History Main / AntiSue

Compare and contrast SuetifulAllAlong, a less extreme attempt to avert Common MarySue Traits. Not to be confused with "Auntie Sue".

Unfortunately, simply [[InvertedTrope inverting]] the CommonMarySueTraits does not prevent a character from being a MarySue. When other characters still worship her and the plot still bends over backwards to facilitate her, she's still a MarySue, despite now being described as an unspeakably ugly and incredibly pathetic loser. This can actually be even more annoying than a vanilla MarySue — at least it makes some sort of sense for characters to worship a beautiful, friendly, hypercompetent MarySue, but when they're physically ugly with an unpleasant personality and can barely tie their own shoes (much less solve other people's problems) and everyone still treats them like the greatest thing since sliced bread, WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief gets smashed into tiny little pieces.

If a MarySue is "perfect", then the easiest way to avoid making one is to do the opposite, right? Well, the AntiSue shows up when an aspiring writer takes the opposite of "perfect" as "perfectly opposite" instead of "imperfect". A MarySue is a FriendToAllLivingThings who is [[SoBeautifulItsACurse So Beautiful, It's A Curse]] and can solve any problem in five minutes or less? Then an AntiSue will be TheGrotesque and an EnemyToAllLivingThings who never does anything right. And so on.

!!Fan Examples

* The ''CityOfHeroes'' character [[http://www.virtueverse.net/wiki/Leah_Carpenter Leah Carpenter]], a (not so) CuteMonsterGirl with an insipid backstory that serves as a failed TakeThat against MarySue (or, more accurately, CommonMarySueTraits). She's incredibly loathsome, selfish, judgmental, and self-deprecating. She's also the CosmicPlaything, with an exaggeratedly huge amount of tragedy in her life that a SympatheticSue only wishes she could have. Yet in spite of this, the plot still idolizes her and the whole thing reads out like a battle between two cosmic deities, one bent on destroying her and one bent on saving her. Her personality means next to nothing as she walks through the story. Not to mention that canon characters get derailed like nothing to facilitate the "plot"... and this happens to be a troper's OldShame. [[ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime It all seemed like a clever idea at the time]].
* Mike, the protagonist of ''FanFic/KnightOfLolicon'', is an example of a character who is both an AntiSue and a GodModeSue at the same time. He is repeatedly described as an {{Otaku}} with no social life, yet when a beautiful female falls out of the sky, she not only falls for him instantly, but he is the only person who can save TheMultiverse, and is immediately accepted in the worlds he visits despite intruding on countless {{Canon}}s. He is also NighInvulnerable (due to AppliedPhlebotinum, but ''still''...) and [[InvincibleHero never loses against the bad guy]].

!!Canon Examples:

[[AC:{{Comic Books}}]]
* James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine in the ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'' franchise. It varies from source to source, but he is largely presented as a small, smelly, hairy drunkard with a tendency towards unnecessary violence who smokes like a chimney and spends way too much time going after barely legal women. When he turned out to be very popular, those RunningTheAsylum basically [[PopularityPower made him a Sue in recent years]], [[SpotlightStealingSquad giving him way too much screen time]]. This is more and more blatant ever since the movies, where he was pretty much a full-blooded Stu; his solo film is sometimes referred to as "the fourth ''[[WolverinePublicity Wolverine]]'' movie". Having Hugh Jackman cast in the role didn't help either, adding sheer [[EstrogenBrigadeBait physical]] [[FanYay attractiveness]] to Wolvy's already-established {{badass}}ery...
* This is another reason that the Sentry is so commonly despised. He has dozens of character defects and psychological problems, forcing him into being AchillesInHisTent 80% of the time, but every character loves and accepts him, he's considered to be one of the most powerful heroes on the planet, he appears in a large amount of crossovers, and he's basically unstoppable when he's not utterly useless.
** Since the Sentry was originally written as a parody/joke character, and his powers involve [[spoiler: his greatest enemy being a manifestation of his own self-loathing and insecurity]], combined with the fact that some of his own co-heroes (and he himself, on several occasions) acknowledge that his powers take him several steps higher on the staircase to godhood than most other Marvelverse characters, this is partially justified.
** Compare the Sentry at the end of his miniseries to the Sentry in the canon MarvelUniverse; he may have been massively derailed. The Sentry was never meant to be a recurring character, and when he entered the canon universe it rapidly became clear that [[BoredOnBoard nobody knew how to write him]]. Both his strengths and weaknesses are exaggerated to the point where he is unrecognizable when compared to his original depiction. Those who genuinely enjoyed the original miniseries were [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks not happy]].

