Mary Sue or Not?
There is nothing in the modern Twattersphere that angers me more than words losing their meaning and semantics. I will never EVER use a word I feel has lost all meaning unless I use it in its proper context and with a proper MEANING. But there is one word I admit I used a lot back in the early days and even post-hiatus days of my blog, "Mary Sue".
Here is the most objective definition of the term.
A Mary Sue is a character archetype in fiction, typically a young female, characterized by an implausible level of competence, unique talents or powers, and attractiveness. These characters are often universally liked or respected within their narrative, possess minimal realistic flaws, and exhibit innate virtues. Originating from fanfiction, a Mary Sue often serves as an idealized version of the author, fulfilling a wish-fulfillment role. While the term is gendered, it can apply to both female and male characters, with the male equivalents sometimes referred to as Gary Stu or Marty Stu.
Let's look at past characters I've labeled as Mary Sues or Gary Stus and see if they match the description.
Mora Linda (Las Lindas)
Mora is NOT universally liked, even when you disqualify someone like Alejandra. Rachel and Miles both dislike her, which is why they bonded in the first place (ew). She has also received constructive criticism from Buttdog, Alejandra post-redemption and even Minos. Even then Mora is by no means shown to be a perfect bunny. It's just that Soulkat is a horrible writer, and can't portray Mora in sympathetic light. If she were flawless, perfect being, she would actually be way more likable. She is supposed to be a strong independent no-bullshit matriarch of the house with alleged street smart tendencies, but instead comes across like a fucking drunkard asshole who verbally and emotionally abuses her employees and cries constantly to manipulate people to do her bidding. We should've seen her develop into a better character by now, but anytime a character shows up who should improve Mora (like Alej or Randall), they instead become more like her. I can see how someone might think she is a Mary Sue though because of how she marries a Crest, is the daughter of a weird powerful God being and she is desired by multiple men, but that's just meant to give a reason for why Lady Ambar is constantly watching over her.
Mora is a terrible protagonist but she is not a Mary Sue, even if the comic treats her like she is right most of the time. She's supposed to have an arc, but that arc doesn't work because she barely changes. Being badly written doesn't automatically make someone a Mary Sue. Have some nuance for fucks sake.
Llewlyn Connor (Warmage)
Now to be fair, I was only starting the comic, but Llew is...complicated. Outside of the spanking scene, Llewlyn is completely boring protagonist. It's just that he gets into a lot of...bizarre situations. Yes, every woman in his life wants to fuck him but it's clear it's not necessarily because he is attractive but it's rather his bizarre hindu-pagan beliefs. I think it was an attempt from Dumok to make an audience surrogate, but then he also gets raped??? However, the comic doesn't treat him like he is always right, he isn't actually that important, and there are other superheroes besides him? A lot of stuff in the comic happens without him being actively involved. It's not really until Miguel Sanchez disguises himself as him that he becomes important.
Again, Llew is less of a Mary Sue than Mora is, but he is still averagely badly written protagonist. He is trying really hard to be the Hindu-Pagan Batman. And let's not even talk about his "Chaotic Neutrality".
Tsuki (Warmage)
I am not going to link the post where I said it due to uncensored nudity, but I just called Tsuki "Dumok's favorite Mary Sue" at one point.
Tsuki is a ridiculously written character, and she was the worst character ever in the blog before Riley came along. She is not perfect though, she is shown to be flawed, hell that's why the infamous spanking scene happened in the first place! She also isn't universally beloved as she has beef with Lewis other ladies like Kriti and Laranya.
Speaking of Riley, if I were riffing Alien Dice in 2017 I would've called Riley a Mary Sue probably. Almost like being a "Mary Sue" is not the worst character trait, even if it is pretty bad.
Dominic Deegan (Dominic Deegan)
You could dig up countless examples from early days of the comic where I call Deegan a Mary Sue or Gary Stu.
I admit, Deegan is definitely Mookie's bitchboy and the fact he's saved the world several times and he's stated to be Right About EVERYTHING does have some Gary Stu qualities buuuuuut, I've actually done some thinking and Deegan isn't actually that hateable as a person. Yes he is arrogant snobfuck, but unlike someone like Mora, he doesn't treat his friends like shit. He is a misanthropist but not a cynical asshole. He likes to crack jokes sometimes and characters sometimes cringe at those jokes, that's why Punchline Face exists.
