Mary Sues

[Seyed]

No, not the website-- the original term referring to shitty original/fan characters that have no real flaws, trivialize serious issues, have no real character substance, completely break the rules of the universe they're set in, and are generally just perfect special snowflakes all around. They range from the sparkly, neon, married-to-all-canon-characters Chloe Carmichael types, to the grimdark edgelord Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Ways. Whether they be a completely original creation or a flagrant disrespect to an innocent author's content, Mary Sues are a timeless threat to the internet's collective sanity (which already need all the help it can get).

To start us off, let's look at a classic...

Spoiler: Oh god, my eyes.

Meet Kamora Yuudora/Kaoru Yuuka/Kamora Yuudora, our run-of-the-mill multifandom Sue (infiltrated fandoms include Homestuck (twice), Venture Bros, and Superjail, if I remember correctly). She's the big-chested, super-perfect pop idol of every man's dreams... and she's absolutely terrible. Her 20-something-year-old creator has been known to get extremely butthurt and throw huge temper tantrums when her bullshit characterization gets criticized. Thank god most of her accounts are dead and dormant.

Do you have any Mary Sue horror stories? What kind of bullshit have you seen in your days? Post the dirt, and remember to archive everything! Most Suethors are masters at DFE.

(Also, sorry if this is a shit OP/belongs somewhere else. I've lurked a shit ton, but I'm still a newfag when it comes to making threads.)

 

[Meowthkip]

There isn't really a Mary Sue "community," really. It's a phenomenon that occurs when any young girl (and sometimes grown-ass women or men) decide they want to write an original character in an existing universe. This shit's been happening since the 19th century at least.

Perhaps this should be narrowed down a bit more before this thread devolves into trollshielding.

 

[Seyed]

Ah, yes! That makes sense. Should I edit the OP to narrow down communities (cough, deviantART, cough), or should I let this thread slowly die and fall to the back pages of the Community Watch page?

 

[José Mourinho]

Ah, yes! That makes sense. Should I edit the OP to narrow down communities (cough, deviantART, cough), or should I let this thread slowly die and fall to the back pages of the Community Watch page?

Narrowing it down makes it much easier. DeviantArt has tons of hilarious Mary Sues.

 

[c-no]

Narrowing it down makes it much easier. DeviantArt has tons of hilarious Mary Sues.

Don't forget, the fan-fic websites out there also has mary sues. Don't know if text can be as hilarious as images but it can definitely make one cringe and/or roll their eyes upon reading about the special snowflake protagonist.

 

[Jaimas]

No, not the website-- the original term referring to shitty original/fan characters that have no real flaws, trivialize serious issues, have no real character substance, completely break the rules of the universe they're set in, and are generally just perfect special snowflakes all around. They range from the sparkly, neon, married-to-all-canon-characters Chloe Carmichael types, to the grimdark edgelord Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Ways. Whether they be a completely original creation or a flagrant disrespect to an innocent author's content, Mary Sues are a timeless threat to the internet's collective sanity (which already need all the help it can get).

To start us off, let's look at a classic...

Spoiler: Oh god, my eyes.

Meet Kamora Yuudora/Kaoru Yuuka/Kamora Yuudora, our run-of-the-mill multifandom Sue (infiltrated fandoms include Homestuck (twice), Venture Bros, and Superjail, if I remember correctly). She's the big-chested, super-perfect pop idol of every man's dreams... and she's absolutely terrible. Her 20-something-year-old creator has been known to get extremely butthurt and throw huge temper tantrums when her bullshit characterization gets criticized. Thank god most of her accounts are dead and dormant.

Do you have any Mary Sue horror stories? What kind of bullshit have you seen in your days? Post the dirt, and remember to archive everything! Most Suethors are masters at DFE.

(Also, sorry if this is a shit OP/belongs somewhere else. I've lurked a shit ton, but I'm still a newfag when it comes to making threads.)

"Mary Sue" has three critical failings with the term.

