“Behold the power of the Monado (and my spotless ethical behavior)!”
Despite the high quality of Xenoblade Chronicles, there’s no denying that Shulk, the main protagonist, is the biggest Marty Stu (of the Purity Stu variety) in recent memory. Aside from his barely-perceptible romance with Fiora, there’s no reason for him to pursue the hero’s quest other than pure altruism, and altruism is a lousy motivator for anything because no one is motivated by altruism alone. Altruism has to be contextual—it has to manifest in some way. Aside from Fiona getting (ostensibly) killed, there’s little else but good-guy revenge on the mechon, the Nazis of the game’s universe. It doesn’t take much effort to hate on those types.
Shulk is led by the nose through the plot by his flimsy altruism and the fact that his body is inhabited by one of the two gods of the universe—a god that is basically using him to continue his existence. Shulk is semi-literally not his own person but a puppet of two forces, an ethical idea and a god. Deus ex primas.
Compare this situation to Sharla, one of my favorite characters in the game. Her fiance, hometown, and commanding officer and mentor were killed by the mechon. She has plenty of direct, contextual motivation, even without her mild PTSD. Every other character has this kind of motivation: Dunban (maintain his reputation and to smack sense into Shulk), Reyn (Shulk’s bodyguard, basically), and Melia (royal/genetic duty). Even Riki, the comic relief of the game, has a better motivation than Shulk: to pay off debts initially, then to obey his chieftain’s orders. Shulk just wants his good-guy revenge on the mechon that killed the other half of his friendzoned relationship. That doesn’t seem enough to me.
The crowning (damning?) moment comes at the end, where Shulk is offered the power of a god, i.e., Zanza, the one that had possessed him and the one Shulk eventually eliminates. Shulk refuses the offer out of his desire to let people make their own choices. There was no self-doubt or struggle with competing ideas, while an offer of that sort isn’t given to a human, anywhere, without some consideration. He rejects the power and things are restored to better state before the game began. The whole ending has a bit of gnostic nonsense sprinkled into it, but someone Shulk-perfect somehow made it work.
4 Comments
Ah, yes, the myth of the Great Man with different clothing. Right out of standard Western mythology.
Agreed. Regardless of how bad the trope was represented…the story itself was pretty good.
‘Shulk is led by the nose through the plot by his flimsy altruism’, did you miss the part where Shulk’s wish for revenge was continuously fueled by Zanza (https://youtu.be/PVp9a_eZvcY?t=336). It was not only him who wanted to pursue it, but Zanza who manipulated him.
‘There was no self-doubt or struggle with competing ideas’. There absolutely was. Shulk was not able to make a decision by himself because of his self-doubt and the massive responsibility. This is why Alvis created an illusion of Shulk’s friends who ultimately helped him make the decision. He did not instantly choose it, but discussed it with multiple people and ultimately came to the conclusion.
You have a point, but I don’t quite consider it “revenge” in this case, when it’s a case of revenge against (mostly) faceless machines that have been constantly terrorizing you. There’s little moral struggle in that, just a material, “complete the task” one. I contrast that with a choice Joel has to face in the Last of Us: be complicit in having Ellie killed, or knowingly prevent the creation of the vaccine. Either choice can make Joel look like a jerk. Marys/Martys usually have the necessary plot armor to avoid looking like the bad guy.
I don’t think Shulk’s the worst Marty Stu in the story; that might be Fiora. I pick on him since he’s the protagonist.