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Canon Sue
A Canon Sue is a Mary Sue who happens to be a canonical character. This could be one of two things:

  1. A Fan Fic in which the canonical character with whom the Fanficcer identifies is suddenly made to be uber-competent, extremely beautiful, outshines every other character, gains new and unheard of powers, is revealed to be someone's long lost daughter, and generally speaking acts like a Mary Sue (or a Marty Stu).
  2. A professional work in which a canonical character already has the attributes of a Mary Sue. Note that the definition of Mary Sue can vary somewhat, so this can refer to a character who is idealized, who seems to be a wish-fulfillment Author Avatar, or both.

In the second version, this can sometimes be tricky to identify; creators often draw on their own personality, appearance and/or history for inspiration, so the appearance of these doesn't automatically mean a Canon Sue. However, if the character that appears is (a) very obviously a stand-in for the author (especially to such a degree that the character's back-story and the author's biography are practically interchangeable), (b) believes in everything the creator believes, does everything the creator does (or wants to do) and is absolutely correct and perfect in both, (c) is loved and adored by almost all the other fictional characters in the work (in some cases, including the bad guys) and / or (d) is over-idealized and perfect to a fault, then you can be fairly sure you're in Sue territory.

Ship To Ship Combat also plays in, as the Canon Sue accusation is often levelled at characters who hook up with the handsome male lead (or the Ensemble Darkhorse) in a blindingly obvious form of Die For Our Ship.

Non Action Guy gets this a lot, in both forms.

See also Too Good For This Sinful Earth, Magical Girlfriend and Yamato Nadeshiko for canon female characters who have many overly-perfect Sue traits, yet are mostly written by male writers as an ideal female character rather than as one the author overly identifies with. Whether they're still Canon Sues is left to the reader...

See also The Ace for the canon male (supporting) character whose overwhelming Marty Stuness is played for comedy.
Examples of the first kind of Canon Sue:

Anime/Manga
  • Perhaps as payback for putting her on a bus, Misty from Pokemon has a bizarre tendency to return as a Mary Sue in fanfiction, complete with overblown description of how curvy she is -- which is strange, as the character's lack of such features was close to being a Running Gag.
    • The original pokemon comics were famous for pushing the limits of fanservice in a shounen manga.Misty's anatomy was drastically reduced for the TV series and the American adaptation.
    • The Ono manga was based on the anime, not the other way around, and is the only incarnation of a curvaceous Misty serving as Ms Fanservice. And she got less so over the series' run, too.
  • Tenchi Muyo fandom is prone to Mary Sue characters in Fan Fic, given the Love Dodecahedron at the center of the premise.
  • See also a good number of Ranma 1/2 fanfics. This author remembers two particularly bad examples: one where Ranma was basically hooked up with damn near every non-canonically-paired anime female in existence at the time of the writing (this one was So Bad Its Good), and one where he became an immortal Vampire with the powers of a Sailor Senshi and in command of the Robotech Defense Force (this one being So Bad Its Horrible, mostly in this editor's opinion due to rampant character-bashing of nearly the entire original cast).
  • Naruto is often a little more low-key in this, usually enacting a single change before the start in the series or early on it that changes everything and starts Naruto on the road to early badassedness (and getting 80% of the female cast to fall in love with him).
    • This editor thinks that Sasuke fits the bill very well in more recent manga chapters.
  • Ijuuin Enzan (Eugene Chaud) in Rockman.EXE. In the games, he's just a really good NetBattler; in the anime, he's also the VP of a company. Nevertheless, most fanfics see him fixing things and solving puzzles with ease, elegance, and coolness, even ones that, in canon, he'd usually go to a superior or the resident expert for. One fanfic even attributes to him the brainpower necessary to simulate a world.
    • The ending for the 6th game does show he skipped more grades then the child genies Yai
  • Shinji Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion is a good but spineless kid who gets in over his head. In fanfic, however, he is one badass mother, who sleeps with Asuka, Rei, Misato, Kaworu, Hikari, Ritsuko, and Pen-Pen several times every day. While defeating all of the Angels at once... and flipping Gendo off at the same time. It's been theorized that fans see a bit too much of themselves in him, and compensate by badassing him up.
    • A good example (in all the right ways) is Charles Bhepin's Shinji and Warhammer40k.
    • Strange that Shinji becomes The Messiah in his dark hellhole world thanks to lessons from Warhammer 40000, which goes beyond depressing to the point of being insanely amusing. It doesn't make much in the way of sense and yet somehow... it's kind of good. I'm scared!
    • The fic only works because it is so cheerfully and unabashedly over the top.
    • Which is a fair point up a little past the halfway mark before the author starts slowing down the ridiculous hot-blooded speeches and Xanatos Gambits and trying to develop the other characters. Arguably it remains a good story at this point but less interesting as a fanfic -- an Asuka who gets over herself is a decent character, but kind of defeats the purpose of writing, well, Asuka. His rendition of Kaworu as Bizarro-Shinji's semi-rival is a similar case.
  • Happens to Tomoyo Daidouji of Card Captor Sakura quite frequently. Already possessed of several very Sueish traits, writers tend to give her a true love to make up for her "disappointing ending" in canon, make her a reincarnation to justify breaking up a canon pairing in favor of giving her a partner, give her magic, make her beloved by everyone (and lusted after by all males), etc. And that's only the canon-verse fics...
  • Usagi and, to a lesser extent, Ami from Sailor Moon are frequent targets of this treatment.

