Katawa Shoujo Forums

Mary Sue

This is where I stopped reading. I kind of understand why it is interesting to compare a given character to a set of categories to get an idea of where to place it. But I just don't like this approach, because I've seen enough fucking tropers who just come up with a label like "Mary Sue" and then believe that they have said all that needs to be said about the character. Like "Hanako? Oh, she's a Mary Sue! Yep, totally Mary Sue. That's all I have to say about her."

It's like saying that Hanako is a girl. A troper would tell you that he observed a female name and something that appears to be boobs under Hanako's shirt. Therefore, it is very likely that Hanako is indeed a girl. But so what? She fits into this one category (just like she might or might not fit into the category "Mary Sue" or whaterver). You can't just put this one label on her and pretend to have made a great analysis of her character that speaks for itself.

And that's what really annoys me about tropers. They get into long arguments on whether or not a certain character fits into a certain category. They can write walls of text about it, but no matter what the result is, it will most likely not help to understand the character any better.

Panty Supervisor wrote:

Mary Sue

It's like saying that Hanako is a girl. A troper would tell you that he observed a female name and something that appears to be boobs under Hanako's shirt. Therefore, it is very likely that Hanako is indeed a girl. But so what? She fits into this one category (just like she might or might not fit into the category "Mary Sue" or whaterver). You can't just put this one label on her and pretend to have made a great analysis of her character that speaks for itself.

Agreed. It goes far deeper than that.

No you are Mary Sue.

Hanako is so not a Sympathy Sue it isn't even funny.

She's the antithesis/deconstruction of the Sympathy Sue trope.

May I point out that I don't particularly see her as this character, other than by her base traits: I was merely wondering if anyone shared the opinion, and I reocgnize that she demonstrates an antithesis to the term. The name "Mary Sue" is thrown around a lot, but it still holds meaning: being often missaplied doesn't make it any less true.