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// Why My Protagonist Isn't a Gary Stu: An Essay 
// Story: Changeling Perspective 
// by Gwynbleidd 
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(This isn’t story content and you shouldn’t read it unless you’re under the impression that my protagonist is a Gary Stu—meaning a perfect character—this is strictly meant for doubter or people who just like to read my writing. Either way, enjoy!)

Over the past few months I’ve been receiving heavy criticism regarding my work on this particular piece of fiction, the chief concern being the apparent “Gary Stu” like nature of my protagonist. I’d like to take this time to accomplish two things. Firstly, I want to clear up the ambiguous nature of my protagonist and explain my motivation for writing him in such a way. Also, I wish to clear up some common misconceptions that people seem to have concerning this particular trope and how falsely accusing a content creator of writing a Gary Stu is detrimental to FanFiction as a whole.

Let me begin my defense with the simple statement that my character is not a Gary Stu. The primary issue within the criticism I receive is concerned with the opening narration of my story, in which the protagonist describes himself as “living a charmed life” and specifics included come in the form of high academic achievement as well as the holding of a leadership role in both a varsity sport and a club.

Now, I’ll admit this does sound an awful lot like a perfect character, however, that was an intentional decision on my part and not an overeager desire to make my protagonist “cool”. This may seem like an unusual and silly way to introduce a character but it makes much more sense when considering the perspective from which it is told. Since this is a first-person narrative it’s important—and in this case highly necessary—to consider that the character is biased in his telling of events.

Obviously, the protagonist’s achievements are factual but his conscious decision to only include positive events and happenings reflects both his state of mind and his opinion of himself. When reading the opening passage, many readers say to themselves (and sometimes me) “this character is a Gary Stu” when what’s actually taking place in the text is that the protagonist sees himself as a Gary Stu, which not only is completely different, but in my opinion, has a lot of interesting connotations.

What you choose to infer from this author commentary is entirely up to you. Writing as a medium has its greatest strength in its ambiguous nature and it pains me to have to be so blunt about my intentions, but I justify this with the point that many of my potential viewership won’t bother to continue reading after seeing the introduction. There is simply no better way to convey my meaning as clearly as in this essay.

At this point, I’d like to talk more deeply about the specific flaws and short-comings found within the protagonist. If spoilers of the first 5 chapters is a concern, by all means, return to this later or not at all if you feel I’ve proven my point.
In my story the protagonist I’ve built contains a great number of weaknesses. I’d like to highlight just one here. The protagonist, while usually successful in his endeavors, often suffers from serious consequences due to his disturbed mental state.

In chapter 3 the primary conflict lies in the protagonist’s interactions with Rarity. He very nearly fails in his attempts to befriend her but ultimately succeeds, even to the point of initiating a romantic relationship. This trend continues in both chapters 4 and 5, but the key difference is that the protagonist inadvertently starts romantic relations with both Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy. Furthermore, it is hinted at in chapter 5 that the protagonist’s mind is not entirely his own. This demonstrates not only a conflict in controlling a situation but also in controlling one’s own thought. Clearly, a so called “perfect character” would be portrayed as so divided by his conflicting thoughts and actions. Whether or not these conflicts are interesting or original is debatable, but so is anything in literature and that is not the point of my essay, so let’s get back on topic.

A Gary Stu isn’t just a perfect character, but rather someone either perfect or powerful enough to never seem challenged by the story they’re within. To illustrate this point, I’d like to provide an outside example of how a more powerful character, arguably perfect, cannot accurately be labeled perfect.

My example is none other than Superman: the quintessential hero, and to some, the quintessential Gary Stu. The character of Superman is about as close to perfect as can be reasonably expected, however, this doesn’t stop him from being an interesting and lasting character in modern culture. This is because Superman is still challenged by the world around him. The villains that Superman faces are nearly as powerful as Superman, at times nearly killing him before he can return the favor. The story remains interesting because it is symbolic of the clashing of ideologies and the fight scenes are far from easy. Superman may be technically perfect but he’s far from uninteresting.

Earlier I stated that the general attitude of readers and their quickness to assume the worst of a writer is a bad thing. Here’s why. If a reader is under the assumption that a character is either a Mary Sue or a Gary Stu they’re likely to not read past that point. In fact, it’s quite common for these individuals to simply “dislike” the story and never think twice about it. This is bad. This presumptuous and antagonistic attitude is one of the biggest issues I have with FanFiction (and FiMFiction). It’s far too often that people who do bother to leave a comment after deciding that a character is a Gary Stu do so in a manner that is highly negative and condescending. This needs to change. Leaving mean and dismissive feedback on someone’s hard work is an incredibly cruel thing to do. Most content creators read as much user feedback as is available, and discovering that a large percentage of it is a direct insult to the creator is not only detrimental to their self-confidence, but the commentary often tends to lack the in-depth criticism needed for a creator to get better. Instead of blindly complaining to authors that their story is terrible, it would be much better to just calmly explain the issues a story has and provide some ideas on how maybe it could be better. Also, read more of a story than the first chapter before passing judgment. By offering just a few minutes of time, a person who has qualms with a piece could be instrumental in helping it, and the author, improve.

I hope I’ve reached some of you in this essay and that maybe I’ve helped to clarify some misconceptions within FanFiction. As always, thank you for reading and feedback would be much appreciated. 

Thanks again,

~Gwynbleidd