The Ultimate Harry Potter Mary Sue Litmus Test

Welcome to the Ultimate Mary Sue Litmus Test for J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Universe. The size of this fan following, coupled with the “Three Year Summer” of waiting between Books IV and V have created a vast amount of fanfiction.

And where fanfiction goes, Mary Sue invariably follows.

And, due to the sheer quantity of Harry Potter fanfiction that exists, much of which was written by young, new, and inexperienced writers (due to the quality of the material and wide appeal across multiple age groups), we have decided to create a litmus test for all things Mary Sue in the Harry Potter fanfiction world.

Hours of scouring the fanfiction world for Mary Sues, good, bad and ugly, have finally paid off. Absolutely NOTHING has been left untouched. Any trait found in a Sue fic is put in here and appropriately tallied. We cover names, appearance, species, relationships, plot, grammar, format, personality, relatives, behavior, behavior of the canon characters, your character in reality and your feelings on it, and more. So, worried about one part of your new character? Go to the proper section and find out if a specific quality of your character is a Sue quality. It is indeed possible for one part of the character to seem Sue-ish, but the overall character him/herself may not be.

Some of you may be wondering just what a Mary Sue or Gary Stu is? Well, in the Harry Potter Universe, Mary Sue is the bright, perky, clever, stunningly beautiful and amazingly powerful witch who appears out of nowhere and into J.K. universe. In said universe, she becomes everyone’s best friend, reforms all the bad guys (after getting a chance to flatten them with her cutting wit and scathing repartee), has every male character drooling over her, aids everyone in achieving their heart’s desire, develops superpowers and abilities that have no place in HP canon, meddles in everyone’s love lives and gets them all hooked up according to the ships that the author prefers, elevates herself to a high position, is beloved by everyone, saves everyone from any bad situations they might get themselves into, upstages all canon characters, ends up shagging the living daylights out of the author’s desired canon character, and ultimately defeats Voldemort using all of the above mentioned powers and abilities, or somehow sacrificing herself, causing life-long mourning in the characters she left behind.

And equally as bad is Gary Stu, Mary Sue’s devastatingly handsome twin brother. Rather than being perky and upbeat like his sister, however, a Stu is generally brooding, anti-establishment, and goes out of his way to flaunt authority and make everyone else do the same. However, in all other salient points, they are exactly alike.

Then, of course, there are the disowned twins who NOBODY likes at all: Scary Sue and Hairy Stu. While they also invariably share many of the qualities mentioned above, both of them are always up to no good. They are always out to seduce the main character or his/her significant other, cause everyone nothing but harm, usually obsess about the main character, like to give and receive pain, break up relationships, overpower everyone, be invincible, are general big meanies, but fortunately usually screw up at the last moment so as to allow their NICE siblings, Gary and Mary, to triumph over them in a spectacular fireworks show.

However, Scary and Hairy, more often than not, will latch on to Mary or Gary over canon characters through the course of the story. When they do, they are viciously jealous of them, doing any and all in their power to bring harm to their siblings. Of course, they always fail, and Mary and Gary triumph over it all, allowing every reader out there to see how brave and noble they are in the face of torment and petty evil.

Pretty sickening, huh? Essentially, what it all boils down to is that Mary Sue/Gary Stu is the ultimate in self-insertion and wish fulfillment. The author puts him/herself into the fic, keeping all of his/her good traits in the character, and then changing everything else to the author’s desired appearance and personality, and then using J.K.’s universe to make him/herself the center of attention and beloved by all. And while the author may get a charge out of it, it makes everyone else want to gouge their eyes out with a rusty fork.

You see, first of all, Mary Sue and Gary Stu have terribly adverse effects on the canon characters. In order to get his or her way, the author very nearly always makes the canon characters behave in ways that J.K. would have never intended. And when fanfic authors start mutilating beloved characters, the authors will have to face the wrath of the biggest fans of said characters. The end result is a fic that is set in a world vaguely resembling J.K. universe, and populated with characters who share the names and appearances of her characters, but other than that are nothing like them.

Not only that, but as you have seen from the list of abilities and behavior of Mary Sues and Gary Stus, the characters are obviously un-realistic, flat, and annoying. No one is that perfect, and as such, no one will like them. All fiction is in some way based on reality—Mary Sues and Gary Stus brush reality aside in favor of making things how the author thinks they should be.

And this horror, while most common in the world of original characters, is also quite possible in canon characters That’s right—an author may take a canon character and completely warp them out of character to have all of the aforementioned traits, effectively ruining the character and outraging die-hard fans. This can result in serious flames.

Now, one must realize that Mary Sue and Gary Stu do have their functions. Everyone who starts out in fiction writing, (fanfic or original) has written one of them. They really are a natural progression in an individual’s development as a writer. They allow a person to explore their abilities, critique their style, and get that drivel out of their system while having a little fun in the process. And, after they realize what utter claptrap they have been writing and create new, more realistic characters, they may join the world of good fiction, and are better writers because of it.

