Thread: Universal Mary Sue Litmus Test

The Universal Mary-Sue Litmus Test

Has anyone else used the above website? What are your opinions? I am reserving judgement for the time being, but I'd like to know if anyone else has anything to say about it.

There are quite a few versions of this. I think this is the one I originally tried for my RPG site. It's an indicator of whether your characters are too shallow or idealized, not a magic wand.

It seems like an okay tool to use as far as I'm concerned. I've tried it before and found that one of my characters was a bit too Mary Sue-ish, which gave me pause and reason to change her around and flesh her out a bit more. I think it's a good tool for character development - specifically, making sure the character isn't ridiculous, but shouldn't be used as the alpha and omega of how to/how not to build characters.

One of the things it's good for is confronting you with every silly thing you've attached to your character. Even if they aren't terrible traits, their presentation as undesired in the test forces you to think about which ones you really need.