*spoilers* The Freedom Phalanx are incompetent!

I guess Darrin (yes, I finally learned the correct spelling of his name) proves to be a fool in the end, as well, though his foolishness is much easier to accept, and not nearly as bad. What I gathered from his writing was that he spent the last ten years learning how to kill the Statesman and ONLY the Statesman, and anyone else has has to deal with he has to essentially improvise. The original idea was to use the Statesman's powers to kill my character - a brutish, uncouth, uninspired plan if ever I saw one - which he chickens out on almost immediately when it's proven my character is not nearly as susceptible to being punched with lightning as he thought.

True, Wade does mention "other plans," but summoning the Aspect of Ruladak appear to have been these "other plans," because when THAT fails, Wade's response is to be irritated he didn't spend the last 10 years learning how my past self was defeated. Ignoring the lunacy of "my past self" (Jun is an earth girl, so maybe? But what if she'd been an alien? Or a time traveller?), that seems to be the extent of Darryn's forward planning for additional complications. He just assumed it would all click into place. He has the Obelisk, yes, but I surmise that and the Statesman's powers tie into his plan for Rularuu.

I say Darrin proves to be a fool because for all his planning and preparation, he didn't plan for my character. He saw her as an insignificant distraction and didn't really have any master plan to defeat her, nothing beyond "hit it till it's dead." But again, that's consistent with his character and makes for a good story, because Wade himself is still a smart, capable guy who manages to present a strong antagonist, but he does have his shortcomings, and my status as the player throws a spanner in the works. And that, really, is how you have a character fail and demonstrate flaws without coming off like an incompetent loon.

Granted, Wade isn't quite up to Nemesis level plotting, where his enemies successes are all part of his master plan, but he's close. This makes him come off lime a competent villain, and a good story needs at least one of those. What's more interesting, though, is that what flaws Wade does demonstrate are a direct result of his own strengths, rather than being tacked-on as sideways of his characters.

Let's compare to, say, Manticore. Manticore is a very skilled fighter and marksman, he is very rich, he is very smart and apparently, he's good at planning ahead. Completely separate from this, he is an *******, he as a huge ego and an inferiority complex, and he can't get along with others. It's almost as if someone took two completely different characters - one awesome and the other messed-up - then mashed them together and stomped on the pair until they melded into one character that exhibits traits from both.

Once upon a time, Praetorian Earth was said to be not a "mirror" universe where everything is opposite, but rather an "exaggerated" universe, where characters were similar, but taken to an extreme. Where Primal Earth Marcus Cole is a hero of great power and great responsibility, so Praetorian Earth Marcus Cole is a person who sees using his power as his duty in order to save his world from himself.

Wade really fits into this sort of duality. He's incredibly smart, but faith in his own intelligence leads him to overlook basic problems. His plan is perfect, but this perfection is so specific that if events deviate too much, it begins to fall apart. He has concocted for himself a situation that is so complex, to the point where even he can't fully grasp all of its complexities, just because he has grown to rely on the success of his own plans. Whether that makes his character fundamentally flawed is up for debate, but it creates a Darrin Wade whose strengths and his weaknesses are two sides of the same coin. As such, when he fails, he does not come off like an incompetent tool. And much as I dislike the guy for being a weasel... That's a very good way to have someone fail.

*edit*
Although whoever thought it was funny to put in an Aspect of Rularuu who can Total Focus me for more than my combined total hit points AND has so much accuracy - I hate your guts. It's not funny. It's annoying as hell.

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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.

You know, a question occurs to me. We know the Statesman "disappeared." Apparently, he's done this before. We know the Statesman is heartbroken and his judgement is clearly compromised. So... Why doesn't he act compromised in the slightest when confronting Darrin Wade at the ruins? I mean, I get that this is an attempt to give the guy some dignity before he dies, but from the way the Statesman is acting, it looks like he planned to do this.

People have told me that he was oh so sad that he didn't care if Darrin had set a trap and he was going in anyway, but... He doesn't act like it. In fact, he underplays the whole thing so much it feels like the guy is well in control of his feelings. Wade clearly expected the Statesman to be berserk, so he asks him "Are you going to kill him now?" and obviously baits him, but the Statesman doesn't even hesitate. He says "No. I'm taking you in. You'll rot in jail!" Which is perfectly reasonable. Hell, in that last scene up until the trap is sprung, he doesn't seem heartbroken at all. Possibly a bit upset, but, hell, I was upset at Darrin for running me all across the Isles chasing his stupid misshapen head.

So my question is... If the Statesman never intended to murder Darrin and is calm enough to not even seem tempted... Why did he run off? Why did he abandon his friends and allies? Wouldn't you WANT help when you're tracking a man this dangerous? I mean, yeah, Wade's "powerless" and the Statesman's supposedly unkillable, so he could have just been careless, but again - why make it such a big deal that he has abandoned the Phalanx and they have to go look for him, when for all intents and purposes, it looks like he was leading a very legitimate, very reasonable investigation?

