Longbow .. Friend? Foe? or whatever

The ones Heroes fight are always rogue members of Longbow.

It is kind of funny how many rogue Longbow cells there are according to tip missions. It's also a little odd that with a full team some of those renegade bands have two or three hundred members. Longbow must have some amazing recruiters if they can keep their organization fully staffed in spite of that. Then again tips also routinely demonstrate that the less-than-one hundred Knives of Artemis that exist in the whole world manage a few extremely productive cloning facilities yet callously deny full membership status to said clones.

But hey, the real point is that Longbow are the goodies-two-shoes that everyone loves to hate. The only reason they get on my nerves is their boring red outfits, and mainly because I much prefer blue.

IMHO, Longbow only gets considered "good" because of good PR by Libs. I mean, excessive force ("That guy has a bat, shoot him and set him on fire!" - admittedly our heroes do that too, but still,) pretty much running roughshod everywhere, invading a sovereign nation...

Of course, my general opinion of Ms. Liberty isn't that great, either. As in hothead that never grew up. So it's no surprise that Longbow is the way it is. It is, as best, wildly vigilante. (Besides, look at the dialog they get redside, at least - they have no interest in "arresting" anyone or even considering someone's situation might put them into what they consider being a "villain." Nope. It's "I have no sympathy, they're all scum.") So I guess we can add zealotry to their description, as well.

At least Hero Corps is honest in that they're "doing it for the money." Never hear anything about them, though.

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It would have been more interesting if they had made some of the incidental chatter in CoV missions a bit more conciliatory, wouldn't it? Either everyone really is out to get you or you're kicking the most virtuous puppy in the world in the face, nothing exists between those extremes. At least that's on its way out if more recent villain-ish content is any indication. It would also be great if WWD7 is a portent of things to come: I want more opportunities for heroes to go totally mental with no provocation!

I don't know and it got even more confusing in February when an "off duty, out of uniform" Ms Liberty sent my characters off on a mission to perform a ritual to revive the Red Widow.. a former flame of Lord Recluse. The ritual goes badly and Red Widow seems bent on killing Recluse.

Now granted most heroes try hard not to take any life even one as twisted and nasty as Recluse but it seems to me that simply allowing Red Widow to assasinate Recluse would throw Arachnos into a state of total confusion which would allow Longbow, the organization Ms. Liberty helped create, to attack and possibly even defeat the organization once and for all. Instead we take off and steal Cupid's Bow and Arrows and shoot Red Widow with them so she resumes her role as Recluse's girl friend.

Villain side this make perfect sense since the BOSS now owes you a huge favor for getting him back his favorite lady but on the BLUE side of the game.. why on earth are we playing Matchmaker for a evil mastermind bent on ruling the world?


So you see the problems at Longbow HQ start at the very top and go downward. No wonder so many Rogue cells exist.. obviously the general rule of thumb is .. do whatever you feel like .. just make sure your outfit is clean so you look good doing it Oh and always remember rule #1 .. when it doubt run away

Added: Oh almost forgot to add that the entire Valentine's Day mission takes place AFTER Statesman has died. Along with wondering exactly why Ms. Lib had me being essentially Recluse's pimp I couldn't help but wonder .. If we know a ritual that can bring back the dead why are we using it to bring back an Arachnos Widow instead of bringing back... STATESMAN? During the LRSF States assembles a huge group of signature heroes to seek revenge when we defeat Ms. Liberty but little Megan hates grandpap so bad she'd rather bring back a Villain than revive her own Grandfather? Mental note: Do not piss off Ms. Liberty EVER! hehehe

Longbow have always been bad guys, so nothing new there.

Longbow was going rogue (And rouge) before it was the cool thing to do.

Longbow are pretty much loose cannon vigilantes. They're intent is good, but they definitely take it into villain category. TBH, Wyvern's at least as bad. Just less prolific.

I don't know if they're good or evil. But they ARE jerks.

Longbow's main targets tend to be metahuman, and as such their methods can be prone to excessive force. After all, normal amounts of force just won't cut it against most villains. The result of this, of course, is that it becomes really, really easy for them to cross the line. It also makes them a bit frightening in the eyes of civilians... take for example the bio for the Longbow Flamethrower.

I think some of what's gone on with the longbow is just the writers going along with what lots of players decided they were

Hero group stopping villains to the players became "OMG they're really badguys invading foriegn land" to lots of players.