Canon Sue

A Canon Sue, also rendered Canon!Sue, is a canon character that possesses qualities normally associated with Mary Sues either naturally (canonical Canon Sue) or due to the manipulation of a fanwriter (Possession Sue).
==Two Types of 'Canon Sue'==
===Canon Sue, Canonical===
Mary Sue is not a phenomenon unique to fanfiction. She is also found quite regularly in published work. A perfect example of this is that famous Marty Stu, Drizzt Do'Urden, from the Forgotten Realms universe. He is unmatched in swordsmanship, has "special" violet eyes, is the only virtuous dark elf living, has corny magical jewelry, super special abilities (levitation, faerie fire, globes of darkness), legendary weapons, an angsty/tragic past, and of course can do no wrong.
Creators often draw on their own personality, appearance and/or history for inspiration, since it's easy and convenient to write what and who you know, so the appearance of these doesn't automatically mean a Canon Sue. However, if the character that appears is very obviously an Author Stand In (especially to such a degree that the character's back-story and the author's biography are practically interchangeable), believes in everything the creator believes, does everything the creator does (or wants to do) and is absolutely correct and perfect in both, is over-idealized and perfect to a fault, and/or (most importantly and required) seems as though the story exists only to further this one specific character (most often to the detriment of any other characters present, who simply cannot measure up to the author's clear favorite), you're in Mary Sue territory.
When the first couple seasons of South Park, Stan Marsh and Kyle Broflovski were based on the personalities of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators. Even their family members shared names and traits. However, since then, all the South Park characters have developed their own identities.
The best example of a Canon Sue in South Park would be Mint-Berry Crunch.
====Important Differences between Canon Sues and Original Character Sues====
*The population of Canon Sues has been fairly constant over the years, while the population of original character Mary Sues in fanfiction has increased explosively over the last few decades.
*Canon Sues, as part of original and often published works, are less likely to wield the destructive power of poor writing, since authors of original fiction are less likely to be fangirls.
*Canon Sues may occasionally be well-written enough not to annoy the viewer or distort their home continua; fanfic Mary Sues almost never are.
===Canon Sue, OOC (a.k.a. Replacement Sue)===
Just as not all Mary Sues exist in fanfiction, not all fanfiction Sues are OCs. It happens time and time again that a canon character is just not special or romantic enough for a Mary Sue, and so the Suethors will take it upon herself to... upgrade that canon character. This results in a canon character becoming so OOC that he or she turns into a Mary Sue.
Category:Sue and Stu Classifications