To many, she is a vigilant guardian, a shining protector and a beacon of hope in an uncertain world. She has defeated armies, slain demon lords and given council to the gods. But to some, her presence is stifling. Her benevolence is a kind of perverse paternalism and her protection is a choke hold on growth. You are one of those who do not appreciate her constant presence in everyone's lives, and you have been given the opportunity to make the world right.
Mary Sue must die.
Just an idea that's been sloshing around my head for a while. How would you do it?
To many, she is a vigilant guardian, a shining protector and a beacon of hope in an uncertain world. She has defeated armies, slain demon lords and given council to the gods. But to some, her presence is stifling. Her benevolence is a kind of perverse paternalism and her protection is a choke hold on growth. You are one of those who do not appreciate her constant presence in everyone's lives, and you have been given the opportunity to make the world right.
Mary Sue must die.
Just an idea that's been sloshing around my head for a while. How would you do it?
my name is Azhagal I am a monk/sorceror whose only mission is to preserve the balance of all that is good and evil in Golarion....or at least that's what I want to do. my travels bring me many places, most of which are in dire need of "balancing" but no person in this world threatens the balance more than the illustrious "Mary Sue", whether my party members choose to accompany me or not, is a trivial matter to me and holds no significance. all those wishing to oppose me will be dealt with accordingly.....
so basically my character is blinbdly searching for Mary Sue in hopes of removing this "obstruction to the balance" without realizing that she herself could be fighting for the same thing. my party on the other hand would constatly try to bring me back to earth and reroute focus to the adventure itself, rather than the end encounter
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This might be a bizarre connection, but what immediately popped into my mind was the movie "Paint Your Wagon". A western epic with Clint Eastwood (he sings, lol) where western moving pioneers "settle" and create a town, getting all proper and such, when it all goes to hell, they pack up and move on...
The reason it popped into my head is because the theme you seem to be going for is what I call the "Tyranny of Kindness". In many ways our own society is guilty of tyranny by kindness: we are enslaved by the desire/obligation to help "those in need" even to the extent that our own lives are lessened and the unforseen negative consequences.
Tolkein touched upon it when frodo offered the ring of power to Galadrie, and she turned it down wisely recognizing she would be a beautiful tyrant of kindness.
Another source of inspiration would be Orwells Brave New World (which shouldn't need a description....go read it if you don't know it!)
Weis and Hickman wrote about it in Dragonlance: Good stagnates in its perfection and dies when left to itself while Evil destroys/consumes itself.
As far as a campaign goes, I would approach it from a fairly high fantasy setting. I would take a theocratic approach to government in that it is a mandate from heaven for this perfect society to care for all your needs. This sets up a game where you fight angelic beings, deva's (celestials) etc. I would borrow heavily from Dragonlances Istar and the Kingpriest era. I would set the campaign in a colony, much like the American Colonies, to set the campaign up for a revolution led by the PCs at higher level. You would need neutral parties that could be allies/enemies (changing as roles throughout the campaign...) to act as the "straight" guy in this drama: France to America and England for example. The neutrals should be either fairly vanilla fantasy or something outrageous...both representing alternatives to the Mary Sue Regime...
The image I get from this idea is Bobby Boucher’s mother in “The Waterboy”. “Mama sez…”, or how about “Return of the Archons” from Star Trek TOS?
Anyways, I like the twist on the plot, but this really boils down to freedom fighters fighting against an oppressive government trope. There are going to be a lot of sheep who oppose the PCs, who teary-eyed just want the PCs to conform, “Can’t you see, she’s just trying to help!”
You could also have real evil monsters or people who ‘say’ they have seen the light but use the oppressive regime to their benefit. Or what if Mary Sue realized that evil creature will never convert so they have been sent to concentration camps to be exterminated?
In my mind, the way to make this work is to have the players realize - when finally confronting Mary Sue at the end - that this isn't an enemy they can win through strength. You kill Mary Sue, and she just becomes a martyr (before coming back as a shiny half-vampire). Or gets saved last minute by Dues Ex Machina. Etc.
What they need to realize is that the way to defeat her is to... forget about her. Find a way to make people ignore her. Remove the records of her existence, end the tales told about her, and find some way to take away the very memory of her presence on the kingdom - and that's the only way to get rid of her. Forgotten and no longer the star of every fairy tale, she'll simply fade away...
Or to make her realize the harm she has done, and she willing stops. Perhaps to stop what she has done, she willing takes on the mantle of evil to return to balance.