Board Thread:Manga/@comment-27321453-20191208140701/@comment-24407809-20191211220351

MilesTheMorales1 wrote: That being said, Mary Sues don’t have to upstage the heroes to be considered one. Even if they do, they could get around this if either A. they are the heroes (Captain Marvel), or B. there are no heroes to upstage. Gabi is praised enough to be considered a Marleyan hero, as she upstages her colleagues, but the story is grey enough that there could be no heroes, and, therefore, there is no upstaging needed. The only Warriors Gabi upstages are her fellow Cadets. As far as I can remember the series never tried to portray her as being better than Reiner, Zeke, or Pieck. The reason she receives so much praise is because she stands out among her fellow Cadets, not because she upstages everyone around her. And it's not impossible for a child prodigy like Gabi to arise from a training program. Remember, Mary Sues are only classified as such when their abilities are not explained; to portray Gabi as someone who was trained, and excelled in her training more than her peers, does not make her a Mary Sue.

MilesTheMorales1 wrote: Removing this line would make her even more of a mary sue. That would mean that she somehow always had the ability to ride a horse, despite being too little, and without the training shown. I suppose that's true. Isayama made a mistake with that one.

MilesTheMorales1 wrote: Writing a guard to suddenly be incompetent when Gabi wants to escape is a mary sue quality, as the plot ignores logic in order for the mary sue to succeed. Take for example one of the most popular Mary Sue feat in pop culture, Rey’s mind trick. The plot & logic bent around her solely so that Rey could escape, and doesn’t make any sense as to why it happened. Also true. Although I would argue that the guard is not necessarily dumbed down to help Gabi. I don't think it's too far-fetched to react the way he did to seeing a child apparently have a seizure. I am, however, willing to agree that there might have been a better way to have Gabi and Falco escape.

MilesTheMorales1 wrote: It’s also not of her inability to do anything. Here, it makes perfect sense for someone to be lost, as they are on an island they have no familiarity with. I forgot that Kaya found her and Falco, and not the other way around. This doesn’t help Gabi’s case, however, as this is a moment where she did not have to struggle to find shelter, but instead, she is found out of pure luck. This still doesn't really prove she's a Mary Sue, though. Kaya finding them is a plot contrivance, but it isn't an example of Gabi demonstrating unrealistic abilities. It would be like saying Eren is a Mary Sue because he just happened to have a father who was secretly an intelligent Titan and could give him Titan abilities. It has nothing to do with Eren, it's just pure happenstance outside of his control.

MilesTheMorales1 wrote: Excuse me for using Star Wars again, but it’s just the perfect example.

Rey got herself in the first fight with Kylo Ren, and she got captured because she was frozen by the force, then knocked out. Feel free to use Rey as an example as much as you like. I'm glad we can at least agree on her.

You are right, I should not have spoken so broadly and said that Mary Sues never get into situations that they are not able to help themselves out of. There are always exceptions. However, the fact that such a situation happens to both Gabi and Rey is not evidence that Gabi is a Mary Sue, it is evidence a time when Rey was not written to be one. Even in cases of characters like Rey, writers sometimes must let the character experience some kind of set back in order to move the plot forward.

MilesTheMorales1 wrote: Falco isn’t motivated by his love for Gabi alone, remember that Reiner specifically told him to keep her safe, take the armored titan from her so that she can live a long, prosperous life. I would argue that Falco’s love for Gabi is only there to serve as the reason he does so much for her, which is smart of Isayama to do, but he has neglected to do the same for Sasha’s father, Reiner, or Mikasa. Reiner is Gabi's cousin. Of course he's going to have a vested interest in keeping his family member safe.

Mr. Blouse is just an example of a good and forgiving man. There are real world examples of parents forgiving their child's murderer (even if the killer shows no remorse). I'd say that Mr. Blouse is just one of those people. And just in case you might argue that Mr. Blouse being written this way is another example of character around Gabi conveniently being written in certain ways to protect her, I would remind you that Mr. Blouse was established back in the Clash of the Titans arc to be such an empathetic man that he allowed other people to hunt on his family's lands after the fall of Wall Maria so that they would be able to eat, even though the resulting lack of food put a strain on his own family. So his portrayal in this arc with Gabi is very consistent with how he was previously portrayed.