Board 8 > Johnbobb, like so many before him, ranks 52 characters from Scarlet's DCTTRPG

(+) Yeah! (+)

the fact that Saoirse didn't rank Guns is a travesty

I'm not sure we had Guns before I did my ranking.

Keep in mind I started my ranking June 19th. Almost 6 months ago to the day.

Time is a construct

Time is a whorlogog

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/6/6/AAS3NhAAD_Yy.jpg

Is Guns a construct?

They're friends from another world

Their name is Duocide. They don't talk, but they can type. And all they do is slap fight each other

24. Etta Candy

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/4/6/AAQcMAAADeZi.jpg

Most players in the campaign will know Etta primiarly for her obvious major roles in the campaign. She's a close friend of Wonder Woman, and leader of the task force taking on the furies, the women heroes who have all been manipulated and warped into doing the bidding of Darkseid. It's particularly difficult for her, as Wonder Woman herself has become perhaps the most dangerous of the furies.

Anyway, that's the majority of Etta's role in the campaign, but War already went over all that so instead, I'll just mention the little scenes that have drawn me to her. A big part of Bloodfruit's story around Z'onn Z'orr has been her work on rehabilitating Goldilocks, a young girl taken in and manipulated by the society (CRAZY SPOILERS but we'll get to this more later).

There's only so much Bloodfruit can do on her own though, given that she's often out and about on missions, so for help, she turns to Etta. Etta, in many ways like Amanda Waller herself, has the immediate appearance of being all business, and I mean that quite literally (seriously, just look at the picture and tell me that doesn't scream business). But Etta, Wonder Woman companion that she is, has a soft spot for the women of Z'onn Z'orr.

Hesitant that she was about the prospect, she agreed to take Goldi under her wing while Bloodfruit was away, serving as a sort of shared guardianship over her. For her stern demeanor, she's surprisingly sweet and despite having little in common on the surface, Bloodfruit has found an unlikely friendship with the woman. She treats Bloodfruit a bit more seriously than some other longtime Checkmate agents, and similarly sees the compassion in Bloodfruit others don't all see.

Her soft touch was particularly noticed when Bloodfruit brought home Bat-boy, the half-bat toddler son of Man-Bat, who again was overseen by Etta as he slowly adapted. She's just a consistent example of a powerful woman and loyal ally.

Hint for #23: This character's name is often spelled wrong

Oh, I should have expected Etta. She has great scenes with Bloodfruit.

Vyndktvx

Thom

Patch

Saorise

23. T'inker

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/4/3/AAOJ0pAADa-v.jpg

Oh, did I not specify that it was specifically a name I spell wrong?

I'm still shocked MI didn't rank Thinker after all the hell Thinker put Brennus through. Maybe that's WHY he wasn't ranked, as his character was the one being put through it all while the rest of us just sat and watched poor Brennus be pranked and manipulated by the sentient AI. It's also been covered already by War and Vis and Han at this point but his most infamous moment was manipulating Brennus into shutting out Thinker's own systems and then sounding out an alert through all of Checkmate about it to fool everyone into believing Brennus was a spy.

Thinker (T'inker, as Bloodfruit calls him) is legitimately top 5 most important people in Z'onn Z'orr, without much argument. He's the resident AI of Z'onn Z'orr, having full control of all our digital defenses (with Mento serving as our psychic defense and Oblivion our magical). If he chose to, he could screw us all over, and yet he doesn't, despite his occasionally malevolent words and actions.

Gonna jump back to Bloodfruit's first ever interaction with the Thinker real quick. It was just after Bloodfruit had started to develop her powers. Many of the PCs had some sort of powers prior to the crisis that they found dampened. With Bloodfruit, it was a little different; she had her natural fae physiology prior to the crisis, with wings and lava-lamp-esque skin, but her powers of light manipulation and empathy showed up on someone completely inexperienced with them. And each time I level up Bloodfruit's powers, I do some sort of scene of them being ignited accidentally, as they're all driven by emotion. The first appearance of them came about as a result of some very mild flirtation from

HM: Nightshade

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/7/8/AAQcMAAADjC6.png

which normally would cause some pink to show up on Bloodfruit's emotion-controlled skin. But being the first show of emotion since unlocking the powers, this caused her amulet to vibrate and shot out a pink burst of blinding light in the middle of the Oblivion Bar, directly in front of Nightshade, whose entire thing is darkness. This unintentional act severed the friendship Bloodfruit had begun to form with her and nearly got her banned from the bar.

