I... I was looking to see if there was anyone else too... I wanted to get out... So I...
”
— Mary
Mary (メアリー Mearī) is both the main antagonist and tritagonist in the game Ib. Even though Mary seems like an ordinary human, she is actually the last painting that Guertena ever worked on. Her goal is to exit the cursed gallery of the Fabricated World to the real world in order to make a new life for herself and make many friends, but her dream can only be reached if she manages to sacrifice the life of someone from the real gallery before jumping through the Fabricated World painting.
Mary's depicted age is unknown, though, according to her, she is younger than a "grown-up."
Mary is a young girl, with long wavy blonde hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. She wears a green frock and a blue scarf, similar to the red ribbon that Ib wears. She has a white collar and white cuffs at the end of her sleeves. She also wears black knee-high socks and green (sometimes brown) shoes that are similar to school shoes. kouri, the artist and creator of the game Ib, drew her with the image of a "lovely girl in a painting."
Her canvas has a brown frame and is octagonal, with a smeary gray background. Yellow roses are depicted on the bottom of the canvas.
Personality
Mary appears to be a cheerful and innocent little girl at first glance, but she is also impatient and often misunderstands things. As the plot progresses, it becomes obvious that she has hidden motives. Mary's behavior may be the sort of behavior her painter, Guertena, had imagined her to have. While Mary's upbeat attitude may have been true to her nature, it may also have served as part of a ruse to keep Ib and Garry from becoming suspicious of her. For example, when Garry first mentioned her rose, Mary ignored Garry's tips on keeping her rose safe, exclaiming how she liked Ib's rose color. This sort of ignorant nature could have been a way of hiding her secret of being a painting and avoiding any deeper conversation about her rose so that Ib or Garry wouldn't notice anything suspicious about her.
When Garry does find out about Mary's secret, Mary becomes desperate to escape the cursed gallery before Garry could stop her. In this state of mind, Mary would even consider killing (and make attempts to kill) Ib, who she wanted to be friends with the most, in order to increase the chances that she could finally fulfill her dream of becoming a human.
Mary's ultimate desire is to leave the Fabricated World and live as a human in the real world. During her time in the cursed gallery, she has read about a lot of things that pertain to the real world from books, such as the beach and candy, and wants more than anything to see these things. She especially seems to want to make lots of friends.
Mary has a disliking toward Garry, since she envies his close relationship with Ib and wishes to use him as her replacement in the Fabricated World. Even if she doesn't show it, however, Mary appears to possibly trust Garry at other points. She demonstrates this trust when she calls for his help during the events that shortly lead to the ending A Painting's Demise.
It should be noted that, though Mary may be as mentally developed as an adult, she retains an innocent, child-like personality. Additionally, in Welcome to the World of Guertena, she bases her ideas on a book that tells of the need to have friends, showing how little experience she has with dealing with others.
Although Mary is, technically, the main antagonist of the game, it is revealed in other endings she is very lonely and wanted to leave her world to be with others. She quickly grows attached to those she spends time with, already seeming to view Ib as a friend, despite knowing her less than a day. In Together, Forever, she is quick to snuggle up to Ib's parents.
Rose
Mary's rose is fake, as if symbolizing she is, too. This could be seen as a representation of Mary's fabricated life, seeing as though she is not a real human. Mary uses one of the yellow roses that are right below her in her painting. Her yellow roses symbolize jealousy, which is a common interpretation in the flower language. Since her rose is fake, the number of petals it has is unknown. It could be possible that it has five petals, since she is speculated to be the same age as Ib.
Also, it is possible that Guertena colored her rose yellow due to her personality. Mary is jealous and two-faced but also very energetic and cheerful. Yellow is the color for both negative and positive personalities.
Ib and Garry meet Mary in the Violet Area. The reason as to why she tries to take Garry away from Ib in order to be closer to her can be interpreted as the effect of her jealousy towards their strong bond. It can also be noted that she tries to make Ib like her better. When she asks Ib questions about Garry after reaching the Violet Area, it becomes obvious how interested Mary is in the subject of how much Ib cares about Garry. When Garry finds out that she is a painting, the Strained Ear painting listens in on Garry's exclamations of this shocking discovery, which instigates the Tattletale painting to whisper this news to Mary. Mary will freeze upon hearing it, causing Ib to worry about her. She then attempts to get Ib's attention by following her around and talking about everything she knows about the real world.
