So, a few months ago, I watched "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" with my sister who’s seen it four times and my mother who’s watched it twice.
I want to say this: yes, Rey is a Mary Sue. For those who don’t know what a Mary Sue (or when male, referred to as a “Gary Stu”) is, the general definition that is the most agreed upon by the Internet is a character in a story that is too perfect, or one who has little to no flaws. The absence of flaws often makes the character flat, but does that make them unlikable to the audience?
Not always. Granted, it depends greatly on who you ask, as all things are when it comes to art.
Personally, I never got annoyed by Rey. I know that there are people out there who disagree with me on that, who were highly annoyed, but to be honest, I just saw her as just a character who served whatever the plot needed at that moment.
I faced this with Mikasa from "Attack on Titan," another Mary Sue that was strangely likable. She’s a Sue, but likable. She never got under my skin. I could sit and have coffee with her and carry on a rather decent conversation.
I think the reason that I like Mikasa and Rey is because they’re basically the girls who get good grades, come from a poor background and have a stoic personalities. They don’t make a big deal out of themselves even if other people want to. There’s a certain humbleness within them that I admire. They don’t steal the show and drive the plot completely off of the rails. They serve the plot; the plot does not serve them.
The Mary Sues that get under my skin (and many others) are the Bella Swans, the “oh-woe-is-me," whiny, angsty kinds.
Now, granted, if a character has an actual tragic past that they angst over, like Atsushi Nakajima from "Bungou Stray Dogs" who was heavily abused physically, emotionally and mentally, and was homeless and starved almost to death when we first are introduced to him, I can emphasize with it because they have an actual problem, not just some shallow teenage angst. However, the Bella Swan’s woe over first world problems that really don’t matter at all.
Food, shelter and being able to physically walk, despite a grown man ordering you to hammer a rusty nail into your feet when you were nine, are basic Maslow first-level needs. Whether or not your boyfriend notices you enough is not. You can find another mate because there are over seven billion people on the face of the planet Earth, and I’m sure you can live to pass on your genes (not that should if you’re more akin to Bella...the human race would be much stronger if you didn’t). However, you can’t find a mate if you starve or die from the natural elements. No, nature is not something you hang out in a tree or in a field of flowers with your boyfriend in; it’s more often something that wants to kill you. When you’re at the ocean and you’re swimming, if you do not respect the ocean, you will drown in a matter of minutes.
Anyway, Bella Swan’s are the ones who remind you of the girl who you blocked on Facebook in high school. Then, once you graduated, you unfriended her because she thinks the entire world revolves around her and everyone wants to hear about her problems. They’re the ones who post hundreds of selfies on Twitter and Instagram every single day.
Yes, your photo of you looking at mirror at yourself in your bathroom is made much differently when it’s taken twenty-six hours afterwards with a different filter. Truly, this is a photographic masterpiece. National Geographic has nothing on you.
The difference between the Bella Swans and the Mikasa’s is, as I’ve mentioned prior, modesty and maturity. Mikasa had to grow up fast after her parents were murdered in front of her eyes by a group of men bent on selling her into slavery. She watched her adopted mother get eaten and her house destroyed at age ten. Rey grew up in extreme poverty in a desolate wasteland. They have far more rights to complain about anything, but they don’t, because they’re there to serve the plot.
Another thing is that at the very least, you cannot deny that the Rey’s and Mikasa’s actually get things done. Do they get captured? Yes, that holds them back for a little bit, but they bounce back. Male leads of other major franchises like Frodo have been captured, too.
The Bella Swans don’t get anything done by themselves. All they do is wait for something to happen
Mikasa still fought titans after Eren was eaten. Rey broke out of her prison cell after being interrogated by Kylo Ren by controlling a Storm Trooper. The Bella Swans would just wait for a titan to eat them or for Finn and Han to save them.
When it comes to Mary Sues, I think you can do them right as long as you first give them some brains. You have to make a Mikasa or a Rey, a grown woman who’s perfect, but humble about it.
