| abstract | - Gary Stu, also called Marty Stu or Marty Sam, is the male counterpart of Mary Sue. Largely due to the fact that fanfic writers are more often female than male, Gary Stu is far less common than Mary Sue. It has also been suggested that readers are more forgiving of a male character that has kick-ass skills and are therefore less likely to call a male original character a Stu. There are two basic types of Stu: the first is his own character, built in the same way as a Sue to be the extra-special focus of the story, to the detriment of all else. This type is usually the Badass!Stu, the most common Stu of all. The second is any male character who has been unrealistically idealized in order to be the perfect mate/friend/sibling/whatever in relation to someone else. The "mate" is usually a Stu'd version of a canon character, but not necessarily.
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