Is Marius a Gary-Stu?

[Jaym]

Yeah, let's get ourselves "REAL VAMPIRES ARE EVIL" T-shirts.

OMG I want one! You know... I might actually get myself one of those


Anyway. I think Twilight is so bad, it's funny. I think I lol'd reading New Moon and it was not supposed to be funny. I think she was going for an 'aaaaawh, that's so sad!'
Edward Cullen is a worse Sue than Marius, seriously. A friend of mine took the Litmus Sue test for him and he scored 114. (!)
Edward and Jacob are annoying as hell, and Bella is even MORE annoying. Really, those books are hilarious, even though they are not meant to be so.

[Euphrasie]

"I used to like Lestat when he still was a complete arsehole" )

You don't like him now? D:

[lesmisloony]

Lestat!

Well, I had a mini-rant on the Lestat books (calling them this is easiest and awesomest, in my opinion) over in the games section. Urgh Anne Rice I hate you so much but I love those vampires...

[Rose1836]

Yes, he is Gary Stu. Or would be, if written nowadays.
And vampires evil? Well, yes, but oh, you young people, Clarimonde in 1836 story by Théophile Gautier cried while forced to drink blood...

[deHavilland]

Yes, he is Gary Stu. Or would be, if written nowadays.
And vampires evil? Well, yes, but oh, you young people, Clarimonde in 1836 story by Théophile Gautier cried while forced to drink blood...

What makes you say that, Rose? Why does the work have to be written nowadays for us to label it a Mary or Gary Stu? Does fandom usually make allowances for older work or are you thinking that it might have been written a little differently if written today than it was when Hugo was writing it?

[Acaila]

I really think he's not a Gary Stu.
He does a lot of crappy or misguided things in the Brick, and is a bit a silly boy a lot of the time, even though many of them are understandable. He's a Gary Stu in that he's a bit of self-insert, but beyond that (and the fact that he manages to learn a couple of languages very quickly but that's hardly critical), I don't think Marius is really that positively characterised. Hell, Enjolras is much more written as the perfect one!

[Chantefleurie]

I think the reason many main characters could appear as Mary Sues / Gary Stus is because we feel obliged to support them, understand and empathize with them, and cheer for them even when we don't agree with their actions, or when they are clearly flawed. A reader has no problem cheering for, say, Grantaire despite his flaws, because we can accept them as part of his character and love him regardless. When it comes to Marius, though, it feels like the love and acceptance are forced onto the reader by the author, and if you feel that way - like you're supposed to like him and empathize even though you don't - then he becomes a Gary Stu figure. But if you think about it, being the main character doesn't mean you necessarily have to like them or cheer for them all the time. And if you separate that from Marius, then he's not a Gary Stu anymore. Mind, he's still not my favourite character.