Comments on: The Mary Sue Meme http://bit-of-ivory.com/2004/06/16/the-mary-sue-meme/ "on which I work with a brush so fine as to produce little effect after much labour" -- Jane Austen Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:57:51 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.41 By: Kat http://bit-of-ivory.com/2004/06/16/the-mary-sue-meme/#comment-762 Sat, 19 Jun 2004 20:08:09 +0000 http://bit-of-ivory.com/?p=621#comment-762 Thanks for the explanation. I have the same problems with Hermione in PoA (the movie, of course). And Ron’s character suffers terribly because of it.

]]> By: Emily http://bit-of-ivory.com/2004/06/16/the-mary-sue-meme/#comment-761 Thu, 17 Jun 2004 20:44:02 +0000 http://bit-of-ivory.com/?p=621#comment-761 A Mary Sue is an original character in fanfiction who is Practically Perfect In Every Way. She usually has an unusual color of eyes, hair, or both, is the long-lost relative of Harry or Ron or Snape or Dumbledore, and/or one of their love interests. She has unusual magical powers, without which it would be impossible to defeat Voldemort. She’s often an exchange student (usually from America, but sometimes from Beauxbatons or Durmstrang), or she’s been there since Harry was and we’ve just never noticed her existence, and that she’s somehow become either the fourth member of the Trio or has replaced Ron or Hermione. Most of all, she is a self-insertion, created just so the girl in question can sort-of-live her fantasy of going to Hogwarts and dating the Guy of Her Dreams and Saving the World.

She’s named after a character in an early Star Trek fanfic who not only had Kirk and Spock in love with her, but every other male member of the crew. Suprisingly, this does not make the female members of the crew jealous; on the contrary, she is everyone’s best friend. She manages to save the Enterprise, but only by tragically giving up her own life, whereupon she is universally mourned. She has since spread to other fandoms, and even occasionally shows up in original fiction. We like to call Hermione’s characterization in the PoA “Hermione Sue” because all of a sudden she has no flaws, can handle taking an insane schedule without almost killing herself, doesn’t interefere with Harry’s Firebolt and therefore never fights with Harry, knows absolutely EVERYTHING, takes all of Ron’s best lines, and is beautiful to boot. Drives us mad.

Jen’s LJ is at http://susy_gwen.livejournal.com.

]]> By: Kat http://bit-of-ivory.com/2004/06/16/the-mary-sue-meme/#comment-760 Thu, 17 Jun 2004 20:20:37 +0000 http://bit-of-ivory.com/?p=621#comment-760 I hate to ask and sound like such an idiot, but exactly what is Mary Sue?

And moving on, do you have Jen’s new live journal address? All I have is her old Blogger blog.

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