Mary Sue Litmus Tests

[Razor One]

For when you just aren't certain that you've evaded the scourge...

Test 1
Test 2

If you fail both tests, may God, Lucifer, Zeus, Dr. Zaius and Optimus Prime have mercy on your writing soul...

[Sapphire]

I did the universal test, but some of the questions were unfair when applied to the Beast Wars universe, like "is your character a cross-breed or hybrid". One could argue all Transformers who take on animal modes are hybrids of sorts. My character was a fuzor, but that's canon, as Silverbolt and Quickstrike were fuzors too.

I found this one particularly unfair: Is your character the same gender as you?

So what? I've written male OCs and female OCs. I had a female one in mind at the time, but just because she is a femme shouldn't make her more mary-sueish. :/

Despite all that, though, I got a low score for Myst. But I don't think a "universal" Mary Sue test quite works. Or perhaps BW is just too weird for it.

[Razor One]

It tends to be a general trend that Mary Sue's are of the same gender as the person writing it. In general all characters, despite not being Sue in any fashion, rack up a few points on the tests.

A small score is essentially nothing to worry about. A high score is.

And I do agree, the tests dont fit precisely in a Beast Wars frame, question 57 on the first test for instance "Does your character have the ability to shapeshift?" applies to all Transformers.

It might be prudent to create a Beast Wars oriented Sue test. I'll see what I can do when I rack up some spare time.

[Razor One]

Right, heres an Alpha version based on Test 1. I've removed a bunch of questions that didnt apply and altered a few that could logically apply. It's far from perfect though and still in need of heavy modification to be a true BW Sue test.

Begin:

Is/does your character's name...

Your name, variation of your name, nickname, or any name that has been applied to you? (Spelling it differently or changing it a little counts.)

Any ordinary (human) name spelled or changed so that it's more unusual?

A boyish sounding name for a girl character?

A variation or pun of a canon character's name?

The name of a major character from another fandom that you like?

A really unusual-sounding name that you made up yourself?

Unusual for your character's time, place, and/or faction?

Chosen specifically because you and/or a character in the story thought it had a meaning appropriate for your character?

Does your character have an unusually long name, or more than one name that he/she goes by?

Does your character have a cool or dangerous-sounding nickname?

Would you like to have your character's name?

Is your character's name or something relating to your character in the title of the story?

Is your character somewhere (Psychologically) around 13-21 years old?

Is your character the same gender as you?

Is your character described as very beautiful, irresistably cute, or really handsome?

Do you find your character attractive?
Does anyone fight or squabble over your character because of his/her looks?
Do any canon characters become jealous of your character?
Do any characters see his/her attractiveness as a threat?

Do you introduce and/or describe your character on the first page?

Do you describe your character's beautiful/handsome/cute attributes (hair, eyes, etc.) more than once, or on the first page?

Do you use poetic and/or creative terms to describe your character?
Conversely, do you go to great lengths describing how your character is not gorgeous?

Does your character's description contain anything to the effect of "Looks just like <canon character> except..."

Does your character remain sexy after fighting battles, being tortured, or taking extensive damage?

Given the universe and your character's race (wierd is relative), does he/she have an unusual feature that fits into the below categories?

Unusually colored eyes?
Do your character's eyes change color or flash for any reason?
Unusual feature of any other kind? (Nifty birthmark, tattoo, etc.)
Will any of this become a plot point?

Does your character have some scar or small flaw that is noticed by another character, but does not actually detract from your character's appearance?

Is your character of a species that is not normally found in the fandom for which you are writing? (IE, Dalek)

Is your character impervious to any of the normal limitations and/or weaknesses of his/her species? (IE, immune to Energon Buildup)

Is your character descended from BOTH Autobot and Decepticon?

Does he/she posess the strengths of both Factions, but none of the weaknesses?
Or does your character have all of the weaknesses, but none of the strengths? - Minus 4!

Does your character tend to get in trouble with authority?

Making them look like bad guys in the process?
Is your character punished more severely than is usual?

Is your character openly defiant or disrespectful of his/her superiors?

Does your character get away with things that most people would get into serious trouble for? (Like openly defying his/her superiors.)

Does your character employ maverick or unconventional tactics?

Does your character have a spitfire personality, sharp wit, attitude, and/or strong temper?

Is your character easily provoked to anger and/or violence?

Especially after "being made fun of?"
Has your character ever killed someone after being provoked?

Does your character have some sort of mental disorder, such as psychosis or a split personality? (Actual, mental retardedness does not count.)

