>>32806115>The term gets thrown around so much that I think people just use it for whatever character they hate.Bingo. This is why the term 'Mary Sue' is generally disregarded in criticism, people use it to mask their personal dislike of a character as an objective fact. This thread is a prime example, every criticism against Lillie is either a very common occurence in fiction or has nothing to do with her character at all (game-wise.)
Lillie is annoying, mostly because she interrupts the flow of the gameplay very often. This is not, however, evidence of a bad character as much as it is of poor story layout. If Lillie was a character in a traditional story format, she would actually be perfectly fine.
>She grows too fast!So does most every other character, including Player, Hau and Gladeon. If anything, out of the story characters, Lillie had the smoothest transition from a meek, sheltered girl with no confidence to an assured, active girl willing to stand up to her fears and insecurities that spanned the entire length of the main game. If it was fast, then it's only because the game itself is fast.
>She looks too exotic!Literally every natural and some unnatural hair and skin colors are in this game. There are a ton of blonde and pasty NPCs littered everywhere. Ace trainers and Swimmers match her in these areas. This is literally nitpicking.
>Lillie is an idealized version of the authorTIL Lillie is an ideal ego for dozens of Japanese designers of various age and gender, who'da thought?
Honestly, things like special looks, names and abilities are not criterias of Mary Sues. Mary Sues only come about when the internal logic and universal laws of a story are frequently broken by a plot device masquerading as a character in a way that does not benefit the genre, themes, purpose or goal of the story. Nothing Lillie did in-game reflected any of these faults. Lillie is not a Mary Sue.
