Mary Sue

​Having only studied Writing for Children (as in younger children, not YA.  In fact YA was pretty much unheard of when I studied) I’d never heard of the term Mary-Sue, in regards to a type of character.  Now as an author of Urban Fantasy I’ve become aware of the term being bandied around in critic-speak.  I’ve even had the term applied to a character in of mine in a review on Amazon, which piqued my interest.  The term seemed to be used as a derogatory statement.  I wanted to know more, what is a Mary-Sue and what makes a character a Mary-Sue?  I set about finding out. 
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After a fair amount of research and reading through a test of over 80 questions (meant to be the Litmus test of whether or not a character is a Mary-Sue) this is the summary of my understanding……. 
 
{If any of you have ever seen or heard Jeff Foxworthy do stand-up comedy with his trademark ‘you might be a redneck’ skit, you can put his voice to this ;-)}
 
If your character is even vaguely attractive to even one person in your entire story – You might have a Mary-Sue….
If your character is really good at even one thing in their lives - You might have a Mary-Sue…….
If your character is named anything besides Ethel or Maud - You might have a Mary-Sue…..
If your character is male or female - You might have a Mary-Sue…..
If your character is under 50yrs of age - You might have a Mary-Sue…..
If your character is well adjusted enough to not require extensive therapy - You might have a Mary-Sue…..
If your character has a brand of psychosis/personality disorder requiring extensive therapy - You might have a Mary-Sue…..
If your character’s hair is anything besides non-existent - You might have a Mary-Sue…..
If your character has some kind of mission in life/reason for existence - You might have a Mary-Sue…..
If your character has any kind of talent, even if it’s being able to touch their nose with their tongue - You might have a Mary-Sue…..
If your character is black, white, Asian, South American, North America Indian, Pacific Islander, Icelandic, Indian, Middle-eastern or of any mixed race - You might have a Mary-Sue…..
If your character is Vampire, Werewolf, Shifter, Witch, Wizard, Sorcerer, elf, fairy, fae, part-breed, half-breed, mixed-breed, hybrid or anything else not entirely human - You might have a Mary-Sue…..
If your character has suffered some kind of emotional loss in her life - You might have a Mary-Sue…..
If anyone at any point in your book calls your character by anything except their exact first name - You might have a Mary-Sue…..
If your character has even one single thing in common with you, the author - You might have a Mary-Sue…..
If you have used even one positive descriptive word to describe your character - You might have a Mary-Sue…..
If your character is not hugely over-weight, skinny as a starving chicken, shaped like the hunchback of Notre Dame or have face only a mother could love - You might have a Mary-Sue…..
If your character has a scar - You might have a Mary-Sue…..
If your character does not have a scar - You might have a Mary-Sue…..
If your character wears clothing that looks good on them - You might have a Mary-Sue…..
If your character wields a weapon of any shape, form or kind which was bought, found, given, stolen or appeared by magic - You might have a Mary-Sue…..
If your character is royal, peasant, loved by many, despised by many, from wealth or from poverty - You might have a Mary-Sue…..
If your character has a mind of their own, ever questions anybody’s authority, has a back-bone, loses their temper or patience - You might have a Mary-Sue…..
 
I’m sure by now you’re getting the picture but I guess it would be helpful to you if I point out some of the well known Mary-Sue characters of recent times, so that you can get a better understanding of what the critics are ranting about. 
Hermione Granger is a Mary-Sue,
Buffy would qualify as a Mary-Sue,
Selene from Underworld could be a Mary-Sue,
even Harry Potter himself is classed as a Gary-Sue (the male equivalent of Mary-Sue)
Zoey Redbird, Sookie Stackhouse, Kate Daniels, Sabina Kane, Cat Crawford, Riley Jensen, Eugenie Markham, Rose Hathaway even Jace Wayland would also score high in the Mary-Sue stakes.
 
So just how many of your favourite characters are Mary-Sues???
 
And at this point I’m going to stick my hand up and admit that I might just have a Mary-Sue…………..