Is revenge one of your character's main motivations?

Does your character suffer from amnesia?

If/when your character discovers his/her past, will he/she not like it?
And/or discover that he/she is actually someone of great importance?

Does your character give out wisdom and advice to other characters in general?

Does your character share tastes or a hobby with a canon character?

Is your character unusually accomplished for his/her age and/or social status? (IE, a character like Cheetor (S1) being in Command)

Is your character the best or among the best at anything he/she does?

Is he/she well-known for any of these?

Ah, the sound of music! Does your character...

Have a beautiful singing voice?
Play a musical instrument very well?
Is this instrument a guitar, harp, or flute?
Can he/she charm others with his/her musical talent?

Does your character possess telekinetic or telepathic abilities without being Transmetal 2?

Does your character have the ability to shapeshift? (Beyond regular Transformation)

Does your character posess power that can take out cities/legions of soldiers/general all-around-evil?

Does your character end up in a tight spot and discover that he/she has really powerful powers that were dormant and/or unknown before?

Does your character succeed at virtually everything he/she tries?

Does he/she learn new skills so quickly that he/she is able to do them as well or nearly as well as those who have been practicing for years?

On the other hand, if your character does bungle almost everthing, is he/she quickly and easily forgiven for it?

Does your character ever take out more armed forces (EG, security guards, soldiers) single-handedly than you can count on one hand using his/her kick-butt skills?

Is your character just as good or even better at the jobs and/or skills of one or more canon characters? (EG, better Spy then Rattrap, better Scout then Cheetor, better Leader then Optimus etc)

Does he/she have the talents, skills, and/or abilities of several canon characters combined?

Is anyone envious of your character's talents and/or abilities?

Because he/she constantly beats them at their own game/games?

Does your character possess a weapon or artifact that is not normal in the universe he/she is in? (For example, a lightsaber)

Does your character possess a unique trinket that is magical and/or has some special significance?

Does this trinket protect your character from some weakness?
Is it similar to and/or somehow relates to a canon character's previously-unique trinket?

Is your character closely related to a canon character?

The sibling?
The child?
The lost child/sibling?
The twin/clone?
Are the parents canon characters that seem very unlikely to get together?
Do other characters comment on or are amazed by how much your character looks like his/her canon relative?
If your character is not actually related, does he/she have other connections to the canon characters?

Is your character liked by all the canon characters you like?

Do they care for your character more than they care for their canon friends?
Would any canon character die for your character? (Unless, of course, said canon character would pretty much die for any casual friend/aquaintance.)
Even characters that are not known for their friendly, outgoing attitudes?
Do characters who don't like your character from the start like him/her by the end, or at least have a grudging respect?

Does your character become the boyfriend/girlfriend of a canon character?
Sleep with a canon character?
End up married to him/her?
Or give up this romance for some greater good/noble purpose?
Does the canon love interest break up with a previous love in order for any of this to happen?
Does your character fall for the characters that that you fall for?

Does your character make canon characters realize their romantic feelings for each other?
Did a 'something special' not exist at all until your character came along?
Does this romance contradict a character's previously-established orientation?

Is your character undeservingly despised by most people?

Does your character consider his/her talents, special abilities, or good looks to be a curse?

Does your character manage to become friends with a villain, and through this friendship cause the villain to become reformed?

Does the villain revert back to his old ways, but retains some bit of goodness, causing the villain to commit some selfless act at the end?

Is your character's history remarkably similar to the history of a canon character?

Is your character involved in a canon character's past somehow?
In a way that was definitely not in the original story?

On the subject of your character and his/her family...

Was your character orphaned, abandoned, kicked out, or at least raised by a family/person that was not his/her own family?
Was a major villain responsible for the death of the parents?
Was your character responsible for the death of his/her parents?
Did the parents die in a fire?
Did your character witness the death of his/her parents?
Was he/she adopted by a cruel family or person?
Ran away at any point?
Raised him/herself?
Lived in the streets?
The very last or only survivor of anything?
Adopted by another species/racial group?

What about any of these?

Born/raised in extreme poverty?
Born/forced into slavery?
Banished from anywhere?
A member of a despised race?
An illegitimate child?
The parent of an illegitimate child?
Abused?
Raped?

Has your character otherwise lost...

A child?
Lover?
Close friend?

Did anything else remarkably strange or otherwise unusual happen in your character's infancy?

If your character has a torment-ridden, pain-filled past, do you believe it excuses his/her actions?

