Your metroid characters?

[Thoadthetoad]

Well, do you have any? I have maybe 2, hopefully non-sues (I'm pretty sure I've gotten the hand of making a non-sue... or at least the most NON-sue you can get on the internet ).
Let's see, first one is a GF PED suit user who broke from teh ranks and stole the PED suit, now working for hire. Normally for the space pirates. Considering he wouldn't dare going back to the GF. He's tangled with Samus once and both of them ended up disarming each other and calling a truce (until they get bounties on each other again, no doubt). Otherwise they don't cross paths that much. A small template in case you'd ever wanna rp with him.
Name: Jack Johnson (J.J.)
Age: 23
Personality: Rebellious, selfish, not easy to trust, a "meatshield", phazon enthusiast.
Weapons: PED suit (outer pack often refilled by space pirates), specialized EMP grenades. Tranquilizer gun.
Weaknesses: other PED suits, severe cold and severe heat.
Past: A common guy who grew up with his parents, and was later enlisted with the GF forces. He didn't like the idea of being wasted by a space pirate and he stole a PED suit to become a bounty hunter. It's been about a month since he's seen a GF, and a year since he's tangled with one. Currently taking refuge in the Torvus Bog of Aether (has a gunship that easily gets to other planets).

The other one is in the proto phase.

[Lazarius]

He's tangled with Samus once and both of them ended up disarming each other and calling a truce

No. 1 sign of a Mary Sue- 'Is at least equal in power to the main character'.

Rebellious, selfish, not easy to trust

Second sign.


Also, Phazon is gone. Bye-bye PED.

Also - http://metroid-database.com/forum/viewt ... &sk=t&sd=a

Ice Beam in 3... 2... 1...

[Thoadthetoad]

bummer.

*goes to throw character away into incinerator*

I could never find out why the character not being able to be wasted by a main character is a sign of a mary sue. :\

[Antiquity]

Well, in all honesty about making Metroid Mary Sues, there is something that I would be interested in discussing.


It would be a major risk of Mary Sue-ishness to create a character who is Comparable to Samus in effectiveness as a bounty hunter, although we are to suppose that some of the other Hunters in MPH and MP3 are lesser than Samus only by a very narrow margin.

But what of other kinds of heroes? We have reason to believe from Zero Mission that Samus is a competent fighter pilot, but not a great one. Samus is not the sophistocated military mind that Adam Malkovich has. And where is the brilliant scientist or inventor? Or the noble and charismatic political leader?

It seems to me that there is plenty of room for other great heroes of the Galactic Federation who could be the subjects of fanfic who would be, in some ways, more powerful than Samus, but at the same time would not eclipse Samus in the parts of the story where she shines brightest.

Well, in all honesty about making Metroid Mary Sues, there is something that I would be interested in discussing.


It would be a major risk of Mary Sue-ishness to create a character who is Comparable to Samus in effectiveness as a bounty hunter, although we are to suppose that some of the other Hunters in MPH and MP3 are lesser than Samus only by a very narrow margin.

But what of other kinds of heroes? We have reason to believe from Zero Mission that Samus is a competent fighter pilot, but not a great one. Samus is not the sophistocated military mind that Adam Malkovich has. And where is the brilliant scientist or inventor? Or the noble and charismatic political leader?

It seems to me that there is plenty of room for other great heroes of the Galactic Federation who could be the subjects of fanfic who would be, in some ways, more powerful than Samus, but at the same time would not eclipse Samus in the parts of the story where she shines brightest.

This.

If your character is better at something than a canonical one who is supposed to be the best there is, you've made a Mary Sue.

If your character is more competent than he or she NEEDS TO BE for the story, you've made a Mary Sue.

If your character is supposed to be "like someone else in the story, but more awesomer" you've made a Mary Sue.

If your character breaks the rules of the universe he or she is in for the sake of being more awesome, you've made a Mary Sue.

Your guy seems to meet all of the above descriptions.

[Antiquity]

Well, in all honesty about making Metroid Mary Sues, there is something that I would be interested in discussing.


It would be a major risk of Mary Sue-ishness to create a character who is Comparable to Samus in effectiveness as a bounty hunter, although we are to suppose that some of the other Hunters in MPH and MP3 are lesser than Samus only by a very narrow margin.

But what of other kinds of heroes? We have reason to believe from Zero Mission that Samus is a competent fighter pilot, but not a great one. Samus is not the sophistocated military mind that Adam Malkovich has. And where is the brilliant scientist or inventor? Or the noble and charismatic political leader?

It seems to me that there is plenty of room for other great heroes of the Galactic Federation who could be the subjects of fanfic who would be, in some ways, more powerful than Samus, but at the same time would not eclipse Samus in the parts of the story where she shines brightest.

This.

If your character is better at something than a canonical one who is supposed to be the best there is, you've made a Mary Sue.

If your character is more competent than he or she NEEDS TO BE for the story, you've made a Mary Sue.

If your character is supposed to be "like someone else in the story, but more awesomer" you've made a Mary Sue.

If your character breaks the rules of the universe he or she is in for the sake of being more awesome, you've made a Mary Sue.

