***Luna's guide on Mary-Sues (with test link)

Skin goes from an albino white to an intense dark brown close to black at times. Consider the smoothness, the little hairs sprouting out of them, any blemishes like moles, odd discolored patches, wrinkles, stretch marks, and anything else. Here, it’s a tendency to play younger characters, so other conditions like major wrinkles, sagging, and bat wings (flap of skin between forearm and armpit that, as you get older, droops, creating a “bat wing”) aren‘t going to happen. Of course we’ll get acne and boils until the hormones have settled greatly. These are what need to be considered as we think of the surfaces of the body. The only real ways to obtain ‘different’ colors is tanning and less exposure to sun, the production of melanin and carotene determining pigmentation. Don’t forget the cuticles as well. They are susceptible to damage just as well. If the skin is broken, there is no instant healing or curing unless a good amount of time has passed; and, even then, the severity of a cut or injury will cause scars, stitch marks (from hospital), and other repercussions of damage.

A person’s strands are different from another. Without any modifications (like hair-straighteners and curlers), you can have naturally straight, curly, wavy, frizzy, thinning, and so on. We have ourselves a variety of hair types. Next, we also have volume, else known as length. Colors provided for a real person are blond, red, brown, and black - not counting the multiple shades we can do with these. Generally-speaking, a Mary-Sue is made if someone stands out from your fictional universe, as in the only person that has unnatural coloring growing out of their roots. And it’s healthy. And it never dulls. Anyways, we can mess up hair by making it greasy perhaps; maybe even if this person’s strands can fall out if shampooed too often (I’ve heard of this account somewhere), they can’t clean it as often and thus it’s more greasy. Easily tangled, to throw in a flaw when the character is outside. Think about people’s hair problems you have heard about in real life. Also take in note that young males - while not as often as older, elderly men - can actually start losing hair in the teens. Females, it’s not as common to lose follicles; but, hey, it still happens once in a blue moon, and that female could be yours. Cutting hair and saying this would make your character weird is NOT a character physical flaw, because that could be just about anyone.

Brows - Acceptable: thickness, unibrow, length, too little follicles. If your character has been burned, research on degrees of burning and don’t let the hair grow back. Plucked brows, don’t make it magically grow back out unless specified in a time frame.

Eyes - Acceptable: Colors of brown, gray (a very dull blue), blue, green, brown; different sized pupils or eyeballs (from genetic disease or physical complications); heterochromia (pretty rare); shifting color (from hazel and don’t make the eyes shift from extreme colors like green to brown and vice versa). Along with eyes is eyelids. Volume of eyelashes to consider here. Abnormal coloring is Sue-ish; a degree of burning that doesn’t result in destruction of tear ducts or vision is also Sue-ish trait.

Nose - Acceptable: shape of bridges, shape of nostrils, condition of interior (snot amount, sniffles, congestion, etc.), anything to do with the cartilage. Do any research of you want any medical complications. Super enhanced olfactory capabilities (beyond just slightly better smelling) will get you the Sue!branding.

Lips - Acceptable: Fullness, shade, smoothness, shape, length. Depending on skin pigmentation, it can range from brown (African American descent) to a deeper pink; the inside and gums would be pink. No abnormal colors beyond those.

Teeth - Acceptable: Shift difficulty, blockage, plague, cavity, root problems, yellowing, teeth disorders, odd biting, odd spacing. Usually people needs some fixing for their teeth; never perfect.

Ears, Chin, and Face Shape - Just… er… don’t make it ridiculous and totally animal? No super hearing and all that good stuff.

How strong are these limbs? The length, skin color, muscle tone, amount of hair follicles, even the finger curvature must be thought on. A character that doesn’t look like they’re muscled can’t lift three times their weight, let alone five times; and, actually, being able to lift two times your weight is a lot. Girls, unfortunately, can hardly do this unless they are REALLY muscled. (They’re just not built for strength like males; sorry, girlies). Think about it: let’s just say a character is 130 lbs. Let’s say this character is either a male or female. We give them 260 lb. carp… Yea? Do you get me drift? These two men have to lift one carp; yet, if you try to tell me your 130 lb. character can lift this fish without weights… Sue alert! Honestly, just look at yourself when doing a character with your type of build. Can you lift even 50 lbs? Again, research is vital when going into areas you are not sure about. If you doubt even once, research it! It’ll save you embarrassment by someone who did take the time to doubt and research for you.

