Stacy Sutton WAS an interesting Bond girl

It was interesting that a blimp with loud propellers could sneak up on her.

Now, this is a signature gun, and that is an optical palm reader.

Instead of a dumb blonde, a deaf blonde.

--
Ceterum censeo OCTOPUSSY esse delendam.

Deaf, dumb, blonde...

It's nice to see that multiple disabilities are not an obstacle for a modern Bond girl.

ant-mac

I just choked on my food

What's so modern about 1985?

--
Ceterum censeo OCTOPUSSY esse delendam.

Every year was modern once.

In any case, I'm simply implying that the modern era is often built on what has gone before.

ant-mac

All Bond girls are "modern" in at least some ways.

Even the most pathetic/trapped-bird cases seem to be given character/initiative to struggle against their plight of an old-fashioned golden cage in which they've chosen to perch. They all at least can be motivated to help break it down somehow. (Domino, Solitaire, Andrea, Lupe, Severine). Even if sometimes it takes a touch of magic (heh -- he's talkin' about his cock!) to motivate them.

Then there are the "wrong place wrong time" girls just swept up mostly innocuously (Honey, Tracy, Natalya, Christmas, Madeleine). They all are given bravery, feistiness, resourcefulness...judiciously and sometimes disastrously applied of course but it always does surface, even if only to at least try to rescue James even if ultimately they need more help then they can provide.

The pros/working/in the business (Aki, Kissy, Mary (Goodnight--nobody calls her Mary), Anya, Holly, Pam, Wai Lin, Jinx). They vary in competence, but hey, just being a straightforward non-duplicitous agent means they are all braver and more self-sacrificing then, say, me or likely, you.

There are the conspirers (Tatiana, Pussy, Tiffany, Melina, Octopussy, Kara, Elektra, Vesper, Camille (former pro), all "modern" in a self-actualized sense; they are possibly pawns, possibly evil, possibly victims...but they are the opposite of passive. They are all, instead, plot drivers and spies and vigilantes and they are getting things done (not always nice things), whether ANYONE approves or likes it or not.

Then there is Stacy: kind of seems like a "wpwt" girl except not. She's been fighting Zorin since before James entered the picture, just civilly. And she's essentially about to become "outgunned" hence she she's not innocuous; she's actually the civilization itself that Bond must be given the task of preserving as a last resort, as the OP notes. Granted I'm not sure if this makes her more interesting but it might make her the most pure, idealistic, trustworthy, and honorable of the whole lot!

Even if she's annoying and selectively deaf.

Now, this is a signature gun, and that is an optical palm reader.

Exactly.
You divided the bond girls in different groups and Stacy is not a part of any of them.
She's the normal and realistic bond woman.