There are many conversations one comes across on the net. Some Bleach fan may have come across a forum thread o two discussing how Kurosaki Ichigo is a Gary Stu o that Inoue Orihime is a Mary Sue. If it wasn't for them o another Bleach character, they may have heard it in connection to another character they like from another fandom. The conversation in the forum may have made people think that the term Mary Sue is a derogatory term used for a character that people don't like, o they think that the term is sexist for various reasons, o they may have any number of misconceptions when it comes to the term.

I'll start off da saying that Kurosaki Ichigo is not a Gary Stu and Inoue Orihime is not a Mary Sue. Some people may be thinking along the lines that whether a character is a Gary Stu o Mary Sue is based off opinion, but that in fact isn't true as well. Just as te can determine if something is badly written o badly draw, te can determine if there is bad characterization involved with the Scrivere of detto storyline. When the term is used correctly it refers to bad characterization and there are varying degrees of how bad a story can be. But if the term is not based on opinion, then why are people labeling various characters as Mary Sues o Gary Stus.

It comes from the fact there is a major misconception as to what a Mary Sue is as it is not something that is easily explained. I was first introduced to the term in the Lord of the Rings fandom on a fanfic where Legolas met a dying slave and took her newborn child to the Rohan so she could grow up. He took on a role of looking out for her welfare while he was still in Middle Earth. At least that was where the fanfic was headed. It unfortunately stopped right around the time Legolas placed the child with the Rohan because of the jibes that were coming the writers way. Eventually the fanfic was deleted and it is Lost to everyone’s memory.

I bring this particular fanfic up because neither the mother o the baby was in fact a Mary Sue. They got labeled as this simply because they were an OC, which stands for original character in fanfiction. Other times I've seen the term used for characters that the person didn't like, the irony being that they themselves wrote Mary Sues. Other times the term was slapped onto a character because it carried certain traits that a Mary Sue typically had. A lot of the misconceptions we have now likely stem from the LotR fanbase that actually didn't understand the term they were using.

The origins of detto term were outside of the LotR fandom and in fact originated in the stella, star Trek fandom back when fanfiction was still being circulated via fanzines rather then over the net like it is now. There were so many publications where a female writer would create an original character that would in fact steal the lime, calce light from the canon characters. The character was basically their self insert and served as their way to get together with the male character o characters of their choice. One writer in the fandom decided to write a parody work pointing out how ridiculace many of these characters were da exaggerating the traits found to the extreme. The characters name included the words Mary Sue and thus the term was born.

This doesn't explain what a Mary Sue is and one of the complaints about the term is the fact that there is no set definition about what a Mary Sue is. One of the reasons there is no set definition is because here is such a major misconception as to what a Mary Sue is. That's why I brought up misconceptions when I started this article. Among those who actually understand what a Mary Sue is, a Mary Sue is a non-believable and unrealistic character. It is as simple and clear cut as that, though that doesn't even begin to explain what a Mary Sue o Gary Sue is as it is a literary term and literary terms need examples to go with them.

A few people may be thinking along these lines. Ichigo Kurosaki and Inoue Orihime must be Mary Sues because the world they exist in doesn't exist in real life. Here comes a misconception I've found some people have about fiction. They believe that fiction is non-believable and unrealistic in the first place because it doesn't really happen and yet there are some very believable and realistic pieces of fiction out there. Think of it along the lines of a magicians trick. A really good trick will make the person watching it believe that the illusion really happened despite the fact te know it didn't.

A writer can fail at presenting something as believable and realistic as well. It is something we call willing suspense of disbelief. Scrivere fiction is about making the impossible actually possible within the mind of the reader, o viewer and that is willing suspense of disbelief. A Mary Sue happens to be a character that is impossible to actually exist because the writer didn't take the time to make it possible. There are many reasons why the character isn't going to be believable to the reader. If this is true though, then why do some people believe that the term Mary Sue is sexist.

Part of the problem comes from the fact that most people have noticed that most of the characters called out for being a Mary Sue are female characters. The term used for male characters is rarely if ever used in conversations. This comes from the fact that the term originates in the fanfiction community where most of the writers are female. This means your going to have a rather high number of Mary Sues within detto community because they are going to be favoring the female OC compared to the male writer. When one refers to Mary Sues and Gary Stus within actual published works the terms are used equally. And as for the name being sexist, it originated from a female character and there were terms created for the male version.