Literature
  • In the Harry Potter fandom, you can find Fanfics in which Hermione comes back all grown up from summer, with curves in "all the right places" (famously parodied by Saturday Night Live), finds out she's really the long lost daughter of fill in the blank and no longer a muggleborn, then proceeds to outwit Death Eaters, discover old powerful magic, and slay Voldemort single-handedly, while Harry, Ron, Draco, Snape, and Lucius all watch and swoon, mesmerized by her beauty and intelligence. Ironically, in Deathly Hallows, Hermione is actually wolf-whistled! It was an insane drunk who did it, though. Not to mention she was all dolled up for a wedding at the time, to say nothing of the fact that she was changing her clothes in the street.
  • The alternate history novel A Damned Fine War features General George Patton as a nigh-invincible tactician and warrior able to do no wrong. Throughout the course of the book he is promoted to the rank of five-star general, made Supreme Commander of Allied Forces, and is singlehandedly responsible for annihilating the creme of the Red Army and overthrowing the communist regime in a matter of months without the slightest hint of a setback, obstacle, or impediment. To top it all off, he personally shoots Josef Stalin in a western-style shootout. The two warning signs before even reading the first page were that the author was a member of the George Patton Historical Society, and that the rear cover blurb included the phrase, "His (Patton's) only fear was that the Allies would negotiate a peace settlement before he could destroy the Red Army forever...". It tends to remove any sort of dramatic tension to know that Patton's crushing victory is inevitable before walking out of the store.
  • Certain fanfics and "sequels by other hands" tend to fall into this trap with Sherlock Holmes, portraying him as absolutely omniscient. In the original stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, Holmes is, in addition to brilliant, short-tempered, self-centered, drug-addicted, and misogynistic, and has a number of gaps in his knowledge (exactly how much the last three items apply vary from story to story; he becomes much better-read between the first and second novels, for example). Fans (amateur and professional) tend to discard everything that made Holmes more than a walking brain.
    • By contrast, this troper read a Sherlock Holmes novel where Holmes had lost all ability for diplomacy--to the point where a security guard Holmes was interviewing complained how badly he was paid, and Holmes said that if the guard wanted to be a Socialist, he could do it on his own time.

Live Action TV
  • Happens a lot to Xander in Buffy The Vampire Slayer fanfics, to the point that making him ridiculously powered-up is a subgenre in and of itself.
    • Parodied in the Buffy episode "Superstar" in which Jonathan makes a wish and is made into the quintessential Gary Stu or Marty Stu. Allegedly a jab at fanfic writers by Joss Whedon. The terms -Stu are never used, but it's pretty clear-cut just from watching the intro.
  • Star Trek The Next Generation: The infamous Marissa fics by Stephen Ratliff (most popular in their misted versions) pick up a minor one-shot preteen character and... well, by the end of the series, she's twenty-one, pregnant, and in charge of Starfleet. Also, a princess. Nope, sorry, not making this up.
  • Out of all the Supernatural fanfiction set around Season One, this happens to Dean the most. Add some tragic event to make his life even worse, up the prettiness, sexual appeal and the martyrdom/selflessness and you have the perfect recipe for a Sue. Luckily, the real Dean has enough deep-seated flaws to prevent this from ever happening on the actual show.
  • Tommy Oliver suffers a lot from this in Power Rangers, both in the show and in the fandom. He started out as a flawed individual, and has since become something of an uber-stu, with even other Rangers calling him 'legendary'.

Professional Wrestling
  • The "Rewriting the Book" section on Wrestle Crap has done this on a couple of occasions. One of the most notable is "What if D-Generation X got into the Norfolk Scope during their attack on Nitro?", which gives the treatment to Paul Heyman. In real life, ECW went under due to overwhelming competition and Heyman's general lack of business experience. In the aforementioned story, Heyman becomes an omniscient, infalliable Benevolent Boss, who swoops into the fray and overthrows all comers. Does anyone else think the author was an ECW mark?

Western Animation
  • Ron Stoppable, for the male half of the Kim Possible fandom, and a fair chunk of the women, too. He's easy to identify with, which is why he's canonically the protagonist of many stories on a show named after someone else. But, in the fanfic world, his goofy foibles and good nature are subsumed by his badassery, his almost-never-useful "Mystical Monkey Powers" become mystical nigh-omnipotence, his week at ninja school becomes a 256th Dan black belt in awesomesauce, and the temporary wealth he gained in a single episode becomes a massive trust fund. Either Kim will leave him and he'll figure out he's better off, or she'll become useless (or pregnant) and leave all the world-saving to him. And he manages to do all this from under a pile of almost every female character in the series: Kim (if she's not dead or evil), her friends, her enemies, that hot Japanese girl who had a crush on him, Kim's mom, etc.
    • It should be noted that canonically Ron is very competent when he's working alone instead of being Kim's sidekick.
Examples of the second kind of Canon Sue:

