Archived Discussion Main / RelationshipSue

Canon

Anime and Manga

• Daisuke Umon aka Duke Fleed from UFO Robo Grendizer is often accused as one, being that his show made the protagonist of Mazinger Z, Kouji Kabuto, turn into his sidekick. Also... good looks? Check. Runaway prince from a Doomed Hometown? Check. Cool looking alter-ego? Check. Gets to pilot the most powerful mecha? Grendizer is often likened to Mazinkaiser in terms of power, but never appear together, so... check.
  • Duke's sister Maria, who becomes Kouji's Love Interest in the series. Naturally, she and Sayaka don't get along very well when Grendizer appears in a Super Robot Wars game.
  • His Stu status is affected a bit due to the fact that Kouji is too strong for a normal sidekick who usually ends up being captured almost all the time. (It's stated in canon that without Kouji, Grendizer is reduced to 50% power, so Kouji must be one DANG IMPORTANT sidekick).
• The main girls of the Prince of Tennis Dating Sim games are very often accused of being canon Relationship Sues. These allegations, however, usually come from rabid yaoi fans who hiss at any female approaching to their beloved "ghei teniboys"... and then make the boys Relationship Stus in their fanwork.

Comic Books

• Pete Wisdom is basically Warren Ellis' Relationship Sue, created to get with Kitty Pryde, Chris Claremont's God-Mode Sue. He's cut from the same mold as Ellis' other British, snarky, cool self-inserts, such as Spider Jerusalem.
• Kitty Pryde herself, or more precisely her Ultimate version, has actually been accepted as this in a positive way by the Misaimed Fandom of Ultimate Spider-Man, who cite that she's "the perfect girlfriend" for Peter to justify their OTP, failing to realize the flaws in the relationship even when the comic points them out.
• Emma Frost. Not only was she turned into a Tsundere Sue by Grant Morrison, she gets to take advantage of Scott when he is most vulnerable, which is a gross violation of medical ethics. Xavier not only doesn't kick her out of the mansion for that, he thinks the fact that nothing physical happened doesn't count (professional ethical rules don't work that way), and actually admonishes Jean for getting upset about it. When Emma is finally called on it, she claims she was just in love with Scott the whole time. Now that Jean is out of the way, Emma can manipulate Scott and put him down, and we are expected to believe she is a better match for Scott.
  • Worse, the Fan Dumb actually think it was acceptable for those to make out over Jean's grave because supposedly nobody cared when he left his first wife. A lot of characters cared, including Jean herself.
  • Given that Xavier himself has a history of violating medical ethics in exactly the same way (see: Gabrielle Haller), it's not really any surprise that he would give Emma a pass for it.
• Lillie in Runaways, created by Joss Whedon, seemingly existed to be one of these. A "Wonder" (superhuman) from 1907 the Runaways met after accidentally going back in time. She had the Common Mary Sue Traits of red hair and green eyes, Victor had an insta-crush on her, Nico was disappointed but actually tried to get them together. She was a bit of a subversion though she didn't want to come to travel to the future with Victor and he didn't stay in the past with her either.

Film

• Marie from Dan In Real Life. The family have only just met her but they adore her, she's fantastic at crosswords, makes wonderful pancakes, gets the hang of bowling really quickly and even has two brothers fighting over her. Her very presence convinces Dan to disregard his own advice, as his daughter was right - it is possible to fall in love in three days after all.

