A Canon Sue is a
Mary Sue who happens to be a
canonical character. This could be one of two things:
- A Possession Sue. It's more frequently referred to as Canon Sue, but it has its own article.
- A professional work in which a canonical character already has the attributes of a Mary Sue.
In the second version, this can sometimes be tricky to identify; creators often draw on their own personality, appearance, and/or history for inspiration, since it's easy and convenient to write
what and
who you know, so the appearance of these doesn't automatically mean a Canon Sue. However, if the character that appears is very obviously an
Author Stand-In (especially to such a degree that the character's back-story and the author's biography are practically interchangeable),
believes in everything the creator believes, does everything the creator does (
or wants to do) and is absolutely correct and perfect in both, is over-idealized and perfect to a fault, and/or (most importantly and required) seems as though the story exists only to further this one specific character (
most often to the detriment of any other characters present,
who simply cannot measure up to the author's clear favourite), you're in
Mary Sue territory.
Ship-to-Ship Combat also plays in, as the Canon Sue accusation is often blatantly leveled at characters just because they hook up with a lead (or the
Ensemble Darkhorse) who the accuser ships with somebody else. Also, with the general trend of
Mary Sue being used as an all-encompassing insult for any female character considered to get "above herself", this accusation gets thrown around a lot without much basis in fact.
In general, Canon Sues are significantly less common than
fanfiction Mary Sues, since most professional authors have more skill, talent and accumulated experience than the amateurs who write fanfiction, not to mention the help of professional editors. However, this means that when they do occur they are significantly more visible (
who's going to remember the hastily typed out daydream of a 12 year old girl in a year?). Due to the author creating an entirely different template for the work of fiction, they can set up the rules of
The Verse that allow or disallow particular tropes or characteristics. As such, they can choose what
Common Mary Sue Traits are allowed, making it a bit harder to see when plot bias is in effect. However, they're hardly immune to this trend. Nor is this a new element;
George Eliot's
Silly Novels by Lady Novelists castigates many original novels of her day for obvious Mary Sue traits (among other flaws).
For the most blatant and infamous examples see
Creator's Pet. The
Magical Girlfriend,
Tsundere and
Yamato Nadeshiko, while occasionally possessing similar traits, are not usually viewed as such; they are seen more as targets of enticement instead of ones to emulate; whether they're
still Canon Sues is left to the viewer. Also see
The Ace, which puts an idealized character in a supporting role in the story, often serving as a rival, a foil, a source of comedy, or as a mentor (or possibly just the
Hero of Another Story).
Suetiful All Along can also play a part as well.
No examples, please. This only defines the term.
