Mary Sues, Self Inserts, OCs & Equivalent Terms
Opinions on fan characters for popular franchises have been vacillating from person to person, sometimes clouded by false interpretations conveyed as fact in more recent years.
Some people have been convinced that many, if not every fan character is a Mary Sue only by the fact that they're a character created by a fan.
However, just because a character has neon blue hair and a highly saturated outfit that makes little to no sense does not mean that they are a Mary Sue. It simply means that the creator needs to take a second look at their character, reconsider how their character would fit in a fandom's world, and revise the character after attaining the proper information.
After all, you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.
Definitions do change in interpretation over time, and while that might not be a bad thing, people just might learn an incorrect definition of a word.
By definition, a Mary Sue is an "idealized" and "perfect" fictional character — and while good looks can have a role in that, that doesn't mean that every character that looks like a stereotypical Sue is going to be one.
Many people can glance over some characters that people make and only judge them by their looks, when in reality, they may have a more in-depth story that can explain why they look. Some people just act as if making a character look good is everything. A character may have an excessive amounts of unnatural colours on their body because it is natural to their world, not yours.
Confusing an original character that isn't supposed to be attained to any pre-existing fandom, instead supposed to be in the creator's own world, and a fan character that is geninuely supposed to fit into an already existing franchise can be frustrating to creators alike.
Self-Inserts are genuinely okay as long as their creators shove their characters down people's throats as fact. Like any community, the more insolent part of this community is more vocal and gets more attention. Self-Inserts can just be to make creators have a fun time and relax, and while it might not have any interest to an outside audience, it can help the creators themelves just feel happier. There's no pure need to have a self-insert, but there's nothing wrong with it until a creator makes it wrong.
Original Characters is growing to be a broad term, and in general, for lack of confusion, it should be split into Original Characters, and Fan Characters.
A Fan Character should be considered a subset of Original Characters — meaning that an Original Character can be a Fan Character, but not every Original Character is a Fan Character.
These are my definitions of the terms.
Original Character = A character created by a person and/or company that can , but does not have to be a part of a pre-existing franchise owned by someone else, or a franchise owned by the person/company, or a character made to fit under multiple franchises.
Meaning that the cast of many popular series are genuinely the company that owns the series' OCs, but they gain so much popularity that they aren't referred as OCs due to the factor that it is a term that is commonly used for a person that hasn't created a franchise that has gained popularity, but they still have characters of their own.
Fan Character = A character created (usually) by a person that is supposed to fit in to a pre-existing franchise owned by someone else.
This means that if you make a character for a franchise (popular or not), it could be considered a fan character or an original character.
Definitions do change in interpretation over time, and while that might not be a bad thing, people just might learn an incorrect definition of a word.
By definition, a Mary Sue is an "idealized" and "perfect" fictional character — and while good looks can have a role in that, that doesn't mean that every character that looks like a stereotypical Sue is going to be one.
Many people can glance over some characters that people make and only judge them by their looks, when in reality, they may have a more in-depth story that can explain why they look. Some people just act as if making a character look good is everything. A character may have an excessive amounts of unnatural colours on their body because it is natural to their world, not yours.
Confusing an original character that isn't supposed to be attained to any pre-existing fandom, instead supposed to be in the creator's own world, and a fan character that is geninuely supposed to fit into an already existing franchise can be frustrating to creators alike.
Self-Inserts are genuinely okay as long as their creators shove their characters down people's throats as fact. Like any community, the more insolent part of this community is more vocal and gets more attention. Self-Inserts can just be to make creators have a fun time and relax, and while it might not have any interest to an outside audience, it can help the creators themelves just feel happier. There's no pure need to have a self-insert, but there's nothing wrong with it until a creator makes it wrong.
Original Characters is growing to be a broad term, and in general, for lack of confusion, it should be split into Original Characters, and Fan Characters.
A Fan Character should be considered a subset of Original Characters — meaning that an Original Character can be a Fan Character, but not every Original Character is a Fan Character.
These are my definitions of the terms.
Original Character = A character created by a person and/or company that can , but does not have to be a part of a pre-existing franchise owned by someone else, or a franchise owned by the person/company, or a character made to fit under multiple franchises.
Meaning that the cast of many popular series are genuinely the company that owns the series' OCs, but they gain so much popularity that they aren't referred as OCs due to the factor that it is a term that is commonly used for a person that hasn't created a franchise that has gained popularity, but they still have characters of their own.
Fan Character = A character created (usually) by a person that is supposed to fit in to a pre-existing franchise owned by someone else.
This means that if you make a character for a franchise (popular or not), it could be considered a fan character or an original character.
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