The Thundercats Mary Sue
There are a lot of great websites available devoted to the topic of the infamous "Mary Sue", but none of them are specific to Thundercats. For more detail on what a "Mary Sue" is, go to one of the links at the bottom of this page and check them out. They've covered the topic with a lot of thought and depth. On this page, I’m just going to give a brief summary on what a Mary Sue is and how she often appears in the realm of Thundercats fanfiction.
What is a Mary Sue?
Specifically, a “Mary Sue” is an original character of the fanfic author that is little more than a projection of the author him/herself into the universe being written about. Self-insertion (the author writing his or her real-life persona into the story) is the most extreme example of this, but there are plenty of original characters that fit the definition as well, and they're the more prevalent example in Thundercats fanfiction. Before we get into the meat of this discussion, I’m going to make a couple of clear statements up front: Not all original characters are Mary Sues, and not all characters that are Mary Sues are necessarily bad or annoying. There are authors that can take a Mary Sue character and write it into the universe beautifully, and make the character an interesting and fun addition to it. Unfortunately, for every fun and entertaining Mary Sue, there are also some that are the opposite.
How does the infamous Mary Sue tend to manifest in Thundercats fanfiction?
In the
Thundercats Universe, the Mary Sue (or from this point on, the irksome kind of
Mary Sue) is nearly perfect. She is
young, extraordinarily beautiful, capturing all the attention of the male
Thundercats (or Mutants or Lunatacs if part of one of those groups) if she’s
old enough, and becomes either best friends or bitter rivals (with the show
character being the jealous one, of course) with the females. She’s as brilliant as Tygra, handy with
weapons as Panthro, as witty as the Thunderkittens, has psychic skills rivaling
or surpassing those of Cheetara, and the compassion of those devoid-of-evil
snarfs. She usually has her own weapon
that is just as powerful as the Sword of Omens, given to her by Jaga
himself. Often she is the daughter of
Jaga or the sibling of Lion-O. Lion-O
or Tygra is often her object of affection, and he of course always falls head
over heels in love with her. Mary Sue
is either brave and strong, willing to sacrifice herself for all her fellow
Thundercats, making them go deep into mourning for her loss, or she is a lost
or young soul that the Thundercats help to become brave and strong after facing
her doubts about herself.
Not that the
Thundercats Mary Sue is always female.
She has a twin called Gary Stu.
Like his sister, Gary Stu is usually a long lost relative of one of the
regulars and he’s often a “cool rebel” to boot. He’s a loner and a maverick, but whatever unconventional tricks
he pulls always lead him and the team to victory, wherein he gains the grudging
respect of the regulars. Gary Stu has
the same talents his sister has: good looks, brilliance, fighting skills like a
kung-fu master, and a weapon that makes him invincible. He’s dashing and immediately wins the
affections of the ladies, often to the point of making other show characters
jealous of him. Sometimes he has
emotional issues that make him moody, but that’s just because the others “don’t
understand” him and his traumatic past.
Usually Cheetara or Pumyra help him come to terms with his inner
conflicts through their great love for him.
Once this happens the others are sorry they ever doubted him and his
heart of gold, and by the end, he’s the hero.
Why is Mary Sue so annoying?
Odds are
that if you’ve written a Mary Sue—and be honest, most of us have written at
least a borderline Mary Sue at one point or another—you might be wondering why
people would think a character like the ones described above would be so
irritating to fans. There are a few
reasons. Number one, people who read
Thundercats fanfiction are doing so because they want to read about the
characters they know and love. When
they see a story focused on an original creation, not only are they not
familiar with the character (especially if the author doesn’t take a lot of
time to develop them, and just tosses them in), but it’s likely that they’ll
resent it when this stranger takes over the universe and reduces the regulars
to co-star or supporting character status.
It doesn’t feel like the show they know and love anymore. Number two is a more selfish reason. When a character is obviously an insert of
the author, interacting with the show characters, it’s only fun for the author
and maybe the author’s friends. Most
readers won’t want to see Lion-O hooked up with Mary Sue when he’s their favorite
Thundercat. Conversely, Cheetara fans
won’t want to see their favorite Thundercat turned into a raving jealous psycho
when some newcomer joins the team and all the males immediately drool over her,
pushing Cheetara over the edge. Such
things are not only out of character for the regulars, but insulting to fans.
But my
character isn’t annoying, right?
That
depends. As I said above, many original
characters are not Mary Sues at all, and even some that are clearly Mary Sues
are still fun characters. The key is in
how the author handles their original creation. By avoiding the clichés associated with Mary Sues, a good author
can make the Mary Sue a fascinating character that enriches the universe.
Can show characters
ever be Mary Sues?
Absolutely. The show version of Lion-O is a Mary
Sue. He always wins, always saves the
day, spouting smarmy speeches as he does, and he has a weapon that can do
10,000 things. Fortunately the writers
gave him some quirks to keep him fairly interesting. Snarf is also a Mary Sue in my opinion. He’s a creature that’s supposed to be cute and cuddly and devoid
of evil—practically perfect—and look at the reaction at least half the fans
have to him: They can’t stand him!
Fanfic writers
can also write show characters as Mary Sues.
This form of Mary Sueing is one that is harder to spot than the original
character versions, but it’s no less grating when done badly, because like the
examples above, instead of putting all of him/herself into an original
creation, the author lives vicariously through one of the show regulars
(usually a favorite) to the point of putting them wildly out of character. Examples of this are giving the character
super powers they didn’t have on the show, changing the character to be the
leader if not already one, or having him/her be the one to ultimately vanquish
the enemy. Now, this is not saying in
any way that all plotlines like that are necessarily Mary Sues, for that
would unfairly classify many great Thundercats fanfics out there, but it does
happen, and certain characters such as the Thunderkittens are more prone to
plots like this than others. Just keep
in mind when writing a fanfic that if your plotline fits in with any of the
clichés seen in the above examples or in the litmus test, take care as you
write that you’re keeping true to the show character or doing a very believable
job of making the reader feel that the changes don’t seem unnatural or
forced. If you’re not sure if the way
you write a character qualifies as Mary Sueing or not, put your fanfic version
of the character through the litmus test and see how he/she scores.
So how do I
find out if my character is a Mary Sue?
Click the
link, get a pen and paper ready, and run your character through The Mary Sue Litmus
Test for Thundercats Fanfiction.
Or if you’d
like an example of three characters run through the litmus test, go here for
the Mary Sue Test: Answers and Explanations.
Do you have
a Mary Sue?
Then check out the So You Have A Thundercats Mary Sue
page to discover the Dos and Don’ts of Mary Sueing.
Where do I
learn more about Thundercats Mary Sues?
You can visit the Realm of Al's Mary Sue
Page, which holds the litmus test linked to above. Aside from the
Thundercats Mary Sue Litmus test, there is also some general Thundercat Mary Sue
information and the results of Al's own characters put through the test.
Purrsia also has a nice page on the subject at Fun and Games With Mary Sue.
This has a Thundercats fanfiction Mary Sue drinking game as well as
Purrsia's Mary Sue results.
Where do I
learn more about Mary Sues in general?
Dr. Merlin's Guide to Fan
Fiction: V. Who Is Mary Sue and Why Does She Have to Die?
This is the
first link to Mary Sue information I’ve found and I highly recommend it. The original litmus test came from this
person, and many people have made ones to fit their fandom based on it.
Self-Insertion
and Mary-Sue-Ism
An in-depth
explanation of Mary Sue and how to properly use her in fanfic.
A site that
celebrates all things Mary Sue.
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