Mary-Sue Litmus Test by TuJiaoZuo

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Mary-Sue Litmus Test

POSTED BY: TUJIAOZUO
UPDATED: Saturday, June 13, 2009 22:02
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Saturday, March 21, 2009 8:29 PM

So, I was bored, and kind bummed I must leave home to return to the shining spires of the city to go back to school (love the city! School right now is somewhat debatable) and in between reading up on Transhumanism (long story), Parahumanism (even longer story), and reading the Gargoyle Series Bible (not so long of a story), I refound my link to the Mary Sue Litmus Test.

http://www.springhole.net/quizzes/marysue.htm

I also decided that I needed to test some characters in my stories just for funsies. Not that I feared they are Mary Sues (because I have written those, and they are ugly business), but just to see that if I was honest, what everyone would get.

Results!

-Fiyero: 12 (and I thought he would be more or less bordering on the in danger of being GaryStu)

-Tasya: 29

-The Twins (Dakota and Liam): 7 ("huh"- Malvoice)

-Virgil East: 15

-River (using both Josses character points and the ones I brought in with my arcs): 29

Anyone else want to give it a try? I am in no way saying that the Litums test is the end all-be all of whether or not your OC is marysue. I just tend to test it out from time to time and am curious as to what others would get (I think some of Joss' own characters would rank pretty high actually lol).

*Ash is no way associated with transhumanism, parahumanism, or gargoyles.... alright she has a gargoyle's t-shirt but that's it*

Your Indian Pirate Lord,
Ash

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Sunday, March 22, 2009 8:18 AM

PLATONIST

There does seem to be a few Marysues and Garystues running rampant in the BSR. I'm proud of you for taking the personal responsibility and dipping yours in the Litmus Test, but then again I would expect nothing less than a conscious effort from you:)

Tasya: really?

And River, yeah, Joss was walking that line there. At least he didn't add the romance points.

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Sunday, March 22, 2009 8:34 AM

BYTEMITE

Ooh!

I have a tendency to stay away from writing OCs except for minor, stock, or villainous characters for this reason.

I think sometimes a good villain benefits a little from being slightly overpowered or too charming/likeable. Makes them extra scary and creepy when their dark side shows up. Especially if the villain starting out seeming like one of the good guys, and your readers get to watch his or her descent.

Haven't had a whole lot of practice with that theory though, so I don't know how sound it is.

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Sunday, March 22, 2009 9:58 AM

PLATONIST

One of my students from writing lab found this the other day:
http://hate.artificial-soul.net/marysue/about.php
We were cracking up because we were discussing fanfic as a relatively new genre, and I was possibly contemplating letting them do a self insertion to get the creative juices flowing. Of course this would have subjected me to reading 30 or so romantic fic in the Twilight fandom, but hey it serves its purpose.

Oh, and I'll take a morally bankrupt villain any day over a wanna be new crew member, unless they are blind in one eye, with hideous scars and want to cook:)

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Sunday, March 22, 2009 10:28 AM

BYTEMITE

Although, not all self-insertions are Sues, not all Sues are self-insertions, and not all OCs are either/both. It does happen a lot though, often enough that most people don't make a distinction.

Villainous self-insertions can be really ridiculous, although whenever I see those it tends to be in the form of fourth-wall breaking author characters who appear randomly to frustrate and mock the main cast. I don't think I've ever seen a serious villain self-insertion, who that plays a major role in the plot against the heroes/world/whatever.

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Sunday, March 22, 2009 10:48 AM

PLATONIST

I think that is where the litmus test comes in, or the Mary-Sue Filter, that is used to reject.

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Sunday, March 22, 2009 11:07 AM

BYTEMITE

Hmm, point.

You know, as I look through the list, to be perfectly honest, I kind of wish I'd thought of some of those abilities and plot twists for my original stories. ._. Can't deny that some of them are kind of cool.

EDIT: Also, doing multiple characters at once yields hilarious results.

Hmm. The protagonist from my oldest original story got a score of 25. I figured they would be the most Sue-ish of all my characters, since they went around teaching magic in a world where it had kind of been forbidden, and they had the whole tragic past angle. Thank goodness I don't tend towards "kirking" of any sort.

Does the poetic description thing count if you tend to go overboard on the flowery language when describing EVERYTHING?

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Sunday, March 22, 2009 12:31 PM

WAKEUPSOON

There's a part of me which feels that I must do this for a famous character ... mebbe Harry Potter .. Lol.

Wow .. apparently Harry Potter has a score of 85 :|

Lol .. that actually entertains me. (Y)

~WuS
This is not my signature, I have to write this every time I post.
Smile && Nod, it makes it seem like you know what's going on.

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Sunday, March 22, 2009 1:54 PM

BRIGLAD

Interesting...

I think I took it right but I may not have.

My OC Allan scored a 98!!!!!

Probably did it wrong.

Oh well, the 9's and 10's I get for ratings tell me otherwise.

I imagine Jane's Freya would score high as well.

Brian

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Sunday, March 22, 2009 2:47 PM

BYTEMITE

I just did Mal to amuse myself, he scores a 22.

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Sunday, March 22, 2009 3:57 PM

PLATONIST

Nandi must be off the chart, no wonder she's dead.

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Sunday, March 22, 2009 5:15 PM

BYTEMITE

I know you meant that for a joke, but I'm picturing her pulling some sort of magical girl transformation, and WOW, lemee tell you.

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Monday, March 23, 2009 4:30 PM

TUJIAOZUO

Quote:
Originally posted by Platonist:

Tasya: really?

Yeah I was a tad surprised myself.

River though, I actually thought she would rate higher.

Quote:
Originally posted by Platonist:
Of course this would have subjected me to reading 30 or so romantic fic in the Twilight fandom, but hey it serves its purpose.

You're a very brave person.

Quote:
Oh, and I'll take a morally bankrupt villain any day over a wanna be new crew member, unless they are blind in one eye, with hideous scars and want to cook:)

New crew members are the most obvious Marysues. They're the easiest to accidentally turn into Marysues too. It's why I can't touch the series I had before New Haven. Ru and Gambit? I don't know what happened there, but it was there since the beginning (aaaannd I just tested Ru, 68, ouch), and I knew about it, but I think I was in a state of denial as it was my first FF fanfic and I usually screw the first ones up royally.

Quote:
a part of me which feels that I must do this for a famous character ... mebbe Harry Potter .. Lol.

Wow .. apparently Harry Potter has a score of 85 :|

Lol .. that actually entertains me. (Y)

~WuS
Quote:

Quote:
Originally posted by Platonist:
Nandi must be off the chart, no wonder she's dead.

Buffy got a 47.

Your Indian Pirate Lord,
Ash

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Saturday, June 13, 2009 10:02 PM

ANOTHERSKY

And canon River comes in at a whopping 84, at least the way I entered it.

Ouch. Joss is a genius--she's literally microns away from being a mary sue--in less capable hands, she WOULD be a mary sue. Mwah ha. CANON Mary Sue,mwah ha ha ha, the SCARIEST MARY SUE OF ALL TI-- ...ahem.

On the other hand, I was looking over some of the other characters...there are a few approching max altitude here.
But yes, that's why Nandi was dead.

And why I was convinced River would die in Serenity.

Going for a ride.

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