This is all to set up the first interaction with Thinker very soon after. His very first words to her: "Oh, the last possible creature I wanted to run into. Even the dog understands what a computer is. You... you're the backwater proto-industrial homeless person. You've probably never seen a light switch that didn't fill you with the pure unadulterated awe of a caveman." And again, Bloodfruit's newfound powers began to show up, this time flashing red with anger, and Thinker, being who he is, immediately egged her on until she ended up being tackled and taken to Waller's office as a potential threat.

Now cut to my most recent interaction with Thinker, years later (in game, probably a few weeks later). Bloodfruit brought MORFIUS (remember him? He was #25!) to Thinker's... room? Office? Lab? Whatever it would be called, she brought MORFIUS there, with the intention of determining once and for all if there was a life that could be freed from its tiny plastic cage. Thinker was initially annoyed by such a menial and pointless request, but ultimately it proved to be one of their greatest moments of mutual understanding. Thinker broke the news that there was indeed no true life within MORFIUS, but he didn't do so insultingly, and instead provided something of a solution for her. He could sever MORFIUS from whatever malevolent scammer was on the other end so that, regardless of whether she was right or not about there being anything special about MORFIUS, she could still keep him as a friendly companion who would hold her secrets for her. It was a shockingly touching moment from the least expected source.

Hint for #22: This character is not a human

Thinker and Bloodfruit's bond is born a little bit out of pity for Bloodfruit, who was fairly hapless on her arrival in Z'onn Z'orr. So it's interesting to see how his superiority and his role in protecting the agents of Checkmate plays across his programming.

I'll guess Lena the Lemur

I'll guess Nightmaster's sword

Probably to early but I'll say Detective Chimp

Johnbobb posted...

He could sever MORFIUS from whatever malevolent scammer was on the other end so that, regardless of whether she was right or not about there being anything special about MORFIUS, she could still keep him as a friendly companion who would hold her secrets for her. It was a shockingly touching moment from the least expected source

What are the odds it now feeds everything to Thinker?

Maniac64 posted...

What are the odds it now feeds everything to Thinker?

that is a hilarious possibility I never would've thought of

then again I can't imagine Thinker would want the torture of listening to Bloodfruit rambling on constantly

Maniac64 posted...

What are the odds it now feeds everything to Thinker?

There are equal odds Thinker would find that to be a waste of resources and that he would collect Bloodfruit's personal information to make her a fake identity to use down the line.

And an also equal chance he would think the first and still do the second anyways.

Ferdinand

22. Ferdinand

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/2/9/AAblU3AADyDF.png

There's pretty inevitably a bias toward some of the characters that have been around Z'onn Z'orr for a long time, because there's just been so much more time to get used to them. Ferdinand hasn't been around from the very beginning but he feels like he has been because he's just such a powerful mainstay of Checkmate. He runs the mess hall, and thus has reason to interact with basically every player character, as well as most NPCs. Lush had an ongoing rivalry with him, Data 7 tries to pal up to him, Rozetta near got her ass beat by him, it's just a good time. In fact, Ferdinand... sniffle... Ferdinand was one of the first people Bloodfruit told a major lie to, as upon meeting she claimed to have been longtime family friends with Wonder Woman as a part of her pathological liar trait (which Saorise shares and remembers she has more often than I do).

Bloodfruit was drawn to the big lug right away, as she often is with characters that obviously stand apart from the typical Earth-born mundies. This is what really drew the two together early on. Much like the fae, the reputation of the minotaurs was awful, as many wrote them off as violent brutes, which is ultimately the exact opposite of Ferdinand and what he sets out to be. So bad that he absolutely hates even being associated with the line of -taurs stemming from Minos, instead referring to himself and his kind as kithotaurs (-taurs from Kithira).

Ferdinand has generally been a great and consistent friend to Bloodfruit, teaching her about mundy meals, helping her to cheer up a gloomy Goldilocks. Things wouldn't always be sunshines and rainbows between the two, but ultimately she still feels compassion for him.

