Grrl Power

[Calemyr]

My point about Sydney is that she is a far stronger candidate for Mary-Sue-ness than Dabbler, which was the debate a page or so ago.
If handled correctly, she will not be one, but she is a prime suspect, especially with her Unique Power Set nobody has ever hear of before and all that.

Mary Sue is not the best of the best in a story. That role belongs to "the Ace". A Mary Sue is the narrative equivalent of a reality warper: Everybody loves her, even the bad guys, she is perfect in every way, she succeeds at everything she does, and she can solve problems just because she's awesome not because she has any qualifications for her success. Even if she has a fault it's completely superficial and never meaningfully hinders her (if it hinders her at all, it's just a brief roadblock to make her victory all the more glorious). The story gives her anything and everything she needs to rule center stage, whether she deserves it or not.

I don't see Sydney as any sort of Mary-Sue candidate for a few reasons.

First is her effectiveness - despite her immense range and scale of powers, she's limited to 2/7 of it any given time and is generally crippled by her personality. She's a powerhouse, yes, but that power is tempered by the fact that she still has to earn most of it through learning discipline and study/practice/experimentation, and then find ways to use her powers creatively because she's still limited to 2/7 at any given time. She isn't an auto-win button, though she's absolutely a wildcard that could win a situation if luck is on her side. (She's basically a one girl "Checkov's Armory". So many guns yet to go off...)

Second is her personality - Sydney is Sydney, and people react to her as they will. She's a walking PR disaster on par with Dabbler and Harem, she's loud and obnoxious and hyper and coarse. She appeals to some characters, such as Peggy, Math, and Max, but most people she's interacted with so far have treated her as a dangerous curiosity rather than a likable person (or just plain hilarious, which is Harem's reaction to her, though Harem has shown no affection for her). She also isn't a physical bombshell (part of Peggy's "A-Team" and all), which has already given her some image issues.

Third is perfection - she annoys even people who like her (mainly Max) and is constantly making missteps around those she likes (such as Peggy, but Peggy is too laid back to get upset about it) and confounds the rest. She herself isn't the best at anything, or even particularly good at anything, she just has the balls Halo. The fact that she is one of the very few normals (okay, a very abnormal normal) in the cast makes her less likely to be a Mary Sue. If she starts tanking shots from Max without the forcefield ball due to her natural awesomeness, however, she can reapply for Mary Sue status.

I think the cast is pretty well done, without any true Mary Sues in their ranks. Dabbler comes close (expansive powerset with explicit manipulation abilities, already stated as having the widest variety of powers in the group, stated as having fought Max to a standstill, and having apparently fought and bested the demon that Max's powers allude to), but even she fails due to the fact that, like Sydney, she irritates virtually everyone (even her friends) with her personality.

Just remember, being very good doesn't make you a Mary Sue. A Mary Sue wins at everything because they're Mary Sue, not because of their abilities (which they usually have just because they're Mary Sue).