sort of restrictions on his original design... Spyke himself was uber-marie-sue. I haven't checked out any of my other characters yet... I may do that later on.

Spykeofkonoha wrote:

Heh, without any sort of restrictions on his original design... Spyke himself was uber-marie-sue. I haven't checked out any of my other characters yet... I may do that later on.

Heh, well considering what he's based on, I'm not at all surprised to be honest XD

Dizzy might be a Mary-sue or borderline as my guess.

Oskaija wrote:

Heh, well considering what he's based on, I'm not at all surprised to be honest XD

Dizzy might be a Mary-sue or borderline as my guess.

I haven't really come up with a background for her. Just a roaming Fairy as far as I can remember.

My main character - Either 49 or 71...

Based heavily on myself, however, but is a Phoenix Anthro version. So I think that those scores are unfair.

Kristy the maniacal killer crystal bird - 17. Used to be 21, but then I realized some of the questions did not apply to her, or that I forgot to subtract some points.

Oceandos - 12 - YAY!

What I find unfair is no wings policy... What if they are a Phoenix Anthro, a dragon, or a freaking BIRD!?

In that case, Oceandos should have a score of 2, Kristy 7, and me either 19 or 41 (name and wings being the only things discounted (phoenix anthro would have wings. It is an ANTHRO, for fucks sake!). In fact, the 19 score was after I retook the test taking some things in mind. But even so... A character based on me is going to like the same freaking stuff as me, and should NOT be penalized for that!)

The thing that really upsets me is the fact that a character based on me (used mostly for RPs) is a John Doe... I am NO FREAKING JOHN DOE!!!

Alright, anger gone

EDIT: And now that I am thinking clearly, I guess 29 after discounting the name part. Although he should still score far lower, since alot of the points came just from being based on me...