The Mary-Sue Litmus Test

Nightwind scored a 61, but oh well :B

Hmm.. after a few changes, as well as disregarding that "no wings" and "does the character posess powers that are perfectly within the norm for his/her setting" crap, I can proudly say that Ryla scored a respectable 18.

But I think it's safe to say that this test isn't a matter of mary-sue-ism, as much as it is a measure of cliche. Most of these questions pertain to plot cliches more than they do to classic overpowered fan characters. But the two do tend to go hand in hand, so whatever.

Jacob Shaeder got a -5 on the test.

To be fair, he's self centered, an asshole, baseline human, relatively poor in equipment, etc. Still, a decent turn-out for me.

Also, if you check the test (As others have pointed out): It seems to favor 'Low' Fantasy characters over 'High' Fantasy. Very, very much so.

Malahite wrote:

Jacob Shaeder got a -5 on the test.

To be fair, he's self centered, an asshole, baseline human, relatively poor in equipment, etc. Still, a decent turn-out for me.

Also, if you check the test (As others have pointed out): It seems to favor 'Low' Fantasy characters over 'High' Fantasy. Very, very much so.

The problem comes when they are meant to be in a fantasy setting like Felarya... X.X

Icalasari wrote:

Malahite wrote:

Jacob Shaeder got a -5 on the test.

To be fair, he's self centered, an asshole, baseline human, relatively poor in equipment, etc. Still, a decent turn-out for me.

Also, if you check the test (As others have pointed out): It seems to favor 'Low' Fantasy characters over 'High' Fantasy. Very, very much so.

The problem comes when they are meant to be in a fantasy setting like Felarya... X.X

Which is why you go with the "Shoot for the eye" and "party with idiots" methods.

Aww man, my OC is a sue.

I got 44.

Well, technically, I didn't use this username before I created him; so maybe I have 24 instead. Which means I'm close to sueness.

Well, taking into account that Elrich Carter does occasionally go by the name Feign, he's a 30 - "Borderline Sue"

Without that little nickname, he's a 8 - "Anti-Sue"

Considering he only uses his nickname when dealing with other magic users, he should average a little closer to the lower end of the spectrum. Personally, I wouldn't trust the guy as far as I could throw him.

I should probably run a few of my OC Felaryan natives through this test...

Ran through it with my main characters of my story; not too surprised at any of the results.

Vide : 26 (Borderline-Sue)
Jennifer : 19 (Non-Sue)
Hale : 11 (Non-Sue)
Nyla : 17 (Non-Sue)
Brant : 22 (Borderline-Sue)
Séna : 28 (Borderline-Sue)

Huh...Veen got a 5. O.o I'm glad she's an Anti-Sue but it does make me wonder if she could realistically survive her surroundings.

Only 24 points for Nadiel, and most of that was from where I got his name from.

So, I'm new here.
Anybody thought of actually running Crisis (or any other Karbo originals) through the test, or is this kind of a 'rules 1 and 2 of Fight Club' deal?

I also know there's a Mary Sue test for species to be found here http://www.springhole.net/writing/marysuerace.htm

I'll admit to not being thrilled with Felarya, but before anybody tells me to go away, understand that I am trying to understand the draw of the universe by coming here.

Everything's cliche, I just don't worry about it unless the character is actually written poorly.

I agree, Mary Sues while they are something that can be abused, they arn't necessary taboo. Sometimes Mary sues can be justifed. Mary Sues are great for humour for example. For example a powerful hero who is strong and almost indestructible but is very stupid and ends up accidently hurting more people than he saves. because the character is funny, it's possible to ignore the fact that he is a Mary Sue.

It's when the character is flat and badly written, that's is when Mary Sue charactersation becomes a problem, because it's the only thing you notice. Your reader realizes that your character has nothing to communicate and only exists for self glorification. That's when Mary Sues are unacceptable.

DarkOne wrote:

Mary Sues are great for humour for example. For example a powerful hero who is strong and almost indestructible but is very stupid and ends up accidently hurting more people than he saves. because the character is funny, it's possible to ignore the fact that he is a Mary Sue.

Haha. That's Razor in a nutshell. I expected him to be a Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu/Whatever. He's overpowered, but a complete dumbass.

So I just discovered this thread... and here's my evaluation of my two most developed characters:
Persephone scored 8 points, an Anti-Sue, W00T! Though I'll admit if I develop her much further she'll definitely go up a category.
Helia scored 10, which is a surprise because I expected her to score a lot higher on account of things like how I draw her the most and her physical flaw/handicap. Maybe if I were in a more liberal mood she'd score a couple more, making her on the border between Anti-Sue and Non-Sue. Again, will probably go up a level as she develops, but I'll try and not let her go up too far.

Meep, Leila got a 19 on that. She's still a Non-Sue...but it's close. Of course I didn't bother with the wings thing because she's a Fairy, and fairies have wings...I don't know a single species of Fairy that doesn't have wings.

I was actually surprised that Nina only got 16. Unless, of course, you guys don't consider being around 4 inches tall is a physical handicap. If so, then she got a 21.

Wow, it's been a while since I used this.

Thanks to the revisions to the characters I've made over these years, my characters score less than 20. Thank goodness.