Do You Sue?

[moonshayde]

Mary Sue, that is.

Come on. Admit it. If you're a fanfic writer, it's likely that at some point or another, you have written a Mary Sue. If you haven't, awesome for you. But if you have, it's nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, Mary Sues tend to form early in our writing careers and can be used as a marker for progress over time. (Of course, then you have the ficcers and the pros that never let go of their Sue. That's another story for another day.)

So, do you Sue? I sure did. Why not share your tale of Miss Wonderful with us all? I'm sure it will brighten our day. Doesn't matter the fandom. Let's all have a good laugh.



My Sue was named Essence Liivion. (EssieLiv? Oh yes. That EssieLiv.) She was a character in my Star Wars fanfic novels that I wrote when I was 14.

She was the bestest character EVER. She was special. She was awesome.

Why was she special? First of all, she was gorgeous. Not just pretty, but this drop dead gorgeous magical beauty that made people just stop. All the men loved her and the ones that didn't, wouldn't admit their secret admiration for her. For you see, she just wasnt beautiful, she had spunk. She spoke her mind. She was strong. Most women hated her because she was so omg awesome, but what did they know? They'd come around eventually.

She had fiery red hair and this emerald eyes that were like green marbles. She had perfect porcelain skin. (She outgrew her freckles, of course.) She had tons of money and power and respect.

But that's not all. She also had Luke Skywalker.

See, she grew up with her grandmother on Tatooine. She was Luke's best friend in their childhood. She moved away as they entered their teen years after her grandmother got dementia, just as Luke was becoming close to Biggs. In my stories, they met after time apart and rekindled their friendship. Only, they were in denial over how much they cared for each other.

That's not all, though. How did she get all that power?

She was the Emperor's daughter, of course. Not that he wanted children, but it happened. He tried to kill her (but she didn't know) until he realized he could use her to advantage. So, he kept her around and she became pro-Empire and anti-Jedi.

So, OMG! Will Essence get over the differences between her and Luke so they can recognize their One True Love?! Because you know, it was ALL about her.

But wait. There's more.

Her mother was from this race of special people that had awesome powers of persuasion. They were a selfish destructive race and could control people with just their presence. Essence, only half of this race, had limited powers and it would express itself mostly through her singing. (Yes! She could sing!) But she still had a magnetic personality. So she had to fight against herself, her past, and her twu wuv.

And she had the Force.

Phew.

When I started rewriting the novels in my late teens, I tried to dampen the Sueness of her character, but most of these traits remained. If I were to go back and make all the changes I wanted to make, she would be a lot less of a Sue, but at this point, I am more concerned with my own writing to worry about correcting old fic. Besides, it's all part of the learning experience. I can always mine some of my better ideas and integrate them into other stories at a later time. But I'll always have these old stories to look back on.

Thank goodness I never posted them online. The only person that really read them had Mary Sue issues of her own ;)

So that's my story. What is yours?

Comments

[xayeidemon.livejournal.com]

Awww...we all had to start out somewhere, didn't we? :D

My Sue was named after me. She appeared mostly in the seaQuest fanfiction I wrote when I was 12 and 13. She was quirky, cute, psychic (telepathy, IIRC), and Lucas's main love interest. She was a computer genius, too. She tended to "faint" when things got too intense, thus ensuring maximum pity and fawning from the other crew members. Did I mention she was a child prodigy? She was. And a government contractor.

Luckily for me, I soon grew tired of her; she died in a tragic shuttle accident. There was much mourning. My friend and I would whip up seaQuest stories overnight and swap them at school the next day to read. They were all crap, but we thought we'd penned the next Gone With the Wind or something. After awhile, we stopped with the original characters and started putting boys together romantically. We giggled a lot back then. Till this day, I still think Tim O'Neil and Miguel Ortiz would have made a cute couple. Thank goodness my Sue was dead...she might have "accidentally" stolen Ortiz from Tim because she was so unwittingly awesome.

[ticklie.livejournal.com]

Yay, you finally made your Mary Sue post! I love reading about people's Sues. They're so glittery and obviously awesome and have such wondefully exotic names...

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

Heh.

My first Mary Sue (that I remember) was a supergenius orphan girl who designed submarines. I was a huge Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea fan, you see. She started out as the mascot on a Navy base and rose up from there, and had this romance off/on UST thing with the purported ship's captain.

