Mary Sue is a dirty word when discussing a character in mostly movies. Noone really cares about Mary Sues in other mediums. Which is fine, a movie is a different medium the book or video game. But no one can tell me a good definition of a Mary Sue and call all characters that are Mary Sues, Mary Sues. People have a real hard bias for Mary Sues for people they don’t like and don’t consider other characters that would fit their definition would be put in the same place. I also have another problem with Mary Sues, and that is is how people easy kick out characters for being Mary Sues. What do I mean by this? I mean, I don’t think a character losing or a character training means they aren’t a Mary Sue. The reason I am talking about this because it seems like a bad way to describe why a character/movie is bad. Saying a character is a Mary Sue means nothing to me, and it shouldn’t mean anything to anyone.

From what I see, people only call characters a Mary Sue if they are women and they have no charisma. I know people would point out that these characters are strong, but then you look at other characters that are just as strong but have charisma and no one says anything about them. Look at Rey, a powerful female character with that personality is as stale as bread. Compare to James Bond. A powerful male character oozing with charisma. Now, I’m not saying you can’t hate boring character, my problem is that one is a Mary Sue, and the other isn’t. Even though James Bond is way more of a Mary Sue than Rey is. If we are just talking about powerful people. Now, I’m not saying Rey isn’t a Mary Sue. I think it is unfair of saying Rey is bad because she is a Mary Sue.

Most action, sci-fi, and fantasy characters are Mary Sues. The reason being you need an over power character to live through these types of movies and people love over power characters. People love Mary Sue type characters when handle right. Wait before we go any further I will define what a Mary Sue is to me. You might not like the definition, but it is ok. A Mary Sue is a powerful character in which their weakness or strenght cause them to lose something they want, also it must be a personal weakness. What do I mean by this? I mean that a strong character must lose because of a personality trait, be it good or bad. Also, it can’t be a trait in which a hero should have. Like wanting to protect his friends. Example Luke losing to Vader because he wasn’t ready and wanting to save Han and Leia doesn’t kick him out of the Mary Sue category. I think that is just an easy way out and is boring.

Writing Mary Sue characters in an action, sci-fi, and fantasy story is ok. No one wants to see a regular human fighting monsters and other humans with human limits. I know people cry about a random woman fighting a grown man and winning in movies calling her a Mary Sue but ignores when a guy beats 50 people in hand to hand combat one after the other. John McClane is a Mary Sue. He is a detective fighting super criminals all by himself. Compare him to a normal detective or heck, even a special forces marine. No way does a single train person can do what John McClane does in any of the Die Hard movies. But do we really care that he is an invincible super human? No, that makes him great. A Mary Sue by themselves isn’t good or bad. It how the character is written.

To prove my point, the oldest story we know of is about a Mary Sue. The epic of Gilgamesh. It is about a half god doing crap. The start of the story is just about him doing anything he wants and doing anything he wants to people. The gods wanted to put limits on him, so they made him a friend. Yeah, I will not talk about the entire story here, but you get the basic idea. Let’s keep going the two most successful comic books is about two giant Mary Sues, Batman and Superman. Do I really need to explain why they are Mary Sues. Ok, let me do it just because. Batman with no superpowers can go up against freaks of nature. The Justice League are basically gods. Wait, no, they are gods. Well, they should be. Flash is so fast he can out run light, time, and death. Wonder women is part of the old gods. Aquaman is stupid powerful, and then you have superman. hahaha. Let’s not talk about that dude. But batman with prep time can beat them all. But he isn’t a Mary Sue. Superman is one of the few people that can beat Darkseid, and Darkseid is a god. Also, I don’t care about Batman’s training. Training doesn’t give you the ability to beat someone who can punch a god in the face and walk away knowing that the god will not get up.

Yet, people give them a pass. I really don’t care about Mary Sues, and neither should you.