Mary Sue

1973Literary trope / internet slang / fan fiction critiqueclassic

Also known as: Gary Stu · Marty Stu · Larry Stu · Murray Sue · Canon Sue

Mary Sue is a derogatory fan fiction term from Paula Smith's 1973 Star Trek parody, describing an idealized original character who warps the story as a self-insert.

Mary Sue is a derogatory term from fan fiction criticism describing an idealized, overly perfect original character who warps the story around them, often assumed to be a wish-fulfillment stand-in for the author. The name originated in Paula Smith's 1973 parody Star Trek fanfic "A Trekkie's Tale," published in the fanzine *Menagerie*, and quickly became one of fandom's most loaded labels. Over five decades, the term spread from zine culture to mainstream media criticism, sparking fierce debates about gender bias, creative expression, and what makes a character "too perfect."

TL;DR

Mary Sue is a derogatory term from fan fiction criticism describing an idealized, overly perfect original character who warps the story around them, often assumed to be a wish-fulfillment stand-in for the author.

Overview

A Mary Sue is a fictional character, almost always female, who is portrayed as flawless to an absurd degree. She's young, stunningly beautiful (often with unusual eye or hair colors), extraordinarily talented at everything, and beloved by every other character in the story. The existing cast bends around her like gravity, acting out of character just to praise her or fall in love with her. If she dies, it's a tragic, heroic sacrifice mourned by the entire fictional universe1.

The term started as specific shorthand for a pattern in Star Trek fan fiction but ballooned into a catch-all critique applied to characters across all media. A Mary Sue can show up in fanfic, novels, TV, film, or video games. The male equivalent goes by "Gary Stu" or "Marty Stu," though male characters fitting the same archetype historically receive far less scrutiny2. The label carries a sting because it implies the author is indulging in self-insertion fantasy rather than crafting a real character, and it's been wielded as both legitimate writing feedback and a blunt instrument for dismissing female protagonists3.

In 1973, Paula Smith and Sharon Ferraro were editing *Menagerie*, one of the earliest Star Trek fanzines. They kept noticing an unmistakable pattern in their submissions: story after story featured a young woman who would board the Enterprise, charm the entire crew, outperform everyone, and usually die beautifully at the end1. "They were simply placeholder fantasies," Smith later recalled. "And, certainly, I can't say I didn't have placeholder fantasies of my own"1.

Smith decided to write the definitive parody. Published anonymously in *Menagerie* #2, "A Trekkie's Tale" was a 200-word story about Lieutenant Mary Sue, the youngest officer in the fleet at fifteen and a half years old4. The story opens: "'Gee, golly, gosh, gloriosky,' thought Mary Sue as she stepped on the bridge of the Enterprise"10. Captain Kirk immediately declares his love. Mr. Spock calls her judgment "flawlessly logical." She reveals she's half-Vulcan, springs the crew from an alien prison with a hairpin, runs the ship so well she receives the Nobel Peace Prize, and then dies a heroic death while the entire crew weeps "at the loss of her beautiful youth and youthful beauty, intelligence, capability and all around niceness"10.

Smith and Ferraro had initially kicked around male names like "Murray Sue" and "Marty Sue," but went with a female name because the pattern they were parodying came overwhelmingly from female writers2. The inspiration for the parody was a specific 80-page, double-sided submission featuring a young protagonist who was brilliant, beautiful, died heroically, and then resurrected herself. "I'd never seen that one anywhere else," Smith said. "So, I have to give [the writer] kudos for that"1.

Origin & Background

Platform
*Menagerie* fanzine (Star Trek fan community), internet forums and LiveJournal (online spread)
Key People
Paula Smith, Sharon Ferraro
Date
1973
Year
1973

In 1973, Paula Smith and Sharon Ferraro were editing *Menagerie*, one of the earliest Star Trek fanzines. They kept noticing an unmistakable pattern in their submissions: story after story featured a young woman who would board the Enterprise, charm the entire crew, outperform everyone, and usually die beautifully at the end. "They were simply placeholder fantasies," Smith later recalled. "And, certainly, I can't say I didn't have placeholder fantasies of my own".

