How Would YOU Have Written Statesman?

There is a fairly large number of folks who have responded to the announcement of Statesman's impending demise with "Hooray!" and the only possible regret being that they have wanted to do it themselves earlier. Statesman's "self-righteousness" and "arrogance" are often cited.

There is another group who have expressed dismay at the announcement. They have cited Statesman's selflessness and nobility. (Full disclosure: I am in this latter group.)

How on earth can both groups be referring to the same person? The answer is, of course, that the writing for Statesman has visited both extremes.

So let me pose the question: how would YOU have written the Statesman character so that he would be a character that you would want to keep around? What would you have changed about his presentation? What actions did he officially take that you would have done differently?

I believe you haven't taken into consideration the many Jack Emmett haters in the community and the wish to wipe away any reminders of the man from the game. Statesman was his ingame persona and thus in many minds is just as reviled as the man himself. I never followed the forums much at first, so I do not have the bitterness associated with the man for his deceit and outright lies to the community.
So I believe some of the Statesman bashing is really Emmett bashing.

To be honest, I'd say that both of the characterizations are, on differing levels, true. I think the selflessness and nobility are a more muted but constant aspect of States' personality, whereas the self-righteousness and arrogance are an occasional but emphasized part.

States has been heroing for a long, long time. He's been 'The' Hero as far as global concerns go for nearly as long as well. To say the guy isn't selfless when he's done this as long as he has, and has been continuing to doing it, well that just strikes me as not giving credit where it's due. However, he has been around for forever and a half, so I can easily see the attitude of 'Mightier than thou' boiling up on occasion, given the fact that (once again) he was and still is 'The' Hero. Though, looking at it, the occasional bouts of anger and frustration that States has make him seem like a much more human character. Think of how often normal people can fly off the handle at things, overreact on a daily basis. Now think of how often States does it (in-game, he's always been shown speaking with calm authority unless something really bad is happening). His arrogance only goes so far (after all, it isn't like he's the one lording over a royally screwed dimension with dreams of conquest).

With the build-up of the Incarnate Arcs, and the Well's power growing, is States attempting to step aside and let the next wave of heroes take over? Yes, but he's been doing that for a while, and even now he's got his reasons (he doesn't want to Well to take him over any more than it has). Is that selfish of him? Well yes, but does he not deserve the option to try and remain himself, especially after all he's done? IMO, sometimes selfishness is deserved (when it concerns if you'll still be 'you' or a super-powerful puppet, very much deserved).

I wouldn't have written him much differently at all; I'd have just attempted to tie those two character aspects closer together (so that folks don't pick from one extreme to the other) and would have been a bit more forthright in State's motivations (so people don't assume he's just telling them what to do because he can).

I'm pretty sure it's impossible to create a character that is universally liked by all.

I admit, I see Statesman as an avatar for Jack, and whilst I liked a lot of Jack's ideas, I disliked his pigheadedness. Paragon Studios has moved on, and for a shock death storyline, Statesman's a good choice, and it took me by surprise (Just because he's the most well known).

For the character himself? He seems a bit over used, in that he's mentioned all over the place, and he's got so many clones. (Imperious, Tyrant, Reichsman, likely a billion others). Other heroes don't have that much exposure, and even then, it's that in every timeline and every dimension, he's always the most important person.

If he wasn't being written out, I'd suspect that the Rikti are lead by War Chief M'cus C'ol, the Battalion was lead by StatesAlien and that Lord Nemesis turned out to be a senile Cole from the future, having lost his marbles from travelling too far back in time.

I would have started with examining the name, "Statesman", and gone from there.

He should have been regularly known to take a stand for what he believed was right, and he should have given speeches that were simple yet powerful, inspiring people to do the right thing. While doing so, he should have conveyed emotion without appearing angry or irrational.

While it is an interesting angle to portray him as an immortal that has disconnected emotionally from the world because his loved ones die, it is a character type that people don't generally connect with, and so doesn't really work well as a flagship character. It would have been better to have had his longevity instead make him feel more connected to humanity as a whole rather than specific individuals, and feel a greater responsibility not just to protect, but to lead and inspire people.

I feel that the arrogant, impatient, disconnected personality for Statesman that we saw in the comics was a waste of a brilliant character concept and design.

Well, I have written Statesman in several stories here, but in terms of the game ...

I have no idea who wrote it, but there's a mid-twenties Rogue to Hero mission where you infiltrate a Fight Club and beat the heck out of Frostfire. As soon as you enter the mission you wind up disguised as Statesman. (In fact, the entire team will wind up disguised as Statesman.) You wind up having a conversation with the Fight Club organizer where you rag on Statesman-- as Statesman!-- and when the mission is over, the text says you exit to see a defeated ambush with a note from "Mr. Holier Than Thou" saying that he took care of the ambush for you while you were doing the mission.

Whoever wrote that mission nailed how to make Statesman likable in my opinion.

I'd say one of the problems is that some of the devs seem to have their own ax to grind on Statesman and likely Jack Emmert himself. So when the player base began making cracks about him, the Devs began including the jokes in-game making his character just that much worse.

I'd say let folks like Troy, BlueBattler, and Samuraiko write him to start.

Though some part of me would say, keep the self-righteous jerk characterization first, but let events of the SSA shake him up and knock him back to earth, have him lose almost all of his incarnate-dom but he realizes, just like his daughter managed to do many good things as just a diplomat, he too can still help other heroes. And while most of the time it's inspiration, he's still got years of combat experience that can let him dance circles around the common, petty crook.

