I was writing this when the thread got ripped right out from under me, and by god, I don't let walls of text go to waste! You can run, but you can't hide! The issue that most people have with Snowflakes is this: 'Special Snowflake' is a term that is basically meant to point out someone being super unique for the specific reason to one-up someone else at being unique. BEING a Mary-Sue. Being a unique, human individual isn't the problem. It's when you basically just pile a bunch of tropes and glitter on someone to make them look unique, but then don't back that uniqueness up with any human personality. (Human meaning, real, personable personality.) A 'for-instance'. There is a fandom oft' maligned for snowflakism, and it's the one that I think of as an outsider every time it's brought up. And we call that fandom the furry fandom, god help me. And while I don't aim to offend, it often seems that the fandom develops characters and personas that are constantly getting more and more superficial traits thrown on them just to make them stand out. They stand out for the sake of standing out. They're unique just so they can feel better than other people. There are a lot of ways this can happen. For instance, someone being good at... well, everything they're needed to do. They eliminate all flaws simply to feel superior. Someone who is a doctor, weapon maker, artist, poet, super marksman is... good at too many things. Another thing is making yourself super-duper good at something general. A one-man-science team, for instance, that builds all the things and invents everything from weapons, to robots to ships to communications devices to armor. Still another form is people who give them selves problems, or issues, then don't really... care about them. Or act on them. Or let them hurt them unless it's dramatic enough, often bordering on disruptive. They make themselves 'sick' simply to be pitied and a little bit more unique. Being unique isn't an issue, being unique just to be unique is. Being good at things just to be better is. Turning RP into a fight over "who's the most special special" is. A Snowflake isn't a realistic person, they're a vehicle from which to either live out ridiculous fantasy, or garner ridiculous attention. Edit: Before I receive any hate or issues, I harbor no hatred for the 'furries' or their interests, and do not wish to judge. I understand that every group has it's extremes.
The issue is when snowflake is more a norm than something exceptional, and the reasons behind it. Are they reasonable and legit, or they go against their own race physiology? Sometimes, it even seems characters can be only interesting because snowflake. Wrong. There are a bunch of more regular characters which are interesting, and precisely because how and why the goof in certain skills, either manual or social. I still remember having to go through a entire month of IC training (and a good portion rped) to have the basics of some melee weapons learnt. Fast learning or success have been seen around, too. If anyone enjoys rping with snowflakes, I encourage rping with regular characters. I had my best rp with those PC, not snowflake ones, which at times seemed... odd, at least.
I think your definitions are a little muddled up. A snowflake is someone who is unique in a way that is exceptionally unlikely. For example, a Hylotl who was brought up by a tribe of Florans. It's not inherently bad (although excessive numbers of snowflakes can be tiresome), but usually people who play snowflakes use their "unique aspects" as a crutch because they can't make interesting characters. A Mary Sue is someone who is perfect in ways that is exceptionally unlikely. For example, being an amazing diplomat and scientist and hacker and engineer and swordsman and sniper. This is usually the result of self-insert characters (which we have a lot of) and wish fulfillment / power fantasies (which we also have a lot of).