On top of that, Deegan losing control of his emotions is something Mookie is actually aware of. Like he did apologize at the end of Battle of Barthis for getting so mad over Serk Brakkis's misdeeds. It's just that Deegan's outbursts outside of that arc are never called out. That, and I have actually felt bad for him or even had to defend him sometimes. Also he isn't in charge of forgiving Stoneraper for his rape at any point either.
Where my biggest problem lies with Deegan is his powers. He is so goddamn overpowered, you'd think he could beat anyone. It's also that Deegan has never actually lost in a fight, even if he has been betrayed. His powers are not defined and he has stopped existential threats by himself. He just becomes a generic shonen protagonist when he isn't in a grounded environment, and that's the problem. If those elements didn't exist, and his searing ability was just an ability to see to the future, I would be speaking a different tone about him. Deegan should have been corrupted by the amount of power he possesses a long time ago. I think the lack of infallibility on his part does make him close to Mary Sue but even then that's like...hundred miles away.
Luna Travoria (Dominic Deegan)
Thus far, Luna is probably the closest to an actual Mary Sue. She is actually far worse when it comes to character shilling than Deegan is, especially in the most recent arc as of the writing of this comic. There is also the fact she used to be a nobody, but after being thrust into Maltak arc, we learn she is the CHOSEN ONE and the reason she has tusks is because of a curse created by Shintula Chief that turned gave a bunch of babies tusks. There's also the fact she's somehow the only good person in her family of assholes. She also cries even more than Mora does. We know Luna used to hate herself and she was very suicidal, but she eventually gets shoveled in endless praise and Dominic's support. Unlike Deegan, she is very rarely shown to be wrong about something. Even when she loses her pregnancy it's constantly stated to be a good thing.
Her constant crying and occasional tusk discourse is the only thing that reminds us of her old depressed self. I get that Mooks wanted to make an inspiring story, but instead it creates a picture of a person who is using their abuse and depression to dodge criticism and constantly demand for praise. But even if you asked me if Luna was a Mary Sue, I would still say "Kinda". The reason for that is the tusk discourse, and as a result she frequently gets insulted and distrusted and even other orcs don't like her due to her tusks. And it's not like there is a crowd of men wanting to fuck her.
Heather Brown/Spinnerette (Spinnerette)
Heather is a dumbass who has things ALWAYS work out for her no matter what when realistically she should have destroyed herself. I agree with that. On top of that, she is a Trend Lesbian who doesn't understand what being attracted to women means, and she treats her girlfriend who is slowly dying like an object of attraction rather than someone she cares about.
Honestly Spinnerette at this point has much bigger problems than Heather. She has better chemistry with Sarah Nicole than her own GF, so she is not completely hateable but also she lacks humanity. Even when she does something stupid, she is easily forgiven.
Spinny is not Mary Sue, she is just gimmicky, much like every other character Kraw writes.
Now it's time to get into the webcomic with the most compelling arguments for Mary Sues, Gene Catlow.
Cotton Taylor (Gene Catlow)
The problem with Cotton is that, in a comic called Gene Catlow, he takes the center stage for the first arc. The problem is, the world of Gene Catlow isn't established before Cotton gets his powers. We are shown all his flaws and personal issues after he drinks Coffee^2. We're only shown his tendency to yell at people and be hyperactive, when after he drinks his coffee we also learn he has a tendency for violence, doesn't hesitate killing, and hell, we only learn way way way later in the comic that he grew up an orphan. With how long Gene Catlow ended up being, a slow start would have really paid off with Cotton, but don't have him hog the spotlight for being so early. The start would also make him eventually gaining his powers more interesting, since we now know Cotton has issues, and are looking forward to if he can handle that power responsibly.
I think the Mary Sue accusations come from the fact Cotton isn't called out enough when he does stupid shit. Gene and Catwhis only get mad at him when Cotton really wants to know about the Stagglers, which the audience also wants to know about because they never explain those fucking things until it's really late.
