Lurker > Inviso

Now, this whole write-up may be filled with inaccuracies, because I admit that I have very little in the way of personal interaction with Rex. I was not part of any of the missions that brought him to Zonn Zorr, and I rarely get involved with him outside of the occasional scene where Pepper is recuperating from a mission in the med bay. This ranking is based entirely on how well-written I feel Rexs plot is without needing to get Pepper involved. That being said, I certainly wouldnt mind to build a relationship with Rex. I mean, Pepper is a good Mormon girl at heart (most of the time), and her boyfriend is an old pal of Rexsso theres certainly room there for some work to be done. Really though, itd be nice to take an old dog and just let him rest a bit, getting pets while hearing that hes a good boy. The best, even.

Hint for #8: Has been involved in romantic drama during the campaign.

I think its important to note that Rex, as a character, is the ultimate good dog. Hes a heroic dog, but hes not like a Krypto who gets it done with superpowers. Hes just a normal dog that helped soldiers on the front lines during World War II, and drank from the Fountain of Youth to gain the longevity needed for him to still be alive in the modern day. As such, Rex has spent a lot of time around humans, both working with him, and serving as a kind of pet to some of the better ones. Not Wonder Woman though; hes not like Krypto or Ace where having a word in his name immediately means he belongs to the associated superhero. Meanwhile, Data is largely uncomfortable with humans. There are some he lets past his defenses, but after being experimented on, hes much more in favor of animal supremacy, or at least equality. While this translates to harsh treatment of, say, Pixies desire to be nothing more than a pet, Data is unwilling to speak out against Rexs affinity for humankind.

I dont see Rex as really pushing his lifestyle on Data, either, but rather he simply exists to serve as an example for how you can still hold your head high without needing to be combative about the assumed societal role a dog (or other animal) has compared to humans. When Rex is around, he tempers some of Datas more reckless impulses as a result. Additionally, I mentioned that Data messes around with the other animals (or anthropomorphs, in Ferdinands case), both out of youthful exuberance, but also because he views himself as a failure for allowing several of the friends that he made in No Mans Land to be hurt or captured on his watch. He views himself as weak, and needs to better himself and be the kind of strong dog that wont let anyone take his friends away. Data 7 is his attempt to cast aside the innocence and naivete of Artemis, in this way.

I think Rex understands where Data is coming from, and when Data tries to train with him or wrestle with him, those are the scenes that feel the most genuine in tone. This isnt some random animal that Data is fooling around with out of animal solidarity, but rather his father, who he loves and respects, and has experience with becoming strong and solid in his own right. Rex will allow Data to practice his fighting, endurance and stealth, with the understanding that its what his son feels that he needs at this point in time. Aside from the occasional line, like how Data shouldnt sneak into Rexs medical supplies because said supplies are very important, Rex is just there for Data in a way he needs in his life, particularly with so many of his friends and allies missing at first, when he got tubed.

If this was all Rex had going for himself, I think it would still be enough to land him on my list, but certainly not a top ten spot. No, thats a more recent development, where I feel like Rex became a fully-realized character in his own right, outside of just his connection to Data 7. As I mentioned, Rex is a very old dog. He served in World War II, and the campaign has reached into the end of 2007/beginning of 2008. The only reason Rex has lived as long as he has is because he drank from the Fountain of Youth, which is how the party was able to locate him in the first place. But with the Fountain becoming tainted, theres no real way for Rex to refresh his youth. Thats fine thoughhes still got plenty of life in him, serving as one of the highest-ranking medical staff of Zonn Zorr, right?

Well, thats when Kobra struck Zonn Zorr. We got hit hard by an enemy from within our own ranks, and their goal was largely to take out any potential threats to their devastation of the base. Jack Wyznorski, a Checkmate agent that Data had somewhat befriended and trusted, showed up to try and shoot him, but Rex dove in front of the bullet to protect his son. Suddenly, all the power of the Fountain of Youth started fading away as Spirit (one of Rexs closer contacts as a fellow medical professional) had to perform emergency surgery to save Rexs life. Suffering from his wound and finally acting his age for the first time in a long time, the results of this attack have been heartbreaking.

Ive had many dogs in my life, and I know theres the whole concept of dog years, but that doesnt make it any easier to watch a friend you grew up with your whole life grow older and weaker, and start to struggle with even simple tasks. Its just different, because dogs are so inherently full of energy and life, and watching that fade away hurts a lot. So, when Scarlet started this new storyline for Rex, its absolutely gutwrenching for me. Sure, you have some funny moments, like Rex being seated in Technomancers ever-stolen hoverchair and having no idea how to operate the contraption properly, but really, the focus is on Rexs age shining through.

Im getting tears in my eyes, just describing the set-up right now: Rex in pain, weary from a long life, just wanting to life down and sleep while Data tries to keep him perked up and active. If youve ever lost a dog, you know this feeling. At some point, they just get so tired that they need to life down, and you never know if this is the time when theyre not going to get back up. I feel like Ermine, working as a veterinary assistant, knows this feeling all too well, and he plays into that with his characterization of Data, fearing for the worst with his dad. In a way, its almost a twofold emotional gut punch in that regard, because you have an aging dog, but that dog is also very human in his mannerisms, and he has a son whos experiencing that age like we would with our own aging relatives.

Its really hard to watch play out because its so tragic, and theres a genuine concern that the end of Rexs stoy will have him dying before we can restore him via a new Fountain. But thats the kind of sad emotions that I actually enjoy in a story like this. Sadness and melancholy are dramatic and interesting without being aggressively upsetting like having people get upset with one another. Now granted, Im sure Ermine has a much different view on this than I do, but I admittedly have a certain level of detachment from Rexs story, so Im largely watching it play out from an outside perspective.

On a lighter note (as we near the end of this surprisingly-long write-up), recent discussions with Half-Life have revealed that Rex was once a member of his spacefaring gang alongside Superboy. Apparently, stern and steadfast Rex was once a literal party animal, getting drunk and doing keg play deads. Its just a funny little quirk to Rexs established character that makes him a little more complex to me. It gives him another layer of understanding the kind of youthful attitude Data possesses (Data being a fan of alcohol in his own right), rather than just having been some sort of Boy Scout dog his whole life.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/2/1/AAOJ0pAADYwN.png
9. Rex the Wonder Dog

If youve followed my rankings in the various Board 8 Watches Movies lists, youll know that one of the commonalities thats usually guaranteed to boost a movie in my opinion is that of a father/child dynamic. Whether its father and son, father and daughter, or even a surrogate father situation where the characters dont really address their relationship, but the implication is there all the same, its an easy way to tug at my emotions. Theres just something about the inherent personality of a protector that a father brings to a story, because the best dads are the ones who look out for their kids, often even sacrificing their lives for those of their children.

In the context of this campaign, there are a bunch of dads by the letter of the law, but very few of them really fit the role Im describing. If you look at this list, the only real dad Ive ranked thus far is Deadshot, and even hes got his own storyline beyond being a parent to Zoe. Granted, his fatherhood is what makes for a fun dynamic between him and Spiritu, but hes not the poster child for this archetype. Beyond him though, Zonn Zorrs dads just dont connect with me that well. Bertos a jerk, Carls Equated, Catmans only expecting, the Martians have their own story going on, Iron Munro is more of a grandpa, I barely speak with the Jordans or Garibaldis.

Tom Curry, Pat Dugan and especially Vari Dzerchenko are all pretty solid choices, but they also all feel (to me at least) like theyre largely extensions of their childrens story, rather than being the focal point of things. Thats not necessarily a bad thing (and believe me, Vari absolutely gets an honorable mention for being the hardest working human dad around), but Im just saying that theres a reason why Rex makes this list, and in my top ten, no less. Yes, he is strongly defined by his relationship with his child, but he honestly shares that sort of father figure relationship with several characters, while also having his own storyline as an individual to counterbalance things. Suddenly its not him as a purely supporting character for his son, but his son is similarly a supporting character to his own story.

I should point out that the son in question is none other than Data 7, which adds another level to the relationship since theres more of an emotional investment from a PC in maintaining that father/son bond. Data and Rex first met in No Mans Land, when Data (still going by Artemis) wished for a magical crown that would allow him to summon any animal of his choosing, once a day, for a minute. Im PRETTY sure I got that right, but I was never actually paired up with Artemis during that campaign (we had a far more rigid 5/4 structure, and even during the Patchwork, I think I got paired up with Fields/Riev instead of Varra/Artemis), so I may just be completely oblivious to things that happened in the other half of the plot. My point is, at some point, it was suggested to Artemis that he summon Rex the Wonder Dog, since Rex was a superhero dog in his own right. And the rest is history.

Rex was a good influence on rambunctious Artemis in No Mans Land. Artemis was largely detached from the more human element of the story, and thats reasonable, since the whole reason he exists as a talking dog in the first place is due to human experimentation. He got along more with other animals, and most other animals he interacted with operated under a more law of the wild mentality. Rexs appearance kind of provided the occasional sense of structure for Artemis, and while he was still young and rambunctious, I think Rex helped Artemis mature a little bit, and just generally get more comfortable in the human world (even if he wasnt necessarily comfortable with humans). Also, Rex helped Artemis take great strides in his oral hygiene by introducing him to dental bones, which is the most important information to take from this paragraph.

Rex in Campaign Two is honestly very similar in his purpose. Now granted, this time around, hes not just some character who gets called away from his duties once a day to spend a minute of time with Artemis, but if anything, I think that makes him far more of a stabilizing force, since his presence is felt at all times. I dont remember how exactly Rexs location was ascertained, but Data 7 fought hard to take a trip to Orlando, all to seek out his Papa. They found him at a corrupted Fountain of Youth, looking after his boy, Danny, and after fending off a dragon (again, this was NOT a mission I was part of, so Im probably getting a TON of details wrong), Rex returned to Zonn Zorr with us, once again reunited with his surrogate son.

I really love the relationship between Data and Rex, because theyre so different, and those differences bring out a side of Data that we dont often get to see in his interactions with the various other animal characters around Zonn Zorr. A lot of the interactions Data has around Zonn Zorr ultimately finding some cute animal and/or robot to mess around with (not judging, since Im a grown man playing a blond girl who has spent a decent amount of time flirting with boys; weve all got our things), and they either play along, act confused, or get annoyed. With Rex though, this is a character who has had time to get to know Data (or Artemis, I should say) in the interim period between the two campaigns. As such, when Rex arrived and learned of Datas backstorythe very backstory that caused Artemis to abandon his birth name and start going by the edgier Data 7he was able to help Data cope with his past trauma from a place of comfort and love.

scarletspeed7 posted...

I'm glad you brought up the Rayhan scene because it's probably my favorite Waller moment of either campaign. I think it's her at her best, and it was entirely improvised and unplanned. But I think it distills the essence of her character - calculating, cold, focused on the big picture before anything else. All stands to serve the resistance, and the resistance is Waller.

Cheetah

Yeah, that is THE scene, more than ANYTHING else, that has been Waller's crowning moment thus far. Going from zero to "I will fucking annihilate your home COUNTRY, and you will know it is YOUR fault that millions are dead" is SUCH an amazing power move.

Beyond my personal feelings with Pepper though, Wallers just a great support character for enhancing other characters in the campaign. Yes, shes the central figure of Zonn Zorr, but that means she interacts with just about everyone. You can be the sternest, most serious character around, or a complete joke, and youre still going to have to deal with Amanda Waller reading you for filth. Whether shes completely shutting down a comic relief character, or letting a strong-willed character get the better of her, Amanda Wallers presence is always good for establishing a characters personality in the campaign. I hate to make this comparison, because Wallers personality doesnt suit itbut Amanda Waller is almost like a wrestler who is used to put over other talent, either by making them come across as a monster, or as a chickenshit heel. Its great.

Just for some examples, you have our holding cells, where we captured a lightning-powered supervillain named Rayhan during our quest to help Freddy gain all the powers of Captain Marvel. Rayhan is this big, bad, tough guy who we only brought back with us specifically because Waller suggested that capturing prisoners could be more useful than killing all of our enemies (which Pepper took to heart, and used as the basis for her infiltration concept). Well, we brought Rayhan back, and he didnt want to talk; hes a tough guy. What does Miss Waller do? Well, she determines his country of origin, and then calmly tells him that if he doesnt start talking, shes going to use all of the powers of Checkmate, as well as her remaining connections with the DoD to wipe his homeland off the face of the Earth. And this is absolutely something she CAN and WOULD do. Needless to say, Rayhan bent the knee after that (though he still was a dick and tried fucking with us during the Kobra incident).

We have Patch, the lovable rat with a voice box that he uses a LOT. Patch is young and largely exuberant, and he will yammer on non-stop unless the right person gets him to hush. Amanda Waller is that right person. We had a debriefing where Patch was being boisterous, and all it took was for Amanda to approach him and look him square in the eyes to put the fear of God in him. Patch shut up, and he even insisted that everyone ELSE shut up to avoid angering Miss Waller. For his (big) troubles, Patch later on met with Miss Waller to discuss terms for trading a giant missile that he and Data scavenged from a downedI wanna say airplane? She got him to give up his missile and all leverage that entailed, just by letting him live in the pipe system that he honestly couldve taken up residence in regardless, and no one wouldve told him not to.

Beyond building herself up as a badass though, she uses those badass credentials to bolster the credentials of others. When Kimiyo Hoshi (the Japanese Doctor Light) came to Zonn Zorr, she immediately started barking orders like she owned the place. For several characters like this in the past, Waller has stepped up and shown them who was in charge, but Dr. Light didnt back down from her personality. Because of this, the scene ended with a begrudging respect between the two women, and Dr. Light largely getting what she wanted. By building Waller up as so strong in the first place, this helps establish Dr. Light as a force to be reckoned with immediately. Similarly, despite everything else he did, the fact that Kobra was able to pull the wool over Wallers eyes, and even take her down during his attack, helped build him up as an absolutely terrifying adversary.

Amanda Waller is just such an important part of the campaign that I felt like I would be remiss if I didnt include her in my top ten. The only reason shes not higher is because, honestly, shes almost TOO obvious of a choice, and because shes so prominent, shes almost lost some of the personal touch that makes me love the characters I rank above her. Thats not a mark against herI just always feel like I have to justify why great characters dont get higher placements than other great characters.

Hint for #9: Has required notable medical aid (in some form or another) during the campaign.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/4/9/AAOJ0pAADbtt.jpg
10. Amanda Waller

After a fucking LONG examination into the complex emotions I feel towards Jaime Reyes, it almost feels impossible to write about Amanda Waller with the same passion. What is there to say about Amanda Waller that cant easily be summed up by the fact that she is the boss bitch of the campaign, and is the central figure that we as players have all interacted with on a regular basis, for better or worse. In the VERY first session of the campaign, myself and a ragtag group of freedom fighters barely survived the overwhelming power of the Spectre, plus a glowing-eyed horde of Equated overrunning Metropolis, to reach safety in Zonn Zorr. And who was there to greet us? Amanda Fucking Waller, the former Secretary of Defense under President Lex Luthor, and the current Black Queen of Checkmate.

As frightening as that first session was, feeling so feeble and helpless (especially without our powers at the time), Amanda Wallers presence honestly gave me hope. Im someone who does not deal well with bleakness and sadness and depression, and its so easy for me to start wallowing in self-pity, and just generally feeling like theres nothing I can do to improve a situation. But Amanda Waller is just such an intense, commanding presence, that no matter what might happen, knowing that she was on the case at least offered a solution to the worlds greatest problems. Just knowing that someone was in-charge and would at the very least be doing everything in her power (beyond the limitations of standard heroes) to save the day was refreshing.

