Board Thread:Manga/@comment-27321453-20191208140701/@comment-24036697-20191213014543

RuneLai wrote: I wish the definition of what a Mary Sue is wouldn't keep coming up in these threads. Remember, the term Mary Sue came from self-insert fanfiction, where writers would drop in their perfect OCs to meet up with canon characters. Gabi is not an idealized stand-in for Isayama himself.

Any quick dictionary check on Google would provide the proper meaning. Gabi can be unlikable for a host of reasons people have already mentioned, but she is clearly not a Mary Sue.

In fact a lot of the reasons people dislike her is because of the flaws that prevent her from being a Mary Sue at all.

You could, however, argue she's the author's pet, and get no pushback from me. Interestingly enough, the term Mary Sue came from a 1973 Star Trek parody story by a fan who was critiquing unrealistic fan fiction characters (fan fiction itself actually arose from the Star Trek fandom). I found all of this fascinating because I myself am a huge Trek fan.

And yes, you're absolutely correct about Gabi. The unlikable things about Gabi are her flaws, not the supposed lack thereof. I personally do not dislike her, because all of the AOT characters are flawed in some way, and I feel it would be hypocritical to dislike her when I like deeply flawed characters such as Reiner or Erwin or Shadis.