Quotes / Anti-Sue

"If a fanfic writer really does want to avoid writing a Mary Sue, then they should just do the opposite and make a horrible character who is ugly, ineffectual, flawed beyond the point of being able to function in any capacity, and yet still inexplicably the center of the universe. That'll put those Mary Sue accusers in their place, and you'll be riding high, right over the point they were trying to make. Showed them."

—Terrible Writing Advice, "Fanfiction Original Characters"

"Now that I have a character that is completely unlikable, has no abilities, way more personality flaws than is reasonable, and has zero ability or motivation to move the plot forward, there is no way they could be called a Mary Sue... even if all the characters still obsess over her, the entire universe still bends and revolves around her and she is still the star of the story. What? You think just because she’s described as super ugly that all the attractive cast still won’t fawn over her? I can’t have that! The whole point is to stop the audience from accusing her of being a Mary Sue. Not stop me from writing an indulgent character whose presence hurts the story."

—Terrible Writing Advice, "How to Not Write a Mary Sue"

"Watching Neelix sloughing [sic] in the Captain’s chair on the Bridge is enough to make you feel nauseous. What has Star Trek come to?"

—Doc Oho on Star Trek: Voyager, "Initiations"

"I don't think I've actively disliked a character in recent memory more than Julianna Crane. An average woman who is given a film by her sister, who tells her to go into the Neutral Zone to deliver it, before that sister is gunned down by the Japanese. Julianna watches the film, and just knows she has to do... something. [...] If you've seen the first episode, you know Julianna's character. She constantly makes brash decisions that turn out to ruin the lives of everyone she comes into contact with. Then after doing so, has the miraculous power of failing upwards, because she is temporarily valuable to people in charge. Someone on Twitter said she was a "Mary Sue", and I would have to disagree. Mary Sues are actually good at something and people unrealistically like them for no reason. Julianna sucks at everything, and is hated by not only the Nazis and the Japanese, but even the Resistance people she's supposed to be helping out."

—Alternate History Hub, in a digression about Julianna Crane from The Man in the High Castle in his episode "A Mediocre Recap of Mediocre Alternate History Shows"