Plus, I already love Amanda Waller from her appearances in DCparticularly at the leader and boss lady of the Suicide Squad, so it was nice to get to work with her for real this time. In Campaign One, she showed up a few times via communications with Oracle, offering assistance in the form of sending the Suicide Squad into No Mans Land to help us out (specifically rescuing a wee baby Brennus and a two-year-old Rozetta from the clutches of the League of Assassins). Oh, and she insisted on us finding a way to get Azrael out of Gotham and into her custody, lest she send her Homicide Squad in to extract him personally. Now granted, the Joker made this task much easier, so Tali didnt have to betray her husband, but still, that was ice cold.

Anyway, Campaign One has Oracle as our central point of contact, and she was much beloved because she was basically the brains behind everything we pulled in No Mans Land. Sure, our two groups had autonomy, but Oracle still served as our overseer, giving a glare whenever we misbehaved. In that regard, Waller is very similar. Shes the leader of Zonn Zorr, and the buck stops with her. She even has a withering stare that Pepper had to roll a Nat 20 to avoid cowering from (which apparently made Pepper come across as way more of a badass than she has any business beingparticularly since for the glare was because Pepper was biting off more than she could chew, and was about to push for some shit that would look really stupid in retrospect.)

Because of all of this, Amanda Waller is a very strong stabilizing figure for Zonn Zorr, and I feel like every PC is able to go to her and have a different relationship with her. For Brennus, Waller knew him as a baby, and she looked after him when he got rescued from the League of Assassins. With Spirit, she still looks at him somewhat as a child, in spite of all his accolades, and shes hesitant to push him in spite of his hero credentials. Lush needs a firmer hand because shes dealing with some shit in her Zatanna-riddled brain, whereas Bloodfruit needs a crash course in how the mundy world works. Amanda Waller just happens to be a chameleon, adjusting her response to best suit the personality of the person coming to see her. At the same time though, she makes it very clear through these responses that shes still the one fully in-charge, no matter what.

With Pepper specifically, Peppers very much a teachers pet when it comes to working within the Checkmate organization. She kisses butt to Waller in a way that admittedly has an element of respect (Pepper is, again, feminist-minded and respects powerful women whove made their way in life), but ultimately is a bit self-serving. She wants to be regarded as useful and valuable by the Checkmate organization, and since she absolutely cant do this as a physical combatant, she instead focuses on trying to be a go-getter, coming up with ideas to benefit the organization and the resistance. What Im saying is that its very easy to bend Pepper to doing what you want her to do, because ultimately, she tries her hardest to be a people pleaser, and all it really takes is a decent attagirl to make her fall in line.

Waller easily clocked Pepper, and she knows how to play her just right to maximize efficiency from one of the PCs most likely to dedicate themselves to the cause of Checkmate, even beyond saving the world from Darkseid. This isnt to say she gives Pepper free reign to do whatever she wants though, because sometimes you need to lay down the law and keep your agents from overstepping their boundaries. Theres a distinct level of respectful fear in Peppers relationship with Amanda Waller, and while theyre not exactly on friendly terms, its still helpful whenever I have a PC conversation between the two, since Waller can offer guidance in a way that Pepper might not be willing to accept from anyone else. Dont get me wrong, Pepper is still strong-willed at times, and stubborn, but ultimately, if she cant convince Miss Waller that she has a good idea, then she largely it willing to be cowed into dropping it.

Underleveled posted...

I remember people wondering why they didn't cast Jonathan. I'm wondering now if they wanted him but he got tipped off to some of the horseshit so he turned it down.

Well keep in mind, the show started filming in March, and S42 only began airing March 9th.

(1) Up

(3) Spirited Away

Don't forget to predict who makes the top ten, everyone!

Maniac64 posted...

That was a really good write-up.

In my limited DC experience Jaime is one of my favorite characters. His part in this campaign also seems really good/interesting even if he seems to have some really horrible luck.

His luck isn't as bad as Catman's though. Poor Catman.

It wouldve been so easy for me to say Jaime hurt Pepper and he makes me feel bad whenever we interact, so Im not even going to put him on this list. I fully acknowledge that several characters missed the cut for that exact reason. But the more I think about it, the more I realize just how personal Jaime is to me. Because everything Ive said about him, even down to the more negative stuff about how he reactsits like looking into a mirror. Ive played Pepper in a largely similar fashion to how Jaime has acted. Easily angered and emotional, often shifting blame rather than acknowledging ones own failings, and just generally struggling to exist in a world that expects far more from them than theyre capable of being.

Pepper and Jaime are, in my eyes, two sides of the same coin, and there are times when I hate Pepper too. There are times I strongly regret creating her, and there are ESPECIALLY times when I regret abandoning Tali in favor of a new character. Shes just so unpleasant to deal with, and so weak, and there are a lot of instances when she rubs people the wrong way, and it makes me hate playing as her. But then there are times when I love her, and I love the story Ive crafted in the campaign for her. Thats how I feel about Jaime as well.

Thereve been times in the past when Ive asked Scarlet who he thinks would be the party in this campaign, and that question is admittedly intended to get a response of Jaime. Jaime feels like a PCspecifically a PC that I would be playing (albeit male, which is less likely). So, I cant truly hate him, because I dont truly hate myself. The emotions are complex with regards to my personal feelings towards both Pepper AND Jaime, and I feel like theyre intrinsically linked in that regard. I just wish they could be friends again, because its not fun having them so intensely at odds with one another.

Hint for #10: First appeared in a session that I was a part of.

Now, I get it. From a writing perspective and a character perspective, Jaimes not behaving out-of-character. He was just minding his own business, and then he got trucked by MULTIPLE unfortunate instances that shattered most of his pre-existing relationships, and he didnt really have anyone else he could talk to after that. It didnt help that he ran afoul of Harley Quinn (because one genuine flaw Jaime has is an inability to see the world as anything other than black and white, good and evil), and couldnt keep his mouth shut about how shes the basis for his derisive claim that someone can be Harley Quinn Crazy. So yeah, disowned by his parents, rejected by TWO lover interests, and barricaded into his room by a psychotic criminalits understandable how his mind might go to a dark place.

Its at this point that, havent burned (or been burned by) most of his Zonn Zorr relationships, Jaime decided to leave and head back to aid the Convoy in its journey to Tierra del Fuego. This would be fine, if not for the scorched Earth policy he left en route to this departure. Not only did he kind of snub Brennus, but he especially raked Pepper over the coals, calling her evil and just generally diverting all of his pent-up anger and emotions her way while she was trying to be nice. Again, I do get it from a character perspective, and it makes sense that he would lash out in a stressful situationbut it still sucks to experience from a player perspective. Pepper was genuinely trying to be nice to him, and even if he wound up rejecting her romantic intentions, she still wanted to stay friends since they shared so many similarities to their background. It just really stung at a time when I was already feeling pretty low about Pepper as a character.

Jaime went on to beokay with the Convoy. Honestly, he only had one real session where he left a major impression, and that was when we wound up wandering into the jungles of South America and found a cult in the process of resurrecting the Kryptonian goddess Cythonna. Despite Jaime being all about heroism and being a good guy, he would up puking in his helmet and obscuring his vision, which allowed Khaji Da to take control and utterly murder a bunch of cultists, unbeknownst to Jaime. No one told him what Khaji Da had done, of course, and Jaime left that encounter thinking he was still a pure and unblemished hero. Oh yeah, and then he flailed around mostly helpless and trying to keep the party from plummeting to their deaths when fighting Cythonna, only for Pepper to allow herself to get frozen solid (earning my first set of death saving throws in two campaigns) while saving the day. Does that earn her any respect from Jaime? Nope.

Yeah, we got back from protecting the Convoy, with Pepper even DIRECTLY protecting Brenda from harm during the final battle at Tierra del Fuego, but Jaime has been completely unable to make amends. Instead, he just doubled down and decided to further heap his anger and irritation onto Pepper. He acted like she was out of line for finding a new love interest when he made it clear that he didnt care about her feelings, and he even went so far as to bring up Peter Robinson as though his death isnt one of the only things Pepper constantly regrets and laments during her time in the campaign. Its really painful for me personally, because I dont want to hate Jaime, and I dont want him to hate Pepper. I just get sad and upset when RP scenes happen that end with Pepper getting yelled at, or yelling at someone, so its like that avenue just gets cut off for me, like with several other characters who probably wouldve made this list otherwise.

Trying to be objective though, I do genuinely find Jaimes character arc fascinating. I just find myself drawn more as a player towards (or viewer, or reader, depending on the media) younger heroes, and while I cant put a finger exactly on why, I have put some thought into it since starting these write-ups. I think part of it is that, due to hormones and general puberty-related changes (along with the general transition into adulthood), its more interesting to watch younger character navigate the already difficult life of a superhero compared to their (comparatively) stabler, older counterparts. Plus, the stakes feel that much higher when dealing with younger characters, because theres always that mindset of being inferior to the veterans, while wanting to step up and prove themselves.

More than any character in the campaign, I feel like Jaime represents this mindset. Early on, he was still behaving in a rather childish fashion with regards to his new powers, not quite grasping his role in the impending war. But then all of this pressure starts bearing down on him, and all of these expectations of the hero hes supposed to be started weighing on his as well. He didnt ask to be the Blue Beetle; he just wanted to help people out while still being Jaime Reyes. This wasnt his choice, yet everyone is treating him like an adult with way more experience than he has. And I think part of him wants to live up to that expectation, because he knows its the right thing to do, even if hes not able to meet that impossible standard. But with every new mission, life just gets harder and harder, because hes forced to do things that weigh him down, mentally. And he just doesnt have the support system he needs.

After Hawaii, Jaime feels utterly broken as a person. I think theres a certain level of machismo at play with him, where he needs to be strong and he needs to be independent, and he cannot allow himself to think he needs help. When it was suggested he see Simon LaGrieve about whatever mental pressures are bearing down on him, he initially rejected the idea; to him, admitting weakness is a failure on his part. Plus, he views the idea of seeing a therapist as tantamount to being Harley Quinn Crazy in his own right, and that flies in the face of his good is good, evil is evil mentality. Its hard to acknowledge that even someone like Harley Quinn might have her own demons that shes dealing with, and there might be something that she and Jaime have in common, in that regard.

Now, initially, though he was separated from his family and friends by coming to Zonn Zorr, Jaime was able to be a bit at ease because he had the field teams regularly visiting El Paso and checking in on everyone. Aside from Traci getting captured by La Dama, there wasnt ever any real threat posed to Jaimes loved ones (and even Traci was more of a I was supposed to protect her as her coyote sort of thing, rather than a personal connection). As such, I dont think the gravity of everything had really hit home, because even before Khaji Da, it wasnt like Jaime was facing off against the Society, or against the Equation or OMACs on a regular basis. His biggest adversary was La Dama, so nothing had really changed for him that much in the wake of A-Day. To me, this made him a comfortable character to be around, to kind of defuse the tension and serious nature of the campaign as a whole.

Part of this light-hearted approach to an otherwise dire situation was Jaime becoming entangled in a series of romantic subplots. You see, early in the campaign, since Pepper was such a rookie and just wanted a sense of normalcy in her life (having been kidnapped and had no contact with her loved ones in months), she began making a concerted effort to bond with the other young members of the Zonn Zorr population. There werent a ton, given that most of the staff were older and more mature, and even the majority of the PCs were in their twenties (in terms of Earth years). But this meant you had this young, pretty blonde girl (with the Attractive Appearance perk) going out of her way to try and befriend and buddy up with Jaime. Not unexpectedly, a red-blooded boy like him developed a bit of a crush.

I should point out that at this point in time, both Pepper and Jaime seemed to share a mindset when it came to romance. Neither of them had ever seriously gotten into the whole dating scene in high school, and in fact, both were virgins who (Im pretty sure, on Jaimes part) had never been kissed. But when the end of the world rolls around, your body starts sending signals about procreation, and you just cant help yourself but feel feelings. Of course, this lack of experience also led to some of the dorkiest courtship scenes, with Jaime talking to other people about how smart Pepper was, and how she should be included alongside the 8th Age Magicians, despite being completely out of touch with magic herself. Or even more impressive was Jaime trying to stand up against Lush (in a roundabout way to defend Peppers honor), which led to him getting stabbed, since Lush was NOT in the mood to deal with his bullshit.

Meanwhile, Pepperinitially oblivious to Jaimes intentfound herself smitten when his crush was revealed to her through a second-hand source. Given her general antipathy towards men after the events surrounding her meta-human awakening, it was comforting to have a guy who she knew liked her, but wasnt some macho-posturing creep about it. Thus began HER efforts to flirt with him and try and awkwardly make the first move. Thisdidnt go great for her, as Khaji Da found her to be a threat, and charged up his deadly laser cannons to terrify her on numerous occasions. Yeah, its not a good sign when you wet yourself in terror from your potential boyfriend. Also, not great to try and show off how badass you are about spicy foods, then roll a Nat 1 and become a slimy mess of flowing sinuses, again in front of your potential boyfriend.

This storyline was just really cute, because both Pepper and Jaime came across as socially awkward dorks, and every time either one of them mightve mustered up the courage to make a move, something interrupted. Whether Jaime was getting dragged away by Ferdinand for shirking his duties in the mess hall, or Thinker found the exact right moment to pipe up and make any attempts at kissing awkward, it seemed the fates conspired against the pair from ever truly sealing the deal with one another. Still, this was the exact sort of cutesy storyline that could play out over a decent length of time without getting stale (to me, at least), and I really enjoyed it.

Ultimately though, one of the major hurdles to romancing a pre-established character in the DC canon is that those characters have their own canonical relationships that you have to deal with. In Jaimes case, there are two such characters Pepper had to contend with right off the bat. In the fledgling stages of her flirtations with Jaime, Pepper first ran afoul of girl code. That is to say, one of Jaimes best friends, Brenda del Vecchio, met the party on one of their multiple trips down to the Convoy. Having stayed behind while Jaime went off to Zonn Zorr, I guess absence made the heart grow fonder, and despite the pair having avoided romance before, suddenly Brenda was interested in a real relationship. She handed Pepper a note to deliver, and though she was conflicted, Pepper delivered it, fully aware that she could lose out on her burgeoning crush by doing so.

Jaime didnt crush Peppers dreams in this instance however, admitting that though he had feelings for Brenda, he couldnt wait around for her like she requested. Ever the tactful one, Pepper leapt at the opportunity to ask him out on a date, but it proved too awkward of timing to truly get those wheels spinning. This meant Pepper once again slowly worked her way towards establishing a proper connection, which opened the door for a second adversary to swoop in. Yeah, Brenda might be one of Jaimes girlfriends in the comics, but shes not the only one. And even though Cheshire might be the this bitch of the overall campaign, Traci Thirteen is most certainly the this bitch of Peppers personal life.

Basically, Traci showed up after we rescued her from La Dama, and she immediately swooped in with a charm offensive to get on Jaimes good side. No matter what Pepper tried to do, Traci seemed to have the edge on her. It got to the point where, despite wanting to befriend all of the teens in Zonn Zorr, Pepper had to start actively avoiding Traci, if only to keep from getting shown up whenever she tried to make a move with Jaime. This led to a rivalry where Traci went nuclear and bombed both of their chances by using Misty to make out with Jaime in a way that both Pepper (a notorious prude) and Traci would witness. Needless to say, Jaime got absolutely fucked over on this exchange, since this landed him (however temporarily) in the doghouse with both girls, and Misty wasnt exactly mentally stable enough to parlay their kiss into something real.