ONE: It's relative. What makes a character a Mary Sue in one work of fiction won't necessarily in another. Putting it differently a character who would be a flagrant Mary Sue in one setting would be right the fuck home in another. A character in the DBZ universe, or Touhou can get away with a lot of crazy powers and bizarre motivations; bring that to another work of fiction and it just won't work. People like to ignore this and forget that a given work of fiction provides its own context, which may or may not mitigate, if not completely excuse that aspect of a character.

TWO: It's overused. Seriously. As time has gone on, the term has, in ignorance of the above failing (which is a critical one to note) been applied to characters who aren't, over and over and over, to the point where it's practically at the point of "character who is marginally overpowered and/or I don't like." Marginally overpowered characters are not Mary Sues. 1d4chan likes to parody this, with good reason.

THREE: The initial term was to specifically apply to fanworks, RPs, Video Games, and similar. Not conventional works. This is critical because unless a specific work is slashing and burning its own established canon (Hi Mass Effect) it usually won't come up in a work of fiction unless the writer is fucking terrible (Eragon, Maradonia Saga, Twilight, Socially Unconscious).

Mind you, even the worst Sues you can think of have nothing on what the is unquestionably the worst of the lot. That award was, is, and forever shall be Bernard Doove's Chakona Space, and this is the Ultimate Sue against which all Sues must be measured.

Now that said, I need to discuss this thread. This thread isn't covering a bad topic, and honestly it has some good shit to discuss. However, there's no lolcow community around Mary Sues. As such, I'm moving this to the off-topic boards, specifically the writing board. We can continue to discuss the matter there.

 

[Meowthkip]

Mind you, even the worst Sues have nothing on what the worst of the lot. That award was, is, and forever shall be Bernard Doove's Chakona Space, and this is the Ultimate Sue against which all Sues must be measured.

Thanks for reminding me about chakats.

Just what I needed.

 

[c-no]

Thanks for reminding me about chakats.

Just what I needed.

Just to understand, what makes them hella-mary sues? All I know from what I see is some weird centaur furry things related to Star Trek or something.

 

[Jaimas]

Just to understand, what makes them hella-mary sues? All I know from what I see is some weird centaur furry things related to Star Trek or something.

Essentially, they mix the worst qualities of every Mary Sue subclass into one single organized unit:

The central characters of most of the stories are Chakats, a genetically-engineered hermaphroditic feline centaur race who were created at the height of mankind's genetic engineering ability and are thus, arguably, an entire race of Mary Sues.

Above all else, Chakat stories are Mary Sue. The protagonist is loved by everybody, except the enemy, which everyone hates. The universe has to revolve around this character. This is extremely evident whenever you discuss the stories in Chakat mailing lists...unless you say that the author is the greatest writer who ever lived, your comments are not welcome.

To quote 1d4chan, however, which cuts to the heart of the matter:

But some of you here would ask, "But if the Chakats are Mary Sue's like any other, then why can't you ignore them and their fanbase?". Here is when you are wrong, compared to some Mary Sue which are a blend of a few different types and classifications, the Chakats are classified as a 100% distilled and purified fusion of a Mary Sue, Child Sue, Marty Stu (When in male mode), Suenomorph, Sympathetic Sue, Black-Hole Sue, Purity Sue, Einstein Sue, Invoked Sue, Fan-Service Sue (Although how anybody can fap to these beasts is beyond reasoning), Implausible Sue, Suemanimals, Chosen-One Sue, Holy Sue and a Mary Sue Race. Essentially they are the ultimate Mary Sue. You're off the hook for now, Draigo and Alice.

Chakats are genetically-engineered hermaphrodites, but they look relatively female, with D-cup tits at the minimum. They're telepathically empathetic (with specialists able to listen on your thoughts from a galaxy away). They're the strongest, fastest, and most durable race because they're engineered for it, but they're super friendly and nice and wonderful. They see into the UV spectrum and can see perfectly fine in the dark, their sense of smell is exceptionally acute, they painlessly give birth to their children, and they can psionically cause you crippling pain with their telepathic abilities if you piss them off. They're awesome at absolutely everything forever, and if you hate them (which pretty much everyone in every community worth a damn does) you're a filthy bigoted piece of refuse and need to be either killed or turned towards the sexy side ASAP. And they can mindrape you to do this.

