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Tee heee... He's MINE! And you ladies NEVER had a chance! A Mary Sue who exists to be the perfect mate for a specific character. Far beyond Magical Girlfriend, Tsundere or Yamato Nadeshiko (which present extraordinary mates, but are played more-or-less realistically), this character has everything in the plot conspiring to enforce this One True Pairing. The author will generally either use this character as a stand-in for them to vicariously live out a relationship with the designated other half, or as their ideal significant other while they use a more "normal" character as their stand-in.
It's worth noting that since Wish Fulfillment places having a healthy, idealistic romantic relationship as one of its cornerstones, most Mary Sue characters will include an element of romance. They don't really become a Relationship Sue unless it becomes obvious that character exists, first and foremost, to be in a relationship with another character.
In fanfiction, he or she is the perfect beloved of a Canon character. Never mind if that canon character is already half of an Official Couple; he/she is the real intended. The canon character who is to be paired with a Relationship Sue will be attracted to him/her at first sight; how long it takes for him/her to act on it depends on whether the writer is aiming for a WAFF or something angstier. The attraction will happen even if he/she does things that, from any other woman, would turn him off. He/she may suffer Character Derailment to become a more perfect match to a Relationship Sue. Who, in turn, will almost always become a Clingy Jealous Girl when she eventually gets to be the character's girlfriend, yet played as ideal.
If the canon character already is paired, or has another plausible-looking match in canon, this rival will either end up saying " I Want My Beloved To Be Happy," or turn evil; either way, he/she will probably undergo severe Character Derailment. (That, or a nearby train will undergo severe derailment and splatter the character's canon love interest. Guess who will be there to comfort him/her in his/her time of grief?). Alternately, if the writer can get away with it (or sometimes even if she can't) the canon match won't even be mentioned, or the would be rival suddenly falls in love with somebody else (often turning lesbian in the process to make sure that it can't be undone). If they're already in an established relationship, expect the canon love inteterst to cheat on the desired character.
Anyone in the story who isn't a possible romantic rival, if they like the character whom the Relationship Sue is having the relationship with, will like him/her, too—regardless of whether they normally would. They may even be attracted to him/her—but they will not stand between him/her and his/her beloved if they intend to remain heroic/good characters. If the Sue likes them enough, she might even pair these characters up with other canon characters or even some OC's.
This can overlap with all of the other Mary Sue types, but the most common is good old fashioned Purity Sue. Fixer Sues can only fix up other pairs if they're this sort, unless they know they will get removed from the storyline (and stay that way).
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Fan Works Examples
Anime & Manga
- Kagome Higurashi from Inuyasha is always getting twisted and warped beyond belief for no other reason than that the fandom wants her to sleep with as many characters as possible.
- Also, Rin gets turned into "Older Rin", a character that does not exist in the series and has absolutely nothing in common with the actual Rin-and exists for no other reason that to be the fangirl's wish-fulfillment, self-insert, extremely idealized version of the author's view of their perfect self/Sesshomaru's Twu Wuv. Particularly disturbing since it is actually very possible to brainwash a girl Rin's age to grow up to be whatever you think they should be and to serve your own selfish desires (that is actually the reason why children are used as soldiers/servants in some countries-they are much easier to brainwash than adults who already have set ideals). It's like these girls are nothing more than baby-making factories-usually for Sesshomaru-with no importance, lives, personalities or anything of their own.
- Sesshomaru himself is noteworthy, as he seems to exist only to hook up with as many different girls as possible.
- If not into Tsundere Sue types, the Sue-ish OC's in The Prince of Tennis fandom are presented like this. Ofthen they'll be clingy and sugary cute as well as act very spoiled, but nevertheless are loved by everyone and specially by their beaus (it's REAL bad in the case of characters like Tezuka or Sanada, who are very serious boys but here they bend to almost every single whim of their "girlfriends").
- Fredrick
 , a rare yaoi self-insert for Quatre Winner of Gundam Wing.
Films
- There are several Rocky Horror Picture Show fanfics that involve Dr. Frank N Furter finding his true love... often a female Mary Sue. Yes, THAT Dr. Frank N Furter.