Smith decided to write the definitive parody. Published anonymously in *Menagerie* #2, "A Trekkie's Tale" was a 200-word story about Lieutenant Mary Sue, the youngest officer in the fleet at fifteen and a half years old. The story opens: "'Gee, golly, gosh, gloriosky,' thought Mary Sue as she stepped on the bridge of the Enterprise". Captain Kirk immediately declares his love. Mr. Spock calls her judgment "flawlessly logical." She reveals she's half-Vulcan, springs the crew from an alien prison with a hairpin, runs the ship so well she receives the Nobel Peace Prize, and then dies a heroic death while the entire crew weeps "at the loss of her beautiful youth and youthful beauty, intelligence, capability and all around niceness".

Smith and Ferraro had initially kicked around male names like "Murray Sue" and "Marty Sue," but went with a female name because the pattern they were parodying came overwhelmingly from female writers. The inspiration for the parody was a specific 80-page, double-sided submission featuring a young protagonist who was brilliant, beautiful, died heroically, and then resurrected herself. "I'd never seen that one anywhere else," Smith said. "So, I have to give [the writer] kudos for that".

How It Spread

After publication, Smith began speaking at early fandom conventions, and the term took root fast. Smith and Ferraro wrote letters to editors of other zines calling out stories that "contained a Mary Sue," explaining the characteristics they saw as damaging to fiction. When writers and fans pushed back, Smith argued she was trying to help amateur authors improve their craft enough to be taken seriously.

By 1976, *Menagerie*'s editors had codified the archetype in their submission guidelines, warning against "the adventures of the youngest and smartest ever person to graduate from the academy" who is "characterized by unprecedented skill in everything from art to zoology, including karate and arm-wrestling".

The concept spread through zine networks during the late 1970s and 1980s. Folklorist Camille Bacon-Smith examined the trope in her 1992 book *Enterprising Women*, noting that Mary Sue "represents the woman's ideal of perfection: she is young and desirable, competent and moral". By 1994, the label was already being applied as a blanket term for any heroine in Star Trek fanfic, and writers were self-censoring out of fear.

The internet supercharged everything. In March 1999, Pat Pflieger presented a paper titled "Too Good To Be True: 150 Years of Mary Sue" at the American Culture Association conference, tracing idealized self-insert characters back to stories published in the children's magazine *Robert Merry's Museum* throughout the 1800s. Her research cataloged 30 different characters written between 1849 and 1999 that fit the Mary Sue archetype.

The early 2000s brought LiveJournal communities dedicated to identifying and mocking Mary Sues. The Mary Sue Report launched in 2002, linking to fanfics with highlighted Sue traits. The Canon Sue Report followed in 2003, applying the label to characters from published media like Rose Tyler from *Doctor Who*, Lana Lang from *Smallville*, and Maito Gai from *Naruto*. Entire ecosystems of sister communities sprung up across LiveJournal, organized by fandom: *pottersues*, *narutosues*, *lotrsues*, and dozens more.

Writing guides warning authors to avoid Mary Sues appeared on Yahoo!, Salon, and Fiction Press. Online "Mary Sue Litmus Tests" let writers answer questions about their characters to calculate a Sue score. The concept had gone from zine-culture jargon to a core piece of internet literacy.

How to Use This Meme

"Mary Sue" typically gets deployed in a few ways:

1

Fan fiction critique: Point out that an original character is too perfect, too central, or too obviously the author's self-insert. Common callouts include unusual eye colors, tragic backstories, every canon character falling in love with them, and abilities that don't fit the story's universe.

2

Media criticism shorthand: Label a character in published fiction, TV, or film who seems to lack meaningful flaws or struggles. Often applied when a protagonist masters skills too quickly or warps other characters' behavior around them.

3

Ironic/self-aware usage: Writers sometimes acknowledge their own characters as Mary Sues with a wink, especially when writing deliberately indulgent fanfic.

4

Gender discourse: Call out the double standard of labeling female characters Mary Sues while ignoring male characters with identical traits. Sometimes used defensively to push back against the label.

Cultural Impact

The Mary Sue concept jumped from fandom jargon to mainstream vocabulary over the course of four decades. The term earned an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary, a rare achievement for fandom-origin slang.

In academia, multiple papers have analyzed the trope. Pat Pflieger's 1999 "Too Good To Be True: 150 Years of Mary Sue" traced the archetype to 19th-century children's literature. Ashley Barner's 2011 paper in *Reconstruction* used the framework to connect Samuel Richardson's *Pamela* (1741) to *Twilight*, arguing the trope exposes centuries of anxiety about women's creative engagement with fiction.