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* ''Loverboy'' (not the one with Patrick Dempsey) has Kyra Sedgwick's character being as cold and snippy to ''everyone'' short of her own son (the title being his nickname) yet men such as Matt Dillon's character being almost magically drawn to her, kept her son out of school until Age 7 without getting even charged, has the movie itself attempt to villainize the teachers for being realistic towards her while all being intercut with flashbacks to [[FreudianExcuse explain her actions]]. However, it goes UpToEleven when [[spoiler: attempts to kill herself '''and her son''' via pills and carbon monoxide poisoning in the sealed-off garage, which only kills her then cuts to a flashforward where he [[ShillingTheWesley warmly talks about how great she was]], even finding meaning in her [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} beliefs]] Dam.]]. However, it becomes painfully clear that she ''really'' gets away with all this is because the director is Kevin Bacon, her husband.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* Every main character from the LeftBehind series. They're Mary Sues according to the authors, but for those of us living in the real world, it's hard to imagine how such sleazy, cowardly, judgmental, and straight-up-dumb characters can be the "heroes."
* RobertAHeinlein's Lazarus Long was grouchy, sarcastic, abrasive and cynical, with outdated attitudes and a death wish... who every man wanted to be and every woman wanted (and had), and who was effectively immortal to boot. In fact several of Heinlein's characters seem to fit this mold, especially in his later years. Not to mention, most of Long's hero worship (of both male and female varieties) occurs on a planet [[MarySueTopia he founded, which effectively worships him as "the senior."]]. He's mentioned as being fired/enslaved/ran off planet elsewhere for his views.
* GregoryBenford's Nigel Walmsley is an abrasive personality with a tendency to get into trouble with authority figures. Nevertheless, he is a world-famous astronaut, scientist, and a ladies man with a talent for getting into [[AuthorAppeal threesome relationships with pairs of hot bisexual women]]. Despite his basic interpersonal incompetence, he has displayed the ability to successfully play the political game when he puts his mind into it. He is always right when it doesn't come into his personal life and has made more than his share of discoveries of aliens. Despite being a NonActionGuy, he has successfully used violence in a pinch. His most unlikely power is however the ability to decode alien radio signals. Remarkably, there had never been proper communication with the aliens, the transmission was a brief history of their race in pictures, and ''he decoded the whole thing in his head by hearing it played once. As sound.''
* Mack in ''TalesOfMU''. While she's probably being self-deprecating when she talks about her own unattractiveness, there's no real subjective nature to the facts that she's rude, snappish, self-centered, immature, and a danger to herself and others. And yet people still fall madly in love (or lust, or obsession) with her after only days or weeks of knowing her, a good portion of the cast is looking at her to lead a fight for their equality, and the only people that seem to truly dislike her are nasty-mean bigots and just plain jerks.
* Raven from Rhiannon Lassiter's ''Hex'' series. On the forums of the author's website, Lassiter actually admits that Raven is meant to be her alter ego. Raven is constantly described throughout the series as cold, antisocial, and possibly psychotic. However, she is also more powerful and skilled than any other mutant with the Hex gene, a skilled hacker, proficient in the use of weapons, and apparently socially adept enough to pose as a media executive who impresses powerful businessmen. She tends to spout wordy philosophical discourses on society and possesses the vocabulary of a college professor, despite being only 15 years old and supposedly an orphan who escaped from an institution with her siblings and survived on the streets. The first book describes her as very attractive, with a "perfect figure." The books repeatedly mention her "obsidian eyes." Everyone is in awe of her, even if they are frightened of her and doubt her sanity. She is apparently a Goth, as she always wears black and listens to 20th century heavy metal despite the fact that the setting is the 23rd century. Apparently the author named another character, Ali, after a real-life classmate she didn't get along with, and the fictional Ali is constantly referred to as a popular, pretty airhead who is made to feel worthless by Raven's superior skill and competence in all things. Keep in mind that the author started this book series in her teens, and got published very early.
* KurtVonnegut's recurring character Kilgore Trout is an ugly, unsuccessful science-fiction author with bad hygiene, who takes odd jobs to supplement his usual income from the porn magazines who buy his stuff for filler. And he's frequently more clued-in to what's going on around him than about half of his fellow characters. (''Timequake'' ends with [[spoiler:him saving the world by thinking of exactly the right thing to say at the right time]].)
* In ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'': Though she is never portrayed as malicious or obviously unlikeable, a lot of time is spent stressing how clumsy, average and otherwise imperfect Bella Swan is. Nevertheless, everybody loves her (at least five guys are immediately attracted to her) except for the obviously mean characters.
** There's also the fact that it doesn't take a lot of digging to interpret her as malicious and unlikeable. Bella makes a habit of commenting (usually unfavorably) on other people's appearances, for example. She's also been known to compare a friend to a dog, completely ignore her friends on a girls-night-out and make no show of hiding it, lie to her father (and other people who love her) multiple times, etc. According to some AlternativeCharacterInterpretation[=s=], she's supposed to be an UnreliableNarrator.
* The Jane Madison series by Mindy Klasky. The heroine frequently describes herself as (and/or acts) unattractive, unintelligent and generally incompetent, while incredible opportunities and good fortune rain down on her like criticisms on windows. Although to be fair, she is generally too stupid or incompetent to take advantage of most of these.

