One thing I hate about guys that complain about Mary sues is that they never complain about “Gary Stus.” For example, Light Yagami was kind of a Gary Stu. He had an IQ of 215–230, he was handsome, the most popular kid in his school, and his family was upper middle class. Jace Wayland from Shadowhunters is an arrogant, brooding bad boy who’s a master martial artist, who women fawn over, and is basically the fantasy of what men and women think a cool bad boy is. Tony Stark is a multi-billionaire with multiple armored, superpowered suits that basically make him Superman, and Superman himself is basically a god.
Are these characters bad? No. I love all of them, but let’s be real here… they could be considered male Mary Sues, and these guys never bring that up.
Now, not every character or show has to be relatable. Peter Parker works because he’s an everyman; however, the opposite can also be true, and people like fantasy escapism. That’s why soap operas about wealthy people or sitcoms about financially stable families are popular, because it’s a form of escapism this goes for Mary Sues and Gary Stus too.
There are more Mary Sues than Gary Stus in fiction because women aren’t written as people I’m a lot of media, so they aren’t allowed to have the realistic flaws that keep them from being Mary Sues.
Light is a power fantasy, but I wouldn’t call him a Stu because he’s a megalomaniac and has an actual personality. He also fails at the end.
Stark has his own personality issues, but some of the TV shows fail to highlight those so he does come off as a Stu.
The biggest Mary Sue and Fary Stu genres are romance where you’re supposed to self insert, so the MC has to be very plain and boring and just like the reader or viewer. Romance novels for women and harem anime for men.
Light also makes many many mistakes throughout that cause the issues that crop up. Ffs, he had the opportunity to set death times from the start, but just didn’t, causing L to immediately realize Kira was a student.