They are essentially an ascended fetish race that for reasons known only to the debased fucktards that like Chakona Space are allowed to be completely dominant. Also you have to use the pronouns hir or sie or they take offense. They also think that human taboos against incest are stupid, but due to their genetically engineered nature, have no repercussions, ever, to such depravity. However, not liking a Chakat in-universe makes you a hatemonger and threat that must be dealt with immediately.

Chakats are infamous in other Sci-Fi related communities, constantly trying to get a foothold in them. They got their start in Star Trek, though they now reside primarily in Chakona Space, which I can essentially explain as Star Trek with enough changed to make it considered its own setting. Even in their own fucking setting, Chakats are so flagrantly Sue-ish that it's extremely hard to put into mere words.

 

[XH 502]

The interesting thing about Mary Sues is that they can only conceivably be enjoyable as the PC in a video game. Take Skyrim, for example: the Dovahkiin is this legendary "chosen one" with a unique power who can kill a literal god and, depending on your choices, become the leader of the Thieves Guild, Archmage, Harbinger, and a Vampire Lord all at the same time. That is excusable in a game setting because the entire point of playing Skyrim is that you can be whatever you want to be, up to and including every goddamn thing at once. Plus your character doesn't have any dialogue beyond a few unspoken sentences here and there, so the lack of real personality helps to alleviate the overwhelming Mary Sue factor.

If I encountered such a character while reading a book, however, I'd throw the fucking thing out my window.

Just to understand, what makes them hella-mary sues? All I know from what I see is some weird centaur furry things related to Star Trek or something.

Oh @Jaimas he was so innocent. That was something to be treasured.

 

[Linako 2.0]

Take Skyrim, for example: the Dovahkiin is this legendary "chosen one" with a unique power who can kill a literal god and, depending on your choices, become the leader of the Thieves Guild, Archmage, Harbinger, and a Vampire Lord all at the same time. That is excusable in a game setting because the entire point of playing Skyrim is that you can be whatever you want to be, up to and including every goddamn thing at once. Plus your character doesn't have any dialogue beyond a few unspoken sentences here and there, so the lack of real personality helps to alleviate the overwhelming Mary Sue factor.

Morrowind did it better since you actually had to work your way up with the guilds, you got the super special powers because you got bitten by some diseased zombie, and the only way to cure yourself was to walk 10miles uphill through ashstorms and cliffracers and drink a suspicious potion, given to from a creepy old fuck, who spends all day fucking female clones of himself, to cure your corprus,
not to mention you had to overcome the many trials so you could even be even recognized as the Nerevarine.
meanwhile in Skyrim shit is just handed to you and people think you're the dragon bornbecause "lol dragonshouts"

 

[Meowthkip]

Essentially, they mix the worst qualities of every Mary Sue subclass into one single organized unit:





To quote 1d4chan, however, which cuts to the heart of the matter:



Chakats are genetically-engineered hermaphrodites, but they look relatively female, with D-cup tits at the minimum. They're telepathically empathetic (with specialists able to listen on your thoughts from a galaxy away). They're the strongest, fastest, and most durable race because they're engineered for it, but they're super friendly and nice and wonderful. They see into the UV spectrum and can see perfectly fine in the dark, their sense of smell is exceptionally acute, they painlessly give birth to their children, and they can psionically cause you crippling pain with their telepathic abilities if you piss them off. They're awesome at absolutely everything forever, and if you hate them (which pretty much everyone in every community worth a damn does) you're a filthy bigoted piece of refuse and need to be either killed or turned towards the sexy side ASAP. And they can mindrape you to do this.