[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]
* CtrlAltDel's Ethan. There are many reasons: his obvious AuthorAvatar-ness, his incredibly antisocial personality, committing social behavior a 5 year old knows not to do, yet the series constantly revolves around him, all the other characters talk about nothing but him, he conveniently becomes [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands invincible and highly intelligent whenever necessary, even being able to built two sentient robots]], and gets his girlfriend to apologize to him after she has a miscarriage. It just makes things worse that he is still the least likable character in the entire series, and several characters have been [[DisproportionateRetribution unnecessarily punished]], or even [[PutOnABus removed from the series]] to give Ethan more screen time.
** YMMV.
* Davan of ''SomethingPositive'' is probably a mild-to-middling example. While the comic likes to [[{{Anvilicious}} hammer home]] what an unattractive, mean-spirited, hopeless failure of a human being he is, he still has numerous women fall for him (or at least willing to come back to his place for a one night stand), has devoted friends (who, admittedly, are usually just as horrible people as he is), and says a lot of extremely rude, insulting, or just plain mean things to everyone he meets (often including his boss) [[KarmaHoudini without any apparent comeuppance]].
** To be fair, pretty much the entire casts treats everyone including each other that way, so it's not like any of them have a right to judge.
* Amy Rose, the protagonist of the webcomic ''The Amy Rose Show''. Annoyingly perverted? Check. [[{{Bottle Fairy}} Ridiculously alcoholic]], but without the 'fun to drink with' part? Check. [[{{Fat Monica}} Being ugly enough to turn people to stone when she's naked]]? Check. Constantly starts fights where she gets her ass kicked? Check. Center of all attention? Check.
* Cuthwald of ''{{NSFW Comix}}'' is sort of a [[ParodySue joke anti-Sue]] for the author, Cybersp0nge. He describes the inspiration for him as being himself when he was younger. But everything surrounds the character, ''in a very bad way''. Mostly ending up with Cuthwald going to jail for sexual harassment of some form or another.

[[AC:WebOriginal]]
* Here's a [[http://nine.frenchboys.net/suemary.php generator]] for these in ''LesMiserables''.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* Blaineley from ''TotalDramaWorldTour'' basically combines the worst traits of [[{{Jerkass}} Chris]], [[ImNotHereToMakeFriends Heather]], and [[TheWesley Owen]], annoys everyone during the Aftermaths, and then becomes an actual contestant, apparently just because the writers needed to fill up a few episodes and didn't want to bring an actually ''interesting'' character in.
* This is how [[YourMileageMayVary a portion]] of the ''FamilyGuy'' fanbase see Peter Griffin in some of the most recent seasons:he became a massive JerkAss with absolutely no redeeming trait that [[ItsAllAboutMe only cares for himself]]. Despite all the crap he pulls on everybody, including his own family, he not only gets away with everything, but he never feels repentant for his actions. And, despite all of this, his family loves him and keeps putting Peter's happiness over theirs.
** [[UglyGuyHotWife The real kicker is that he's somehow married to]] ''[[UglyGuyHotWife Lois]]'', who has somehow remained loyal to him despite being as negatively impacted by his bullshit as anyone and openly objecting to it. [[TheSimpsons At least Homer's]] a well-meaning idiot.

----

** There's also the fact that it doesn't take a lot of digging to interpret her as malicious and unlikeable. Bella makes a habit of commenting (usually unfavorably) on other people's appearances, for example. She's also been known to compare a friend to a dog, completely ignore her friends on a girls-night-out and make no show of hiding it, lie to her father (and other people who love her) multiple times, etc.

* ''Loverboy'' (not the one with Patrick Dempsey) has Kyra Sedgwick's character being as cold and snippy to ''everyone'' short of her own son (the title being his nickname) yet men such as Matt Dillon's character being almost magically drawn to her, kept her son out of school until Age 7 without getting even charged, has the movie itself attempt to villainize the teachers for being realistic towards her while all being intercut with flashbacks to [[FreudianExcuse explain her actions]]. However, it goes UpToEleven when [[spoiler: attempts to kill herself '''and her son''' via pills and carbon monoxide poisoning in the sealed-off garage, which only kills her then cuts to a flashforward where he [[ShillingTheWesley warmly talks about how great she was, even finding meaning in her [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} beliefs]] Dam.]]. However, it becomes painfully clear that she ''really'' gets away with all this is because the director is Kevin Bacon, her husband.

** Compare the Sentry at the end of his miniseries to the Sentry in the canon MarvelUniverse, and tell me that he did not get massively derailed. The Sentry was never meant to be a recurring character, and when he entered the canon universe it rapidly became clear that [[BoredOnBoard nobody knew how to write him]]. Both his strengths and weaknesses are exagerrated to the point where he is unrecognizable when compared to his original depiction. Those of us who genuinely enjoyed the original miniseries were [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks not happy]].

