[In this episode, I analyse the occurrence of Mary Sues and in specifics the character of Lucy from the anime Fairy Tail.
Spoilers: Major for oracion seis arc, minor for tower of heavan arc and major for eclipse cannon arc (however even a lobotomised horse-shoe crab can see the latter coming).]
Mary sues tend to come in a variety of flavours.
Spoilers: Major for oracion seis arc, minor for tower of heavan arc and major for eclipse cannon arc (however even a lobotomised horse-shoe crab can see the latter coming).]
Mary sues tend to come in a variety of flavours.
Most are
merely the creator's own fantasies of their own self being projected
into the works. Some can be the creator's vision of the ideal
character often being presented as the cool kid or unstoppable hero.
Some Mary's have even been used to express opinions be it political,
social or even racial.
Frankly, I
don't like the word. I'm not a fan of trying to limit one's ability
to comprehend stories by trying to label certain phenomenon. Its a
lot like trying to label personality types based on certain symptoms;
it often leads to a misunderstanding when the truth is far more
complex.
Nevertheless,
I suppose this is more of a limitation of our ability to communicate
as human beings and so without further ado
Lucy
Heartphelia is a Mary Sue or Donald Trump isn't a symptom of a
resurgent global nationalist trend.
This is
obviously in regards to Fairy tail the highly esteemed Anime series
about a kingdom so stretched out and undermanned that it must rely on
undisciplined child mercenaries to keep the population from being
overwhelmed by the unforgiving wild.
Its also a
comedy.
You know,
fairy tail isn't all that bad. Once you overlook the absurd
collateral damage and mountains of civilian casualties indirectly
caused by the heroes and the haunting possibility that blue pegasus
may be a prostitution ring, its a rather innocent series that can be
a breath of fresh air in a world filled with unforgiving stories such
as the walking dead and game of thrones occupying our television
screens.
When all
the main characters are introduced and the series gets rolling, there
can be some genuinely amusing interactions
and every
five or six episodes I actually got a slight chuckle out of their
gags.
But the
series really managed to grab my attention when it decided to
bring back Jellal.
Jellal had
stood out in that his justifications for building the tower of heaven
were quite understandable and even though he was often obscured by
the giant evil curly moustache on his face, I nonetheless liked him
as a villain. In bringing him back, the story took a big risk and
pulled it off complicating the relationship between Erza and Jellal
and creating a new avenue in the form of Jellal's redemption.
But for
all the good ideas this series has had. It is limited by the fact
that every single narrative must in some way involve that gibbering,
self absorbed twat Lucy.
No joke.
Literally
all of the arcs (excluding tartoros onward) feature Lucy in a central
role. All in all, Lucy is the cause of the problem or provides the
solution or both to seven out of the fourteen arcs mentioned.
Compare
this to Erza Scarlett: a female character who is similar in Lucy's
position as a prominent character and we see some interesting
bullshit.
Erza
features a main role in eleven of the fourteen arcs and is the source
of the problem once and the solution once never being both solution
and problem in a single arc.
So granted
Lucy isn't some sort of mastermind puppeteer of all the major events
occurring in Fiore, I think I am justified in asking “What the fuck
is going on?”
I first
smelled something rotting during the “key of the sky” arc when it
started going through Lucy's relationship with her father and her
back story and the thought occurred to me “Haven't we been here
before?”
Actually
we had just covered it in the previous arc, about twice now that I
think about it. And then before that at the end of the “Battle of
Fairy tail” arc. And then again for the entirety of the “phantom
lord” arc.
As if I
need to legitimize this blatant favouritism once more, compare this
once again to Erza or even Wendy who both have their back stories
sufficiently fleshed out in one arc and put to rest to make way for
character development and hopefully you'll start seeing something
very wrong here.
It seems
like this whole “My daddy never listened to me” back story is
thrown out every now and then just as an excuse to give some screen
time to everybody's favourite retard.
It's
either that or its an attempt to give some characterisation to a
character so bland as to be completely resistant to character
development, like a right wing republican.
Actually
now that I've just mentioned that, let's look at one of the biggest
problems with Lucy as a character – her character.
Lucy
presents herself as quite vain and boastful often assuming herself to
be more capable or attractive then she actually is. In many episodes
she also exhibits behaviour such as greed and cowardice but this is
more than usually being used for some comedic effect as it is almost
always discarded whenever it matters most. That said, Lucy appears to
think very lowly or at least lack optimism in regards to her
companion's competence. Any time a character comes up with a plan or
an idea Lucy immediately expresses her doubts. And then when these
plans work perfectly, often saving Lucy in the process, she whines
about them not doing it sooner or finds some other pointless thing to
complain about.
There was
actually a scene in which Lucy begins complaining quite vocally about
having to work in a diner only to have Gray point out that everyone
on the team is working as well and are doing so because they are
helping her pay her fucking
rent.
So here we
have a shallow, self absorbed, incompetent, noisy, ungrateful teenage
girl who takes advantage of her friends and does nothing but complain
about their shortcomings.
And we are
expected to believe that everyone genuinely loves her.
Oh but
wait. There are redeeming qualities aren't there!
Like how
she never takes advantage of her spirits or uses them as tools.
Seriously,
the moment Lucy started spouting this hypocritical horseshit is the
moment I discovered I could simultaneously burst into tears laughing
and projectile vomit.