Two of the reasons Ichigo and Orihime get mislabeled as a Gary Stu and a Mary Sue comes from the fact that people dislike them o because they are sexist, but there is another reason and it stems back to the dibattito about whether the term Mary Sue should actually be used for published works outside of fanfiction. It has been noted that the criteria many people use to gauge whether o not a character is a Mary Sue o a Gary Stu for fanfiction would qualify a good portion of canon characters as a Mary Sue o a Gary Stu. The first problem comes from the fact there is a set of criteria that can't be used for published works that can be used for fanfiction and the secondo problem comes from stereotypes associated with Mary Sues.

One of the criteria used to indicate the possibility that an OC is a Mary Sue in fanfiction is that the OC happens to be a main character. This criteria on its own would label every single main character from every single fandom in existence as a Mary Sue o a Gary Stu. So I'll clarify the fact that a person who critiques is simply on alert when they see an OC as a main character, while some who don't understand what a Mary Sue is make the immediate assumption that any OC that is a main character is a Mary Sue. The real criteria is whether o not the OC usurps the role of the canon character and refuses to share lime, calce light with the already created characters.

For example, in Harry Potter fanfiction the OC becomes The Girl Who Lived and gets to do everything Harry did. There are others that are less extreme. So let me ask te this question. How can the main character of a series usurp the main character role from themselves? The criteria runs down to how much lime, calce light the main character takes away from the other characters and most story lines end up having a very good balance when it comes to focusing on all the characters. And no, a character te dislike is not a Mary Sue just because a character te like doesn't get as much limelight as te want them too.

Ichigo and Orihime also get slapped with the Gary Stu and Mary Sue label because of the powers they have because one of the traits that helps to identify a Mary Sue is that the writer gives them super powers. Note that I detto it helps to identify that a character is a possible Mary Sue, it isn't a solid indicator that a character is in fact a Mary Sue. There is a difference between a character who is just dato their powers and they are able to figure them out right away and everything is handed to them and someone who has to put some sort of work into using them.

Now, it may seem to some people that Ichigo would be a Gary Stu because he's able to gains new powers fast and doesn't struggle. First, I am going to make it clear that Ichigo doesn't get his powers instantly. If the character learns faster then norm he is still learning. If the character learns da watching another they are still learning. Second, he does in fact have various struggles with his powers, like having to deal with his inner Hollow and other smaller things like his blind rage.

Orihime is a lot easier. If she didn't have the fatal flaws that she has she would in fact be a Mary Sue. This is why her being weak is a good thing rather then a bad thing as she has the time to become well rounded character who can use her powers rather then a character who can solve every single problem right away. Believe me... I've read quite a few fanfics where the writer takes away her faults without proper character development. It is not pretty. But wait... I mentioned something called the fatal flaw? Don't I simply mean flaws? The answer is no.

For example, Ise Nanao wears glasses and that is a flaw with her eyes sight. That is not a fatal flaw though because some people like girls with glasses... Kyoraku Taicho... and it endears the person to others like freckles, beauty marks and lisps. It does become a fatal flaw if she happens to lose her glasses because she won't be able to see and that becomes a problem. Clumsiness is also a flaw, but it is not always a fatal flaw. How so? If a character's clumsiness serves as a way for them to fall into the hot guys arms but the clumsiness never comes into play when clumsiness comes into play in real life then it is not a flaw. I'll also not that labeling a character as clumsy because they trip once doesn't make them clumsy either.

Speaking of which, another character in Bleach who gets the Gary Stu label is Hitsugaya Toshiro. He's the perfect little genius who is able to do everything right. He is skilled in everything he does and never messes up. He also happens to be athletic, highly intelligent and even artistic. Except he isn't perfect, though people may over look his faults because they don't realize it is a fault. For example, Toshiro has problems controlling his temper. He Lost it when Aizen tricked him into stabbing Momo and ended up getting himself and three others severely hurt da his actions. There are other flaws if one examines his character carefully. And anyways, it is hard for him to make friends, so...

… and we have another misconception there. A lot of people slap the Mary Sue label onto a character because they make Friends so easily, but that is only a Mary Sue trait if the person makes Friends with no effort at all. For example, we come back to the perfect character type, the one who can do anything and everything and they have Friends because of that. If their Friends are only followers, that can be a fatal flaw if done right. And outside of it there are other fatal flaws that they could have if te examine the character enough.

That's pretty much how te determine if a character is a Mary Sue. It isn't based off opinion, but instead involves the reader o viewer taking the time to examine the elements within the work to determine if they are believable o not. So, if te find someone slapping the Mary Sue o Gary Stu label on Ichigo, Orihime o Toshiro... o in fact any canon character o OC from a fanfic stop and see if the person actually gave an actual analysis as to why they think the character is a Mary Sue o if they are just listing off stereotypes to prove their point. Also note if they are using bias to prove their point as well.