The Mary Sueness of Buzz Lightyear

Lets talk abit about Toy Story....

Lets talk about Buzz Lightyear...

Now I will preface by saying I enjoy all three Toy Story movies. And I don't know if it's because I am a girl but I think the second is my favorite. I will admit this may have to do with the hardwiring of the male majority in the first, the fact that Jesse is pretty kick ass, and well...I don't know...I just thought it was a good movie.

Now that that is out of the way let us talk about our good friend Mrs Nezbit....I mean Buzz. And don't get me wrong I like Buzz generally, but there is a mechanic that the writers return to in each film: Delusional Buzz. Yes it was so funny the first time lets do it again!....And AGAIN! Oh but that might be repetative...LETS MAKE HIM SPANISH!!! Oh my that will be HILARIOUS!!!!!. Granted one of the ways it was used in 3 was useful and good, the bad guys use it to their advantage.

Now the need to return him to the place where he was most interesting/fun is born out of a need created by what made him an effective threat: He's a Mary Sue.

Think about it. He's awesome...he's the coolest toy ever! AND top it off he's a great guy. He's sweet, he's helpful, but when he's delusional it's hard to notice. He's a threat to Woody with Andy because he's such an awesome toy who has all these cool things Woody doesn't, he's a threat to Woody's position amongst the other toys because he's so cool, so new, and he's nice too...he wants to help them all. He's got everything! He don't notice it because well frankly...Delusional Buzz doesn't care about toy status...he's not a toy! He's a SPACE RANGER! But once the delusion is gone he's just a run of the mill perfect guy. So in order to liven him up they return him to delusional. I can understand the appeal of writing it, and acting it. And I enjoy Spanish Buzz to some extent but in the light of story telling the repetition is just...yawn inspiring.

Using the term Mary Sue...well it's like 4 letter word. But it's true. Buzz could have been saved but it would have taken a lot of time to develop him the amount everyone else got while he's been stuck in la la land.

Just something to think about

See ya real soon