Guide On How To NOT Make A Mary-Sue

Introduction
Hello, it's MissAquaAnime here. Too often do I see undeveloped characters who are blatant mary-sues. These sort of characters give a negative impact on the character creation community and whatever sites they are featured on. As such, I do not want Mary-sues on this wiki, so this guide will go into depth on every tip I have regarding writing and creating characters right.

What Is A Mary-Sue?
Mary-sue is a term referring to a perfect character, a character too perfect. Wikipedia defines it as "A Mary Sue or, in case of a male character, Gary Stu or Marty Stu is an idealized character, often but not necessarily an author insert and/or wish-fulfillment." As I said in the introduction, these sort of characters give a negative impact on the character creation community and whatever sites they are featured on. They usually are met with constructive critism, but can also be met with hate and trolls alike.

Typical traits of a Mary-sue is if they are in a close relationship with a canon character, more powerful than everyone else, have very clustered designs due to the creators wanting them to look as cool as possible.

Evening Out Strengths And Weaknesses
Sentient animals have personalities, and one thing that comes with a personality is flaws. When trying to create a character their actions must be justified with a motivation towards every decision they make. This can be something as simple as a character being very fit because they want to compete in the Equestria Games one day, or something as complicated a series of traumatic events and experiences forcing a character to despise all unicorns, even acting cold around other ponies as they are so similar to unicorns.

Your character should not be perfect and once you have decided a personality on said character they should not break it. Lazy characters are made by creators putting words out there like 'rude to others' because they needed something to balance it out then they never commit to it. If you find it hard to write a character trait, just look at the show and how characters with those traits act. I am not saying take the character of Twilight Sparkle, you obviously can not do that entirely, but if you are struggling to write an worry-wort of a character, it wouldn't be a bad choice to take inspiration from Twilight.

However I cannot stress enough that you cannot rip another character off. Add some sort of strange quirk and mannerisms to shift the character away from the canon character if you are worried- and if you are not, do it anyway! Having some quirks can really make your character stand out from others.

So, how do you know when a characters flaws and strengths are evened out. A good way is to figure out how much each aspect will hinder your character. Having a character with only flaws, whilst not a Mary-sue, is very two-dimensional. Unless a villain, your character must have some redeeming features! In addition your traits should not conflict with other traits without a realistic explanation to their change in personality! For example, a kind character cannot also be cruel at the same time all the time. Whilst, yes, a kind character may act cruel you must make sure you word it correctly to avoid confusion. For example, you shouldn't say; "He is kind but he is cruel too!", as that makes no sense. Rather, think of when the character is kind and when they are cruel. What circumstances must they have? As such, a better wording would be "He is kind most of the time when around friends and family, but if under stress can snap and act in a cruel manner." We see this realistic conflicting traits in the show, (e.g. Rainbowdash is active but the same time very lazy due to her not having the same passion in clearing the sky as training for the wonderbolts).

Let's Apply That
Okay, so you've figured out that the hindrances and strengths are around equal. Now what? Well, time to apply them to your character! Write in how the trait effects how they speak, how their body moves, how they see others ect. as much as possible! For example, Pinkie Pie's joyful and childlike personality causes her to speak very happily very fast, have a jump in her step and have a positive outlook on most situations. A few traits lead into others as seen there. I started with joyful and childlike but from that I came out with she's optimistic, energetic and loquacious without having to outright list these traits like; "She is joyful, childlike, energetic, optimistic and loquacious." Although to the point, this sort of organisation can be seen as a lack of care for your character. It isn't necessary however.

In addition, a confident character shouldn't usually talk like; "U-u-um... Hello... Th-there..." in a normal situation! If in front of their idol, something scary ect. this can be excusables, but in normal conversation trying your best to keep to character is a very good thing indeed!

Design
Ok, so I'm not going to act like I am an expert on character design but here's the basics:

1. Your design should reflect the character.
A good design is one that reflects the personality of said character. Not neccessary, but a very nice touch. For example, Rainbowdash's mane is messy and spikey reflecting her tomboyness.

2. Does it make sense?
Don't just put stuff in because it looks cool. Add some explanation to your character's looks. Not just "She's a bat pony with a horn and glowing eyes and a cat tail with zebra stripes because idk".

3. Make it natural.
Try to not try too hard at making your character look emo, gothic, pretty ect. It should come naturally. You don't need a black coat with a black mane with red eyes to get the point across, or add a princess tiara and make them an alicorn. A bit of gothic make-up and accessories should be enough, but don't go overboard! In addition, if you want a exetremely 'pretty' character look at Fleur Di Lis and the way her body is structured for inspiration. No alicorn-ness or over accessoring needed!

4. AGHHHHHHHHH MY EYES
Make the colours be pleasent to look at. A neon green and red combination is not, it just hurts everyone's eyes.