They are essentially an ascended fetish race that for reasons known only to the debased fucktards that like Chakona Space are allowed to be completely dominant. Also you have to use the pronouns hir or sie or they take offense. They also think that human taboos against incest are stupid, but due to their genetically engineered nature, have no repercussions, ever, to such depravity. However, not liking a Chakat in-universe makes you a hatemonger and threat that must be dealt with immediately.

Chakats are infamous in other Sci-Fi related communities, constantly trying to get a foothold in them. They got their start in Star Trek, though they now reside primarily in Chakona Space, which I can essentially explain as Star Trek with enough changed to make it considered its own setting. Even in their own fucking setting, Chakats are so flagrantly Sue-ish that it's extremely hard to put into mere words.

Furries have made a ton of fictional species that somehow catch on in the wider community. Chakats are the most baffling and most of the people into them seem to be the oldschool furries in their 40's and 50's who were using MUCKs in the 90's and browsing Yerf.net.

Even Wikifur seems to open their chakats article in a tongue-in-cheek manner.

Chakats are a felinoid centauroid species once described as "Everybody's favourite over-perfected cat".[citation needed]

They make skiltaires seem like such a quaint, balanced species in comparison.

 

[caffeinated_wench]

ONE: It's relative. What makes a character a Mary Sue in one work of fiction won't necessarily in another. Putting it differently a character who would be a flagrant Mary Sue in one setting would be right the fuck home in another. A character in the DBZ universe, or Touhou can get away with a lot of crazy powers and bizarre motivations; bring that to another work of fiction and it just won't work. People like to ignore this and forget that a given work of fiction provides its own context, which may or may not mitigate, if not completely excuse that aspect of a character.

TWO: It's overused. Seriously. As time has gone on, the term has, in ignorance of the above failing (which is a critical one to note) been applied to characters who aren't, over and over and over, to the point where it's practically at the point of "character who is marginally overpowered and/or I don't like." Marginally overpowered characters are not Mary Sues.

Alas, I have but one Agree to give.

I also quoted these to add that sometimes it's all in how the character is executed. In the right hands, a character that sounds like a Sue on paper can become an interesting, fleshed out character in their own right.

I frequent the DisneyFan-01 thread, and DF created a character that overall doesn't sound like a Mary Sue if I were to list off her traits. Sure there are some things that could use adjustment, but on paper Marina doesn't sound like a bad character on the whole. Then you get to the actual work, where we have Marina Sue running around and calling the shots, acting like a child, etc. but never getting called on her behavior. So it can work in reverse too, regarding execution. (And that's all I'll say about that to avoid derailing the thread.)

Context and execution, to me, are the most important aspects of determining whether or not a character is a Mary Sue. More than a handful of characters would probably be Sues if not for the way they were handled.

The interesting thing about Mary Sues is that they can only conceivably be enjoyable as the PC in a video game. Take Skyrim, for example: the Dovahkiin is this legendary "chosen one" with a unique power who can kill a literal god and, depending on your choices, become the leader of the Thieves Guild, Archmage, Harbinger, and a Vampire Lord all at the same time. That is excusable in a game setting because the entire point of playing Skyrim is that you can be whatever you want to be, up to and including every goddamn thing at once. Plus your character doesn't have any dialogue beyond a few unspoken sentences here and there, so the lack of real personality helps to alleviate the overwhelming Mary Sue factor.

If I encountered such a character while reading a book, however, I'd throw the fucking thing out my window.

Also this. Sometimes, a Mary Sue can be fun. It's not automatically a bad thing, despite the negative connotations of the term. Again, it all comes to down to the context and the way it's done.

 

[c-no]

Essentially, they mix the worst qualities of every Mary Sue subclass into one single organized unit:





To quote 1d4chan, however, which cuts to the heart of the matter:



Chakats are genetically-engineered hermaphrodites, but they look relatively female, with D-cup tits at the minimum. They're telepathically empathetic (with specialists able to listen on your thoughts from a galaxy away). They're the strongest, fastest, and most durable race because they're engineered for it, but they're super friendly and nice and wonderful. They see into the UV spectrum and can see perfectly fine in the dark, their sense of smell is exceptionally acute, they painlessly give birth to their children, and they can psionically cause you crippling pain with their telepathic abilities if you piss them off. They're awesome at absolutely everything forever, and if you hate them (which pretty much everyone in every community worth a damn does) you're a filthy bigoted piece of refuse and need to be either killed or turned towards the sexy side ASAP. And they can mindrape you to do this.

