**Spoilers** Why Not Revive Statesman With A Ritual?

If he was someone living an otherwise normal lifespan who had the powers (and thus responsibility) of a superhero, I'd be with you Sam. I find this much easier to forgive due to his being at least twice as old as a normal person.

It's still bowing out, and I can respect someone not respecting that, but for me, being 100+ and still needing to fight the good fight, with no natural end in sight? In a world with resurrection and a pretty definite (if unspecified) afterlife, I can totally see someone passing on a rez eventually.

Psyche is in her 90s at this point. Lady Grey is mysteriously old, and doesn't seem to age. Silos (admittedly not a "hero") is over one million years old, if I recall correctly. The rest I don't recall.

I assumed the reasoning was fairly simple: he doesn't have the powers of Zeus anymore. I'm paraphrasing like all hell here, but I believe it was Prometheus who said that whomever kills an Incarnate claims their power. You bring back Statesman sans Zeus powers, he's no longer effectively immortal, and he falls over in a slump and dies real quick from age. Rinse and repeat until he's fed up with you for trying, and just stays in whatever afterlife he's found himself in.

Sure, they could do something where they revive him, put him in stasis or something, and find a way to let him reclaim the powers of Zeus by striking down Wade or something like that. But then you'd all complain that it was lazy writing and he should have stayed dead. There's no "winning" here.

Ouroboros means that we should be able to go back in time and talk the Praetorian Hamidon Pasalima out of a career in science.
Or stop Stefan Richter ever reaching the Well of the Furies.
Or warn the world in advance about the first Rikti invasion.

I have to admit, having played the SSA and seen States get it, I like Kurrent's re-write better. Much more epic, and oh so very cool!
It actually makes States and his partners look good, unlike being suckered into a trap and just giving up.

Please don't. Statesman should have gone the way of the dodo LONG ago. Now that he's finally dead and gone, let's leave him that way.

I am hoping that the Devs are considering the input they are receiving on Statesman's death and are taking it into account as they wrap it up.

Personally, I want us to find out that Statesman's death was the only way that WE would be able to successfully defeat the Oncoming Storm ... or that Statesman's death actually helps defeat Wade in the long run.

I fully intend when Blue Battler faces down Wade for the final battle that he's going to call on the Echo of Statesman power so Marcus can get payback.

I want to give a bit of context on my comment about not having many signature characters beyond a human lifespan.

First of all, I don't consider 90 or even 100 year old people to be beyond this human lifespan. Granted, that's pushing it and most people at that age aren't exactly hopping between rooftops and crane-kicking villains in the face, but heroes are just better like that. They're awesome even at an old age, and a lot of them don't age.

But there's a difference between a teenager who's never going to age but is still 15 years old and a 700-year-old teenager who stopped ageing at 15.

Secondarily, I really DID neglect a lot of the secondary or peripheral characters, and should have narrowed my statement down to the Phalanx, themselves. Yes, most of them are old, but none of them that I can think of are TOO old. The Statesman really is/was pushing it, but only a little.

I will admit that Lady Grey is a good example of what I meant, as is Foreshow, I think. The way his character was explained to me, he's effectively the Mary Sue they invented to butt the Statesman off the City of Hero posters in what I can only describe as an insulting case of stereotyping, because Koreans won't buy something that doesn't have a Lineage character on the cover. As such, Foreshadow is incredibly powerful, very old and quite the rule-breaker, and he ought to count.

My beef, really, is with the Phalanx, since at least two of those people were characters the lead developers at the time brought with them. Jack brought the Statesman from his Champions PNP if I recall correctly, and Matt made Positron himself. But though most of them are old, none of them are really ancient, and I do miss that. Obviously, being ancient isn't strictly "cooler" than being of human age, but I do wish there were a tad more variety in the Freedom Phalanx.

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To put my foot in my mouth completely, let me explain where I'm coming from when I talk about "variety" in a fictional group by presenting one of my own, comprised of five people. I actually do have and play all of these characters, and no, I don't believe they're all that good or all that special or that the group is "better" than the phalanx. This is just context, not an example. I have:

Cedric, leader and basic human from an alternate Earth who conquered his world and used its combined science and industry to give himself ridiculously potent super powers. About 200 years old.

Iprit, a sentient, malicious construct of toxic chemicals and poisons that's essentially pollution given sentience and wrapped around the carcasses of dead animals. About 20 years old, give or take. Works with Cedric as an oportunity to poison and infest.

Shaffakoom, an almost completely invulnerable lizardman and last of his kind, champion of his world and his species. Around 1000 years old. Works for Cedric through slavery and shame.

Duriel, an insect alien brood queen, progenitor of her entire race. Well over 7 billion years old since she first evolved on her home planet, then proceeded to infest her entire solar system. Works for Cedric in exchange for inter-stellar travel technology.

Lurian - A powerful psychic mercenary with grand ambitions who survives by feeding on the essence of sentient beings. Around 600 years old. Works for Cedric in return for a position as commander of the army and free access to the minds of every soldier.

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Yes, I realise I don't exactly have a lot of people of human age, nor indeed a lot of humans, but that was my driving goal when I made these guys - venture as far afield as my imagination could stretch and pull together a group as eclectic as I could manage it. Again, I don't offer this as an example of good writing or even as a good idea, but merely as an illustration of my train of thought when looking at the subject matter.

*edit*
And why doesn't anyone like MY retelling of the death of the Statesman?

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.

I kinda assumed that the ritual in question wouldn't work on everyone.

Like there might be dozens of theoretical magical rez rituals lying around on dusty shelves, mostly unused, as each one only works on 1% or less of the population, and some have drawbacks.

In my head, I was picturing Ms. Liberty reading some intel reports and remembering a mystic ritual that worked to return someone from the dead. Only, since the ritual invokes Charon, it only works on someone "tied to Tartarus or Hades". And the use of the Amber Widow means there has to be some resonance with the symbolism of that item representing a million year old "anchor" of "suspended life.". Ms. Liberty realizes that with Recluse's Incarnate ties, his love for the Widow counts as a tie to the Greek underworld, and the spider in amber called a widow is pretty good match for sympathetic magic on an arachnos agent with "widow" in her code name.

Or maybe it's more simple than that, and the ritual only works on female assassins. Which wouldn't create a long list of candidates that Ms. Liberty would want to drag out of the underworld.

I just wish Ms. Liberty at *least* had one line of dialogue with something like her shaking her head sadly, and wishing that this particular ritual would work on some people she could think of that would be more deserving of a second chance at life. Then she could put that regret aside and continue with the plan, "working with what she's got."