The feminist website The Mary Sue launched in 2011, deliberately adopting the name to reclaim it. The site became one of the larger pop culture outlets focused on women in media, turning the label from insult to badge of identity.

The 2015 "Is Rey a Mary Sue?" debate around *Star Wars: The Force Awakens* brought the term to its widest audience yet, with think pieces appearing in major outlets and the conversation reaching people who had never engaged with fan fiction. Similar debates erupted around *Game of Thrones*, the *Mad Max* franchise, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Salon published a writing advice column in 2010 warning literary fiction authors about Mary Sues, arguing that the concept applies well beyond genre fiction: "Mary Sues occur in every kind of book, from historical novels about spunky young women with anachronistically modern values... to contemporary fiction in which the hero is the entirely blameless survivor of a bitter divorce".

Full History

The Mary Sue discourse entered a new phase with the explosion of *Twilight* in 2008. Bella Swan became perhaps the most frequently cited example of a Mary Sue in commercially published fiction. Critics pointed out that every male character at Forks High School inexplicably falls for her, her only "flaw" is clumsiness (which functions more as an endearing quirk), and her name literally translates to "beautiful swan". Stephenie Meyer's own admission that *Twilight* originated from a vivid dream about a romance between herself and a beautiful vampire strengthened the self-insertion reading. Cracked, Yahoo! Answers, and the peer-reviewed journal *Reconstruction* all debated whether Bella qualified, though no consensus emerged.

The academic angle deepened. A 2011 paper in *Reconstruction* by Ashley Barner applied the Mary Sue framework to Samuel Richardson's 1741 novel *Pamela*, arguing that the trope of the idealized female character provoking polarized reader responses stretches back centuries, with criticism of women's "absorbed reading" remaining "surprisingly consistent from at least the mid-eighteenth century to the early twenty-first". J.M. Frey's 2009 research found that Mary Sue characters, despite being widely hated, often serve as stepping stones for developing writers trying to find their place in fandom.

The gender politics of the term became impossible to ignore. In 2010, the Geek Feminism blog compiled several posts from writers arguing that original female characters were being automatically dismissed as Mary Sues, while male characters with identical traits escaped scrutiny. As one writer put it: "What the hell harm does it do for someone to write their ridiculous self-avatar? What good does policing fantasies, and particularly, these fantasies, do?"

Smith herself acknowledged the asymmetry. "Characters like Superman were placeholders for the writers, too," she said. "But those were boys. It was OK for [men] to have placeholder characters that were incredibly able". In a 2011 interview, she cited James Bond and Superman as male Mary Sues who benefited their audiences without stigma.

The debate hit mainstream pop culture hard in 2015 when Daisy Ridley's Rey debuted in *Star Wars: The Force Awakens*. Commentators across the internet labeled her a Mary Sue for her rapid Force abilities and piloting skills, igniting one of the fiercest character debates in franchise history. The argument spilled over to Arya Stark killing the Night King on *Game of Thrones*, Charlize Theron's Furiosa outshining Tom Hardy's Mad Max, and Brie Larson's Captain Marvel. Writer Valerie E. Frankel called the label "sexist because it assumes no female character should be as powerful as Superman".

Rachel Leishman of The Mary Sue (a feminist website founded in 2011 that intentionally adopted the name to reclaim the cliché) asked "How in the World Is Arya Stark a Mary Sue?" after the *Game of Thrones* backlash. The irony, as the Smithsonian pointed out, was that Jon Snow fit the archetype far more neatly than Arya did.

TV Tropes documented the term's total semantic collapse, noting that "Mary Sue" had been stretched so far beyond its original meaning that using it in most contexts was barely more productive than flame-bait. Writing instructor Tisha Turk of Grinnell College observed that "ultimately the reader, not the author, defines a Mary Sue". Ann C. Crispin described it as "a put-down, implying that the character so summarily dismissed is not a true character, no matter how well drawn".

The term eventually made it into the Oxford English Dictionary. And yet the core tension Paula Smith identified in 1973 persists: the line between a power fantasy, a compelling hero, and a poorly written self-insert depends entirely on who's reading and what biases they bring to the page.

