Opinions. Why Micaiah isn't a Mary Sue (from the original Twitter's Post)

Micaiah, the controversial main character from Radiant Dawn was and is accused of being a Mary Sue for whatever reason. We're here to show you that actually she ISN'T a Mary Sue and why.

First we need to understand the basic elements that make up a Mary Sue, these are five elements:

1.- They are a selfinsertion, usually an idealised vision of the author.

We can't really answer this honestly, we would have to interview the storyboard writer to get that detail and even then, I don't think this is the case so we can discard this point.

2.- Are overpowered in everything, they know everything, they can do everything.

Micaiah has some abilities because her Laguz heritage, 

Sacrifice: She can heal allies but she has to give her own life force, she can't abuse this ability, it has a price she has to pay, it's not something she can do whenever she wants, it has a cost.

Micaiah's Sacrifice Skill

Galrds: As an apostol she can sing the galrd of release to free Yune from the Lehran Medallion, she also serves as an avatar for the Goddess.

All of these abilities are her role in the story and it doesn't really give her an edge or an advantage over the other characters

She also has foresight abilities, but they aren't exactly precise and are threated in a vague way, so the advantage she gains over enemies with this ability is really not that spectacular or cool.

3.- All characters adore her regardless of what she does

Everyone? At the begining it makes sense for her to be adorered, she became a symbol of hope in Daein, a thing that escalated once she was put in charge of Pellea's group, a comander of noble heart and one that risks her life in the heat of battle, that is a quality to be admired and something that many Lords in the franchise have.

Now on the subject of the Beorc and Laguz war...
Even thought no one deserted from the army and remained by choice, there is always people questioning Micaiah's decisions, with the exception of generic soldiers which don't really hold much plot relevance and already hate the Laguz Alliance to begin with.

Micaiah goes from being a savior to a figure to characters the game threats it as such, the game does not sugarcoat her actions.

In the end all was explained with the Blood Pact which does put them into a thight spot, but in no way the game portray or excuses Micaiah's actions as a story with a Mary Sue would, you are free to decide wheter her actions are good or bad or if she did the right thing by going with it instead of looking for a plan C, there is no definitive answer in that regard.

4.- Ultra Tragic Past, the more tragic the better

The Brand

Micaiah is a branded like Soren, but unlike him, Micaiah experienced more loneliness than rejection like Soren did.

Making her life a bitter and miserable, but not as tragic as other branded characters had it.

5.- The story is molded to the Mary Sue's advantage, without care for the consistence.

To Micaiah's advantage? The only thing than we see "convenient" to her is Yune's revelation, that managed to unify the 3 groups, but that was neccesary (the Blood Pact makes really difficult to her group to go against Begnion), and it was beneficial for everyone, not just Micaiah.

And that's it, there aren't other elements in the story that can be seen as "especially convinient for Micaiah".

There is another thing usually related with the Mary Sues (a typical trait with Self-Insertions): Take the whole story in their side... But there is a little irony.

Micaiah doesn't stole anybody spotlight as a Main Character... In fact... Someone actually "stole" Micaiah's Spotlight...

and Yune too

(Nothing against Ike, just the way he appears in the Story is like "go to the war because I fight for my friends")

And those are the reasons why Micaiah ISN'T a Mary Sue. 

Thank for your attention.

- Troykv (The Dawn's Historian and Micaiah4Smash Main Admin)