Is your character a 20th/21st century Earth citizen transported to another time/world? - Ignore if this is a normal occurance

If the above does not apply, is your character from another time, world, or reality?

Another published universe?

If female, does or did your character run away to escape an unwanted marriage?

Does your character feel guilty for something that he/she did in the past?

Death of the hero's family?
Death of his/her own family?
Does your character become convinced by the hero that it wasn't his/her fault?

Is the story told all or mostly from your character's point of view?

Do the adventures of your character mirror or closely resemble the adventures of any of the canon characters? - Ignore if this is because it happens to pretty much everyone in the canon.

Does your character save the canon characters from a situation or come up with a solution that they probably could have done by themselves in the original? (Admittedly, lead characters tend to be phenomenally lucky, but still...)

Does he/she solve the personal problems of any canon character?

Does your character tell off, beat up, humiliate, outdo, or kill a character to whom you would personally like to do the same?

At any point, does your character take over the job/position of a canon character?
Because it's a position that you think is interesting or fun?
Because you think that the character who already does this job isn't good enough?
Does your character take over this job permanantly?

Does your character start out good, but gets turned to evil by the villain?

If your character is a villain, does he/she become reformed at the end of the story?
By an act of kindness on the part of the hero?

Is your character hated and/or wanted by a major villain?
For no apparent reason?
Something that has to do with your character's family, and not your character him/herself?

Is your character ever spared by a villain?
Despite the fact that he/she has already done massive damage to the villain, the villain's troops, and/or stronghold?
Because the villain is attracted to your character?

Does your character single-handedly accomplish what no-one has managed to do so far?

Does your character end up saving the day and/or the life of another character?
Magically or mystically?
Does your character die in the process? (Any nasty irreversable thing, like getting sent to an inescapable dimension count, too.)
By almost dying?
Does everyone mourn the death of your character?
Is he/she revived by the end of the story?
Is he/she revived in the sequel?

Would you like to be friends with your character?

Do you imagine you are this character? - Skip if the only imagining you do is when you write the story.

Do you feel insulted, attacked, or defensive when someone does not like your character?

Did you feel that this test insulted or attacked you or your character?

**

This next part detracts from all of the above. Every point “ticked” should annul one of the above points.

Is your character honestly ugly, and stays ugly throughout the entire story?

Is your character physically disabled, and has nothing to make up for it? (Ala Transmutate)

Is he/she truly mentally disabled, IE, retarded, and has no powers because or despite of this?

Does your character have a truly debilitating phobia that does not mysteriously disappear at a crucial moment?

[Miss Special]

I have a problem with a few of these. Some of them confuse lack of creativity with unoriginality. Sues might be the epitome uncreativity or originality, but there are some questions here that I think are way too nitpicky:

Is your character somewhere (Psychologically) around 13-21 years old?
People write what they know and then go from there. Since most fanauthors are in this age range, that's the type of people they write.

Do you introduce and/or describe your character on the first page?
This is really hard to avoid. Also, if you introduce a character without a modicum of description, the reader has to substitute something for the character's appearance. I tend to use a gray blob roughly in the shape of a person. It kind of detracts from the mental picture.

Does your character's description contain anything to the effect of "Looks just like <canon character> except..."
This is more uncreativity and laziness than anything. Not good, but not really Sueish, either.

Does your character share tastes or a hobby with a canon character?
Oh noes! Another character likes flowers! A Sue! A Sue!


Anyways, that's just my two cents. I tend to dislike litmus tests because they give rabid Sue-hunters something to attack the Suethors with. I'll try not to get preachy here, but attacking Sues isn't terribly helpful. Suethors need to be helped, not ridiculed, and those who refuse help should just be left alone and ignored.
I'm not trying to defend Sues, but it's become really popular to hate them without trying to fix them and I don't think litmus tests are the solution.

[Razor One]

Is your character somewhere (Psychologically) around 13-21 years old?
People write what they know and then go from there. Since most fanauthors are in this age range, that's the type of people they write.

Good point, in my next run I'll strike that one outright.

Do you introduce and/or describe your character on the first page?
This is really hard to avoid. Also, if you introduce a character without a modicum of description, the reader has to substitute something for the character's appearance. I tend to use a gray blob roughly in the shape of a person. It kind of detracts from the mental picture.

Another good point. I think I'll modify this particular question to include some kind of clause such as "In excessive detail", excessive detail meaning more then a paragraph or two which is all that is really needed to describe a character adequately. Exceptions of course do abound.