* ''Loverboy'' (not the one with Patrick Dempsey) has Kyra Sedgwick's character being as cold and snippy to ''everyone'' short of her own son (the title being his nickname) yet men such as Matt Dillon's character being almost magically drawn to her, kept her son out of school until Age 7 without getting even charged, has the movie itself attempt to villainize the teachers for being realistic towards her while all being intercut with flashbacks to [[FreudianExcuse explain her actions]]. However, it goes UpToEleven when [[spoiler: attempts to kill herself '''and her son''' via pills and carbon monoxide poisoning in the sealed-off garage, which only kills her then cuts to a flashforward where he [[ShillingTheWesley warmly talks about how great she was, even finding meaning in her {{Cloudcuckoolander}} beliefs]] Dam.]]. However, it becomes painfully clear that she ''really'' gets away with all this is because the director is Kevin Bacon.

** Including one character that may or may not still live in the same house as the other characters. [[HandWave He doesn't want to leave his room]].

* Mike, the protagonist of ''FanFic/KnightOfLolicon'', is an example of a character who is both an AntiSue and a GodModeSue at the same time. He is repeatedly described as an {{Otaku}} with no social life, yet when a beautiful female falls out of the sky, she not only falls for him instantly, but he is the only person who can save TheMultiverse, and is immediately accepted in the worlds he visits despite intruding on countless {{Canon}}s. He is also NighInvulnerable (due to AppliedPhlebotinum, but ''still''...) and [[BoringInvincibleHero never loses against the bad guy]].

Compare and contrast SuetifulAllAlong, a less extreme attempt to avert Common MarySue Traits.

** It's much much worse in ''[[UltimateXMen Ultimate X-Men]]'', where Wolverine had sex with Jean (repeatedly) in ''the fifth issue.'' To be fair, Ultimate Wolverine ''is'' kind of attractive, but given that Jean is about 19 at this point it can still leave some readers {{squick}}ed. And he also [[MurderTheHypotenuse stabs his love rival to get him outta the way]]...
** He really brings it home in the [[Film/{{X-Men}} movieverse]], though, especially in the third. In the very first scene of that one, he walks in and shows Storm, teaching a Danger Room class, how his method's better than hers. Then, what's supposedly an adaptation of the Dark Phoenix Saga gets underway... except that one of the most ambitious epics in comic-book history - and one which had little to do with Wolverine - is now ''all'' about him. Everybody else has basically been reduced to set decoration. Phoenix herself, a cosmic entity who can literally ''devour worlds'', spends most of the movie standing quietly next to Magneto so Wolvie can try to find her, fighting the entire Brotherhood of Evil Mutants singlehandedly in the process. Cyclops, TheHero of the original, is disposed of early on (although it's more a case of RealLifeWritesThePlot to free up the actor for ''SupermanReturns''. Still very annoying, and it's not like the movieverse is shy about [[TheOtherDarrin recasting]] characters.) Even Storm, who takes the reins from the NotQuiteDead Professor X, winds up letting ''Wolverine'' call the shots in the final battle.

* RobertAHeinlein's Lazarus Long was grouchy, sarcastic, abrasive and cynical, with outdated attitudes and a death wish... who every man wanted to be and every woman wanted (and had), and who was effectively immortal to boot. In fact several of Heinlein's characters seem to fit this mold, especially in his later years.
** I always thought Lazarus Long (and the RAH's other, similar characters) were supposed to be {{Author Avatar}}s.
** Not to mention, most of Long's hero worship (of both male and female varieties) occurs on a planet [[MarySueTopia he founded, which effectively worships him as "the senior."]]. He's mentioned as being fired/enslaved/ran off planet elsewhere for his views.

** Though that last part is changing with the SpinOff, whose characters are relatively decent people but share in the nasty gossip about her. WordOfGod is that part of the reason for the spin off is that Mack is an UnreliableNarrator.

[[AC:{{VideoGames}}]]
* [[NoMoreHeroes Travis Touchdown]]. He stretches the concept of AntiHero as far as it can go; he is portrayed as an unlikable, violent, geeky, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking porn-stealing]] prick; and he is frequently flat-out called a [[ThisLoserIsYou loser otaku]]. However, he not only survives the ordeals of NoMoreHeroes, he [[spoiler: somehow gets Sylvia to fall in love with him]].In response to the spoiler, [[spoiler:Sylvia is just [[GoldDigger attracted to power]], only being interested in Travis once he's gotten a high on the ladder.]]
** It is worth noting that ''Desperate Struggle'' actually contains a healthy amount of character development - over the course of the game Travis starts to realize the error of his ways in that the assassins are people who shouldn't be killing each other over what is basically now a game and become a more traditional AntiHero. [[spoiler: He also does actually manage to get with Sylvia this time]].

* [[NoMoreHeroes Travis Touchdown]]. He stretches the concept of AntiHero as far as it can go; he is portrayed as an unlikable, violent, geeky, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking porn-stealing]] prick; and he is frequently flat-out called a [[ThisLoserIsYou loser otaku]]. However, he not only survives the ordeals of NoMoreHeroes, he [[spoiler: somehow gets Sylvia to fall in love with him]].In response to the spoiler, [[spoiler:Sylvia is just [[GoldDigger attracted to power]], only being interested in Travis once he's gotten a high on the ladder.