They are essentially an ascended fetish race that for reasons known only to the debased fucktards that like Chakona Space are allowed to be completely dominant. Also you have to use the pronouns hir or sie or they take offense. They also think that human taboos against incest are stupid, but due to their genetically engineered nature, have no repercussions, ever, to such depravity. However, not liking a Chakat in-universe makes you a hatemonger and threat that must be dealt with immediately.

Chakats are infamous in other Sci-Fi related communities, constantly trying to get a foothold in them. They got their start in Star Trek, though they now reside primarily in Chakona Space, which I can essentially explain as Star Trek with enough changed to make it considered its own setting. Even in their own fucking setting, Chakats are so flagrantly Sue-ish that it's extremely hard to put into mere words.

And I thought Chakats were sci-fi centaur cats with dicks but to read all of that. They may as well be a fun mary sue race to mock, especially since they could no doubt act as mouth pieces that would try to defend taboos that literally are messed up.

Morrowind did it better since you actually had to work your way up with the guilds, you got the super special powers because you got bitten by some diseased zombie, and the only way to cure yourself was to walk 10miles uphill through ashstorms and cliffracers and drink a suspicious potion, given to from a creepy old fuck, who spends all day fucking female clones of himself, to cure your corprus,
not to mention you had to overcome the many trials so you could even be even recognized as the Nerevarine.
meanwhile in Skyrim shit is just handed to you and people think you're the dragon bornbecause "lol dragonshouts"

Not only that, you were also still an errand boy in way regarding Morrowind. Tribunal has you being played as a pawn and Bloodmoon has the Skaal seeing you as an outsider who would have to work his way into being accepted.

 

[Jaimas]

A comprehensive list of the five worst non-Chakat Mary Sues I've ever seen:

Spoiler: Dat List Tho

5. Elminster, Forgotten Realms
I like Forgotten Realms, but Elminster is notorious for a reason, to the point where he has the nickname "Elmunchkin" in some circles.
Offenses: In 3.X D&D, a level 35 character in a realm where you can't go above 20 without GM permission. Has lived over a thousand years and is a chosen of the goddess of magic, Mystra. About as close as one can get to a living fucking god in the world, Elminster is so powerful that his mere existence fucks over campaigns, since he by all accounts makes any adventuring party irrelevant. Irrevocably written into the fabric of the world. Unlike many other very or even insanely strong NPCs in FR (Hallaster, Khelben Blackstaff, Eclavdra, etc), all of whom have perfectly legitimate reasons to just do their own thing and keep to themselves or, more importantly, have perfectly legitimate reasons to delegate as part of a campaign, Elminster always overshadows pretty much every other character and is a canonized version of that guy.
The tragedy is that it's not truly his fault.
Mitigating Factors: As a literary character or party facilitation device, Elminster is fine. His problems come from the fact that he's been terminally overused by terrible GMs, which of course leads to him being a DMPC or enforcer for terrible shit. At this point, all the crap Elminster is normally involved with become the traits of a Sue and immediately backlash hard. It sort of sucks because when used right, there's a lot of potential for the guy, though I would argue not quite as much as some of the other famous NPCs.