Then I had this girl who hid her sex so she could fly with the Marines during WWII with the Black Sheep Squadron. She and Jeb were sort-of together. But she was so awesome, she was raised by folks who flew an ariel circus (like the ones from the twenties), so she was an amazing trick pilot who could make the Wildcat fighter airplanes do things you've never seen before. I wrote a novelette with her in it. Oh, and she was the Colonel's niece, the one that hated Boyington and the Black Sheep. I think I still have that 75 page + fic, too.

THEN there was the Mary Sue I developed for Star Wars, just like you. Only I don't think she was nearly as talented as yours. Hmm. Yes, she had her own Jedi powers because she was from the Old Republic, and had been revived from cryogenic sleep. She was hot shit, too, and I *think* she and Luke were again, starcrossed lovers.

Come to think of it, even my Mary Sue in Stargate never got the guy, either, and wasn't particularly good-looking. And not everyone loved her. In fact, in many ways, she wasn't even particularly likable, and she knew it. BUT the story was all about her when she was in it, so that made her a Mary Sue, I think.

[shutthef-up.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I've Sue'd. My first SG-1 fic is a long epic with a rather Sue-like character.

Being, um, older than my 20's or whatever, I tried very hard not to make her too terribly Sue-like, but it wasn't a complete success. She wasn't overly remarkable in the looks department, but she sexes Daniel six ways to Friday in a AMTDI sort of thing. Actually the Asgard made them do it, lol! But I did basically make her go away afterwards, so... But not die because poor Daniel doesn't need more angst in his life.

Bless me, for I have sue'd...

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Hee! That's quite the remarkable Sue. Awesome! But did she have purple eyes?

My Sue...came about when I was early teens or younger and kinda stuck with me through those awkward years depending on what shows I watched. But I never did anything but have her be a fantasy character in my head interacting with the tv show characters(fanfiction? what's fanfiction?)

She was older than me, and had my hair color and eye color, but was skinnier and much more coordinated. She was a superspy (hah! She was Sydney Bristow fifteen years early. My Sue will sue you Abrams! LOL) Despite her relative youth. she was a master (mistress?) of disguise and knew lots about weapons and martial arts. And was part of a secret government agency other government agencies didn't know anything about. In fact her name changed because she had so many identities.

So therefore...she knew the truth about the A-team, and helped coordinate their escape, and would help them on missions (rather than that reporter twit). But the Colonel would never see her.

She was MacGyver's cousin, and would visit him sometimes (hey, I was preteen/teen. Not really about teh sex). And there were other shows. Like she knew Robin Masters and would visit Hawaii on occasion...

Oh, the bestworst part was when she(me) got older and her gov stuff wasn't so necessary, but gave her enough pull that she ended up being Captain of "The Odyssey", a deep space experimental craft to first go outside the solar system. (She was like the diplomat/leader). But there was an accident and all the crew died in deep space, except for her who was caught in some strange experimental state that left her in stasis...for many many years, until the crew of the Enterprise found her and rescued her. And after a time, she was allowed to be a diplomat on the crew...oh and a side effect of this stasis accident, she never aged. So she could be on both original series AND Next Generation.

And time passed and I never thought more about it, but then decided to play around with writing again (strangely my sue was just my imaginary fantasy, I'd never made her a fic character in my early forays), and just get in the groove, I did an SG-1 fic. Not sure why. I still didn't know it was something other people had thought of (you mean there are others as weird as I am? Wow). And I inserted Robin (in her sydney bristow style) into the story since she by this time was a familiar character for me. And hey...by this point I *had* seen Alias, so not totally unrealisticsnerk. And I played with the idea for a bit.

Now I never planned on showing this story to anyone except one friend of mine (and noone will see this unfinished draft). Before I got done, I found she was just getting too silly, and I wanted to write different things, so I never finished the story. And I started writing "real fanfic", and reading fanfic and realizing other people *were* as mental as me and had been for decades, if not centuries. And then I discovered the Mary Sue genre and went, oh hell. I have a Sue!

So she has now died, except in my childhood imagination. But her legacy in two instances lives on...

1. "Insurance SNAFU at the CPO" has a tiny tiny clip from the aborted Sue-fic where the personnel lady skeptically asks Daniel "So you turned into a light, but you got better?"

2. I still like my conspiracy plotline of the story, and it would work without silly Sue, so maybe someday, I'll be able to rewrite it.

OMG, I can't believe I just admitted all this.

[annerbhp.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah. I Sue'd. And I wasn't 14. Lol. It *was* my first story (I wonder how often that is true? I just imagine not too many people actually publicly share their first story. I did not have such wisdom). Super powers, kid of two character, eventual lover of another character to which Very Dramatic and Spectacular Things happen to. But never fear! She is Brave and Never Complains and Knows Everything. Oh Sues...never change! Lol.

