Would someone be kind enough to tell me exactly what a “Mary Sue” is supposed to be (aside from the obvious name)? Like, is being called this name implying a negative or positive connotation?
‘Mary Sue’ has a negative connotation. In the strictest use, it refers to a female original character in a fanfic who is of a “wish fulfillment” type, although ‘Mary Sues’ can make appearances in original fiction as well. ‘Mary Sues’ are typically young (often teenaged) and have remarkable powers. They may also be very emotional, carry a lot of angst, and/or turn out to have a romance with the writer’s favorite male character in the fandom the fanfic is based on. A Mary Sue may well be a Chosen One. In the most traditional sense, ‘Mary Sues’ are typically seen in fanfic written by younger adult and teenaged women who write idealized female characters that they clearly identify with heavily.
Frequently, labeling a character a ‘Mary Sue’ is an insult that is meant to imply poor writing skill overall, and it’s true that sometimes the quality of such fics isn’t great–most often because they’re written by writers who are new and learning, who care less about technical perfection than with enjoying their own stories, or who are just relieved to have found an outlet for and escape from the large amount of crap they’ve had to take in life.
The term may seem confusing because over time it has lost any specificity it might have initially had, and is now used by most anybody to refer to any female character they disapprove of somehow.
Alternatively, it may seem confusing because male characters have been written like this for centuries and all anybody ever said about it was that of course boys want exciting stories about heroes their own age they can identify with.
TL;DR: Once in a while, applying the term ‘Mary Sue’ to a character comes close to being a meaningful critique about unrealistic characterization (at least, meaningful if the writer’s goal was realistic characterization in the first place, which it isn’t, always, at least in fanfic). But it’s used so much to shame women for wanting to see powerful, special heroes who are female, just like men get, that it’s effectively lost any usefulness it might otherwise have.
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