Live Action TV
  • Wesley, the prominent Mary Sue figure in Star Trek The Next Generation, created by Eugene Wesley Roddenberry. Similarly, Seven of Nine in Star Trek Voyager.
  • Suzee, from the second season of Space Cases: She's the only one who's ever crossed over from another dimension, she's the smartest member of the crew (especially in engineering), has immense telepathic abilities, the ability to breathe in any atmosphere, and both of the male leads instantly fall in love with her. Jeez.
  • Captain Dylan Hunt, played by Kevin Sorbo on the TV show Andromeda. From the middle of the second season on, all other characters were reduced to pale before his awesomeness, regardless of however competent or courageous they had been before. Also, episodes came to focus on him more and more, to the point where no other member of the cast could get on camera unless their scene was also relevant in some manner to Captain Hunt's personal story arc. Sorbo's growing influence over the show is related to the departure of the original executive producer, Robert Wolfe, halfway during the second season.
  • Robin Williams's character, Merrit Rook, in the "Authority" episode of Law and Order Special Victims Unit is the ultimate crime drama Mary Sue. Representing himself in court despite having no legal training or court-appointed advisor, Rook dismantles the A.D.A.'s case, destroys an expert witness on cross-examination, and handily wins over the jury with the his understated humor and forceful personality. His anarchist beliefs win him the fawning adoration of the entire city including Sergeant Munch, who attends a Central Park rally in his honor, while his sympathetic backstory allows him to chew the scenery and monopolize the camera with emotional soliloquies. When a squadron of New York's Finest attempt to arrest Rook on a second charge, while he is unarmed and in a crowded public space, he manages to not only slip away but to disarm and kidnap veteran detective Olivia Benson in the process. After playing psychological mind games with Detective Stabler, Rook dramatically escapes from custody and vanishes, seemingly into thin air.
  • Doctor Who: Jenny, from "The Doctor's Daughter" was declared to be one by some fans very soon after the On The Next trailer for "The Poison Sky".
    • When the revived show was first broadcast, the producers described Rose Tyler as a Mary Sue in interviews, and admitted she was intended as an Author Avatar.
  • Battlestar Galactica: Starbuck almost exemplifies a canon Sue. The greatest pilot in the fleet. Trained in interrogation (this came out of nowhere). Has a “Special Destiny”, according to a Cylon. Is loved or lusted after by every major male character on the show. Her husband knows she’s cheating on him, but still loves her. Threatens the President and gets away with it. Let’s replace “Mary Sue” with “Kara Thrace” and be done with it..