Fun Facts

Paula Smith and Sharon Ferraro's specific inspiration was an 80-page, double-sided submission where the protagonist died heroically and then brought herself back to life. Smith called it a first: "I'd never seen that one anywhere else".

The *Menagerie* zine was named after a two-part episode from *Star Trek*'s first season.

The famous Harry Potter fanfiction *My Immortal* (featuring Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way) is widely considered the most iconic Mary Sue played straight, though whether it's sincere or satirical is still debated.

Smith's original parody was published anonymously. She later described her intent: "I wanted to write the complete sort of Mary Sue that there was because they were all alike".

Researcher Angie Fazekas and Dan Vena argued that Mary Sue characters "provide an opportunity for teenage girls to write themselves into popular culture narratives as the heroines of their own stories".

Derivatives & Variations

Gary Stu / Marty Stu / Larry Stu:

The male equivalent. Smith and Ferraro originally considered "Murray Sue" and "Marty Sue" before settling on the female name[2]. The male version gained less traction partly because male power fantasies faced less scrutiny[1].

Canon Sue:

A label for characters in official, published media (not fanfic) who display Mary Sue traits. The Canon Sue Report on LiveJournal (2003) applied this to characters like Rose Tyler, Lana Lang, and Wesley Crusher[16].

Anti-Sue:

A deliberate overcorrection where a character is made aggressively flawed and incompetent yet still inexplicably central to the plot. Salon noted this emerged from writers so anxious to avoid Mary Sue accusations that they swung too far in the other direction[6].

Angsty Sue / Fixer Sue / Rebel Sue:

Sub-classifications that emerged in fan communities to categorize different flavors of the trope, such as the Mary Sue with an excessively tragic backstory or the one who fixes everything the author thinks is wrong with canon[6].

Mary Sue Litmus Test:

Online quizzes where writers answer questions about their characters (exotic name? unusual eye color? love interest of a canon character?) to calculate whether they've created a Sue[7].

"A Trekkie's Tale" parodies:

The original 200-word story inspired countless imitations and satirical Mary Sue stories across every fandom[10].

Protectors of the Plot Continuum (PPC):

A collaborative fiction project where characters hunt and "assassinate" Mary Sues across fictional universes, criticized by some as bullying young writers[12].

Frequently Asked Questions

Mary Sue

1973Literary trope / internet slang / fan fiction critiqueclassic

Also known as: Gary Stu · Marty Stu · Larry Stu · Murray Sue · Canon Sue

Mary Sue is a derogatory fan fiction term from Paula Smith's 1973 Star Trek parody, describing an idealized original character who warps the story as a self-insert.

Mary Sue is a derogatory term from fan fiction criticism describing an idealized, overly perfect original character who warps the story around them, often assumed to be a wish-fulfillment stand-in for the author. The name originated in Paula Smith's 1973 parody Star Trek fanfic "A Trekkie's Tale," published in the fanzine *Menagerie*, and quickly became one of fandom's most loaded labels. Over five decades, the term spread from zine culture to mainstream media criticism, sparking fierce debates about gender bias, creative expression, and what makes a character "too perfect."

TL;DR

Mary Sue is a derogatory term from fan fiction criticism describing an idealized, overly perfect original character who warps the story around them, often assumed to be a wish-fulfillment stand-in for the author.

Overview

A Mary Sue is a fictional character, almost always female, who is portrayed as flawless to an absurd degree. She's young, stunningly beautiful (often with unusual eye or hair colors), extraordinarily talented at everything, and beloved by every other character in the story. The existing cast bends around her like gravity, acting out of character just to praise her or fall in love with her. If she dies, it's a tragic, heroic sacrifice mourned by the entire fictional universe.

The term started as specific shorthand for a pattern in Star Trek fan fiction but ballooned into a catch-all critique applied to characters across all media. A Mary Sue can show up in fanfic, novels, TV, film, or video games. The male equivalent goes by "Gary Stu" or "Marty Stu," though male characters fitting the same archetype historically receive far less scrutiny. The label carries a sting because it implies the author is indulging in self-insertion fantasy rather than crafting a real character, and it's been wielded as both legitimate writing feedback and a blunt instrument for dismissing female protagonists.

In 1973, Paula Smith and Sharon Ferraro were editing *Menagerie*, one of the earliest Star Trek fanzines. They kept noticing an unmistakable pattern in their submissions: story after story featured a young woman who would board the Enterprise, charm the entire crew, outperform everyone, and usually die beautifully at the end. "They were simply placeholder fantasies," Smith later recalled. "And, certainly, I can't say I didn't have placeholder fantasies of my own".