Hint for #21: This character doesn't speak much English

Faerdinand!

Doesn't speak MUCH English?

Shiny Happy Aquazon is the obvious guess

Saoirse

Aquazon

Doesn't speak much english?

Jim Rook's Blade

21. Crazy Shy Lolita Canary

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/2/0/AAOJ0pAADbBg.jpg

Bloodfruit's feelings on Crazy Shy Lolita Canary are conflicted. Johnbobb's are not, and she's consistently one of the funniest and most lovable characters we've come across.

During our several week stint in Tokyo, we spent much of our time with the Super Young Team, composed of... I honestly can't remember who all was in the original Super Young Team we came across, because there was like 3 different teams in Japan. Shiny Happy Aquazon and Batman Japan (who were both on the shortlist but didn't ultimately make the ranking) as well as Big Atomic Lantern Boy, Well-Spoken Lightning Flash, Junior Waveman Kimura as well as quite a few others were all in some combination of that team and Big Science Action, which were essentially dueling versions of a Japanese Teen Titans.

While most of the characters we came across in Tokyo were excellent, the clear standout was always Canary. Even in a group of characters so over-the-top, she was still immediately a player favorite due to her unique speech patterns and obsession with social clout and media presence above all else. She's also only several inches tall, and was of course mistaken for a fae by Bloodfruit, who as always yearns to find connections with others. And a connection she did absolutely find with Canary, being ever-so-briefly engaged to marry her!

Now, this marriage was entirely for show as a necessary display of social media power, in order to drive down the media presence of the competing teen hero group as a way to persuade their members to jump ship (and also, as always, to build Canary's brand). This worked fairly well, and accomplished its ultimate goal, although the top trending wedding of the century was short-lived (see: the Thom Kallor taco incident).

And yet, remnants of the experience still haunt Bloodfruit. Sure, the engagement was never real, and truly Bloodfruit never had real feelings for the tiny fame-obsessed not-a-fairy, and yet... having felt so utterly despised and ostracized, the very idea of a true companionship, fake as it was, was ultimately something she had feared she'd never get to experience, and having it presented and then taken back so quickly... needless to say, her feelings toward her sort-of ex-fiancee are complicated, made even moreso by the fact that Canary now runs the most popular shop in Z'onn Z'orr, so she's faced with her on the regular, and unlike Bloodfruit, Canary, being how she is, was entirely unaffected by the experience. (Edit: I'm rereading this as I'm posting it and I am startled by how much of a run-on sentence that was)

Hint for #20: This is my favorite member of the organization they're most closely associated with.

Amanda Waller, in a stunning twist of events.

I always felt you've been distant to Canary, so I thought she might simply not rate, but it's cool to see the in-character reason!

scarletspeed7 posted...

I always felt you've been distant to Canary, so I thought she might simply not rate, but it's cool to see the in-character reason!

Yeah, since Tokyo there's only been a couple interactions, and it's definitely that tough spot where I like interacting with Canary in general, but Bloodfruit is of course going to be more uneasy, and the language barrier furthers it still.

I was hoping Canary would be higher

oh shit

is it ROMALTHI time

Altar Boy

Parademon

20. Starsa

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/8/6/AAOJ0pAADcgS.jpg

I had a whole thing typed out and Drive deleted it all, which is super frustrating, though to be honest there's not much I could've said that hasn't been said by every other person already ranking Starsa. Vis had it right when he said she's basically the mascot of the campaign, coming with us on all our missions and providing both assistance with whatever we're working on as well as running commentary about everyone and everything we come across.

The Star Sapphires are wonky bonkers crazy pants, but Starsa is one of the sweetest beings we've come across, to most of us, though when she doesn't like someone it's super apparent. Fun fact: She spent most of her time early on scanning everyone she saw to determine their eligibility to be a Star Sapphire. Bloodfruit tried to use her own emotion-driven skin to influence the scan, and Starsa returned with "Scan complete. I sense great love within you. Error: Manufactured. You are a candidate with negligible eligibility. 8%." It hurt Bloodfruit's feelings, but she forgives her. Starsa might not fully forgive Bloodfruit after the latter suggested she potentially be a Star Sapphire in her own right rather than just a tool.