- Newsies fanfiction has long been a veritable hive of "girl Newsie with clever nickname" and "modern girl finds a pape and goes back in time" fics; while Sue types overlap quite a bit in this fandom, most of these eventually end up as Relationship Sues.
- Most Treasure Planet fanfiction out there has Jim generally being paired off with tomboyish orphan girls.
- To be fair, he's one of the few Disney Heroes who doesn't have a romantic interest in canon. On the other hand, you'd think the the fanfiction writers would add a little more originality...
Literature
- Animorphs is much the same as Code Lyoko, below. Marco is cute and funny, but his romantic pursuits all fail miserably until the final book. Now, he's one of the biggest celebrities around, thanks to the Animorphs having saved the world and him being the best "public face" they had. I don't know much about Animorphs fanficdom, but I wouldn't be surprised if it held. (From what I've read, Marco/Rachel does have some popularity.)
- Marco was also quite the "metrosexual", so a lot of writers like to play him up as the token gay and/or pair him up with Ax.
- Marco/Rachel does have some canon foundation of the UST variety (they end up going out with each other in the alternate timeline of Megamorphs 4: Back to Before for example).
- One could argue Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way from the dreaded Harry Potter fanfic My Immortal as this because the plot's importance is absolutely miniscule when compared to the emphasis placed on her relationship with Draco. Or sometimes Harry, depending on the author's mood.
- While most everyone in the story was built to perfectly love an adore her (even if she didn't want them to because they were too old) Draco's character was clearly the one built most around being the lover of Ebony or Enoby or however the writer spells her name. Even Harry and Voldemort had some kind of agenda unrelated to Ebony at some point in he story. But then again it's all before they get to know her.
Live Action TV
Video Games
- Jenna Silverblade of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time fame. Her hilariously sprawling "epic" My Inner Life has Link reduced to fighting like a pansy compared to his Sue-wife's powers, multiple births, every canon female in the OoT universe submitting themselves to the fact that Link is hers now, and more bad sex scenes than you can shake a stick at. Needless to say, it still remains a popular MST target.
- And accordingly, the author has placed a long rant — much of it in capital letters — in front of the story, reviling anyone who dares criticize her work or call Jenna a Mary Sue. (Ironically enough, she accuses detractors of being "childish" and "immature.") When the "My character isn't a Sue and everyone who says she is are just bad, bad people!" rant is three pages long, you know what you're in for.
- Also, the rant specifically states that Jenna is an Author Avatar, based directly on her personality and desire to romance Link. Yet she says that Jenna isn't a Mary Sue. Presumably with a straight face.
- Desire to romance Link? She seems to actually believe that she's doing so. And to be fair, although Jenna is certainly a card-carrying Sue, not every self-insert character should be tarred with that brush.
- Kira Kushinada aka Queen Himiko from the So Bad Its Good King of Fighters fic ''A cruel angel's thesis''. Kira is an ex-Shinto priestess from the Kushinada clan (?), a super talented self-made artist and illustrator, super-ultra powerful membress of the Orochi clan as well as the only one aside of Leona (and later Iori, but that's because of Kira's True Love) who is willing to break off her ties with the Orochi. Also, she...
- Ever since the release of Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow's fangirls have supplied him with ridiculous numbers of perfect partners. When not just using Amy, Rouge, or Sonic, they're almost always recolours of them.
- To be fair, they're not all like that, but Sturgeons Law does apply.
- One Baldur's Gate II mod introduced Saerileth, a fifteen year old Mary Sue who talks in Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe. And your character is practically forced to romance her. The Something Awful Let'sPlay frequently pointed out the creepiness.
Western Animation
- Infamous Daria fanfic author Pete Guerin wrote not one, but two different fanfics in which Daria was romanced by an obvious Gary Stu of himself. The first one was murdered in a suicide bombing. The second rescued her from the dreaded Tom Sloan... except that it was supposed to take place after the end of the series, when they'd broken up anyway. The first Gary Stu also got a very detailed sex scene with Daria that left many readers scarred for life.