I should mention at this point that, at the time we rescued Traci from La Dama, we also wound up bringing back several other refugees from El Paso, including Jaimes parents and little sister. You would think that having his family reunited would be a good thing, but Berto Reyes is extremely xenophobic due to his time in the war, and when his son revealed himself to be bonded with an alien symbiote, it did not go well. Berto all but disowned Jaime, Bianca went along with her husband out of meekness, and Milagro didnt really have a say in the matter. Essentially, despite all the build-up to getting his loved ones back some place safe, Jaime found himself even more isolated as he couldnt rely on his family to have his back. And then Traci masterminded the breakdown of the status quo for his and Peppers relationship, effectively sending Jaime into a downward spiral that he hasnt really recovered from in my eyes.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/9/3/AAOJ0pAADa99.png
11. Jaime Reyes (Blue Beetle)

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. For a good chunk of the early campaign, Jaime occupied the top spot, only occasionally swapping with this character or that, only to end up here in eleventh place, just barely missing the top ten overall. A lot of that is for similar reasons to those I described when ranking Courtney as high as I did. Jaime was character that filled a very important role for me in the early campaign, when the plot was very bleak and otherwise harsh: sometimes you just need to have a character that you can feel is just there for you when you need them to be there. Honestly? As much as Pepper and Jaimes relationship has changed from that initial interaction, those early weeks still resonate enough to keep him relatively high on my overall list.

Like a surprising number of characters to make this list (especially in my most recent rankings), Jaime is not a character that I met in his initial appearance in the campaign. There was a mission to El Paso, and for some stupid reason on my part, despite Pepper being from Texas, I didnt think to maybe step up and say Hey, I should be part of this mission. As a result, the party that WAS in attendance met Jaime Reyes as a coyote, working to ferry people out of El Paso and into Mexico, where at least things were moderately safe from the Society, and from the influence of El Paso drug queenpin La Dama. However, as is to be expected when dealing with Jaime Reyes, he soon found himself subjected to Khaji Da, an alien symbiote that latched onto his back and formed a suit of blue armor that christened him as the new Blue Beetle. Caught completely off-guard by this new development, Jaime got hauled off to Zonn Zorr for his own protection, leaving behind his friends and family in the process.

This backstory establishes two things that I think are central to understand Jaimes character. First off, hes heroicor at least he has a strong sense of justice, and doing what he believes is right, no matter the cost. Granted, I think it was easier to look danger in the face when dealing with a single crime boss, rather than the combined forces of an alien invasion, robots taking over human beings, and a union of international supervillains. But still, he wants to do good, and at the very least, I cannot personally fault him for that. Its good to have someone around who at least is trying to come at heroics from a place of sincerity, rather than cynicism.

The second point about Jaimes personalityand this is the one that initially drew me to him in the early days of the campaignis that early on, he was one of the most normal and down-to-earth characters in the entire campaign. A lot of the characters we met in Zonn Zorr had either very specific personality traits to make them stand out as unique, or some sort of catch phrase. And then we go out in the field, and many of the characters we meet up with have some sort of gimmick. Im not knocking this at all, by the waywere talking a campaign based around comic books. Theres an inherent cartooniness involved there. Thats what made Jaime stand out in a lot of ways to me. Yes, he had a few quirks, but they were also understandable in the context of his situation. Theres a lot of learning you have to do extremely quickly when youre suddenly subsumed by an alien symbiote, after all.

This normalcy on the part of Jaime made him extremely approachable. Admittedly, I probably wouldve approached him regardless, as I did with the other two teens that joined Zonn Zorr in the early campaign, but it was just different with Jaime. Early in the campaign, I was still very much invested in Peppers story, and hadnt had some of my more recent misgivings about her as a character, and one of the things that I found intriguing about her character in this world is just how much of a rookie she is to everything going on around her. She was barely in the hero community for more than a few months before she got sucked into this apocalyptic scenario that shes nowhere near equipped to handle. And then you bring in Jaime, whose story is almost exactly the same from a certain perspective.

Both Jaime and Pepper were doing what they believed was good and right, but could also be viewed as underhanded and sneaky, before having dangerous superpowers thrust upon them. Theyre both wrenched away from their friends and family, and suddenly theyre meant to be part of the team trying to save the world. Neither one of them had the mental fortitude to take on such a challenge sight unseen, but theres no one else. We cant just say Oh, youre not ready for this? Okay, take your time. No, this is a Redback Spider situation where with impressive skill comes important duty. In those early days of Zonn Zorr, even before the romantic subplots came into full force, I liked having Jaime around because he was basically the main character I could bounce Pepper off of in terms of having someone who kinda knows what shes going through.

However, one important distinction between Pepper and Jaime is their initial differences in training and general aptitude. Yes, Pepper is a rookie to heroing, but she still had those several months prior to being tubed, and she at least understands somewhat of the situation she finds herself in. She might not be able to do much to improve her situation, but at the very least, she is aware of the expectations. Jaime doesnt even have that; he has gone from normal high school kid to superhero in the blink of an eye, and it shows with how unprepared he is to handle that responsibility. A lot of his superhero actions tend to involve Khaji Da, a force of will in its own right, simply overwhelming Jaimes better judgement and taking the most direct course of action needed to accomplish its goals.

Beyond that though, when I created Pepper, while I regrettably gave her relatively average stats across the board (rather than min-maxing to make her exceptional at certain traits and terrible at others), shes still meant to be rather intelligent. I mean, shes a girl who, through a dormant meta-human gene, still had a high aptitude for chemistry-related matters. As such, while Pepper might come across as a bit of a teachers pet or a tryhard, when it comes to straight up book smarts, shes usually on the ball. Never mind that time Inviso forgot that palladium is a real element and not something created solely for Mass Effect. Shhhh. Shhhhhhhhhh.

The point of this particular tangent is that Jaime does not have that same exceptional ability as Pepper. He is, quite literally, the most normal high schooler anyone could ask for. But because he was tapped by Khaji Da to serve as the Blue Beetle (when even Ted Kord largely created an equivalent suit and chose to assume the mantle), hes suddenly thrust into a position WELL beyond his pay grade. In a way, hes sort of the everyman avatar of the early campaign, sitting in on debriefing sessions because Khaji Da insists on it, and everyone just allows this because hes the Blue Beetle. But because hes not exactly qualified for planning and debriefing purposes, Jaimes presence largely resulted in him asking questions to get filled in on what most of the group already understood. Again, its a minor quirk, but it makes him feel more fleshed out as a character since hes trying to play catch-up a lot more than most of the more seasoned Checkmate agents in Zonn Zorr.

This gets to the first aspect I feel I should discuss. Its certainly the lesser of the two factors that led to Courtneys high placement on this list, but it matters all the same. I dont know the psychological reason, exactly, but to a certain extent, I enjoy the relationship melodrama inherent in putting a bunch of people in pressure cooker situations where you never know when youre gonna draw your last breath, and you just go looking for any bit of companionship and affection you can get. Peppers had a bunch of this with several of the guys around Zonn Zorr, with varying results. And in that initial interaction with Courtney, there was a certain level of kinship in that sort of mentality.

Courtney Whitmore is only fourteen-years-old. Theres nothing inherently wrong with this, or with her getting into a relationship, so long as its with someone of an appropriate age. Heck, her boyfriends are theoretically less likely to get shot in the head than those of Zoe Lawton, for instance. But Courtney fell in love with Billy Batson, who is comparably-aged to her. The problem is that their interactions began as a result of their superheroing, and in case youre not aware: Billy Batson is Captain Marvel. Captain Marvelwhile inherently a fourteen-year-old boy since he IS Billy Batson at hearthas the body of a full-grown man. This does not sit well when you consider the potential optics of a romantic relationship between an underaged girl and what looks like a groomer. Yeah, theres some drama there.

More than that though, by the time we met Courtney, wed already come across Billy and discovered the changes hes going through. Shazam, the ancient wizard that imbues Captain Marvel with his powers, has passed on, and this meant Billy needed to step up and claim that mantle. Now, Courtneys star-crossed boyfriendfor whom she already has to deal with familial and societal judgmentsis an ancient wizard who needs to focus on life as said ancient wizard above all else. Needless to say, Courtney is less than happy with this arrangement, and shes displeased by Billy casting her aside in such a fashion; she didnt even know he was still alive, and hed apparently made no effort to contact her since shit hit the fan with Darkseid. Between Jaime and Billy, the two girls found a common bond in their irritation at the poor behavior of their male counterparts.

That initial common bond led to the greater common bond shared by Pepper and Courtney. I dont believe Ive mentioned this a TON yet, because it hasnt necessarily impacted NPC interactions as much as just giving Pepper personal development. Pepper is not big on magic, so that largely pushes her away from a lot of the more magic-based plotlines. And shes also not an especially competent fighter, so the Equated and OMACs are threats to her as unfeeling and largely unthinking monsters. Thus, the main focus of Peppers efforts in terms of the three prongs of enemies we face out in the field has been the Society itself. If the Society is made up of free-thinking individuals, no matter how evil they may be, there is still the possibility of using ones mind and ones words to manipulate them for positive gains.

At first, this desire came out in the form of Operation High Society, with Pepper cooking various drugs in her chem lab, with the intent of either A. offering them to the Society to gain favor and infiltrate, and B. just getting the grunts and goons drugged up so that theyre less threatening when its time for the heavy-hitters to do their things. With this somewhat successfulparticularly in the wake of what Pepper considered a decent victory in Las VegasPepper then began putting together a squad for specific Society infiltration missions. This is where Courtney eventually comes into the fold, although admittedly, she was more a personal suggestion on my part, rather than the grouping that volunteered for the squad.

As discussed in the Blue Valley missions, Courtney already has experience as a Society infiltrator. Sure, she has her sparkly red, white and blue costume and all-American blonde locks, but at the same time, she has the evil costume from when she worked under Goth. Red and black is inherently evil and cool (hi there Biohazard). It was an obvious choice to bring someone onboard who already knew what Pepper was looking for with this squadron. But honestly? Courtney getting closer with Pepper was just something I personally needed as a player.

Up until she showed up in Zonn Zorr, I think Pepper was a little bit isolated in terms of the uniqueness of her mindset. The villains agreed with her more ruthless side, but scoffed at any efforts at goodness, and the heroes took a very hard stance in terms of good above all else. And the handful of Checkmate agents who might view things through a more morally-gray lens also had a much greater wealth of experience that it could be intimidating to go them. As such, Pepper was kinda stuck in this position where she doesnt view the world as completely black or completely white, but shes also too inexperienced in the hero community to really have the broad expanse of knowledge to know how to process the heavier subject of morality when it comes to heroic or villainous activities.

With Courtney though, this is a girl who has actively been out in the field, surviving Blue Valley by doing exactly what Pepper has tried to do. It was just so refreshing and nice to have a character that so largely understands what Pepper is going through, and I think Courtney really benefitted from having someone who understands what SHES going through. Even though she was put up to the infiltration task by Pat, Courtney had to undertake some heinous actions to maintain her cover. And sometimes, youve gotta let the dark side (not to be confused with Darkseid) in order to keep from breaking down and shattering into a million tiny pieces. Courtney hurt people, and she killed people, and its not heroic, but given the circumstances, its not entirely villainous either. Shes just morally gray, and thats okay.

Pepper and Courtney have become closer since Courtney revealed that initial trepidation about doing bad things and kind of liking doing them. Weve had only a couple one-on-one conversations thus far, but Ive really enjoyed them every time. Its really amazing how at least on my part, it feels like weve developed such a strong, sisterly bond. Just having another character that kinda feels the way you feel and understand what youre going through is honestly vital. At least for me, since I get far too personally invested in my characters as an extension of myself. But yeah, Pepper and Courtney both have that darker side inside them, and Courtneys had her moments where Goths mental conditioning unlocks a little bit, and she reverts to her eviler side. Its not the cuddliest version of her, but its something Pepper can still understand on a personal level, and hopefully help Courtney as a guiding force, while Courtney does the same in return.

Hint for #11: Has specifically given the field team a mission briefing card.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/4/3/AAQcMAAADe6T.png https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/1/4/AAAe4tAADrpe.png
12. Stargirl (Courtney Whitmore)

As far as this list goes, just off the top of my head, Courtney is probably one of the most recent characters to either make the list, or least make enough of an impression on Pepper to break into the top fifty-two. I think it says a lot for this sort of character that not only did she make the list, but she also cracked the top quarter. But Stargirl, aka Black Hole, managed to find the EXACT right storyline to land with me, and thats in spite of her coming from a two-part mission that I was not even involved with. I never even got to interact with her until she came home onboard a special airplane, and Pepper made the awkward comment of understanding life in a small town because she grew up in Provo. Its certainly quaint compared to Austin or ANY of the major cities weve visited in the campaignbut cmon Pepper. Provos not some one-horse town.

To start, we had a mission (which Pepper was not on, mind you) to Blue Valley, Nebraska, specifically because wed heard that Stargirl (one of the bigger-name heroes we have on our Whatever Happened To Them big board) might still be based there. I say we, but Pepper never actually went on either trip to Blue Valley, so my knowledge of events is a bit muddied compared to the players who were there on the ground. Anyway, the players went to Blue Valley and found out that it was being run by one of the many, many, MANY iterations of the Royal Flush Gang weve found in the campaign. But on top of that, it was REALLY being controlled by a Malevolent and demonic force known only as Goth. Before I continue from here there, I do need to give a little backstory that I dont think has come up yet.

As some background info for our non-campaign readers, Darkseid invaded Earth, which is simple enough to understand, but Darkseid has a particular penchant for taking the best and brightest women he can get his hands on, and forcibly converting them into lieutenants for his cause. These are known as Furies, and they have largely been given a far more thorough brainwashing than just having the Equation mentally enslave them to Darkseids service. After all, the Equation kinda renders the more complex functions of the human mind inert, making Equated individuals good for menial labor, but they lose more valuable traits that could further Darkseids agenda. With the Furies, theyre subjected to special treatment, and giving a boost to their power levels, turning even non-power humans into dangerous adversaries.

Thus far, weve run into (or at least heard of): Miss Martian, Campaign One fan favorite Argent, Catwoman, Batwoman, Ramseys mom aka Manhunter, and the biggest one of allWonder Woman. Thats what Darkseid does: he finds the strongest specimens and defenders of Earth and co-opts them for his own purposes. For someone like Pepper, with her feminist streak and general fear of having her own power and autonomy taken away, this is horrifying. And this is the mindset we had in place when the party went to Blue Valley. Were already expecting the worst, because more often than not, the biggest-named female superheroes are either off-world, imprisoned, or converted into Furies. I dont think we had the highest expectations for Stargirl, and this was further exacerbated when VERY early on into the first Blue Valley mission, it was revealed that yes, she was one of the citys four major Furies.

Eventually, the team fought their way through the city, because one of our major M.O.s has been trying to rescue the family and friends of known heroes, so at least THEYLL be safe, even if their loved ones arent. This led to the discovery of Courtneys stepdad, Pataka S.T.R.I.P.E., who is a superhero in his own right. Hes been holed up and leading his own sort of resistance in Blue Valley, doing the best he can against the Equated, and Goths quartet of homegrown Furies. It's at this point that Stargirl herself made her first appearance, and it went exactly as you might expect. She threatened Brennus and was all-in on the whole evil Fury thing until Pat stepped in to calm her down. Yeah, turns out Courtney still maintains control over her own mind, and shes just playing the part to keep funneling information back to the resistance.

