Blaze the Cat: Fleshed out character or glorified Mary Sue?

[Kuzu]

Blaze is a unique character among the cast, her moveset is similar to Sonic's, her personality isn't as blatantly girly as some of the other girls, and she has her own world, and set of emeralds. Plus she was the protagonist in her debut games. Sounds like a great character right?

Well, as with any character in this series, I've seen more than a few people accuse her of being a Mary Sue, why you may ask? Well the aforementioned traits above, but in addition to that. Some find her personality a retread of Knuckles & Shadow, replacing well-established characters in her debut games(Like replacing Amy as Cream's BFF for instance), making other characters look like fools next to her(That scene with Knuckles in the first Rush), the fact that she's a princess who wears purple, etc. etc.

Personally I think that notion is BS, but I wanted to get a second opinion from everyone here. So what is everyone's take on this.

EDIT: You guys are perverts for making me edit the title.

Edited October 31, 2012 by Ragna the Bloodedge

[Semi-colon e]

I dunno about Mary Sue - Blaze is shown as very abrasive during most of Rush, and pretty much has a massive go at Marine in Rush Adventure (though some people like that because Marine annoyed them).

Also the Knuckles scene to me was less of Blaze being a Mary Sue and more Knuckles being shat on as a character yet again (not like he had any purpose in Rush anyway). Knuckles was like that in almost all the games around that time anyway. Knuckles became irrelevant because he became irrelevant, not because of Shadow or Blaze. And Blaze's guardian thing was never as central to the character as the Master Emerald was to Knuckles. It manifests more in Blaze being obsessed with duty and honour compared to Knuckles who is more sociable and hot-headed and Shadow is more of a neutral kinda guy.

Edited October 31, 2012 by Semi-colon e

[Soniman]

I personally think Mary Sue is a annoying as fuck term that 8 times out of 10 isn't used in the correct context and just extends to "female character that I don't like and is important to the plot in any way".

So to put it bluntly, no she's not a Mary Sue, and I personally think it's pretty silly to say otherwise.

Edited October 31, 2012 by Soniman

[Solkia]

"Character who seems to be flawless"

Trust issues isn't a flaw?

[Kuzu]

"Character who seems to be flawless"

Trust issues isn't a flaw?

Apparently according to some people.

[Bright Eyes]

What is a Mary Sue anyway?

[Solkia]

A character who seems to be perfect, according to Wikipedia.

[Kuzu]

What is a Mary Sue anyway?

It's basically a character who bends the plot to their whim, is seemingly flawless, and her traits are overly emphasized by the cast as being "perfect". The meaning has kind of waned over the years tho.

Tvtropes can give a better description: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CommonMarySueTraits

Edited October 31, 2012 by Ragna the Bloodedge

[Ruby CUL Terumi]

Nah, I don't think she's a Mary Sue. It just doesn't fit.

Edited October 31, 2012 by Yūki Hazama Terumi

[Vertekins]

Mary Sue? Certainly not.

Blaze has believable weaknesses and personality flaws that aren't played up to in an obnoxious manner that betrays her as a creators pet (She isn't a creators pet) and her position as imperial princess isn't utilized in a manner to make her more special or authoritive than anyone else. Whatsmore, her abilities fit in with the series and she isn't overpowered at all.

Her development as a character was believable and actually pretty compelling and she has consistently stated acrophobia.

[Bright Eyes]

It's basically a character who bends the plot to their whim, is seemingly flawless, and her traits are overly emphasized by the cast as being "perfect". The meaning has kind of waned over the years tho.

Well no, Blaze is certainly not that

[Emmett L. Brown]

If she were a Mary Sue she wouldn't be trying to improve herself after meeting the rest of the cast - the rest of the cast would be trying to improve themselves after meeting her. She doesn't change anyone by her presence, but instead tries to adjust her own perceptions in order to better herself.

She got over har anti-social attitude after learning about The Real Super Power Of Teamwork from Sonic and friends, but to her credit she retained enough of her personality in Rush Adventure to be recognisable without snapping back and undoing her previous character development (see Shadow in Heroes and Shadow). She's willing to accept help in Rush Adventure, yet unlike Sonic she'll be cruel to be kind towards Marine (which she so totally deserved).

So, yeah. I like Blaze. I call her quite well fleshed out.

[Komodin]

Well, while she isn't exactly fleshed out, she certainly isn't a "glorified Mary-Sue," especially going by its current (essential) definition of "any character (who's the focus of a given plot) that I don't like."

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

She's not exactly a fully fleshed out character, so she can't exactly be a mary sue by default.

Blaze has flaws, one of which was trusting people and opening up. This flaw is what led her to get into a fight with Sonic in his world, before they finally understood each other to become friends. That, and she's also one who manipulates fire, so logically her weakness must be water.

However, there is more that can be done with her character, if not her whole dimension that we can actually explore. Really, it's a matter of them not using her enough to make her fleshed out.

I'd say more, but I'm short on time right now.

[Aquaslash]

Some find her personality a retread of Knuckles & Shadow, replacing well-established characters in her debut games(Like replacing Amy as Cream's BFF for instance), making other characters look like fools next to her(That scene with Knuckles in the first Rush), the fact that she's a princess who wears purple, etc. etc.