* [[NoMoreHeroes Travis Touchdown]]. He stretches the concept of AntiHero as far as it can go; he is portrayed as an unlikable, violent, geeky, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking porn-stealing]] prick; and he is frequently flat-out called a [[ThisLoserIsYou loser otaku]]. However, he not only survives the ordeals of NoMoreHeroes, he [[spoiler: somehow gets Sylvia to fall in love with him]], and tends to be viewed very positively by most people who have played the game.
** In response to the spoiler, [[spoiler:Sylvia is just [[GoldDigger attracted to power]], only being interested in Travis once he's gotten a high on the ladder.

* [[NoMoreHeroes Travis Touchdown]] may be an AntiSue done right. He stretches the concept of AntiHero as far as it can go; he is portrayed as an unlikable, violent, geeky, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking porn-stealing]] prick; and he is frequently flat-out called a [[ThisLoserIsYou loser otaku]]. However, he not only survives the ordeals of NoMoreHeroes, he [[spoiler: somehow gets Sylvia to fall in love with him]], and tends to be viewed very positively by most people who have played the game.

'''No examples, please. This only defines the term'''.

----

!!Fan Examples

* The ''CityOfHeroes'' character [[http://www.virtueverse.net/wiki/Leah_Carpenter Leah Carpenter]], a (not so) CuteMonsterGirl with an insipid backstory that serves as a failed TakeThat against MarySue (or, more accurately, CommonMarySueTraits). She's incredibly loathsome, selfish, judgmental, and self-deprecating. She's also the CosmicPlaything, with an exaggeratedly huge amount of tragedy in her life that a SympatheticSue only wishes she could have. Yet in spite of this, the plot still idolizes her and the whole thing reads out like a battle between two cosmic deities, one bent on destroying her and one bent on saving her. Her personality means next to nothing as she walks through the story. Not to mention that canon characters get derailed like nothing to facilitate the "plot"... and this happens to be a troper's OldShame. [[ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime It all seemed like a clever idea at the time]].
* Mike, the protagonist of ''FanFic/KnightOfLolicon'', is an example of a character who is both an AntiSue and a GodModeSue at the same time. He is repeatedly described as an {{Otaku}} with no social life, yet when a beautiful female falls out of the sky, she not only falls for him instantly, but he is the only person who can save TheMultiverse, and is immediately accepted in the worlds he visits despite intruding on countless {{Canon}}s. He is also NighInvulnerable (due to AppliedPhlebotinum, but ''still''...) and [[BoringInvincibleHero never loses against the bad guy]].

!!Canon Examples:

[[AC:{{Comic Books}}]]
* James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine in the ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'' franchise. It varies from source to source, but he is largely presented as a small, smelly, hairy drunkard with a tendency towards unnecessary violence who smokes like a chimney and spends way too much time going after barely legal women. When he turned out to be very popular, those RunningTheAsylum basically [[PopularityPower made him a Sue in recent years]], [[SpotlightStealingSquad giving him way too much screen time]]. This is more and more blatant ever since the movies, where he was pretty much a full-blooded Stu; his solo film is sometimes referred to as "the fourth ''[[WolverinePublicity Wolverine]]'' movie". Having Hugh Jackman cast in the role didn't help either, adding sheer [[EstrogenBrigadeBait physical]] [[FanYay attractiveness]] to Wolvy's already-established {{badass}}ery...
** It's much much worse in ''[[UltimateXMen Ultimate X-Men]]'', where Wolverine had sex with Jean (repeatedly) in ''the fifth issue.'' To be fair, Ultimate Wolverine ''is'' kind of attractive, but given that Jean is about 19 at this point it can still leave some readers {{squick}}ed. And he also [[MurderTheHypotenuse stabs his love rival to get him outta the way]]...
** He really brings it home in the [[Film/{{X-Men}} movieverse]], though, especially in the third. In the very first scene of that one, he walks in and shows Storm, teaching a Danger Room class, how his method's better than hers. Then, what's supposedly an adaptation of the Dark Phoenix Saga gets underway... except that one of the most ambitious epics in comic-book history - and one which had little to do with Wolverine - is now ''all'' about him. Everybody else has basically been reduced to set decoration. Phoenix herself, a cosmic entity who can literally ''devour worlds'', spends most of the movie standing quietly next to Magneto so Wolvie can try to find her, fighting the entire Brotherhood of Evil Mutants singlehandedly in the process. Cyclops, TheHero of the original, is disposed of early on (although it's more a case of RealLifeWritesThePlot to free up the actor for ''SupermanReturns''. Still very annoying, and it's not like the movieverse is shy about [[TheOtherDarrin recasting]] characters.) Even Storm, who takes the reins from the NotQuiteDead Professor X, winds up letting ''Wolverine'' call the shots in the final battle.
* This is another reason that the Sentry is so commonly despised. He has dozens of character defects and psychological problems, forcing him into being AchillesInHisTent 80% of the time, but every character loves and accepts him, he's considered to be one of the most powerful heroes on the planet, he appears in a large amount of crossovers, and he's basically unstoppable when he's not utterly useless.
** Since the Sentry was originally written as a parody/joke character, and his powers involve [[spoiler: his greatest enemy being a manifestation of his own self-loathing and insecurity]], combined with the fact that some of his own co-heroes (and he himself, on several occasions) acknowledge that his powers take him several steps higher on the staircase to godhood than most other Marvelverse characters, this is partially justified.
** Compare the Sentry at the end of his miniseries to the Sentry in the canon MarvelUniverse, and tell me that he did not get massively derailed. The Sentry was never meant to be a recurring character, and when he entered the canon universe it rapidly became clear that [[BoredOnBoard nobody knew how to write him]]. Both his strengths and weaknesses are exagerrated to the point where he is unrecognizable when compared to his original depiction. Those of us who genuinely enjoyed the original miniseries were [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks not happy]].