We spent much of the campaign trying to reach Zamaron (the Sapphire wonko planet) to re-power Starsa, and it worked, but she's definitely been... changing. Now we have to worry about whether or not her home planet is truly a good influence on her.

Hint for #19: This is a character we've only seen appear once so far (it's not Romalthi)

Aww, what a sweetie. Jingle, jingle, jingle.

I'll guess JOE HOLLYWOOD.

Hey now, the Sapphires are bonkers crazy!... individually.

Can't trust Star Sapphires.

Red Lanterns though. Those are beings that you can trust. *nods*

I will never understand why half the players want to murder all of the Green Lanterns...

Excuse me? Some of my best friends are Green Lanterns!

Zigzagoon posted...

Can't trust Star Sapphires.

Red Lanterns though. Those are beings that you can trust. *nods*

one of the very few things Bloodfruit and Data fully agree on

Zigzagoon posted...

Excuse me? Some of my best friends are Green Lanterns!

Including the one who almost got murdered by Red Lanterns!

HanOfTheNekos posted...

Including the one who almost got murdered by Red Lanterns!

wow, blaming an entire planet for an isolated incident? sounds like something darkseid would do hmmmm

Johnbobb posted...

wow, blaming an entire planet for an isolated incident? sounds like something darkseid would do hmmmm

Forgiving organized mass killing because ????

Sounds like something Pepper would do hmmmm

Cap.. Captain Nazi?

Oh! Wait. Grimm

Marvin the Martian

ScareChan posted...

Cap.. Captain Nazi?

Captain Nazi would make sense, given JB's appreciation for the Red Lantern's goal of systematically exterminating a specific class of people

ScareChan posted...

Oh! Wait. Grimm

This or Volcano Man

19. Zor the Time Tailor

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/1/0/AAS3NhAAEAfy.jpg

(I couldn't find him in the gauntlet images)

So we're out in the Slaughter Swamp, doing stuff with Boy Blue and I, Spyder, the only two current members we've managed to acquire of the Seven Soldiers of Victory. The quest seems straightfoward enough, seeking out another soldier of victory in a creepy swamp, the usual.

We see some tiny, buzzing little fairy-like creatures approaching us, which Bloodfruit immediately identifies as flitlings, a type of very small fae from her home in the Fair Lands. She of course attempts to greet them as a friend, but they are, of course, not flitlings. They are Sheeda, tiny but vicious creatures who swiftly inject us with knockout drugs and take us to the lab of Zor, the tailor of time.

That's both a title and a literal description of the man, as he is a tailor that can sew time and reality with his golden threads. And that's exactly what he plans to do with us: sew the very lives of the seven soldiers (or, without them available, the seven of us he sees in front of him) into the wedding dress of the ever-recurring source of our terror, Gloriana Tenebrae.

Bloodfruit tries to distract him while Silhouette tries to escape, Zor catches us, sears into Bloodfruit's flesh with iron chains before eventually Rosetta manages to run him through. A Boy Blue on the edge of death freezes time so we can escape, but unwilling to leave him behind, we all manage to escape together. All good, right? Until we look behind us and see the badly injured Zor flying at us at rapid speeds on the back of an army of wasp-like Sheeda, his glowing eyes staring out from within the horrifying mass.

What I associate with a character and how highly I rank them more than anything else is the experience they had on me as a player. Zor I originally had ranked lower, largely because he was such a one off character, but the more I've thought of him, the more he's climbed. Zor was, probably without competition, the scariest motherfucker we've seen all campaign. In that session, the entire way through, I felt in my gut people were dying in that swamp. I didn't know if it was going to be us or Boy Blue or both, but there was a terrifying dread sunk over the entire situation, and I absolutely loved it. The description of Zor, the way he creepily pulls his bloody threads, the vision of his glowing eyes in the dark mass of Sheeda. So good.

Hint for #18: This character was arguably the hardest one to fairly rank on this list

You didn't even talk about Zor's death! That was one of the wildest parts of the session!

And it sounds like ROMALTHI is finally up

Romalthi sounds good.

Surprising ranking, but I'm glad the Seven Soldiers story arc is hitting in its first real outing! That bodes well.