Which Cat Has the Sickness; by Dapplepaw

Dapplepaw takes us for a car ride through the hospitals of the Mary Sueniverse (don’t drive a car through a hospital).

Context!

Hello everybody! Recently the Mary Sue/Gary Stu topic has been really popular, so I decided to write an article about my own opinions on cats that have been diagnosed with the Gary Stu and Mary Sue sickness. Up above is a link explaining what exactly a Mary Sue/Gary Stu is, just for the people that don’t exactly know what one is. Now without further ado, let us begin! (Also, no cat is a full Mary Sue, everybody has their flaws in some way or another. For example, Firestar can be a bit dense when it comes to she-cats sometimes, Spottedleaf never let go of Firestar even when he was with Sandstorm.)

Firestar

This is one of the biggest cats accused of having the Gary Stu sickness. Firestar was always perfect, and even when he was doing something that was against Clan code, it was usually for a pretty good reason. (i.e, feeding RiverClan, getting Tallstar to meet up with Bluestar). The only time I recall him ever making a bad decision was when he ate some of the rabbit that he caught for Yellowfang. But even then he never did anything bad like that again. He’s never had a deceitful though, nothing. And then always being a part of literally every prophecy, give the cats a turn to have their own prophecy! So yes, I classify him with the Gary Stu sickness. I think it’s a good thing that he was a Gary Stu, though. When I first started reading the books, Firepaw (Rusty) was my favorite character. And I’ve noticed the Firestar is also the favorite of many other people that just started reading the series. Firestar’s perfect character qualities first drew me into reading the book, and by the time I was annoyed with his perfect everything, I had a new favorite and wanted to continue reading the series.

Dovewing

Dovewing is one of the Three, who had the power to see and hear things other cats couldn’t. Many people think Dovewing is a total Mary Sue. Personally, I don’t think so. I don’t like Dovewing as much as I like other cats *cough cough Ravenpaw cough cough* but the reason why I don’t like her is exactly what makes her free of the Mary Sue sickness. In Dovewing’s Silence, she was so whiny about her powers. I understand that having something like that instantly taken away is a bit shocking and hard to adjust to, but she didn’t have to whine all the time. All Dovewing did in that eBook was whine about how her powers were gone and how she couldn’t do anything. If she was a Mary Sue, she would have trained hard and gotten used to life without her powers, not whine about how she can’t do anything without them. Now life with her powers, I still don’t think she was a Mary Sue. Dovewing met up with Tigerheart, crossing borders in the process, and wasn’t very remorseful about it (until she stopped meeting up with him). Even then she whined about having her powers, tired of being different from everyone else and not wanting this special destiny. Maybe in battle she was a bit too perfect, but how could she not be, with her abilities? Therefore, Dovewing is not a Mary Sue and is instead a whiny potato that is going to be squashed very soon.

Spottedleaf

Let’s analyze Spottedleaf: pretty, young medicine cat that is extremely talented and is probably one of the best medicine cats ThunderClan has seen. She was loved by all, even those outside her own Clan. Spottedleaf was always looked up to, even when she died and went to StarClan. I used to be major-obsessed with Spottedleaf. She was my all-time favorite character in the entire book, and I madly shipped her and Firestar. And then I began to realize, wasn’t she a bit too perfect? She loved Firestar, yes, and he loved her back, but she rarely let it get out of hand, controlling her little crush on him even in StarClan, and encouraging him to be with Sandstorm. I can’t spot a single flaw in her character, but if you’re really looking hard then you could say that when she was in StarClan she did visit Firestar a lot, giving him a majority of prophecies. She even died saving Firestar’s mate! In conclusion, Spottedleaf is a complete victim of the Mary Sue sickness and she can take her flawless tortoiseshell fur and join Firestar.

Lionblaze

Physically, Lionblaze was the perfect cat. He had the looks, the flawless battle skills, and is always thought of as a huge Gary Stu. But what about his other qualities? He would go and visit Heathertail even though the Warrior Code (and his sister) forbade it. I didn’t really see a whole lot of guilt there, but I haven’t read the books in a very long time so maybe he did feel a bit guilty, who even knows. Second, he has relationship problems! Cinderheart, anybody? He was shown to be bloodthirsty at times as well, and he met up with Tigerstar to train as well. (Granted he did for only a short time.) And let’s not forget that his powers were given to him to help defeat the Dark Forest, and that they did get taken away in the end. I would understand if Lionblaze remained perfect after his powers got taken away, but he wasn’t! He had to get used to life without his powers (like everyone else) and got injured as well. Personally, I don’t see how he’s a Gary Stu aside from his powers, which we’ve already explained. This cat is dubbed Gary Stu-free!

Feathertail

Sister of Stormfur and daughter of Graystripe, this cat had a lot going on in her life. Loyalty to her father and to RiverClan, being half-Clan, her mother being dead, everything with BloodClan and Tigerstar. She was chosen for an important prophecy and was always friends with everybody, described as nice and sweet, blah blah blah. Complete with a tragic backstory and death, at a first glance, Feathertail is a Mary Sue. Though she did have her flaws (sometimes she would go do her own thing instead of listening to a higher authority or her brother), her perfect-ness outweighs her flaws (I can’t think of a whole lot), and so she’s been diagnosed with the Mary Sue sickness. I think she just lacked character development, like Spottedleaf. We didn’t see a lot of her until the second arc, and she died there too. And like I said, no cat is a real Mary Sue because they all have flaws in one way or another. I’m defending Feathertail here, because hey, who didn’t cry at her death?

Thank you guys so much for reading (even though half of you probably skipped through my really long article) and remember, cats can be cured from the sickness! It’s called becoming evil! Have a nice day and remember, eat your croutons!!