However, there is a group of people who don’t get it out of their systems. Half of that group is the cult following of Mary Sue and Gary Stu—those who are well aware of what they are writing and enjoy it. This group can be considered the Lost Boys of fanfiction—they never grew out of the juvenile developmental stage in their careers as writers. This was a conscious decision on their parts, and as such, we can (to a certain degree) respect said decision, and in return they respect our conscious decision to avoid their fiction at all costs.

The second half of that group is the one for whom this test is primarily written. The sect of Mary Sue/Gary Stu writers who don’t realize that they are writing Mary Sues and Gary Stus. Believe it or not, there is a very large group who continually crank out story upon story about a Mary Sue or Gary Stu, and either don’t realize what they are doing, or simply refuse to accept the fact.

The former may simply be beginning writers who haven’t been exposed to enough fanfiction to know the dangers of Mary Sues and Gary Stus—in that case, view this test as a tool to aid you on the path to becoming a better writer, and we wish you the best, with no animosity behind our remarks on the test—look at it as tough love.

As for the rest of them, we want to bring them as much pain as they’ve caused us. Those who refuse to acknowledge that their character is a Mary Sue or Gary Stu are the worst. They’ve invested so much time and effort into their character that they’ve essentially fallen in love with it and will accept no criticism in any shape or form. They refuse to believe that their plot twists are trite, old, and unbelievable. Anyone who even suggests that their beloved character might be a Mary Sue or Gary Stu is immediately branded bitter, negative, and vindictive, and is flamed accordingly.

And they are the main target of this test. We have waded through more Mary Sue and Gary Stu fanfiction than is physically or mentally healthy, and in so doing, we have compiled an all-encompassing, comprehensive litmus test, covering any and all traits Mary Sue/Gary Stu common to multiple fics. As such, this will hopefully make people realize that their plots are dry and overdone, and that their characters are flat and unrealistic, and, with any luck, they will emerge from the Dark Ages of Mary Sue/Gary Stu fanfic and progress on to writing full, realistic characters for the world at large to enjoy.

Be warned before you continue: IT IS VERY LIKELY THAT YOUR CHARACTER WILL SCORE AT LEAST 25 POINTS IN SEVERAL SECTIONS. It is practically impossible to avoid scoring a zero. Sue’s are insidious. Traits like being outrageously funny, or liked by a lot of people or being introduced on the first page are Sue traits and must be counted. We do understand that even real people usually have at least one good trait that stands out more than others, or that many of the plot points listed here, despite being popular among Sues, are still legitimate plot devices, and this has been taken into account in the final scoring. Don’t be angry if you get scored—the test is designed so that virtually no character can come through with zero points. Incidentally, the test is also designed that so it is physically impossible to score anywhere near the total for the test. Should you somehow beat the odds and defy all laws of nature and manage this, yours is a sad, strange little character, and you have our pity.

Because Mary Sue’s are MUCH more common than her equally annoying twin brother Gary Stu, do not answer a question differently if the character in question is referred to as “she.” Repeating “the character” over and over again is tedious and takes up too much space. “She” is much more convenient and is used in nearly all questions following in the litmus test.

In the explanation areas of why a score is so high or low, there are spoilers for the HP books, as we have taken into account all possible avenues for a Mary Sue to rear her ugly head. If you haven’t read all of them, proceed with caution if you wish to avoid spoilers.

Before you continue, answer this general question:

Does the character attain a canon character that you have a crush on or want to take to bed with you or want to marry through means of magic, stunning looks, brilliant personality and a truly EXCITING plotline that includes your character in some way saving the canon character’s life and possibly defeating Voldemort in the process?

If you said yes, congratulations—you are a Mary Sue of the worst kind and receive 50,000 points automatically. Still here? Good. You’ve already passed one test. Can you survive the next ones?

The test is very simply organized. It is laid out as a series of questions with definitive point values attached. Simply answer the questions honestly and keep a running tally of your points. Many of the questions have bonus points attached. If both the question and the bonus applies to you, add them both up. In some cases, only the bonus may apply, so tally the bonus points without marking the main question points.

You might want to keep individual scoring breakdowns of the separate sections before you make a final total. In some cases, one section might bring you down to Sue-dom when the rest of your fic and character are quite good. We’d hate to see you scrap a good plot and character simply because you made the fatal error of naming your character after yourself! So, if you notice that while you score fairly low in most sections, but in one particular area you’re through the roof, you might try tweaking that particular aspect of your character or fic before sending it to the incinerator.

If you’re just starting your fic, feel free to use the test not as a test, but simply as a guide to avoid Mary Sue clichés. Our little explanations are very thorough, and the points associated with the different points reflect the severity of the cliché or canon violation. As such, it is a very nice resource for aspiring writers, and we hope that it helps.

So sit down and strap in, and get ready for the most extensive and comprehensive guide to Mary Sues in the Harry Potter universe.

*Note: To guarantee complete avoidance of all things Mary Sue, this test should be applied to all characters, both original and canon, main, major, and minor, and in all scenarios.

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