Line #54 Main/ASaintNamedMary


1	->''"Maria! Say it loud and there's music playing, Say it soft and it's almost like praying."''
2	-->--'''Tony''', ''Theatre/WestSideStory''
3
4	A [[TheIngenue pure-hearted]] or TokenReligiousTeammate character will often be named after UsefulNotes/TheVirginMary. As Mary was the [[Literature/TheBible biblical]] Jesus' mother, TeamMom and other motherly characters are often named after her as well. Bonus points if the character dresses in [[TrueBlueFemininity blue]], as in many countries that color traditionally feminine specifically due to its relation to Mary.
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6	"Mary" is the main English way of spelling the mother of Jesus' name, however, it is spelled differently in other languages (for example, "Miriam" and "Maria"). Despite appearing sparingly throughout the text, Mary is an iconic example of [[ProperLady a nice and pure character]]. [[note]] Even though she doesn't get much characterization in the Biblical text; most of the traditional portrayals of her character and beauty come from [[WordOfDante theologians in the Catholic Church]]. [[/note]] As a result many characters are named after her.
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8	As common as this trope is played straight, it is often subverted as well. An evil or malicious character will be named "Mary" (or an alternative spelling) for [[IronicName ironic kicks]], or double meaning, as the name also means "bitter" in the original Hebrew. As the Virgin Mary is known as such a benevolent character, characters that [[BitchInSheepsClothing seem like straight examples but aren't]] aren't uncommon.
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10	Note, that the character must be particularly pure-hearted, religious, maternal, or otherwise an obvious Virgin Mary reference (like a MadonnaArchetype) to count. A character just being named "Mary", "Maria", or a similar name is not enough. "Mary" is one of the most popular names out there and thus many characters are named it without any association to this trope. Often goes hand in hand with VirginInAWhiteDress.
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12	Compare to AdamAndOrEve and NameOfCain for other religious-themed names. God help you if the character is named after "[[UsefulNotes/MaryTudor Bloody Mary]]" instead. See also ReligiousAndMythologicalThemeNaming.
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14	----
15	!!Examples:
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17	[[foldercontrol]]
18
19	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
20	* ''Anime/{{Canaan}}'': Maria is a [[AllLovingHero sweet]] young woman who Canaan sees as her "light". Maria has a RescueRomance with Canaan ([[HideYourLesbians though it isn't explicitly called that]]). Canaan's name itself refers to a region where the Bible mainly took place.
21	* ''Manga/ChronoCrusade'': Mary plays with this trope. While she ''is'' a beautiful, kind, and gentle woman named Mary whose death still haunts Chrono, Mary isn't her real name, and the religious order who took her in named her for Mary ''Magdalene'', not the Virgin.
22	* ''Anime/CodeGeass'': Subverted with Empress Marianne. While she was remembered as a beautiful, saintly woman and a sweet and gentle mother who was also a famed ActionMom in her prime, [[spoiler:she shares her despotic husband's view of humanity and helps him attempt to destroy and rewrite the world]].
23	* ''Manga/FireForce'': [[spoiler:Mari Kusakabe. She was a woman who at an early age had a pregnancy, except that she had not been with any man. From that virgin pregnancy Shinra was born, and after a couple of years, she had another virgin pregnancy and Sho was born.]]
24	* ''Manga/MariaHolic'': Subverted with [[GenderBlenderName Mariya]]. He is a CreepyCrossdresser who regularly beats up Kanako, his roommate at an all-girls Catholic school he is DisguisedInDrag at. He has a {{Half Identical Twin\|}} named Shizu who, [[SiblingYinYang in contrast]], is a {{bifauxnen}} gentle girl.
25	* ''Manga/MariaNoDanzai'': Maria Akeboshi deliberately {{invoke\|dTrope}}s this image as the SchoolNurse: she allows her office to serve as a safe space for bullying victims, and encourages the students to come to her whenever they need her help, whether they are physically ill or need more... ahem ''personal'' advice. [[CoolTeacher The students love her for it]], and have taken to calling her "Saint Maria of the Infirmary". This means [[BeneathSuspicion absolutely no one will suspect her]] when [[BestServedCold she goes after the bullies who killed her son]].
26	* ''Manga/MariaTheVirginWitch'': The protagonist is a virgin witch who strives to end the conflict, and there's a man named Joseph who's in love with her, and at the end of the series [[spoiler:has a MysticalPregnancy]].
