Who Do(n't) You Save?

We're all told that heroes are supposed to be selfless paragons who help everyone. But under (almost) every mask is a person, with their own feelings, biases, and prejudices. So let's be honest here: are there any times when your hero... hesitates? Or even refuses? Or rescues from monsters only to arrest them yourself?

I'm not talking about what the game throws at us, not about "no kidnaps, plz" or "I don't feel like fighting Thorns today." This is more a roleplaying thing. This is about your character. What's their blind spot?

Fascists? Hippies? Domestic abusers? Lawyers? Crey? Malta?

Well, there's a lot of people Ghost Wake would regret saving... Arachnos... Nemesis, Malta, various independent villains and a couple custom villain groups that I've yet to introduce in Ghost's story but there isn't a situation he'd refuse to save someone. In his eyes, it s a dishonorable act and he would be disgraced if that ever happened. Better to die than live in dishonor.

Whoa! I have a LOT of characters and all with background stories so this could take forever but a few that stand out include:

Agent M-1 who was, at time, a mutant with special powers until Crey got hold of her and used her to test variety of methods they were developing to strip supers of their abilities. Manticore convinced her to train until her "Natural" power emerged.... ANYTIME she can get a mission again Crey she is more than ready to go.

Solaris Vantu is an alien and her home work was destroyed by the Rikti so she will do anything, short of abandoning a mission, to tackle and defeat them.

Kimiko Mioshi is a college professor with an interest in ancient artifacts, sort of my female version of Indiana Jones.. Fedora included, so she is usually found battling Circle of Thorn or Banished Pantheon to take back magical artifacts they have stolen.

Ragin' Rebel is a wild Cajun with Mutant abilities and simply likes a good fight. Having earned the TAsk Force Commander title he lves nothing better than chanrging headlong into huge mobs and using his super strength to pound on minons. lieutenants and bosses until nothing is left standing. When a call goes out for help with any Giant Monster he grins happily and heads off to kick some serious butt. LOL

Taxibot Sara is an android with an emotion chip that seems to delight in driving Malta insane. Using her superior invisibility she will sneak into their bases and conuse the Sappers and Gunslingers that make some heroes cringe and confuse them. Once she turns them on their own men her Phantom Army and Phantasm rush forward to defeat all. Originally designed and built by Crey for sale to the military before the project was abandoned due to budget cuts she discovered Countess Crey planned to reprogram her to battle superheroes and escaped after a heated battle... anytime she can thwart the Countess and her evil plans she is ready to jump in and ruin the Countess' day.

Most of my characters became more active after or during the first Rikti invasion so they are all inclined to rush to battle the Rikti menace at any given time. All but a few belong to both Vanguard and the Midnighter Club so they have dedicated themselves to eliminating this menace for good. All seem to enjoy the challenge of a good Giant Monster fight.

as for DON'TS .. in a RP sense none of them really have any group they simply won't battle.

Kaelinia always balks at those missions to break up perfectly good gang wars.

Field Supervisor Orr goes out of her way to save Crey/Paragon Protectors in those few missions where it happens... then turns them over to the cops.

Erica Strauss rescues people, then, if they happen to be from a villain group or just somebody she doesn't like, gives them a choice: They can fight her and if they win, they go free. Or they can just go to jail.

I don't think there are any missions to rescue demons, but if there were, Hail Striker wouldn't be winning any medals.

I think the only two heroes I have who are almost completely unbiased here are Shatterware and Blazeknight, because they're both goody-two-shoes.

Of the ones who I roleplayed heavily...

Rook is a Pollyanna and would try to save everyone, no matter what.

Silver Needle wouldn't save those who are attempting to enslave others against their will. It'd be a bit more complex than that but not sure I could put it into words at the moment.

Obscene Jester would burn it all down but not children. He can't bring himself to do that. So I guess he'd save kids or at least not target them.

Hard Candy has a hated of Fortunatas so she'd never save them and actively charges them in fights. Otherwise she'd only save those she considered friends.

Communists.

In Croatoa, Than fights for the other side.

None of my toons likes to save hippies, They're just one step away from becoming Devoring Earth

Jericho has a hard time saving any Thorn for any reason.

Aden (aka Shadez) will happily gut anything that looks like it's related to the Snakes. Dragons are Snakes with 4 legs and wings. Lizardmen are Snakes with legs. Scaly humanoids of any form are fair game.

My WS will not fight 5th Column. She is from a universe that the column won WWII, and they did so with nictus integrating them into galaxy soldiers. She is wary about fighting council, however, since she is part of them. Well, she is a nictus afterall.

I don't save Percy Winkley. Or Fusionette. They're both twits and really should go get kidnapped together.

Whom would my characters not save? Ask rather, whom would they save save.

My main, Sofia, is an anti-hero(ine) at her most moral and charming, and she is not particularly inclined to practice mercifulness in the face of the Zig's revolving door policy. The woman's philosophy is that the only way a villain does not come back to haunt you is if you'd put two bullets through their head, and have seen them buried. If they are magic, the requirements escalate to an additional silver bullet in the chest, and a stake through the heart.

