I have often read that there was a reason Disney cartoon character Kim Possible is such a Mary Sue. A Mary Sue, for those who don’t know, is at its core a character that is so perfect that they have no room for character development and can’t possibly fail. These characters often make for bland, boring protagonists and usually suck up the attention of every other character, making everyone else just accessories to wonderfulness of the Sue. Nonetheless, I read there was a reason Kim Possible was such a Mary Sue: so she could be a role model.
Anyone who has watched Kim Possible knows she is often accompanied by her comical, cowardly sidekick, Ron Stoppable. The point of this is so that Kim can be children’s role model and Ron can grow and develop alongside them. Kim doesn’t suck up the attention of the rest of the cast, she is the driving force that gets everyone from point A to B while everyone else grows, develops, and says witty lines.
This is where I get to the point of this blog: Lara Su the Echidna. For those who don’t know, in the Sonic the Hedgehog comics, there were a few story arcs in which we see the future of the Sonic cast and get to meet their kids, one of those being Knuckles the Echidna’s daughter, Lara Su. Lara Su, pictured above (picture by SyeSye996 on deviantArt), is very aptly named, as such is somewhat of a Mary Sue. She’s very powerful, able to take out one of the strongest characters in the series, Shadow the Hedgehog, with little difficulty, and has little personality other than being a smart, kind, rebellious teenager. She isn’t a complete Sue, as things don’t always go her way, but she isn’t really interesting enough a character to be able to hold her own without her Sueish traits. Of course, when I was 10 years old, she was perfect to me.
When I was ten, I had to be hospitalized and stay at a health care unit at CPRI, so they could figure out how to get my medication and moods balanced enough for me to handle school. Before I left to stay there, my parents took me out shopping to buy new toys and books to take with me, and among those toys and books I bought was a Sonic the Hedgehog comic, titled “Mobius: 25 Years Later.” I had never been a huge Sonic fan at that time, but something about the cover caught my eye, and I got my mom to buy it anyways. The story is about how Tails, a fox who is also a mechanic, Lara Su and Sonic himself team up to try and fix a time traveling mishap so that Sonic can marry his love interest, Sally, and they can defeat the tyrant king Shadow. It was the coolest darn thing when I was a kid, and Lara Su stood out to me the most, with her glasses and braid, she looked like this cool teenager that I would want to grow up to be. It didn’t help that I had always wanted glasses.
Times passed, and I eventually got the second volume of Mobius: 25 Years Later, and saw Lara Su defeat King Shadow almost completely on her own. All the Sonic girls in the games at the time were so boring, like the raving fangirl Amy Rose and the shy bunny rabbit Cream. I grew up and eventually left Sonic behind, but recently I came back to it, and recollecting on Lara Su and her impressive feats, realized she was a Mary Sue.
Despite this and the crazy lawsuit involving creator (who by the way, stupidly trying to make and sell comics about her despite being fired from the Sonic comic team), I still liked her. You know why? Because Lara Su was my Kim Possible. Unlike me at the time, she was independent and strong. Unlike me at the time, she had a happy family life with less stress than mine. Unlike me, she went on crazy adventures and pulled off awesome stunts. She was my role model for that brief time I needed it, and even now I followed her example without even noticing it. Much like her, I wear my glasses on the end of my nose and prefer to style my side-bangs rather than my whole hair. Much like her, I look up to and want to follow in the footsteps of my father. Much like her, I try and stand tall and do my own thing, no matter how rough life may be.
I guess what I’m trying to say here is that even something that isn’t perfectly written can help you through tough times if you identify with it the right way. Don’t be embarrassed to say you look up to something as stupid as a Mary Sue, because everyone should have some character they can look at and say “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if I could be as awesome as them?”.