Editing Mary Sue (section)

==Watsonian vs. Doylist definition of "Sue"==

A futher complicating factor in any definition of "Mary Sue" is the Watsonian vs. Doylist definition problem.

For the unfamiliar, criticism sometimes differentiate between a "Watsonian", or "in-universe based" explanation of something (e.g., "Superpowerman got beaten by Evilvillianman because he had the flu!") and a "Doylist", or "author-centered" explanation (e.g., "Superpowerman got beaten by Evilvillianman because the rest of the story doesn't work if Superpowerman wins that fight.") "Watsonian" and "Doylist" are named for the fictional and real life authors of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Dr. John Watson and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle respectively. Holmes fans being really creepily fond of coming up with Watsonian explanations for plot holes probably helps.

How does this relate to Mary Sue definitions? Well, the two common ways of describing a Sue are Watsonian, where being Overpowered and Always Right is the relevant problem, and the Doylist definition, where the relationship of the author to the character is the relevant problem. We employ a mixture of the two, because guessing what the author was thinking can get very unreliable very quickly and even when they're questioned about this authors - like any other people - can be blind to their biases or lie.  Regardless, the purely power-and-rightness-based definition can easily start returning false results if context and sanity are not considered.<ref>For example, consider a character we'll call "Mike McAwesome", a clear stand in for [[Superman]], who is impossibly perfect, always right, incredibly popular, and always saves the day; sounds like a Mary Sue, right? Well, what if we were to tell you that Mike's perfectness was always played as annoying, and the actual protagonist of the story, "John Failsbad", actively resents Mike, and much of the story concerns John's efforts to get away from or avoid Mike's grandstanding?</ref>