The Mary Sue/Gary Stu Character Hate Thread - "Teehee, I'm so perfect!"

[SmirkingDemonette]

This thread came to my mind while rewatching The Fifth Element and realizing that every single role Mila Jovovich plays, she has to be the perfect action hero who has divine awesome powers and everyone loves her and she's flawless. Look up Ultraviolet and Resident Evil for further examples. As a woman, I can't even relate to any of that shit. It's supposed to be empowering, but all it does is highlight real women's insecurities and make them feel like shit. Same with men and "Gary Stu" characters.

Who are some of the worst Mary Sues in media?

 

[Ewan McGregor]

Harry Potter is a stealth Gary Stu

 

[Gutpuke]

99% of mary sues wish they had the power of this motherfucker

 

[hitler the towel]

james bond never watched any of the movies but i dont need to

 

[CryoRevival #SJ-112]

Harry Potter is a stealth Gary Stu

i disagree. its written from his POV so he is always the hero of his own story (+ the writing is not the strongest + its kids fiction) but he has plenty of imperfections and failings of character and ability.

 

[Cnut]

I think Mary Sue is a thing for injecting both the author's insecurities and power fantasies. So Luke Skywalker and Harry Potter yes, even if they aren't insanely OP. Chick from 5th Element not so much.

 

[Mexican_Wizard_711]

Rey from Disney Wars

 

[Polock]

As much as I love the series, as I got older I realized how much of a Mary Sue the titular character from Ender's Game was. Ender is so smart that even when around other hyper-geniuses they're retarded compared to him. His brother and Bean were better characters since they at least had flaws.

It gets worse in the later books when Ender basically becomes Space Jesus.

 

[HodgePodgeRogerDodger]

The old samurai from Golden Kamui. I despised his character despite not hating his faction, he was just insufferable.

 

[Basic Blond Boy]

I may as well be the first:

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Might be controversial, but Reinhard's entire faction in Legend of Galactic Heroes. Imagine if someone made a show where one side is minmaxed grand strategy game faction and that's pretty much how they all are. They are all ridiculously competent and loyal, with Reinhard himself being nealy god like in his abilities. Even a civil war ends up incredibly underwhelming and only due to minor players manipulating things. The Empire itself is also ridiculously strong, with being the leader in technological innovations and being able to stand ridiculous amount of conflicts without the usual competence and economy drain that the other sides constantly suffer from.

This for me sunk a lot of the political arguments in the show, as even the greatest dictatorships weren't this capable, and they usually created ideological and technical weaknesses that doomed them afterwards.

 

[Kalsarikännit]

I think Mary Sue is a thing for injecting both the author's insecurities and power fantasies. So Luke Skywalker and Harry Potter yes, even if they aren't insanely OP.

How does Harry Potter embody Rowling’s insecurities or power fantasies?

 

[umami's milk]

Is this the official thread, though? Just wondering.

 

[Mexican_Wizard_711]

Is this the official thread, though? Just wondering.

Yes.

Another one is Sylvanas Windrunner from Warcraft, commits numerous war crimes throughout the franchise yet is forgiven for no reason due to being the Director's waifu.

 

[CryoRevival #SJ-112]

I think Mary Sue is a thing for injecting both the author's insecurities and power fantasies. So Luke Skywalker and Harry Potter yes, even if they aren't insanely OP. Chick from 5th Element not so much.

Yes.

Another one is Sylvanas Windrunner from Warcraft, commits numerous war crimes throughout the franchise yet is forgiven for no reason due to being the Director's waifu.

There are failures of character and story writing other than Mary Sues, just being poorly concieved or handled does not make the main character a Mary Sue.

Here's a basic wikipedia definition because god this thread needs it already.

A Mary Sue is a character archetype in fiction, usually a young woman, who is often portrayed as inexplicably competent across all domains, gifted with unique talents or powers, liked or respected by most other characters, unrealistically free of weaknesses, extremely attractive, innately virtuous, and/or generally lacking meaningful character flaws.

 

[God of Nothing]

I would say Gojo but he's finally dead.
So I'll just say every strong independent female lead in western media for the past ten years.

 

[barbieQ]

Wesley Crusher has the be one of the biggest Gary Stu's ever. Late-stage Lana Lang from Smallville counts too, just constantly showing up long after her time in the story should have logically ended and always either getting superpowers or becoming a vigilante, all because the writing staff thought the audiences loved her as much as they did.

They did not.

 

[MISTER-CREEPMAN00]

1d4chan has a very good list of these.

Neckbeardia even has a video going through it.

 

[Articles and Nudes]

Shuri from Black Panther is the single most irritating character to come out of the MCU. She's smarter and richer than Tony Stark and can fight better than Captain America and knows more about Doctor Banner's science than he does and knows all sorts of awesome science and knows AI and robotics and geology and and and and and

I can think of literally nothing (intentionally) flawed or less than perfect with her.

 

[guidmaker]

Colonel Muri Forester from The Tomorrow War.

A guru chemist, the greatest and smartest of her generation, and also a gravity-defying supernatural ninja warrior.