Other than that and Cotton never really struggling with the extent of his powers, I don't think he is a Mary Sue. In fact, I do feel bad for him because the rest of the comic pretty much cucks him. His position as the savior of the bunnies is taken over by not only Clayton, a rando who worked for Matt most of his life, but also Michelle, and speaking of...
Michelle (Gene Catlow)
In my original riff I treat Michelle like the second coming of Satan but in retrospect, I actually think she is a cute and funny character who actually helps people rather than try to convert them to join some stupid Friendship Islandian cause. However, I still think that she is completely unfitting to the comic in terms of her tone. She feels like a kid appeal character in a comic that regularly references sex and gore. She is also really really powerful even when she isn't born.
Michelle is not a Mary Sue mainly because there are times when even Albert knows to pull back on Michelle. Like she completely stops appearing towards the end due to her going through the process of being born and just being absolutely miserable. If we had ever seen her alive and in the flesh, I might be speaking a different tone entirely, but don't worry, she is somehow not as omnipresent as our next characters.
Gene and Catwhis (Gene Catlow)
But even then, Gene and Catwhis are both shown to have enough flaws to dodge the Mary Sue allegations. Well okay, Gene is the flawed one because of how he is affected by his ancestor who's constantly trying to bring out Gene's primal rage, which causes Catwhis to go "remember to not kill anyone dear" whenever a single wrinkle appears in Gene's face.
Catwhis on the other hand, she is like a fusion of Mora and Luna. She is openly abusive towards Gene, and she often gets into squabbles with him over the pettiest shit. Sometimes you don't know if she loves Gene. She never gets called out at any point like Gene sometimes gets called out. And most of the time she goes on hypocritical ra ra speeches and never considers other people's opinions. If "never considers other people's opinions" makes someone a Mary Sue, does that mean every Twitter user is a Mary Sue?
That unrelated tangent aside, I don't really have too many arguments against Catwhis being a Mary Sue. The only reason I really don't call her that is that out of all the spy cams in this comic, she detects Matt's bullshit the least, the only time she detected anything Matt did was when he abused Borzoi, which reminded her of the "abuse" she received at Matt's hands. As far as Spycam Moments are concerned, that is actually kind of justified, as she is a repositor and all. And her repository skills are more well defined than Deegan's seer powers.
But, if there is one thing I would call a Mary Sue in this blog without a doubt, it wouldn't be one character, it wouldn't even be a character, but rather a concept of a group.
Family of Intelligent Life (Gene Catlow)
Where do I begin? Family of Intelligent Life is early on established to be the STRONGEST GROUP OF ALL TIME. and that is not even getting into all the things those fucking suits do. Or what Simmy does. Or how many allies the Family has. Or how they employ child soldiers and it's somehow a good thing. Or how they resurrected the dead. Or how easy everyone somehow gets along. Or how the Family is able to detect ANYTHING. Family of Intelligent Life is a testament to Albert Temple's anti-individualism. It's a group fallacy that states if there are a lot of people doing stuff together, nothing can go wrong and they never disagree on anything. They don't even have any roles, and they can give each other their abilities on a whim. The ONLY flaw the group is ever shown to have is the possibility of Gene's Primal Rage spreading to other members, but Simmy is shown to work on that.
The fact they're able to get into each other's heads so easily without any conflict is ridiculous. Can you imagine if one of them found out about a controversial political opinion Crendall had? Or that Cat Sneed likes to use the Bear Equivalent of N-word in casual conversation which offends Eubie and his GF? Or that they all can't agree on what their favorite incarnation of Sonic the Hedgehog is? I don't want to know every opinion my friends have on everything, what makes you think I would want to share a headspace with a bunch of strangers?
There's also the fact, any sort of critique of The Family is treated as a byproduct of Ignorance. Even when Matt's family critiques it, they can't actually make constructive arguments against it and just say "IT'S DUMB." No offense to Taria.
Everything I laid out to you is what makes Family of Intelligent Life Mary Sue. It has implausible levels of competence and is capable of amazing unique powers, they are universally liked and respected by everyone our narrative considers good, and possess virtually no flaws. It is Albert Temple's collectivist wish fulfillment.
But if I was forced to name a Mary Sue that was actually a character, nobody fits that better than Derukui the Kittycat from Crash Bandicoot Retold. I'll talk more about her one day.
