Fanfiction: the definition of Mary-Sue

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Aganzir

Yeah I got the impression, but I see no reason why serious literary criticism shouldn't be applied to fanfiction as well. I rarely read it myself but I'm quite aware of the rise and fall of the concept of Mary Sue over the years, and it baffles me because although there's talk of Gary Stu also, he doesn't seem to get nearly the same amount of hate.

There are fewer male OCs in fan fiction, probably because most of the writers are female, so Gary Stu doesn't show up nearly as much. Also, I think he's generally considered to be a subset of Mary, if you see what I mean. In fact, some people refer to characters of either sex as "Mary Sue".