The characters pictured were selected because these are the few I most often see people saying "that's a Sue/Stu"

I hope not, because the main character of my main book would then be a mary sue.

I Never Got That Term !!!!

Not always. Sometimes it is the case, but not always. I mean, Alice from Alice In Wonderland is meant to be a blank slate for people to imagine themselves as going through Wonderland, but she's not a Mary Sue. I think there are other factors involved. I do think an author putting a lot of themselves in a character shows how passionate they are about the character, but they also should be given flaws and limitations. Like Bloom from Winx Club could've been a good character if she was given more limitations and wasn't always such an attention hog. Let the other characters get attention, don't make it so easy for her, and not always have the plot work in her favor. I mean, I'm writing a book and the protagonist I do like to imagine myself as, but there are differences between us. I try to stay out of trouble and he doesn't seem to know how to stay out of it, I'm a lot more religious than he is (considering at the moment he is atheist or even just mad at God), he tries to help his friends with his problems but runs away from his own as opposed to me who tries to deal with both my own problems and others without running away, he's for more distant than I am, and more prone to violence than I am since I try to stay away from conflict and trouble. Making a character like you is fine, as long as you don't make them absolutely perfect, a better version of you, and have no real limitations. While there are some Mary Sues/Gary Stus that are good or decent characters, there are plenty who are bad and I do prefer characters with flaws.

I'd MUCH rather learn about Emma Swan and her struggles than I would Bloom's.

I'm MUCH more interested in the struggles of someone like Regina, Azula, and Zelena than I am Peter Pan (Once Upon A Time).

I'd MUCH rather watch Aang grow as a character than I would Harry Potter.

Just to name a few examples lol.

Similarly to what I said on the last poll, Mary Sues/Stus are awful characters because they're highly idealized and unrealistic in one way, shape, or form.
If a character is well rounded and well written, they're not a Sue/Stu. At all. No matter the circumstance of their creation.
And so much more goes into writing characters than Mary Sues/Gary Stus, and the more I see the term, the more I grow to despise its concept....

^

Nah

no, that's not at all what a Sue is. For example Tyrion is George RR Martin's ideal character but he's far from a Stu. Sues and Stus ARE the author's ideal characters BUT more importantly their flaws are not addresses as flaws.

Not really. I mean, it could be, but often not. Sues are just the characters that are always in the right (no matter if their opinions are wrong), are given more importance than necessary compared to other characters, have little to no flaws and overcome problems easily.

Personally, I don't think Rey from Star Wars is a Sue, but say, Meiko from Digimon Tri is a textbook example. A new character that's appeared in the sequel of the original series given more screen time than previously established characters, she's added in as a new Chosen and overshadows previously established ones like Daisuke or Miyako, she has a cliched personality yet everyone likes her except the villains...

Come to think of it, Tony Stark could be close to be a Sue, but thankfully the movies admit he does horrible things from time and time and often is the cause of the problem in a movie. So despite the guy being loved by everyone for being a "cool asshole", the movies does make him do stupid things. Which is more than I can say for Widow, who has little to no flaws...

Since everyone else pretty much said it; I hope not because in my original story I had a character like this. Granted I no longer want the same things as I did when I started writing her so...