I've been rereading the Dune books for the first time since I was, oh, sixteen or so, and they land very differently now. I've been struck, in part, by what OP is describing, except not.https://twitter.com/SonnyBunch/status/1303734418180395010 …
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The characters in Dune are generally defined in relation to their societal roles, and ties of obligation. It's a very medieval way of thinking about character--and not something 16yo, American Individualist, me, really grokked.
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Leto is a DUKE and behaves towards his VASSALS in the manner of an ATREIDES. Duncan is an ATREIDES MAN and defined by his loyalty to the HOUSE. Jessica turned against her obligations to the BENE GESSERIT. These are the things that are important in characterizing folks in Dune.
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There there's Paul, and in some sense, Paul is absolutely a Mary Sue. Except while, say, Rey is a tiresome exercise in vanity and self satisfaction, what is Paul?
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Paul is, on one hand, the most encumbered person in the books. He is an ATREIDES and the KWISATZ HADERACH, and a MENTAT, and a FREMEN, and a PREACHER, and a lot is made of the degree to while he is free to put on or put aside the obligations of these various roles.
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And Paul is /also/ the guy who finds that, in fact, the mass of destiny is too much for him, and he's trapped by it. All his power, all his centrality, all his Mary Sueness, and he can't avoid his fate. Loyal Duncan Idaho, Atreides Man, has more control over himself than Paul.
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Anyway, tl;dr: Paul's centrality has a important thematic point that weaves into the whole structure of the book(s), and isn't merely an exercise in power fantasy, which IMO is why it works, while other Mary Sues are deeply tiresome.
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Replying to @kendrictonn
The fact that all of the sequels explore the consequences for humanity of Paul’s fundamental failure to escape that which was destined would seem a potent argument against his Mary-Sue-ness.
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Replying to @random_scrub
Def, or at the least, the complications of that MSness
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also, Paul can't be a MS, bc MS win at EVERY STEP OF THE WAY Paul loses his birth planet, his father, his city, his family only in the end does be win MS isn't "the hero with a thousand faces" (child destined for greatness as per prophecy)
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