Smith decided to write the definitive parody. Published anonymously in *Menagerie* #2, "A Trekkie's Tale" was a 200-word story about Lieutenant Mary Sue, the youngest officer in the fleet at fifteen and a half years old. The story opens: "'Gee, golly, gosh, gloriosky,' thought Mary Sue as she stepped on the bridge of the Enterprise". Captain Kirk immediately declares his love. Mr. Spock calls her judgment "flawlessly logical." She reveals she's half-Vulcan, springs the crew from an alien prison with a hairpin, runs the ship so well she receives the Nobel Peace Prize, and then dies a heroic death while the entire crew weeps "at the loss of her beautiful youth and youthful beauty, intelligence, capability and all around niceness".

Smith and Ferraro had initially kicked around male names like "Murray Sue" and "Marty Sue," but went with a female name because the pattern they were parodying came overwhelmingly from female writers. The inspiration for the parody was a specific 80-page, double-sided submission featuring a young protagonist who was brilliant, beautiful, died heroically, and then resurrected herself. "I'd never seen that one anywhere else," Smith said. "So, I have to give [the writer] kudos for that".

Origin & Background

Platform
*Menagerie* fanzine (Star Trek fan community), internet forums and LiveJournal (online spread)
Key People
Paula Smith, Sharon Ferraro
Date
1973
Year
1973

In 1973, Paula Smith and Sharon Ferraro were editing *Menagerie*, one of the earliest Star Trek fanzines. They kept noticing an unmistakable pattern in their submissions: story after story featured a young woman who would board the Enterprise, charm the entire crew, outperform everyone, and usually die beautifully at the end. "They were simply placeholder fantasies," Smith later recalled. "And, certainly, I can't say I didn't have placeholder fantasies of my own".

Smith decided to write the definitive parody. Published anonymously in *Menagerie* #2, "A Trekkie's Tale" was a 200-word story about Lieutenant Mary Sue, the youngest officer in the fleet at fifteen and a half years old. The story opens: "'Gee, golly, gosh, gloriosky,' thought Mary Sue as she stepped on the bridge of the Enterprise". Captain Kirk immediately declares his love. Mr. Spock calls her judgment "flawlessly logical." She reveals she's half-Vulcan, springs the crew from an alien prison with a hairpin, runs the ship so well she receives the Nobel Peace Prize, and then dies a heroic death while the entire crew weeps "at the loss of her beautiful youth and youthful beauty, intelligence, capability and all around niceness".

Smith and Ferraro had initially kicked around male names like "Murray Sue" and "Marty Sue," but went with a female name because the pattern they were parodying came overwhelmingly from female writers. The inspiration for the parody was a specific 80-page, double-sided submission featuring a young protagonist who was brilliant, beautiful, died heroically, and then resurrected herself. "I'd never seen that one anywhere else," Smith said. "So, I have to give [the writer] kudos for that".

How It Spread

After publication, Smith began speaking at early fandom conventions, and the term took root fast. Smith and Ferraro wrote letters to editors of other zines calling out stories that "contained a Mary Sue," explaining the characteristics they saw as damaging to fiction. When writers and fans pushed back, Smith argued she was trying to help amateur authors improve their craft enough to be taken seriously.

By 1976, *Menagerie*'s editors had codified the archetype in their submission guidelines, warning against "the adventures of the youngest and smartest ever person to graduate from the academy" who is "characterized by unprecedented skill in everything from art to zoology, including karate and arm-wrestling".

The concept spread through zine networks during the late 1970s and 1980s. Folklorist Camille Bacon-Smith examined the trope in her 1992 book *Enterprising Women*, noting that Mary Sue "represents the woman's ideal of perfection: she is young and desirable, competent and moral". By 1994, the label was already being applied as a blanket term for any heroine in Star Trek fanfic, and writers were self-censoring out of fear.

The internet supercharged everything. In March 1999, Pat Pflieger presented a paper titled "Too Good To Be True: 150 Years of Mary Sue" at the American Culture Association conference, tracing idealized self-insert characters back to stories published in the children's magazine *Robert Merry's Museum* throughout the 1800s. Her research cataloged 30 different characters written between 1849 and 1999 that fit the Mary Sue archetype.

