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

[torn-eledhwen.livejournal.com]

Having read through everyone else's comments, I think my own conclusion would be that a canon character is rarely a Mary Sue in the true sense of the phrase. A Mary Sue in fanfic is a character that takes over from canon, and the story becomes about her (or him). If you're writing canon characters, then the story already is about them, to a greater or lesser degree depending on the character! But that doesn't mean that all OCs are Mary Sues, because a good writer can create an OC who has a major role in the action but still lets the canon characters be canonical. I think Mary Sues tend to have an adverse effect on the canon characters, making them do things OOC because the Mary Sue is just so beautiful/talented/kind etc. that the canon character can't help him/herself from falling at said Mary Sue's feet (eg. LOTR "Tenth Walker" fics where Aragorn forgets he's been betrothed to Arwen for forty years and falls head over heels in love with some silver-haired, violet-eyed teenager).

I think the saddest thing about the Mary Sue debate generally is that it has put some people off creating OCs for use in fanfic, and that others will denounce any OC as a Mary Sue automatically. Neither is a Good Thing.

As a footnote, I'd add that I don't think Jack's a Mary Sue, even by the "Perfectly Flawed" criteria. I'd say he's far from perfectly flawed, and far from perfect - though he is utterly fascinating. His flaws are real ones - he's selfish, greedy, lustful, and prepared to mess with other people for his own benefit. On the other hand he can be generous and he does have his own set of (equally flawed) morals. He's larger than life, so not exactly realistic - but I wouldn't call him a Mary Sue (any more than I would any of the other characters in PotC).

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

I don't think Jack is a Mary Sue either, but that bit in that one essay--

...better hair, better clothes, better weapons, better brains, better sex, and better karma than anyone else... [He] stands out... is singular... is impossible to ignore

--made me think of him. As I said, the definition has expanded far beyond the badly written OFC.

[trinityday.livejournal.com]

About that line - well, he doesn't have better clothes, if you're judging by English standards at the time. Even judging by the standards movie-goers have, his clothes are cool, but not that much much better than everyone elses. He doesn't have better weapons at all - that honour goes to Will - and he's not the better swordsman - again, Will. His karma is better, yes, but there's also the idea that it's only so because he works at it. Things aren't handed to him on a silver platter because he's the universe's darling boy, he takes things and spends much of the time figuring out how he can take things without getting caught.

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

You have to admit he dresses cooler than anyone else--his whole appearance is contrived to draw the eye, to make him someone to remember. As for weapons, I'm not just talking swords, etc. His looks, his manner, and his intelligence are all weapons in their own right.

But you're right that he's a well-rounded character. He's a fabulous character, but he does make mistakes too, though, as shrift wrote in Hurricane Jack...

it's usually in some fabulously spectacular fashion that results in a short-lived marooning or being not-quite-hanged. (Should he ever have the miserable misfortune to hang in chains on Deadman's Cay, Jack firmly believes that he will hang there more fabulously than any pirate who has been hanged there before, simply because everything Jack does is fabulous.)

[trinityday.livejournal.com]

I believe that the original author did actually mean the simple explanation for weapons - that is, swords, guns, bazokoos, Macia, the magical mace forged by the great god Macedonia.

Also remember that in the movie people do not always respond positively to Jack's appearance. He's dressed to draw the eye, yes, and to draw the eye to the fact that he's a pirate, but not everyone responds positively to the fact that he's a pirate. It brings him trouble, which is also linked to yet another flaw of his, the need for recognition at the expense of his own safety. He actually reminds me much of a Greek hero in that matter.

I think it all boils down the the fact, however, that I don't believe that well-rounded characters are Mary Sues/Gary Stus. Adding real flaws makes real characters and real characters are MSes.

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Also remember that in the movie people do not always respond positively to Jack's appearance. He's dressed to draw the eye, yes, and to draw the eye to the fact that he's a pirate, but not everyone responds positively to the fact that he's a pirate. It brings him trouble, which is also linked to yet another flaw of his, the need for recognition at the expense of his own safety.

And that flaw is what makes him so hilarious. He has this "look at me!" attitude, like a little kid, and then when people don't respond appropriately, he's all "Huh? But the worst thing would be if someone didn't know who he was. It's that ego thing, tripping him up. He wants to be remembered, by friends and enemies alike.

[trinityday.livejournal.com]

Norrington: You are, by far, the worst pirate I've heard of.

Jack: Ahh, but you have heard of me.

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Precisely!