Your guy seems to meet all of the above descriptions.

That's true of a protagonist, for certain. Not really true for an antagonist, though - the SA-X after all basically is all of these things, and it makes a great villain for Metroid IV. Of course, part of the point is that Samus still manages to defeat the SA-X in spite of her being at a disadvantage while doing so by using the other powers and attributes that she (and Adam) possess.

Of course, the SA-X is a villain, and it is the role of the villain to be defeated. Is Jack Johnson a villain or an antihero?

[Thoadthetoad]

Well, in all honesty about making Metroid Mary Sues, there is something that I would be interested in discussing.


It would be a major risk of Mary Sue-ishness to create a character who is Comparable to Samus in effectiveness as a bounty hunter, although we are to suppose that some of the other Hunters in MPH and MP3 are lesser than Samus only by a very narrow margin.

But what of other kinds of heroes? We have reason to believe from Zero Mission that Samus is a competent fighter pilot, but not a great one. Samus is not the sophistocated military mind that Adam Malkovich has. And where is the brilliant scientist or inventor? Or the noble and charismatic political leader?

It seems to me that there is plenty of room for other great heroes of the Galactic Federation who could be the subjects of fanfic who would be, in some ways, more powerful than Samus, but at the same time would not eclipse Samus in the parts of the story where she shines brightest.

This.

If your character is better at something than a canonical one who is supposed to be the best there is, you've made a Mary Sue.

If your character is more competent than he or she NEEDS TO BE for the story, you've made a Mary Sue.

If your character is supposed to be "like someone else in the story, but more awesomer" you've made a Mary Sue.

If your character breaks the rules of the universe he or she is in for the sake of being more awesome, you've made a Mary Sue.

Your guy seems to meet all of the above descriptions.

My character is not better. I haven't really developed upon how he disarmed Samus.

EMP grenade. Near-fried visor. Hard to fight with.

I don't think that my character in any way resembles samus other than the fact he's been in the GF before as well as had a PED (which was scrapped a la that one guy with kraid. . . bad memory is bad )

How'd he break the rules? The phazon? I'm playing through MP3 again to see if the whole "You kill the planet you destroy all phazon", because I'm pretty sure that's a big load. Phazon could reproduce itself. You saw how the space pirate homeworld was turning phazon-organic. Didn't you?

-Note, I'm not defending my character, just trying to clear some misconceptions.

P.S. He's pretty mucha villain. Biased towards the space pirates. In my "fanaverse", as some call it, the space pirates are his only clients.

[Antiquity]

Well, when I contrast "villain" and "antihero", I'm not talking about morality, but role in the story. A villain is an antagonist, somebody whom a protagonist (like Samus) will defeat in the course of the story. An antihero is a character who has at least some major character flaws and may be outright evil, depending on your definition of antihero, but he's the protagonist of the story.

So the SA-X looks at first glance like a Mary Sue because it has all of the abilities Samus has, or appears to anyway, and more besides, and is better than Samus (who hasn't restored all of her suit's functions for almost all of Fusion). But the SA-X is a villain; Samus is the heroine, and in the end, despite her weaknesses, Samus succeeds in defeating the SA-X. Thus the SA-X is not a Mary Sue.

Does your character fill a similar role in the story to the SA-X, i.e. a villain who challenges Samus or another hero but who is eventually defeated by her?

[Thoadthetoad]

Oh yeah, he's defeated by her in the timeline that I had for him. Well, not by her exactly. See, my character had more to do with the GF than Samus. He's only fought her once, and disarmed her via EMP grenade. That's pretty much the only thing Samus has to do with him. Otherwise they don't know about each other (besides the rumors of samus in the metroid universe).

He is meant to be defeated, however.

[Lazarius]

I'm not sure how much of an effect an EMP would have on Samus. Her suit is mostly organic, and I doubt it runs on electricity.

[Rildok]

It may fuzz up her visor for a moment, not really disarm her.

[Antiquity]

Well, we know that electrical discharge can temporarily disable Samus' suit from Prime, so yeah, it's electronic enough to be harmed by EMP. However, its systems come back within seconds, so it's not any more than a temporary solution.


As for the character, it sounds like he might not be a Mary Sue after all, but there is one other potential pitfall: is he truly a villain, or a tragic antihero? A tragic antihero is a protagonist character who is the star of the story, but he has some kind of character flaw that proves to be his downfall. He could still be a Mary Sue if he is a tragic antihero. On the other hand, if he truly is a villain, and the focus on the story is on the hero who defeats him, then he's not a Mary Sue.

[Thoadthetoad]

He's a true villain. He doesn't really have a dark and tragic past. He just doesn't like the GFs, and is extremely selfish. He isn't particularly notorious outside some of the GF, but he is nowhere near a match for samus as far as popularity or skill.

OH my, organit suit? I'm agraid I'll have to rework that, then. Hmmmm

[Antiquity]

That's not the distinction between a villain and an antihero. A villain takes a certain role in the story; an antihero takes a different role.

[Thoadthetoad]

Well, the character simply wants the GF to be destroyed. He doesn't really do much besides go against them.

He plays the role as a villain, not an antihero, or so I would think.