They actually named Skye on Agents of SHIELD “Mary Sue” … ‘nuff said.
Why is Skye a Mary Sue and Melinda May isn’t? Or Jemma Simmons?
Show your work.
Mary Sue Poots is first introduced as an anarchist hacker, living in a van but still manages to look like a supermodel. She is recruited into SHIELD by Agent Coulson where she continually out sasses everybody on a regular basis, is quickly sent into the field where she easily brings down villains of the week, is easily forgiven when she betrays SHIELD, and has a secret past that most of the audience doesn’t care about.
Eventually it is revealed that she has super powers and is the most important person in the world, all while critics and most audiences can’t muster the energy to care. The creators of the show seem to love her, while Mary Sue Poots and Chloe Bennet are torn down week after week by professional critics. Chloe Bennet auditioned six times for this role, and I find it impossible to believe there wasn’t at least one thespian who was better at the craft than she is because, well, I’ve seen more convincing performances in soft core porn.
At this point, I doubt I will ever like the show… but it would improve by leaps and bounds if they killed this character off. And right now they are telegraphing that she is going to redeem Hydra McBoringpants.
The show sucks, and Mary Sue Poots is the biggest reason (in a long list of reasons) why it sucks.
The most amusing analysis I saw: “By rejecting the name Mary Sue, the writers are showing the audience and the critics that she is not one.” Maybe they should have actually written her to be a decent character to begin with.
Had I accidentally written a character like Mary Sue “Skye” Poots, I’d go back and rewrite. Any hero worth their salt has a bunch of issues and quirks to make them relatable and likable. Batman should really be living in a padded room, Superman is lonely and struggling under the weight of massive responsibility, Iron Man has daddy issues and is emotionally closed off, Captain America is awkward with women, Spider-Man blames himself for everything, Elisa Maza is stubborn and sometimes selfish, Daenerys Targaryen has her issues with naivete, and soon, possibly, overconfidence.
Mary Sue “Skye” Poots is just perfectly perfect. Fuck her.
I feel like my concern was not actually addressed here. How is she different from Jemma and Melinda? We haven’t yet found the villain of the week whose ass Melinda can’t kick, nor the science question Jemma can’t solve. Every single character on the Bus is presented as the absolute top of their field, whether that field is piloting an oversized VTOL aircraft through a man-made nor-easter, curing an alien disease spread via static electricity with a survival rate of 0 and a patient lifespan measured in hours at best. Ward is a consummate liar, not to mention a solider who is presented as rivalling a Green Beret. Fitz builds electronics that rival Starkware.
We know next to nothing about any of these characters’ backstories — yet you claim that Skye is the one with a secret past. In fact, if I remember correctly, Skye’s past is the one we know the most about. Are you then alleging that because she is a foster child, who has no idea who her real parents are, and nevertheless managed to find a way to survive on her own when she was too old to be fostered, she cannot possibly be as skilled and intelligent as she is? I find that to be more than a little insulting — that would imply that success and intelligence are entirely dependent on nurture.
What makes Skye different from Jemma and Melinda /besides/ the fact that you don’t like her?