- There's also a Daria fanfic called The Emancipation of Stacy Rowe about Stacy meeting the perfect guy who falls in love with her at first sight, makes her homelife easier, helps her pick her grades up and gives her the courage to stand up for herself. Brutally subverted in the end. It turned out that his perfect guy act was only an act. He drugged Stacy's drink at prom, date rapes her and takes pictures. Stacy is kicked out of the Fashion Club, her grades suffer, her parents despise her and won't believe that she was date raped and she ends up pregnant. In the end, she commits suicide by taking a bottle of pills.
- The Code Lyoko fandom is perfect for this. The canon consists of a Five Man Band, three boys and two girls. Both girls are involved, or well, almost together in one case, with another boy from the group. Leaving one boy left out. In the canon, he's a Kid Anova, but in a LOT (I'd guess at least half) of fanfics he's paired up with a Relationship Sue. Poor Odd.
- That pairing is actually canonly hinted at on several occasions, but remains Unresolved Sexual Tension (probably because it's more fun that way).
- Dare I say that at least 75% of all Danny Phantom fanfics involve a fan-created character becoming the perfect love interest for Danny, Sam, Vlad, and even Dark Danny?
- The Futurama fanfic Stranger In A Strange Land has an "all around average guy" with a Dark And Troubled Past named Dave who is suddenly brought into the future after an experiment gone awry, wherein he almost immediately falls in love with Leela and vice-versa, especially after Dave nearly dies after being shot. If that is not bad enough, he is also a Chosen One and a permanent member of the Spotlight Stealing Squad who quite easily adjusts to his new life and becomes the focus of just about everyone in the cast.
- Before the Insecticomics existed, Dreadmoon was a slightly different character who appeared in Wayward's fanfiction and fanart. As the fact he was bonded to Estrogen Brigade Bait Starscream (rather than simply having an unrequited crush as he does in the comic) raised a few eyebrows despite Dreadmoon being an otherwise well-rounded character whose existence did not completely revolve around Starscream, Wayward jokingly had him take a Mary Sue test. He passed.
- Wayward later commented that she regretted doing this. A number of other authors started writing out similar test-answering sessions for their fancharacters and considered the answers authoritative, ignoring the fact that it was mainly meant as a joke.
Canon Examples
Anime & Manga
- Many fans of Ranma ½ who don't like her deride Akari Unryū, Ryōga's late manga love interest, as one of these. Beyond the author outright saying that she was created solely because fans wanted Ryōga to get a happy ending, there's also the fact that she is totally non-violent herself (something no other girl in the series can be said to be), and is a nice, sweet, kindly, understanding girl without any apparent negative qualities (again, something none of the other girls can claim to be). She commits one misdeed in the entire manga: siccing her sumo wrestling pig Katsunishiki on random men to try and find a man strong enough to be her husband, as per the orders of her sickly (and implicitly somewhat crazy) grandfather, and she quickly stops doing that once she meets Ryōga. She falls head over heels for Ryōga instantly upon that meeting, and is willing to go to any reasonable lengths to try and impress him — even trying to convince herself to hate pigs, the thing she adores above all else, when she thinks that Ryōga doesn't like them. This willingness to change herself is something none of the other characters in Ranma ½ are willing to entertain — at best, they accept the person they're pursuing has faults (Akane and Ranma), more commonly they simply ignore them. Once she is introduced to Ryōga, and once he does develop a crush on her, she does nothing more from then on in the manga. At most, she pops up and stands around, saying a few lines. Even Konatsu, the only "main character" to appear in even fewer stories than her, does more.
- Subverted in Tenchi in Tokyo. Sakuya Kumashiro seemed to be the poster girl for the trope, snatching Tenchi's interest away from Ryoko and Ayeka... but it was revealed later that she was created to do so by the Big Bad Yugi. And as icing on the cake, Sakuya actually does NOT make it to the end of the series.
- Les Yay example: Kris Kristopher from Battle Athletes is often accused by fandom of having been created only as a sort-of perfect girlfriend for The Heroine Akari Kanzaki.