4. Kaldor Draigo, Warhammer 40,000
Being a Mary Sue in a universe where magic is a thing, powerful psy powers that can rip apart worlds exist, and countless different species that all hate one another is a hell of an accomplishment. Draigo makes it happen.
Offenses: Concentrated Matt Ward insanity. Killed a Daemon Prince in his first combat action. Banished a Daemon Primarch (Mortarion) back to the warp, somehow carving the name of his old master into the heart of said Daemon Primarch (bear in mind, Mortarion is the chosen of Nurgle, and Draigo somehow did not contract Space AIDS). Single-handedly holding off a daemon horde for two days in realspace. Killing a Daemon Prince with a Broken Sword. Killing one of Khorne's strongest Bloodthirsters single-handedly (note: for contrast, Sanguinus of the Blood Angels did a similar feat, and it was considered impressive despite him being a fucking Primarch). Taking said Bloodthirster's axe and somehow forging it into a sword for his own personal use with his mind. Suffering no corruption at all from using what was previously the weapon of a greater daemon. Setting fire to Nurgle's Garden (again, somehow avoiding Space AIDS). Slaying six of Slaanesh's chosen Daemonettes (lore note: looking at one is enough to instantly force submission from any mortal). Walking into the City of Tzeentch and somehow destroying a city that largely exists as a Ry'leh-esque impossible geometry construct beholden to the whims of the fucking god of sorcery.
Mitigating Factors: With such lofty accomplishments under his belt, you'd suspect he'd be higher on this list, aye? Well, no. See, Draigo is so hilariously stupid as to be a meme, and apparently people with self-awareness decided that this was retarded, and Games-Workshop, not known for self-awareness under normal circumstances, decided to chain-retcon him via various writers, because seriously, fucking look at this idiocy.

3. Janus Prospero, Resident Evil Movies
Self-Insert Sue par excellence.
Offenses: Started pretty mediocre; by the second movie was full-fledged action hero mode and was essentially a god-mode Sue by the end of it. Winds up with unexplained psionic powers that let her explode heads through video consoles. She was cloned multiple times, and used her super-powered clones as an army before said army is unceremoniously dealt with in one of the other movies. In all movies she shows up in, she renders every single character irrelevant, even when - and indeed, especially when they a character from the actual series. No one else is permitted to do anything when Alice is around - invulnerable monsters lose this invincibility if Alice is shooting, and when Alice and Wesker finish up a ridiculous wire fight battle, only then are the other characters are allowed to start shooting.
Mitigating Factors: Only exists so Mila Jovavich's husband, Paul Anderson, can write what is, essentially, self-insert fan-fiction for his wife.

2. Allison Holiday, Socially Unconscious: The Election Eve
Mother of god. If you're not familiar with this character, familiarize yourself with her; she's fucking amazing at how much she breaks the story's universe entirely.
Offenses: The secondary main character of Socially Unconscious, Brianna Wu's magnum opus, is ridiculous. A constant boozehound and asshole, yet she never suffers any repercussions for her behavior, which has included breaking peoples' property, fucking up someone's career multiple times, essentially cementing why the primary villain hates the cast in the first place, and breaking and entering, and that's the first two chapters. She hits full insanity by the third chapter, when she beats up trained bodyguards, correctly identifies someone recording her friends as spying on them, flying a helicopter, and more without any logical, in-universe explanation for why a college grad boozehound has any ability to do this.
Mitigating Factors: This work never got released, and Wu genuinely became a better writer than this (though not by much).

1. Bella, Twilight
Fucking. Bullshit.
Offenses: Bella is a Sue that despite the setting, is almost incomprehensibly bad. Like, literally, I speak no hyperbole when I say she may demarcate one of the worst characters in the history of fiction in this regard. Bella is intended to come across as a character anyone can project onto, but the result is one of the most transparent Mary Sues in the history of fiction. A hideous crossbreed of Black Hole Sue, Jerk Sue, Purity Sue, and Sympathetic Sue, and that's just the first book.
I could write a doctoral thesis on how much of a Sue this character is by the standards of her own work of fiction, and not scratch the surface. So I'll let Doug Walker cover a much more general synopsis for me:

Bella. From Twilight. This has to be the most selfish, male-dependent, uncaring, manipulative, self-centered, pretentious, idiotic, whining little bitch-bag you will ever see in your entire life. And honestly, that wouldn't be too bad a character - it could be very interesting - if it was intentional. But it's not. Bella is supposed to represent the "every-day teenage girl." If that's the case, then the story really got mixed-up who the blood-sucking monster is. She thinks she's tortured, even though really, she has no problems. She gets a crush on a boy, and decides she wants to marry him, even though she's not even out of high school yet. She wants to be turned into a vampire, which everyone has said is throwing her life away - but of course, at the enlightening age of seventeen, she already knows exactly what she wants. Aren't you glad you followed through with every bright idea you had at seventeen? Aren't you totally glad you committed to something you knew you could never make a mistake on at that age? Oh yeah. Seventeen! Nobody ever fucks up at that age! The boyfriend tries to leave her so he can save her, but she constantly keeps throwing herself off cliffs and putting herself in danger, just so he can notice her. Good. Fucking. God. That's right, girls. If your boyfriend leaves you, do exactly this! I assure you, it won't backfire in the least. Sure, you might be dead, but... That'll teach him. She then gets another boy involved, who actually seems supportive and attentive, but she dumps him because the other guy looks at her weird. And by god, how can she turn down a guy with no personality, who just looks at her weird? Again, one of those brilliant choices you make at seventeen. So now a whole war is going on - all because of her - And everyone is going out of their way to protect her, and she's simply like: "Yeah, that's cool." oh, wait. She does try to say once that she's not worth it, but that only lasts a few seconds. She then realizes that she is worth it, and is totally on-board with having muscle-boys carry her around everywhere. And just as her boyfriend finally agrees to marry her? Imagine, a boy being pressured into marriage. She dicks around with the other guy, yet again. Oh my god. I mean, oh. My. God. I have never seen a character more needy, and more insecure. She is such a dumbass in distress that it's actually kind of scary. She is a scary character. In another dimension, maybe she could have been a great Shakespeare villain - this really complex, developed, psychotic mind. But as the common, every-day, relatable girl that we're all supposed to identify with? She is, and always shall be - the biggest dumbass in distress.

Mitigating Factors: White-Knighting this shit is one of the funniest things Moleman does, and even he acknowledges that Bella is a fucking Sue.

Doubtlessly there's worse, but these are the five I know best.

 

[XH 502]

3. Janus Prospero, Resident Evil Movies
Self-Insert Sue par excellence.
Offenses: Started pretty mediocre; by the second movie was full-fledged action hero mode and was essentially a god-mode Sue by the end of it. Winds up with unexplained psionic powers that let her explode heads through video consoles. She was cloned multiple times, and used her super-powered clones as an army before said army is unceremoniously dealt with in one of the other movies. In all movies she shows up in, she renders every single character irrelevant, even when - and indeed, especially when they a character from the actual series. No one else is permitted to do anything when Alice is around - invulnerable monsters lose this invincibility if Alice is shooting, and when Alice and Wesker finish up a ridiculous wire fight battle, only then are the other characters are allowed to start shooting.
Mitigating Factors: Only exists so Mila Jovavich's husband, Paul Anderson, can write what is, essentially, self-insert fan-fiction for his wife.

Here's the thing: I can excuse Alice's character because they don't try to present her as anything other than the Sue that she is. Hell, I love the RE film series because they know exactly what they are. You can just tell that everyone working on those films got on set and went "what kind of ridiculously fun shit can we do today?" Each installment is an attempt to top the last film in the ludicrous factor and if you take any of this shit seriously you're doing it wrong. Alice works because she exemplifies the entire "FUCK IT! LET'S KILL SHIT!" attitude of the series.

Sues like Bella and Holiday are insufferable because their creators try to pass them off as legit characters or something other than their own personal fap material. Alice works (for me, at least) because it's intentional and her creators exploit her Sue powers in fun ways.

 

[caffeinated_wench]

Since this IS a Mary Sue thread and since Jaimas mentioned some flavors already, I'd like to bring up the Anti-Sue.

