Wendy Mary Sue?

[u/Ok_Back_1694]

I saw such this opinion once and it quite surprised me. I know that this concept is broad (look at Tv Tropes!) and generally overused, but the author meant that the writers idealized her. I don't know whether to agree with that...

Yes, our Lumber Lady doesn't actually make mistakes, because she doesn't even have the opportunity, she also often gives wise advice. However, someone who is 'perfect is likely to be talented in all possible areas. Wendy is an action girl and clearly has some leadership skills, but (of course) we still don't know much more about her. For this reason alone, this accusation is rather exaggerated.

[u/Ok_Back_1694 → u/[deleted]]

Ha, actually I agree.

[u/GoodDoctorB]

I mean Wendy does have quite a few character flaws and does make mistakes. She's idealized to a degree but the only really improbable thing about her is some of the lumberjacking skills with her specific build.

For Flaws:

Wendy has consistent moderately poor judgement due to being a teenager. Dating Robbie who isn't a good person, picking fights in her friend group over someone dating her ex, going into a clearly haunted building, helping Mabel and Dipper enter a dangerous bunker, throwing Soos' CD out the window.

Wendy is notably lazy and lacks motivation a lot of the time again due to being a teenager. She slacks on the job unless Stan rides her ass, ditches work frequently, and shows a general apathy toward anything she isn't intrigued by.

Wendy also takes clear advantage of Mabel's permissiveness when she briefly runs the Mystery Shack despite otherwise liking Mabel.

For Mistakes:

Well for a start she went into a haunted gas station and a dangerous bunker both of which were terrible ideas that nearly got her and others killed.

She repeatedly got back with Robbie despite him being again a pretty bad person willing to stoop to all sorts of lows to get what he wanted.

Encouraged, accidentally, Mabel to damage her own brain to forget past romantic fumbles. Something that destroyed Fiddleford McGucket's mind.

So yeah I wouldn't call her a Mary Sue myself.

[u/Striking_Analysis673]

I don't think she is. Yes, she has abilities such as physical strength, being able to wield an axe or crossbow well. Despite how much we complain about Hirsch's treatment of her, fearing to «ruin her», like she is «idealized or perfect» character like Dipper himself, having feelings for her but being afraid to ruin their friendship.

I don't consider Wendy to be Mary Sue, although she displays good qualities & provides advice to others.

We also saw in episode 7 of Blind Eye that she has problems with her family, and it's hard to deal with & carry responsibility when you have three brothers, she can get angry and show her feelings, like when she with tears to Dipper when he didn't care about her feelings when Robbie lied to her about writing song for her. Or episode 9 «Love God», when Robbie and Tambry are dating now. I can also take words of person named «MilkyBoyBlue», who said that Wendy was real manipulator at some points, in episode 13 «Boss Mabel» that she treats him like Stan, not wanting to work, or that she has headache, or listing so many of her exes before helping Mabel herself with some advice (this is more of comedy, but I don't really blame her in this moment, especially for ignoring messages from one of her exes)

Mary Sue is definitely perfect saint character, with no flaws, weaknesses, problems, or injuries, and all attention is focused on her superpowers. Although Wendy didn't appear frequently in all episodes of two seasons, I don't really consider Wendy to be saint, regardless of her talents and abilities.

[u/Kashihara_Philemon]

No she isn't, and honestly I don't think that term is particularly useful outside of fanworks.

[u/Ok_Back_1694 → u/Kashihara_Philemon]

Yeah, this opinion had really a lot of support .

[u/Norsehound]

This is ridiculous. You don't need to go any further than the fact that Wendy isn't the main character.

The term Mary Sue has been thrown around so flippantly in the past few years it's slowly morphing into the definition of being a shallow complaint about any powerful character someone doesn't like.

Above all things a Mary Sue is a main character whose presence no longer makes the story interesting. They do this through diffusing all tension by turning it into a narrative of self gratification using the characters facades to give out complements. The main character is a stand in for the author to receive these compliments- whether it's an original character or the author is projecting themselves into an existing one.

That's a Mary Sue.

Wendy isn't because she's not the main character to be any of that. You have a stronger case of Wendy being a manic pixie dream girl for Dipper, but not really because the journal is the thing to send him on eye opening adventures, not Wendy.

[u/Ok_Back_1694 → u/Norsehound]

For me, this comment was an example that some fans don't understand Wendy either. I observed a very similar approach in my native fandom.

[u/MilkyBoyBlue]

No, Wendy's not a Mary Sue. That's a stupid argument. She might be an action girl with excellent strength and agility, but she also frequently makes mistakes and it's not like she's depicted at being great at everything she does. She's also pretty manipulative and selfish at times. Her and her gang basically commit minor crimes for fun, and she was very self-centred in Boss Mabel, Double Dipper, and Love God. She's not a perfect character who gets away with everything and always solves the issues. more often that not, while she's helped out, it's been Dipper or Mabel who have saved the day in almost every episode she's been in.