Her painting completely burned by the Lighter Leaving the cursed gallery of the Fabricated World without immediately killing Garry or Ib in order to replace at least one of those existences
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 the second person to join Ib's party in the game Ib. She is the main antagonist of the game. 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 be reached only if she manages to sacrifice the life of someone from the real gallery before jumping through the Fabricated World painting.
Mary's real age is unknown; however, she appears to be around the same age as Ib.
Mary has wavy blonde hair, big, deep blue eyes, and pale skin. She wears a green frock and a blue neckerchief, similar to the red one 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 octogan-shaped, with smeary gray background. There are yellow roses on the bottom.
Personality
Mary seems to be a cute, cheerful girl at first glance, but she is also impatient and often misunderstands things. As the plot progresses, it becomes obvious that she is mentally unstable. 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 emotionally unstable, as she 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 wants to make lots of friends.
Mary dislikes 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, Mary trusts Garry. 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 a child-like naïvety. As a painting, she is out of touch with reality. This is shown in the ending A Painting's Demise when she cries out for her creator, Guertena, to save her, unaware of his death years before. 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, she is not an evil character; rather, she is just very lonely and wanted to leave her world to be with others. She quickly grows attached to those she spends time with, already viewing Ib as a sister, 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.
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 Ib and Garry's 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. Upon hearing about the discovery, Mary will stand still and not move, causing Ib to worry about her. Also, Mary attempts to get keep Ib's attention on herself by walking around the room and talking to her about everything she knows about the real world. After Ib uses the plastic key to unlock a door, Mary will brandish her palette knife.
Note that if Garry fails to escape the Doll Room, Mary will tell Ib that the Garry she is with may not be the real Garry in an attempt to trick her into leaving him. She becomes jealous of how Garry gets all of Ib's attention (i.e., In the Doll Room, where Ib hugs Garry after frantically trying to snap him out of a trance), and starts to say very strange things, and even goes as far as to stabbing a mannequin head to vent her anger towards Garry. Eventually Garry finds out that Mary is not a real person, as she is actually Guertena's last work before he died and that Mary came to life, much like Guertena's other artworks in the cursed gallery. Mary plays an integral role in the endings of the game, and her actions may vary depending on Ib's choices throughout the game-play.
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.
In the True Guertena Exhibit, the canvas is located in the Black Room and is seen next to Forgotten Portrait. The canvas is empty as it was in the actual game, but the real Mary can be seen wandering around the room outside if the player gets the Together, Forever ending.
Mary feels like a sister to Ib. She is shown to be very attached to Ib since the first time they met, even if the player chooses to ignore her because of her excitement. The truth is, Mary wants to get all of Ib's attention by pretending to be scared and walking all around the room or area (as shown in the Brown Area if Garry manages to survive the Doll Room). Mary did try to attack Ib with the palette knife she picked up, but this only happens when Ib tries to leave down the stairs beyond the Brown Door.
Mary tells Ib that she has "...always wanted a girl like me that could be my friend..." and has a book in her room in The Sketchbook that Garry informs you is entitled "How To Make Friends."
Mary's relationship with Garry is complicated and largely dependent on her mental state. Her dislike for him may come from her jealousy 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). Mary wanted to make Ib forget about Garry and leave him, which can be seen happening in the Doll Room if Garry doesn't succeed in escaping.
Despite this, Mary seems to trust Garry, as seen when she calls for his help in the A Painting's Demise ending. In the Welcome to the World of Guertena, she chose to stay in the painting world with Ib and Garry, and she says they are the first real friends she has ever had, and they can play together forever, showing that though she is jealous of him, she doesn't necessary dislike him. However, she does give his rose to be held by The Lady in Blue, while she lets Ib keep hers. On the other hand, when Garry discovers Mary's secret and Mary temporarily stands transfixed on the Blue Rose Portal, if Ib chooses to ask "What's wrong?" Mary will reply, "...No... thing's... wrong. / .....Aha. / What's wrong? Whaaat's wrrrooonnnggg? / Ahahahaha, ohohohohoho... / I don't like him... not one bit... Ohohohohoho hohohohoho..."
It would appear that Mary does not hate Garry as a person, and even sees him as a potential friend, but her love of 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 replies, ".........." 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 new ending A Painting's Demise, Mary calls Guertena her father. When the lights go off in the gallery and everything becomes black, Mary calls for Guertena, saying father, to save her. It may be because she was painted by Guertena, as well as many other paintings, and all of them refer to Guertena as their father.
Mary is friendly with the paintings in the Fabricated World. This can be seen when she leaves Ib and instead of moving the headless mannequin on her way out, she asks it nicely to move so she can proceed, which the headless mannequin does. Also, when you go to the "real" gallery and Mary looks at The Lady in Red, Mary will yell "Big sis!", implying that she has a sister-like friendship with the paintings of ladies.
