Animation Source Forums

In the fan characters section, most of them (not all but A LOT) are Mary-Sue's and Gary-Stus.

This line is very over used, "She is the most beautiful/prettiest/most handsome dog in Nome" and "personality: kind, loving, sweet". Its quite annoying when I'm looking at characters and the majority are "perfect", Its unrealistic because NOBODY is perfect, everyone has their flaws.

Another common line is "Every male dog loves her" Not every male dog will go after one female. There are other females besides this little perfect wh-I mean Mary-Sue xD

The stories are usually about how this perfect girl meets a perfect boy and they have perfect babies. Very Interesting

Saba is always the most popular and pretty girl in Nome
Red Aleu twin is usually just like Balto but more "perfect"

Come on people characters that aren't perfect are far more interesting.

Its taking over the fan characters section like a plague

Be more creative

Rant over

There's nothing wrong with using cliches... if you use them properly.

Other than the fact there are dozens of Mary Sue tests all over the internet, the most useful words in these situations is 'but' and 'if'. For example:

'He was the most handsome dog in Nome but only to himself.'
'She's intelligent if intelligent equals being an egotistical know-it-all who is in way over her head.'
'Every female dog loves Bob but only because he is a racing champion. They do not understand the lonely, insecure child he really is behind his sociable job.'

Yeah, those examples may not be Shakespeare but that's one way to eliminate a cliche. Even if your result is another cliche, it's still better than a boring one.

Yeah I was talking about the people don't use it properly. The people that make their characters boringly perfect if you know what I mean

Yeah, I know. It's just that some character creators on here do use those cliches you mentioned but do use them well. I, for one, cringe inside when I see the 1000th copy of Kodi but as the red Aleu twin or as Dingo.

All they do is remove the lines on kodi's snout and say its dingo lol

Well, that's more or less a rant on rendering. I wasn't referring to that, I was referring to the fact that the personalities between Kodi and Dingo/any other male pup in the litter are pretty much made to be same. Even literal identical twins don't have the same personalities so that's unrealistic right there. xD

Oh I see yeah and they usually make the females have the same personality as Aleu or Jenna

Yeaaa, that's pretty annoying to see. Hate to admit that I've seen alot of that too, and in the past was also victim to creating such characters.

But there are plenty of guides on the internet and lists of "do's and do nots"

One example is this here: http://whyfags.blogspot.com/p/list-of-donts.html

There are tons of others though xD


And on another note, I'm glad I made my version of Saba totally different xD

Mary Sues and Gary Stus are annoying, yes, but they are not at all specific to this site. They exist all over the internet in just about every fandom you can think of with a prominent fanbase. They were around before AnimationSource and will probably exist long after.

As for the part of them plaguing the character section--the character section has been plagued by crap since near after it was first created. Mary Sues are only a part of the problem--there's also severely underdeveloped characters, rendering crap, half-hearted linearts, canon "clones" (not referring solely to markings, either), completely unrelated junk, highly unrealistic patterns and markings, sparkles (to an extent--they've gone down dramatically now that they're banned again), etc. Often more than one of the above.

And then there's the fact that different people have different ideas about what makes a Mary Sue. Take that list that Angel linked to, for example--some of the points lists I adamantly agree with; others, I don't think are so bad as long as they're handled correctly, and a few I think are common, but just fine. Basically, I agree with RJ's point here:



It is exactly these flaws that help make a character more developed. A multi-sided character with complex (but realistic) traits is always more interesting than a flat loved(or hated)-by-all guy. Making sure that you character is thorough is really the best way to make sure that he or she is not a Mary Sue. Good and bad traits (remember that Mary Sues can include the "emo-kickbutt-noonelikesme-dark-insane-bad-guy" as well as the "happy-sappy-perfect-herowhosaveseveryone-guy". It goes both ways.) Neutral/dual-sided traits help, too. Stubbornness, as a brief example, can make a character annoying hard-headed, but it can also give them an undying determination which can be a good thing.


I do see what you're saying about the cliche characters, though, Cookiedough, and yes, they are annoying, especially for the handful of us who do put a lot of effort into our characters. BUT they're not new, and when handled properly, some of those traits can actually be present in very well-developed characters. Now, is that the case with most charries here on AnimationSource, nooo. Of course not. I'm just saying that there's more to making your character non-Sue than just making him or her not-so-kind/loving/sweet.

Nattikay-Very true, its like what was said before those cliche's do make good characters if they are used properly. Some people (mainly kids) don't want their character to have any faults I guess.

I don't fully agree with those. I mean - there are common traits Mary-Sues have but adding one or two to your character doesn't automatically make it a Mary-Sue if you can develop it well despite of those "sue-ish traits". A perfectly normal, ordinary character is just plain boring and almost as bad as Mary-Sue.
For example I have a character that is a survivor of massacre in his village (Sue trait - "last survivor") and is a werewolf (Sue trait - "superpowers/supernatural being) BUT I think I developed him well enough that those two little parts don't make him a stupid, Sue-ish cliche.
Being a relativity/love interest to a canon character is also considered as Mary-Sue-ish yet I've seen many well-made characters like this...

And I second Natti here. Mary Sues and other badly made, undeveloped characters are plaguing character sites on every source here, but there's nothing you can do about them unless they are clearly breaking site rules.

But, I think that's the point they were trying to make though. That if you over-use the cliches, and don't try to put more thought and planning into it, it's a bit pointless..especially if there's a character with a whole TON of those traits just mashed up together.

There's no problem with using such traits if you take the time to develop them and make them believable (: If you read the descriptions under each trait, they do say that.

Also at the bottom of the page, there was this:

Granted, cliches can work out well if done well. But so far I haven't seem a single OC or character used on this site that wasn't an absolute Mary-sue.

First things first, "OC" and "character" are the same thing. XD OC stands for "original character".

Anyways. There are actually some non-Sue fancharacters hiding in the list:

/balto/en ... 42918.html
/balto/en ... 40502.html
/balto/en ... 18945.html
/balto/en ... 44731.html

^Here's a few.

Also, I hate to self-advertise, but I like think that the small handful I have posted are not Sues, either:

/balto/en ... 42656.html
/balto/en ... 39969.html
/balto/en ... 45810.html

But it is certainly true that the number of poorly-made characters and/or Mary Sues VASTLY outnumber the decent characters.

That's a bit harsh, considering that there are a lot of good characters on the site too. Not as many, but good ones. Now none are "perfect" per se, but I know that I, personally try my hardest when making characters.
I dislike Mary sues as much as the next person, and making characters believable can be quite a task.
(No excuse for pure laziness though)