Any time
Lucy feels cold or even just tired of walking she summons her clock
man to carry her. Can I just repeat that for everyone currently in
the back seats with their head firmly planted up their arse.
SHE
SUMMONS HER FRIEND TO CARRY HER.
This is
not unusual as Lucy has at many times summoned her “friends” in
order to aid her in menial tasks she could probably do herself but
doesn't because “she loves them so much”. Summoning the crab as
her personal hair dresser, summoning Virgo to fetch her dry clothes,
summoning Crux because she can't be bothered renewing her library
membership.
There have
been some notable cases of this such as when she put Aquarius in the
humiliating position as a water fountain for a day and had
Saggitarius shoot arrows at a man with a FUCKING GUN while she
herself LITERALY HID BEHIND A TREE.
Were Lucy
truly partners with these spirits I would have expected to see her
fight along side them not command them like fighting cocks.
Of course
there was that wish fulfilment episode but that felt more like
throwing the dog a biscuit than any sort of friendly outing.
Come to
think of it, I don't remember ever seeing Lucy palling around with
any of her spirits either. When's the last time you remember seeing
her and Virgo having a coffee at the Café du Hypocrite.
Hopefully,
we are all starting to see the Mary and the Sue in this picture.
It only
gets worse when one considers her relations to other characters.
Apart from nobody recognising her being a terrible person or even a
shit wizard, she appears to take on roles that seem to be totally
contrived for lack of a better word.
Take for
one that she was the person who accepted Juvia during the tower of
heavan arc. It seemed a little strange that out of all the people to
put Juvia's anxieties at rest it would be the character that had the
least to do with her. Gray placating Juvia seemed like a far better
match but I suppose the creator just needed some role for Lucy to
keep seeming important.
Actually,
now that I've mentioned Juvia, did it never seem strange that Juvia
saw Lucy has her rival for Gray? Lucy does not appear particularly
close to Gray, not at least in the way she is around Nazu. Erza and
her tendency for mother henning Gray seems to be a far likelier
candidate for jealousy. And if the joke is supposed to be that Juvia
is unreasonably jealous then why is she not immediately jealous of
Erza as well as Lucy or even any other girl that interacts with Gray.
Lucy is
often seen as a rival by many characters for little reason and the
best friend of other characters for even less reasons. This constant
shoehorning is irritating at best but can also destroy some perfectly
good story lines.
Fairy tail
was at its best during the magic games arc. It presented fairy tail
as a weak guild that must now work its way to the top, an already
interesting premise. Fairy tail is best at its conflicts and in the
grand magic games arc there was no need for pointless faffing about
when one could just get into the magic fights.
But of
course, Lucy needed to be the focal point of this arc as well and so
there was some complete and utter bullshit about time travel and an
evil version of a good character from the future and dragons.
At this
point I was so freaking used to Lucy always being the big reveal
character that I didn't need any hints to guess the mystery time
traveller was Lucy.
It's
always Lucy.
It looks
like I'm stretching this out a bit far for my time schedule. But
trust me there is an entire library on how Lucy is shoehorned into
the story.
So I
suppose I'll have to wrap this up with a single question;
“If Lucy
is a Mary Sue, then who's is she?”
The
obvious answer is the creator, but I have seen some subtle hints that
might tell otherwise. For example there are moments in which
characters, usually antagonistic or occupying a comedic role, point
out some of Lucy's shortcomings and question her reasons for sticking
around. Take that time when one of the royal executioners suggested
the reason for Lucy's plethora of interesting celestial spirits was
because she was so boring.
And most
notably there was a weird scene in the grand magic games arc during
that wedding dress parade where Lizana walks up to Nazu, blushing,
only to be knocked out of the way by Lucy who drops literally from
the fucking sky.
This scene
reminds me of how Lizana and Nazu's affections towards each other
appear to have been put on hold despite it having been established as
an important part of these two character's histories together. And I
think I know the reason.
I think
the creator may be trying to vent their frustrations at having to
place Lucy at the heart of all of their ideas. And the reason they
are forced to do this is because of YOU.
I don't
usually pay attention to a good story's fanbase, for the same reason
I don't look at the shit coming out of a thoroughbred's arse.
But if I
looked at Fairy tail's fanbase I would be shocked not to find that a
lot of people like Lucy. She's a whiney, selfish, untalented little
prat and hence the most easily identifiable character since high vis
jacket wheres Wally.
A lot of
the times Manga writers must appeal to their fan's or service
them and sometimes that can be more then just showing a swimsuit
scene every now and again. So it is because of Lucy's popularity she
has never been allowed to fit into her own role in the story and
instead must be placed at the forefront so whiny little wankers will
buy the magazine so they'll feel special.
I suppose
that's the sad truth of living in a capitalist, consumerist world
full of selfish people only caring about their own egos being
massaged.
But I'll
be damned if I'm ever going to accept that sort of bullshit screwing
up something like a good story. I haven't finished the series, I may
never do so, the only way it could ever redeem itself is if its
revealed that Lucy had been hypnotising the guild the entire time
with her massive, grotesque breasts and couldn't hold up the charade
any longer due to the severe back pain.
And then
they shoot her.
And burn
her.
And then
they drown her.
…......fuckin
hate Lucy.
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