We didnt get much more on this storyline until the return to Blue Valley, which saw the rescue of Pat, Courtney, Patton (their dog), and Robotman. Courtney had maintained her cover, but she had an enemy in fellow Fury Whistle (who is a bitch). The party fought their way through Blue Valley to take the fight directly to Goth himself, but it turns out things werent as simple as they seemed. Yes, Courtney still maintained control in a way, because she hadnt been forcibly converted to Darkseids cause by Desaad, but Goth had his own means of exerting control over his personal band of Furies. As a result, Courtney wound up getting taken out of the fight as she struggled to control her own mind, meaning that the ultimate battle came down to the teams earlier efforts to intervene in the Speed Force-addled life of Lady Flash, who saved the day instead.

This is what brought Courtney to Zonn Zorr, having extricated her and her closest allies (and that bitch, Whistlewho I feel bad about calling a bitch since shes only fourteen, but also, fuck that bitch) to safety, onboard their personal jet. Its here that we get to the meat of why she ranks this highly, because this is the first time that Pepper really met Stargirl. And honestly, it was really the perfect storm of a bunch of different factors all coming together at once to create this amalgamation of a plot that appeals to me on a personal level. Its the sort of thing that could very easily get her into the top ten moving forward, but at it stands, she just doesnt have the same history that I have with the characters whove placed above her.

First and foremost, there are several aspects of MY personality and also several aspects of how Im playing Pepper, that directly fed into the development of a relationship with Courtney. Keep in mind that this is a character I had not met until after two field missions that I was not a part of. I fully acknowledge that it is often difficult for me to jump into a conversation with this sort of character at times (apologies to literally every character from Opal City), even though on paper, shes someone Pepper should ABSOLUTELY have sought out on her own. My first time having an RP conversation with her wasnt even an instance of Pepper going to talk to her, but rather Courtney happened to be nearby and witnessed Pepper in the midst of a very upsetting argument with Jaime.

(1) Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

(3) The Emperor's New Groove

Pokewars posted...

So was B8 ranks animated project a sham? Because the top 2 in that failed and I didn't even participate. And the project inspired me to watch them, fall in love with them, only to see them fail.

What gives, B8???

Nineties nostalgia will always triumph.

swordz9 posted...

Auto for Rikku can save now

Rikku (get Faris)

Into the top quarter now:

HM. Honorable Mention OR Harry Matthews
52. White Lightning
51. Ice Sickle
50. Nightshade (Eve Eden)
49. Lono
48. Misty Kilgore
47. TNTeena
46. Shiny Happy Aquazon (Kim Kimura)
45. Carmen Leno
44. Toyman (Hiro Okamura)
43. Dewormer
42. Till'all
41. Mike the Rooster
40. Radio Tuner
39. Batgirl (Stephanie Brown)
38. Half-Life (Byron Stark)
37. Jesse Custer
36. Ramsey Robinson
35. Sarah Washington
34. Rover
33. Blackbat (Cassandra Cain)
32. Traci Thirteen
31. Nite-Wing (Tad Ryerstad)
30. Thinker (Clifford DeVoe)
29. Fiddler (Isaac Bowin)
28. Miracle Molly (Mary Kowalski)
27. Jack Cross
26. Leroy
25. King Shark "Nanaue"
24. Lucas "Snapper" Carr
23. Valentina Vostok (Negative Woman)
22. Deadshot (Floyd Lawton)
21. Arthur Joseph "A.J." Curry
20. Catman (Thomas Blake)
19. Squeak
18. Cheshire (Jade Nguyen)
17. Pixie
16. Crazy Shy Lolita Canary
15. Harley Quinn (Dr. Harleen Quinzel)
14. Susie "Su'zie" Thompkins (aka Candice Evergreen, aka Athena)
13. Bonny Hoffman

HanOfTheNekos posted...

JB, Alice is number 1.

Has Jesse ranked yet?

He has.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/8/3/AAOJ0pAADW_H.png
13. Bonny Hoffman

As I mentioned way back when I did my write-up for Carmen Leno, I mentioned how in Campaign One, Carmen quickly became the favorite half of the Body Doubles among most of the playable characters who interacted with the pair. She was the one who got very badly burned by Tali and required months (in-universe) of recuperation, only for Xander to get sweet on her and double time poor Peyton Riley by taking Carmen to a fancy party as his date. The point is, Carmen was in the spotlight, and Bonny rapidly fell into her shadow, to the point where I genuinely cant remember any Bonny-specific character moments from our time in No Mans Land.

It's because of this that I actually find Bonny in this campaign to be so interesting. I wasnt there when she was picked up and brought to Zonn Zorr as a prisoner (I missed pretty much the entire Dayton storyline, which makes some of my favorite Pepper relationships REALLY funny), but one day, she and Carmen just showed up in Holding. And I guess it was a combination of so few of us actually going down to talk to the prisoners, and Pepper being kinda in her fledgling I want to infiltrate the Society, so I should try getting in good with them phase, but I decided to go down and start up a conversation. We already knew the Body Doubles from No Mans Land, so it seemed like an oversight that wed ignore them so heavily.

However, even though Carmens the big draw of the duo, shes not exactly the kind of person Pepper would be drawn to. Carmens boisterous and a little bit of a chaos gremlin in her own right, and Pepper has a pretty big stick up her ass, all things considered. So, when it came time to meet the Body Doubles, while Pepper interacted with them both, she was far more drawn to the more normal and rational of the pair. In a lot of ways, Bonny is like what Pepper might have become if she werent raised in such an inherently upstanding household (her fathers political opinions notwithstanding). Shes not EVIL per say, but shes a complete mercenary, and she has no qualms with doing bad things if they help her complete a mission and get paid. Pepper still has somewhat of a line she wont cross, but that line blurs with every new day of survival in the apocalypse.

Anyway, Pepper started talking with Bonny, and at first it was a little cagey. I mean, Pepper was new to the whole infiltration concept, so she went to Bonny with an offer of You know, Im not entahrely happy around here, and Ah math be looking for an in with the Socahety. Bonny opened up a little bit at this and gave some information. But it was during this conversation that Pepper got to understand Bonnys mindset for being a villain. Shes not one of those people whos an unreasonable zealot in their evil beliefs, nor is she someone who just does crime because they like causing mayhem and committing atrocities. No, Bonny is absolutely, 100% just in it for the moneyand those are the kinds of criminals you can actually bond with somewhat and get on the same page with. Sure, they might never be completely trustworthy, since their loyalty can be boughtbut at least you know they have a price and nothing they do is personal.

Admittedly, I really need to talk with Bonny more, because I feel awful that shes been left hanging for as long as she has, but after that initial interactionwhere Pepper both tried to convince her to join Checkmate AND tried to convince her that she (Pepper) was interested in abandoning CheckmatePepper is sloppyshes had a few further interactions. You see, Bonny and Carmen were captured together, but put in separate cells, and this has led to some maddening circumstances for Bonny. Carmen feels compelled to speak louder and be as obnoxious as possible to keep Bonnys attention, and Bonny cant physically go over and shut her up. Pepper feels Bonnys pain in this regard, and has tried to assuage it on several occasions, via earmuffs, or offering drugs that would at least take one or both of the Body Doubles out of the realm of consciousness for a short while.

It's the personal conversations that Ive found most interesting though, and those are a big reason why I need to get back down to Holding to talk to Bonny. Knowing the history of Campaign One, and knowing that Bonny is the more rational and plan-oriented half of the duo (with Carmen being the more creative, think-on-her-feet type), it almost feels like a meta-commentary on how the Body Doubles have been portrayed. Carmen is the popular one because shes so wild and outgoing, while Bonny is the quiet nerd by comparison, who feels either overshadowed, or just like a disappointment when it comes to crime. She praises a lot of Carmens more outlandish strategies (that have proven successful in the past), while struggling to puff herself up in a similar fashion. Its a subtle and interesting portrayal of a person with low self-esteem, which is actually pretty sad, because I find Bonny really fun and down-to-Earth as a character.

The other thing about Bonny is that her relationship with Carmen is quite interesting to analyze. On the surface, you have relatively straight-laced Bonny regularly showing annoyance towards an uncaring Carmen, who is just irritating for the sake of irritation, it seems. But the second Pepper suggested drugging Carmen, Bonny got really defensive. Shes not stupid, you know. It very much seems like one of those relationships where you have the shy nerdy girl, and the exciting girl brings her out of her shell, but the nerd would never admit she likes this. But then we had Kobras breakout, and the Body Doubles escaped without really trying to do any harm. Bonny got shot because Silhouette is a killer at heart, and in her wounded state, she finally seemed to give up the ghost.

Basically, the running gag for the Body Doubles in this campaign is that Carmen keeps claiming that Bonny is a lesbian, despite Bonnys constant protests. And addled by pain, Bonny just wanted to feel safe and warm in her besties arms. She hasnt officially admitted to anything, but it certainly seems like Bonny IS at least partially attracted to Carmen. Its not something to really push her on, because she has a lot of other interesting traits to look into (especially since the Body Doubles have officially signed on to join the new Suicide Squad), but its a fun little trait to add a teensy bit of romantic comedy to the campaign in that regard. I really do need to speak with Bonny sometime soon, because itd be really nice to give her a hug, since shes not locked behind a force field anymore. At least, itd make up for Pepper forgetting to grab her shotglasses while she was in Las Vegas.

Hint for #12: Wears black.

Knowing that Susie is special (to put it nicely), Rozetta has engaged in the only solution she can without breaking the trust shes built with her new daughter. If Susie is going to be a sociopath, and calling this out would hurt her, psychologically, then the best option is to direct her sociopathy towards positive pursuits. Thus, a series of teachers have been employed to try and channel that energy, and at least get Susie to exhibit a modicum of control over herself. Father Jesse was a friend of Rozetta from No Mans Land, and hes able to offer Susie spiritual guidance to the point where shes grown to love and respect him (even giving the nickname of Jsse). Granted, Susie is still very much in the camp of worshipping Death, like her mommybut, you know, baby steps.

Catman was another No Mans Lander, and hes able to teach Susie how to best wield weaponry and channel her violent side. Whether with a gun or a knife, Catman has no problem teaching Susie how to kill, exhibiting a similar level of detachment from the concept of life and death that she has. Granted, this relationship has recently come to a close, as Catman is dealing with the violent betrayal of one of his best friends, leaving Susie somewhat adrift and seeking guidance in her violent tendencies. This led to Tommy Jagger, who is still very much by the book and heroic, giving Susie a taste of the police style of confrontation. There is something both extremely unsettling and extremely funny about hearing the voice of a little girl screaming Get the fucking ground! whilst brandishing a gun.

In the time it took me to start this write-up and finish it, Susie seems to have gained another teacher in the form of yet ANOTHER of Rozettas No Mans Land contacts (man, I really messed up by not bringing Tali back): Xander Stray. It turns out that while violence is awesome, Susie is awestruck by the fact that Xander was able to bring down the former Vice President of the United States (in the DC universe, just to be clear. I know youre reading this, FBIby which I mean Eddv.) So now, Susie wants to learn politics, with an end goal of becoming President some day so that she can wield complete and absolute power. Oh Susie, youre such a goofball. Youre never gonna be president. Not because youre a sociopath or anything, but because America sucks at equality and will never elect a woman to the office.

But, theres more to Susie than just her sociopathic tendencies. Some of the scenes that ground Susie in reality stem from the fact that, at heart, she is still a little girl. She loves cats, and there are plenty of cats that roam around Zonn Zorr, sending her heart all aflutter (probably another reason she liked learning from Catman so much). Rozetta even downloaded a bunch of nature documentaries for them to watch together, and Susie gets all excited and childlike when the lions and tigers and whatnot are on-screen. It licked its paw! indeed. Heck, Rozettas a loving mother, and as a shapeshifter, she has even transformed into a massive cat for her daughter to cuddle while she sleeps. Its adorable. Of course, Susie is all too willing to exchange this affection for the feeding of her mothers Choco addiction, pulling the cookies out of her Bloody Jonn Jonzz doll in a total power move. But still, the intent is adorable.

Recently, even though its forless-than-cute reasons, Susie has also formed a bond with fellow child character and Peppers roommate, Sarah Washington. Susie is very aware that Sarah carries the OMAC virus inside her, even though its dormant and otherwise has no effect on her. Because of this, Susie regularly talks about how she wants to use Sarah to infect others and bring about death and destruction, as is the desire of Hronmeer. I do feel just a LITTLE bad for Sarah, that this is her closest friend in Zonn Zorrbut then again, I look at Pepper and her best friend and I think maybe opposites just attract. On a surface level though, it is cute to see them together, and when Susie isnt taking charge and leading Sarah around, shes very protective of her at least, which is nice, since I rarely have time anymore for Sarah RP.

All of that is just around Zonn Zorr, but I do have to give special commendations to Susie for her role in Las Vegas. For whatever reason, we decided to bring this little girl along with us to a wretched hive of scum and villainyand she thrived. From minute one, she adopted the persona of Candice Evergreen, a poor street urchin, to bring down the guards of her enemies and kill them for their access bar codes to infiltrate the city. After we joined forces with the citys Royal Flush Gang (whoits hilarious how often we absolutely destroy those clowns, wherever we go), she proceeded to ply her mommy with alcohol (Rozetta is a notorious lightweight) to get her good and drunk. With mommy out of the picture, Susie kidnapped Squeak and proceeded to IMMEDIATELY assume a position of power within the Olympians gang. She works fast.

Admittedly, Susies best moments in Vegas came early on (well, aside from regularly calling for Squeaks demise), but still, she came in useful in the final battle, when we needed to subdue a paranoid and rampaging speedster. Also, Scar regularly saying Pick me up! with the implication that Susie was alone and calling from a payphone, made for much comedy in how sad it made War. Not Rozetta. WAR.

And with Vegas such a success, Susie is now part of the Society Infiltration Task Force, where she gets to bond with Ramsey, Stargirl, Teloktelar, Paul McCartney himself, and of course, the super stealthy Owlman. I laughed SO fucking hard during a recent scene where Owlman was doing the whole disappear and reappear Batman shtick, only for Susie to yell at Pepper He just walked around you! Genuinely, I laughed for a full minute after that. It was great, and Susies great for those little one-liners. Shes just a really fun addition to the campaign as such a major character.

Hint for #13: Has been wounded, injured, or otherwise attacked by a PC at some point in the campaign.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/0/7/AAOJ0pAADaVj.png
14. Susie Suzie Thompkins

In terms of characters who have just become go-tos for whenever Scarlet just wants to fuck around in RP (which is fun for everyone, really), Susie is right up there, neck and neck with Pixie in terms of overall screentime. And honestly, the reason Susie ranks higher than Pixie is because shes just that little bit more consistently funny when these scenes occur. There are times when Pixie doesnt QUITE land (probably because only two PCs can actually understand her when she speaks), but Susie scenes ALWAYS hit it out of the park. Hell, on top of that, weve brought Susie along as a team member to the ever-popular Vegas mission, so she gets a major boost from that as well.

