The Potter's Army Mary Sue Litmus Test

For Andrew, he got a 3

But one thing that I wanted to ask was how could this have been a +

Do you describe your character's appearance by the stereotype it is most often associated with (eg. emo, goth, raver, prep, etc)?

In my opinion, if the character were associates of one of those particular groups, wouldn't that mean it'd be harder for them to find friends and everything? It'd be something that they would have to overcome, or if they didn't, wouldn't really be seen by much of the world. That could provide problems in their life, which seems to me would be a desueifier.

Maybe, if it was a question about social status. Unfortunately it's a question about how you, when you're writing, describe your character's appearance.

For example, I could write that Angelique walked down Diagon Alley wearing a goth dress, or I could write that Angelique wore a black dress with a laced bodice and flounced skirt.

It's the same description, but one relies on a stereotype to convey the image. Basically, a character is more likely to be a mary-sue if she is trying to identify with a "cool" subculture, and this type of description prevents the person writing the character from having to actually research that subculture.


Even if it was about social status, a negative value would be dubious, since in the UK most schools are required to wear school uniform, so the cool and uncool kids can't be identified from something like the way they dress. There is a similar question about how your character treats people from other houses, though, since that's more pertinent to the wizarding world.


Just to let you all know I'm not perfect, here are my scores:

Selwyn - 25
Caelani - 34
Angelique - 52
Ethel - 27
Lucy - 32

I don't know how you're all getting such low ones.

Okay, I was just thinking that if they had such a sterotype adressed to them or whatnot, it could mean bad or good depending on the person looking at them. But I see what you're saying.

And I just retook the test for Andrew and got 3 again...I probably would've had more to be honest, if it hadn't been to recent events. Mostly, just all the fights Andrew has been through. Some of them he had tried to fight back with and ended up needing help, never coming out of them looking fresh or anything like that. I was honestly surprised though when I got the low score again.

Amelia got a 34.
Remy got a 9.

I am not sure what this says about my character making. I didn't do Claire because I haven't roleplayed her enough to know the answers to some of the questions.

Can someone else rate my characters from an outside perspective and tell me what number they get? I know you can't answer the questions that are personal (i.e. is your character named after you), but just do the other questions? I would be interested to see if from an outside perspective.

20

I got 26 for Amelia, but it was mostly based on my impressions of her. And obviously I don't know all the answers.

Interestingly, I re-did Angelique and she only got 14.

I wanted to ask something before I even attempted to do that much math but uh how did you come up with the scoring for this?

Angelique Pyrites wrote:Maybe, if it was a question about social status. Unfortunately it's a question about how you, when you're writing, describe your character's appearance.

For example, I could write that Angelique walked down Diagon Alley wearing a goth dress, or I could write that Angelique wore a black dress with a laced bodice and flounced skirt.

It's the same description, but one relies on a stereotype to convey the image. Basically, a character is more likely to be a mary-sue if she is trying to identify with a "cool" subculture, and this type of description prevents the person writing the character from having to actually research that subculture.

Of course, there's a delicate balance when you come to dress. Has anyone here read My Immortal? It's the perfect way to not write, fanfic or original work, and it's the first thing any aspiring writer should read.

Or you could watch the people read it on youtube, because that's hilarious.

EDIT: Upon retesting, Keith got a 15.

I've heard about it and read bits... Terrible... But funny. haha XD