No, Uninitiated, this doesn't mean the character isn't a Sue. It's basically like, in the example I mentioned, Marina: despite having traits such as behaving childishly, being a brat, showing disregard for authority, not caring about the mission, and other notably negative things, everyone still worships the ground she walks on. They have negative traits with very few positives to balance them out and yet the character is still beloved by all even if s/he punted a puppy right before their eyes. While the creator was on the right track with giving them flaws, the problem is they don't have much in the way of positive traits and they still have everyone's unconditional admiration.

I have a few on my personal "worst sue list." The main ones I can think of right now are Anita Blake from the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series and Anastasia Steele from everyone's favorite Twilight rip-off Fifty Shades of Grey. Though I suppose Steele hardly counts since she's basically Bella with a paint job. There's also Rose Potter from a "fanfic" series.

And shame on you all for not bringing up everyone's favorite Sue: Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Tara Raven Way.

 

[Jaimas]

Here's the thing: I can excuse Alice's character because they don't try to present her as anything other than the Sue that she is. Hell, I love the RE film series because they know exactly what they are. You can just tell that everyone working on those films got on set and went "what kind of ridiculously fun shit can we do today?" Each installment is an attempt to top the last film in the ludicrous factor and if you take any of this shit seriously you're doing it wrong. Alice works because she exemplifies the entire "FUCK IT! LET'S KILL SHIT!" attitude of the series.

Sues like Bella and Holiday are insufferable because their creators try to pass them off as legit characters or something other than their own personal fap material. Alice works (for me, at least) because it's intentional and her creators exploit her Sue powers in fun ways.

I covered it under the mitigating factors (almost every Sue has at least one that makes them slightly less bad, if not redeems them considerably), but the reason Alice is less-offensive is because she literally exists because Paul Anderson likes making self-insert fan-fiction for Mila Jovavich. Alice being a Sue doesn't come from malice, it comes from the staff being extremely lazy and incompetent. If you watch these with this in mind, the collection of works she's in is more enjoyable.

Since this IS a Mary Sue thread and since Jaimas mentioned some flavors already, I'd like to bring up the Anti-Sue.

No, Uninitiated, this doesn't mean the character isn't a Sue. It's basically like, in the example I mentioned, Marina: despite having traits such as behaving childishly, being a brat, showing disregard for authority, not caring about the mission, and other notably negative things, everyone still worships the ground she walks on. They have negative traits with very few positives to balance them out and yet the character is still beloved by all even if s/he punted a puppy right before their eyes. While the creator was on the right track with giving them flaws, the problem is they don't have much in the way of positive traits and they still have everyone's unconditional admiration.

I have a few on my personal "worst sue list." The main ones I can think of right now are Anita Blake from the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series and Anastasia Steele from everyone's favorite Twilight rip-off Fifty Shades of Grey. Though I suppose Steele hardly counts since she's basically Bella with a paint job. There's also Rose Potter from a "fanfic" series.

And shame on you all for not bringing up everyone's favorite Sue: Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Tara Raven Way.

In another thread, we just call her Brianna Wu.
Hogwarts did not work out for her, it seems.

 

[AnOminous]

I'm surprised nobody has listed Stephie from Assigned Male, considering the monster thread on the strip here.

Stephie has all of the absolute worst aspects of the classic Mary Sue other than being in a fanfic (I think a bad webcomic is about on the same level though). First, she's an incredibly obnoxious self-insert of the author portrayed in a ridiculously glowing light, despite having done absolutely nothing to earn it.

She speaks and talks exactly like an adult despite supposedly being a small child, and everything she says is pure author's tract.

She routinely insults and talks down to other characters, often contradicting shit said in the very last strip. Despite making no solid arguments whatsoever for the nonsense she spouts, every other character is immediately beaten down and ends up agreeing with her by the end of the strip.

Despite this, every other named character loves Stephie and puts up with all this utter bullshit. They only end up strawmen apparently because of momentary stupidity in daring to deviate from Stephie's rules about everything.

In any comic written by a sane person, this repulsive Sue would be the hated villain and the point of the story would be taking them down.

 

[Piga Dgrifm]

Let's not forget about Fuu: http://marysuefacepalm.tumblr.com/post/76350028560