Literature
  • Anita Blake, from the eponymous series written by Laurell K. Hamilton, is often considered as a Mary Sue of her writer.
    • The main character from Hamilton's other series, Merry Gentry, isn't exactly a balanced character either.
  • Classic American literature example, sometimes credited with creating the female Mary Sue trope, is Little Eva from Uncle Tom's Cabin. As with a lot of nineteenth century literary Mary Sues, she dies very young, being too good for this sinful earth. She gets a particularly long Final Speech converting lots of slaves to Christianity as she dies.
  • Ayla, from Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children novels, starts out as a misfit and reject within her adopted tribe. As the series progresses, she metamorphoses into a neolithic Bad Ass and Action Girl who ends up inventing several things that we now take for granted, eventually becoming everyone's heroine and the subject of mass adoration. (Any character who dislikes her is portrayed as blatantly unsympathetic.) To ice the cake, a powerful spiritual leader is impressed with her to the point of being intimidated...but all that Ayla wants to do is settle down with her nearly-as-disgustingly-perfect love interest and raise their daughter.
  • Even for the main character of a fantasy book series, The Inheritance Trilogy's Eragon is incredibly Stu-ish, gaining magical abilities beyond that of the other main characters in an implausible amount of time, and seemingly being able to do anything as the story calls for it. They still look up to him as a chosen figure, even though he treats them like dirt throughout the first two books (and The Film Of The First Book). With two books left to go in the "trilogy", his Stuish powers can only escalate from there.
    • This troper just saw a page with a Amazon ad linked from the word Mary Sue in an article. The ad was for the Eragon DVD.
  • The wizard Elminster in the Forgotten Realms setting of Dungeons And Dragons, who also happens to act as writer Ed Greenwood's alter ego when presenting the setting (including performances in character at gaming conventions). Disgust with the absurd degree of canonical detail about his apparent general-purpose awesomeness (power, wisdom, mighty deeds, hawt girlfriends)--and he has in fact gone To Hell And Back--has led in some forums to contests being held to propose the most plausible and sadistically satisfying way of actually bumping Elminster off. Ed Greenwood's own statement in an interview (Dragon Magazine #335) that Elminster is "beyond munchkinism" is the final nail in this coffin.
  • Elric of Melniboné is possibly a subversion of this; he appears to be one at first glance, but turns out to be a Xanatos Sucker.
  • The author of the Sweet Valley book series actually admitted that Elizabeth, the smart, sensible blond twin, was a Mary Sue in a later interview.
  • A good many Redwall protagonists are bad in this respect, but the one that really sticks out in this editor's mind is Tiria of High Rhulain. A flawless, beloved-by-all, "spunky" teenager who is skilled at everything and would be the leader of her people, only women can't hold that position. Despite no combat training, beats up experienced fighters using a loaded sling by hitting them with it (which would be charitably described as "suicidal" against multiple, sword-bearing opponents), because using ranged weapons at range is for suckers. Despite having had a professional chef all her life, instantly becomes flawless at cooking when nobody else is around to do it. The entirety of the B-plot centers around the entire supporting cast finding out she is the long-lost queen of a long-lost island and getting her long-lost crown to her when she goes there. Which she does, rallies La Resistance and kills the Big Bad in one shot with a spiky metal ball loaded into a sling. Some epic confrontation. Bonus points include the Big Bad being well out of range of Muggles, the projectile not being remotely aerodynamic, the projectile not being all that lethal and the fatal shot being fired with zero interaction between the two.
  • Bagsby the thief from Mark Acres' short-lived Land Between The Rivers series (DragonSpawn and DragonWar), whose character sheet reads much like that from a munchkin fantasy campaign. Bagsby is a monstrously huge asshole to everybody he encounters, a con artist, an obvious bald-faced liar, and totally unscrupulous and yet people still believe everything he says and fall all over themselves in love or admiration for him -- especially after he gets conscripted into the king's army later and manages to stop Heilsheim's imperial aims through sheer dumb luck. He's portrayed as being "mildly" out of shape, but can still pull off "awesome" feats as the plot demands it. As is expected of a Canon Sue, lardbutt hooks up with a hot female elf, who is assumed to be more beautiful than an Avariel.
  • Captain Kirk in the Star Trek novels (ghost-)written by (for) William Shatner. This editor remembers him beating Spock in a logical argument, out-wrestling Worf, doctoring McCoy, single-handedly defeating the Borg and romancing a Mirror Universe Katheryn Janeway (who's a beautiful resistance fighter). To say nothing of him cold-cocking Picard at the end of one of them. And this isn't even getting started on Mirror Kirk...
    • Fortunately, if you can get past Kirk, the novels themselves are actually quite good and play off some interesting ideas (the conceptual Borg in "The Return" for example, beat any representation this troper's yet seen of them, canonical or no). Shatner got some top-tier writers for his Marty Stu magnum opus.
  • Jaenelle, from Anne Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy. A manifestation of all good sentient hopes and dreams, her birth was prophecied centuries beforehand. She's practically omnipotent from childhood and only gets more powerful, but she's still innocent and sweet, and all the "good guys" devote their lives to protecting her (mostly from her self-sacrificing tendencies). She tries to sacrifice herself to save the world, but is saved with the power of love. Plus she has an angsty past; her foster parents deemed for unstable, so she was sent to a "mental asylum" where she was molested and later raped (with some device that tore her vagina) which for some reason put her in a two-year coma.
  • Mina from the Dragonlance War of Souls trilogy, and an unfinished second trilogy just about her. Last this troper heard, she was revealed to be an actual goddess (she's not aware of this).
  • The Undead series by Mary Janice Davidson features a stunningly gorgeous Friendly Neighborhood Vampire who not only possess Barbie-like good looks and what the author wants to come across as Buffy-like wit, but is in fact Queen of the Vampires -- which means that she doesn't have those pesky drawbacks that make vampires Scary Monsters rather than Super Heroes. By the end of the third book she is unaffected by sunlight, able to toss crosses and holy water around, and is completely so unrelatable, even despite having no other entertainment on a 5-hour car ride.
    • Betsy is somewhat tempered by the fact that even her best friend and her love interest find her dense, self-centered and exasperating (and tell her so, repeatedly). Not to mention Sinclair's Lancer/Baroness kicks her ass with little effort, despite the fact that she'd been possessed by the Vampire Necronomicon and was in full evil vamp mode.
  • Timothy Zahn's character Talon Karrde is probably one of the few examples of the Canon Sue done well, in that he was rather popularly received. That doesn't change that he's a powerful smuggler and information broker that popped out of nowhere without any of the other smuggler characters even hearing about him, is highly and strictly ethical, inspires loyalty in new recruits nearly instantly, and manages to think at nearly the same level as the tactical supergenius introduced in the same series. How much of a Marty Stu is he? Timothy Zahn posed for his picture in the collectible card game.
    • The tactical supergenius, Grand Admiral Thrawn is himself very nearly a Canon Sue. Only his ruthless if charismatic bastardry and willingness to employ nearly any tactic, no matter how morally questionable it might be, keeps him from Suedom. However, in the a prequel-era novel before he loses his idealism, he is the youngest of his species to ever reach his rank. His gimmick -- that of using artwork to discern psychological and biological weak spots -- is well- if not fully-developed (he can tell, for example, that a painting was done by a species with six fingers at a moment's glance). Even among the universally cunning Chiss -- whom the Emperor respects enough to adopt some of their uniform's appearance when he takes over -- he is held up as an ideal of the brilliant tactician... or would be, if he weren't also immune to his species' absolute refusal to engage in preemptive strikes, even if it would be not just in their best interest but everyone in their sector.
    • In addition, his Mara Jade character he admits he designed to get involved with Luke Skywalker. She can 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?
  • The Mandalorians from Star Wars, as portrayed by Karen Traviss, fit this trope perfectly. Their history is suddenly changed, casting them in a far more positive light, and they're given ridiculous weapons that overpower everything seen elsewhere. Add to that Traviss' insistence on comparing them favorably to the Jedi, and you get a whopping mess of a society of Mary Sues.
  • Pick a Dan Brown protagonist, any Dan Brown protagonist. Without exception, an expert in their field -- internationally recognized as the expert-of-experts in fact, elicits love at first sight from their love-interest, who is, as a general rule, fabulously attractive, and probably way out of the league of the sort of person the protagonist is meant to be. Not to mention able to act as an Action Hero despite being a middle-aged intellectual. Their inability to sort out the plots by the end of the first page when all the readers do makes this exceptionally infuriating.
  • Professor John Kenner of the Michael Crichton novel State Of Fear: graduated from an MIT engineering course and a Harvard Law course both at higher than average speed, became a professor at MIT at 25 and still manages to be a hot shot federal agent. Oh, and he is apparently able to quote geological surveys from memory. The only thing keeping him from being absolutely perfect is him at one point confessing he isn't good at languages and a couple of What An Idiot moments.
  • Rhapsody, heroine of the Symphony Of Ages series.
    • Tragic past: Check (Poor farmgirl who turned to prostitution to live)
    • Special Innate Talent: Check (She's a Singer, possessing a singing voice with magical potential)
    • Gifted with even more specialness: Check (A trip through La La Land allows her to literally remake herself as an impossibly beautiful, immortal fire mage, with ohbytheway, magically restored virginity. Seriously)
    • Gains a new power with every book: Check (She can work magic on something by knowing it's true name. Anything she says out loud can be magically transmuted into literal truth. She can channel FREAKING STAR FIRE!)
    • Uberskills: Check. (Taught the ways of swordsmanship by her world's version of a Badass Normal, who gifts her with her elemental fire sword)
    • (Nearly) Equally Perfect Boyfriend: Check. (A hot dragon prince who sports the water-based sibling to her fire sword)
    • Constantly whines about how she's "only a farmgirl and not worthy of her gifts": Check.
    • Everyone is love and/or awe of her, unless they're evil, then they want to screw and/or destroy her: Check.
  • Elsie Dinsmore. Just... Elsie Dinsmore.
  • Nick Geraci is technically the antagonist of the Mark Winegardner sequels to The Godfather (The Godfather Returns and The Godfather's Revenge). In fact he is effectively the protagonist taking up the largest single role in the story. He is a heavyweight champion boxer, a charismatic, incredibly shrewd crook who survives an aircrash that kills two rivals, is able to spot Batista's fall years before it happens, escapes Michael's attempts to have him killed several times and used as a mouthpiece to point out all the mistakes Vito and Michael made. Oh yeah and he kills Tom Hagen. Finally his memoirs apparently serve as the inspiration for the whole Godfather series.
  • Colleen McCullough's acclaimed Masters of Rome series about the fall of the Roman Republic is largely excellent, but her treatment of Julius Caesar verges on hagiographical. While other main characters have flaws, such the complex, brilliant but deeply damaged Sulla or the calm, "unfeeling pillar of ice" that is Octavian, Caesar himself is a polymath, a superb soldier, compassionate statesmen, incredibly handsome and amazing in the bedroom. While the real life Caesar was certainly a very impressive individual, McCullough seems almost to be in love with him and his perfection. It even spreads to his enemies; she spitefully renders Marcus Brutus in the least sympathetic light this troper has ever seen.
  • Marius Pontmercy of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables is a beautiful, heroic, passionate, idealistic stand-in for Hugo himself, down to the climax of the sprawling novel centered on a short-lived rebellion in Paris which Hugo actually observed in his youth.
    • He is also nigh unto oblivious to everything except Cosette and said revolution, to the point where he's acquired the affectionate Fan Nickname of "Doltboy."
  • The Vampire Lestat. 'Nuff said.
  • Romance Of The Three Kingdoms is one of the four great classics of Chinese literature, but it also has a blatant Canon Sue in Guan Yu, general of Shu Han. While the real Guan Yu was a respected General, in the novel, he is portrayed as the most beloved general of any warlord. An example is that in real life Hua Xiong was defeated by Sun Jian, the father of the Sun Family, the rulers of Wu, one of the three kingdoms, in the novel Guan Yu, an unknown soldier at the time is able to talk the other warlords into allowing him to duel him one on one, and easily defeats him. After Cao Cao is able to capture Guan Yu, Cao Cao is so impressed by Guan Yu, that he gives him Red Hare, the best horse in China.
    • The main reason for this is that later Chinese saw Shu Han as the legitimate heir to the Emperor, and not Wei or Wu. The result is that Shu is portrayed favorbly while Cao Cao is an egotistical Warlord that relies heavily on his advisors and always claims other people's ideas as his, and Wu's accomplishments are diminished (its a rare chapter of RotK that has Wu as the main kingdom. For example, the skilled strategist of Wu like Zhou Yu, and Lu Su, are protrayed as no match for Zhuge Liang, whose only equal is the traitorous Sima Yi.
  • John Galt in Atlas Shrugged. Though Dagny Taggart is the self-insert character, he's her ideal partner.
  • This troper can't believe no one has mentioned Ellen/Nelly from Wuthering Heights. She's seemingly perfect, if only because every other character is so horrid. It doesn't hurt that Nelly happens to be there for every event of importance save one, and is tod in exquisite detail everything that happens. The fact that Nelly is the one telling the story for most of the book contributes to this theory.