For Susies origins, the party was initially heading to Calvin City in search of information on the Doom Patrol, and Mentos helmet. Zonn Zorr needed a powerful psychic to help power its psionic shield against Societal incursion, so it seemed like a good choice of locale in which to make our first effort. This turned out to be a literal nightmare, as all of Calvin City had come under the control of a mentally-unstable little girl, whod been given Mentos helmet to amplify her latent, psychic abilities. This is bad enough with someone mature enough to understand the consequences of their actions, but given that level of power to a prepubescent girl, and suddenly you have a situation where a massive, mutated Bugs Bunny is chasing a speedster throughout the city, and the party winds up chased off by an ever-increasing army of Wile E. Coyotes.

Even though I wasnt part of EITHER Susie session to Calvin City, holy shit did she leave a big impression. In one of the larger mindfucks weve experienced in the campaign thus far, the four party members sent to Calvin City found themselves separated and put through their own, personalized psychic hells. Rozetta had constant streams or fire and flames to accompany a perpetual vision of Lex Luthor forcibly kissing Amanda Waller. Taliesin had to stare into the eyes of the sneering face of Mirror Master, the man responsible for his sisters death. Spirit found himself in an operating room, forced to perform surgery on his mentor as his greatest fear of cannibalism reared its ugly head.

But the most memorable scene of all saw Brennus, forced to repeat the same sitcom scene, over and over: deal with his murderous mom and dad portrayed as goofy sitcom parents, Alice trying to force a relationship on him despite his clear lack of desire towards her, and all of this culminated in the Spectre showing up, over and over, to murder everyone is gruesome and creative ways. These scenes stick in the head (and apparently there were more in the works for the rest of the PCs, if they happened to be the ones unfortunate enough to run afoul of Susies mental machinations). Its only because of Taliesins inherent anti-psychic abilities that the group was able to escape their unending torment. It took ages after this session for the group to finally muster the courage to return and finish their job of liberating Calvin City from Susies clutches.

Admittedly, I missed the follow-up session I think, but long story short, we wrenched the Mento helmet away from Susie and Rozetta took the crying girl under her wing, bringing Susie back to Zonn Zorr in a manner not unlike Pepper rooming with Sarah. However, while Pepper viewed Sarah as more of a little sister than anything else, Rozetta quickly adopted the role of mother to an orphaned outcast, and this has impacted Susies development ever since. Now, (and I want to preface this by saying it is in NO way a criticism of Wars playing of Rozetta), you have this sociopathic little girl, and her primary source of familial love and education is an alien who strongly worships the god of death. Its ironic that Rozetta is Saturnian, because shes very much stoking the fires of Susies underlying mental condition by playing it straight and allowing Susie to become more and more absorbed into a world of death and violence.

The thing about Susie is that she has seen into Rozettas mind. Susie is a psychic, and when she wielded Mentos helmet, she saw everything. Shes aware of every last one of Rozettas darkest secrets. But more than that, she knows how to manipulate her adoptive mother. Rozetta came to Earth as a diplomat of Saturn, and after being coopted into the Force of July, she became a brand ambassador into heinous circumstances led to her leaving Earth. Ultimately, Rozetta is a people-pleaser, and she tries extremely hard to keep everyone happy at all costs (again, no insult, especially since this applies to Pepper to a certain extent as well). But if Rozetta wants to keep everyone happy, then all Susie needs to do is play up her own sadness or discomfort, and Rozetta becomes putty in her hands.

Because of this, theres this refusal to acknowledge Susies worst instincts. Rather than address some of the things she does and says in a manner that might help teach her to behave more acceptably in society, Rozetta largely gives Susie carte blanche to do what she wants. I think Susie is knowingly manipulative in this way, playing up some (I think real, but exaggerated) feelings of betrayal and isolation from the Doom Patrol, who treated her like an outcast and a monster. If Susie acts hurt by these emotions, Rozetta would simply be piling onto a sad and frightened girl if she called them into question. As a result, Susie is able to get away with quite a bit of misbehavior, especially since she became aware of Rozettas addiction to Chocos, which she carries with her at all times as a little treat for her Mommy.

This brings us, however, to the other aspect of Harley Quinn: the fact that shes batshit insane. Harley Quinn crazy might be an insult, but its also not entirely without merit. That insult got bandied about by a nave Jaime Reyes, and naturally, Harley took offense to it. Its not nice to make fun of a persons emotional disordahs, after all. But this led to a brief period of time where Jaime was public enemy number one for Harley, and she even set up a Looney Tunes-esque falling furniture trap to hurt him in retaliation. It didnt work, because Harley got bored of waiting and fell asleep long enough to disable the trapbut the effort was still there.

This became a running gag, getting funnier over time. Alice punched Brennus in the face, and Brennus relayed this to his roommate. Next thing we know Alice has had a piano dropped on her in a LITERAL Looney Tunes gag, and had a concussion for the foreseeable future. Somehow, it didnt cross anyones mind to think that it might be the psychotic clowngirl behind this attack, and Harley managed to shift the blame unto Kid Karnevil, sight unseen. After that though, well, she wouldnt be Harley Quinn if she didnt have an unhealthy fixation on the Joker, now would she? And in an astounding sequence of events, the very next session after we rescued Harley from Belle Reve, we were in Gotham City, and found ourselves unexpected working alongside the Joker himself. Naturally, we didnt see fit to reveal this information to Harley right away, and it wouldnt be until the better part of a year had passed before it finally leaked out.

Basically, between Jokers appearance/allyship, and Harleys furbabies (a pair of hyenas from campaign one named Bud & Lou), we were keeping a LOT of information from her. And eventually, it reached a point where I think people just forgot that we werent telling her things, to avoid confrontation and general Harley insanity. Naturally, it was forgetful Lush who broached the subject. Oh yeah, Brennus team worked with Joker in Gotham that one time. Didnt you know? Harley didnt know, and this was a particularly painful betrayal from her toast bestie, Brennus.

The next time they met up, Harley wanted to show him something on the computer, and even the extremely imperceptive Brennus could see a mechanism attached to the computer chair, which would fire a crossbow bolt squarely through his head if he were to sit down. Yeah, Harleys not subtle, and its wonderful. What we got from there was a great comedic scene of Brennus moving the chair, Harley looking visibly sad that hed thwarted her master plan, Brennus feeling bad about her being sad and moving the chair back, Harleys smile immediately returning, and Brennus triggering the trap from a safe distance. Truly, these two are made for each other in terms of the level of weird, emotional dumbness they both display at times.

Anyway, they talked over what happened, and Brennus smoothed things over by saying he didnt mean to work with Joker (which is true, as Joker was in disguise), and everything was great. Well, it was great until Brennus mentioned Bud & Lou, which led to an IMMEDIATE reaction from the other players in our story discussion channel. That made TWICE in the same day someone revealed a secret to Harley that wed been withholding to try and maintain a semblance of her emotional stability, and at that point, I think we all just threw our hands up and went along with it. It was great, but at least Harley took the new news better. If anything, I think Bud & Lou are itching to find her more than shes itching to find them at this point.

Ultimately, Harley has been a bundle of hyperactive chaos energy, and I havent even mentioned how shes so desperate to be acknowledged as a good therapist that most scenes open with her puppeting a mannequin as her secretary, pretending to be accepting appointments from big names and powerful political figures. Its just a quirk, but even saying it aloud makes me want to see a scene where L-Ron starts working as Harleys receptionist. I think theyd get along swimmingly.

Hint for #14: Has an alter ego.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/7/7/AAOJ0pAADbkx.png
15. Harley Quinn (Dr. Harleen Quinzel)

You wanna know something funny? Despite being, you know, HARLEY QUINN and all, when she made her appearance in Campaign One, Harley barely made an impact. Thats not a slight against Scarlet, mind youit was just a weird confluence of events where both myself and Johnbobb had a personal investment in Harleys co-leader, Duela Dent, and I think we kinda pulled the rest of our party in that direction as well. So despite being a major villain in the pantheon of DC villains, Harley was relegated to a scene of making Rozetta turn into a skin suit of the Joker, so she (Harley) could make out with him (the role of Joker being portrayed by Fastbreak). Oh, and there was a running gag about Riev trying to figure out who Buds mom was.

Anyway, what Im saying is that, going into Campaign Two, despite having made an appearance in Campaign One, I think Harley was basically a blank slate in terms of our impressions of her. And then we broke into Belle Reve prison, and our first impression of her was Harley being so oblivious to the world around her that Nocturna was able to slip a Suicide Squad bomb bracelet on her without Harley either knowing or caring. She just thought it was a pretty gift of jewelry. But we escaped the prison with her all the same, choosing to take her with us as the Spectre stomped down and destroyed the half of the prison we were trying to escape from. And the funny thing is, just based on her introduction, you might not think she did enough to warrant inclusion on this list, let alone a top fifteen berth. But Harley is one of the biggest examples of a character from outside Zonn Zorr and just CRUSHING it every time she gets an RP scene.

While Scarlet might alter certain characters personalities to make them stand out more in the campaign, Harley Quinn is Harley Quinn, and when it comes to her, you can accept to substitutes. As such, she is the epitome of Chaotic Neutral (dipping her toes occasionally into the Good and Evil ends of the spectrum). Upon arriving in Zonn Zorr, she quickly lassoed Brennus into being her roommate, which is NOT a combination I wouldve expected going into this campaign (impromptu roommate expectation ranking: Xander/Steve > Lush/Snapper/Pixie/Starro > Pepper/Sarah > Rozetta/Susie > Data/Rex/Mr. Stubbs > Saoirse/Starsa > Bloodfruit/Goldilocks > Silhouette/Demon of the Poster > Brennus/Harley > Spirit/Canary > Minerva/Loose Cannon), and soon after that, she began expressing a desire to start using her doctorate degree once more, serving as a secondary therapist, in a makeshift office across the hall from Simon LaGrieve.

Harleys relationship with LaGrieve is contentious in a hilariously one-sided fashion, where she wants to be the big shot psychologist around Zonn Zorr, and LaGrieve really doesnt mind if she takes some of his caseload off his hands. Still, she considers him her ultimate rival, and even went so far at one point as to break into his office, tie him up (poorly, since he got free and spent his time relaxing, while pretending to be captive), and put a sign on his office that said he was on vacation. Now, I feel like tensions might eventually boil over, especially as its so easy for people to get Harley on their good side by accusing LaGrieve of working against her, but at the same time, I feel like LaGrieve is so used to Harleys machinations that hes going to be able to find ways of outmaneuvering her, while still letting her think shes won.

Anyway, Harley has pretty much taken over as the resident psychologist of Zonn Zorr at this point when it comes to diagnosing the PCs, while LaGrieve is still in charge of working through the trauma of our NPCs. As such, Harley has had direct and lengthy interactions with many (not all, but many) of the PCs, with each one featuring a unique sort of flavor. Different personalities require different approaches to therapy, after all. And the thing about Harley is that shes able to take complex and difficult emotions, but because shes not a completely serious character, she breaks those emotions down in a way that makes them less daunting or difficult to deal with. I know that Im either THE player, or at least ONE of the players for whom the campaign is psychologically rough, so having a character like Harley who can serve as a therapist and still lighten the mood is very refreshing. Ive only had one session with her thus far, but it was a session that pulled a lot of weight off my shoulders.

Beyond my own personal experience though, the character who has had the biggest relationship with Harley is definitely Brennus. Theyve had several therapy sessions together, and its led to the toaster metaphor, where Harley somehow managed to work her desire for a brand new toaster into Brennus therapy. She asked him to pick out the toaster that felt most like him, and she used that input to buy a new toaster from Canarys store. But at the same time, she also managed to bullshit her way through a justification about how Brennus is like burnt toast and thats not a bad thing. Its weird, but a funny way of looking at life, and I think it kinda proved that Harleys brand of chaos is a perfect complement to Brennus kind of aloof attitude. They really play well off of one another.

(13) Aladdin

(6) A Silent Voice

Mewtwo59 posted...

So basically Justine couldn't win without two other quits (and it sounds like Sarah was never going to quit), so she quit, and then that kept Cayla from being able to win, so she quit too?

Well, I think it was the piss-poor production and the elements, but I have to imagine there's also a mindset of "sticking it out is pointless since I can't win, and the money in my bank is practically nothing if I don't win". Cayla had only 7k, and Justine had 8k that they were playing for at the end.

Mewtwo59 posted...

Eh, I thought she was alright in WaW, though Tony did a lot of heavy lifting there.

I didn't watch the show (and it doesn't sound like I missed much), so why did the two women in front of Sarah quit? Seems really odd that whichever of the two was winning would just up and quit.

Okay, so the finale was a shitshow, but it was structured like this:

First hour, final daily challenge to determine the women competing in the final elimination. Sarah won, Angela lost, and Sarah convinced Domenick to throw Alyssa (Angela's best friend) into elimination against here, where Angela DESTROYED Alyssa. This is basically just a recap, but it's important to note that, during this final challenge, BEN slipped and fell, and injured his shoulder.

At the final ten, we got the finale challenge, and after flying Ben out to the location, the producers decided to medically pull him from the game, leaving us with 5 women and 4 men. The initial plan was to have the finale run in stages, with the men and women being randomly paired together in a different way after every stage. Each stage would be like a mini-race in its own right, with the players receiving points (from 5-1) depending on their placement, and the points would be added up after all the stages to determine a winner. Because Ben left, they were suddenly down a man, which meant each stage would have to have a different woman competing solo...regardless of how easy or difficult that particular stage was to complete individually.

First stage was a long swim to shore, followed by a slide puzzle. Desi and Enzo got paired together, and Enzo quit because he couldn't swim. Because ENZO quit, DESI got fucked out of the competition, leaving us down to 7 competitors remaining. Meanwhile, SARAH was the chosen "individual" for this leg, and swimming/completing a puzzle isn't exactly something is made easier or harder in a pair. So Sarah finished second, gaining four points on that leg. Cayla got 5, Justine got 3, Angela got 2.

Second stage involved eating a clove of garlic and a whole onion, which again doesn't necessarily seem like it advantages or disadvantages an individual, but Cayla got stuck solo all the same and finished last for two points. Angela got 5, Sarah got 4 again, Justine got 3 again. This meant after two rounds, we had Sarah at 8, Cayla at 7, Angela at 7, Justine at 6. I'm not mentioning the guys, because honestly their scores aren't important to explaining possibly how things went down.

Third stage involved memorizing ten numbers and carrying a heavy decoder disk a decent distance to solve a puzzle. It's HERE that flying solo becomes a problem, because the three pairs could just split their numbers 5/5. Justine had to remember all ten numbers by herself, and of course finished last for two points. Angela got 5, Sarah got 4, Cayla got 3, making the scores Sarah/Angela at 12, Cayla at 10, Justine at 8.

Then we get to the FOURTH stage, where the teams had to dig a massive pile of dirt and haul it via wheelbarrow. This is MUCH worse for the solo player, and Angela got stuck on the task. Given that she (in round 1) and Justine (in round 3) got timed out and were just given the minimal point value, she figured she could skip the challenge and rest up, rather than trying to attempt something that would clearly put her in last place regardless. Production did not properly dissuade her from this, and she got disqualified out of the competition. Meanwhile, Sarah got 5, Cayla got 4, Justine got 3, putting the scores at Sarah: 17, Cayla: 14, Justine: 11 going into the final leg.

Sidenote: I'd like to point out that Sarah got extremely lucky with the random pairings up this point. Yes, she scored highly, but she had the EASIEST solo leg, and then got Tyson and Danny as her partners during the second and third legs. Domenick, as a partner, finished dead last (well, behind Enzo) in leg one, and second-to-last (only ahead of the solo Cayla and Justine) in legs 2 and 3. By the time Sarah got him as a partner, it was during his ideal challenge of strength and physical endurance.

