It's the Mary Sue Litmus Test!

[Shwoo]

Okay, so this isn't a specifically KND litmus test, but it was fun testing characters. If you didn't know, Mary Sues are characters who are perfect in every way. That's a basic description, anyway. Their male equivilants are usually called Marty Stus or Gary Stus.

Here it is

I tested a bunch of characters, two of which I own. It was fun. The author of the test wrote the descriptions of the different degrees of Mary Sues, not me.

Father: 13 points: The non-sue: Your character is a well-developed, balanced person, and is almost certainly not a Mary Sue. Congratulations!

I wanted to do someone who was defintetly not a Sue or Stu. Half of those points were from his powers.

Numbuh 239 (One of my OCs): 13 points: The non-sue: Your character is a well-developed, balanced person, and is almost certainly not a Mary Sue. Congratulations!

Unpleaseant personality traits and lack of angst save us from Sue-ish-ness!

Me: 16 points: The Non-Sue. Your character is a well-developed, balanced person, and is almost certainly not a Mary Sue. Congratulations!

Yay, I'm well developed! I have no idea why I tested myself on that thing.

Numbuh Five: 41 points: Mary-Sue. Your character needs some work in order to be believable. But despair not; you should still be able to salvage her with a little effort. Don't give up.

Heh heh.

Ayla from Earth's Children: 79 points: Irredeemable-Sue. You're going to have to start over, my friend. I know you want to keep writing, but no. Just no.

She's like, the quintesstential Mary-Sue in original fiction. The has a tragic angsty past, she's beautiful, everyone loves her, that kind of thing.

Nathalie's character: 91 points: Irredeemable-Sue. You're going to have to start over, my friend. I know you want to keep writing, but no. Just no.

0_0

[kawaiilildevil]

I took that test for my characters.

Numbuh 515 - 4. The Anti-Sue. Your character is the very antithesis of a Mary-Sue. Why are you even taking this test?

Numbuh 286 - 4. The Anti-Sue. Your character is the very antithesis of a Mary-Sue. Why are you even taking this test?

Numbuh 413 - 7. The Anti-Sue. Your character is the very antithesis of a Mary-Sue. Why are you even taking this test?

Woo! My characters aren't Sues/Stus!! *boogies*

[scone]

w00t!

Numbuh 202 got an 18 (the angst added so many points, XD) and 28 got herself a 14.

yay for nonsues! though really, considering the test seems skewed towards older/possibly fantasy based series... i mean, most our OCs have to omit both the nonhuman and the high school portion. soo... >_>

[Shwoo]

Nathalie's character still scored unnaturally highly, even though she isn't an immortal in high school. Probably.

Maybe this fandom needs its own litmus test.

[kylohk]

I tested Numbuh 3, and she gets 43 points. So, she's a Mary Sue: Your character needs some work in order to be believable. But despair not; you should still be able to salvage her with a little effort. Don't give up.

God knows why there seems to be no optimal stat, and the people who aren't perfect are favored in this test. And it is supposed to be good for a person to be PERFECT! (Congrats, Bono)

[Shwoo]

God knows why there seems to be no optimal stat, and the people who aren't perfect are favored in this test.

Pardon?

[kylohk]

When an Anti-Sue is found, the stat says, Congratulations to the author. I would have thought the other way.

[Shwoo]

Um... Why? Mary-Sues are bad.

[kylohk]

But still, even the most (relatively) perfect character would have interesting things to write about. It seems that Numbuh 4 got only 24 points. (In spite of his name!)

21-35 points: Borderline-Sue. Your character is cutting it close, and you may want to work on the details a bit, but you're well on your way to having a lovely original character. Good work.

If writers follow the stats to the fullest, I think the character will end up being far too dull. Since I am interested in the features asked about in the test questions whenever I read, or watch a show.

[scone]

perfect characters are boring. when a character is so beautiful and powerful and awesome that they can do whatever (and whoever) they want, whenever they want... it's not fun to read about! people have flaws! they are petty or selfish or arrogant or clumsy etc etc etc, and that's what makes them interesting, as people.

summation - mary sues = perfect = boring = bad writing.

clanker said:

Maybe this fandom needs its own litmus test.

yeah, it does. lots of fandoms have their own, and the generic one will automatically score most OCs too low, just 'cause you have to leave out the "non-human" part and the "high school" part (unless they're older.)

[kylohk]

Having a closer look at the questions, I doubt whether the test is a "perfect" character test. It seems that even flaws score points. A character with a lot of abilities, although not perfect will still be considered bad by this test. (And Tommy will score an obscenely high score since his name is similar to Tom Warburton's.)

Since there are so many exceptional cases, this test must be unreliable. Since bias towards certain characters, as scone says, exists.

[Shwoo]

kylohk said:

(And Tommy will score an obscenely high score since his name is similar to Tom Warburton's.)

No he wouldn't. You only get those points if the name is exactly the same.

And flaws take away points.

[kylohk]

But the problem is that there are not enough flaws to deduct points with for normal people. And, any villians would have an advantage in the test since they are bound to have lots of evil features that are considered flaws by the test.

According to the test, if the name of the character is made to be the nickname of the author, 20 points are given. In my experience, adding a y sound (eg. Johnny, Tommy) at the end of a name is considered a nickname.

[Shwoo]

(Rereads)
I assumed that they meant the entire name with the brackets.

And even if you do assume that Tommy is a nickname for Tom, Tommy would still only score 30 points. That's a borderline Sue.

[numbuheightbitstar]

I dunno about a Litmus test, but my own Guide to Writing Fanfiction had a section on how to avoid writing Mary Sues that mentioned the following "red flags" to look out for:

-They're named after you, or you're named after them (this includes internet aliases and
nick-names), or they have a similar name (such as Jamey instead of James).
-They're modeled after a character from Street Fighter II, X-Men, or whatever your
favorite/second favorite anime, video game, comic, book, or cartoon is (that is, they have
the same or similar abilities and attacks).
-They never (or almost never) lose a fight. They never even get hurt.
-They never (or almost never) lose an arguement, and end up leading the team instead of
Numbuh One (not necessarily officially, but they make most of the plans and start giving the
majority of the orders).
-They end up romantically involved with the author's favorite canonical character.
-They never need help... in fact it's usually everyone else that needs him (or her)!
-They have an angsty past or blame themselves for something that isn't really their fault
(this is usually a cheap attempt to make a character more sympathetic and likeable).
-When they're first introduced in the story, they're already well-known or considered a
legend.