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Poll Is Rey a Mary Sue?

Is Rey a Mary Sue

  • Yes, she absolutely is-make arguments below

    Votes: 24 25.3%
  • No, she is not-make arguments below

    Votes: 34 35.8%
  • Mary Sue is a meaningless term

    Votes: 27 28.4%
  • Don't know, don't care

    Votes: 12 12.6%
  • Doesn't impact me one way or the other

    Votes: 11 11.6%

  • Total voters
    95
I can't even get a clear definition about the meaning of Mary Sue so I can't answer the question. All I can say is I liked her character and look forward to seeing how it ends in the next one.
It's my understanding that this term means "every female character who I don't like and I feel she threatens in some way my insicure masculinity". But because it's mouthful, they prefer using the vaguely negative term "May Sue". So they can hide their sexist views: "See, it's not like I hate strong female characters who do the exact things that male characters do from the invention of fiction. The problem is they are such a Mary Sue! I'm not sure what it means but it's bad".
 
By the way, Luke Skywalker went from farming to destroying the most powerful weapon in the galaxy in, what?, 24 hours? And none is calling him a (googling) a "Gary Sue". Even the fact that I had to Google this term and that "May Sue" is almost exclusively used by men should demonstrate that we have to stop using it.
 
totally different from Luke.
You couple all the mary sue aspects of her character (that she knows how to fly, wield a lightsaber, knows all the languages) with the fact that we no nothing about the background of the character.. coupled with the fact that we don't know what DRIVES the character (why is she doing the right thing, except because the writers need her to) and those three elements combined make her a mary sue .. and the fourth element is that the audience is detached from her, never truly worried about her or surprised when she succeeds.
Let's not forget how the BTS aspects filter in.. this is Disney, this is Kathleen "all I want to talk about is fierce strong female characters, writers and directors" Kennedy
 
So, you are totally making up the definition of Mary Sue and decided that it applies to Rey..?

Look, now I don't have time to refute every single point you made, but I think this suffices

with the fact that we no nothing about the background of the character.

Knowing nothing about the background of the character has never been one of the definitions of "Mary Sue".

This is the original short story from which the term was coined:

"Gee, golly, gosh, gloriosky," thought Mary Sue as she stepped on the bridge of the Enterprise. "Here I am, the youngest lieutenant in the fleet - only fifteen and a half years old." Captain Kirk came up to her.

"Oh, Lieutenant, I love you madly. Will you come to bed with me?" "Captain! I am not that kind of girl!" "You're right, and I respect you for it. Here, take over the ship for a minute while I go get some coffee for us." Mr. Spock came onto the bridge. "What are you doing in the command seat, Lieutenant?" "The Captain told me to." "Flawlessly logical. I admire your mind."

Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy and Mr. Scott beamed down with Lt. Mary Sue to Rigel XXXVII. They were attacked by green androids and thrown into prison. In a moment of weakness Lt. Mary Sue revealed to Mr. Spock that she too was half Vulcan. Recovering quickly, she sprung the lock with her hairpin and they all got away back to the ship.

But back on board, Dr. McCoy and Lt. Mary Sue found out that the men who had beamed down were seriously stricken by the jumping cold robbies, Mary Sue less so. While the four officers languished in Sick Bay, Lt. Mary Sue ran the ship, and ran it so well she received the Nobel Peace Prize, the Vulcan Order of Gallantry and the Tralfamadorian Order of Good Guyhood.

However the disease finally got to her and she fell fatally ill. In the Sick Bay as she breathed her last, she was surrounded by Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Mr. Scott, all weeping unashamedly at the loss of her beautiful youth and youthful beauty, intelligence, capability and all around niceness. Even to this day her birthday is a national holiday of the Enterprise.
We know from this story a lot about the background of this particular character (even her ancestry).

So please, just stop using that term, because,
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By the way, I learned a lot of interesting things about this term reading the Wiki page about it, like,

At ClipperCon 1987 (a Star Trek fan convention held yearly in Baltimore, Maryland), Smith interviewed a panel of female authors who say they do not include female characters in their stories at all. She quoted one as saying "Every time I've tried to put a woman in any story I've ever written, everyone immediately says, this is a Mary Sue." Smith also pointed out that "Participants in a panel discussion in January 1990 noted with growing dismay that any female character created within the community is damned with the term Mary Sue."[15]

So, this term has been used by men to restrict and silence female writers. Just for this should be banned for ever.
 
But truth be told, there has been an authoritative voice ("authoritative" because at least he's a screenwriter) who said that Rey is a "Mary Sue", Max Landis.

Max-Landis.jpg

Oh, look. A male. White. What a surprise.

And even he regretted using that term.

"I regret framing it that way. I didn’t understand that the term 'Mary Sue' had been co-opted."

Let's google him!

Max Landis Accused of Rape, Assault and Psychological Abuse

You know, I'm shocked, shocked that such a person used this term...

By the way, there are people who called "Captain Marvel" a Mary Sue, and we know almost everything about her past and background. Just to remark that a lot of people don't even know what this term means, but they use it because even they know that saying "I'm a sexist jerk and I hate strong female characters" wouldn't fly well today.
 
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But truth be told, there has been an authoritative voice ("authoritative" because at least he's a screenwriter) who said that Rey is a "Mary Sue", Max Landis.

Max-Landis.jpg

Oh, look. A male. White. What a surprise.

And even him regretted using that term.

"I regret framing it that way. I didn’t understand that the term 'Mary Sue' had been co-opted."

Let's google him!

Max Landis Accused of Rape, Assault and Psychological Abuse

You know, I'm shocked, shocked that such a person used this term...

By the way, there are people who called "Captain Marvel" a Mary Sue, and we know almost everything about her past and background. Just to remark that a lot of people don't even know what this term means, but they use it because even they know that saying "I'm a sexist jerk and I hate strong female characters" wouldn't fly well today.

He even looks like an incel....
 
He even looks like an incel....
I don't know, at least 8 women accused him of sexual abuse and psychological manipulation. So, I don't think the term applies to him.

Screenwriter Max Landis is facing allegations of sexual abuse and psychological manipulation from eight women who told their stories to the Daily Beast.

Two of the women spoke on the record, and another five were identified by pseudonyms. An eighth women confirmed that she filed a police complaint against Landis in 2008, in which she alleged that he had sexually assaulted her while she was drunk and incapacitated. The case was later dropped.

Three of the women alleged that Landis choked them. One woman alleged that Landis held her down and raped her, and would deliberately humiliate her because wanted to have sex with her while she was crying. Two more women described accounts of alleged sexual misconduct on movie sets.

But I think he's more than qualified to judge if a female character is a Mary Sue, right?
 
By the way, Luke Skywalker went from farming to destroying the most powerful weapon in the galaxy in, what?, 24 hours? And none is calling him a (googling) a "Gary Sue".

Because really all he did was pull a trigger. (But he had great timing!)
 
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