Is there a mary sue dwelling in the show?

[Applejacket 186]

Let's conclude this; Mary Sue is indeed a real term but it is more accurate to name show charecters Canon Sues. The closest matches to a Canon Sue description are Discord and Cadence.

 

@EmeraldStar04 They're just a rabid fan, think nothing of it. And regarding their post, typically a marysue winds up in some disaster situation to save the senpai and then succeeds and has a wonderful ending, completely crushing the seemingly invincible enemy with some unknown magical force. This is exactly what Cadence did.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 42,202]

I think there is one that could be in the making if her first appearance was anything to go by:

 

 

[ChB 18,574]

If you start splitting hairs, many characters that are the main characters of their own series have qualities that are, by some definition, Mary Sue-like.

Some define Mary/Canon Sue so strictly that almost no canonical character qualifies. Some define it so loosely that almost every character qualifies, if they apply their logic consistently. Some define it for reasons that I can agree with, yet find forgivable, and don't necessarily make them bad characters. Some call it for reasons that are so nit-picky, it just makes me want me want to roll my eyes and say "is it really that big of a deal?"  

 

 

 

They might have some big epic destiny, complete with a prophecy and all the bells and whistles. They may have amazing, never-before-seen abilities, unique physical features, turn out to be long lost heirs to ancient royalty, be the only one that is immune to a curse or plague that has fallen over the kingdom... The list is endless.

 

But the point is, many of these things make for a good premise for a story. There needs to be something unusual about a character to make them worthy of telling a story about. it's only when this 'uniqueness' goes over the top that it becomes a bad thing.

+100

Edited November 4, 2016 by ChB

[Applejacket 186]

@Kyoshi. Ah yes. McFlurry herself. I really don't like her.

[Ninjaed 532]

I can't help but see no one has mentioned Gabby yet. I've found her to be the closest to being a Canon Sue, more than Cadance. She arrives, gets friendly with everypony, gets accepted as a CMC, is nice to a fault and managed to do just about everything, maybe even better than the ponies whose very cutie mark is doing the very same thing!

 

I don't find Gabby to be annoying or anything mind you. Just, the way she was portrayed, there was nothing she could fail at, except lying. Maybe it's just me though??

[Untitled Goose Q 5,138]

Sigh. A Parody Sue is the unreasonably perfect sue.

 

A Sue is defined by how the world treats her. She's earned tartarus several times over and been easily forgiven each time.

 

A Sue is only a Parody Sue if it's an obvious Take That! to the Sues in general, which Starlight is not. All Sues tend towards being unreasonably perfect, with any flaws only having very minor, or no, effect on the plot and only being there as a failed attempt to avoid Sueness. Sure, Starlight has worked to overcome her flaws- or at least some of them- but so have all of the other protagonists in the show.

 

And as for her being forgiven.... it's a show with a theme of redeeming the villains. The ones who are not redeemed are the ones that there's no way to redeem, so it's really not surprising.

 

Starlight is not a Sue. Is she written in a sub par way? Yes, I'd say so. I'm not a fan of her at all, and she's why my interest in MLP has waned. But she's not a Sue, merely a character written in to add another protagonist to the show, which was always going to be hard for MLP to do well. 

[Ganondorf8 11,700]

I don't think there are any mary sue type characters in the show. I know some characters do appear to be getting close to becoming like that because of how they've been perceived as being perfect, but they have a major flaw that prevents them from ever becoming one. It might not be visible at first because the character in question hides it well or the writers don't make it obvious, but it eventually comes out and what was seen as perfection really isn't.