Literature

• Mara Jade in the Star Wars Extended Universe, a character that creator Timothy Zahn admits was designed to get involved with Luke Skywalker. She can also use the Force, fight with a lightsaber, be stealthy, blend into any human or multispecies culture, is a crack shot with a blaster pistol, an expert pilot, a good administrator, and of course drop-dead gorgeous until she drops dead at almost sixty... but then, it's Luke Skywalker. Who was he going to marry, someone who couldn't keep up?
  • Mara was not created to get together with Luke; that was written ten to seven years later. The real Star Wars Relationship Sue is Callista, a super good Jedi woman who nobly sacrificed her life to save little children, but then her spirit falls in love with Luke and she comes back from the dead to be with him. Thankfully, someone had the sense to order her removal from the story. To quote the author: "In 'Children of the Jedi', I was told to create the love of Luke's life. In 'Planet of Twilight', I was told to write her back out."
  • As with Kitty, Emma, and others, Mara can be very human if someone competent is writing her. Turning characters into Mary Sues is one of many consequences of Running the Asylum.
    • And really, most characters are going into Sue territory as the series gets chronologically further from the movies. The authors have forgotten that you can make a good plot without it being a galactic-scale crisis.
• John Galt in Atlas Shrugged, the counterpart to Purity Sue Dagny Taggart. While Dagny represents everything that Ayn Rand wants to be, John Galt represents everything she wants in a boyfriend and also uses him as her surrogate for the Author Filibuster (because then as now, men were given a lot more consideration in their opinions then women).
• Mary Russell is in the somewhat odd position of having her own series of successful, mainstream-published novels - and therefore being a canonical literary character - despite being otherwise an archetypal Relationship Sue inserted into the original Sherlock Holmes canon. She starts the series at 15 years old as the 50 year old Holmes' intellectual equal, plus she's blonde and attractive, she's a rich orphan, and her aunt is mean to her. The novels frequently compare her more favorably to Watson, who is portrayed as a bumbling nitwit in the light of Mary's superior intelligence and skill, reduced to being called "Uncle John" by Mary. All of this so the story can later justify why the canonically stoic Holmes (who's also old enough to be her grandfather) would suddenly fall in love with her a few years later when she's a legal adult. Of course, Your Mileage May Vary.
• Some aspects of Ginny Weasley fit this, having been given 4 books of character development behind the scenes to change from a shy little girl to a superpowerful, confident, heroic witch in time for Half Blood Prince.
• Twilight: Bella's half-vampire, half-human daughter that she inexplicably had with her vampire husband, seems like she was specifically created so that Jacob Black fangirls could be happy. Not that they were of course... Oh, did I mention that she has psychic powers and that everyone who sees her loves her?
  • Not to mention: *cough*EDWARDCULLEN*cough*
    • Edward's Sueness was so bad and obvious that even the actor who played his film version totally trashed and deconstructed Edward.
    Pattinson: When you read the book, it's like 'Edward Cullen is so beautiful I creamed myself.' I mean, every line was like that. He's the most ridiculous person who's so amazing at everything. I think a lot of actors tried to play that aspect. I just couldn't do that. And the more I read the script, the more I hated this guy, so that's how I played him, a manic-depressive who hates himself. Plus he's a 108 year old virgin so he's obviously got some issues there.
• David Eddings' Mallorean series. This Troper would like to believe that Velvet exists as an independent and vital character in the story... but knows that she really only exists to be Silk's perfect woman. Five books of "character development" do nothing to hide this fact.
  • And likewise, Lady Prala to King Urgit. Then there are other examples that are merely impure instances of this trope - Belgarion and Ce'nedra, for instance. Come to that, while we know that Relg was going to become the father of race that died, all we got to see was Taiba pursuing him and sapping his defences. The Prophecy was certainly working hard!
• Emma, the protagonist in Kylie Chan's Dark Heavens trilogy is a young, white Australian nanny with no previous training who develops superhuman martial-arts skills and magical qi powers in just a few months, beats up demons, becomes loved by all and generally proves herself superior to Chinese GODS, never mind mere mortals, but her primary role is to be the ideal love of her employer John Chen, who is really a turtle and Xuan Wu the God of Martial Arts.
• In Gaudy Night, Dorothy Sayers turns Lord Peter Wimsey, a dubiously perfect character in his own right, into a wish-fulfillment object for Author Avatar Harriet Vane. His rare appearances in the novel are largely devoted to charming all the women around him, while remaining firmly devoted to Vane - and, of course, respecting her independence. Letters written by Sayers later in her life suggest she was practically in love with the character herself.

