Mary-Sue: Who is She?

Realistic. . . According to the Universe

I’m sure I’ve told you that you have to be as realistic as possible in order for your character to seem, well, real.  Believable.  Three dimensional.  Someone who can practically pop out of your writing or comic and interact with you.  The truth is that was half of an exaggeration.  Yes, be real, but only as real as the universe it takes place in is.  If the universe is more manga-esque or cartoony where the average female can punch a burly person sky-high, and you create a character who doesn‘t do anything of that sort, or if you as the creator think you can‘t do that, then your character can become quite plain because you‘ll restrict yourself.  Basically, be as real, or as loose, as the universe is.  

If you’re a person who constantly makes the, “This is totally unrealistic” comment when reading a story, especially in fan fiction, there is probably a reason for it, and shouldn’t be docked down points until all of the attributes are observed.

Realism vs. The Universe

One of the biggest complaints I’ve read that I’ve even noted about it as well, are women’s breast size.  As silly as that is, this one thing raises so many red flags that the female character may be a Mary-Sue.  Female characters, especially the more important characters, in original stories or fan fiction, can’t have sexual appeal or be endowed in the chest area?  Moreover, who’s to say that having big breasts are even sexually appealing?  (I’m not a guy, so I probably wouldn‘t understand it even if a guy explained it to me.)  I also explained in “Things You Need to Know” that physical description shouldn’t matter too much as long as there is some reason behind it.  In that part, I said, “They only become Mary-Sue traits when it’s without reason, like having big boobs when the character is only thirteen”; however, if the universe’s thirteen year olds have a DD chest naturally, then you can certainly make your character have a large chest without it having fingers pointing at her.  Or him if that‘s how the universe works.

In the Naruto fandom, there are fans that have made female characters, and many of them do have larger than B cup breasts.  As much as an inconvenience to having large breasts should be to a female ninja, it’s genetics and hormones in food that give them that size, so it‘s not the character‘s fault.  Besides, you don’t hear Tsunade, the biggest breasted ninja around, complaining about her assets.  She doesn’t even bind them or wear a bra.  In fact, you don’t hear any of the female characters complaining about their chests!  

Also in Naruto, even though the majority of these characters are fighting during their missions, they don’t wear much armor, and yet those who make fan/original characters without armor get the brunt end of the Mary-Sue Killers for not being real enough.  The most armor I’ve seen on the average canon character are the clothes on their backs, their headbands, and a vest if they‘ve earned that rank.  That’s it.  No one wears flexible chain mail, helmets, some wear kneepads and elbow pads, and only a few wear leg or arm plates.  Yet the fans that make characters for their stories have to think about armor in order for their character to seem realistic?  If you want more realism in something like this, complain to the creators, not the fans who imitate what they see.

Even the character’s background stories, and how it affects the character’s personality, can be unrealistic in some universes.  Have you really ever met someone who was so shy that they actually fainted (on more than one occasion) whenever the person he or she liked talked to them?  Or, a person who seemed to be on a constant sugar-high with no crash?  How about someone who has a patience of a saint, and never ever seems to get mad, even in the most frustrating of situations?  It’s fun to compare your friends to these kinds of characters, but you’ll realize that you haven’t really met anyone with those kinds of personalities.  None of these examples are realistic character personality traits, and yet used in animated shows.  Granted, those characters aren’t like that one hundred percent of the time, but are like that most of the time.  They are fictional cartoons and aren’t supposed to be taken seriously, so writing in those kinds of universe, fan fiction or original fictions, should be looser, than realistic, depending on what kind of story you’re writing.