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AuthorTopic: Mary-Sue, the WORST RolePlayer. (Read 57 times)
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Mary-Sue, the WORST RolePlayer.
« Thread Started on Dec 18, 2008, 2:09am »
This problem is rampant along our RolePlay area. But that's fine, because we do this as a hobby and we can allow everything to get as far out of proportion as we want. Mary-Sueism is an allowable rule.

What is a Mary-Sue?


Quote:
Mary Sue is a term in use primarily in Fan Fic circles to describe a particular type of character. This much everyone can agree on. What that character type is, exactly, differs wildly from circle to circle, and often from person to person.

TV Tropes Wiki doesn't get to set what the term means. The best we can do is capture the way it is used.

The closest thing to any sort of definition is of a character that has too many positive characteristics, and any readily apparent flaws are not relevant to the story. Despite what many tongue-in-cheek litmus tests claim, there isn't any way to measure what "too many" positive characteristics might mean.

-TV Tropes



I present for your reading digestion, an image. You will have to click it, for it contains some biographical text for comparison. Besides, it's DeviantArt, and I think leeching is illegal.
http://fc98.deviantart.com/images3/i/2004/09/4/b/Mary_Sue___How_to_Tell.jpg

Read it? Good. Got an idea? No? Oookay. How about an actual definition?

A Mary-Sue (Marty-Stu for the male counterpart) is a plot-based bitch. I can't draw up a fair definition on my own, so I'll list a few types.

    God Sue - Seen in the picture above, this character exhorts amazing powers, an extreme tendency to exercise awesome strength, stiking beauty (female), and so forth.

    Black Hole Sue - Everything bends to her existence. Normal characters violate their own natures to her simple presence. A bolligerent character will step down after a few words from her. A heroic character will step aside and let her perform their duty. She is in EVERY frame of the sequence. If she is not, then the other characters are able to speak 'freely' (by 'freely', I mean the dialogue still relates to HER somehow). You get the picture.

    Fixer Sue - This relies on the AUTHOR. Don't like the way a story has gone? The hero's love interest isn't on YOUR CHARACTER? Shove a Fixer Sue into it. This is a little like the above, as the sheer influence of this Sue is enough to change things. Now, Don't like that mountain there? Fixer Sue will sort it, somehow. But damn if it won't happen.

    Purity Sue - What it says on the tin, this one has no trace of darkness or impurity. She does not swear or steal, or insult, or commit any sort of morally turpid act. She has a shining heart and will be completely in any situation besides sweeping the hero off his feet. Conversely, if anyone's taking bets on who's going to die a virgin, Purity Sue's a great bet.

    Solid Stu - Ok, not a female example, and one I made up, I guess it can go to the 'Black Hole Sue' above, but... Here, there's even a CHANT based on him: "Stu, Stu, he's our man. If he can't do it, no-one can!" If there's a huge overwhelming force stopping any hero, it won't stop him. Seriously, the last HOW MANY Metal Gear games have proven this? [Naked/Solid] Snake have had ARMIES and trained/genetically manipulated super-soldiers come after them, with state-of-the-art equipment, and this guy only needs a pistol and a rocket launcher to bring down the evil plan.
    Enough said.


Now, like I said, Mary-Sueing is bad. Not here. But submitting the same character you have here to an official RolePlay site is going to get you laughed out. We do it here, because we can, because we know (most of the time) how to use it to good effect. Want to see a place that SHOWS that a Mary-Sue character works? Try DragonBall Z, they blow up planets. Daily. With their hands. Instant teleportation, sixth senses, energy pyrotechnics from the palms, flight, massive explosions, regeneration, the absorption of others' powers? Seriously, how DID Bandai make the DragonBall sagas awesome? I am at a loss.

Are you a Mary Sue? Take This test and give us your results. Do note that this test is NOT completely accurate, but it's pretty long.

I got a 46. (Almost sure-fire Mary-Sue.) Make sure you read the small print at the top, the one that says something to the effect of "If it's not your fault, if another player is responsible, then do not answer "Yes" to the corresponding question." By ignoring this clause, I had 88 - WAAAY PAST 'Hopelessly Mary-Sue' (The cut-off to this statistic is 50+).
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Re: Mary-Sue, the WORST RolePlayer.
« Reply #1 on Feb 27, 2009, 4:25pm »
wtf it said my character Flame was 65? hes not that mary sueish. he may have extreme power but mentally he cant take much and he can be a bit of a dunce sometimes.
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Re: Mary-Sue, the WORST RolePlayer.
« Reply #2 on Feb 27, 2009, 4:52pm »
Yes. He has EXTREME power. It probably picked up on that. The BEST way to get a concensus on Sue-ism is not in a test, but an opinion.