Live-Action TV

• John Justice Wheeler in Twin Peaks, created to be the perfect mate for Audrey Horne so she wouldn't pursue Agent Cooper any more. Seriously. His name is Justice.
• A season after leaving the show, Riley Finn returned to Buffy The Vampire Slayer with a wife named Sam, who could not only easily defeat the monster that both Buffy and Riley were having trouble with, but can instantly figure out the major issues plaguing the group and give all of them good advice. A few people have noted that it's like the previous Parody Sue episode Superstar was played straight. This was all to make sure that Buffy, Riley's previous girlfriend, felt inferior to the new comer.
  • Then again, it is perhaps somewhat telling that Buffy can only feel inferior to a Mary Sue...
  • The only habit of hers that didn't annoy this troper was calling Riley on his bravado. I wonder if she ever knew he used to see vampire prostitutes his spare time.
• Trudy in Monk is never spoken of in anything other than glowing terms, and it seems she earned them as she was able to put up with being married to Adrian Monk for years (in one episode, Stottlemeyer says he's going to nominate her for sainthood after being forced to room with Monk for just two days). It's a bit easier to take than most since she's long dead, and with Monk's continued attachment to her he and everyone else would naturally be inclined to focus on her positive aspects.

Western Animation

• Kevin from Ben 10 Alien Force has elements of this. Which did the writers came up with first: his Badass Decay or his George Lucas Love Story with Gwen?
  • Julie fits this trope even better — it's painfully obvious the writers are trying sink their way out of the Kissing Cousins Relationship Writing Fumble. As icing on the cake, the more screentime she gets, the more she seems to adopt the qualities of 10-year-old Gwen that were found the most annoying. facepalm
• Alexis from Transformers: Armada, carries a few traits of a Mary Sue - primarily the fact that she forms a strong emotional bond with the Decepticon Starscream, something fangirls have wanted to do ever since his predecessor made them have orgasms back in 1984. Fanfiction involving one of them tends to involve the other. And all that that implies.
• Brynja in Code Lyoko episode "Kadic Bombshell" probably obviously serves to parody the show's Fan Work examples.
  • That, and to further tease at Odd and Sissy's ever Unresolved Sexual Tension.
• Tom Sloane from Daria comes from an extremely rich family, but he's above all that, and prefers to hang around ordinary people. While slumming he encounters Jane Lane, whom he quickly charms with his looks and wits and the two begin dating. Her best friend Daria dislikes him at first, but after he demonstrates the depths of his intellect she falls for him, to the point of dating him almost immediately after he breaks up with Jane. On several occasions throughout the series Tom freely offers advice which always turns out to be helpful, or just happens to know information or have connections which always turn out to be valuable. Should he ever seem to screw something up, it ineluctably turns out to have been Daria or Jane's fault all along, and that they were acting uncharacteristically irrational and childish for doubting him. About the only legitimate error Tom makes is kissing Daria once while dating Jane, an event which came about due to the two of them drifting apart, (thanks partially to her issues), and for which he is Easily Forgiven, after a brief rocky period.

• Daisuke Umon aka Duke Fleed from UFO Robo Grendizer is often accused as one, being that his show made the protagonist of Mazinger Z, Kouji Kabuto, turn into his sidekick. Also... good looks? Check. Runaway prince from a Doomed Hometown? Check. Cool looking alter-ego? Check. Gets to pilot the most powerful mecha? Grendizer is often likened to Mazinkaiser in terms of power, but never appear together, so... check.
  • Duke's sister Maria, who becomes Kouji's Love Interest in the series. Naturally, she and Sayaka don't get along very well when Grendizer appears in a Super Robot Wars game.
  • His Stu status is affected a bit due to the fact that Kouji is too strong for a normal sidekick who usually ends up being captured almost all the time. (It's stated in canon that without Kouji, Grendizer is reduced to 50% power, so Kouji must be one DANG IMPORTANT sidekick).

This one doesn't even talk about the Relationship angle. A Relationship Sue solely exists to be someone's ideal romantic partner.

• The main girls of the Prince of Tennis Dating Sim games are very often accused of being canon Relationship Sues. These allegations, however, usually come from rabid yaoi fans who hiss at any female approaching to their beloved "ghei teniboys"... and then make the boys Relationship Stus in their fanwork.

Pulled this because the example itself points out that the characters aren't Sues.

• Kitty Pryde herself, or more precisely her Ultimate version, has actually been accepted as this in a positive way by the Misaimed Fandom of Ultimate Spider-Man, who cite that she's "the perfect girlfriend" for Peter to justify their OTP, failing to realize the flaws in the relationship even when the comic points them out.

