1. Noun. Female counterpart to the
Mary-Sue. Also called
Gary-Stu and occasionally "Marty Sam". Often abbreviated to "Stu". An annoyingly "perfect" male fanfiction character. He is usually attractive, mistunderstood, agnsty, and often has some sort of tragic past. He is so perfect as to be nauseating. He usually winds up romantically involved with one or more of the author's favorite characters,
saves the day, upstages all of the real characters, etc. Marty-Stus tend to be slightly less common than Mary
Sues. Often involved in slash stories.
There are three main types of
Marty Stu:
a) Classical!
Marty-Stu. Think 50s and 60s sitcoms or the beginning of the movie "
Pleasantville". These are usually your blonde haired, blue eyed, stereotypically gorgeous,
pretty boys. They also tend to be fond of sports and be "jocks" or "preps".
b) Rebel!Marty-Stu. Also known as "Punk!Non-conformist!Marty-Stu", "Goth!Marty-Stu" and "Badass!Marty-Stu". This type of Marty-Stu usually has
agnst coming out of his you-know-what and isn't *really* badass, he just wants to be because he's oh!-so-angry about his tragic past. Blah, blah,
sob story, mush. This type is often written by teenage girls around the age of 13-15, and is extremely loud and obnoxious. It also includes Evil!
Stus.
c) Misfit!Marty-Stu. This encompasses all of the Marty-Stus out there that the authors have made short, scrawny, geeky, etc in an attempt to prove that he's "not a
marty-stu!!!one1". Usually has a tragic past where he was bullied and/or abused terribly. This type is usually a bit less obnoxious than the other two. Occasionally, this type will also be an Evil!Stu, but that is very rare. It often includes the "I'm a very sensitive person but my father/parents/brothers/family/society doesn't like that in a boy so I get ostracized"-type Marty-Stu. These are usually the ones that wind up in slash fics.
The character of the LOTR fanfic was a complete Stu. His parents were abusive, his teachers didn't understand him because he was too smart and so he got bad grades, and his classmates hated him. He was transported into Middle-Earth from the modern world. He had blonde hair, blue eyes, and discovered he was part Elf. He saved Frodo and Sam from certain death at the hands of some Orcs, and proceeded to
upstage Aragorn and the others. A classic example of Marty-Stu
Badfic.