Who Will Die?

I was curious of everyone's opinion of the Signature Story arcs so far. When I ran the first one I had a bit of a groan at the fact that it's a "steal the hero's powers" story. After all the great stories from the new content, to go back to such a basic superhero plot like that really disappointed me, but it got me thinking on who is going to die, and I think it will be Statesman. We know there is one more obelisk in play and a hero is going to die, but which hero would you have to take their powers away to kill them, Statesman. The majority of the Phalanx are human and powers or no can be killed. Aside from the one who is already dead, and the robot. Now Sister Psyche may be one that would have to be rendered powerless to stop her from mind riding away, but these obelisks were made to take power from the gods themselves, and why would you settle on any powers but the cream of the crop? Now, I know Statesman is the face of the game, but his death would make the perfect starting point for something else, The Coming Storm. What else would trigger a catastrophic world ending event resulting in our characters stepping up to god-like incarnate powers than the death of one of the greatest heroes of Primal Earth? Now of course I know there is the more likely possibility that Citadel will "die" and just be replaced, or even if some title character goes they might just get replaced by some other world doppleganger, but I'm trusting the story crew to give us something awesome like they did in the other new content. For now, anway.

You bring up an interesting point, and with our inevitable conflict with Tyrant loom in the background, it is possible that all versions of Marcus Cole could be under attack. The only versions of Cole that we know of after Tyrant and States would be Imperious and Reichsman, who have been beaten by different sources.

Tyrant being beaten saves Praetorian Earth
Statesman being beaten dooms Primal Earth due to the many forces that are held at bay by the threat of States retaliating.

Hopefully the Heroes and Villains will have enough Incarnate power to hold off various threats.

States dying will be a big impact across the entire game. Maybe that will cause the Coming Storm, maybe that will stop it, we don't really know enough about it to say one way or the other.

Nemesis is really keeping things under wraps.

On the subject of Mender Silos/Nemesis, why doesn't he go back and "mend" starting the Rikti war in the first place? Surely this one event would have a much greater impact and Swell the amount of defense available against the "coming storm".

Or perhaps it would prevent people from seeing the need to invent an emergency medical transport system? lol

ALL the Badges! (I can get. 1396)

I'm a big fan of the Who Will Die arc up to this point. I admit to being skeptical before it launched, because it sounded like just another comic book death story. But it's been very interesting up to this point.

Stop reading if you haven't played through 'em yet, some spoilers.

SSA #1 is clearly set up to be an introduction. Other than putting forward the concept of the obelisks, not a lot happens. But it sets up Jean and the mystery bad guy, and gives you an idea of why the Phalanx is in danger. I especially like the villain side where you get Synapse's abilities as temp powers - very cool mechanic.

SSA #2 seems primarily to be a vehicle to introduce the Midnighters into the story. The bit where Darrin Wade appears seems especially important in retrospect. And the new Rularuu worshiper enemies are pretty cool. We'll see if Rularuu plays a bigger role down the line or not. I like the third mission of this one where you jump through all those Shadow-Shard-style portals, I always liked those.

SSA #3 is a big move forward story-wise, with the revealing of Malaise and Darrin Wade. I'm a bit surprised that Wade has it in him to coordinate a plot, he always seemed like a bit player before. I wouldn't be surprised to find out down the line that he's just another puppet. Obviously the death of Miss Liberty is going to bring the wrath of Statesman down someplace. I wouldn't be at all surprised if along about episode seven, we suddenly discover that Statesman can bring her back to life by sacrificing himself. Mechanically, the best bit of this one is the hero side third mission where you fight Blitz. Love the flyer with AA-guns.

My guess is that Arc 7 will bring about the death of Statesman. The name was retired as a dev name after Jack left, the current devs have their red names already, and it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to give any future "newcomers" the name. In the eyes of many players, seeing it reappear may cause nightmares of days gone by. The name is, effectively, retired.

This could be a way to retire the character to match the retirement of the name.

I also agree that this fits with what we know about the Coming Storm. We were told from the beginning that the heroes would be unable to deal with whatever it is because of "other events". The death of a leader would certainly fit that bill.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frosty_Femme I said "ur" which is not a word. It's a sound dumb people make when you ask them to spell out "you are".