Film
  • Luke Skywalker, but only in the Expanded Universe.
  • Surely the king of this trope is Quentin Tarantino; just look at True Romance for the most glaring example of a Marty Stu possible.
    • On the other hand, look at him in Desperado, From Dusk Til Dawn, or better yet, Planet Terror.
  • Lady In The Water features as a significant character an author who will write a work of fiction so universally loved and inspirational that it will change the face of the world forever. The author just happens to be played by M. Night Shyamalan, the movie's writer and director. Coincidence?
  • In some ways, Silent Bob from The View Askewniverse, played by Kevin Smith, that verse's creator, writer and (sometime) director. Despite his name, in half of the movies he's the one who makes the profound observations and has the wisest advice to offer. (In the other movies, he offers a less-profound, but still apropos and funny, pop culture reference.) He also has the patience of a saint (as does anyone who can tirelessly put up with Jay) and apparently an encyclopedic knowledge of several fields one would not expect of him, including among others contract law. This is balanced, however, by the fact that he's a complete slacker, a stoner, and a drug dealer. Clerks 2 subverts these assets of his character; in a climactic scene, everyone looks to Silent Bob expecting him to say something poignant and meaningful, only for him to say "I got nothin'."
    • This troper has always viewed Silent Bob's prowess and wisdom to be an amusing and essential part of his character. The ironic juxtaposition between his solemn, profound nature and Jay's moronic hyperactivity causes no end of hilarity to many audience members. Were his character more similar to Jay's, it would be too unbearably annoying (stupid in stereo, anyone?).