My character is, according to the test, near-hopeless. But what he does has already been done and to awesome effect. I hadn't realised it, but the ability to switch forms has been done COUNTLESS times. To pin the example I tried to grab - Kameo: Elements of Power - (Xbox360). The example which fits MUCH better? American Dragon (Toonami).

I don't even like that program, and I dunno why. I want to watch it again and see if I like it now I realise the commonality of a boy changing into a dragon through sheer will to save the planet forty times before supper-time.

...

--Sorry, lost my train of thought there... Umm... A few weaknesses like mental weakness and academic ineptivity are not enough to outweigh 'Extreme power'. You either need to downplay the 'Extremity' of the power, or add more weaknesses.

For example, to counteract the ability to change into a gluttonous firebreathing dragon or a creature of supposed evil and definite adorability; my character is stupid, easily hurt, weak, he finds water deathly terrifying (like cats do, duh), he's slow, can't think straight in the best of times, is a raving alcoholic, has a tortured kittenhood and is emotionally dispondent to anything other than his wife and immediate friends.

Spamming: what you lack in quality, you can make up in sheer quantity. Dear, young Noxedwin does that with the bad things. Maybe Flame can try something like that?
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Re: Mary-Sue, the WORST RolePlayer.
« Reply #3 on Mar 4, 2009, 1:46pm »
ok ill try to remake flame ill make him more vulnarable to attacks because he was made in northen house there was a piece of work where you had to make a super hero and Flame was my creation and I thought he was cool so I kept him as a character in my head although he had the intelegence of knuckles. ill edit him so he can join roleplay. make sure to have a look at my rusulting creation.
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Re: Mary-Sue, the WORST RolePlayer.
« Reply #4 on Mar 14, 2009, 2:37am »
Uhh, I noticed that half of that was COMPLETELY irrelevant rambling. But I wouldn't call Knuckles a dumb character either... Ah yes this be a page on stereotypes and cliche' I guess I try not to overpower my characters too much and I try to give them emotion (Or lack of it sometimes) And weakness (Usually at the worst times) And the alter-ego thing is a thing too, all our characters do it.
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Re: Mary-Sue, the WORST RolePlayer.
« Reply #5 on Mar 14, 2009, 1:25pm »

Mar 14, 2009, 2:37am, NoxBANDIT wrote:
And the alter-ego thing is a thing too

Truer words have yet to be spoken.

But you put it in a pretty good way; stereotypes and cliché. But it's not so much of those as it is simply a list of bad designs that have been recog-- oh wait, that's a stereotype.

Never mind.
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I'm a better Brawler than this. Click my card and raise my Level some.
Name: Nox Tepes
Age: 15
Species: Feline/European Dragon

Weapons: [Primary] Kingdom Keyblade, [Secondary] StarSeeker Keyblade, [Auxillary] Dragon Fang pleck Keychain
Apparel: Simple Red and White Buckled Shoes, White Gloves, Form Garb
Miscellaneous Yellow Chaos Emerald, Red Chaos Emerald (Meun)
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Re: Mary-Sue, the WORST RolePlayer.
« Reply #6 on Mar 15, 2009, 2:33am »
Well, think how often the Alter-Ego thing has been done before. I can thing of many games that have it already. If I were to write a list it would be more than a page long.
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Re: Mary-Sue, the WORST RolePlayer.
« Reply #7 on Mar 17, 2009, 2:57pm »
lol ive seen 2 sonic games where knuckles gets seriously confused by tails.
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Re: Mary-Sue, the WORST RolePlayer.
« Reply #8 on Mar 17, 2009, 7:31pm »
Offtopic. Back to the Mary Sue business. Oh yeah I took the test with honesty and scored a reasonable 28, though I think I can improve my roleplaying skills.
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Re: Mary-Sue, the WORST RolePlayer.
« Reply #9 on Mar 25, 2009, 12:21pm »
im concidering totally remaking Flame because ive had another look and he does seem overpowered
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