Anyway, the final leg was a ten-mile hike up a mountain in the middle of a rainstorm that then became a snowstorm. There were two puzzles along the way that the players had to solve before they could advance. Additionally, the point values for this were doubled, so first place gets 10, second gets 8, third gets 6. Justine, with 11 points could ONLY win if both Sarah and Cayla quit and got disqualified. Mathematically, she was drawing dead. CAYLA could only win if she finished first, and Justine finished second. Any other outcome meant she lost to Sarah. With that in mind, the final leg began and Tyson/Danny/Domenick finished the first puzzle and ran on ahead. Justine finished the puzzle and actually managed to surpass Domenick. Cayla and Sarah got left WAY behind, but eventually Cayla solved it and continued on.

The SECOND puzzle was a Sudoku without explanation for how Sudokus work, so for most of the players, it just got confusing, and at this point, they were soaked from the rain, and snow had begun to fall. So EVERYONE was freezing and shivering. Danny finished the Sudoku and won the season outright; there was no way for Tyson or Domenick to outscore him without winning the final leg. With this in mind, given the intense cold, Tyson and Dom both quit, and Justine, who could not win unless the other girls both quit, also gave up. Then Cayla reached the Sudoku at a point when the first four had already left, and she suffered a similar fate: frigid cold to her soaking clothes. She also cannot win unless she beats Justine AND Justine still finishes in second, so there's no real way for Cayla to win at this point, either, and she quits. This isn't explicitly stated or anything, but I have to imagine the knowledge that you're busting your ass for 7-21k, and you have no shot at the 250k grand prize, plays a factor into the quits.

The worst part? After bitching about how tough and awesome she was, Sarah only won by DEFAULT after all five other competitors passed her and left her crying at a puzzle all of them were able to solve on their own. It comes across as extremely sketchy that FOUR people would quit in the same fashion, yet Sarah, who was by FAR in last place by that point (yet also the only woman still competing after the show made a big deal about wanting a male AND female winner for the world championship) montages her way through two puzzles to claim a victory.

https://i.imgur.com/6P6f8hS.jpg
16. Crazy Shy Lolita Canary

Despite being one of the more recent additions to this list, Canary has made a huge impression on the campaign since her arrival in the early sessions of Tokyo. I dont think Pepper has even interacted with her, aside from a brief greeting upon purchasing some swimwear, yet despite that, Canary still nearly makes it into the top fifteen of my list. Shes just such an eclectic personality who makes for a great source of comic relief, much like Pixie just above her, but Canary edges Pixie out just a little bit, because not only is her role a tiny bit more focused, but also, Canary has the benefit of being part of a multi-session arc where we got to experience her in all of her voiced glory.

Aside from the lengthy storyline of the El Paso/Juarez Convoy, the paired missions to Las Vegas and Tokyo wound up being two of the most epic (and I mean that in the true sense of the term, rather than the internet definition that just replaces awesome) plots weve experienced in the campaign to date. I was personally on the Las Vegas mission, and it holds a special place in my heart as a result, but unlike a lot of missions where Im unfortunately able to attend or listen in, Vegas/Tokyo was always on a Tuesday/Thursday schedule, so I just about witnessed every moment of each. As such, the individual characters introduced in Tokyo, while not personally connected to me, resonate that much more, even before taking into account their time in Zonn Zorr RP.

Canary was a member of the Super Young Team, which was the younger of two factions vying for supremacy in Tokyo. The party wound up choosing to side with Big Science Action (largely because theyre older, more established, and more rational), which meant that, in order to fully cement the team as the top dogs in Tokyo, we needed to not only boost them up, but also tear Super Young Team down. Fortunately, this proved somewhat easy when you consider how much backbiting and animosity existed within the team itselfparticularly between Canary and Aquazon (already ranked).

While Aquazon is very much leader material, wanting to rule over Tokyo like a Taylor Swift of Beyonce cult of pop star personality, Canary is a bizarre construct, created entirely to maximize the Q-score of Super Young Team. Everything about her personality and her design was focus tested to appeal to the largest audience in a way that would create blind devotion and loyalty. She was willing to play second fiddle to Aquazon while Aquazon was the top dog in the city, but Canary always harbored some hidden ambitions to usurp that authority. Everything we got from her character in Tokyo revolved around manipulating social media and the numerous Twitter accounts of Tokyos population (the city was sealed off from the anti-life equation, so all of their tech remained intact), and this led to some quality interactions with the PCs.

Canarys general attitude was that of ooh hoo hoo I am so shy and craaaaaazy, so when the PCs started their ad campaign to try and bolster good will among the populous, she was an easy get. All they needed to do was bolster their profiles as American Hero Speedy (Saoirse), Ashamed Blonde Babysitter (Minerva), Spirit of Gotham (Spirit), Singing Dairy Girl (Bloodfruit), and Marquis Magus Who Isnt Real (Brennus), and suddenly they became exactly the kinds of people that Canary would want to allow in her circle of friends, if only to mooch off of their rising popularity.

Given that the PCs wanted to take Aquazon down a peg, it was easy to rope Canary in by promising to boost her profile and make HER the most prominent face of the Super Young Team. Since Aquazon made a power play to start dating Thom Kallor, Canary fired back by dating Singing Dairy Girl and maximizing their social media outreach. Naturally, Bloodfruit was flattered and fell madly in love with the small fairy, perhaps feeling kinship for the first time since waking up in the tube. But alas, their relationship was not to be; Bloodfruits popularity on Twitter fell, and Canary left her for a burrito. Yes that is exactly what happened, dont question it.

The point is, Canarys obsession with social media and gaining the biggest following possible made her a fun counterpoint to Aquazons sort of vapid ideals, even though both of them are very much in the wrong for how they handle things. Aquazon is a Twitter socialist and all the negatives that entails, but Canary is like the Twitter equivalent of companies trying to be hip by hiring social media managers that try to be the next Wendys Twitter account. We wound up bringing Canary and Aquazon both back to Zonn Zorr, and their rivalry has only intensified as theyre both competing for the same market share. Ultimately though, they both come down to the age-old battle of capital versus labor, as each one focuses on a different aspect of how to appeal to the masses (in the most obvious and exploitative manners possible).

For Canarys part, shes a manipulative little fairy, yes she is. Once granted access to Zonn Zorr, and by extension, the Antarctic city of Castling, her first thought was to recreate her superstore from Tokyo. In and of itself, this would be a cute little quirk to get her established in the city, but much like Vostoks snarky comments whenever we upgrade our base, every week, Canary offers another item up for purchase, complete with an adorable item card trying to guilt us into buying whatever she has up for offer. The items themselves are fun, but as someone who doesnt really make many purchases, Im always more intrigued by the descriptions, because theyre a great source of Canary content.

More than just the special items though, Canary follows the Glengarry Glen Ross rules to the letter: Always Be Craaaaaazy. She will find any excuse imaginable to try and get the PCs to make purchases from her, and while there are certainly times when we try to manipulate her right back (not for free stuff, but just for discounts), ultimately, Canary ends up coming out on top whenever it comes to making money. Shes roommates with Spiritu (aka Spiritu), and despite this, she STILL managed to convince HIM to pay HER money to furnish the bedroom they they BOTH live in together. Shes a ruthless businesswoman, all wrapped up in an adorable little package. Also, Bloodfruit bought a body pillow of Canary. I dont know if thats necessarily relevant, but it is important to note that Canary is not above creating body pillows of herself for lonely weebs (and fairies) to cuddle. All-in-all, shes just a fun character who brings a lot of light-hearted energy to the campaign, even if its not directed specifically towards my character.

Hint for #15: A current member of the Suicide Squad.

Dammit GMUN >_<

(1) Wolfwalkers

(7) The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Now, Pixie has been around long enough in the campaign that her act could have gotten stale, but Scarlet has absolutely evolved her character as the weeks have progressed. Data bashing his head against the wall that is Pixies pre-established worldview has finally cracked her just a little bitbut not necessarily in the way he wanted. Initially, Pixie was this whimpering mess of a dog, operating completely at the whims of those around her. Yet due to Datas influence, she started taking on just a little bit more independence and assertiveness. Once in a while, shed even BARK (namely out of irritation for one of her many roommates in Starro the Cat). That first bark was a big moment for Pixie, let me tell you.

Slowly, but surely, Pixie began to become more assertive, taking on the attitude that while Marm might still be the Queen, that makes her (Pixie) a Princess. Naturally, she began to expect that everyone treat her as such. We had a whole week of Christmas sessions where wed all get to go on little adventures with the various NPCs around Zonn Zorr, yet EVERY time, like clockwork, Pixie would manage to show up. And EVERY time, she would insist on receiving some sort of gift from the PC in question. Its around this time in Pixies story arc that she became a bit more independent of Lush in general, and thus interacted more with Pepper, leading to the aforementioned troll nickname. Pepper, meanwhile, thinks Pixie is just being cute, and constantly refers to her as Pretty Girl. I personally find that to be another fun dichotomy.

But Pixies story really does revolve the most around Data 7, and as she grows more assertive and independent, she also becomes less enamored with Datas immaturity. Despite his constantly efforts to sneak up on her and play around with her, she constantly denies him, saying she wants a man (dog) not a boy (puppy). This, of course, only makes Data ramp up the immaturity, teasing her constantly, while simultaneously spurning her affections. You see, despite Data having a lot of growing up to do, he still isnt immune to the affects of love and romance. Hes in a position where hes caught in multiple romantic entanglements, but Pixie is kind of the option he knows hes SUPPOSED to take. After all, hes a boy dog and shes a bitch (sorry, GIRL dog), so thats what nature intended, right? Welltheir personalities clash, and Data has eyes for another, both male AND of a different species.

This revelationdoes not sit well with Pixie, who was already reeling from Datas misguided efforts to induce jealousy in an attempt to get Pixie to stop being stuck-up and start acting more like him (Data licked Rover, accidentally convincing Pixie that hes gayand a harlot!) So, what does Pixie do? Well, she capitalizes on the wedge already driven between Data and T.C. (Datas cat friend from his time living with Animal Man) to scoop T.C. away and start her own gang to rival Datas Big Troubles. The Passable Persuasions is such a Pixie name for a gang, too. I dont even know whos in the gang, save for Pixie and T.C. (Im sure Lena will end up there eventually), but its just amusing that she has decided to make his life difficult, purely out of spite.

Despite this though, its important to note that Pixie definitely seems to still have feelings for Data. All it takes to get her to swoon, just a bit, is for Data to show her a teensy bit of affection. Granted, shell soon revert to her standoffish self, but we all know that Pixie is just putting on a front to try and come across as tougher than she really is. It might be a bad idea for Data to keep outfitting her with weaponry and salves that help her grow to massive sizes (like he can), though. Just a thought, because those items in the paws of someone who is assuredly not equipped to handle their massive responsibility? Not the smartest of ideas. Still, Pixie is ever-evolving, and continuing to bolster her in this bizarre fashion, by forcing her into a warrior roleextremely interesting to see where this goes.

Hint for #16: Is shorter than 3.5 feet tall.

17. Pixie

Yes, a dog that was apparently in only one or two panels of one comic is not only a character in this campaign, but she has also become somewhat of the mascot for the campaign as a whole. Obviously, this placement indicates that shes outdone by a decent number of characters, but for a character whose main interactions with Pepper are yips and barks (while calling Pepper a troll to her face), Id say ranking this high overall is a testament to the quality comic relief Pixie provides whenever she appears. Shes a character who manages to make me laugh, just by the posting of her picture in chat, because that is quite literally her resting bitch face. Pixie absolutely shines as a result, and she just keeps evolving in weird new ways to keep herself fresh as a character.

The funny thing about Pixie is that, while she has become one of THE most prominent characters around Zonn Zorr in terms of sheer content, her origins are those of a non-character we could easily have overlooked without a second thought. We happened to be in Gotham City early in the campaign, and we just happened to be heading towards Arkham Asylum when Lush heard a noise in an alleyway, and we found this dog living in a box; she was living in a cardboard box. Wounded and hungry, Lush picked the dog up and discovered a nametag denoting her as Pixie, belonging to Osgood Pellinger of Bristol Township. While Pixie remains her namelets just say Osgoods probably not gonna get his dog back. Not while Lush has anything to say about it, thats for sure.

Pixies early time in the campaign was that of a timid dog, with very little real-world experience. She was obviously pampered, and life on the streets of Gotham was less-than-ideal, but this couldve been a very simple characterization that wouldnt have stood up all that much. However, it should be noted that we have a talking dog amongst our PCs, and as such, Data 7 has been able to give us a great deal of insight into the various animal personalities living around Zonn Zorr. Based on this list, I would say no animal character has benefitted more from Data 7s presence in the campaign than Pixie, because he has been a major part of her character growth, if not the establishment of her core character in the first place.

For context, other dog characters in the campaign are relatively standard dog archetypes. Rover is a bit stupid, but lovable. Patton and Rex are more stoic and loyal. Even Data is very much playful when hes not trying to act like an emotionless badass fighter. Note: Im not complaining about any of this; sometimes archetypes are common because they just work. But with that in mind, I think it would have been extremely easy to just characterize Pixie as the kind of spoiled brat dog one might expect her to be. Instead, Scarlet made that somewhat out-of-left-field choice to treat Pixie as though she is living in a Downton Abbey-style costume drama, while NO ONE ELSE views the world this way. Its such a BIZARRE character choice that it instinctively makes Pixie stand out as an intriguing character.

Between referring to Lush as marm and Data as sir, while constantly acting as though her poor little heart has been set all aflutter by Datas strong and protective presence, Pixie in the early campaign was just a funny contrast to Datas attitude. Heres the thing: Ermine as a player seems to enjoy the act of RPing this dog character, and largely just play-fighting and roughhousing with the various animal characters around Zonn Zorr. Thats not a criticism, by the way; we all have our personal focuses that tend to be the core of our RP styles (Hombad and doctoring, me and shipping/relationship drama, etc.) Ermines playing of Data actually gives us more time with the animal cast who would otherwise be impossible to interact with on a more personal level (except poor Moozart and Moozerella), so its good that he is interested in having these different scenes with different characters. But if theres one animal in Zonn Zorr that is NOT gonna be down with goofing around and wrestling, its Pixie. Hence the hilarious dichotomy in their priorities.

So, early campaign, you have this uptight, spoiled dog in Pixie (and shes VERY spoiled, given how much Lush dotes on her and keeps her bed baskie nice and tidy), and shes in love with this white knight who turns out to be extremely immature and just wants to goof off all the time. For a long time, this gave Pixie a weird story where shes trying to do all the prim and proper and ladylike things necessary to woo Data (so that hell receive permission from Marm and Osgood to allow them to be wed), and he is having NONE of it. If anything, Datas interactions with Pixie largely revolved around trying to break her out of this mindset where she is a pet and needs to be a pet at all costs, relying on humans for everything because they are her masters. Yeah, Datas not down with that attitude; hes not entirely comfortable with humans after having been experimented on. Thus, the fun clash of ideologies between Pixie and Data.

Since then, Cheshire has popped up a few more times to serve as a massive thorn in our sides. We infiltrated the Haven facility, since it was intended to be our next Mockingbird mission (before Cheshire fucked us over), but since Cheshire knew about the mission, she led a squadron of Society members to try and beat us to the punch. The knowledge that Cheshire was in town, of course, led to Catman going rogue and trying to hunt her down, while the rest of us focused on the mission.

