Poll of the Day > Do casuals really like Mary Sue (and male equivalent) characters?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Mulan (2020) spoilers - I didn't watch this but watched multiple reviews online and Mulan is a Mary Sue from the start. She's just hiding her true power levels and can literally do whatever she wants. Whats the fun in that? Her character didn't grow at all in the movie. It's way different from the animated original where you see her journey to becoming a warrior. You rooted for her to succeed. But in the 2020 version, she's unstoppable right from the get go.

Star Wars Episodes 6-9 - Rey Palpatine! The sequel trilogy basically established that any random person can be one with the force and you don't even have to train at all to be the best. Rey was somehow skilled at repairing space crafts (Millennium Falcon), able to sword fight just fine, etc. I'll admit, before the trilogy was done, I used to defend Rey. I was like "just wait for the other movies to come out. I'm sure they'll explain how she got her skills. Maybe she got her mind wiped. Just wait, jeez!" But nope! From my understanding, the force needed to be balanced and Rey was the chosen one. How fucking lame!

These are only two recent examples.

But do people really like that shit?

I'm not very familiar with Superman and at first glance he definitely appears to be unstoppable and crap. Which is one of the reasons why I never liked Superman but I will admit I'm pretty ignorant about him. But speaking to friends that are familiar with DC and Superman, they tell me there are ways to beat him without having to rely on Kryptonite. So that does make things interesting.

And to not sound sexist, I'll talk about Neo. Yes, he's the one and is showing flying and surviving gun shots and stuff in the first movie. But it worked because in Matrix 1, we get to know Neo, his training, and all of that. He didn't have all his powers until the end of the movie. That's why it worked. He had flaws and appeared to be a regular guy.

So, I'm wondering if casuals like Mary Sue and male equivalent characters? I also have to mention that when I see characters that are so strong and have little to no flaws, I go against them and root for the bad guys. lol

---

I dont care if the movie is still good, I guess... Or if it works...
---

I think it can be done well if taken to an extreme. Sometimes it is nice to just indulge in an absurd power fantasy and there can be some good humor with it. I feel like a lot of the time the more problematic part of a mary sue is them being boring cause there is nothing else to them except being OP or perfect.

---

Generally speaking, the only people who really like Mary Sue characters are the ones who are writing them as self-insert author avatars.
---

Is God a Mary Sue? I mean, if your character is already omnipotent it's hard to write meaningful drama for them

---

In case you wanted to know, the male equivalent is called a Gary Stu

---

sword art online should answer that question

---

TheSlinja posted...

sword art online should answer that question

I stopped watching it after season 1 because it became crap and season 2 started in this fairy world. Lame as fuck. So tired of "kids saving the world" anime crap.

---

Noop_Noop posted...

In case you wanted to know, the male equivalent is called a Gary Stu

This is a forced meme

pipebomb_phil posted...

I stopped watching it after season 1 because it became crap

Thinking arc 1 was good and arc 2 was bad is like the best litmus test for telling if somebody is a shitty casual with no taste. All the signs were there.

---

Blightzkrieg posted...

This is a forced meme

The name people use for the male version of a specific archetype is a forced meme?

Ok buddy.

---

It's like saying dudette or fire fightress

---

ill give you dudette (which is a term im fine with), but fire fighter is a gender neutral term, unlike mary sue

---

Noop_Noop posted...

The name people use for the male version of a specific archetype is a forced meme?

It's kind of a forced meme because nobody really used it for decades. It's not until TV Without Pity and TV Tropes decided that they needed a male term for Mary Sue because Mary Sue was too sexist that they came up with Gary Stu.

The male version of a Mary Sue was also a Mary Sue for like 30+ years. And it's still a perfectly acceptable usage.

Though conversely, most people never really knew what a Mary Sue was in the first place until TV Tropes went on their quest to shittily analyze every cliche in fiction and come up with terms for things that they think are clever, so one could easily argue how much authority TV Tropes and its insane crew should have over pop culture anyway.
---