Do you think it’s accurate to call a character a Mary Sue (affectionately, this is about my Blorbo) if the character themself has several (intentional) flaws but the way they’re written makes those flaws a positive?Overly cocky and perhaps cruel but this is played off as being exceptionally confident and ruthless (and very very sexy)Anxiety triggered by trauma that can actually get her or her friends into trouble/worse trouble but this isn’t mentioned because she hates talking about it.Do you think Mary Sue could apply to a character who presents themself as such, or only to a character who is, by the text, flawless?
I think the term “mary sue” is best used exclusively as a self-applied joke.
Holding characters (male or female) to some weird and rigid standard is not useful for any kind of real storytelling, and only serves to make people feel embarrassed about creating characters that have interesting or exciting backstories, appearances, or connections to other characters.
Batman is a huge mary sue.
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