Uh, the problem I have with Miss Liberty coming back is the villain side of SSA 3...won't she be mad that "you" pulled the trigger on her? (if you did) lol

ALL the Badges! (I can get. 1396)

If it's not Manticore I'm going to Brickstown and killing him myself.

+Spoiler Alert+

Well didn't they already kill Statesmen Daughter already, So didn't they strip her power away or am i wrong, in order to get a god power Someone most die right.

This arc has really gotten better as I've gone so far. I felt like the starting mission was a bit weak, but man the villain stuff just gets better. The entire Sister Psyche stuff is just awesome. The throwback to the Dirge of Chaos artifact was a nice touch, but man Johnny Sonata is a horrible song writer, the song didn't even attempt to rhyme. I've also had a another thought that makes me all the more sure that Statesman is going to die. We're going to kill Tyrant, the Praetoria stiff is coming to an end and it would be symbolic if after the defeat of Tyrant that his good counterpart would also fall. Or they could just be leading all of this to one big tease and kill someone else off at the last second.

I think Part 4 was classic comic story telling, felt dynamic as both a hero and a villain, and tied up many of the various dangling threads from 1-3 nicely. I really enjoy it and my interest for 5 has nudged up a notch.

In particular, for the villain side, seeing the Phalanx stand around and discuss my character was pretty sweet.

On another note, this story sure is being rough on folks.

Does anyone know if there's any connection to the Villain and Hero stories in Who Will Die? I saw someone mention that hero side you disarm the missiles, but in a later mish one is launched in the background. Was that the villain half of the arc that makes the missile launch? I know for all the missions it doesn't, since the Synapse arc just has the Vil getting his powers only to lose them when the obelisk goes boom. And also it took a while to hit me, but WHo Will Die is a "Villains Win" story isn't it? Someone is dying no matter what the hero side does, and no matter how heroic a sacrifice the dying hero may make, Villains still win. I've gotten so used to Villains not getting their way for some reason or another that I didn't really think about the fact that no matter the side you play this arc on Villains will be getting a pretty big victory with the death of a Phalanx member.

My solo battle with Blitz was truly Epic! More of that please!!

I mean, the missions are pretty cool with a team and all, but that doesn't deliver the same rush as handling him solo.

Man, this story gets better and better with each arc. I can't wait to see how it all turns out. For my money, I still think the true mastermind hasn't been revealed. Wade is just a misdirection for a few arcs. What a magnificent end for Malaise as well. Perhaps now the players can finally get his pants. ;p

The death has been revealed. Head over there if you want to read the spoiler.

http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/n..._statesman.php

I'm wondering if the dev team is trying to stick it to Jack Emmert or not, as it was his creation from way back in the pen and paper RPG days. Quite frankly though (name redacted) was a one dimensional not so interesting character to begin with.

http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/n..._statesman.php



This kind of seems like a setup to me. Too many times we've seen in comics where someone "dies" and either comes back or comes back as another character.

I must say their revealing it out of game smacks of some type of trickery. I think if he were really going to die (or at least in a permanent way), they wouldn't have revealed it in this manner. And there are what... 3 more parts to go?

Still, it should be interesting... the last two parts have been rather interesting in how they have ratcheted up the story. Easy to dislike Malaise, but I kinda didn't like having him die, either (well... assuming he did... darn comics).

To Malaise though that was his ultimate masterpiece. True Sacrifice in the name of his art. Despite the comic book themes of the game, there have been plenty of dead heroes. Villains have a nasty habit of not staying dead, looking at you Protean. Still I'm a bit surprised that they'd just reveal it like that too. Were they tired of us speculating? That's half the fun of these things. Man the Phalanx is going to hate us.

I just finish the new arc and must say i don't really know where they want to go with this.

For me, look likes Darrin Wade was Malaise secret contac.Why would you let a lacky kill the heroes, It's the masterminds that always get the kill and steal their power in that matter.

But what make me think that he was the brain of it was his dialogo, He want to bring the Rulajaruu to primal Earth under his completed control.

Since i'm thinking this way, I could be a plot from a third unknow party that it's using wade to do all his dirty job just to steal his powers at the end and Make a New Super Villains or Hero.

Nemesis plots??