27	* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': Invoked with Ibara, a notably devout Japanese Christian whose powers allow her to grow her thorny hair at will -- a crown of thorns. Fittingly, her first hero name is "Maria", and her costume consists of a plain white robe ala Jesus.
28	* ''Anime/{{Symphogear}}: G'' goes double-Biblical with Maria Cadenzavna [[AdamAndOrEve Eve]]. Ostensibly the daring leader of the villains and reincarnation of an evil priestess (complete with a CreepyCrosses motif), she's actually [[AntiVillain an insecure, kind-hearted person]] serving as TheFace of the group, who [[TeamMom cares for her teammates like a mother]] and [[MinionWithAnFInEvil regularly fails to do anything evil]]. Once she [[HeelFaceTurn joins the heroes]] and doesn't need to keep up the charade anymore, she switches from her [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver red and black outfit]] to [[GoodCostumeSwitch a white one with cyan accents]].
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]
32	* Mary from ''Film/FirstReformed'' is depicted as a pious and kind woman who has the most honest faith of anyone in the movie. Notably, she's also a mother whose child is a part of the next generation her husband thinks will be doomed due to climate change. Lastly, [[spoiler:she also seems to save Toller from suicide in the ending.]]
33	* ''Film/MaryMagdalene'': Certainly not a deliberate reference to Mary, Mother of God (who also appears in the film) since it was a common female name, but Magdalene is portrayed as saintlike in her compassion and wisdom, reinforcing this trope. Of course, she's also venerated widely as a saint by many Christian churches.
34	* ''Film/ReeferMadnessTheMusical'' features a played-with example in Mary Lane, the [[TheIngenue painfully wholesome Christian love-interest]] to similarly wholesome Jimmy Harper. Despite her saintliness, however, both of them fall victim to The Reefer and are [[MarijuanaIsLSD driven manically insane]].
35	* The kind, happy couple from ''Film/TheSeventhSeal'' is made up of a young child and his young parents, Mia and Jof (the Swedish transliteration of Mary and Joseph). To drive the connection further, Jof even has a vision of the Virgin Mary and a young Christ in the scene that introduces them. They serve as a representation of simple faith in contrast to the main character's existential doubt and fear.
36	* ''Film/StationsOfTheCross'': Maria is explicitly named after the Virgin Mary, and she is the only member of the fundamentalist Society of Saint Paul to be shown not to be silent, dogmatic, or cruel. All she wants is not to sin and be closer to {{God}}, but she struggles in a life where her infant brother is sick and underdeveloped, and like Mary with her son, she cannot bear to see her little boy suffer.
37	* ''Film/StellaMaris'': This is used in a roundabout way with the titular protagonist. An archaic title for the Virgin Mary is "Our Lady, Star of the Sea", known as "''Stella Maris''" in Latin. Stella Maris in the film is a [[TheIngenue very pure-hearted and innocent woman]].
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Literature]]
41	* ''Literature/{{Gone}}'': Mary grows to become the [[DesignatedParents designated mother]] of children in the series, earning the in-universe nickname "Mother Mary." Later subverted, as she suffers increasing mental problems as the series goes on.
42	* ''Literature/KeepingFaith'' is about a little girl named Faith who shows signs of being a MessianicArchetype. Fittingly, her mother is named Mariah.
43	* ''Literature/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'': Maria Campbell is one of the nicest characters in the story and has benevolent [[LightIsGood light magic]] powers. Also includes a bonus subversion - another character named Mary is a bit of a {{Yandere}}.
44	* ''Literature/{{Push}}'': Inverted with Precious' mother Mary. She is a physically and emotionally {{Abusive Parent\|s}} who let her daughter be [[ParentalIncest raped by her father]] for years and [[TeenPregnancy impregnated by him]], the first time at ''twelve''. [[spoiler:Mary also sexually abuses Precious herself and tries to [[OffingTheOffspring kill her]].]]
45	* ''Literature/WarAndPeace'': The deeply religious Princess Marya (the Russian equivalent of Mary) is the long-suffering caretaker to the Bolkonsky patriarch.
46	[[/folder]]
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48	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
49	* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': The "real world" version of Snow White is named Mary-Margaret Blanchard, a reminder of the fact that even in a world without happy endings, her soul is as white and unblemished as snow. The comparison between the Virgin and Mary-Margaret is furthered because the hero known as the Savior is the child of Mary-Margaret, much like how the Virgin Mary's [[UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} child]] was the Messiah.
