[ SECRET POST #4857 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4857 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 11 secrets from Secret Submission Post #694.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[silverr]

To me it's always been a character with no flaws, who overcomes every obstacle with ease and achieves every goal without effort.

Bo-ring.

[philstar22]

Depends to me. What is a flaw? Superman is generally physically able to overcome most things. But he has flaws still. And his own personality causes him to stop short of overpowering everything because he views it as wrong. So you can still make an overpowered character complex.

[silverr]

Please note that I didn't say anything about being overpowered/superpowered.

The original fandom Mary Sue character didn't have superpowers (unless you consider intelligence and knowledge a superpower), but she also was seen as "perfect in every way" by EVERY character around her. Everyone (including any potential antagonists) either was in love with her or wanted to be her. She solved every problem effortlessly. She never had internal conflicts, never had a Dark Night of the Soul.

Whether it's fanfic or not, a character with no flaws and no struggles isn't relatable, and for me that makes them flat, bland, and uninteresting.

[philstar22]

I guess I'm not sure I've seen that many truly perfect characters. I don't read that many OCs, admittedly. But in published fiction, the characters I see being called sues are the superpowered ones like Rey in the Star Wars sequels who just happen to be good at what they do and smart and people don't like that. That's why I don't like the term. I've never seen it used in a way that was genuinely useful for anything.

[silverr]

I don't consider Rey a Mary Sue either.

The only non-fanfic character I can think of right off that might fit the definition is classic James Bond. (IBF yes, from our perspective he's massively flawed in many ways, but within the Bondverse that never seems to cause him any difficulty.)

[(Anonymous)]

A flaw is a character trait that causes negative consequences. For instance, a character who is too forgiving has that as a flaw if they forgive someone they really shouldn't who then comes back to hurt that character or someone else.

A lot of times, Mary Sues will have character traits that look like flaws on paper but that never actually come back to bite them in practice. It has to be something that actually has a bad side in order to be a real flaw.