Does your character's description contain anything to the effect of "Looks just like <canon character> except..."
This is more uncreativity and laziness than anything. Not good, but not really Sueish, either.

Agreed, but I'm not sure if I should strike it from the test.

Does your character share tastes or a hobby with a canon character?
Oh noes! Another character likes flowers! A Sue! A Sue!

Another good point. Again, I'll consider striking outright on my next run through.

Anyways, that's just my two cents. I tend to dislike litmus tests because they give rabid Sue-hunters something to attack the Suethors with. I'll try not to get preachy here, but attacking Sues isn't terribly helpful. Suethors need to be helped, not ridiculed, and those who refuse help should just be left alone and ignored.
I'm not trying to defend Sues, but it's become really popular to hate them without trying to fix them and I don't think litmus tests are the solution.

Dont get me wrong here, I'm not attempting to attack authors that unfortunately or invariably write in Sue's but rather as an attempt at a self-help guide to avoiding the scourge entirely.

And it should be noted that even Canon characters will rack up a few points. It's alright to have a few of the traits that the test lists and perhaps even up to half the points it mentions. Having a majority of the points weighted on a character is a cause for concern.

Helping budding writers help themselves is the best cure for Mary Sueism, unless of course one writes a Sue on purpose, in which case thats a different ballgame.

I'm going by the old adage "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime.".

Of course what people dont know is that adage is incomplete. It should read "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime... unless Rampage eats him first."

My object here was not ridicule, but rather an attempt at manufacturing a Sue test that applies to BW to assist Authors that may be worried the character they are creating might be a Sue.

This was just the first run. Thank you for the critique, I'll give it another run through and see if I can make something better next time.

[CabooseMoose7103]

Those two tests were pretty interesting, although I'm going to agree with Miss Special; not all of the questions asked immediately designate whether or not a character is a Sue.

The question about whether or not you describe your character on the first page? I don't think I've ever read a book or story where the main character isn't described on the first page. I've actually put a book down because the author was taking too long to divulge the details of their freaking character.

One of the questions asked if your character had similar tastes in music or books as you. Well, yeah, some of mine have. Authors are bound to put a little of themselves into some of the characters they create. Besides, unless somebody who knows you reads the story, no one will discover that the character bears certain similarities to you. Oh Em Gee!!!! My character happens to listen to Breaking Benjamin!!!! So do I, and so do many other people.

One of the tests asked if you would want to be like you character. Again, that does not immediately denote a Sue. I've come across many characters where I've thought "It would be cool to be them for a while." Just about everyone has had thoughts of going off on an adventure. Then there are some characters who have traits I might like to have. Say a character has near 20/20 vision, yeah, sometimes I'd like to be them. Glasses can be a pain sometimes (case in point; when I got a yellow-jacket in between my glasses and my eye).

Another question mentioned an unusual marking on the character, and then asked if this marking figured into the plot later on. Yeah, usually that denotes a Sue-ish trait, but not always. If it was a birthmark in the shape of a crescent moon that glowed blue when danger was near and unlocked the sacred temple of Colonel Sanders...that's pushing the limit a bit. However, sometimes a marking of some sort can be a useful plot device, and can help make the story more interesting by adding a bit of "character" to the character's background.



I'm just saying that there are exceptions to every rule. Each of those questions has a gray area where an author can make the distinction between creating a Sue and a very good character.

[Miss Special]

Dont get me wrong here, I'm not attempting to attack authors that unfortunately or invariably write in Sue's but rather as an attempt at a self-help guide to avoiding the scourge entirely.

You might not be (and good on you for that), but I've seen reviews on ff.net where a person basically says, "You have a Mary Sue. Here, let me show you," and then proceeds to administer a litmus test, closing with "Learn to write better."
Mary Sues are annoying, but they're sometimes a necessary stepping stone to better characters.

Like Moosey said, there's an exception to everything. A litmus test can't factor that in.

(And sorry if I came off as nasty in my previous post-- I wasn't fully operational in all capacities at the time.)

[EverBlue]

From what I've seen, these kinds of tests always set off a new influx of "Oh! Look! Look! My character isn't a Mary Sue and I'll prove it to you!" fics at places like ff.net. =/

[stinkbomb]

you should make a beast wars specific test. One that has to be on it:

Does the presence of your character some how bring back/prevent the death of dinobot?

It has to be the most over used thing in all of BW fiction.

Now if you exuse me I have to fight off hundreds of Dinobot fangirls/zombies.