What is a Mary Sue? Here is a quick rule of thumb (for more information, go to the Wikipedia article on Mary Sues):
- if everyone in your story immediately likes (or loves) your character, but no obvious reason is given why they should do so (because it never occurred to the author that they wouldn’t, is the likely answer), then you have probably written a Mary Sue.
- But if every attractive member of the opposite sex appears to have been introduced into the story for the sole purpose of falling in love with the character, then you have definitely written a Mary Sue.
There are other standard characteristics of a Mary Sue - unusual, usually supernatural powers that qualify her to move freely as a valued member of a high-status community, though she has never been properly valued in her own world; unsuspected links to the nobility of that high-status community; etc - that are unnecessary, but that Sookie also has. Let's just accept that Sookie Stackhouse qualifies as a Mary Sue wildly, overabundantly and in spades.
Now the reason to avoid writing Mary Sues is because they are, among other things, very very dull. But I can’t stop watching the show. It can’t be only because if I watch long enough Eric will swan by the camera in his black tank top again; eye candy is the one thing Hollywood gets right and loads all productions with, so I could be watching practically anything to see an Eric-equivalent. So I have been wondering why.
And while wondering, I was re-watching Ep. 3.2, (“Beautifully Broken” - go here for the hilarious io9 recap), in which Bill Compton responds emotionally, and homicidally, to a threat to Sookie’s welfare; Eric the outrageously beautiful psychopath responds emotionally (!) to seeing Sookie cry and later shows up at her house and offers to have sex with her in addition to protecting her from whatever bad guys are out there, a duty he’s taken on himself for the manifestly made-up excuse that he owes her one. And Tara meets what looks like a bad vampire. As opposed to the good ones Sookie hangs out with. Though actually they weren’t good vampires before they met Sookie, and Eric at least is only good to her, so Sookie must (once again) be EXTRA-SPECIAL ...So, total Mary Sue. At this point I really don’t need to keep looking for verification. So why do I keep watching?
Here is my theory. First, Sookie is a Mary Sue in the original novels, and the TV series, although it can and does make major revisions to the novels, can’t entirely overcome that original characterization. However, the TV series is very well written and overcomes the limitations of the Mary Sue as much as it can, largely by giving Sookie sufficient in the way of virtue, courage, loyalty, intelligence, persistent dignity, and genuine generosity of character that it’s reasonable that people would respond positively to her.
But second, it’s because Anna Paquin is a simply marvellous actor. She entirely sells you on Sookie Stackhouse as genuinely being all those things.
And the result of these two factors - superior writing and brilliant acting - is that Sookie Stackhouse has become that rarest of fictional creatures, the Mary Sue that actually works and can carry a story, for the simple reason that the audience joins all of those onscreen in liking her, being fascinated by her, and in general wishing her well; which clouds our ability to ask why on earth everyone on-screen feels that way.
As I watched 3.2, I was only really happy when Sookie was on-screen. The rest of the time, I was waiting for her to come on-screen, a little bored, because she's the only thing I'm really watching for. In this my mental state matched that of the characters. Bill may not be with Sookie but he thinks about her all the time and waits impatiently for the next time he’ll see her. So does Eric. Sam is pre-occupied now but last season he was literally ready to die for her. The only scenes I didn’t spend impatiently waiting for Sookie to get back on-camera were the ones with Tara and Lafayette (both of whose lives she’s saved), largely because, hey, Lafayette, talk about a scene-stealer ... Even Terry tries to protect her.
So because my emotional state - where is Sookie? Is Sookie okay? Will Sookie get what she wants? Is Sookie going to be happy? Oh no, she’s crying! Must fix whatever’s making Sookie cry! - mirrors that of every damn character on screen, all of whom love her, I find it very hard to question why it is they all feel that way. Her essential Mary-Sueness, her “to see her is to love her and to love but her forever” core, slips by me unnoticed, because I am a full participant in it.
So, hats off to whoever signed Paquin to play that part. Because I can’t imagine that anyone else could pull off a Mary Sue so well.
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p.s. It has become clear to me, on reading the io9 recap, that other people may not be watching the series for Sookie Stackhouse. I can only say, what? What else would you watch it for? :) (Besides Eric's tank top I mean.) But also, I sure hope we don't get much more vampire politics, because io9 is right: dull.
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