But I also would do this partly because I'd love to give him a new costume/powers with a full Corinthian helm with bronze bracers and greaves, give him a bit of shield defense, willpower, electric melee, and street justice, maybe leadership powers too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

I would have given him a much more prominent presence IN THE GAME. People shouldn't have to read comics off archive PDFs that few even know where to find or a book that I'm not sure is even in print any more to understand what a character is about. I would have also put him in the game as a character, rather than as a concept. The Statesman should never have been the icon of anything. He should have been put in as a man of great power, but with a personal life behind the mask.

The trouble with Jack's baby is we have no reason to care about him.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Having been in the military, I wound up with a different interpretation of his "self-righteousness" and "arrogance." In the military, you usually have to deal with superiors who automatically see you as "worthless" until you prove your worth. This could take some time, or it might never happen. If it's the latter, you usually wind up with a very poor perception of the person... Until somebody points out to you the sorts of things that man or woman has done. It serves to alter your perceptions on how you judge a person's worth.

So, I saw Statesman as an experienced but increasingly jaded and depressed character who recognized his power, but also his own humanity. The realization that with every life he saved or every crisis he averted, SOMEBODY got hurt and held that personal tragedy against him, despite the multitudes of other people he helped, that had to wear on him over the years. Add in the fact that he has Zeus's personality traits trying to push through (the life of an avatar is not a good one) and you're going to wind up with a very damaged personality.

I probably wouldn't have written him any different if I'd ever come up with the concept, myself. Arrogant characters are easy to write... Characters that are SEEN as arrogant, despite their complex, convoluted and truly altruistic natures, are a bit more difficult to accomplish.

I haven't particularly liked him since SSA4 where I find out what he said to Miss Liberty

And I'm not sure how I'd write him. As is, I think he's fine, I just need to remember he's *not* Superman or Captain America, he's his own character. Which means... he can be a dick.

If I had the pen in my hand, he'd have been a pillar of good judgement and strength. There wouldn't have been any hostility toward Manticore; instead he'd have worked with Manticore to come to a proper solution to whatever problem there was, or at the very least, say "Whatever you choose to do you must live with it and be prepared for the consequences." Way better than "WTF MANTICORE GTFO THE PHALANX RIGHT NAO. U BAD, MANTI. BAD."

A lot of people might find this way more boring than what he is now, but he's portrayed as the big cheese of all the heroes, the head honcho and the main man of mightiness. Shouldn't that figure have a level head on his shoulders and a zen-like approach to difficult situations?

I have just never cared for Statesman because he is very generic. When I started playing I actually didn't realize he was a character in the game. I thought he was a default avatar used on the box art to represent an "everyman" hero.

Later on, I started to really dislike the character once it became clear he was sort of the game's Inspector Gadget to the player's Penny, except that the game never really provides that recognition. I might have been okay with him one time through, but three or four copies of him (all of them "the mightiest [insert the blank] the multiverse has ever known") really wears on me. That the character is the personal avatar of a real life developer adds an undercurrent of god moding that, intentional or not, is also difficult to shake.

In short, I couldn't be happier that this character is dead. I only wish he had died in the most undignified, off-screen way possible, and never mentioned again. But I have a feeling that given the character's history, he will be the "most heroic sacrifice the world has ever known."

[One not entirely related thing that IMO the lightsabre game does that City of Heroes could stand to copy is including the PC and his or her team in cut scenes, so it's not all just about the NPCs. The PC does appear at least one time, when leaving Praetoria I think. I wish there were more of that, and less banter from enemy villains about how Statesman/Cole/UniversalMightyMan is going to do such and so.]

Sexiness, an accent and sarcasm. Everyone loves that character in a book, game, movie or anything with those.

Dear Op I am sorry that the Selfless Icon you love NEVER EXISTED.

Here are the facts that I have been aware of since year one that apparently it took blatant spelling out to make most aware, or retconning of plots to change what was.

Marcus Cole ceased to exist the moment he drank from the well. The entity called zeus consumed his soul, and took his body for himself. This isnt the first time zeus has done such, how do you think heracles was concieved.

Zeus being an extra dimensional entity that exists as a fixed point in existance uses the many avatars that are the various marcus coles through out the multi verse to wage a one man war to create a pervasive aura of fear permeating many Earths. This leads to more worshipping his various selves and increases his power exponentially. I know some who even suspected for the longest time that is what made Cole special, he is kind of like Jet Li in The One and connected. Zeus stole his bodies to usurp that connection.

The war with the rikti was actually started by Statesman using the excuse that he has the right to police the multiverse he harrassed nemesis forces while they conducted peaceful trade with the rikti. This was later retconned to be a nemesis plot but was infact always meant to be the actual truth. Much as it was another heroes fault that Hal Jordans beloved home city was destroyed and drove him to villaindom. The rikti long ago did away with thier meta and see them as inherently evil. It is not at all evil but a desire to free humanity that drives thier cause.

Also is the strong possibility that Nemesis is just a creation of statesman. Another tin soldier being used to manipulate how humanity worships statesman.

I personally dont even feel one of him dieing is enough. Until all Coles are dead across the multi verse none of us our free.

Until that day comes, know people of earth Count Alphonse Crey and his loyal wife will do all they can to protect us.

Crey! Because they care.