Video Games
  • The Ultima series is possibly the worst offender in the history of video games. Richard Gariott, the creator of the series, shows up twice as two different Canon Sues. First there's Lord British, the wise, kind ruler of Britannia who is widely loved and respected, and can heal or kill with a touch. However, since Lord British doesn't join the Avatar on his quest, there's Shamino, another Gariott Canon Sue who gets to go off on adventures with the Avatar.
  • Rebecca became one of these in the Resident Evil novels. Even moreso is Alice from the Resident Evil movies, a genetically enhanced psychic amnesiac whose origins and fate become the center of attention to the exclusion of the ideas and characters of the game series itself. The zombie apocalypse storyline is little more than a backdrop by the second film, which conveniently wraps up the plot of the original Resi games. This frees up the entire third film to deal with Alice. A cynic would suggest that the writer was just using the Resi licence as the chance to get his tedious sci-fi adventure mish-mash on film. We're not cynics, though, so we reckon it probably has more to do with the writer's fiance starring as Alice.
  • To a certain extent, the main quest plot of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion basically forces the main character down Sue Lane. By the end of the story, the protagonist is deemed a Champion of Cyrodiil known by sight in every corner of the province, has saved every single city in the province from imminent destruction, cut down an entire nest of fanatical cultists, raced through the Oblivion Plane of a Great Gate in under 15 minutes and retrieved a number of dangerously guarded artifacts. All of it virtually single-handedly, and all of those quests were specifically advertised as suicide missions. It's almost ironic that the hero isn't the one who gets to sacrifice their life to turn the tide of the final battle. Of course, the story behaving as if the hero is the only person in Cyrodiil with functioning arms and legs makes for some tough loopholes to fill for aspirant fanfic writers.
    • The prequel was even worse. You're the champion of the realm, doing deeds living gods could not, the honorary champion of every House and Tribe in Vvardenfel, and the professed protector of all peoples.
  • Micaiah from Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, the Silver Haired Maiden who is loved by everyone, has the super special awesome (in story only) ability "Healing Hand", able to see the future, the savior of Daein, the true apostle and proper empress of Begnion, ages slowly, is the vassal of the goddess Yune and the Mother of Sothe's children. Too bad she sucks in combat.
  • Alouette from La Pucelle Tactics is a central canon character, but about as Mary Sue as they come. She is beautiful, kind pious, and extremely hard-working, facing her dangerous duties without fear. The only flaw ever revealed about her is that she is too steadfast and unrelenting in her quest for justice. She inspires others and everyone who meets her adores and respects her, and in some cases devote fifty years of their life to training in the hope of eventually serving her some day. She is extremely powerful and routinely causes "miracles" which save the day, despite such spells usually killing normal humans. It is revealed that this is because she is the Maiden of Light and is a holy avatar for the goddess Poitreene. She uses her holy powers to battle evil selflessly, and heroically sacrifices herself to save the world -- twice.
  • Prince Arthas, of the more recent War Craft games, could have become this. Prince of the realm, in training to be a paladin, and trained by the greatest paladin alive and the finest warrior of the dwarves, he is regarded as the best swordsman in the Alliance (his avatar wields a hammer in-game, though, so that should be a clue) and he had a romance with the beautiful, young, and very promising sorceress Jaina Proudmoore (who was herself the daughter of a hero of the Alliance and regarded as having more raw potential than any other student to train at Dalaran). However, the romance ended when they realized it simply wouldn't be practical...and it was all downhill from there. In the end, he went insane, slaughtered hundreds of his own people, betrayed his men, killed a friend, lost his soul, killed his father, killed his mentor, destroyed his homeland, destroyed the elves' homeland, destroyed a nation of wizards, helped summon a demon army, corrupted a noble if misguided elven warrior, and merged with his master to become the most powerful being in the world.
    • No, sorry, he was always too much of a self-centered ass people only put up with because of who his daddy was (nice foreshadowing, but he's still no Kerrigan).
  • KOS-MOS (and debatably also her creator, Shion Uzuki) from Xenosaga. Even though she's a robot, she's ludicrously overpowered and just keeps escalating her powers over time. A lot of her abilities involve asspulls, where there's just no physical way she could have a particular capability installed. And even though she's a robot being built for military purposes (with seemingly unlimited features), they still give her an overly idealized appearance, outfit, and "emotional depth". Shion herself pales in comparison, but she still has that sort of wispy, oblivious emotional state common of Mary Sue characters while still being able to engineer something so ludicrously over the top.
  • Reala in Tales Of Destiny 2. Born in an almost very ridiculous way, and she suddenly gain a lot of wisdom right off bat. The protagonist Kyle, who happens to be the son of the previous hero Stahn, immediately got fixated on her, she got along just fine with everyone, she gets to be the one who lectures Kyle the most (especially near the end), is not afraid in place of imminent death, and worst of all... she is a Spotlight Stealing Girl, that the plot is really heavily fixated on her, especially when it's revealed that she is The daughter of God, along with the Big Bad, who ends up rebelling. And then, in the ending, she's killed, and everyone returns to their timeline, with their adventure annulled. But then... she is the only one who came back and remembers all the adventures! Man. The second you see her in the opening sequences, that should be a hint of her Sue-ness.

Western Animation
  • Kicker from Transformers: Energon is given energon-detecting powers by the Transformer god Primus, and wears a super-suit created by his scientist father. Despite his bad attitude, he goes on to have pretty much all the good ideas and order the Autobots around almost as much as Optimus Prime. His girlfriend's also pretty hot in a geeky way.
  • Alexis from the previous series, 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 flew onto the scene back in 1984.
  • Sonic in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Seemingly all knowing, always knows the moral of the story, every female important to the episode plot falls in love with him, and on top of it all, he's apparently only 16. Of course, this is extremely old for a hedgehog, so the question becomes how he stayed in such excellent physical condition.
  • Lila Sawyer from Hey Arnold is a somewhat deliberate poke at the Mary Sue and/or Pollyanna character types.