Everything came to a head when Cheshire triggered some traps that damn near sliced and diced Pepper with a laser grid. Up until that point, Pepper was still neutral with regards to Cheshire, but at a certain point, one betrayal makes sense (with Mockingbird being the asshole in that situation), while two betrayals (particularly when Pepper was on Cheshires side) is a bridge too far. We wound up escaping the deathtrap and facing Cheshire down, only to realize it was a masked doppelganger, and the real Cheshire accomplished her mission and got away. Oh, and Cheshire triggered a bomb that blew up the whole facility, costing us the chance to rescue Warden Huntoon (in favor of Tomorrow Woman, admittedly). Still, that made two times we faced down Cheshire and she thoroughly bested us.

Cheshire went quiet at that point for a long time, until another party (myself not included) took a trip to San Francisco. Now, I want to point out that Pepper has a BIT of a ruthless streak and didnt take kindly to the Haven attack, so she suggested casually that, since Cheshire betrayed us to protect her daughter, maybe we hit San Fran to kidnap the daughter first. This isnt entirely relevant, but it does explain the Cheshire connection to San Fran, and why she showed up in the city after the team got swarmed by Society members and shipped off to Alcatraz. Offering a casual greeting to her old acquaintance Spirit, from No Mans Land, was just the kind of ice-cold shit shed do, and thats the last image we got before that particular session ended.

Alcatraz involved a complete breakout, where the team had to make new friends and utilize their interpersonal skills to stage an escape from one of many prisons weve faced in the campaign thus far. It went relatively smoothly (with some insider help from Warden Cluemaster), and the party seemed to be getting away just fineuntil Cheshire showed up. Once again, she came across as several steps ahead of the team, well aware of who they were trying to break out, and wanting to put a stop to it more than anything. The party put up a valiant effort and had some pretty impressive strategies in my opinion, but Cheshires just on another level. The team only escaped because she allowed them to do so.

And most recently, the San Fran team ran into her again, only to discover that, despite their best efforts to cage the uncageable kitty cat, she was several steps ahead of them all along. Shes using our efforts to disrupt the Society and get what she wants: namely her daughter, but also a higher position of authority within the Society itself. Essentially, shes playing chess(ire) while were all still playing checkers(mate). It makes for an interesting dynamic, and you can definitely understand a lot of her motivations. The only things holding her back from a higher placement on this list are A. lack of screentime, and B. shes a little TOO infallible at this point, but all it takes is ONE instance of things going wrong for her and I think thatd fill in that final blank for me.

Hint for #17: First appeared in Gotham City.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/2/8/AAOJ0pAADYwU.jpg
18. Cheshire (Jade Nguyen)

Up until this point in the ranking, I havent really gotten the chance to describe a particular archetype that I have a major affinity for: that of the badass female character in a position of power that dont take no shit from anyone. Your definition of what fits in this archetype may vary, but for my purposes, someone like Cheshire absolutely fits that bill, and despite minimal interactions with her (at least on my partshes certainly made more appearances than just those in which Pepper was present), shes made a massive impact on the campaign as a whole. I would argue that, at the time of this write-up, shes easily the most prominent recurring antagonist weve faced in terms of rivalry (compared to say, the Spectre, who is obviously a force of nature compared to our little group).

First things first, I have to give a little bit of backstory, since Cheshire was a character in the first campaign (even though Id argue shes much more important to the plot of campaign two). Later in the campaign, when wed finally reached Gothams northernmost island, we wound up entering the Triad Territory and discovering that it was led by a mentally-unstable (please correct me if Im wrong on thatI had very little interaction with the Triad Territory and my memory is less than great) enforced by a quartet of badass women: Pistolera, Vicious, Termina, and Cheshire. They were big hits with the other team of the campaign (the Greensleeves), and Cheshire was kind of the de facto leader. As the campaign wound down, they inducted Lady Vic (deposed from leadership of the Demon God territory), and eventually fled the city, because Cheshire is a mercenary above all else.

It's funny that I mentioned Lady Vic above, because she has yet to show up in Campaign Two (shes in Ohio somewhere, if I recall correctly). But during Campaign One, she was very much the This Bitch of the campaign. She fucked Talis shit up whenever possible, and she was manipulative as fuck while doing it. Up until Varra betrayed her, because apparently Captain Cold is contagious, Lady Vic was THE power player of No Mans Land, all on the back of Talis naivete. I bring this up, because with Lady Vic currently MIA, Cheshire has ABSOLUTELY taken the mantle of This Bitch and fucking RUN with it.

At the start of the NEW campaign, we were still largely getting a feel for the world, and a session I was not a part of led to the party meeting up with the Secret Six. This was a group of supervillains who hadnt wanted to throw their lot in with the Society for one reason or another, and theyd found common cause in the employ of a mysterious benefactor known only as Mockingbird. Of this group of six, we knew Catman and Deadshot quite well from their time as Azraels lieutenants in campaign one, but we also knew Cheshire. Naturally, theres going to be a bit of instinctive familiarity when it comes to returning characters, so we let our guards down and began to enjoy Cheshires presence once more. There was a whole mission to Canada that I missed, but when Pepper finally got to meet the Secret Six, Cheshire quickly made one of the two strongest impressions to her out of the whole group.

While the Secret Six werent in the Society, Mockingbird still found a way to keep everyone in line and onboard with working together. For Scandal/Catman/Deadshot, Mockingbird stoked the fires of hatred towards the Society, by offering information that would allow them revenge, or information to rescue someone close to them. Meanwhile, Fiddler and Ragdoll had more personal reasons that were more physical, rather than emotional motivations. In all five cases, they were clear examples of the carrot approach: I will give you something you want if you do what I want. Cheshire stood out though, because she was the sole exception to that rule. Mockingbird went the stick route with her, showing her video of her daughter, safe from the Societyand threatening that safety unless Cheshire played ball.

In retrospect, the flaws in this strategy seem obvious. When you have someone who has ALREADY opted out of joining the Society, maybe DONT coerce them by threatening to inform the Society of their daughters whereabouts. The easy solution to that threat is to just switch sides; the Society wont hurt your daughter if youve joined their cause. Yeah, thats exactly what happened, but Im getting a TINY bit ahead of myself. Mockingbird revealed the motivations s/he was using to keep the Six in line, and Pepper immediately took Cheshires side, hating Mockingbird and thinking s/he is a monster. Pepper still thinks that, honestly, even if circumstances have changed somewhat. But in that initial meeting, Pepper saw a strong woman being mistreated and latched onto her, which made the eventual betrayal sting that much more.

I should also point out that, prior to her betrayal, Cheshires biggest character trait is this flirtatious, seductive persona shes developed. It was on-display in No Mans Land, but I cant remember if anyone actually fell victim to her charms (maybe Riev?) Here though, she ramped it up to a whole new level. Just in the confines of the one Secret Six session I experienced, you had an instance in which Rozetta stumbled upon Cheshire and Catman, preparing to bang, and Cheshire casually offered a threesome if Rozetta was interested. Not long after this (I MAY be mixing up sessions, because this timeline doesnt feel right to me as I type), Cheshire sunk her claws into Taliesin as well, flirting her way into his pants before handcuffing him to her bed in the middle of the night. This one action began the downfall of Taliesin, in a way, and it pays homage to Cheshires manipulative ways that she sewed division in the group and got laid at the same time.

Now, following Taliesin and Cheshires one-night stand, he woke up handcuffed and alone, in a room with an open window. The immediate reaction when we heard this was that someone had kidnapped Cheshire. Given that the Secret Six mansion was swarmed by Society goons that we hastily dispatched, this seemed like a reasonable assumption to makeuntil the other shoe dropped. Suddenly, a bunch of bigger-name (comparatively) villains showed up outside, threatening the lives of everyone within, and it turns out theyd been tipped off to our location by none other than Cheshire. Yeah, even in that moment, while the betrayal sucked, I totally got it, just based on how she had been treated by Mockingbird. Im surprised it took that long, honestly, because Mockingbird was offering the worst deal imaginable: fight against the might of the Society, or Ill sell you out to them. Obviously joining the Society is the smart play there. As a result, Pepper wasnt even one hundred percent anti-Cheshire at that point.

Before we made our escape though, Cheshire dropped a further bomb on us. Hey Catman, you should flip sides too and join me, because Im pregnant with your child. Holy shit thats ice cold, but its totally in-character for Cheshire, and its an AMAZING power move. It didnt work, because Catman is stubborn as fuck, but major props to her for trying. It was just another gut punch to Catman, aka the unluckiest man in the campaign, and I love how brutal it was. But we did eventually flee in the wake of her betrayal, suffering a casualty and quite a few major injuries along the way. It was just another in a string of major session ends with the party fleeing from an insurmountable army scenes, but it just hurt that much more, because Cheshire completely fucked us over. And for the cherry on top, I couldnt even fully blame her for doing it.

Naturally, this means Squeak showed up, having stowed away in an Unsanity Collective vehicle, and joined the team to help with the heist. Now, everyone else largely had a role that involved infiltrating the Excalibur Casino, but we still had to have a few people outside to keep lookout, and general operating the mechanisms we were using to break into the casinos rooftop section. This meant Silhouette had to summon his shadow duplicate, Nikhto, and Nikhto would be in-charge of watching over our zipline from the rooftop of a nearby, under construction hotel. And since Nikhto was occupied and wouldnt be entering the danger zone of a Fury-guarded hotel, we decided to saddle him with Squeak, to keep her out of trouble.

All the rest of us we dealing with our various methods of infiltration, fighting Society, fighting Black Mantas guards, sabotaging the fight between Red Volcano and Glonth, instigating a fight between Clawhammer and the Unsanity Collective, and so on. And then every so often wed cut back to a brief scene where Nikhto is just standing on this rooftop, getting lightly beat up by a rambunctious Squeak, who insists on calling him Baaaall. This is adorable in and of itself, but it also led to some quality bonding between the duo. I dont think Im alone in saying this, but Silhouette is probably the most detached character in the campaign, and we dont get a lot of interpersonal interactions with him and anyone else. Giving a scene that was pure flavor and not really gameplay was really cute, especially since Nikhto is the more emotive half of the Silhouette/Nikhto duo.

Eventually, the heist succeeded, only for us to break out of the casino and find ourselves faced with literally every single gang in the city, all against us, but also against each other, leaving to a chaotic melee in which every group decided to target every other group out of complete and utter spite. This meant that Nikhto and Squeak had to join the fray, but unlike Susie (who at least has some psychic powers to use in combatplus she wields a knife), Squeak is not a fighter. Thus, Nikhto spent the better part of the battle trying to protect this little girl that hed grown fond of, and whod similarly grown to shown him affection. I should point out that Nikhto only has four HP, meaning just about ANY attack is going to destroy him, but still, he fought hard to protect Squeak. He wound up popping at one point while blocking attacks meant to hurt her (as a means of hurting Molly, no doubt), and Silhouette resummoned him with a vengeance, ready to murder any and all of Clawhammers men that looked to lay a finger on his little Up Tup.

This, of course, made it funnier when Pepper killed Clawhammer and immediately took over his gang, forcing them to bodyguard Squeak as well, thus sending a grumbling Nikhto to join them in keeping her safe. It was just adorable, and it really stood out for me, because of how it was one of those rare instances where Silhouette/Nikhto really got to have some personalized character moments. By the end of the battle, Molly survived, Clawhammer was wiped out, and we came out victorious in our efforts to reshape the political landscape of Las Vegas. Whats that? Queen Zazzala showed up and just took over? Shhhhh, we dont talk about that. The point is, the session ended with a sorrowful Squeak calling out for Baaaall like a scene in an eighties movie where a childs parent/best friend is getting dragged away against their will. It was heartbreaking, but it solidified an emotional core to the session, and to that relationship that I think worked out extremely well. It turned Squeak from this one-note joke character into something a little more real, and I really loved that characterization choice.

Hint for #18: A mother.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/0/8/AAOJ0pAADbXM.png
19. Squeak

Perhaps its because Las Vegas wound up spanning almost two months of real time, but I dont think there is any character that has become as much of a fan favorite JUST on the basis of their time in-session as Squeak. Sorry, as UP-TUP. Yes, we had a mission to Las Vegas, and honestly, going into it, we only really knew that Vegas was a source of power for a large portion of the Societys network in the western U.S. That, and its Las Vegasits a town famous for sleaze and sin and gambling and prostitution and all that good stuff. So, naturally, we decided it was a good idea to bring along Rozettas adopted, 8-year-old (maybe oldereight was the only age I could find, and that very well might not be campaign canon) daughter along with us.

After a night of drunken debauchery in which four of us wound up in complicated situations and Data 7 slept in an alleyway, Rozetta up to find that Susie was not around. Instead, the little girl-sized lump under the sheets of their shared bed was, in fact, a decoy. As we would later find out, Susie just kidnapped a random child from the streets of Vegas and used her as a stand-in, not unlike a prisoner making a fake body out of pillows in order to escape from their cell, undetected. This replacement could easily have gone very sour very fast. Imagine if you were a randomly kidnapped child and suddenly woke up next to a fat, sweaty man (Rozettas cover identity, Davis Brimley). Youd be freaked the fuck out, kicking and screaming, and youd just generally be a nightmare until you were able to successfully.

Yeah, thats not Squeak. From minute one of her appearance in the campaign, Squeak did not give a FUCK about any of the horrors and confusion going on all around her. I guess its to be expected from ANY child that manages to survive in Las Vegas, let alone a Society-controlled Las Vegas. I should point out that one of Rozettas two special superpowers (beyond shapeshifting, which is a Martian/Saturnian thing) is her ability to translate just about any language she comes across. Yet, when she wakes up next to this bizarre little child, whose first words are Up tup!, Rozetta cant translate that in any way whatsoever. Thus begins the length ordeal of Davis Brimley attempting to rescue his daughter, while simultaneously putting up with the living embodiment of childlike chaos that is Squeak.

For starters, before hooking up with any of the rest of the party (who had been scattered across Las Vegas via their exploits from the previous night), Davis had to corral Squeak. This was no easy task, as Squeak had little difficulty punching the heavy-set man and running off throughout the halls of the Bellagio Hotel. Cries of Up tup! rang out, followed by the derisive Yayaya laughter whenever Davis failed in his Looney Tunes-esque efforts to accomplish literally anything when it came to the pink-haired wild child. Eventually though, Davis DID manage to talk Squeak down and get her to play nice as they sought out Susie, and the rest of the party too, I guess.

Soon enough, ALL of us got to experience Squeak up close and personal. I dont recall Data or Pepper necessarily running afoul of her wildest hijinks, but Lush and Silhouette certainly did. Lush was trying to hide the fact that she had gotten drunkenly married to the Queen of Spades the night before, so naturally Squeak snatched the wedding license out of her pocket and began waving it around for all to see. Im sure Silhouette would have been utterly scandalized if he knew how to read. He, meanwhile, had his worst nightmares realized, as a running gag that had almost run out of steam revived with full force once Squeak got it in her head. Silhouettes accent has made him slightly harder to understand, and in his introductory session, the party that found him confused his request for a bow (archery) with a request for a ball (ball). Since then, its been a joke that we cannot understand him when he says bow, and this came up just in time for Squeak to latch on and give him the nickname of Baaaaaall.

Anyway, we had a lot of matters to attend to in the wake of our night out, and dealing with locating the family of this strange child was near of the top of the list. First though, we had to find Susie, and it turns out shed done pretty well for herself. She managed to infiltrate the Olympians gang, calling herself Athena. Fair enough, and good for her. But she was nonplussed to see that we were still carting around the little girl shed kidnapped earlier, and began as Susie is wont to do, request that we, and I quote, Kill Up Tup now! Naturally, were not gonna kill a child, but Susie is a delightful little sociopath, so she made it her mission in life to ensure that Squeak would not survive our time in Las Vegas.

