An analysis of Mary Sues and their damaging effects on readers.
You can scour the internet for writing tips and one of the main character building advice you will find is to give your characters flaws in order to “avoid Mary Sues.” At this point, we all know Mary Sues are characters without any faults. They are weak, have no depth, and don’t feel like real people. But that’s only part of why I hate them. In my opinion Mary Sues promote unrealistic ideals about overcoming difficult life events. No one can handle every situation perfectly, yet somehow these characters always do.
It’s no surprise that you will rarely find a reader who likes Mary Sues, but sometimes these characters are hidden well by the author. The characters themselves don’t actually have any faults, and if they do, their only flaw is being “too good”. Take Harry Potter for instance, sometimes labeled a Mary Sue. His major flaw is wanting to save everyone. Even if that makes him endanger others, that’s not exactly a personality flaw. Mary Sues aren’t always without problematic pieces of their ethics or personalities, they are just without an actual realistic flaw. You would think that Potter would have some sort of trauma responses to his awful upbringing, but no, that’s just more motivation to do good for him. This shouldn’t be a surprise. His author is a trainwreck, and we all know that an author shapes their characters.
This all brings up an important point: Are Mary Sues just bad writing or can they actually damage a reader? With Harry Potter, I’m willing to bet that his Mary Sue-esque character was damaging to many readers. What kind of example does he set? Think of that for a moment. He had an incredibly traumatic childhood, and instead of being written with trauma responses, he’s written as if those traumatic events made him a better person. Not just that, but it’s implied (if not straight up mentioned) that if Potter never lost his parents and wasn’t abused during childhood then he would have been a terrible person. Now think of reading that as a child of abuse who struggles managing trauma responses. What message does that send? Likely one saying, firstly, that your struggles were simply “character development” to make you a better person and, secondly, that you shouldn’t struggle with any trauma responses at all. Realistically, it’s been proven time and time again that people who experience trauma are extremely likely to develop a trauma response. Any depiction of someone who went through something like Potter did denying the fact promotes the harmful idea that trauma can be entirely left in the past.
Unfortunately, Harry Potter is just one of many Mary Sue characters that have no flaws despite experiencing situations that should have resulted in some sort of trauma response. These responses are not always harmful, but they do have tendency to be, and by depicting someone who comes out of a traumatic experience as completely perfect, an author is doing a disservice to their readers.
Characters with depth and meaning should learn how to process their experiences while also managing normal trauma responses. No one is perfect. Readers who struggle with managing their own experiences should not have to watch their favorite characters go through literal hell and come out grinning ear to ear. They should be able to watch their favorite characters struggle how they realistically would and, hopefully, watch them triumph. Dealing with any kind of negative experience is a battle in itself and not one that can be beaten in a few days or even a few weeks. It’s invalidating and only causes harm to portray characters as flawless despite their struggles.
A good author has realistic characters, and a major part of those characters is their depth. Not just in how they were raised and how they are good people, but how they have imperfections. These imperfections are crucial to any captivating character. They appear in their past, how they handle situations, and their growth. No one person is perfect so it’s only harmful to insinuate a character has no faults. Yes, I hate Mary Sues for all the normal reasons, but I also hate them because they promote harmful expectations in a place where many people seek an escape.
Corey DeCristofaro is a 16 year old history buff and writer. They have studied history ranging from ancient Rome to the Russian Empire while also exercising a passion for reading. They also manage an instagram writing account that (occasionally) features their plant. If you ever want to have a random conversation about the origins of a word or phrase, they are the one to go to.
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