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* ''Loverboy'' (not the one with Patrick Dempsey) has Kyra Sedgwick's character being as cold and snippy to ''everyone'' short of her own son (the title being his nickname) yet men such as Matt Dillon's character being almost magically drawn to her, kept her son out of school until Age 7 without getting even charged, has the movie itself attempt to villainize the teachers for being realistic towards her while all being intercut with flashbacks to [[FreudianExcuse explain her actions]]. However, it goes UpToEleven when [[spoiler: attempts to kill herself '''and her son''' via pills and carbon monoxide poisoning in the sealed-off garage, which only kills her then cuts to a flashforward where he [[ShillingTheWesley warmly talks about how great she was, even finding meaning in her {{Cloudcuckoolander}} beliefs]] Dam.]]. However, it becomes painfully clear that she ''really'' gets away with all this is because the director is Kevin Bacon.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* Every main character from the LeftBehind series. They're Mary Sues according to the authors, but for those of us living in the real world, it's hard to imagine how such sleazy, cowardly, judgmental, and straight-up-dumb characters can be the "heroes."
* RobertAHeinlein's Lazarus Long was grouchy, sarcastic, abrasive and cynical, with outdated attitudes and a death wish... who every man wanted to be and every woman wanted (and had), and who was effectively immortal to boot. In fact several of Heinlein's characters seem to fit this mold, especially in his later years.
** I always thought Lazarus Long (and the RAH's other, similar characters) were supposed to be {{Author Avatar}}s.
** Not to mention, most of Long's hero worship (of both male and female varieties) occurs on a planet [[MarySueTopia he founded, which effectively worships him as "the senior."]]. He's mentioned as being fired/enslaved/ran off planet elsewhere for his views.
* GregoryBenford's Nigel Walmsley is an abrasive personality with a tendency to get into trouble with authority figures. Nevertheless, he is a world-famous astronaut, scientist, and a ladies man with a talent for getting into [[AuthorAppeal threesome relationships with pairs of hot bisexual women]]. Despite his basic interpersonal incompetence, he has displayed the ability to successfully play the political game when he puts his mind into it. He is always right when it doesn't come into his personal life and has made more than his share of discoveries of aliens. Despite being a NonActionGuy, he has successfully used violence in a pinch. His most unlikely power is however the ability to decode alien radio signals. Remarkably, there had never been proper communication with the aliens, the transmission was a brief history of their race in pictures, and ''he decoded the whole thing in his head by hearing it played once. As sound.''
* Mack in ''TalesOfMU''. While she's probably being self-deprecating when she talks about her own unattractiveness, there's no real subjective nature to the facts that she's rude, snappish, self-centered, immature, and a danger to herself and others. And yet people still fall madly in love (or lust, or obsession) with her after only days or weeks of knowing her, a good portion of the cast is looking at her to lead a fight for their equality, and the only people that seem to truly dislike her are nasty-mean bigots and just plain jerks.
** Though that last part is changing with the SpinOff, whose characters are relatively decent people but share in the nasty gossip about her. WordOfGod is that part of the reason for the spin off is that Mack is an UnreliableNarrator.
* Raven from Rhiannon Lassiter's ''Hex'' series. On the forums of the author's website, Lassiter actually admits that Raven is meant to be her alter ego. Raven is constantly described throughout the series as cold, antisocial, and possibly psychotic. However, she is also more powerful and skilled than any other mutant with the Hex gene, a skilled hacker, proficient in the use of weapons, and apparently socially adept enough to pose as a media executive who impresses powerful businessmen. She tends to spout wordy philosophical discourses on society and possesses the vocabulary of a college professor, despite being only 15 years old and supposedly an orphan who escaped from an institution with her siblings and survived on the streets. The first book describes her as very attractive, with a "perfect figure." The books repeatedly mention her "obsidian eyes." Everyone is in awe of her, even if they are frightened of her and doubt her sanity. She is apparently a Goth, as she always wears black and listens to 20th century heavy metal despite the fact that the setting is the 23rd century. Apparently the author named another character, Ali, after a real-life classmate she didn't get along with, and the fictional Ali is constantly referred to as a popular, pretty airhead who is made to feel worthless by Raven's superior skill and competence in all things. Keep in mind that the author started this book series in her teens, and got published very early.
* KurtVonnegut's recurring character Kilgore Trout is an ugly, unsuccessful science-fiction author with bad hygiene, who takes odd jobs to supplement his usual income from the porn magazines who buy his stuff for filler. And he's frequently more clued-in to what's going on around him than about half of his fellow characters. (''Timequake'' ends with [[spoiler:him saving the world by thinking of exactly the right thing to say at the right time]].)
* In ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'': Though she is never portrayed as malicious or obviously unlikeable, a lot of time is spent stressing how clumsy, average and otherwise imperfect Bella Swan is. Nevertheless, everybody loves her (at least five guys are immediately attracted to her) except for the obviously mean characters.
** There's also the fact that it doesn't take a lot of digging to interpret her as malicious and unlikeable. Bella makes a habit of commenting (usually unfavorably) on other people's appearances, for example. She's also been known to compare a friend to a dog, completely ignore her friends on a girls-night-out and make no show of hiding it, lie to her father (and other people who love her) multiple times, etc.
* The Jane Madison series by Mindy Klasky. The heroine frequently describes herself as (and/or acts) unattractive, unintelligent and generally incompetent, while incredible opportunities and good fortune rain down on her like criticisms on windows. Although to be fair, she is generally too stupid or incompetent to take advantage of most of these.

