Captain Jack "Mary Sue" Sparrow?

[dwgm]

The Mary Sue question is an interesting one. jenthegypsy, new to fanfic (what an adventure lies ahead!!), was asking me what a Mary Sue is, and, coincidentally, a member of little_details asked about the origin of the term. The term apparently dates back to a fanfic story in the Star Trek: The Original Series fandom, which actually had an OFC named Mary Sue. However, this site referenced in a comment in the little_details post has this to say...

She (or he) is created to serve one purpose: wish fulfilment. When a writer invents someone through whom he/she can have fantastic adventures and meet famous people (fictional or real), this character is a Mary Sue. (We don't have a name for the male version -- suggestions?

and that...

storytellers have been rehashing Mary Sue since the dawn of time....

By this definition, most any major canon character would be a Mary Sue, not just original characters. Think about it. Harry Potter? Frodo or Aragorn? And, most especially Jack Sparrow, and all the main characters of Pirates of the Caribbean.

Another referenced article in the little_details post has this to say about Mary Sue's characteristics...

She has better hair, better clothes, better weapons, better brains, better sex, and better karma than anyone else. Even next to the strong and interesting heroines of twentieth-century media and fiction, she stands out. She is singular; she is impossible to ignore.

Now replace "she" with "he", and you've got Jack Sparrow all over.

You could make a case that any main character in any story is a Mary Sue, unless he or she is a true antihero, with characteristics and adventures that serve as dire warnings rather than desirable examples. And who wants to read that, at least most of the time?

It doesn't seem to me that it's possible to write any character and fail to project one's experiences and philosophies through that character, canon or otherwise. And I don't think I am alone in wanting to read stories that are uplifting, and about people who are extraordinary, in one way or another. So it seems to me we're destined to be inundated with Mary Sues, as we have been since people started telling stories.

Comments

[linaelyn.livejournal.com]

You have a good point, and this post made me think, a lot. In some form, every powerful main character has some of the hallmarks of a Mary Sue, the sense that the reader holds strong identification with the main character.

Odysseus? Mary Sue for all who ever dreamed of adventures.

Juliet AND Romeo? Mary Sues for anyone who crushed on someone their parents disapproved of.

HOWEVER. The problem with Bad Fanfic Mary Sue is that she's unflawed. Captain Jack Sparrow is extraordinary, to be sure. But he's hardly what you'd call flawless. Projecting one's experiences isn't what makes a character a Mary Sue in the traditional sense. It's actually that the Mary Sue is so very perfect that the reader cannot honestly identify with the character, without resort to egomania or immaturity.

Ted & Terry and Johnny, created in Jack Sparrow someone we love to identify with. But we also see that we might fall into some of the same pitfalls that lead Jack into more pain to himself than strictly necessary. Such as a short drop and a sudden stop.

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

The problem with Bad Fanfic Mary Sue is that she's unflawed.

Ah! But as athersgeo says here, a Mary Sue can also be Perfectly Tragic, Perfectly Flawed, or Perfectly Evil.

I agree with porridgebird's comment below... "over the decades, the definition of MS has expanded so far beyond the original that there are some who say ANY OC is a Mary Sue." I've noticed that strain of thought among the writers around here on LJ (probably because that's mostly where I read and comment) and it bothers me not only because a couple of my plotlines feature OC's, but, more importantly, because that attitude puts a constraint on every writer, causing them to hesitate to post stories that include OC's, or even create OC's at all, especially if the character plays a major role in a story. And when you have writers of the high caliber of many I read around here, it's a sad thing.

[athersgeo.livejournal.com]

*blinks*

*does a double take*

*reads own post*

Oooh. I remember... *looks sheepish*

Very thought provoking post here, though - and all the replies :)

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

I had that saved to memories. Hope you didn't mind the reference. ;)

[athersgeo.livejournal.com]

Not at all :) I'd just completely and utterly forgotten I'd written that piece and was a little thrown at seeing myself referenced!