50	* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Subverted. The deceased matriarch Mary Winchester is initially treated as the patron saint of the Winchester clan, the reason they do what they do, and their motivation to carry on in moments of extreme adversity. However, as the series carries on, the question slowly becomes how well did any of them know Mary. Her secretive past turns out to be the source of much of their strife and the reality of who she wildly diverged from the Winchester men's nostalgic idealization of her.
51	[[/folder]]
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53	[[folder:Music]]
54	* Music/ThirtySecondsToMars: "Buddha for Mary" is about a girl named "Mary" (who ironically is an atheist) and has a lot of religious overtones. It also [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation possibly]] serves as a drug reference, as "Mary Jane" is slang for marijuana.
55	* Music/Marty Robins: "Devil Woman" reveals that the narrator's kind, tolerant and very forgiving girlfriend, who he has cheated on, is called Mary.
56	[[/folder]]
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58	[[folder:Theatre]]
59	* ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic'': The protagonist Maria is a peppy nun-in-training. Maria is sent to be a governess to a family of seven children and their stern widower father. She proceeds to [[MagicalNanny lighten up their lives]] and [[ManicPixieDreamgirl fall in love with the father]].
60	* ''Theatre/WestSideStory'': Maria is the saintliest character in the story, a SettingUpdate on ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' set against a battle between street gangs in New York City, with her as the Juliet stand-in. One song even says that her name "sounds like praying".
61	[[/folder]]
62
63	[[folder:Video Games]]
64	* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow'': Marie Belmont takes the French equivalent to Mary because, well, she's a pure and Heavenly woman who advises from [[TheLostLenore the glory of Heaven]]. Her living husband is motivated by her goodness, and his name is even Gabriel, the name of the angel who announced that Mary would give birth.
65	* ''VideoGame/EarthboundBeginnings'': Queen Mary rules over Magicant, which is essentially a FluffyCloudHeaven, and [[spoiler:turns out that she was Ninten's great=grandmother, Maria, who had foster-raised the alien antagonist Giygas as her son]].
66	* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun1'': Mia (Mary in the original Japanese) is the healer of a small town, using her Mercury Psynergy to heal the sick (though {{Muggle}}s only see that she glows when healing someone). Her default class becomes Paragon and later Angel in the sequel.
67	* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'': Maria Robotnik was the WhiteSheep of her family and was Shadow's best friend/sister-figure. She was also TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth and is a PosthumousCharacter who died undergoing a HeroicSacrifice. Maria was [[TrueBlueFemininity decked out almost entirely in blue]].
68	* ''VideoGame/StoryOfSeasons'':
69	** Maria from the original ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon1'' is most likely the most religious non-priest or nun character in the franchise. She is deeply devoted to [[CrystalDragonJesus the Harvest Goddess]] and spends much of her free time at church. In ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonMagicalMelody'' the town has no church due to plot reasons. Maria was thus made into a librarian. Despite the change in occupation, a large number of Maria's quotes related to her religious beliefs. Maria dresses in a blue dress as well.
70	** Maria's granddaughter is not as religious as her grandmother, especially after her initial appearance, but is still more religious than most. She is named "Marie" in Japan, "Maria" in ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon64'', and "Mary" from ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonBackToNature'' onward. Like her grandmother, she dresses predominantly in blue.
71	[[/folder]]
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73	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
74	* ''VisualNovel/DreamDaddy'': Subverted by Joseph Christiansen's wife Mary. Joseph is the neighborhood preacher, and although their names reference Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Mary herself drinks all the time, dresses in black, and flirts with younger boys at a bar.
75	* ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'': This trope is mentioned by Maria, who references the Virgin Mary when discussing her name. She believes that she was "a child of God" conceived by the Holy Ghost since Rosa always told her that she didn't have a father.
76	[[/folder]]
77
78	[[folder:Webcomics]]
79	* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'':
80	** Kanaya Maryam, the TeamMom and arguably one of the nicest of the trolls. Her ancestor, the Dolorosa, is a clear allusion to the biblical Virgin Mary.
81	** Subverted with Porrim Maryam, a tattooed [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampire]] feminist who's implied to have [[ReallyGetsAround slept with most of her friends]].
82	[[/folder]]
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84	[[folder:Web Original]]
85	* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': Mary Goodhope, the daughter of a televangelist, and has the codename, Angel, with the expected angelic wings, blonde hair, blue eyes.
86	[[/folder]]
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88	[[folder:Western Animation]]
89	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'': The TokenGoodTeammate of the Misfits is Mary "Stormer" Phillips. Stormer also has bright blue hair.
90	[[/folder]]

Context Main / ASaintNamedMary