Mary Sue
1
9.6
- noun
- /ˈmɛri su/
- Jargon
:
Mary Sue
- Mary Sue (n.): 1.
Examples
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I personally know some Mary Sues.
Blog text (3) -
Alice Prospero has got to be the biggest Mary Sue in storytelling history.
Blog text (29) -
These movies are essentially really awful fanfics with a Mary Sue for a protagonist.
Blog text (29) -
The Mary Sue posted a snippet of an interview from The Talk where she jokes about the possibility of "Old Leia."
Blog text (3) -
There's just no other explanation for Blake's nauseating level of Mary Sue-itude.
Blog text (3) -
In many fanfictions, the main character can often be a Mary Sue, lacking significant flaws.
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Critics argue that when a character is too perfect, they may be labeled a Mary Sue by readers.
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The concept of a Mary Sue is often discussed in writing communities to highlight unrealistic portrayals of characters.
Synonyms
1
5.1
A girl or woman someone thinks is perfect and very attractive
Surface Forms
Morphology
Mary + Sue
The components 'Mary' and 'Sue' are simply proper names and carry no semantic cues that would indicate 'an unrealistically perfect, author‑insert character.' The term is a culturally specific, idiomatic label from fan fiction communities, so a B1 learner who only knows the names would not be able to derive the specialized meaning.
Etymology
Mary Sue comes from a 1970s fan story where a young character called Mary Sue arrived, everyone admired her and she had no real problems. One popular story says writers began using Mary Sue to mean a fictional person who is 'too perfect' or seems to be the author's own ideal self.