Well written mary sue characters.

Now I know not everyone likes mary sue characters since they seem to be too perfect. But like they say no two person is the same, this hold true to mary sue characters aswell. So here is a mary sue character who I consider well written.

Sinbad (Magi): Most of you guys know him from the anime. He is strong, handsome, naturally talented and his character screams mary sueness. The problem with most people (including me earlier) is that they are blinded by his badassness they don't try to look further into his character. I watched the adventures of sinbad (prequel of magi focusing on sinbad's childhood) anime read most of the manga, and realised that he was not the same unbeatable guy, hell an entire arc was focused on him as a slave when he made a really stupid mistake. And another thing that I love is that he is a really grey character, his morality is kinda complex. And the best thing is everything about Sinbad was hinted wayback so I am not surprised about how he turned out this way. These two chapters says all about him 1 &2 (Sacred palace is sort of like heaven).

The mary sue of all. Very overpowered for his verse, extremely intelligent, the "underdog", good lucking, girls fall over themselves for him and guys wanna be him. Nevertheless, I'm not bothered by that, he's a cool character.

Now, this is going to be a bit controversial, but...

Superman

Super genius, extremely powerful, shrugs off everything everyone throws at him except one thing (Kryptonite, which is what I call a "token weakness"), always portrayed as the pinnacle of morality, any one against him is portrayed as evil, wrong or ignorant, etc

Unless Batman is involved of course.

I kinda agree with Monarch on Superman being a Mary Sue, along with Catain America honestly; but I kinda feel they're allowed to get away with it because that's the point with the characters- idealistic pinnacle's of morality and right- that we're supposed to strive to be like not necessarily characters we're supposed to relate to.

For me I'd say a well done Mary Sue is probably Pyrrha Nikos from Ruby. Quite literally the definition of a perfect human but for some reason she's so... endearing that I can't help but like her

@Scarlet Did you read all about his verse or you just watched the anime cause DAMN! He doesn't belong to that verse considering the actual difference between him and everyone else.

Also the fact he doesn't give a **** about the girl falling for him helps a lot.

Misumi Makoto i guess

Franklin Richards at times can be one in-vwrse. But he's definitely a relatable character and I care a lot about him.

@William

I haven't read up on his verse much, I've just watched the anime.

Well, I've just put him in a fight against someone about as hax as he is, so if anyone wants to check that out...

ScarletFirefly said:

@William

I haven't read up on his verse much, I've just watched the anime.

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Oh my, you can only imagine just how far above everyone else he is.

Also, Hao Asakura from Shaman King. He is so much above the others that in order to beat him once they had to pull out a serious BS.

As a characters thou he is a perfect example of an actually well written villain.

True. Hao Asakura is a good character, right up until his defeat BS

Hm...A well-written Sue is a Sue no more, IMO. But if I could name one, then Ajimu Najimi would be one. Have all the power in the world, incredibly smart and cunning, yet aloof and uncaring to the world as large (and sometimes even herself), and yet that doesn't stop her from being one of the most strongest character in that verse. Even true death doesn't even affect her in the long run, and yet the death of such characters really drive an emotional weight.

Come to think of it, pretty much all well written one is pretty much OP as a requirement huh?

Sinbad is unmistakably flawed. He is just better had hiding those flaws in Magi and even then, those flaws show themselves in the final arcs. The Sinbad no Bouken manga really shows us those flaws in full form before character development disillusioned them.

IMHO, being much better than everyone else by itself doesn't necessarily make a Sue/Stu. A big problem they cause is how much the story bends itself for them, how it focuses so much on them or what they need or want. Stuff like excessive focus, characters shilling them, the plot continuously making twist and turns so events have to revolve around the Sue/Stu, other characters introduced as strawmen so Sue/Stu can put them in their place (be it morally, in fighting or the activity the story is about), or the supporting cast being little more than satellites for the Sue/Stu or their sidekicks, love interests or otherwise powerless without the Sue/Stu. Those are also red flags. You can introduce a flawed character that has all of those issues going on and still will feel like a Sue or Stu.

From what I get, for example, Phyrra worked because the focus on her was in the proper amount, things were as much about her as about the rest of her team and her relationships, and despite being "perfect" it showed how difficult things were for her for it, in a situation genuinely out of her control. So despite all her talents, she avoids the negative feelings of a Sue.

I know its a really old thread, but its a interessting topic. For me, Anne Mayer and Sion Zail are well written and complex Mary Sues.

Anne Mayer has everything a generic Sue needs. Can do everything, never loses a important fight, gets showered with Praise with every step she takes and has a literal harem of constisting of overpowered side characters, hell even villains wants to bed her out of sheer admiration. She is in fact so Sue that her arrival into the War of Prayer had a huge im pact on the people. She landed onto Planet Arin (Where the war was focused) alone and raised the morality of the near wiped out Arin population to such hights that they readily threw themself into a suicide mission for slimest hope of victory. Literally, the scene played out roughly like this:

"This is it, we are all doomed, the military is nearly whiped out, cities dont even exist anymore and the enemies space fleet dwarves ours 6 to 1 in its initial stage"

Message comes, Anne descent

"WE ARE SAVED"

Despite all of that, Anne is a brilliantly written character. Her Mary Sueness meant in universe, that she was the glorious hero, that singlehandily turned wars around. But that image forbade Anne from showing any weakness, as she shoulders the hope for survival of the entire humanity. This combined with the dilemma she had to face, that she had to choose between Pray (Who caused the war and is the dato aggressor), who was her mentor, first friend AND mother/Sister figure, who was by Anne side since she was born, and the rest of humanity further scratched at Anne's already damaged psyche. What makes the burden even more heavy is that Anne believes that she is indirectly part of the cause for the war. This balled psychological weight is so prouned that you, as a reader, can feel it too.

Anne is a deconstruction of the perfect hero clichee and shines a human view on it. "Great Power comes with a great price" is written big in her character, the take here is more focused on responsibility.