Thread:BlizzardDragon/@comment-25936766-20190210225610/@comment-4141313-20190211021115

All valid points, but it still reinforces my argument that those calling her a Mary Sue are misusing the term, as Ruby has only just now really entered the spotlight rather than be a glorified background character, whereas the Mary Sue is the center of everything. She has sue-ish traits, but that doesn't make her a Mary Sue, it makes her Sue Adjacent. And most of those traits I chalk up more to crappy writing for Ruby, with the complaints leveled at her in Volume 6 in particular being a result of the writers trying to turn her into a Shonen Lead, but going too far and turning her into a bad shonen lead ala Natsu or Naruto.

Ruby honestly doesn't work as a Main Character because not only is she one of the least interesting of the major cast, the cast itself works more like an Ensemble Cast than it does any other narrative conventions. Not counting Ruby and the deceased Pyrrha, there are 12 Main Characters with their own stories and arcs:

Weiss - The Former Heiress trying to set her family's company right and properly use the power her family line has.

Blake - The Former Revolutionary aiming to end discrimination between humans and faunus while running from her past.

Yang - The bruiser trying to look out for her family, search for her missing mother, and handle the trauma caused by her reckless actions.

Jaune - The young man who wanted to be a hero but had to bear his closest friend dying doing what she thought was right, now struggling to be a proper leader and warrior.

Nora & Ren - The orphans banded together trying to avoid their past from happening again with their new family.

Qrow - The elite huntsman down on his luck and constantly struggling with alcoholism as he tries to be the adult for a bunch of kids.

Ozpin - The man trying to bear the weight of the world on his shoulders as he must face his former love and worry about the wrath of the gods.

Oscar - The child forced out of his element into a world thats brand new to him while struggling with the idea he's nothing but a puppet for the voice in his head.

Maria - The former great huntress coming to terms with her perceived cowardice and trying to help the next generation.

Sun - A young man trying to help his friend as she drowns in negativity while admitting he hasn't been a proper leader to his own team.

Cinder - A woman's lust for power and revenge drags her further and further into darkness as she loses more of her humanity with each passing minute.

Each of them have the potential to lead stories of their own, and while some of them were botched like Blake's and Cinder's, others arcs are still going on strongly, some are just truly starting, and some have temporarily been paused.

Yet with Ruby, when she began acting like the Main Character again, she detracted from the others. Ozpin went into hiding, Oscar's development happened off-screen, Qrow let his depression go too far, and Jaune's and Blake's arcs only really continued when they were away from Ruby.

Before, others developed at her expense, now its the opposite, Ruby is "developing" at the expense of others.

Ruby to me isn't a Sue. She's just bland and boring as all fuck. She's the generic main character, and having the narrative focus on her ultimately brings issues. If anyone should have been the Main Character, it should have been Weiss, Qrow, or Oscar. As not only are their stories more compelling to me than Ruby's, they have realistic flaws and are bothering to develop. Even Qrow is finally trying to get off his ass and put down the flask.

I won't say Jaune should have been the main character, as that would have caused a bigger issue of people proclaiming Jaune to be Miles' insert, so he could be kept as The Lancer of the narrative.

It's honestly why when they finally get to Atlas, I hope Penny returns. As you said, Penny is one of the more unique characters in the story, being an android with a human soul, so having her return would not only allow her story to begin anew, as I doubt it will be the same Penny, but it would also give Ruby some real development. Ruby I felt was at her best when with Penny because with Penny, she not only didn't act perpetually friendly, she tried her best to handle Penny's being an android and dealing with her naivety. Ruby felt less like the main protagonist in those moments, and more like a person trying to be a friend.

So to have her see Penny again but different from how she once was, to see Ruby struggle to come to terms with the idea the Penny she knew is truly gone and she'll have to start over, possibly even breaking down at one point, that would actually make her story to me more interesting than just "Bland Leader Small Soul".