The early 2000s brought LiveJournal communities dedicated to identifying and mocking Mary Sues. The Mary Sue Report launched in 2002, linking to fanfics with highlighted Sue traits. The Canon Sue Report followed in 2003, applying the label to characters from published media like Rose Tyler from *Doctor Who*, Lana Lang from *Smallville*, and Maito Gai from *Naruto*. Entire ecosystems of sister communities sprung up across LiveJournal, organized by fandom: *pottersues*, *narutosues*, *lotrsues*, and dozens more.

Writing guides warning authors to avoid Mary Sues appeared on Yahoo!, Salon, and Fiction Press. Online "Mary Sue Litmus Tests" let writers answer questions about their characters to calculate a Sue score. The concept had gone from zine-culture jargon to a core piece of internet literacy.

How to Use This Meme

"Mary Sue" typically gets deployed in a few ways:

1

Fan fiction critique: Point out that an original character is too perfect, too central, or too obviously the author's self-insert. Common callouts include unusual eye colors, tragic backstories, every canon character falling in love with them, and abilities that don't fit the story's universe.

2

Media criticism shorthand: Label a character in published fiction, TV, or film who seems to lack meaningful flaws or struggles. Often applied when a protagonist masters skills too quickly or warps other characters' behavior around them.

3

Ironic/self-aware usage: Writers sometimes acknowledge their own characters as Mary Sues with a wink, especially when writing deliberately indulgent fanfic.

4

Gender discourse: Call out the double standard of labeling female characters Mary Sues while ignoring male characters with identical traits. Sometimes used defensively to push back against the label.

Cultural Impact

The Mary Sue concept jumped from fandom jargon to mainstream vocabulary over the course of four decades. The term earned an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary, a rare achievement for fandom-origin slang.

In academia, multiple papers have analyzed the trope. Pat Pflieger's 1999 "Too Good To Be True: 150 Years of Mary Sue" traced the archetype to 19th-century children's literature. Ashley Barner's 2011 paper in *Reconstruction* used the framework to connect Samuel Richardson's *Pamela* (1741) to *Twilight*, arguing the trope exposes centuries of anxiety about women's creative engagement with fiction.

The feminist website The Mary Sue launched in 2011, deliberately adopting the name to reclaim it. The site became one of the larger pop culture outlets focused on women in media, turning the label from insult to badge of identity.

The 2015 "Is Rey a Mary Sue?" debate around *Star Wars: The Force Awakens* brought the term to its widest audience yet, with think pieces appearing in major outlets and the conversation reaching people who had never engaged with fan fiction. Similar debates erupted around *Game of Thrones*, the *Mad Max* franchise, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Salon published a writing advice column in 2010 warning literary fiction authors about Mary Sues, arguing that the concept applies well beyond genre fiction: "Mary Sues occur in every kind of book, from historical novels about spunky young women with anachronistically modern values... to contemporary fiction in which the hero is the entirely blameless survivor of a bitter divorce".

Full History

The Mary Sue discourse entered a new phase with the explosion of *Twilight* in 2008. Bella Swan became perhaps the most frequently cited example of a Mary Sue in commercially published fiction. Critics pointed out that every male character at Forks High School inexplicably falls for her, her only "flaw" is clumsiness (which functions more as an endearing quirk), and her name literally translates to "beautiful swan". Stephenie Meyer's own admission that *Twilight* originated from a vivid dream about a romance between herself and a beautiful vampire strengthened the self-insertion reading. Cracked, Yahoo! Answers, and the peer-reviewed journal *Reconstruction* all debated whether Bella qualified, though no consensus emerged.

The academic angle deepened. A 2011 paper in *Reconstruction* by Ashley Barner applied the Mary Sue framework to Samuel Richardson's 1741 novel *Pamela*, arguing that the trope of the idealized female character provoking polarized reader responses stretches back centuries, with criticism of women's "absorbed reading" remaining "surprisingly consistent from at least the mid-eighteenth century to the early twenty-first". J.M. Frey's 2009 research found that Mary Sue characters, despite being widely hated, often serve as stepping stones for developing writers trying to find their place in fandom.