[[AC:{{VideoGames}}]]
* [[NoMoreHeroes Travis Touchdown]] may be an AntiSue done right. He stretches the concept of AntiHero as far as it can go; he is portrayed as an unlikable, violent, geeky, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking porn-stealing]] prick; and he is frequently flat-out called a [[ThisLoserIsYou loser otaku]]. However, he not only survives the ordeals of NoMoreHeroes, he [[spoiler: somehow gets Sylvia to fall in love with him]], and tends to be viewed very positively by most people who have played the game.
** In response to the spoiler, [[spoiler:Sylvia is just [[GoldDigger attracted to power]], only being interested in Travis once he's gotten a high on the ladder.
** It is worth noting that ''Desperate Struggle'' actually contains a healthy amount of character development - over the course of the game Travis starts to realize the error of his ways in that the assassins are people who shouldn't be killing each other over what is basically now a game and become a more traditional AntiHero. [[spoiler: He also does actually manage to get with Sylvia this time]].

[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]
* CtrlAltDel's Ethan. There are many reasons: his obvious AuthorAvatar-ness, his incredibly antisocial personality, committing social behavior a 5 year old knows not to do, yet the series constantly revolves around him, all the other characters talk about nothing but him, he conveniently becomes [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands invincible and highly intelligent whenever necessary, even being able to built two sentient robots]], and gets his girlfriend to apologize to him after she has a miscarriage. It just makes things worse that he is still the least likable character in the entire series, and several characters have been [[DisproportionateRetribution unnecessarily punished]], or even [[PutOnABus removed from the series]] to give Ethan more screen time.
** Including one character that may or may not still live in the same house as the other characters. [[HandWave He doesn't want to leave his room]].
* Davan of ''SomethingPositive'' is probably a mild-to-middling example. While the comic likes to [[{{Anvilicious}} hammer home]] what an unattractive, mean-spirited, hopeless failure of a human being he is, he still has numerous women fall for him (or at least willing to come back to his place for a one night stand), has devoted friends (who, admittedly, are usually just as horrible people as he is), and says a lot of extremely rude, insulting, or just plain mean things to everyone he meets (often including his boss) [[KarmaHoudini without any apparent comeuppance]].
** To be fair, pretty much the entire casts treats everyone including each other that way, so it's not like any of them have a right to judge.
* Amy Rose, the protagonist of the webcomic ''The Amy Rose Show''. Annoyingly perverted? Check. [[{{Bottle Fairy}} Ridiculously alcoholic]], but without the 'fun to drink with' part? Check. [[{{Fat Monica}} Being ugly enough to turn people to stone when she's naked]]? Check. Constantly starts fights where she gets her ass kicked? Check. Center of all attention? Check.
* Cuthwald of ''{{NSFW Comix}}'' is sort of a [[ParodySue joke anti-Sue]] for the author, Cybersp0nge. He describes the inspiration for him as being himself when he was younger. But everything surrounds the character, ''in a very bad way''. Mostly ending up with Cuthwald going to jail for sexual harassment of some form or another.