You can also delve upon nail conditions. I hope you guys won’t Sue-ify nails. I’ll cry if you do.

What do you people usually add on the abdomen? Oh, right, muscle. Depending on activity and exertion - of course - your character will have ‘packs’, or abs. Eight-pack is usually for those that really exercise, and this is possibly overdone by Sue-writers. Again like arms (and later, legs), some Sue-writers will write that they don’t have prominent muscle yet can lift big weights. Girls, once again, should not show much muscle unless they do lots of physical activity. Boys will have less curve than girls - the famous ‘hourglass-shape’ if a female is skinny enough. Talk about outtie and innie belly-buttons if you want.

…Do I have to go over chest? I’ll just say that chest is affected by fat levels. A male will start to form ‘male boobs’ as he gets overweight, and they will sag. And be gross. Females are also affected in this manner; but, since they are already formed and supposed to be as such, they will just grow rather than look gross. (But an obese girl with good-sized melons isn’t that desirable among the masses, is it?) Shrinking will happen with weight loss; if your girl is very muscled… um… yeah.

Not going to make so much of a section on back; but, yeah, consider the curvature of the spine and other common things, like acne, moles, and scars. A hunchback would be interesting to see!

It’s basically the same deal as the arms and hands. How strong, flimsy, tanned, beaten up about these appendages? Are they bony? Don’t make these super strong things unless, oh, I don’t know, your character actually builds iron like that. Try athlete’s foot if you want something to be funky with your guy/girl; even fungi in the toenails would do. If your character’s leg gets hacked off… don’t make these guys able to run away or get away easy. That’s not how life works.

Scars play themselves usually as testaments to one’s own hardships or even from an accident. You might want to be careful with this physical deformity, as it can be put off as cool; and, if all you do it make every character in your arsenal think it’s awesome (even the ones that are all for beauty and physical perfection), this will - I guarantee - make your character a Mary-Sue. Keep in mind, however, that not all people that don’t think of flawless skin will think a scar is cool. In fact, it might be intimidating, or perhaps they don’t care. If you’re going to do this in a place that might be detrimental to a sense (like over the eye or even possible invitation to infection if a deep mouth scar), please research on scarification. Don’t forget to take notes on how deep the cut would need to be to present harm to the eyeball. Also, if a scar or scars are your only physical flaw on the character, you won’t get a nice reception.

While not many other characters would find this attractive, it does happen, especially in war. Yes, this character is going to get looks from. Yes, this character might be a bit self-conscious at first about losing an arm or x amount of toes and/or fingers they had probably for years. They’ll get over it and adjust eventually. Most likely. If your character is getting people left and right saying how cute that looks… this is obviously a Mary-Sue. Maybe one person would think a stump for a limb is honestly cute (for whatever reason they find, sadistic or otherwise); but, frankly, this character will get sympathetic looks from get stared in curiosity a lot of times. What should not happen - and this will result in people calling your character a Mary-Sue - is if no other character in your universe either: a.) doesn’t acknowledge it at all or, b.) doesn’t steal a glance at it. With characters of different personalities, I can sometimes understand a guy that might try to play off his new sight as something petty or someone not wanting to ask about it due to, perhaps, presenting themselves rudely; they might even try not to look at it. As another character sees this person with no limb or digits for the first time, give them some reaction. Granted over time and many visits they also will get used to the sight, but a missing leg is no minor scratch.

Don’t forget to talk about things like acne for your teen characters. Research about other physical anomalies, disorders, and infections to give physical faults of your character. Even give your person frostbite for once! Stretch your mind a little so we just won’t get another brunette girl with hardly any acne problems and assumed straight teeth.