Anime/Manga
  • Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket, as depicted in the anime. She remains eternally cheerful despite her tragic past, and the other members of the Sohma house look to her for guidance, as they all have problems of their own. The manga makes her more fleshed out, since her eternally cheerful disposition is actually a mask for her own abandonement issues.
  • A complaint often made about Tenchi Muyo for different characters.
    • Much of the hate for Sakuya in Tenchi in Tokyo (Shin Tenchi Muyo in the original Japanese) is that she's a brand new character who appears out of nowhere and subsequently wins Tenchi's heart, a general stereotype of Sues. She doesn't survive to the end of the series, either, but then again she's intentionally a creation intended to be enticing for Tenchi. On the other hand, until the twist ending, she's ridiculously normal compared to the other women interested in Tenchi, almost to the point of blandness. The series tries to imply that Tenchi prefers plain janes over the Green Skinned Space Babe Harem that usually pursues him. The fandom didn't appreciate that much, either.
    • This editor couldn't even begin to list the number of coincidences that seem dedicated to make Noike of the 3rd OVA series rather Sue-ish. Of course, some of the hate also comes from her replacing prior Alternate Continuity character and fan favorite Kiyone in role.
    • Tenchi Muyo: Daughter of Darkness introduces Mayuka, who goes in a different path by being Tenchi's daughter, although, admittedly, Ryoko can't stand her. However, she's killed off by the end of the movie, sort of. The stone that represents her life force is reborn into an infant body, with the ending credits implying that she really does become Tenchi's adoptive daughter, and possibly adopted by the other girls as well. One note of import is how despite her being infinitely more tragic and having an actually good reason for a grudge, he doesn't attempt to make peace with the villain. Just another way to bludgeon home the point in Tenchi in Tokyo that "This ain't yer pappy's Tenchi."
  • Shirayuki Berii from Tokyo Mew Mew a la mode. Especially grating when the translators made the fandom wait forever for a sequel, only to release it... and reveal that Ichigo and company had been reduced to living accessories for an unsympathetic ditz that immediately gets twice the power of any previous character, magnetizes the cast so that they immediately start stalking her to see how special she is and transfer to her school for no good reason, and makes everyone love her more than their sanity.
    • Before said translated release, the enticement of a new, more powerful, and instantly attention-grabbing character that no English-speaking fan knew very much about was too much, and Berii found herself as the other kind of Canon Sue, too. Half of the fanfiction.net section was devoted to Sue fics using Berii as their mask.
  • Griffith of Berserk is a Deconstruction of the concept of the Canon Sue. He is powerful, beautiful, and beloved by all, and initially he appears to be perfect. Eventually, the strain of maintaining this lie when he is in fact human and fallible underneath it all makes him crack, and the resulting trauma leads to him becoming the Big Bad.
  • Possibly a spoof, but in the anime for Ranma 1/2 there's an episode where the Monster Of The Week Rival of the Week is actually a friendly non-rival martial artist from out of town. He's amazingly strong, has great manners, is helpful, and can talk Ranma's rivals into reforming, as well as being innocent and naive (he carries a live cow for that night's beef dinner, thinking Kasumi asked for one). By episode's end everyone but Ranma (who's pretty jealous of him) is waving him off tearfully.
    • Of course, one can argue that the way all her competition is nerfed into hopeless romantic unsuitability while she gets away with everything, Akane is a non-spoof version of this archetype even while remaining one of the weakest members of the cast.
  • Nia from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann can be argued as one, she is loved by the entire cast, has a tragic past, and dies due to the defeat of the series' ultimate antagonist. Being one of the epitomes of Moe Moe is probably also relevant. The show itself plays with this in the Beach Episode, where Yoko becomes increasingly more frustrated with Nia as she proves to be better at everything...except cooking.
  • Valencia Tachibana from the OVAs of Blue Seed. Every power she has is an increased version of anything the other characters ever had, culminating with the golden mitama she has in the chest.
  • Ryoma Echizen, the main character of the Sports-Manga and Anime The Prince Of Tennis has often been accused of being one. More-or-less justified, seeing how he's a 12-year-old prodigy whose tennis skills are unmatched by all and unreasonably powerful. His bad behavior adds to the image as well.
    • This troper thinks that Ryoma is the biggest example, but not the only one. Yukimura, Tezuka, Atobe... practically every player whjo gets the spotlight has been painted with the Marty Stu brush at one point or another. Specially Yukimura, who additionally has the fangirls twisting him into their Draco In Leather Pants.
  • Lots of Fushigi Yuugi fangirls accuse Miaka Yuuki of being a Canon Sue since she's well-loved by lots of bishonen, is ditzy but good-hearted, gets everything to work for her in the end, etc. This troper thinks that Mayo Sakaki from the Eikoden novels and OAV's is more of a Canon Sue than Miaka could ever be; Miaka doesn't get scot free for her flaws (punishments go from running gags to very serious misunderstandings and problems) and has made bad decisions that bite her and others in the ass, while Mayo turns almost everyone against Miaka easily, lies repeteadly, "steals" Miaka's unborn baby girl and is this close to killing her, almost causes the end of two worlds... and practically doesn't get any punishment.
  • Hinagiku Katsura from Hayate No Gotoku. I dare you contradict it. She has Canon Sue written all over her. In several languages. With glowy marker.
    • Let's see... good marks... authority... tsundere traits... physically fit to whatever... remarkably cute... much screentime... damm, this guy is painfully right. I cannot deny she is a Canon Sue. I fail at life.
    • There there... you can vent up your rage at the Ultimate Troll Entry.
    • But how come if she's a Canon Sue, she's still an Ensemble Dark Horse?
    • Apparently the only thing that matters to be an Ensemble Darkhorse is to be a non-main character and win a few popularity polls. Even the Sue or the most insuferable Jerkass (I'm looking at you Saku) can do it. Of course the poll part was as good as won: everyone loves the Sue. Yes, including the main heroine. Check episode 20 (I think?) again.
  • And we went so far without any mention of Belldandy from AhMyGoddess...

