Is Rey a Mary Sue?

[Yukaphile]

He was a creator's pet, not a Mary Sue, except in some cases. I also don't think he was an author insert. And in Season 3, that changed.

[Darth Wedgius]

There has been a lot of suspicion that Wesley was an author insert -- Gene Roddenberry's full name was Eugene Wesley Roddenberry. But I think being an author insert is a requirement for Suehood.

[Fianna]

On its own, I think Rey mastering the Force so quickly could be simple sequel escalation. The Original Trilogy slowly built up to the hero being able to wield a lightsaber like an expert or move objects with his mind, but since seeing someone achieve those feats is no longer new and exciting, there's a rush to get our new hero to that point quickly, so her skills can then build from there.

However, when that's coupled with Kylo Ren being a rather disappointing and ineffective villain, it does create problems for the story.

[CharlesPhipps]

My opinion is that "Rey is playing on Easy mode but that's fundamentally different from being a Mary Sue, which is a character that sucks because of the wish fulfillment."

[clearspira]

Here we go my friends: the infamous ''Mary Sue Litmus Test'' - a tried and tested resource.

https://springhole.net/writing/marysue.htm

I have much time on my hands today so I decided to run both Wesley Crusher and Rey through this thing (tests 1 and 2) and they both have several classic hallmarks of Suedom.

I invite you to at least check the website out. It is a fun one to try.

[Grievous]

Is Rey a Mary Sue?

Yes.

[Yukaphile]

Totally agree with what Fianna said. Yes, those in charge are leftists, but it is really also about getting to the point quickly. One has to wonder how their lovemaking life is, because clearly there is no foreplay with their approach.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Only person that can be called Mary Sue is Mary Sue herself. She would be ashamed at all that goes on in her name.

[clearspira]

Only person that can be called Mary Sue is Mary Sue herself. She would be ashamed at all that goes on in her name.

Amazing the amount of unintentional fame the author's self-masturbation has attained when you think about it. No one knows anything about the author herself or has read the story the phrase comes from; but by damn we all know what she did.

It would be interesting to know what became of her and what she thinks of all this. Given how long ago it was she might be a very old woman by now. Never in the world could she have imagined that we would still be talking about her fanfic decades later.

[Fixer]

A Trekkie's tale and the character Mary Sue were parodies of fan-fiction self-insert characters and tropes. It came about reaction to the vast number of similar stories in Star Trek Fanzines and publications at the time. Mostly female because something along the lines of 90% of fan-fiction writers are female.

The parody was so on the nose about the problems with fan-fiction, Mary Sue became short-hand for an overly idealised, flawless or perfect character which was a shallow stand-in for the writer's idealised image of themselves but it expanded beyond that.

I've seen it commonly used with pretty much any time a character, faction or species gets special and obvious promotion by their writer and thus exalted in universe. Matt Ward in the 40K fandom got a special drubbing about how he changed his personal favourite faction, the Ultramarines, from a balanced and adaptable force to "the best space marines ever" and said "with a few fringe exceptions, all Space marine chapters want to be like the Ultramines and accept Marneus Calgar (their current chapter master) as their Spiritual Liege."

Really that's the best way to put it. A character written in such a way that it's obvious that the author is shaping the fictional reality around them to them give whatever validation they crave.

If Mary Sue isn't technically a term you like using because it's not an author stand-in or fan-fic, maybe the best term would be a Rey. It may not parody, but the character is a perfect example of a committee built idealised insert in a pre-existing film franchise.