Due to her rather amoral morality, though, she tends to be lenient towards what she considers petty criminals; Family, Crey, not to mention Skulls, Hellions and Outcasts.

On the other hand, she feels it her... familial, I suppose, duty to oblige the 5th Column and Council at every possible opportunity. I could swear the woman actually keeps count to six million as she goes. A disturbing sort of vendetta.

Despite the fact that she became active during the first Rikti invasion, and since then has been severely wounded in the second invasion, she bears no grudges. Obviously, when an army of Rikti is headed her way, she won't wave a white flag at them, but she's never gone out of her way to murder people (things?) who'd gone to war just because they thought humans were invading their homeworld.

She tends to de-possess Circle mages without thinking twice. And she also has a real and personal thing fro people who burn, steal or misuse books.

My hero characters try to save everyone they can. They're not warriors or assassins, they're heroes, and they're there to protect and serve the people - even if those people try to fight back.

The only things they would "kill" outright are robotic creatures, demons, Devouring Earth.... that kind of thing. Humans are never "killed", only "arrested".

Considering I only have two main characters that actively go out and fight crime (in both the isles and Paragon), I'll save myself some time and just focus on them.

Duke (A.K.A. NightErrant my Brute/Scrapper) is the classic Guardian Type Superhero. He saves -everyone-. He does have a bit of a grudge against Crey (for putting him in the Zig after he stumbled on a few things about the Countess...) and the Rikti (since... you know... half of his family consisted of Midnighters. And his best friend was held hostage in a Rikti Prison Camp on the Rikti Homeworld for two weeks...).
The only group he doesn't fight (willingly...) is Longbow. Legacy Chain he can do though (There was an incident involving his girlfriend and some over zealous Chainers...)

Vince (Vincent/Vince Morse, my Stalker/Scrapper), doesn't have anyone he won't fight. In fact, he really, really, really, enjoys fighting. A lot. Especially Spiders. He -loves- beating on Spiders. And Hellions.

He hates Arachnos because he was a native of Cap Au Diable before he went Meta, and he hates Hellions because his main rival is an Ex-Hellion.

The Silver Sledge beats on Council every chance he gets. Hates the buggers. All the more satisfying because as an Inv/SS tanker they pose zero threat to him and he can run amuck.

Jae is pretty much saves everyone, its gotten her into trouble a lot

Terra sees no reason to break up gang fights, territory wars if they aren't involving innocents, etc, and really only saves people from their own stupidly if someone is looking. She will always save innocents and people who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time

I don't think anyone else has any particular hangups

Rebound/Statesboy saves pretty much everyone, unless they're a Rikti.

Electrical Forestess will save anyone and anything. Except lawyers. She doesn't like lawyers...

Spectreblade generally tries to save anyone in danger, but as a modern-day chivalrous knight, he has a soft spot for damsels in distress and an intense dislike of those who would harm or take advantage of women. And even above and beyond the demands of the code of Chivalry, it was a jealous rival for the heart of one such damsel that bound the soul of his armor's original owner to it, and since then, the spirit of the armor has felt a need to make up for that failure to save her from him.

As for the tangent of who he actively seeks out battles with, he has a dislike for Rikti, who killed many of his co-workers at the museum he worked at during their first invasion, while he was powerless to stop them. In light of the recent revelations about their motives for attacking, he has become more tolerant of Traditionalist Rikti, but Restructurists are still fair game.

Little Mousie: He's out to save everyone he can, even the people he's fighting. He honestly feels that, if he stops them, they might finally change their ways. He knows it's unlikely, but it's more likely than if nobody does anything.

He still performs "mercy killings" in very rare cases, but it has to be truely the best thing for the person. He has also been known to "kill" CoT, using an enchanted sword to derail the escaping soul into a soul crystal. Those, he hands over to other autorities for imprisonment.

Rocket Wolf: He's technically a villain, but he's actually a fallen hero. He caught some drug dealers he'd arrested before having a shootout in a school playground. (It was Saturday, thankfully.) Turned out that they were fighting over whos territory the playground was for drug sales. He snapped, and saw a large wood chipper nearby... He had fed six of 'em in by the time the Vindicators showed up and Ms Liberty nearly shattered his jaw with a right hook.

He's working in the Isles now, but still considers himself a hero. He escaped during transport to the Zig when a woman in a black leather bodysuit attacked the police van and freed him so he could clean up the Isles. He's not certan he knows who she was, but she had one hell of a right hook...

Obsidian Dire: He considers the Devouring Earth a major threat, and destroys them every chance he gets. This isn't done out of anger, he's simply being practical.

Catnip Mouse: He hates the Council. He flat out wants them dead. That having been said, for the sake of a missing friend/foe, he goes out of his way to make sure that any he fights survive. He'll arrest them, but he no longer kills them.

Rikti...they killed my family, they can all burn in hell.