But then I discovered angst and apocafic and have never been tempted back. Hell, my Sue is still out there to be read! *snerk*

[pellucid.livejournal.com]

Wow! Your Sue could be a primer on Sue-ness! That's awesome!

I've never written a Mary Sue in the sparkly, gorgeous, can-do-no-wrong as she saves the day and ends up with the hottest main character sense. But I did once write a long X-Files story (yes! me! long story! with plot! and many chapters! I'm not sure what happened to my capacity to do such a thing...) that largely centered around the daughter of John Doggett and Monica Reyes (and was, naturally, named Dana, after Scully). Dana Doggett wasn't a particularly interesting OC, but neither was she a true Mary Sue; she was flawed and irritatingly teenagerish, and at the end of the day she ended up with William (the baby of Plot Doom, all grown up). And then they saved the world.

It actually had more potential than most of my X-Files stories, I think, and was no worse than some of my early SG-1 stories that are still pretty easily available, but I'm nevertheless awfully glad that it's disappeared from the realms of the interwebs forever!

[mysticalweather.livejournal.com]

Gosh, I'm such a dork.

My Mary Sue-ish tale is different than the rest. See, when I was like 12 or 13 my friend and I were *addicted* to Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys Super Mysteries. Good times. And we had much love for Nancy/Frank pairing, as their chemistry often leaped off the page (especially in the one where they had to pretend to be married! oh yes!)

So in my Mary Sue story, I totally just inserted myself and my friend in the story. We were friends of Nancy Drew through summer camp, go figure, and they'd come to visit us. We then ran into the Hardy Boys who were investigating a mystery surrounding the atomic plant on the outskirts of my town.

There was plot! and intrigue! and our characters totally helped Nancy and Frank discover their true love.

LOL!!

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

When I was a child and teen, though, while I had imaginary stories about some of the characters in my books (no OCs because I really tend not to like them in fanfic and didn't like them then either), I also wrote original fiction--both stories and plays. I collaborated on some with friends and some I wrote on my own.

I don't know if we had MarySues or not, though. I don't think so, though. When collaborating, we usually wrote about a group of teens who would hang out, smoke, have sex, and then end up being killed by a psychopath. Every story ended the same, because we'd just get bored with it. No one character ever dominated or was better than any other.

I wonder if I could find those to see if any of the characters were MarySues? hehe My own stories were usually about a Boy who was troubled and angsty. I am not really sure if he'd be considered a Sue or not either. Mostly I think he was probably too passive to be a good character.

[spiletta42.livejournal.com]

I never had a Mary Sue, not even in idle fantasy, and when I started writing fanfic, my then-friend made me feel like a freak for not having one. Clearly I had no imagination, couldn't grasp simple human emotions, and would never write anything anyone would want to read. So instead of writing anything of my own, I ended up betaing her epic tale of the Mary Sue who fell in love with X-Men's Beast, even though they could tragically never have sex because he was hung like a horse. I used the Sue in a single stand-alone that's on my site. Yep, I had to borrow a Sue. Pathetic.

[meg-tdj.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha!! Dude, I could never beat that. ;)

My SG-1 Mary Sue, which I started writing before I had even discovered the internet and promptly QUIT writing as soon as I heard about the Mary Sue Phenomenon, was kind of a telepath. Daniel got lost while off-world, separated from the rest of the team, and was rescued by this medicine woman who took him back to her cabin. There he found this young girl who was dying of this weird telepath disease. Coincidentally, it just so happened that Daniel had something in his DNA that would save her, so he of course risked his life to provide it for her, and after a lengthy pseudo-operation, the girl was all better.

Of course, then they were "linked" and Daniel was kind of her third parent, but he went back to Earth anyway. This all took place in season 1, btw. When season 4 rolled around, the SGC got a distress call from some planet that knew who Daniel was, and when SG-1 got there, there was Sue. It turned out she was some kind of royalty on this other planet, and the Goa'uld were trying to kill them all because they were telepaths.