There are two possible ways Garry will end up tackling Mary after the events of the Doll Room. If Garry has escaped the Doll Room, after Ib leaves Mary behind when she begins to act erratically, Mary will catch up with Ib and corner her. Garry then appears and knocks her out before she can harm Ib. If Garry fails to escape and Ib manages to snap him back to reality, Mary will drop her rose as they are leaving the Brown Area. Garry picks up her rose, causing Mary to panic and attack him with her palette knife. Garry overpowers her, knocking her out and remembering her true nature.
Mary appears later in the Sketchbook, in the house where Ib and Garry find the bucket. As they prepare to leave after picking it up, Mary will enter the house searching for them. However, she doesn't search behind the wall where Ib and Garry will hide, allowing them to continue unharmed.
Mary appears again in the Toy Box. If Ib is unable to find her rose, it is because Mary has taken it. Garry trades his rose for Ib, after which Mary runs off. She plucks the petals of the rose, killing Garry. Either way, she will appear when Ib (and Garry if he is still alive) finds the room where her painting is located. She demands that they leave immediately, then draws her palette knife and gives chase. If Ib (or Garry) fails to burn the painting before Mary reaches them, she will kill them. If they successfully burn the painting, Mary will crumble to ash along with it.
Mary plays an integral role in the endings of the game, and her actions may vary depending on Ib's choices throughout the game.
Mary's painting is located in the back of the Toy Box within the Sketchbook. Its nameplate can only be read after the canvas is burned.
Mary's painting as seen in the remake.
In the True Guertena Exhibit, the canvas is located in the Black Room next to Forgotten Portrait. The canvas is empty as it was in the actual game, but Mary can be seen wandering around the room outside if the player gets the Together, Forever ending.
Relationships
Ib
Mary seems to view Ib as a friend (initially). She is shown to be very attached to Ib since the first time they met, even if the player chooses to ignore her. She may tell Ib that she "...always wanted a girl like me that could be my friend...", and has a book in her room in Toy Box entitled "How To Make Friends".
However, Mary will try to attack Ib with her palette knife when Ib tries to leave down the stairs beyond the Brown Door (and if Ib enters the room in the Toy Box where Mary's painting resides).
Garry
Mary's relationship with Garry is complicated and largely dependent on her mental state. She is jealous of him because Ib shows much more trust and loyalty to him than to her. As such, Mary will go to great lengths to divide them (for example, Mary tries to kill Garry so she can leave the Fabricated World together with Ib). If Garry fails to escape the Doll Room, Mary will want Ib to forget it and leave him.
Despite this, Mary seems to trust Garry, as seen when she calls for his help in A Painting's Demise. In Welcome to the World of Guertena, she chooses to stay in the painting world with Ib and Garry, saying they are the first real friends she has ever had, and they can play together forever. However, she does give his rose to The Lady in Blue, while she lets Ib keep hers. Additionally, if Ib chooses to ask "What's wrong?" when Mary stands transfixed on the Blue Rose Portal after Garry discovers her secret, one of her lines will be "I don't like him... not one bit..."
It appears that Mary does not hate Garry as a person, and even sees him as a potential friend, but her attachment to Ib and her desire for freedom forces her to view Garry as competition. After all, if Ib chooses to read "Theorems of This World" (while Garry accompanies her to read the difficult words), the book reveals that "[v]ia a trading of existences, the imaginary can be made reality," to which Mary will stare silently. Mary requires one person with whom to "trade existences," since she is "imaginary" - a painting that, like all of Guertena's works (with the exception of Juggling), is not based on a real person.
Guertena
In the ending A Painting's Demise, Mary calls Guertena "father". This is likely due to the fact she was painted by Guertena, as well as many other paintings, and all of them refer to Guertena as their father.
Guertena's works
Mary is friendly with all the works in the Fabricated World. This can be seen when she leaves Ib and encounters a headless mannequin on her way out, she will politely ask it to move aside, which the mannequin obeys. Also, if Mary explores the "real" gallery, she will yell "Big sis!" at The Lady in Red. This implies that she has a sister-like friendship with the painting ladies.
Trivia
In the remake's Together, Forever ending art, Mary's shadow can be seen made of scribbles similar to those found in the Sketchbook and her inventory, versus Ib's opaque shadow. This suggests that despite becoming human, Mary's transformation isn't perfect.
