Self insert Mary Sue in movie adaptations of videogames
Mary Sue characters who are self-insert had been plaguing movie adaptations. Alice Abernathy and Cole Young, What do they have in common?
First, both do not exist from the source material where their movies came from. People call both of them a Mary Sue. What is a Mary Sue? It all started from a 1970s Star Trek fan fiction. Yes, Fan fiction existed before the internet! Because before we people got online there are fanzines. Fanzines are fanmade magazines for the fans of a certain franchise. The namesake of the Mary Sue trope is Lieutenant Mary Sue. She is the lead character of the Star Trek fan fiction titled A Trekkie’s Tale. It is written by Paula Smith. Lieutenant Mary Sue is a power fantasy of Paula Smith. Back then there are not a lot of Female Lieutenants from the show. This gives her the fantasy of making on but she went overboard by making her overpowered and perfect.
Alice never appeared in Any Resident evil movie.
I think her character would have worked better if she is a canon character from the universe but in a different area. Clementine does not appear from the Walking Dead comics but she is canon to the story. Her Journey just happened to be separate from the main characters. In the first Resident Evil movie, Alice replaced the heroes of Resident evil and in the sequels, Alice turned canonical Resident evil characters into her sidekicks and damsels to rescue. To make it worst, she is way too OP because she is Director Paul W.S Anderson’s fantasy. He wanted to see his wife looking badass in a movie so he makes an original character based on her image. That said character is also played by his wife.
Now let’s talk about Cole.
Cole Young is made for the Mortal Kombat movie as an original character. He is intended to be an Audience surrogate for those who know nothing about Mortal Kombat. His inclusion though takes away a slot for a canonical fan favorite like Johnny Cage or Kitana. Whenever there is a topic about making Cole Young a DLC for MK 11, Fans already screams No from a far distance. Cole is not as bad as Alice who made the canonical characters look bad.
Despite how polarizing these characters are, their movies are box office success. Alice Managed to have fans from people who don’t play games while the Mortal Kombat film was carried by the canonical characters. If you recommend adding them to the game of their movie titles, Game fans will scream no.
Sure Your Ken
August 28, 2022 @ 12:52 am
Then we Have Jade Wesker who thankfully got her show canceled. Movie adaptation of videogames should focus on the lore character and not to this self insert characters.
Albert Whiskers
August 28, 2022 @ 1:18 am
Those Resident Evil movies ruined Wesker too. They cast a chubby guy to be Wesker and he is demoted into a manjini/Plaga. Then in the first movie the final boss is a licker. A freaking Licker which is a pedestrian enemy in Resident Evil 2. Alice having Telekinesis ruins it more.
Pizzaking
August 28, 2022 @ 1:22 am
Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt’s character in World War Z) is barely in the book yet he is the main character in the movie. I can count him as another self insert character.
F22Raptor
August 28, 2022 @ 1:26 am
It occurs because these directors, writers, and showrunners are allowed excessive latitude without considering the fanbase. They treat supporters poorly because they know they would watch anyhow; instead, they aim for the general public.