Long story somewhat shorter, SG-1 saved her and took her back to Earth. She had information on defense technology to fend off the Goa'uld (which her father had been building, but not fast enough to save them), so she was integral to the story, though not a member of SG-1. She had the ability to heal people, so her stories pretty much consisted of one or more main characters getting whumped within an inch of their lives and Sue bringing them back around. Lots of fun. ;)

And as time went on, she started trying to hook up Daniel and Janet, since she was buddies with Cassandra. That was about the time I started writing real fanfic, heh. I've managed to turn a few of my Sue stories into non-Sue fics, so at least some good came out of it. ;)

I pretty much have a Sue for the vast majority of my fave shows, though that was the only one I ever wrote in any great detail. I even have one for Supernatural, though she doesn't really have any of the blatant Mary Sue qualities. I think I'm kind of over that, after hearing/reading so many people mock them over the years. ;)

[superbadgirl]

Hmm, I really don't think I have done the Mary Sue thing. Though once I was a Mary Sue for a fic someone wrote for my birthday. ;)

[surreallis.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've had way too many to count. Or maybe she was the same one, it's just that she had the power of time-travel and dimension hopping so she could go from fandom to fandom at will! She looked like me and had the same interests, except she could usually sing BEAUTIFULLY! But not the Celine Dion stuff, she was total ROCK 'N ROLL, baby! And she was all willful and belligerent, which made the man of her choice always fall in love with her, because she was SAUCY! And oddly enough, her parents were always dead. I don't know why this was important to me, but it was. And she was usually related to someone in canon, just for that extra cred. Oh, all the world would be against dear Sue, except for her true love who would stand fiercely by her side and DIE for her if necessary. Ahhhh, good times, good times.

[lyore.livejournal.com]

Your Sue is Impressive. Most Impressive :P

Like some of the commenters above, my Sue never made it of my 'Mental TV' and onto paper, due to a combination of laziness and a love of continually rewriting scenarios to suit my mood. Thankfully, this laziness has saved me from having any embarrassing Sue-fic floating around the internet.

Among other things, my Sue was a crossover!Sue. She started out a SW Sue, remarkably like Mara Jade (although in my defence, I invented her long before the EU came on the scene - take that, Timothy Zahn!), but made some forays into Harry Potter, and even, on occasion into SG-1. She was a very versatile Sue :) and sometimes, when I'm bored, I still daydream about her

[brihana25.livejournal.com]

What a fantastic and timely idea! Timely because, as it turns out, just last night I started re-reading The One With the MarySue (which I wrote so long ago that I honestly don't remember what all happens in the story).

Actually, I've created two MarySues, but only one of them made it into a finished story. The other one... well... she became me!

Anyway...

I was 27 when I wrote her, so I should have been old enough to know better. I'd been writing fanfic for years, but had only been on the internet for two years and had no idea that such a thing as "fandom" existed until about six months before I wrote the story she makes her oh-my-God-I-wish-I-could-forget-her appearance in.

Her name is Jaden Peck. She's 19 years old, with wavy blonde hair and "turquoise eyes." She's a college student, Pre-Med actually. Though at one point she does turn and blurt out, "I *am* a doctor!" to someone who was saying they needed one... but she's just full of crap sometimes. Oh, and she can shoot all of her father's guns, because for some reason, he thought it was very important for her to learn. Her mother died of cancer when she was 15, and her father was shot and nearly died not too long after that.

Oh, her father's name is Face. :)

She's not got any of the real "hallmark" signs of being a MarySue. The only really remarkable thing about her is her "turquoise" eyes, but that's really more of an overdone description that annoy the crap out of your readers common color used to describe Face's, and since he's her father, it makes since that her eyes would be the same color.

No, what makes her a true MarySue (and unfortunately the one thing about her that will remain in any rewrite I might do) is her purpose in the story. You see, she's the reason Face left The A-Team. She got so mad at him for nearly dying (so soon after her mother died, and how dare he risk leaving her an orphan, boohoohoo poor her) that she made him promise he'd leave them as soon as they got their pardons.

And despite that, she's also the reason he ends up getting back together with them (because it's obvious they're just as much his family as she is, and she knows she could never abandon Face, what with him being her father, so why did she ever think she could force Face to abandon Hannibal, blahblahblah...)

So yeah, there she is, in all her appalling, revolting, nauseating wondrous glory. Ain't she great?

[http://users.livejournal.com/traycer_/]

Ha! That was great! Hearing about Mary Sue's really lightened up my day. :)

I don't think I've ever written a Mary Sue, although I can't say what others think of my characters. *grins* Of course I didn't start writing my stories down until I was... *cough* well let's just say it was a few years ago. :) Anyway, it was long past my teen years.

But, I do have an original story in my head that will never be written, which did include a Mary Sue. She was not very pretty, had an unhealthy thirst for revenge against the bad guys and was always beaten down by the main character, but she was clearly based on me. And you are right about recycling the better ideas to integrate them into other stories. I can find bits and pieces of the plot ideas from that story (and the others that have been a part of me for a long time) in the fanfiction I write nowadays. Just not the Mary Sue, or should I say the Sheryl Sue. *snicker*

Gosh, I miss that story. Maybe I could revisit it for awhile, in between the SG-1 fics I'm supposed to be working on. Or better yet, create a new one, complete with shiny golden hair that makes her look like an angel, violet eyes and all.