Pulled because the entry itself notes that she is not a Sue and its fans of Kitty that over-idealize her.

• Lillie in Runaways, created by Joss Whedon, seemingly existed to be one of these. A "Wonder" (superhuman) from 1907 the Runaways met after accidentally going back in time. She had the Common Mary Sue Traits of red hair and green eyes, Victor had an insta-crush on her, Nico was disappointed but actually tried to get them together. She was a bit of a subversion though she didn't want to come to travel to the future with Victor and he didn't stay in the past with her either.
  • You know it's Joss Whedon when even a relationship sue can't have a happy relationship.

A work I'm not familiar with, but the example felt rather weak, especially because they didn't get together. If she's a subversion, it's a notable entry.

• Mara Jade in the Star Wars Extended Universe, a character that creator Timothy Zahn admits was designed to get involved with Luke Skywalker. She can also use the Force, fight with a lightsaber, be stealthy, blend into any human or multispecies culture, is a crack shot with a blaster pistol, an expert pilot, a good administrator, and of course drop-dead gorgeous until she drops dead at almost sixty... but then, it's Luke Skywalker. Who was he going to marry, someone who couldn't keep up?
  • As with Kitty, Emma, and others, Mara can be very human if someone competent is writing her. Turning characters into Mary Sues is one of many consequences of Running the Asylum.
    • And really, most characters are going into Sue territory as the series gets chronologically further from the movies. The authors have forgotten that you can make a good plot without it being a galactic-scale crisis.

Tons of justifying arguments about Mara. I've never read a Star Wars novel in my life, but the entry is mostly pointing out why she's not a Sue, or slips into Depending on the Writer, which we've currently agreed in the YKTTW to start pulling. I left the other Star Wars Sue intact because even Word of God declared her a Sue.

• John Galt in Atlas Shrugged, the counterpart to Purity Sue Dagny Taggart. While Dagny represents everything that Ayn Rand wants to be, John Galt represents everything she wants in a boyfriend and also uses him as her surrogate for the Author Filibuster (because then as now, men were given a lot more consideration in their opinions then women).

Pulled because this guy is one *every* Sue page. Pick one or two, guys.

• Mary Russell is in the somewhat odd position of having her own series of successful, mainstream-published novels - and therefore being a canonical literary character - despite being otherwise an archetypal Relationship Sue inserted into the original Sherlock Holmes canon. She starts the series at 15 years old as the 50 year old Holmes' intellectual equal, plus she's blond and attractive, she's a rich orphan, and her aunt is mean to her. The novels frequently compare her more favorably to Watson, who is portrayed as a bumbling nitwit in the light of Mary's superior intelligence and skill, reduced to being called "Uncle John" by Mary. All of this so the story can later justify why the canonically stoic Holmes (who's also old enough to be her grandfather) would suddenly fall in love with her a few years later when she's a legal adult. Of course, Your Mileage May Vary.

I think she's a Sue and I still have to admit this entry is stretching things a bit, especially with the Your Mileage May Vary tacked on the end.

• David Eddings' Mallorean series. This Troper would like to believe that Velvet exists as an independent and vital character in the story... but knows that she really only exists to be Silk's perfect woman. Five books of "character development" do nothing to hide this fact.
  • And likewise, Lady Prala to King Urgit. Then there are other examples that are merely impure instances of this trope - Belgarion and Ce'nedra, for instance. Come to that, while we know that Relg was going to become the father of race that died, all we got to see was Taiba pursuing him and sapping his defences. The Prophecy was certainly working hard!

This one gives no information on why the characters are Sues, or admits that they're not actually Sues.

• Emma, the protagonist in Kylie Chan's Dark Heavens trilogy is a young, white Australian nanny with no previous training who develops superhuman martial-arts skills and magical qi powers in just a few months, beats up demons, becomes loved by all and generally proves herself superior to Chinese GODS, never mind mere mortals, but her primary role is to be the ideal love of her employer John Chen, who is really a turtle and Xuan Wu the God of Martial Arts.