The gender politics of the term became impossible to ignore. In 2010, the Geek Feminism blog compiled several posts from writers arguing that original female characters were being automatically dismissed as Mary Sues, while male characters with identical traits escaped scrutiny. As one writer put it: "What the hell harm does it do for someone to write their ridiculous self-avatar? What good does policing fantasies, and particularly, these fantasies, do?"

Smith herself acknowledged the asymmetry. "Characters like Superman were placeholders for the writers, too," she said. "But those were boys. It was OK for [men] to have placeholder characters that were incredibly able". In a 2011 interview, she cited James Bond and Superman as male Mary Sues who benefited their audiences without stigma.

The debate hit mainstream pop culture hard in 2015 when Daisy Ridley's Rey debuted in *Star Wars: The Force Awakens*. Commentators across the internet labeled her a Mary Sue for her rapid Force abilities and piloting skills, igniting one of the fiercest character debates in franchise history. The argument spilled over to Arya Stark killing the Night King on *Game of Thrones*, Charlize Theron's Furiosa outshining Tom Hardy's Mad Max, and Brie Larson's Captain Marvel. Writer Valerie E. Frankel called the label "sexist because it assumes no female character should be as powerful as Superman".

Rachel Leishman of The Mary Sue (a feminist website founded in 2011 that intentionally adopted the name to reclaim the cliché) asked "How in the World Is Arya Stark a Mary Sue?" after the *Game of Thrones* backlash. The irony, as the Smithsonian pointed out, was that Jon Snow fit the archetype far more neatly than Arya did.

TV Tropes documented the term's total semantic collapse, noting that "Mary Sue" had been stretched so far beyond its original meaning that using it in most contexts was barely more productive than flame-bait. Writing instructor Tisha Turk of Grinnell College observed that "ultimately the reader, not the author, defines a Mary Sue". Ann C. Crispin described it as "a put-down, implying that the character so summarily dismissed is not a true character, no matter how well drawn".

The term eventually made it into the Oxford English Dictionary. And yet the core tension Paula Smith identified in 1973 persists: the line between a power fantasy, a compelling hero, and a poorly written self-insert depends entirely on who's reading and what biases they bring to the page.

Fun Facts

Paula Smith and Sharon Ferraro's specific inspiration was an 80-page, double-sided submission where the protagonist died heroically and then brought herself back to life. Smith called it a first: "I'd never seen that one anywhere else".

The *Menagerie* zine was named after a two-part episode from *Star Trek*'s first season.

The famous Harry Potter fanfiction *My Immortal* (featuring Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way) is widely considered the most iconic Mary Sue played straight, though whether it's sincere or satirical is still debated.

Smith's original parody was published anonymously. She later described her intent: "I wanted to write the complete sort of Mary Sue that there was because they were all alike".

Researcher Angie Fazekas and Dan Vena argued that Mary Sue characters "provide an opportunity for teenage girls to write themselves into popular culture narratives as the heroines of their own stories".

Derivatives & Variations

Gary Stu / Marty Stu / Larry Stu:

The male equivalent. Smith and Ferraro originally considered "Murray Sue" and "Marty Sue" before settling on the female name[2]. The male version gained less traction partly because male power fantasies faced less scrutiny[1].

Canon Sue:

A label for characters in official, published media (not fanfic) who display Mary Sue traits. The Canon Sue Report on LiveJournal (2003) applied this to characters like Rose Tyler, Lana Lang, and Wesley Crusher[16].

Anti-Sue:

A deliberate overcorrection where a character is made aggressively flawed and incompetent yet still inexplicably central to the plot. Salon noted this emerged from writers so anxious to avoid Mary Sue accusations that they swung too far in the other direction[6].

Angsty Sue / Fixer Sue / Rebel Sue:

Sub-classifications that emerged in fan communities to categorize different flavors of the trope, such as the Mary Sue with an excessively tragic backstory or the one who fixes everything the author thinks is wrong with canon[6].

Mary Sue Litmus Test:

Online quizzes where writers answer questions about their characters (exotic name? unusual eye color? love interest of a canon character?) to calculate whether they've created a Sue[7].

"A Trekkie's Tale" parodies:

The original 200-word story inspired countless imitations and satirical Mary Sue stories across every fandom[10].

Protectors of the Plot Continuum (PPC):

A collaborative fiction project where characters hunt and "assassinate" Mary Sues across fictional universes, criticized by some as bullying young writers[12].

Frequently Asked Questions