Originally Posted by
TheCasualReader
Correction: Mary's not a magic addict: she feels inferior without magic. Her test-of-Fate basically lays out: she felt her Shazam persona was better than herself in every way: "I'm beautiful, I'm powerful. I am better and stronger than anyone and anything! Why wouldn't you want this?!"
She stopped living life as Mary, which got Billy and Freddy concerned. She agreed she had a problem and had to stop using the power completely (as in transform into the persona, not the magic itself)
"No, you need me. You are nothing without me!"
"Billy was right. I had to stop, but that doesn't mean I have to stop being a hero. I can use my connection to you to become a sorceress. To be just as important and powerful as you ever were without abandoning who I am."
Mary is basically seeking to make being Mary feel just as fulfilling as being Shazam which is a character struggle that could be interesting to watch unfold. It’s certainly an idea with real merit.
Unfortunately, as far as I am concerned, it doesn’t actually develop into something compelling because Mary takes a steep dive in the next episode where she becomes a unsympathetic character, but with nothing else to still make her compelling as a character. For example, she drains, something that is explicitly shown to be incredibly pain, Khalid and Traci for a meaningless attack against the Child. She harshly rationalizes it afterwards that she had to try something and basically gaslights the two while showing absolutely no sadness that she “had” to hurt them. In the episode after that, she does the same thing again, but to a much worse degree that would have killed her teammates (one of whom was telling her to stop) if Zatanna hadn’t stopped her. Mary continues to show no remorse for doing something that terrible. She’s not shown reacting to what she did, be apologetic or anything. She just does not care.
She proceeds to get upset when Zatanna rightly tells her, gently even, “The fact is you’re attracted to power and you’re not careful about where that power comes from or whom it hurts when you take it or use it.”
She continues to rationalize and justify, all the while still not showing any empathy or just sympathy for the pain the others felt. She proceeds to get upset because she doesn’t get what she wants. She runs away and then cries somewhere. And I couldn’t care less because honestly, why would I? She’s not crying because she hurt others. She’s crying because she didn’t get what she wanted. The ego-stroking, as way of appeal, that Granny Goodness gives her furthers evidences this:
I understand your grief. These so-called heroes, your so-called friends, are jealous of your strength and grace. Twice they've denied you power. The power that is your birthright. You owe them nothing, my dear, for they only seek to turn you into nothing. Into a nobody. [sighing in frustration] Why listen to these petty fools who wish to keep you down? To force you to be unimpressive only that they might seem more impressive in the absence of your true glory. You must see there is no longer any need to obey their rules, their strictures. Advice they claimed to offer for your sake was always just a ploy to minimize you... to keep you small. [whispering] Say it, child. Say the word. You know you want to. [whispers] Shazam. [thunder cracking]
Mary basically goes from a character who is trying to overcome feelings of inadequacies to a character who has so frail an ego that she can't handle being told that she shouldn't drain the life force of others and seems so downright devoid of empathy that it doesn't make a difference to her that she hurts or nearly kills people.