- The very moment that Bleach fans learnt about Senna, the Tall Dark And Bishoujo female lead of the Memories of Nobody movie, the "she better not be close to Ichigo or she'll be a Sue!" screams started. She died in the end of the movie, so the Fan Dumb shut up quite soon. Phew.
- Dark Magical Girl Sally Schumars from the Weiss Kreuz CD dramas is always accused of being one by Het Is Ew fangirls, because of her Mad Love with Farfarello.
Comics
- Ash the Mongoose in the Sonic the Hedgehog Comic book. The present author actually admitted Ash shares a lot of qualities Sonic has like his protectiveness over Mina. The one thing he'd noted to be different is that Ash is especially committed to her— something Sonic (presently anyway) isn't. So Ash in many ways just seems to offer the author's idea of 'perfect' Sonic/Mina relationship. By perfect relationship, has really had no problems (especially since the love triangle between Ash/Mina and Sonic has ended). Everything conspires to keep the two of them together, including Mina's constantly being put on a bus to go on tours singing with Ash as her manager (and far away from Sonic). Not only is he written as the perfect version of Sonic for Mina, he only exists in the story just to be her boyfriend. While most rivals for Sonic's girlfriends have similar personalities to him, they also have agendas and careers that define them outside of their relationships venture with him to help to further the story, even if their lover's not involved. Ash's job? Mina's manager. And to date he has never had anything to do with the story. Ever. Not unless it's had something to do with being by Mina’s side. His entire reason for being in the story is Mina.
- Emma Frost. Not only was she turned into a Tsundere Sue by Grant Morrison, she takes advantage of Scott at his most vulnerable during a rough patch with Jean, which is a gross violation of medical ethics. Not only does Xavier (a real psychologist compared to Emma pulling out of her ass that she's a sex therapist) not boot her 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, put him down (and we are expected to believe she is a better match for him by the words "more interesting", the same words used to justify killing off The Wasp), and be a bitch to his beloved teammates.
- 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.
- And those fans forget that Scott is only with Emma because jean telepathically forced him to be. Jean basically sacrificed their love for a contrived reason *
Like a certain Spider Man event that happened later .
- Nurse Annie, also from the X-Men comics. Note to Chuck Austen: If you want people to accept a newly-introduced character's romance with an established canon character, destroying the characterization of everyone else in the story in order to make her look better and not being at all subtle about the fact that New Character and Canon Character are stand-ins for your wife and yourself isn't the best way to go about it.
- A 2003 Namor miniseries may as well have been called "Mary Sue Meets Namor". No matter how he tries to explain that he has responsibilities to Atlantis, everyone tells him to just suck it up and kiss her ass in the name of love. And he does. This would be Namor, one of the first Anti Hero protagonists in superhero comics (if not the very first) turned into a lovelorn puppyfish (who, of course, speaks like a modern teenager in the 1930s).
- And then there's Storm and Black Panther. Which one is the Relationship Sue depends largely on which one you're a bigger fan of, then seeing them suddenly fall stupid for somebody who was a distant friend at best, and now this love interest is the Perfect Man/Woman even though their responsibilities don't coincide in the least, and it would have been much easier to write a romance in their own books. What's worse is that the writer for Black Panther (an executive for BET), explicitly stated that he wanted them to marry because they're Marvel's two most famous black superheroes, even if he had to move Hell and high water to get them in the same book, let alone the same bed.
- Kitty Pryde from Ultimate Spider-Man. Confirmed author favoritism? Check. Character Derailment for the love rival? Check. Her love for Peter being the focus of her characterization even AFTER the two break up? Check.
- Terry Long in Teen Titans. Goes from Donna Troy's College Professor some 20+ years her senior to boyfriend and later husband. Blatant Author Avatar to boot. Later writers realized how creepy this was and wrote him out / got them divorced / had him re-marry his ex-wife / Dropped A Bridge On Him. He's showing up in Blackest Night though...
- Everybody who ever died is coming back for Blackest Night
Films
- 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.
- Gabriella from High School Musical. She's a math genius (despite being incredibly attractive) and Troy falls in love with her the moment they meet. They are so perfect for each other that Troy even mentions her in his graduation speech. "It's a place where one person, if it's the right person, changes us all," indeed.
