Was wondering if y'all had an opinion if readers tend to favor good motive OC's over bad motive OC's. What makes a more interesting read? I have seen some really enjoyable characters, like Sunflower by Hoopy, and then I've seen some stinkers, and of course there are always the Mary Sue / Gary Stu effect...

My OC, Tempest, has a wonderful childhood, before everything suddenly goes sideways on her, as her mom is suddenly banished to the Moon, and she kind of missed the whole Nightmare Moon thing, so she blames Celestia of course... She eventually gets banished herself (to the other side of the planet) and gets wrapped up in a whole lotta bad, only to return for revenge/ and to free her mom (Luna) from what must be mind control by her Tyrant sister...

Wondering if that is too Mary Sue-ish?

5937361 If you basically say "She's the daughter of Princess Luna and has huge power due to it." Than yes, it's just step away from being called a MS. Large explanation of the sentence above needs to be made and the character's good and bad traits should be more or less balanced.

Well, Tempest was born a unicorn, but her bloodlines are Luna, and the captain of the guard Storm Sabre, who is 1/2 pegasus and 1/2 thestral. Luna and Celestia had made a pact that they would not bear further children after major problems with said children and their abuses of power in the first two centuries post tribal unification. Discord had a hand in triggering Luna's estrus at the wrong time, and this resulted in Tempest. Luna decides to hide this from Celestia (leading to future anxiety, then paranoia, then madness) and Tempest goes to live in an adoptive home, having quite a normal childhood, not realizing that her mom's friend next door is a special agent to keep watch over her.

After her mom goes to the moon, Tempest decides to hide her true identity (believing some of the paranoia Luna had before her fall) and hatches a plot to overthrow Celestia that fails spectacularly, resulting in her banishment. Something happens to her while on the other side of the planet, causing her to enact a plan to free her mom now 10 years past her return from the moon. Tempest believes falsely that Luna must be a prisoner in her own mind and wants to come free her, swearing this time she will be successful, planning another attempt on Celestia.

That is Volume one, "A Perfect Storm" in a nutshell.

5937517 Then, it could work

5937361
Marry sue is the easy route... but building character is more exciting. oc's best moments and their talent cutie mark... but is that marry sue naahhh.. just because they have talents... but, it could be a step of marry sue... but to get rid of that step you must give it flaws. make the character have emotion on stuff. But, that's in my opinion though.

7370393
To be fair, having a character with talents is not really a step towards a Mary Sue—you can’t really write a story about a boring protagonist that can do nothing. Or, well, you can, but if it’s not going to be some subversion of a trope, then you’ll most likely end up with something like Eugene Onegin.

The thing is that a Mary Sue can do pretty much everything she wants whenever she wants, and all the other characters don’t really question any of her actions, and, despite being on the other side of the spectrum when it comes to talent, this kind of character ends up really boring as well. This is going to be a gross oversimplification, but if you really want to make sure that your character is not a Mary Sue, then they should not only have flaws, but you also need to make sure that if they face some kind of obstacle, they cannot overcome it instantly and have to struggle a bit. Also, another issue is that the term’s been thrown around so much that everyone now interprets it slightly differently.

I suggest reading the short story of the original Mary Sue, A Trekkie’s Tale by Paula Smith. It was actually written as a parody of sorts, depicting how a story shouldn’t look:

"Gee, golly, gosh, gloriosky," thought Mary Sue as she stepped on the bridge of the Enterprise. "Here I am, the youngest lieutenant in the fleet - only fifteen and a half years old." Captain Kirk came up to her.

"Oh, Lieutenant, I love you madly. Will you come to bed with me?"

"Captain! I am not that kind of girl!"

"You're right, and I respect you for it. Here, take over the ship for a minute while I go get some coffee for us."

Mr. Spock came onto the bridge. "What are you doing in the command seat, Lieutenant?"

"The Captain told me to."

"Flawlessly logical. I admire your mind."

Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy and Mr. Scott beamed down with Lt. Mary Sue to Rigel XXXVII. They were attacked by green androids and thrown into prison. In a moment of weakness Lt. Mary Sue revealed to Mr. Spock that she too was half Vulcan. Recovering quickly, she sprung the lock with her hairpin and they all got away back to the ship.

But back on board, Dr. McCoy and Lt. Mary Sue found out that the men who had beamed down were seriously stricken by the jumping cold robbies, Mary Sue less so. While the four officers languished in Sick Bay, Lt. Mary Sue ran the ship, and ran it so well she received the Nobel Peace Prize, the Vulcan Order of Gallantry and the Tralfamadorian Order of Good Guyhood.

However the disease finally got to her and she fell fatally ill. In the Sick Bay as she breathed her last, she was surrounded by Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Mr. Scott, all weeping unashamedly at the loss of her beautiful youth and youthful beauty, intelligence, capability and all around niceness. Even to this day her birthday is a national holiday of the Enterprise.