While I DO find her to basically be "Shadow: Estrogen Edition", I'll go on and say that Amy and Blaze don't have enough interaction with each other to remotely be considered BFFs, Knuckles was always a dumbass, and princesses are a common thing. I personally liked it better when she was a queen, but oh well. Something something "princesses are good, queens are evil" something something.

[SIXTH-RATE SOMA]

I personally think Mary Sue is a annoying as fuck term that 8 times out of 10 isn't used in the correct context and just extends to "female character that I don't like and is important to the plot in any way".

So to put it bluntly, no she's not a Mary Sue, and I personally think it's pretty silly to say otherwise.

I personally think this definition of Mary-Sue put it best:

A Mary Sue, to my mind, is an audience reaction to a series of occurrences that do not otherwise make sense. It is an out-of-universe explanation for a specific and consistent pattern of contrived circumstances, personal idiocy, out-of-character behavior, and other things in a story that don't make logical sense. The particular pattern that indicates a Mary Sue is that the unexplained phenomenon all happen to aid some facet of a particular character.

No single incident, no matter how incredible or outrageous, can damn a character as a Mary Sue. It must be a consistent pattern, and to have a pattern, you need more than one incident.

Under that definition, I can say with confidence that no, Blaze the Cat is not a Sue in the slightest.

Edited October 31, 2012 by The Fifth-Rate Flareon

[Semi-colon e]

That, and she's also one who manipulates fire, so logically her weakness must be water.

Which makes it ironic that Blaze can survive underwater without air bubbles a fair bit longer than Sonic ingame...

[Naysu]

I must say I dislike her character personality. Love her design, just really find her boring personality wise.. I dont mean to annoy anyone here as I can see she does have many fans, I played both the rush games and most of 06, and i just dont see her as very interesting. What would you say were her best moments of character and worst moments? (if anyone is bored enough here to point those out to me I would appreciate it).

I want to like this character but i just dont see the appeal.

[Your Vest Friend]

Nah, I wouldn't say she was a Mary Sue. Bland as dishwater, yes, but not a Mary Sue.

[D-Metal X]

Blaze is one of my favorite characters, and that's mainly due to her personality. I love the Action Girl trope that Blaze exemplifies, as well as her straightforward, serious-business personality. She's certainly a breath a fresh air from female characters like Amy and Cream.

And of course there's her character development, which I believe was done well for what it's worth. It was believable and definitely made you appreciate Blaze more.

And she'd never have lost the Jeweled Scepter in the first place if she was a Mary Sue.

[Diogenes]

Blaze is pretty rad. I can't imagine why anyone would call her a Sue; she's fairly high on the power charts, and she is royalty, but that's about it. She's not flawless, and the universe doesn't bend to her whims. She's a character that went through some legit development, that actually stuck, and without ruining her existing character. Her story in Rush was basically about learning to open up to people, and she has, but she's still one of the most reserved characters in the cast, which is understandable.

Plus she's practically the only character in years to actually have some kind of Sonic-styled gameplay rather than adding more genre roulette.

[Sega DogTagz]

Not sure if I would go as far as to call Blaze a fleshed out character, but she has gotten plenty of development as far as Sonic characters go. We’ve gotten to see her evolve slowly but surely after her interactions with Sonic and his crew, and her character is better for all that.

I’m going to have to agree with the lot of you on the Sue front as well. It’s well out of bounds to try and tag her with such an abhorrent title. Blaze is hardly infallible. She gets crushed by plot elements that put up a worthy threat (such as the bot piloted by both Eggmen in Rush 1). She also over-sees the theft of the jeweled scepter twice. Furthermore, she is a complete hot head. She is prone to making bad decisions and potentially mortal endangering decisions in a flash lest a certain azure hedgehog has her ear. She’ll even vent on allies if she feels like such is necessary (see Marine – Rush 2 and Silver – Colors DS) On top of that, you can chalk up her fear of heights, her social awkwardness (that seems to be getting better) and a general tunnel vision of her duty which can hinder her progress in the big picture. Blaze doesn’t automatically dictate plot, nor does it bend to her in any way.

Edited October 31, 2012 by The Arcane Arceus

[Cambot]

To me, Blaze is nowhere NEAR the Mary Sue level of Cosmo and Sally. In fact, for a while, she was the only character that Sega actually put effort into making better instead of shilling.

[Dantemustdie00]

With all that stuff on trusting people, acting as a lone wolf most of the time, and a couple other weakness's such as her height phobia, she definately ain't no Mary Sue. Beat's me were people get that from, are they confusing her with Sally cause their both princess's, or even Cosmo to some degree, or do folks just naturally think all princesses are perfect?

Fans are weird sometimes.

Edited October 31, 2012 by Dantemustdie00

[Vertekins]

I know Sally's a Mary Sue, there's no doubt about that.

But Cosmo?

I'm not so sure about that...

Cosmo's pretty weak, isn't exulted by the other characters except Tails who is head over heels for her, holds no self-entitled authority over characters who are perfectly capable of making their own decisions and actions and she has personality flaws that aren't talked up to by the other characters. So I'm not seeing the Sue vibes.

Edited October 31, 2012 by Vertekins