Literature
- The major Star Wars Relationship Sue, second to Mara Jade, 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."
- Yeah, but everyone wants to kriff Luke.
- 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?
- Don't forget Jacob's a pedophile now.
- Not quite, it's a very complicated, in-depth thingymabobber that Meyer came up with to save herself from pairing Jake and Bella. It's familial/friendship love until "Nessie" decides that she's in love with Jacob. And they're both immortal. But it's still very, very much flame bait.
- Edward Cullen is Bella Swan's Relationship Sue. He's beautiful, he's rich and he buys her everything she wants/needs, he risks his life and the lives of his family members for her safety, and he's Bellasexual.
- In Gaudy Night, Dorothy L. 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.
- Gaudy Night takes place near the end of the Lord Peter Wimsey series, and Harriet herself is a latecomer to the series. So... Peter, charming as he is, does not fit the first criteria of a Relationship Sue, that he be created solely as a love interest. Harriet, on the other hand... (YMMV).
- Sioned from Judith Tarr's Devil's Bargain is a mix of this and Copy Cat Sue. She's the illegitimate half-Welsh pagan sorceress daughter of King Henry II and thusly the half-sister of Richard the Lionheart. She serves as a fantasy substitute for Richard's real sister, Joan (even her name is just the Welsh version of Joan) and even marries Saladin's brother, Al-Adil, to whom the real Joan was offered as a bride at one point. Apparently, Al-Adil (a Muslim) is fine with marrying a pagan so long as she's "reasonable about the children". She is, of course, far more beautiful than any other woman, and all the male characters are in love with her or at least lust after her. Sioned even has the Purple Eyes of Suedom.
- 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 wish-fulfillment role is to be the ideal love of her employer John Chen, who is really Xuan Wu the God of Martial Arts.
- Minerva Paradizzo from Artemis Fowl. Thankfully, she was taken out for the final book.
- There are so many examples in the Anita Blake series, but the worst example is probably Micah. He was introduced and automatically incorporated into Anita's household with little in-universe reason and seems more of an extension of the author's personal life than anything else.
- Arguably Ginny Weasly from the Harry Potter series. While it's still debated rather this should've been the official couple, it can't be denied that there was elements of relationship sue in this pairing; much of Ginny's Character Development took place off screen and after the two were paired up, they spent even less time on screen together. Following the Internet Backdraft over book 6, JK Rowlings most reoccuring defense for the pairing was "Ginny's his perfect match."
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...
- Buffy was feeling completely worthless about everything at this point in the series.
- Touching on Buffy's relationship issues was inevitable, touching on Xander and Anya's soon-to-be-married issues was inevitable, but what was the point of her having advice for Willow? Honestly.
- Or possibly that was the point of having a Sue in the first place; there really aren't many people that would make the The Chosen One feel inferior other than an ex-boyfriend's unbelievably fantastic new squeeze. Buffy was so engrossed into her own problems (and Spike) that she was completely ignoring her friend's problems, things that the perfect new Mrs. Finn picked up on automatically. (As any unbiased casual observer who was familiar with the workings of monsters and magic would.) Looking at it this way, there is a chance that she was a stealth Parody Sue.
- doubtful. This was an extremely serious season
- Sounds like we may have a fixer Sue on our hands too.
- Star Trek The Next Generation, in the episode "The Perfect Mate", gives us an interesting example of a character whose literal power is to be a Relationship Sue. Her personality changes in order to make herself appealing to whoever is nearby.
Music
Web Comics
- Heather from Punch an Pie is a deconstruction of a Relationship Sue. As per the concept of the series, she was essentially introduced as the perfect partner for Angela from Queen of Wands. That's where she starts; from there she is fully developed, becomes increasingly frustrated with Angela's instant jealousy toward all of her friends, and ends the relationship...only to pine for Angela afterward even as she reminds herself of Angela's negative qualities. It is up in the air if they will ever get back together again.
- Molly from Achewood is introduced as a literal match made in heaven for Roast Beef. She's been characterized a little since then, especially on her blog, but in-comic examples of Molly being funny without Beef are essentially nil.
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