If she's the main character, I don't think she can be the Relationship Sue to someone lower in the casting hierarchy.

• In the fourth book of the Sword Of Truth series, Shota attempts to invoke this trope. Given a prophecy which states that Richard Rahl must marry someone other than his one true love, Shota manipulates the prophecy so that that someone is Nadine, a heretofore unknown childhood friend of Richard's who shares many of his hobbies and interests and who is specifically stated by Shota to be the one person other than Kahlan that Richard has any feelings for. However, the trope inverts, mildly deconstructs, and altogether blows up in Shota's face when Nadine turns out to be a Stepford Smiler who attempts to ensure that the First Girl Wins the race by torpedoing her competition. Throughout the book, she tries to turn Richard against Kahlan through subtle disparaging comments and cattily insults Kahlan when she thinks nobody else is listening...which does not make it past Richard, who grabs her by the throat and tells her that if she doesn't show some respect, he'll have her thrown into Aydindryl's Dungeon-O-Rape. Eventually, as the prophecy is coming to fruition, she corners Kahlan and tells her, in exquisite detail, exactly how earthshatteringly awesome her sex life with Richard is going to be, but you don't have to take my word for it, you'll be able to hear my screams of orgasmic glee from miles away you harpy, you can be sure of that! Given all that, Shota would have been better off drafting a random stranger. Or a Mord-Sith.

Possibly a subversion because she was introduced to *not* be the perfect mate. It might just need to be rewritten to emphasize it, but it really sounds like she's there to prove just how much better Kahlan is.

Clendy82: I might not have been clear when I wrote the trope entry above, but I was trying to emphasize that Nadine's inclusion in the book deconstructs the trope, because somebody with her background (childhood friend of main character, similar skillset, in this case with herbs and woodlore, and various examples of shared history) would be the obvious Relationship Sue...in any other book than this one. I say deconstructs because not only is she the junior varsity love interest compared to Kahlan, but eventually her personality turns Richard's feelings toward her from vaguely platonically friendly to "Do I Have To Choke A Bitch?" hatred. Thus, Shota saw the superficial signs of a Relationship Sue in Nadine, but obviously she didn't read the fine print.

Rebochan: I think this one is a subversion of the trope because the expectation of a Relationship Sue is perfection compared to the previous partner, which is the opposite of how Nadine turns out. Either way, especially with the context you're providing, it does sound like this is a great example of a subversion of the trope without just being a Parody Sue on the wrong page. Go ahead and put it back with a note of the subversion so it's a little more clear.

• Kevin from Ben 10 Alien Force has elements of this. Which did the writers came up with first: his Badass Decay or his George Lucas Love Story with Gwen?

Not a Relationship Sue and it even invokes the two tropes he should be filed under.

• Brynja in Code Lyoko episode "Kadic Bombshell" probably obviously serves to parody the show's Fan Work examples.
  • That, and to further tease at Odd and Sissy's ever Unresolved Sexual Tension.

Parody Sue - I'll move it to the right page.

• Tom Sloane from Daria comes from an extremely rich family, but he's above all that, and prefers to hang around ordinary people. While slumming he encounters Jane Lane, whom he quickly charms with his looks and wits and the two begin dating. Her best friend Daria dislikes him at first, but after he demonstrates the depths of his intellect she falls for him, to the point of dating him almost immediately after he breaks up with Jane. On several occasions throughout the series Tom freely offers advice which always turns out to be helpful, or just happens to know information or have connections which always turn out to be valuable. Should he ever seem to screw something up, it ineluctably turns out to have been Daria or Jane's fault all along, and that they were acting uncharacteristically irrational and childish for doubting him. About the only legitimate error Tom makes is kissing Daria once while dating Jane, an event which came about due to the two of them drifting apart, (thanks partially to her issues), and for which he is Easily Forgiven, after a brief rocky period.

Yea...I know this show inside and out. No, he's not a Relationship Sue. He was created to be Daria's boyfriend...but not her ideal boyfriend or even her perfect love interest. He's not perfect - the whole reason they broke up was because in the end, he and Daria really did have very different ideas for how they wanted their lives to turn out and he was oblivious to it. And he's definitely not Daria's One True Love if they broke up at the end of the show over that.