[cnidarian.livejournal.com]

Haha! Classic.
:D

[chickadilly.livejournal.com]

HEE - my Sue would have to fight your Sue then because she was also the ONE AND ONLY 4EVA for Luke Skywalker.

Actually I had more than one Sue - the first was Ciarra Darklighter. She was Bigg's kid sister- then there was Cassandrea (not simply Cassandra - no my Sue was Cass Andrea - shortened to Cassandrea ... HA) and she was also Bigg's sister. Biggs was the oldest and Cassandrea and Ciarra were his little sisters. So of course they were also best friends with Luke growing up. Cassandrea went on to meet Lando and they hooked up.

She of course had raven hair, vibrant blue eyes and was able to play just about any musical instrument ever invented. Ha. Ciarra on the other hand was Force sensitive and Luke trained her to become a Jedi. She was also a clone of some sort - I forget how that worked. Something to do with this woman who became evil Emporess of a planet. I forget what her deal was - I think she and Vader fought it out to be Palpitine's favourite and Vader killed her. Or something.

But anyway then there was Tristi Summersky who turned out to be Han Solo's long lost sister - and of course fell madly in love with Luke.

LOL This is all so hilarious reading it - in fact I think I'm going ot post it on my LJ, too. XD

What can I say? I was also 14. HEE!

[crayonbreakygal.livejournal.com]

Just so you know I totally Mary Sue'd Star Wars too when I was a teenager. Except my character was in love with Han Solo, at least at first. You really can't compete against Leia, now can you. OMG, I can still remember how bad the writing was!

[seacrystal.livejournal.com]

Here goes. :D Only difference is that my OC is a 'he' -- I believe that Gary Stu is the term?

His name is Jonathan Kent, Jon for short. Clark's and Lois' son. He inherited Clark's good looks of course and his mom's tendency to get into trouble. Half of the school was in love with him. He's a heartbreaker of course. But a very kind-hearted guy under all that bluster. He's his mom's rock through the difficult times.

But I love him anyway lol.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bluebells/]

Your story has really brought back some memories for me. I laughed and then laughed some more as I remembered the ridiculousness of my own Sue creation.

She was created to undo the ending of the Peter Pan-inspired film Hook wherein Rufio dies and all are sad -- though inspired -- because Peter Pan leaves them for the really real world at the end of all things.

I may have been eleven when I first started writing and when I finished I was around thirteen, the story spanned two novels and had managed to rope in around five fandoms to aid the Sue's dirty work.

No one (even the author) knew where she came from, although she was most beautious, fiercely tempered and tight-lipped about her purpose in Neverland. With the help of their resurrected leader, she reconciled the Lost Boys who had divided after Pan's departure. She brought to their attention a colony of Amazons that had managed to escape any mention in Sir Barrie's telling of the tale against a legion of Bacchai (sp?) and pirates bent on inter-dimensional conquest!

They had blackmailed the Goblin King (yes, that 1986, cabaret Goblin King) and his family for their interdimensional knowledge, who appealed to the kingdom of kingdoms for help -- Crystal Tokyo and its one Queen Serenity. Of course.

She was a diplomat, a singer, possibly an empath, she wiped the floor with any challenger, and oh, did I mention -- an ice skater? She also became an immortal when I became increasingly aggravated with her and needed to throw her under falling debris, but wasn't convinced she should stay down.

A lot of details escape me, most of them admittedly repressed, but it cracks me up to realise what a Sue'd!crossover it became: Peter Pan, Xena: Warrior Princess, The Labyrinth, Sailor Moon, Star Wars, Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and quite possibly more.

After that epic experience I went on a long writing hiatus, having Sue'd enough for a lifetime. When I went back some years later and realised I'd written nothing more than fanfic, I decided to try again -- without the Sues.

Thank God those stories never met the internet.

[(Anonymous)]

i'm not sure if mine are "sues" or not. i didn't even admit to myself that i wrote fanfic until recently, "holly crap! i write fanfic?!" i just called them "stories".
an OFC didn't show up in any of them until recently. they aren't perfect. they don't have unique eye color or "extra special" names. they aren't very attractive (but others think they are) & are slightly overweight. but they are smart, strong & sarcastic. and will eventually win the heart of the hero.
i've put a version of myself into dozens of TV show & movies over the years, but almost none have made it into fanfic form.