Comic Books
  • It's very easy for a bad writer to cause Superman to fall into this. Great at everything, the original boy scout, and almost no interesting weaknesses.
  • While comics are usually full of super-competent characters, perhaps the most egregious is Kitty Pryde as written by Chris Claremont. While still a teenager she's established as a computer genius, a ninja master and a talented ballet dancer, beloved by almost every major character (although only two of them are actually in love with her) with absolute mastery of her mutant powers. Oh, and a pet dragon. And an occasional pirate-queen alter ego. She also saves the day, a lot, but that's hardly surprising considering how much more competent she is than everybody else. Then again, she acquired most of these attributes over the course of 20 to 30 years of comic book continuity, and some of them (such as the ninja abilities) only after suffering, pain, torture and/or standard Marvel Wangst. She also hasn't been allowed to save the day at any time this troper can remember in the past six years, and upon first arriving at the X-Mansion, Kitty couldn't punch her way out of a wet paper bag.
    • Come to think of it, this accusation is leveled at female characters written by Chris Claremont quite frequently. Aside from Shadowcat the most commonly accused are Storm and Sage, but Claremazon is a fairly common term of derision in several circles.
    • Similarly, Jean Grey is often seen as one of these. Even discounting the fact that they've basically admitted at this point that she'll never stay dead no matter what (being the "Phoenix" notwithstanding, since even that's a ridiculous powerup from where she started), repeated insinuations that she might be one of, if not the, most powerful character in the Marvel universe... it's more about how others treat her. She's repeatedly had some of the prettiest, most babe-magnet type guys on the team fall for her (Wolverine counts, in-universe), and each of them could practically write a dissertation on how much they adore her, because she's... well, the "why" tends to be rather vague. Almost everyone on the team mourns her harder than many of their other fallen teammates, bringing her up more often than anyone else when she's dead. This reflects in the way they treat her boyfriend/husband Scott; anything he does to come back to her, whether it's abandoning his (new) wife and child or shirking other responsibilities, is accepted without comment, or with understanding, or even praise. If he doesn't immediately come running to her, they condemn him. Jean Grey seemingly has the entire Marvel Universe on her side, despite trying to eat it more than once.
    • And what about Wolverine? After how he stole the spotlight in the X-Men movies? Come on.
  • Tintin. Apart from his day job (which we practically never see him doing), he's got fantastic deductive skills, knows many languages, can successfully beat up men three times his size, is a master of disguise, can drive any vehicle with little or no practice, picks up virtually any skill in no time at all ... Indeed, he's so perfect he verges on annoying.
  • Rex the Wonder Dog from DC Comics is quite possibly the first and only instance of this being applied to a non-talking, non-anthropomorphic dog. Rex can and has literally done everything and anything. He can drive boats and cars. (?) He's a great fisherman. He can ski. He can rope cattle. And he once killed a Tyrannosaurus rex using an atomic bomb. (?!) All without opposable thumbs. Did we mention that he's a lauded investigative reporter and camera man? And that nobody seems to find any of this the slightest bit strange?

Webcomics
  • Dave Anez has admitted (and lampshaded) the fact that Bob is Bob And George's Marty Stu. He dresses like Proto Man (easily the coolest Mega Man character), he's able to beat the main cast in combat and able to out-program Dr. Wily. He's the mastermind behind the events of Mega Man 5 and Mega Man 6 parodies, and a demi-god to boot. Since Bob And George was a Gag Series, he ends up as the butt of jokes a bit more often that your average Marty Stu.
  • A few readers of Killroy And Tina claimed that Tina was a Mary Sue. In response, author Justin Pierce announced that The Big Guy Monster Of The Week Mogul was his Mary Sue, even replacing his forum avatar with a picture of Mogul. In the chapter immediately after, Justin announced that a rhino was Killroy And Tina's Mary Sue.
  • The main cast of Dominic Deegan, but especially Luna. She's perfect in every way except for a pair of tusks. In spite of both the fact that this is a minor annoyance at worst and how it could be resolved within minutes, this (and her cruel family that fixated on this exact same problem) leads to her having extremely low self esteem and even attempting suicide. This is all handled with the subtlety of a jackhammer and just completely ignores that she's otherwise beautiful, smart, and highly skilled in magic. Single Issue Psychology at its worst.
    • Every single protagonist character has ended up being disgustingly, overwhelmingly good at whatever they do. Any character with flaws or subtle flavors to tarnish this is either fixed and made into another perfectly perfect ally (Szark Sturtz, who went from a hedonist murderer to a sword saint with Heroic Willpower because he no longer kills), or progressively demonized (Siggy, who went from a knight prone to violent outbursts to a genocidal racist to being an actual demon). There is no in-between for recurring characters; they're either perfect and on the protagonist's side or a monster and against them. If they don't start there, they are rapidly moved there. If they aren't going to be seen again, they'll just stick around long enough to say the protagonists are right before toddling off.
  • Kimiko of Dresden Codak has gotten a few of the same accusations, only with technophilia instead of sorcery. The whole "being batshit insane" thing would do better to redress this if it weren't heading toward making her a nigh-omnipotent (but virtuous and misunderstood) nano-being.
  • Grace. Oh, Lord. Ridiculously cute, the center of attention for everyone, tooth-grindingly perfect, and powerful enough to take out the entire heroic cast with one hand. The only time the spotlight ever left her was when Dan Shive decided to indulge his Author Appeal for transformation and transgender (Ironically, it's Grace's birthday party, but some of the best characterization for the other characters happens here.)
  • Rayne Summers from Least I Could Do, up to the point that this is the entire series' premise. He can have sex with nearly any woman in the world, makes hundreds of thousands of dollars a month from doing next to nothing, has friends who like him despite his moronity, seems to come on top of any situation no matter what and has a canonically ever-brilliant future, no matter what he does. The writer, Ryan Sohmer, has admitted that Rayne is an Author Avatar.
Canon Fodder
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