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“ 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 main antagonist in the game Ib and the second person to join Ib's party. 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 depicted age is unknown; however, she appears to be around the same age as Ib.

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Appearance

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.

Main article: Roses

Role

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 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 Ib's attention 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 repeatedly 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 gets tackled by Garry in the Brown Area after the events of the Doll Room. If Garry escapes the Doll Room, then after Mary begins to act erratically, causing Ib to leave her behind Mary catches up with her and corners her, Garry appears and tackles her before she can harm Ib. If Garry does not escape the Doll Room, then after Ib and Mary find him and bring him back to reality. Mary drops her rose as they are leaving the Brown Area. Garry picks up her rose, causing Mary to panic and attack Gary 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, after they collect the bucket, Mary appears as they prepare to leave, but she doesn't search the house, allowing Ib and Garry to continue unharmed.

Mary can appear 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 if Ib (and Garry if he is still alive) finds the room her painting is. She demands that they leave immediately, then draws her palette knife and attacks them. If Ib is unable to reach the painting and burn it before Mary catches them, Mary kills them. However, if Ib reaches the painting and burns it, Mary turns to ash and dies soon afterwards.

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.

The endings that Mary mainly plays a role in includes A Painting's Demise or Welcome to the World of Guertena, endings which are bad and good for her, respectively, but are not good for Ib and Garry; Together, Forever is Mary's best ending.

Main article: Endings

Painting Location

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.

Relationships

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 because of her excitement. The truth is that 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). However, Mary will try to attack Ib with the palette knife she picked up 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).

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 disliking 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.

In the new ending A Painting's Demise, Mary calls Guertena "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.

Paintings in the Fabricated World

Mary is friendly with all 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 that she could proceed, which the headless mannequin does. Also, if Mary explores the "real" gallery and examines The Lady in Red, she will yell, "Big sis!" This implies that she has a sister-like friendship with all the painting ladies.