What's a Mary Sue?

[donnaimmaculata]

No, honestly. I entered aldalindil's It's All Been Done Fest with the pairing Lupin/OFC. Now, I consider all OFCs whose major (or sole) purpose is to shag the male character the author finds attractive a Mary Sue, regardless of how well she's written. I mean, no-one writes an OFC who ends up with Hagrid, right? They all get their chance with Snape/Black/Lupin/Harry/Draco. I don't mind such Mary Sues, either. I have read and enjoyed very well written ones, but still, following the definition of Mary Sue = author's self insert, I do think they are Mary Sues.

So what do you think? Does Mary Sue refer merely to half-elven, half-unicorn American transfer student with super special mega powers and a dark secret? Or is every OFC who shags the author's crush a Mary Sue?


And here, gacked from everyone and their sister, the Hottest Pairings Ever:

Hottest "Gods I hate you, let's shag NOW!" pairing:	Snape/Black
Hottest "All about teh Luff" pairing:	Padfoot/Crookshanks
Hottest "Kinky beyond reason" pairing:	Voldemort/Trevor
Hottest "This is so very sick but I LOVE it" pairing:	Dobby/Draco
Hottest "OMFG this is so illegal" pairing:	Dudley/Aunt Marge
Hottest "Master and Slave" pairing:	Albus/Argus
Hottest "Morally ambiguous" pairing:	Bill/Ginny
Hottest "So effing CLICHE, but I don't care" pairing:	Harry/Ginny
Hottest "Father and Son bonding taken to the next level" pairing:	Tom Riddle Sen./Tom Riddle Jr.
Hottest Threesome pairing:	Sirius/Severus/Remus
Hottest "The more the merrier" pairing (orgy):	Sirius/Severus/Remus/Bill/Kingsley
Hottest "We're just friends that happen to shag" pairing:	Sirius/Remus
Hottest "WTF that would NEVER happen" pairing:	Minerva/Sirius
Hottest "First Time" pairing:	Sirius/Harry
Hottest "They're both so deliciously evil" pairing:	Bellatrix/Mrs. Black

The Harry Potterverse Pairings Survey brought to you by BZOINK!

I actually read the Trevor/Voldemort one. It makes sense. Really.

Comments

[taelle.livejournal.com]

For me there are two main signs of a Mary Sue. First, she's better than the canon characters at what they do - better than Ron at chess, better than Hermione at research, a better Seeker than Harry etc, and the second, and the most important - they start *teaching* everyone. You know, when an OC who appeared a day ago stops the Trio's quarrel and lectures about the importance of friendship, suddenly convinces Neville to be more sure of himself, stumbles on a depressed Lupin and starts explaining to him that him being a good person is more imoprtant than lycanthropy... that's Mary Sue for you. She can be not romantically with anyone in the story, can be relatively well written, but she's the one.

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

Ah yes. That's very true - the typical Mary Sue tends to preach a lot and improve everybody's life. She silkyfies Snape's hair, promotes relationships etc...

The point is, where does Mary Sue stop and the OC start? Every OFC I introduce must have something special about them, because otherwise there's no point including them in the story. An OFC must be important to the plot in some way. Of course, a blatant Mary Sue is easily spotted, but how much influence is an OFC allowed to have on the canon characters before she turns into a Mary Sue?

Questions, questions...

[taelle.livejournal.com]

I doubt there are clear-cut limits, but... the focus, I guess. I mean, most people's main interest in life isn't fixing up people you just met, especially if they're older etc. What's he focus of the OCs eexitence in this story& If it's interfering with the canon charas'lives or something like that, it's a Mary Sue.