Great posts.  Wanted to contribute.

You might still get some utility out of the original CS too as what your revamped character aspires to be/do.  Or as a character trait to completely subvert.

This ended up being a tangent about character development rather than Mary Sues but I'll post it just the same, in a hider.  If it's too much a tangent let me know and I'll get it deleted and post it somewhere else.


[hider=The Utility of a Mary Sue Character Sheet, After You've Fixed it]

[u]She wants to be an idol.[/u]

She's just a Mech Warrior singing to herself while stomping around in her steam suit.  Annoying some and entertaining others in her squad.  Maybe finds another pilot who has a guitar and sings along with their playing.

Or it doesn't go the way she wants it to, her voice isn't great for singing, but her love of attention and practice writing songs makes her a great speaker and she winds up being the beating heart of her unit, while still yearning to be a pop star.  

Or her desire for attention, writing ability, and love for her squad make her a born leader.  She'll never stomp across a battlefield singing her latest hit to drive her troops forward and stomp out the enemy...but she has command of a group of capable men and women who adore and respect her and will fight with all of their hearts for her because they know she will fight with all of her heart for them.

[u]She wants to make her Mech a force on the field[/u]

She built her own suit, and she gets some respect for it and she can contribute, but she yearns to pilot one of those real whiz-bang mechs.  More than that she dreams of improving her own design and one day maybe the luckier, richer, more famous pilots out there will be proudly driving a Müller Designs product.

Or she gets recognized as someone making the most of a suit with limited capabilities and gets some training from another pilot on one of the junker or surplus mechs.  Or the opposite direction, one of her superiors says "goddam look what Rilla is doing with that janky ass Mech" and while she doesn't get the Mech she's dreaming of and she doesn't get to design her own Mech she gets picked up to teach other pilots how to get everything out of their suit.

[u]Just Straight Subversion[/u] 

You might also just pick one or two of these Mary Sue type overpowered or over ambitious aspects and subvert them hard to both bring Rilla Müller more down to Earth and make her more interesting.  Or just twist them a little.

Going with the Medic thing.

She's lightly armed.  Running out there bringing injured troops back behind the front lines to be fixed up good as new.  She's got a Mech utility bag so she can apply First Aid on sight and she can propel herself with steam power to increase her speed and agility and rush the more critical cases home and save their lives.

She's incredible, dashing all over the battlefield in her suit.  Stopping bleeding with judicious application of Quik-Clot or sewing up torn flesh even as bullets pepper either side of the temporary cover.  Splinting bones.  Offering kind words and encouragement.  Or maybe reminding the troops their duty only ends in death, now get your ass out there and fight.

She's crippled.  She lost the use of her legs in her first engagement years ago.  Outside the suit she's either in a wheelchair or in constant pain.  Sometimes both.  She's fearless in getting to wounded soldiers because she knows firsthand that every second counts.
[/hider]