Hero traits, those you find in the stereotypical ‘good guys’ of fairytales, these are what I call ‘positive’. Friendliness, honesty, courage, and all that good stuff. About 20% of the time, this is what I see in applications alongside neutral traits that have the potential to be harmful to the character.. It’s not to say these are bad (don’t me wrong), but they are over abused into thinking that these are bad - but, more often than not, it’s the neutrals that take the beating. But, come now, if you were to make these extreme or obsessive, they can be negative. If someone is overly friendly and can’t distinguish when someone has the intention to harm him or her, then that would be bad and considered negative. Problem is, though, is that many people do not go into enough description to really state so, and thus it’s ‘subtle’ that it could be detrimental.

Shyness, anti-social, outcast, embarrassed easily, these traits that are not considered desirable in society but are not defined of being negative are the neutrals; 80% of the time, they try to replace negative traits. UNEXCUSEABLE. They are not the same! Just because one is ‘anti-social’ does not make them negative. Again, it has the potential, but you need to explain why it’s bad for them. Expound the reason that these neutral traits are harmful for their character. Pointing to a recent character of mine, Cancercuss’ trait of being quiet is not bad, in its purest form; however, I have explained that this hurts him because he will not tell his feelings to others when he’s been offended, can’t talk to establish more friends because it’s awkward, and overall keeps to himself. If put like that, it’s harming him, isn’t it? It might also make him secretive, putting a distance between himself and who he cares about. Explain, people! EXPLAIN. Tell us staff why it’s harmful or bad for your character if the trait is neutral. It may be hard to distinguish which ones are neutral at first, but you will get trained if you read enough applications. Just keep questioning yourself if the trait could be portrayed as cute or wrong if tweaked towards the good or bad alignment.

Arrogance, narcissism, overly defensive, overly bold, overly--- Wait. ‘Overly’, huh? Think about this, folks. Aren’t a lot of the traits you don’t like the ones that are extreme in nature? If someone is pretentious, they are being overly-dramatic, are they not? Or, if not, they are saying something that is ‘overly’ something. Someone that is a drama queen is racketing up drama for the sake of drama, which in turn spews drama and is just one collective mass of ‘drama’. Now, you may be asking about the traits that are ‘crazy’, like sadism, murderous, unable to give sympathy. These, too, are negative; however, shall we say that there are Sues born from only negative traits? Absolutely. Perfect!Good!Sue has its own counterpart of Perfect!Bad!Sue, where said ‘evil’ character can’t experience any guilt over their action, are completely not able to give apathy, have absolutely NO redeeming qualities, can pickpocket, can kill easily, can pick locks, can manipulate people with sweet perfection, and… yeah. Nine times out of ten, I HATE the absolutely evil Sue over the perfectly good Sue. Nothing about them is good, and nothing will ever falter them. They are just destined to be completely evil, and they have nothing that is a weakness to them. Play your crazies and murderous people realistically, okay? If we say a good character has a flaw, a bad character has flaws, too. Don’t do a reverse stereotype on us.

There are many types of ’smarts’ out there. I’ve seen many a time where the character is awesome at sports and good in school - perhaps even top in their class - and that makes me roll eyes. Do you know anyone that is just about good in sports and excellent in school at the same time? I don’t. I’ve seen people that are doing sports and are high in school, yes, but they were never top anything. A lot of them had a social life to tend to, perhaps family that they had to invest time in, someone special to be with. To make a character that is high in academics and high in sports is, to me, completely unrealistic. Other than being academically smart, people can be resourceful, cunning, quick on their feet, wise, and intellectual based on observation - or empirical. An assortment to pick from, and one should pick the one that would be interesting. Won’t get too in-depth with being athletic, but it shouldn’t be that they are so godly-fast that they can do ten miles in ten miles. Only a Sue can do that. No Olympic athletic could do that. Get my drift?

1.) If the information presented makes one’s eyes roll, I’m pretty sure it’s Sue-ish.
2.) If the information presented has anything to do with personal out-of-Panem affairs, it’s Sue-ish.
3.) If the information presented has anything to do with something that would not likely happen in Panem, it’s Sue-ish.
4.) If the information presented has over-dramatized events that seem rather miniscule in harm (ex. My dog died, OH WOE IS ME. I’LL GO KILL PEOPLE NOW FOR NO REASON OR FORESHADOW TO THE REASON WHATSOEVER), it’s Sue-ish.
5.) If the information presented has no reason or explanation to back up key events, it can be Sue-ish. Can be.