Ever since 'Adam'

Canon Mary-Sues of a different kind... by Tomato on 2010-01-30 15:14:00 UTC Reply

I just watched the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Superstar," in which a minor character casts a spell to make himself the best of everything, and changed everyone's memories so that they thought he'd always been that awesome. Joss Whedon wrote it specifically to make fun of Mary-Sue fanfic.

Then I remembered the Torchwood episode "Adam," which involved an entity who altered people's memories to make him think he'd always been there, although it was a lot creepier than the Buffy episode. And it got me wondering if there were any other characters like that, and if the PPC had investigated these phenomena. It seems like such characters could give the agents some insight into the reality-warping nature of Mary-Sues.

Stargate Atlantis by Miah on 2010-02-02 01:38:00 UTC Reply

Season 3 episode 3 "Irresistible"

This episode first introduces Lucius, played by Richard Kind. The character is annoying, obnoxious, loud mouthed, rude, and overly intimate (not so much in a sexual way, though he does have something like 5 wives-more in a I know everything about your life and you want me to way.)

Yet everyone loves him almost instantly. Not just loves him, but would die for him, would protect him from any insult or discomfort-however slight, and pines for him whenever he is gone. Everyone except Shepherd who has been shown to have an awful cold since before Lucius shows up.

Lucius turned out to have some kind of formula that sort of intoxicated anyone that smelled it. It was sort of like a love potion that worked on everyone around the person taking it. Shepherd kidnaps Doctor Becket and keeps him long enough for the effect to wear off and Becket to work his magic (medical magic) to negate the effect. People were not particularly happy with Lucius when they sobered up. Especially not the people of his home village.

Also, the 5th season episode 4 of Stargate SG-1 titled "The 5th Man" involved an alien that exuded a chemical that made a person coming in contact with it susceptible to the suggestion that the alien was in fact someone they knew and had good reason to not kill. In the case of this episode that the alien was a relatively new 5th member of the team. I don't think the alien really counted as a Mary Sue (well Marty Stu-it took on a male persona), as the only reason it did this was because the Jaffa were tracking it down and trying to kill it. It eventually fessed up, and tried to lead the Jaffa away so the team could escape. They used the distraction to kill off the Jaffa and save the day. The alien went off to a rendezvous with others of its kind to continue hiding from the Jaffa.

I think Lucius definitely counts as a Marty Stu though. His Stufluence was mighty strong.
Ever since 'Adam' by IndeMaat on 2010-01-30 17:25:00 UTC Reply

I've been cautious to accuse Torchwood fic of OOCness. I'm always keeping an eye out / hoping that in later chapters it is revealed there was an alien mind control thing or something going on.

Is never the case though.

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Another canon-Sue is the character Jackie Knox from the show Voyagers! She takes over the "saving the day" job from the canon characters and both canon males fall for her. There's no reality altering spell or mind control going on here; it was just bad writing by the canon authors. Luckily, in the next episode they had forgotten all about her.