(Warning: Highly Volatile Topic) Is Ghost Widow a Mary Sue?

I think the original post might have been more convincing if they'd argued purely from a lore perspective, rather than trying to work system elements (costume, powers) in there.

Something I want to note that keeps getting lost in the noise - NPCs have to cheat somehow, so an NPC "boss critter" will obviously have better stats than a comparable player. That's to be expected. NPCs will further cheat in the powers they have available to them and how those powers are balanced. That, again, is to be expected.

If we want to define a Mary Sue purely on game implementation, then we have to look for power level favourism above and beyond the simple AV mechanic. The Statesman, in his old incarnation, fit this to a T. A level 54 AV with souped-up stats who completely overshadowed the player characters sent to rescue him by a MILE. His new incarnation puts his power level on a much more even keel, with him showing up as an even con elite boss (if that) and possessing inflated, but reasonable stats, showing a level of power basically just slightly above the hero he is assisting.

Now, the Statesman as an ENEMY still cheats by a lot, but he's not the only one. It's the entire encounter of the Recluse SF that's one-sided, so it's more a case of extreme game balance, rather than one character standing out. When met everywhere else, especially solo with AVs turned off, his power level is high, but not unbeatable. As it should be.

Basically, AVs are team content, and so they need to cheat and be about eight times stronger than a single player to make the encounter meaningful. Unless a specific AV cheats more than the others, that really shouldn't count.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I've not met Desdemona yet, but Maelstrom is certainly one of the weakest signature characters - the first time I met him on Neuron's tower, he was down to half health before he'd even finished twirling his guns

Desdemona and Maelstrom are more like the two most important characters of the Rogues Gallery, which are far closer to NPC player-equivalents than the major signature characters of the setting. You can meet and fight them much earlier in the game than other signature characters, and they actually have character story arcs of their own rather than being idols that we seek to emulate or surpass.

But yeah, Maelstrom's still pretty weak even by those standards, bless 'im.