Again - I don't want to sully the Statesman by having him turn into a bloodthirsty idiot who dies because of his impulsive rage. The way he goes down is actually quite heroic, and I admire him for it, even if his dead wife trying to tell him it's OK to die and have his power used to murder people is OK. That part I didn't like. But I admire the man for having the presence of mind to arrest the villain he's after and cross the moral event horizon.

But again - what happened off-screen to bridge the gap between Ms. Liberty treating her grandfather like a lost puppy she has to "find" and recover, like he's so stricken that he can't think for himself, yet when he does finally show up... The Statesman comes off like the most reasonable and probably most capable of his peers. And HE is the one who's supposed to be the deepest affected. Like hell he is! Of all the people who needed to mess up to allow for this story to happen, the Statesman is the only one whose mistake I can fully understand. He didn't know about Wade's ritual, because no-one but Wade did, so he didn't know to be careful. His entire career had taught him that he should be the one to take the charge, because he's the one that can't be killed. There was no way for him to expect this.

How do we reconcile the man man apparently so devastated he didn't think to bring backup with the man so comfortable with himself that he isn't even all that angry at Darrin Wade?

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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.

I really dislike Manticore. Even the Shining Stars arcs have him being a jerk, just because. I'd much rather have seen him die than Statesman.

Maybe part of why Manticore's been such a jerk through the SSA is because he's been working with Wade. I mean seriously, the guy does not seem like like Statesman. Didn't Manticore even kill Statesman once in the comics for the sake of power?

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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.

Again, he went alone, after he cooled down, because it's personal.

Happens in a lot of stories.

See, if the window of opportunity were smaller between when I learned of Wade's plan and when that plan actually came through, I would have less of a problem with it. However, even though a timeline is never established, one is pretty easy to infer.

See, when I learn of Wade's plan, I'm in the Rogue Isles, where his lair is. That's east of the US East Coast, but not by much. However, Wade's plan has to take place in Cimerora, which if it had anything at all to do with the Roman Empire, is somewhere in central Europe, at most Western Europe. In order for me to show up at the Cimeroran ruins, I would have to have travelled to an airport and taken a jet across the Atlantic, and even at super sonic speed, that'll take a few hours. I would also have had to charter said jet, most likely from the Freedom Phalanx.

I would need to have contacted the Freedom Phalanx at some point to requisition said jet, or even just to report back, and the news that Darrin can kill the Statesman would likely have been VERY important. Important enough to broadcast all over Cimerora for the Statesman to hear. In fact, the first thing I would have done upon leaving Wade's cave - knowing full well that he intends to kill the Statesman several hours from now, is contact Italian authorities... Or French, or Spanish or wherever Cimerora is... And had them send in a chopper with a Loudspeaker running the message that "Attention Statesamn! Darrin Wade knows of a way to kill you!" Technically, the Statesman does not need rescue, he needs warning, and sending a message via radio, internet, telephone or any other form of instant communication is a lot quicker than sending ME over there. Local authorities should be able to mobilise within minutes, whereas it would take me hours to cross the Atlantic and arrive just in time for the Statesman to die.

The other side of that coin is the Statesman doesn't act like he's in turmoil on the inside. He doesn't look like he's holding bestial rage inside his heart, ready to burst out and crush Darrin's head like an overripe melon. I'm sure he's tortured, but the way the Statesman acts, it comes off like he's already made peace with his inner demons and is resolved to be a better person. That's why I'd have thought he'd start by picking up a phone and saying "Yeah, Liberty? Sorry I ran off, but I have Darrin. I'll bring him back to Paragon City soon." This would then give Ms. Liberty the opportunity to channel Admiral Ackbar and go "It's a trap!"

I get what they're trying to do here. It's the classic "a day late and a dollar short" story where the rescue arrives just a moment too late. However, it just seems like there were so many ways to warn the Statesman or summon help for him from abroad without having to go there in person, or at least BEFORE going there in person.

And again - why am I there alone? Wouldn't the rest of the Phalanx have wanted to come help out? I'm sure they have more direct access to Atlantic-crossing-capable aircraft sitting in their HQ than I do on the butt end of the Rogue Isles deep inside enemy territory.

Stories like these rely on robbing me of my ability to warn the victim, robbing me of my ability to summon help and forcing me to rush over alone. And if this were happening across the island I was on, I could see how I could be the only one who could respond in time, but when you're talking about travelling from America to Europe, that really opens up just too big a gap of time for someone to have done something.

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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.

I assumed I had access to a means of rapid travel in order to get there when I did.

You're also assuming that any message sent to Statesman via local authorities would reach him in time. If Statesman flightspeed is anywhere near the speed of Superman's, that is unlikely.

I was assuming that I had access to some form of instant, or near instant transportation in order to reach the island the confrontation took place. Since my character has quite a bit of technology at his disposal, that one was easy for me to hand wave away.

Assuming that my cyborg character who designed all of his own cybernetics himself also invented a teleporter isn't a big stretch, ya know? But that's a specific character consideration. (It also helps that the majority of my characters at least know each other)