Fortunately for all involved, we found Squeaks mother: Miracle Molly of the Unsanity Collective. This happened, of course, after arriving at the Circus Circus Casino, where Squeak (who had up until this point spoken only in incoherent gibberish) pointed out a friend of hers. Thats Frank. Thats one more complete sentence than certain characters have expressed during the campaign, thats for sure. Returning Squeak raised a few eyebrows, but I guess we never really got blamed for kidnapping her in the first place (thanks a lot, Susie), so we quickly made friends with Molly, and set up a business arrangement moving forward. This worked out quite well when Pepper later needed the Unsanity Collective to aid in exacting revenge against Clawhammer.

Now, this could easily have been the end of Squeak; just a bit part designed to be somewhat of a hook in the serialized story of Las Vegas. But no, dear reader, the best is yet to come. You see, up until this point, everything Ive said wouldve certainly been enough to rank Squeak on this list, but were talking a spot in the top twenty here, and youve gotta be more than a fun, comic relief character at this point. No, we planned out an elaborate heist that involved Roulette at the MGM Grand Casino, the Unsanity Collective at Circus Circus, the Royal Flush Gang at the Bellagio, Martina and Kent from Martinas Pawn Shop, and Argus turning traitor among the Olympians. We had a step-by-step process of how we were handling the heist, and everything seemed ready to go.

7 left.

redrocket posted...

Just Vivi as the lone dude with his harem.

I was gonna say Emet, but with the same sentiment.

Rikku

6:23:19

Rinoa

The first match should've been the finals.

(3) Toy Story

(2) Coraline

Mobilezoid posted...

Trading for Rinoa auto, can't get Emet

For Faris please.

Emet

This all changed when Cheetah came forward with a new mission she wanted to embark on, to the country of Lamumba. Cheetah had her own reasons, but it turns out that Lamumba holds a special place in Catmans heart as well, as its the place where he was forced to bury his pride (and Hector in particular). We wound up taking both feline-themed villains with us, and while Cheetah was the focus of the back half of that mission, that first half was all about Catman. Things seemed to be looking up for Thomas Blake as he found Little Cub (who was, as the name suggests, a cub in campaign one), having survived the massacre of all his other friends and family. And Little Cub led the way to a magic stone that contained the essence of Hector the Lion. Even though the circumstances were bittersweet, Catman was reunited with his closest companion. Again, it seemed like, despite the bleakness of the world, Lamumba was giving Catman a chance to finally get a win in his life.

Of course, this was not to be. Lamumba had become overrun by spirits of the night and of dusk, and those spirits brought forth images of partys greatest fears, and of uncomfortable truths. Catman was convinced that Deathstroke had killed his family, and Mockingbird gladly fed into this narrative, but those spirits kept questioning the circumstances of the prides death, and Catman found himself at their grave, looking at the mask of Deathstroke that hed found before vowing revenge. The elements had not been kind to the mask, and Catman discovered flecks of paint chipping off, revealing that the mask was not that of Deathstroke, but rather Deadshot. Deadshot, perhaps the closest human friend Catman had, from all the way back in No Mans Land, murdered everything he held dear. Once again, it seemed that the narrative built Catman up and gave him a little bit of joy, only to cut his knees out from under him in a particularly brutal fashion.

Anyway, Catman ran off to be alone, as he does, and we endured the Cheetah half of the Lamumba mission, until Catman showed up at the last minute to save the day and help us escape a group of tribal cultists that had captured us earlier. At that point, with a fuller picture of the situation in Lamumba before us, we learned from Hector that there needed to be a spirit of the sun to combat the leopard and cheetah spirits currently raging over Lamumba. That spirit, of course, was that of a lion, and much like Cheetah had been imbued with the spirit of the Cheetah long before, Hector wished to bestow the spirit of the lion on his chosen champion. Catmans friend, from beyond the grave, wanted HIM to be the avatar of the sun in Lamumba. While rather skilled in combat, Catman was still just a normal human, and finally he would have the meta powers to back up his abilities.

You know where this is going. Earlier in the session, Cheetah lost her powers and became meek Barbara Ann Minerva, and when Hector started beaming his spirit into Catman, she shoved him right out of the way and absorbed the lion into herself, leaving Catman with nothing. It SHOULD be sad, but its just funny at this point, how such an inoffensive and relatively nice guy like Thomas Blake just keeps getting shit on by the universe. And then he has to go back to Zonn Zorr in the company of the woman who stole his powers, and then face off against his murderous friend. Now, Deadshot didnt exactly deny the accusation, or even defend himself, and even THAT kind of robbed Catman of the high he had hoped to receive from exacting revenge. Its still possible he kills Deadshot in the future, but for now, hes just isolated himself fully, withdrawing from the Secret Six and just generally writing himself out of the campaign. Its tragic, but in a really interesting fashion, and I look forward to seeing where it goes from here.

Hint for #19: A child.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/9/7/AAOJ0pAADY6x.jpg
20. Catman (Thomas Blake)

If the Secret Six in this campaign was being written as a normal comic storyline, one would have to say that Catman is the central figure among the group as a whole. So much of their story revolves around him in one way or another, and as of the writing of this write-up, he has more content and more focus than any other member of the team. Its certainly close between him and Deadshot, as evidenced by their close placements in this ranking, but Catman gets the edge, just barely, because I feel like hes had more interpersonal conflict beyond just his relationship with Floyd. Theres just so much going on with Catman from a psychological perspective it makes him this fascinating personality to experience live.

First off, I need to briefly touch on campaign one, because Catman was a relatively major part of the campaign in a role not dissimilar to the collection of characters that make up the Secret Six. Before the events of the campaign, Catman was a fat, schlubby joke who largely existed to be a foil to Batman, and even dated Catwoman before being subsequently dumped. I dont know if No Mans Land kicked him into gear, or if he was already working to rehabilitate his image, but by the time Azrael came calling for lieutenants to handle the administration of his growing Demon God territory, Catman had started working out and became a far better version of the man he once was.

That being said, he was still a bit misanthropic and found more comfort in his lions than in the company of other people. There was a storyline where Riev (played by Minervas player: Minerva = Riev Man) was the ultimate wingman, trying to score with Catwoman, only to pull a switcheroo and try and set her up with her ex. Meanwhile, Catman was somehow Azraels closest friend, and served as his Best Man when Azrael was set to marry Tali. He was certainly on the short list when it came time to pick a successor to Azraels leadership position, but I dont remember if he declined, or if we just decided that he wouldnt really want the job (what with caring more about his pride of lions than anything else). But yeah, Catman was a pretty stand-up guy, even if he wasnt the quirkiest star of campaign one, and he DID at least introduce us to Hector the Lion, who was a fan favorite for sure.

This brings us to campaign two, where Catman finds himself surrounded by a similarly-eclectic group of villains as his fellow Demon God lieutenants. Heck, he even got to stick around with one of his best friends in Deadshot; isnt that great? But things are not extra happy in the Blake household. Every member of the Secret Six has something they want or need, and Mockingbird has vowed to provide it to them. But the others are either seeking to protect their children, or seeking medicine, or just seeking revenge against someone with whom they hold a personal grudge. In Catmans case, theres definitely a grudge, and its definitely personal, but it hits a lot closer to home.

Catman wants to kill Deathstroke, because Deathstroke is responsible for the deaths of 99% of Catmans lion pride. Including fan favorite Hector. That alone is enough to get the PCs fully onboard with helping Catman get his revenge. Its so much more brutal than anything else the Six is after, and it hurts more, because Catman is surprisingly innocent for a blade-happy supervillain. Hes not a people person; he just wanted to be alone with his animal pals, and Deathstroke took that away from him. That was on purpose, too. The Society came calling, and Catman turned them down. You cant have that; you cant have someone speaking up and showing a backbone, not when youre trying to band together supervillains from around the globe. So, the Society opted to make an example out of Catman, killing everything he held dear and leaving him alive to suffer. Or so it would seem.

The point is, with nothing left to lose except a single lioness, Catman easily fell in line with Mockingbirds team building exercise, with his crosshairs trained squarely on Deathstroke. But, his position within the Secret Six afforded Catman the chance to start slowly rebuilding his life. As one of the most blatantly attractive men in the campaign (Catmans whole deal in Campaign 2 is running around is nothing more than a pair of khaki shorts, effectively showcasing his muscles to a very happy female and gay population), he found himself romantically (and physically) entangled with Cheshire, who is similarly one of the more attractive women of the campaign. If her looks dont necessarily do it for you, her sultry personality more than makes up for that. This would certainly count as a positive for Catman. In fact, it gets better for him, as hes informed that Cheshire is pregnant. With his baby. Looks like everythings coming up Catman!

Except its obviously not that simple. In what is the most consistent trend of Catmans story, his relationship with Cheshire doesnt work out. After banging Taliesin in a one-night stand (WHILE pregnant with Catmans childallegedly), Cheshire goes missing and shows up again with a horde of Society members, completely betraying the team and the father of her unborn child in one fell swoop. Catman had that ONE glimmer of hope in his otherwise bleak life, and it was snatched away and crushed under Cheshires heel. Given that the Secret Sixs safehouse was overrun by villains, we had to flee, losing Fiddler in the process (another stab in the chest, albeit a smaller one). And as we escaped back to Zonn Zorr, our playable cast of five, plus Deadshot, Scandal, Ragdoll, and Catman, left only one spot open before Snappers teleportation would be overtaxed. We wound up taking KRay (a captured Parademon) with us, and Catman had to leave his last lioness behind in the wilds of New Hampshire. Another loss.

I didnt really think of it until I start writing this write-up, but Catman is almost like a jinx. Anyone who he gets close to and cares about will either die, or betray him, leaving him isolated and more and more bitter towards humanity as a whole. For a while, he hung around Zonn Zorr as a part of the Secret Six, making sandwiches in his shorts and nothing else, but he felt like he was so betrayed and disconnected from everything else that he was almost listless. He found a little bit of meaning in his life by mentoring Susie in the ways of bladed killing, but beyond that, he was largely part of the Secret Six as a collective, and didnt necessarily stand out in his role at Zonn Zorr.

As I mentioned, the central PC figure that is connected to AJ is Minerva. She is an Aquaman fangirl, to the point where shes got that Star Wars kid video floating around Thinkers databanks where she dresses up and calls herself Aquaman. Its cute. Because of this, the dynamic she has with AJ is multiple layers deep. First, you have the surface-level dynamic of AJ being the Aquaman from another universe, so that fangirl mentality is still KIND OF in play, but at the same time, shes SUCH a fangirl that she knows this isnt the same Aquaman that she worships. So, youve got this weird connection where he IS the young Aquaman she knows and loves, but also, hes not. That tension exists as AJ is the face she knows, but hes certainly not acting in any way like the heroic figure one would expect.

More interesting about the Atlantean duo though, is the fact that AJ is, unbeknownst to him at the offset of his appearance, a prince with all the potential in the world to become a king. Minerva is fully aware that she is a princess, and although our only official artwork at the time of this write-up is rather cartoony in nature, shes described as a very attractive young woman. You have these two characters that are so similar in background and appearance (both blonde, as thus considered outsiders in Atlantean society), and theyre both in their early twenties, and due to their respective circumstances, its inevitable that theyre going to spend a good deal of time together. It only makes sense that eventually, AJ would reveal blossoming feeling for the young princess, and that makes things complicated.

Minerva loves Aquaman, but shes not IN LOVE with Aquaman, and AJs feelings for her meant she had to decide whether she could see herself being the Mera to AJs non-Aquaman. Really, Minervas sex life is a complicated story, and ultimately, she chose to mostly reject AJs advances. It was just too uncomfortable for her to contemplate being with someone so similar to Aquaman, even if she can compartmentalize them as two different people. You have to feel bad for AJ, because from his perspective, hes just some guy; hes not the king of the sea. It took a great deal of courage to work up to asking a literal princess if she might be interested in himand he didnt really get a solid yes for an answer. Hes been a little bit awkward in general ever since that semi-rejection, but I feel like that humanizes him just a little bit more as a character.

The other aspect of AJs time in Zonn Zorr (I chose to gloss over his relationship with King Shark, since its pretty simple: theyre bros) is his place with regards to Tom Curry. In universe one, Tom Curry is Aquamans father, and Aquaman is dead. In AJs universe two, Tom Curry is also HIS father, but Tom Curry is dead. Suddenly, you have these two universes colliding with two characters who know each other intimately, yet theyre not the same. Im a big Doctor Who fan (and obviously what Im about to describe isnt unique to Doctor Who, but its where Im giving an example), and over the course of the first two seasons of the reboot, were given someone similar in the form of Rose Tylers parents. Roses dad died when she was a baby, yet in season two, she goes to an alternate universe where HES still alive, and her mom winds up dead. By the end of the season, Jackie and Pete, who had a contentious relationship in their original universes, wind up finding each other and realizing kindling a new, stronger bond.

This is the sort of dynamic on-display with AJ and Tom. Toms son is dead, and yet there you have the spitting image of Arthur as a young man. AJs dad is dead, yet theres a similarly-younger version of him, right there. Any mistakes or regrets either man might have are no longer set in stone; they can change things if they so choose. But at the same time, they both know that this isnt their real family. AJ in particular seems apprehensive of looking at Tom as his father, which leads to a particularly interesting psychological scenario, in my opinion.

One of the other major relationships AJ has is with a couple of the more rambunctious superhero youths around Zonn Zorr: namely Jaime Reyes (Blue Beetle) and Courtney Whitmore (Stargirl). He takes on kind of a big brother role to both of them, looking out for them and especially introducing them to a game called Annoyball. Its the kind of game that an older brother WOULD come up with, making up the rules to cause a little trouble and get his little siblings to go along with wreaking some havoc. Basically, this trio of potential superheroes have a football, and the goal is to launch it in such a way that it gets stuck up on Tom Currys lighthouse. You do this over and over, until Tom gets annoyed and comes outside to scold them. Whoever accomplishes this goal earns a point.

On paper, this sounds like just goofy character moments to develop some personalities around Zonn Zorr. But when you look a little deeper, its actually kind of sad. Keep in mind that AJ and Tom are so close to one another, yet so far away at the same time. I think its been mentioned that they have spoken, but it comes across like theyre not exactly bonding the one one might expect of a father and son given a second chance. I think its just a little too awkward for AJ (who is still a bit immature in his own right), and hes not comfortable interacting with a facsimile of his father. With this in mind, and knowing hes the older brother originator of annoyball, I view the whole concept as his awkward attempt to establish a connection on his own terms.

He wants to reconnect with his father, because he loves his dad, but this Tom isnt HIS Tom, so he feels distant. But he still wants to interact with Tomso he created a game that explicitly lets him do just that. When annoyball gets Tom to come out and yell at the kids, that gives AJ a brief moment of interaction with his dad, without having to open himself up to the heartache associated with his status as being from an alternate universe. When you think about it on those levels, its kind of tragic, and it even colors his relationships with Jaime (facing similar isolation from his family) and Courtney (who has this weird dynamic with her heroic stepdad and her villainous real dad), creating this collective of like-minded individuals, with AJ at the helm. Its certainly interesting, and I love any scenario where this group manages to get screentime as a result.

Hint for #20: One of the many Toms in Zonn Zorr.