[[AC:WebOriginal]]
* Here's a [[http://nine.frenchboys.net/suemary.php generator]] for these in ''LesMiserables''.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* Blaineley from ''TotalDramaWorldTour'' basically combines the worst traits of [[{{Jerkass}} Chris]], [[ImNotHereToMakeFriends Heather]], and [[TheWesley Owen]], annoys everyone during the Aftermaths, and then becomes an actual contestant, apparently just because the writers needed to fill up a few episodes and didn't want to bring an actually ''interesting'' character in.
* This is how [[YourMileageMayVary a portion]] of the ''FamilyGuy'' fanbase see Peter Griffin in some of the most recent seasons:he became a massive JerkAss with absolutely no redeeming trait that [[ItsAllAboutMe only cares for himself]]. Despite all the crap he pulls on everybody, including his own family, he not only gets away with everything, but he never feels repentant for his actions. And, despite all of this, his family loves him and keeps putting Peter's happiness over theirs.
** [[UglyGuyHotWife The real kicker is that he's somehow married to]] ''[[UglyGuyHotWife Lois]]'', who has somehow remained loyal to him despite being as negatively impacted by his bullshit as anyone and openly objecting to it. [[TheSimpsons At least Homer's]] a well-meaning idiot.

----

** Mostly true, but let's be fair. His home spontaneously burnt down along with all of his possessions, his job as a medi-caid biller was living torture, most of his relationships are either implied, or directly stated to be, borderline abusive, and he occasionally shows a sweet side (such as when he promised to be there to help Eva, even after finding out that she cheated on him with her violently abusive ex and is now dumping Davan for the same guy). Mild Anti-Sue yes, but not really a Karma Houdini.
*** Except every bad thing that you listed was ''not his fault'' nor was it an outcome of something bad he did. In fact, it mostly just cements the idea that we're supposed to feel sorry for his trials and tribulations and hardships... even though most of them actually lead to better situations (he hated the apartment anyway, he had almost no chance of getting fired, helping Eva after how she treated him makes him look saintly, etc.).
**** Of course, if he appears saintly, he's hardly an AntiSue.
*** also the fact that every character in the comic is either a Jerkass DeadpanSnarker or a RalphWiggum kind of takes the edge of the hurtful things he says

*** I've always seen Peter as having the mind of a child, unable to realise when he's done something wrong or when to stop. That or it's meant to be funny and nothing else.
*** I agree, you absolutely cannot take a show that runs on RuleOfFunny and try to realistically analyze its characters. For example, Peter is a dick to Meg. Is it funny? Yes? Ok, it did its job, you want realistic characters watch FreaksAndGeeks.
*** Of course, it would be okay if it's funny. Unfortunately, it's not. Most people tend to forget that RuleOfFunny only works if the moment/show IS FUNNY.

* In ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'': Though she is never portrayed as malicious or obviously unlikeable, a lot of time is spent stressing how clumsy, average and otherwise imperfect Bella Swan is. Nevertheless, everybody loves her (at least five guys are immediately attracted to her) except for the obviously mean characters.

If a MarySue is "perfect", then the easiest way to avoid making one is to do the opposite, right? Well, the AntiSue shows up when an aspiring writer takes the opposite of "perfect" as "perfectly opposite" instead of "imperfect". A MarySue is a Friend To All Living Things who is [[SoBeautifulItsACurse So Beautiful, It's A Curse]] and can solve any problem in five minutes or less? Then an AntiSue will be The Grotesque and an EnemyToAllLivingThings who never does anything right. And so on.

Unfortunately, simply [[InvertedTrope inverting]] the CommonMarySueTraits does not prevent a character from being a MarySue. When other characters still worship her and the plot still bends over backwards to facilitate her, she's still a MarySue, despite now being described as an unspeakably ugly, incredibly pathetic loser. This can actually be even more annoying than a vanilla MarySue — at least it makes some sort of sense for characters to worship a beautiful, friendly, hypercompetent MarySue, but when they're physically ugly with an unpleasant personality and can barely tie their own shoes (much less solve other people's problems) and everyone still treats them like the greatest thing since sliced bread, Willing Suspension Of Disbelief gets smashed into tiny little pieces.

** Compare the Sentry at the end of his miniseries to the Sentry in the canon MarvelUniverse, and tell me that he did not get massively [[CharacterDerailment derailed]]. The Sentry was never meant to be a recurring character, and when he entered the canon universe it rapidly became clear that [[BoredOnBoard nobody knew how to write him]]. Both his strengths and weaknesses are exagerrated to the point where he is unrecognizable when compared to his original depiction. Those of us who genuinely enjoyed the original miniseries were [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks not happy]].

** Well, to be fair, most of the characters dislike or are indifferent towards Travis. It should also be noted that [[spoiler:Sylvia is a con artist, and she most likely was faking affection towards Travis]], so in-universe it might not be too evident. Still damn popular amongst the fans of the series however.

*** Downward fucking dog!

** Summing him up: Cuthwald's catchphrase is ''"NOT LIKE THIS!"''
*** ...which in one short sentence makes him sound much better than every other character on this page. Hm.

** YourMileageMayVary on this one, a lot of fans liked the addition of Blaineley, she even has several DeviantArt fan pages.
*** Please, even Lester, the eye-patched guy from the thrid to last episode, has a fanclub on DeviantArt. And people shipping him with Cody.